If President Rajapakse has any political sensibility left, he would ask himself why his countrymen need to rally in foreign airports or before hotels and universities abroad to make their protests heard by him. What kind of nation has he created? And for what purpose is this kind of repression maintained at home?
BY OUR POLITICAL EDITOR
(December 05, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Last week’s episode relating to a scheduled talk at the Oxford Union by President Mahinda Rajapakse exposed how dangerously comical Sri Lankan politics has become. It was just a matter of a scheduled talk and its cancellation due to protests. A relatively minor incident, a non-event. However, this has been magnified to be an earth-shaking national event, requiring large rallies of protest in front of the British High Commissioner’s Office in Sri Lanka organized by the leaders in the government themselves.
Adding to the incongruity is the large-scale coverage, giving all kinds of interpretations of the event and some calling for blood in both the Sinhala and English media. Lots of readers’ time was wasted by the weekend newspapers writing about this incident.
In a country beset with so many major problems, the weekend media could provide adequate information which could give rise to many talking points on issues that require urgent attention. However, there is hardly any space for things that really matter to the nation. Instead, political gossip of this nature occupies most of the space in the Sri Lankan media.
There was nothing strange about people wanting to protest whenever they can confront their leaders when a country is beset with so many unresolved and acute problems. When the people are denied this within their own country, it is quite natural that they would make use of any opportunity within which they are safe to make such protests. It is an insecurity associated with any kinds of protest that gets exposed in events such as this.
If the Tamils in Sri Lanka have a chance to protest with assured security, they would make the same protests or even harsher protests in Sri Lanka itself. The fact that they do not dare to protest reveals the nature of the political regime ruling the country. In fact, it will not only be the Tamils who will rise in equal protest if there is a secure environment to do so. Almost all the people in Sri Lanka would come forward to express their grievances if they have the chance.
The kind of atmosphere that exists against any expression of protest was well demonstrated in the parliament itself. No person lesser than a senior minister, Dinesh Gunawardene, was yelling at a high volume against an opposition member of parliament, Jayalath Jayawardene, for being with the protestors in London and thereby violating his oath as a member of parliament to defend the unity of the country. Such kinds of hyperbole could only come from an empty mind that is looking for a scapegoat to take one’s revenge from for a happening that he could not fathom. Jayawardene’s defense was equally lame. He merely said that he was not in London by elsewhere and therefore he was not part of the protests. He did not go on to say that if he did want to he would in fact have taken part in the protest together with a section of Sri Lankans who thought that they had a grievance to air. After all, the opposition is there to provide the opportunity for people who have grievances to make their views known. Thereafter, Mr. Jayawardene also complained that he was manhandled by several government MPs.
It was the speaker’s handling of the parliament which was completely pathetic. It is now a usual scene for ruling party members to start yelling in a way to obstruct any opposition member from speaking. This of course did not start with this session in parliament. It has just become a custom for several years now. It has reached a point where rational discussion is simply not possible. The speaker could seem to do nothing else except to give pious advice for members to behave themselves and thereafter to watch while nobody seemed to take his advice seriously.
In a country that has that kind of parliament, what kind of debate is possible? What kind of protest is possible? Everywhere violence is unleashed on protestors opposed to the government. Some students who aired some grievances are still in remand prisons without bail. Of course the government MPs like Vimal Weerawansa have all the right to take government employees to any place as a mob and to hold protests.
If President Rajapakse has any political sensibility left, he would ask himself why his countrymen need to rally in foreign airports or before hotels and universities abroad to make their protests heard by him. What kind of nation has he created? And for what purpose is this kind of repression maintained at home? Why was there any need for him at all to go to a foreign venue to make his speech if he believes in the availability of a political climate within the country for a sensible political debate? Whether the president will have some space to think about these matters away from his advisors, who seem to keep him in a surreal state where the world’s largest kiribath cake is made, is hard to guess.
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