Bridging Gaps Between Comforting Hearts And Reality

by Wimalanath Weerarathne

 

The new issue

It is the SLFP internal problem that creates major issues for the government. Meanwhile, the Rajapaksas seems to regain power and it will create further problems for the government in the future. However, the Rajapaksas advocating racism is advantageous for the government. The Rajapaksas cannot take the Muslims and the Tamils to advocate racism. The Sinhalese who defeated the Rajapaksa government also go along with the government even though they criticise it more often. Against this backdrop, the government is yet to encounter a critical situation.

Nevertheless, the joint opposition rally held at Badulla clearly showed that the Rajapaksas is once again gaining power. The former minister of Economic Development Basil Rajapaksa leads this faction now. He left the country soon after their defeat at the presidential election. At that time, the majority of the SLFP believed that Basil Rajapksa was the major reason for the defeat of his brother Mahinda Rajapaksa. Some accuse Basil of turning the entire election campaign to a scandal by spending a colossal amount of money to bribe people to get their votes in favour of his brother. Now, once again Basil is leading the campaign on behalf of everyone who craves power somehow.

 

Fed up with the government or need for opposition?

The general public have started to raise their voice because of VAT hike. They did not protest earlier against the government despite several errors that they committed. It is alleged that an intelligence agency has taken down reports on hartals and protests against VAT. Hence, the government did not mitigate any of those protests. They on many instances amended the budget on the requests of the public. The government could have easily ignored those requests, but they did not do so but responded to them positively. Going with that example, now they need to tolerate protests against them at present. However, the government seem to be thinking a lot of moving forward while controlling elements that come against them. Now the Supreme Court (SC) has issued an interim order regarding VAT till parliamentary approval is taken on the issue.

Had the Rajapaksa regime been in power, the SC would not be able to issue interim orders. Yahapalana government failed to give reliefs to the citizens as they expected, but has been successful in protecting democracy: fundamental human rights, press freedom, law and order of the country – to a great extent. However, they took actions against students’ protests several times, also took measures not to swim in dangerous waters. This government may not be genuine. But when compared to the previous government, they show less negative points.

Against this backdrop, how can we say that the public want culprits of the opposition to come in to power again? If it is what they expect, the former secretary to Ministry of Defence Gotabhaya Rajapaksa should have taken a nava guna wela (string used for meditating) instead of using police batons to disperse protests at his time.

It is clear that those who wanted to regain their once lost power by going back to Badulla have not done anything at all. There is no point in talking about those things if everyone in that rally believes them. Normally, the public change their stance against any good government after their being in power about ten years. But still they are with the government expecting that they will bring positive changes to the country within another two to three years’ time.

 

The crisis of the government

The government is now in a major task – drafting the new constitution. However, it is visible that many members of the government have not understood so far the importance of bringing in a new constitution. The government, on the other hand, did take only the least effort they could to enlighten everyone concerned in the constitution. They did not use even the State media as much as they should have used it in this regard. Only a few private newspapers have given due attention to the drafting of the new constitution and its related issues. For all the others, its only value lies as far as they can get some news.

This is a lamentable situation from the side of the government. The State media could organize enlightening discussions about the constitution by inviting other media as well. What editors and editorial board of those media institutions do is to enjoy the privileges they now receive instead of having broad discussions about the important activities of the current government.

Both the President and the Premier must understood this pathetic situation. It is up to the government to decide whether they should recruit such journalists who stayed with the party for a long time supporting them or to appoint senior journalists who criticize the role of the government at every chance they get.

The former set of journalists and the editors are those who did their level best to take privileges from the government but who did not take any effort to defeat the previous government. Even after getting new promotions, they show no interest in criticizing the bad action of the government or to praise their good steps.

The second set of journalist truly does their level best to guide the government by criticizing as well as publicizing good activities that the government carry out. The government needs very much now opinion makers. The President as well as the Prime Minister should understand that opinion makers do not act like the trusted journalists who do not criticize or praise or just praise. The government really needs a State media which broadcasts, publishes or telecasts the theme and the principles of the government. What they have today is a media which do not do their due duty very much but others.

 

An example

Few weeks earlier, a private newspaper carried a news item titled, ‘Military court within nine months’. This news somewhat annoyed President Maithripala Sirisena, and his annoyance is justifiable because it was a shocking news item and the story is false as well. “It was written in a way that the foreign judges have already arrived in Sri Lanka. They could have confirmed this with the relevant authorities before publishing, following the media and journalistic ethics.

“We will never request foreign judges. If we need them, we have to amend the constitution to which I don’t agree,” the President vehemently stated. If the President has a proper media institution, there is no need of paying special attention on other media institutions.

The State media should promote and publicize the real discourse of the government and answer those kinds of questions logically. The fact that the President has to answer such question indicates that the State media has neglected their role, making the President to do the duty of the State media as well. The President is now doing an obviously a difficult thing that he has not resources to do singularly. If the State media cannot achieve their duty successfully, at least the presidential advisors must explain the true condition to the public. Unfortunately, this never happens.

 

Hybrid judiciary

Meanwhile, in a press conference, Minister of Foreign Affairs Mangala Samaraweera has stated that there is a need for foreign technical assistance or advice in order to set ourselves free from the war crimes charges. He has further stated that with the consultation of all the parties, an office is established to investigate all the disappeared or kidnapped citizens to date. There is nothing bad in taking such a decision. If we are the one who have been accused of, is there anything funny in getting us judged by our own judges? We criticized the committee appointed by the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to investigate the issue of former Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran, who the Prime Minister himself appointed. Then, is there any way in which the President could get an idea about the result that we could gain by appointing our own judges to give verdicts on the war crimes?

There is a basic truth in it if Samaraweera says that we need foreign judges or technical assistance. A hybrid judiciary means that it will consist of Sri Lankan judges as well. It is not just a mere intermediary of overseas judges. Therefore, there is no ground to go against this decision. It is important for the President to understand this fact. In this issue, The President has no choice to return to the decision that the former President made. It is clear that there is a separate racist agenda for the newspaper that published the news item titled: ‘A military court within nine months’. May be they wanted to obstruct the path of the yahapalana government. Therefore, the President should not get caught in these fabricated news traps. He also should not follow such news that ultimately will end up validating the racists. The best thing to do is to ignore such fabricated news. That is why there has been a State media specifically for every government in the past. What is important for the President is not to prevent those newspapers from publishing false news, but to represent the theme or the policies of the government whenever the media publish them erroneously. Otherwise, the unplanned responses at meetings will not be sufficient to overcome such situations, because such questions need logical, concrete answers.

Let us imagine that we seek the assistance of the foreign judges. Seeking advices from foreign judges will not harm the country although the President and some others thing otherwise. What will happen is that the international community will recognise our country as a country that gives prominence to transparency. If someone thinks that foreign judges will have the power to act as they wish, it is wrong. On the other hand, world renowned professionals will never act capriciously. P. N. Bhagwati – who served as the 17^th Chief Justice of India -  Nigel, and Rodney were some of the high profile professionals arrived in Sri Lanka to investigate murder cases and human rights violations happened in the war duration. They carried out intermediate inquiries with the Nissanka Udalagama Commission that completed its investigations into the killing of the five students in Trincomalee and ACF killings in Muttur. Its findings suggested that the security forces had involved in the killing of students. Their revelation did not harm the country. These high profile persons were sent by none other than the authoritative Rajapaksa regime. Therefore, we could look at the ongoing discussions in the same way since highly qualified and respected professionals will be participating to observe the investigations. Those professional may not be hired on a contract basis, but they will definitely engage themselves responsibly in order to make our reconciliation effort a success.

Those who listened to the President’s claim may end up thinking that the President and the Minister of Foreign Affairs have contradictory ideas on this issue. Every one will say that the President has to pacify his citizens. On the other hand, the Minister of Foreign Affairs has to face the reality. The general public should understand this issue in a more open and an intelligent manner. They should never accept a president like the former President Rajapaksa who becomes violent when he realizes the President is doing what he (former president) could have done. However, we must understand the logic behind the opinion of Samaraweera who looks at this issue in a more open manner.

 

The way forward

The government should take the path of justice. In doing so. the President and the Prime Minister will never fail. If something goes wrong, then the citizens will obviously take the side of the President and the Prime Minister. What they should earn is not those parasites who sustain through the Rajapaksas, the human force who will commit themselves with their level best to support the government to follow the just political path. Therefore, it is important for everyone who yearns for a just country to advocate the open political agenda – the concept of the yahapalanaya.

 

(Translated by Amavasya Sirisena)