In whose pocket is Lasantha Wickrematunge nestling? (Part II)

"This broadband of Prabhakaran’s agents will keep the low-intensity war going by undermining the constitutional package whatever its shape and form may be. Like TNA MPs and Prabhakaran they will play the role of Oliver Twist demanding more and more. The only package that will satisfy them is Eelam with a merged north and east."

Link to Part One

by H.L.D. Mahindapala

(December 14, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) India, like any other proud nation, guards it sovereignty, territorial integrity, and its dignity unswervingly – and rightly so. Any threat to it from internal or external sources, whether in speech or action, is dealt with severely. This explain why the MDMK leader Vaiko Gopalaswamy, was arrested recently, for the second time, and jailed for 14 days on sedition charges for supporting the banned Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).



Vaiko has been charged under Section 124 (A) of the Indian Penal Code (waging seditious war against the government) and under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act for supporting the LTTE,” a senior official told the Indian media.

Indian media also reported that before being led away by police escort, Vaiko told reporters: “India has armed, aided and abetted the genocide against the minority Tamils in Sri Lanka seeking a separate homeland. We only said that our cadres should not be forced to take to arms to save the suffering minority in Sri Lanka resulting in a law and order situation in Tamil Nadu.

“I reiterate that the MDMK stands by the unity and integrity of India and that we have not violated any law,” said Vaiko.

In fairness to Vaiko it must be emphasized that he didn’t say half as much as what Lasantha Wickrematunge, the Editor of The Leader, said in his leaders. In his editorial (November 23, 2008) he said that the east is “an occupied territory governed by Quisling Tamils”. He also boasted about “the cause of Tamil liberation” (Ibid) which questions his commitment to the territorial integrity of Sri Lanka. He went on to advocate that India should impose “no-fly zones” to ground the Sri Lankan Air Force and even throw a naval cordon to limit the operations of the Sri Lanka Navy. He even suggests UN sanctions against Sri Lanka.

Imagine if Vaiko said that Kashmir is “an occupied territory governed by Quisling Kashmiris”, or that the “cause of the liberation of Kashmiris” should succeed even though it would be a direct threat to the territorial integrity of India, or that Pakistan should impose “no-fly zones” to ground the Indian Air Forces striking at Kashmiri terrorists, or even throw a naval cordon to limit the operations of the Indian navy? Vaiko is too shrewd a politician to go that far right now. He is stirring up the Eelam cause in Sri Lanka as the first step for the Tamils of S. India to break away from the Union and establish a state of their own. But that’s another story.

For the moment, Vaiko swears by the territorial integrity of India. Yet he was thrown into jail. Commenting on Vaiko’s seditious political conduct The Hindu (editorial on Curbing dangerous tendencies) said: “What is clear, however, is that speeches and activities such as his are wholly unacceptable and politically dangerous. As this newspaper had spelt out in an editorial on October 18, the response of the Government of India and the people of Tamil Nadu needs to take into account certain imperatives in approaching the Sri Lankan situation. In the first place, no comfort should be given to the LTTE, which is a terrorist organisation banned in 30 countries including India. Secondly, the Indian commitment must be to finding a solution that envisages devolution of powers to the Tamil regions within a united Sri Lanka, which would mean giving no quarter to the demand for an independent Eelam. Thirdly, mainstream political parties in Tamil Nadu need to make a sharp distinction between the current military plight of the LTTE and the displacement and suffering caused by the conflict, affecting an estimated 230,000 Sri Lankan Tamils. The right response for the Government of India and the people of Tamil Nadu would be to offer food, clothing, medicines, fuel and other essential goods as well as the logistical facilities required to reach them to the people through the Sri Lankan government whose President Mahinda Rajapakse has declared his commitment to bring their hardship to an end “in a short time.” Meanwhile, there is cause for concern over the activities of some fringe groups in Tamil Nadu who have let their sympathy for a foreign terrorist organisation overwhelm their commitment to India’s own integrity and have indulged in violent acts including against the Sri Lankan Deputy High Commission and the railways. The action against Mr. Vaiko will send a message to these groups that the State government is firm in its resolve to contain such dangerous tendencies.”

Contrast this with pro-Prabhakaran propaganda of our local Lord Haw-Haw, Wickrematunge. He backs “the liberation cause” of the Tamil Tiger terrorists and invites the India to either apply force and/or sanctions against Sri Lanka. This is sedition of the most deplorable kind.

In this war Wickrematunge is playing the identical role that Lord Haw-Haw (nickname for William Joyce) played in World War II. He was the main English broadcaster from Germany hired to convince the British and the American people that the Allies were losing the war to Hitler’s superior forces. Like Wickrematunge’s reports Lord Haw-Haw’s broadcasts were aimed at demoralizing the forces and also to force the Allies to enter into an agreement with Hitler on terms dictated by the fascist leader. Like Wickrematunge Lord Haw-Haw exaggerated the losses of the Allies to impress that the only option available was to appease the one-man regime of Hitler who was sure to win. Not surprisingly, a section of the people believed Lord Haw-Haw. However, in the last days, when Germany was about to fall, it is said that Lord Haw-Haw concluded one of his final radio announcements saying: “I want you listeners to tell this message to all the soldiers, tell it to the air force, and tell it to the marines too!”

Wickrematunge is our local Lord Haw-Haw writing editorial advertisements to supplement his income. I do not advocate that he should be given the same treatment as Vaiko. That would be an insult to the likes of Kudu Naufer. What should be done is to investigate his sources of income. After all, he has to maintain two families: one his legitimate wife and children in Melbourne which would cost him the earth. Financing her and his children is legitimate and fair. But he has also to maintain an expensive mistress in Colombo. From where is he getting the money to run two families? Who is financing him? Who is financing the losses of The Leader papers too? Without looking into the beam in his eyes he is asking the other editors: In who pockets are they nestling? It is time to throw his own words back at him and ask: In whose pocket are you nestling?

Mahinda Rajapakse government has a duty to protect the nation from hired agents of Prabhakaran threatening its territorial integrity and sovereignty. Our heroic soldiers are not sacrificing their lives for the likes of Wickrematunge to write seditious editorials and get paid for it from agents of Prabhakaran. Wickrematunge has no right to exploit and abuse the freedom of the press to divide the nation and hand it over to a fascist Pol Pot.

Freedom of the media should not extend to the extreme of letting any segment of the Sri Lankan media to undermine and destroy the fundamentals on which this nation was founded. Apart from seditious laws in India Sri Lanka should learn from the Patriotic Act of America which was passed when its foundations were threatened by terrorists. Why is the Rajapakse government not taking similar action against traitors who support terrorism threatening the territorial integrity of the nation? Make no mistake, as a journalist I fully support and defend the right to dissent but not dissent to the extent of encouraging subhuman violence to break up a nation for the benefit of a fascist Prabhakaran.

Either Wickrematunge should be dealt with by the full force of the law or, if he is the man convictions that he claims to be who is “unafraid and unbowed”, he should be asked to go and live in the liberated territory of Prabhakaran. He should not be allowed to sit on the horns of the Sri Lanka deer and pick on its ears.

The Hindu editorial makes it clear that the likes of Wickrematunge will have no place in India. Though the editorial was a direct attack on Vaiko, it indirectly applies to the Sri Lankan situation as well and questions Wickrematunge’s integrity as a journalist. It has blasted Wickrematunge’s politics to smithereens. He is a disgrace to all Sri Lankans who believe in the sacred values of all communities that had coexisted in peace harmony with each other down the ages sharing the land as common property of everyone without carving out exclusive ethnic enclaves for one community. He is a disgrace to all the sensible people who believe that this nation can achieve what he says cannot be achieved and build a future together with respect and dignity for all Sri Lankans.

With all their infirmities, the Sinhalese have a record of giving all communities the best it could afford under most trying circumstances. The Sinhalese have been as fair as any other democratic majority and if there are injustices and inequalities they have been shared equally by all communities, including the Sinhalese. The Jaffna Tamil minority is not the only ones to have been the victims. Whatever injustices and inequalities that had affected the minorities had also affected the Sinhalese as well. Wickrematunge may not know this but it is the Sinhala youth – and not the Tamils -- who first took up arms against inequalities and injustices.

We are a nation that share equalities and inequalities right across the board, in equal measure, without any racial distinctions. The poor Tamils are as bad as the poor Sinhalese. And the rich Tamils are as rich and comfortable as the rich Sinhalese or Muslims. The rich Tamils, like the rich Sinhalese, have no problems in getting things done and thrive without any obstructions. Wickrematunge should know this because he is a beneficiary of Tamil funding. So why make it an issue on racist lines when it is purely an economic issue?

To take another example, the poor students in all communities have the same opportunities to pursue their education from kindergarten to the university without any discrimination, if they are talented. In fact, when “the Sinhala government” laboured and lifted cricket to the highest international level it opened the doors for Murali to throw his dooshra instead of hand grenades. He probably would have lost an arm or a leg by now if he had joined Prabhakaran’s team. If “the Sinhala government”, of which Gamini Dissanayake was a leading figure, failed to get Sri Lanka into the test playing league where would Murali be today? The “Sinhala governments” have opened the doors for all minorities to achieve their potential within a democratic framework. If, for instance, S. J. V. Chelvanayakam, the kallathoni who was dumped in Tellipallai by his father when he was only four years old, remained in the land of his birth, Malaysia, would he have the chances to play the role he did in Sri Lanka?

However, if Wickrematunge believes that the Tamils have better opportunities under Prabhakaran’s “liberation movement” he should, in all honesty, take his entire staff (which needless to say includes his mistress), his chum, Mangala Samaraweera and the NGOs apparatchiks like Jehan Perera, Kumar Rupesinghe, Pakiasothy Saravanamuttu et al, through the Omanthai exit into Prabhakaran’s territory and enjoy the egalitarian benefits that “the Sinhala governments” have failed to give the minorities so far.

In promoting the fictions manufactured by the architects of the Vadukoddai Resolution he reveals that he is nothing but a born sucker to swallow any myths that make him believe he has a superior knowledge of “history and current affairs,” as he claims. He wallows in his myths like a pig in the muck that flows from leaking sewers. For instance, The Hindu unequivocally condemns Wickrematunge’s “liberation” struggle as a “terrorist” movement. It says that the speeches of Vaiko and his ilk who are hailed as heroes by Wickrematunge “are wholly unacceptable and politically dangerous.” The editorial kicks him in the teeth when it says that “no comfort should be given to the LTTE which is a terrorist organization banned in 30 countries including India”. It also rejects the claim of an “independent Eelam” which is implied in Wickrematunge’s “liberation cause”. It clearly condemns “the activities of some fringe groups in Tamil Nadu who have let their sympathy for a foreign terrorist organisation overwhelm their commitment to India’s own integrity.”

After years of promoting the Tamil Tigers as invincible giants he is now batting on the back foot. Quite reluctantly, he concedes that the Tiger can be defeated militarily but not politically. He is spouting the usual mantra of the NGOs – incidentally, he has yet to produce a significant original thought of his own – which says that the government must stop the war and produce a political solution which, hey presto!, will stop the war.

And Wickrematunge believes in this rubbish. He says pompously that if Mahinda Rajapakse produces a political package the world will abandon Prabhakaran and the war can be won without firing a single bullet because the Tamil people too will abandon Prabhakaran. If so can he explain why the Indo-Sri Lanka Agreement and the Ceasefire Agreement failed even though both came with political packages?

Can our local Lord Haw-Haw guarantee that the political package is going to bring peace? For his benefit and the benefit of the pundits who are demanding a political package let me paint the likely the post-package scenario. First the government will present a package. Immediately, the NGOs, TNA MPs, Prabhakaran, Tisaranee Gunasekera and her kind of pundits, and, of course, Lord Haw-Haw hired by Prabhakaran and the whole caboodle will blame the “Sinhala supremacists” and “Sinhala chauvinists” for not giving “the minorities” (meaning only Jaffna Tamils) the powers they need to run an autonomous state consisting of the north and the east. They will argue that this the package put out by the government will strengthen Prabhakaran and not peace. Prabhakaran too (if he is alive) will make his next annual speech from his hideout saying that “the Sinhala government” has betrayed the Tamils and that the Tamils didn’t die to make him the Chief Minister. NGOs will make this a big issue because that is the only card that will be left for them to make money.

This broadband of Prabhakaran’s agents will keep the low-intensity war going by undermining the constitutional package whatever its shape and form may be. Like TNA MPs and Prabhakaran they will play the role of Oliver Twist demanding more and more. The only package that will satisfy them is Eelam with a merged north and east.

Wickrematunge will manufacture stories to blame Mahinda Rajapaksa as he does now. One of his lies is that the Indian Air Force does not bomb its people in Kashmir. Pakistan and Kashmiris have repeatedly blamed India for bombing civilians in Kashmir. In fairness to India it must be said that it is not targeting civilians deliberately. In air strikes on suspected terrorist targets “collateral damage” (to use that horrible phrase) is inevitable whether it is in Palestine, Kashmir or Vanni. And India has vowed to continue air strikes if the Muslim terrorists use hideouts to hit at Indian forces.

But our Lord Haw-Haw blithely denies that India conducts air raids. Any yarn is good enough to denigrate the nation and the Rajapaksas. In fact. those who read The Leader papers would be excused for wondering whether Sri Lanka exists anywhere on earth. The news and feature pages are covered with reports of the extinction of Sri Lanka as a geographical, historical, political and economic entity. Every edition comes out with apocalyptic reports of Sri Lanka disappearing from the face of the earth. According to Wickrematunge the economy collapsed ages ago. There isn’t a cent left in the Treasury to scratch even “the ass”, (Ibid). The government has been going down the drain from the time his bete noir, President Mahinda Rajapaksa took office in 2005.

According to him, the Army has yet to conquer the Tiger territory. Though he grudgingly concedes that the Army is winning, he is still hoping against hope that Prabhakaran stage a dramatic come back. He was crowing exuberantly of the victories scored by his pal, Anton Balasingham, after each round of talks abroad. He wrote reams, quoting Anton Balasingham, to convince his readers that the Tigers had outsmarted the government delegations and won the battles in the international arena. He also predicted that every election held will be won by his political podian, Ranil Wickremesinghe, the Leader of the Opposition who gave Wickrematunge’s mistress a diplomatic job. And when the people kicked Wickremesinghe out in every election he went ballistic accusing the government of committing election fraud – the usual justification of losers.

According to Wickrematunge President Mahinda Rajapakse had lost on every front abroad. He was even crowing that India had kicked Sri Lanka in “the ass” (iibid). According to Wickrematunge, the whole world has ganged up against Sri Lanka and defeated both President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the nation. According to his gospel the winners are Velupillai Prabhakaran and Ranil Wickremesinghe though he is getting a bit jaded with the latter of late.

Putting all this together it is fair to ask: Is he an editor or a predator, exploiting sex and politics for his personal gain and negative political agenda? His forte is to twist and exaggerate the negative factors to forecast a cataclysmic doomsday for the nation. But the hard realities contradict all his anti-national, anti-Buddhist venom that corrodes his system. Has he lost his balance b y too much skirt-chasing? It can be due to one of the following two reasons: either he is a prize duffer who cannot read the signs of the times that are staring in his face, or he is blind because his face is buried too deep inside the saris and skirts he chase.

His latest political gimmick is to rush to Tamil Nadu which is the last bastion of anti-Sri Lankan politics. It was right up his alley. Predictably, he was angling every which way to extract every bit of anti-Sri Lankan propaganda. He was cocksure, as usual, that Tamil Nadu was going to fix Mahinda Rajapaksa well and truly after everything has failed to beat the Sri Lankan president. He returned with an interview given to him by V. Thangabalu, President of Tamil Nadu Congress and a member of the Lok Sabha. Incidentally, he must have been surprised to find that Sri Lanka was still there when he returned, alive and kicking as ever, to give him the carnal fixes (he is teetotaler) he needs to get going.

His lack of professionalism is as great as his lack of integrity and credibility. He and his heroes have fallen. They are all lying immobile like Humpty Dumpty with no future. The heroes of his columns – notably, Anton Balasingham, Mangala Samaraweera, Chandrika Kumaratunga whom he tried to give a new lease of life with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, Ranil Wickremesinghe, and Velupillai Prabhakaran -- are in the same league as he is. They are a bunch of born losers. What have they achieved for themselves, their followers and the nation except death and mass destruction?

In whose pocket, you wonder, does he nestle? This question was raised by him in his editorial, pointing a finger at other editors. I have only amended a few words to fit him into his perverted politics. It is well known that the Tamil Tigers throw a lot of money around. Tamil Nadu politics, for instance, is manipulated with Tiger money. Prabhakaran can’t provide a piece of bread, or an aspirin to the displaced people but he has a lot of money to throw around to buy arms and ammunition and buy influence in Tamil Nadu politics and Lord Haw-Haws in the Sri Lankan media.

This question raised by him is relevant because his paper is not a money-spinner either. The limited circulation and lesser revenue from ads must necessarily make him depend on other sources to supplement his income. Writing editorial advertisements for promoting Prabhakaran’s war is another way of getting funding.

Since he proclaims loudly that he is not afraid and unbowed is it too much to throw at him the question he has aimed at other journalists and ask: In whose pocket is Wickrematunge nestling?

Concluded

H.L.D.Mahindapala: Editor, Sunday and Daily Observer (1990 - 1994). President, Sri Lanka Working Journalists' Association (1991 -1993). Secretary-General, South Asia Media Association (1993 -1994). He has been featured as a political commentator in Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Special Broadcasting Services and other mainstream TV and radio stations in Australia.) - Sri Lanka Guardian