Killer Instinct of a Human Rights Activist

By Helasingha Bandara

The high king of the Universe.

(March 20, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) We have heard that ‘penniless Mihinda Rajapaksha’ managed to go to Geneva with the help of some donors to expose the then UNP government of Sri Lanka of its human rights abuses. Great was the intension, valiant was the act and hero was the man, we concluded. He may have encouraged us to use such phraseology as ‘Poor Mahinda’ or ‘the man of the soil’ to describe him at the time but may frown upon us now for the insult as God has blessed him with lots of pennies lately. In retrospect, do we not think that we were deceived by the face value of MR’s action at the time? Are we not disillusioned that it all were quintessential of MR’s play acting for a hidden agenda? Do we see any sign, even an iota, of a humanist in king Mahinda since the coronation, albeit, he does not lack cronies to extol him to the skies? The best example of Mahinda’s manipulations for self aggrandisement appeared in Tisaranee Gunasekara’s enviable masterpiece entitled ‘serenading Minindu’. Tisaranee translates the ‘servile encomium’ into ‘You are the country, you are tomorrow… you are us…. Mihindu’ ‘the Lion in the Lion Flag’, and ‘Our Time, Our Legacy, Our Future, Our Solution, Our Father, Our Comfort, Our Happiness, Our Light…..’ ad nauseam. The ‘Father of the Nation’ and the ‘Wonder of the World and the Universe’, ‘High King’ and ‘Divine Gift’; The ‘Golden Sword’ which defends the nation, and a ‘Golden Thread which unites sundered hearts’. Bollocks I guess. MR is a good father to his own children, certainly not a father to the children of Prageeth Eknaligoda.

The dictator Have we heard or seen a worse manipulator in the history of Sri Lanka even during the monarchical times than MR? Does he listen to anybody; does he respect anybody or anything? Does he not believe that it is him, his word and his family that matter for the existence of this country? The local and the international communities, friends, advisors, intellectuals, clergy and the rest appealed, protested, talked, cried out and warned that he should not victimise Sarath Fonseka for two reasons: SF played an equal role to that of MR in defeating the LTTE and that he has been bogusly indicted. Has not the greed for power made MR deaf to reasoning? Has not absolute power corrupted his mind not to listen to even the Maha Theros instead of planning to prevent dissent and sabotage opposition to his action, whether legitimate or otherwise? Are we not astounded by the killer instinct of a so called humanist?

One man rule

Even the most loyal, courageous, committed, valiant and patriotic hero of the Romans, Julius Caesar, was murdered by his fellow warriors for the fear of one man rule. Ironically the people of the Fool’s Paradise happily encourage one man rule, the one man rule that disregards the constitution, judiciary, law, democracy and rights of the people to speak, write or live. The same one man rule that divides people for the ease of ruling, takes revenge upon the people who oppose it and eliminates the possible political threat for the future. The comedian turned historian Jackson Anthony publicly proclaimed that the one family rule had been the norm in Sri Lanka. What to say against a historian?

Racism

Mahinda Rajapaksha has been playing the race card throughout without realising that he is putting the whole nation in jeopardy. His presidential election campaign managed to instil fear in the minds of the ordinary Sinhalese that SF has singed a covenant with the TNA agreeing to separate the country. The inclusion of Mano Ganeshan in the coalition was highlighted as proof of Sarath Fonseka’s Tamil bias. A sign of any concession for the Tamils was used against SF to poison the minds of the Sinhalese against him. Racism was ignited to get the votes of the Sinhalese, and they were made to believe that as long as Rajapaksha family rule exists, there won’t be any physical threat from the minorities. What a convincing story, at least for the moment!

Equal law enforcement

SF was accused of a conspiracy to kill Rajapaksha and his family and was arrested using undue force. He has now been charged with entirely different offences. For the sake of argument, let us say that the incarceration of SF during the period from the 8th of February when he was arrested being accused of a conspiracy to kill the Rajapakshas to the date that he was charged with new accusations was illegal since the former charges had been dropped. Thus the person who gave orders for his illegal arrest should in turn be arrested for perverting the course of justice. Will the ‘humanist’ order the arrest of his brother Gotabhaya? In the fools’ paradise ‘Mihindu’ is everything but Elara, who ensured equality in law enforcement by pronouncing the death sentence upon his own son when he ran his chariot over a cow and killed it. SF has been indicted for allegedly seeking support of the UNP politicians in an attempt to carve out a future political career for himself while in uniform. Ironically, Johnston Fernando and Senavirathna who are to testify against SF have been offered nominations on the UPFA list for the forthcoming elections. Besides, how many people from the four forces including MR’s own son publicly supported the election campaign of MR! When are they going to be subjected to the same law? It is hard to convince those who have a head on their shoulders that SF is punished for a certain offence while others who have committed the same offence are at large. In Sri Lanka the political system and the political servility are as such that the misdeeds of the government are approvingly nodded by the people by and large. No doubt Rajapakshas remain immersed in the masquerade until shock waves bring them back to reality from the cloud-cuckoo-land some day. ‘The crab does not realise the danger until the pot of water begins to boil’.