Why muzzle sheep and goats?

by Gamini Weerakoon

(November 09, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Censorship of the media, in democracies, is imposed at times of severe crises, usually when national security is threatened. The last time when censorship was imposed in Sri Lanka was in 1987 under President J.R. Jayewardene. It was in the worst of times.

At that time our near and dear neighbour thought that JRJ and the Sri Lankans in this tiny isle were getting uppity. JRJ in his inimitable style had declared this country to be the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka while switching on to a full blown capitalist economy while Mother India was firmly wedded to socialism.

Consumer items hard to get in India then became freely available here. TV sets and other electronic equipment were being smuggled across the Palk Strait. It was embarrassing for the regional power to find its citizens smuggling into their country from a Singapore that was fast developing on its southern tip.

There were many other cheeky actions by the upstarts. JR declared he was committed to the policy of non alignment to the hilt and had embraced Fidel Castro at Havana while living up to his reputation as Yankee Dicky. The New Delhi Brahmins thought Trincomalee was to be given to the Yanks although the Yankees were trying to convince them that they did not want Trinco but New Delhi.

One thing led to another and finally JRJ had his arm twisted and made to sign the Indo-Lanka Accord which even his prime minister knew nothing about and thousands of Indian troops landed in Sri Lanka.

JVP patriotism

Meanwhile our 'patriotic' JVP comrades commenced their second revolution. They were not fighting the Indians but burning our own buses, busting up electricity transformers, pulling out life support systems from patients in Intensive Care Units and murdering UNP politicians.

Now, that was a real political crisis and JRJ imposed censorship and singled out a group of newspapers in which I was the editor of the English language newspaper. Minister Sarath Amunugama will recall this event vividly because he was appointed censor to that group.

We recalled this event in fair detail because of the regulations that have recently been gazetted to control TV and radio broadcasting which in effect would amount to de facto censoring.

The far reaching implications of these regulations have been amply discussed in the media and today we will focus only on the reasons behind this de facto censorship. It should also be pointed out that the country is being governed under Emergency Regulations and the Public Security Act can be invoked and censorship imposed at any given time.

What's the deal?

What is President Mahinda Percy Rajapakse scared of, to suspend the Sword of Damocles over the heads of privately owned radio and TV organisations of the country?

If we go by his state controlled media everything is rosy in the garden of the Rajapakses. Listen to the state owned radio and TV where the journalists are chirping like well fed canaries about Mahinda Rajapakse and his brothers going great guns both here and abroad.

Only two to three weeks ago the bureaucratic Brahmins of New Delhi were threatening the Rajapakse government with dire consequences if we did not halt military operations in the Wanni and prevent the genocide of the Tamil population living here. Brother Basil Rajapakse as the President's special envoy in just one session of talks with the Indian panjandrums was able to 'win' them over completely to our side and now the Indian Tigers are singing merrily like our canaries.

Hunky dory

So is the fire breathing Muthuvelu Karunanidhi. Everything now seems hunky dory. Its India-Sri Lanka 'jai-jai' but no one knows and no one asks what the deal was. Only The Leader keeps asking for the magic formula of Brother Basil.

Has the military strategy been changed? Earlier the slogan was Kilinochchi or bust but now we seem to be going round in circles around Kilinochchi. Was Velupillai Pirapaharan's statement that taking over Kilinochchi was a day dream of the Rajapakses correct?

Now, no other media organisation, be it the press, radio or TV is asking such rude questions. They are all good boys and girls. So why gag or blindfold the faithful?

Forms of censorship

Besides, there are indirect forms of censorship that can be applied. For instance some forms of Vermin can be sent around with heroin merchants to bash up any journalist who does not play ball. It misfired once but if constantly applied, would succeed.

There is another effective way of censorship. Each man or woman has her price, save for some rare exceptions. Give all of them jobs in state radio, TV and the press. Then you have the most loyal band of press corps ever.

We have many such battle and bottle scarred veterans who have cheered their political leaders to their political graves and then quietly slipped over to the other side after elections.

You can take in even former Ranil Wickremesinghe appointees. They will be singing Rajapakse bakthi gee with gusto, greater than the real Rajapakse cheer leaders to prove their loyalties. You can hear such canaries singing on TV and radio in the morning even before you get up from bed.

Now, with all these forms of censorship in place, the trillion dollar question is: why bring in a new set of regulations to hold TV and radio at gun point? Are the Indians coming or elections coming?
We confess that the Rajapakse think tank thinking is unfathomable. You don't muzzle loyal sheep or goats. Is it only to muzzle the only one or two barking watchdogs?- Sri Lanka Guardian