As long as Mahinda follows economic policy given by global powers
by Dr. Vickramabahu Karunaratne
(August 28, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) I stumbled upon an interesting article by Chaminda Weerawardhana the other day. In that he says: “Here are the two comments in question; one was made during the months that followed the war. It was made by the gentleman who heads Sri Lanka’s Permanent Mission to the UNHQ. He noted, responding to the very same rape allegation, that if they wanted, the Sri Lankan military forces could have raped every single woman who came their way soon after the final victory. He said so to clarify that the conduct of the forces was exemplary, and that no such rape or sexual violence against Tamil women took place. Allegations of rape were thus deftly refuted. The second comment was made just a few days ago, about Mr. Kuganathan, the Tamil journalist who was attacked in Jaffna. This comment was made by none other than Sri Lanka’s Minister of Mass Media at a press conference held to inform the press about the week’s cabinet decisions. The Minister noted, responding to a question about the attack, that he cannot do anything about it, that the security situation in Jaffna is tougher than in Colombo, and that all he could possibly do is to visit the injured journalist in hospital with a tambili, which he deems contains the same substances as in saline.” I must confess I have not read these comments, I usually do not read their statements which are mostly idiotic and illogical. I find them as unpleasant as swallowing a mouthful of cotton wool. However I cannot agree with Chaminda that this irresponsible and callous attitude of these supporters of Mahinda regime is something more general; that it reflects a common disregard to human suffering. Chaminda says “What is striking between the comments made by the interviewee, and the two other individuals is their total indifference to violence and rape, and lack of any qualms, or concern of any type with regard to such issues in their own society. Assaulting a man on his way home from work to the point of inflicting life-threatening injuries is no big deal. Rape - from the light-humoured manner in which it is evoked, seems to be deemed as a rather common, or an inevitable occurrence, something that happens every now and then, about which nobody can do anything.”
A Lanka consciousness
It all depends on what one believes to be “his own society”. Chaminda assumes that Mahinda supporters have a Lanka consciousness. I do not believe so; at least these two do not have a plural consciousness. We are considering issues related to Tamil people. Hence, within the domain of their Sinhala chauvinist consciousness what happens to Tamils is no big deal. Of course the very same people will be most concerned about what happens to Sinhala Buddhists here or elsewhere. This is the attitude of their leader Mahinda too. During the period of repression in the south - 89/93 - Mahinda was with us in the forefront of the campaign for the defence of human rights. I can remember when we went to Australia together, at the seminar and at other discussions he made his points against repression with much fury and agitation. Of course, then we were speaking of repression of Sinhala youth in the south. But the same man made a genocidal attack on Tamils and destroyed a civilization without any qualms, or concern of any type. Of course one can argue that this divergence in behaviour is due to populist politics. In one case, he is representing the people who supported his party in the south, and in the other case he is dealing with an insurrection against his unitary politics. May be, but ideologies represent the emotional mindset of people. Political positions are not entirely based on logical interpretations, but more on one’s sense of justice and fair play.
Cruelties of global masters
I agree with Chaminda that our social and ethical trainings at school and campus levels are very poor. However I can remember in my first year in the campus in Colombo, few of us organized our batch against ragging and we won. Then, thereafter we continued this tradition in the Engineering faculty for more than five years. So while accepting that general level of human concern is law, we have to stress that it is the social and political leadership that is responsible for the prevalent sectarian thinking in the society. These leaders that we discuss are members of the chauvinist regime of Mahinda. Their hard attitude towards the Tamil community results from their ideological inclination. In fact this is indirectly accepted by Chaminda when he says “Before going to the two comments, it is interesting to note the following commonalities between all three men (including our hero-the interviewee): that they are all men, middle-aged, Sinhalese, Buddhist, and leading members of the Rajapaksa administration.” Such sectarian inhumanity can be observed world over. It is not a special feature of Sinhala people. However that does not mean that the faulty regime can escape from the blame for the crimes committed against the society. But the cruelties of global masters will be a loose cover for the villains in the developing world. I agree when Chaminda says “Despite alarming evidence to the contrary, the Government will never officially accept that sexual abuse took place soon after the war. If one raises similar questions on Israeli forces’ treatment of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody, the behaviour of Israeli youth in compulsory military training programme, or on the US military’s treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo, abuse of prisoners in Iraq and large-scale sexual abuse during Vietnam, or on the Indian military’s violent suppression of popular uprisings and revolts on grounds of self-determination and the handling of the Kashmir question, one is likely to get answers identical to those given by Sri Lanka’s defence administration chief in the aforementioned interview. This is the way in which military establishments work, and despite the sheer injustice caused to the victims, no truth commission or similar mechanism can alter the rigidity of the standpoints of culprit militaries and state organs. Having established that reality, it is only logical to reiterate that international investigations absent for Western military forces and state authorities simply cannot be imposed upon Sri Lanka, simply because Sri Lanka is situated - in this respect - in the wrong part of the globe.” I like to add that as long as Mahinda follows the economic policy given by the global powers it is most unlikely any investigation be imposed on the Lanka regime.
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