by Tisaranee Gunasekara
“People prefer not to know and not to understand that something terrible is happening….”- From ‘Occupation of the Territories: Israel Soldiers Testimonies 2000-2010’
(June 05, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Roshain Shanaka died not because FTZ workers demonstrated against the private sector pension plan. Roshain Shanaka died because the police used live-bullets against unarmed (sticks and stones do not count as arms) demonstrators.
The Katunayaka tragedy is not an isolated incident. Incidences of police brutality, including deaths in custody, are increasing steeply. The day after live-fire was used to ‘control’ unarmed demonstrators, the Supreme Court decided to hear a fundamental rights case filed by a husband-and-wife duo from Kadawatha who claim that they were illegally arrested and tortured by the Kiribathgoda police.
Gross abuse of power is not the sole preserve of the police (or UPFA politicians). Last month, a group of army-personnel attacked a motorist in Matara, for tooting the horn at a soldier who had stopped his motorcycle on the middle of the road to conduct a telephone conversation. This assault may not have caused the barest ripple had it not been for the identity of the victim – the District Judge of Matara. If this is how the ‘most disciplined army in the world’ is behaving in peacetime, in the South and towards Sinhalese, what would its conduct have been, in the war-engulfed North, under the protection of a blanket censorship?
The killing of a worker in Katunayake, the attack on a judge in Matara, the illegal arrest and torture of two people in Mahara – these crimes are symbolic and symbiotic of a state in which the rule of law is being replaced by the law of the rulers. This process commenced during the war years, with an outbreak of extrajudicial violence by Lankan Forces. The southern society ignored these excesses in the comfortable belief that they affected only ‘terrorists’ and ‘criminals’. But impunity is a cancer which does not respect man-made boundaries. The culture of impunity created by the Rajapaksas under the guise of patriotism and with the (overt or tacit) support of the Sinhala majority is now beginning to ravage the South and affect those who thought themselves immune.
Today the regime is searching for enemies assiduously, to justify the continuation of war-time measures, post-war. At the ‘Defeating Terrorism: The Sri Lankan Experience’ seminar, Minister GL Peiris claimed that “the role of the armed forces did not end after defeating terrorism. ‘The counter-terrorist activities have to be continued’” (Daily Mirror – 1.6.2011). The recent experience of the members of the Noolham Foundation, a registered-charity engaged in compiling an e-library of rare books/manuscripts (like the Gutenberg e-library), demonstrates how Minister Peiris’ ‘counter-terrorism activities’ work in practice. According to the renowned academic Prof. Ratanjeevan Hoole (who was President Rajapaksa’s own choice as the Vice Chancellor of the Jaffna University), as soon as the Foundation commenced its monthly meeting on May 29th, “the army arrived and a person identifying himself as Colonel Jayawardene brusquely entered our hall rudely shouting, “Who is in charge?” When the person in charge, an emeritus professor, identified himself, the colonel shouted at him for all to hear: “No LTTE commemorations. Ministry of Defence orders. Do you understand?”…. The meeting was ruined because we were so worried by the military presence that we could not focus on the speakers… Unfortunately, this is a regular occurrence in Jaffna. Just 2 days ago, an official event at St. Charles’ School was interrupted by the army barging in on a false tip-off” (Transcurrents.com).
In the North, the Army is occupying a territory it considers its own but controlling a population it considers alien. This combination is a recipe for abuse and repression. Sober analysis is not possible when the world is seen through the Manichean prism of ‘them and us’. The Fourth Eelam War was fought on this ‘if you are not totally with us you are totally against us’ premise; winning the war spectacularly gave this dichotomised ‘worldview’ credibility and legitimacy.
Incidentally this ‘enemy is still – and always – there’ mindset is providing grist to the mills of Tiger supporters here and abroad. The consequent weakening of Tamil moderation and resurgence of Tamil extremism will be damaging to Sri Lanka and Sri Lankans (especially Lankan Tamils). But it will be a boon for the Rajapaksas, who will use it to justify the continued occupation of the North and the garrisoning of the South, the non-appearance of a political solution and the vanishing of the peace dividend.
A Curious Family-Tree
There is nothing wrong with a private sector pension scheme; there was nothing right with the Rajapaksa pension scheme. In its original version that scheme was non-voluntary (like ‘leadership training); every private sector employee was required to ‘contribute’ 2% from their salaries, 2% from EPF, 10% from gratuity and 10% from ETF payments, continuously for ten years to be eligible for the pension. Even after fulfilling these punitive conditions, workers had to wait until they reach 60 years to get the pension (irrespective of the age of retirement). After the death of the pensioner, the spouse was not entitled to even a cent of the pension.
These conditions clearly demonstrate that the real purpose of the Rajapaksa pension scheme was not worker-welfare. It was a kleptocratic plan by a cash-strapped regime (with very expensive habits) to slake its gargantuan appetite by short-changing the workers.
What made the regime think that the workers would agree to such a blatantly outrageous travesty? Do Rajapaksas have such a low opinion of the intelligence of Lankan people?
Obviously; and with reason. After all, we in the South did accept the Rajapaksa re-branding of a brutal war as a ‘humanitarian offensive’ with ‘zero-civilian casualties’; we saw nothing wrong in open prison camps masquerading as ‘welfare villages’. We are not even outraged by the contrasting fates of Sarath Fonseka and Kumaran Pathmanathan. No wonder the Rajapaksas think they can foist any lie or deception on the Lankan people.
Since the regime claims there is a ‘development war’, the next obvious step would be the use of ‘counter-terrorist activities’ against ‘economic terrorists’. The attack on the protesting FTZ workers could well be the first engagement of this new ‘war’. Since this war will be fought mainly in the South and against the regime’s own base, extraordinary efforts will have to be made to justify it, especially by constantly burnishing the image of the Rajapaksas as the ‘sole-protectors’ of Sinhalese and Sinhala-Buddhism. The grand finale of the reality-show, Ranaviru Real Star, demonstrated the levels of absurdity the Rajapaksas’ are willing to reach in this effort. The show commenced with a group of men dressed as the generals (dasa maha yodayas) and soldiers of King Dutugemunu bringing a message for President Rajapaksa. One of the judges, actor-filmmaker Jackson Anthony, claimed that this was apposite because President Rajapaksa reunified the country and he is a descendent of King Dutugemunu. The President listened with complaisance, as Mr. Anthony ‘proved’ that since King Dutugemunu is a ‘descendent’ of King Suddodana, the Rajapaksas are related to the Buddha himself! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAHa4gdz15A&feature=player_embedded#at=62. This sycophantic gibberish must be taken seriously because it indicates that no lie/crime will be beyond the Rajapaksas in their unending quest for survival.
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