The bankrupt middleclass

By Prof. Nailin de Silva

(January 21, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Sri Lankan middleclass, especially the English speaking among them have lost the leadership that they had in opinion making in the country. That task is also being gradually grabbed by some politicians and others with definite nationalistic political leanings. The middleclass had been hiding their political leanings and pretending to present a so called balanced view. However, the hypocrisy of the so called balanced view has been exposed, and the public in general know that there is no such creature as a balanced person, whose existence we were informed in the schools and the universities.

The assassination of Lasantha Wickramatunga has exposed the English speaking (even this concept is challengeable as the lingua franca is changing fast to Sinhala, with people having a working knowledge of English. Those who are identified as the English speaking middleclass have not noticed, never mind understanding, even the changes that have taken place at their homes.) middleclass even further. Those who tried to pretend that that they were impartial and balanced have been shown to be utterly partial and biased. Those who were against the so called war or who expressed expert opinion that the war cannot be won are now questioning whether it could be called a one man victory, a family victory or even a Rajapakshe – Fonseka victory. Even the JVP leadership wants the people to believe that it is the country that has won and not even the armed forces. Then we have the spectre of finding a "dictator", a "fascist" in the Defence Secretary Mr. Gotabhaya Rajapakshe for not maintaining his "composure" at a multi channel interview.

Lasantha Wickramatunga was more a politician than a journalist or a lawyer. No journalist is unbiased, in fact no individual is unbiased and Wickramatunga was biased to the core. He had political ambitions and his writings were definitely pro UNP, pro Tamil racism, anti SLFP though he may have had been a private secretary of Mrs. Bandaranaike long time ago. He was not the best investigative journalist we have had as information came to him rather than him going after information. When one reads the gossip columns that are published under the pretext of political commentary, political analysis etc., it could be easily seen that the sources of these columns are more or less the same. Of course some gossip columnists have more "resource persons" (a term used in middleclass seminar circuit to mislead the gullible people), and their columns are more popular. In Sri Lanka at present anybody with good contacts and a telephone could become an investigative journalist, provided of course he has a flavour for journalism and a place to present his "findings". Let us face the facts, though they are not sacrosanct as some people tend to believe. Lasantha Wickramatunga as a UNP politician had access to anti government and in particular anti Rajapakshe family material than most of the others who authored gossip columns. I am not trying to find fault with a dead man, but I am only exposing the middleclass that has lost the leadership that they had in the society.

Then we have the so called last editorial. One does not have to be an investigative journalist to see through the last editorial. The last editorial is not the last supper, and only the gullible would believe that it was written before the assassination. Wickramatunga was just an ordinary politician, and the middleclass however much it tries cannot make him a hero who sacrificed his life for truth. However, this does not imply that I condone the assassination. Finally it was a sacrificial of a life for intended political gains without achieving anything. Those who finally suffer are his three children and their mother and not the "heroic" middleclass that write eulogies that will help to boost up their frustrated egos, nor the free media people who enjoy life on funds provided by the west.

Who won the so called war? We have right throughout maintained that there was no war in the country and it was only a case of defeating a gang of terrorists who had taken up arms against the government. If one calls the operations against the LTTE a war then one has to state that we have had two wars against the JVP. Operations are not called wars depending on the number of days of fighting or the number of bunkers or even the foreign aid given to the armed gang directly by the western embassies or indirectly by them through the NGOs and INGOs, and conceptually there had been no war in this country. In any event, the operations against the LTTE have been successful and we may ask, on behalf of the middleclass who won the operations.

The operations were won by the armed forces under the military leadership provided by the commanders of the armed forces, under the leadership given by the secretary of the ministry of defence, and under the political leadership of the President with the support of the majority of the public, and of course with the help given by the opinion leaders of the nationalist movement who had maintained that the terrorist outfit can be and should be defeated against the tide created by the NGOs, INGOs, the war pundits, ambassadors and special envoys, missionaries, Solheims who claimed that Prabhakaran was a military genius who could not be defeated. If anyone of the above conditions or factors was missing the operations would not have succeeded, and I would say that the operations would not have even begun if not for the political leadership provided by the President. Thus the most crucial factor is the political leadership and due credit has to be given to the President irrespective of the wishes of the middleclass. If the President bowed down to pressure from the western powers, then that would have been the end of the operations. The President also was able to win the confidence of the Indian government by assuring them that Sri Lanka would not act in a way that would pause a threat to India, directly or indirectly. Few years ago when we first raised the issue of the political leadership some pundits in the so called alternative (vikalpa) press ridiculed us and wanted to know whether we advocated pollicising the armed forces. However, now everybody is talking of the political leadership provided by the President and it is clear that without him no victory was possible.

Finally why should the middleclass get upset about the interview given by the Defence Secretary? He spoke frankly and of course as the Defence Secretary he knows at least some of the terrorists. Referring to a certain personality he said he would have an inquiry and get the former arrested. Simply because one is identified as a journalist it would not confirm that he could not be a terrorist. We know now that Richard de Zoysa had connections with the JVP and he was not merely a journalist. However, one does not condone the assassination simply because he had JVP connections but one cannot run away from these bitter truths. Let the police go through the investigations and either release or indict those journalists in custody at the moment. It makes no sense to demand the release of a person simply because he/she is a journalist. It is clear that during the past many journalists did not act in the interests of the nation. The nation had one main interest and that was the defeat of the LTTE and the genius of Solheim. Of course when I refer to the nation I refer to the majority of the nation.

What the defence secretary said about Sirasa makes sense and one does not judge a person by the words he uses nor by his composure when he says something. What is important is what one says and not how one says it. The middleclass may be still thinking that style is the man but for many others content is more important than the form. Those who were under the impression that the LTTE could not be defeated are not happy with the outcome and they want to accuse the armed forces tarnish the name of the forces and if possible get the westerners to intervene even at this last moment. Remember all those R2P s, failed states that the west was trying to use against the government. It is clear that it is the failed west that cannot think of any action plan except resorting to Billyboy tactics of sacrificing their own people and institutions and deserting their darling middleclass that they nurtured for more than five hundred years. - Sri Lanka Guardian