Sri Lanka Guardian - In the eyes of an obsessed and paranoid government, that believes in ‘attack is the best form of defence’.
| by Our Political Editor
‘I need not fear my enemies because the most they can do is attack me. I need not fear my friends because the most they can do is betray me. But I have much to fear from people who are indifferent.’- Assyrian Proverb
(Also read Sri Lanka's Fear Psychosis by Frederica Jansz of Sunday Leader)
( November 14, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Sri Lanka has blocked five news websites because they committed character assassination and insulted people including key political leaders and officials. Sri Lanka Guardian is a democratic forum and news and views of diverse nature is published. Unfortunately news and views not pleasant and overwhelming have become irritable to the ‘Either you are with us or against us’ President Dr Mahendra Percy Rajapakse.
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| Then the Sri Lanka Guardian did not go quiet on the aspirations of the President’s other sibling-the Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse. The war crimes machinery is bestowed in his hand and his military men’s violent onslaught on the Tamil civilian population in the war against the LTTE was highlighted by our contributors. Sri Lanka Guardian did not say anything more than the mud he himself emptied on him by his arrogant and threatening remarks to the reputed media. |
To the obsessed, Sri Lanka Guardian is guilty of publishing articles upholding the fundamental democratic value of freedom of speech. Sri Lanka Guardian is the voice of the oppressed and an outspoken media on issues the state wish to suppress. It gives opportunities to wide range of views, including that of the opposing. This is what the government want us to compromise and become a poodle media like those surviving under its control.
The legal idiom: ‘You are innocent until proved guilty’ has no meaning in Sri Lanka, as one is made guilty and punished before charges are even framed. We were fascinated to read the news of the government, that the banned web media should contact the Information Ministry to have a chat to remove the ban. Sri Lanka Guardian will not enter into any pleas when sword of the Damocles is held on its head.
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| The Sword of Damocles |
Governance in Sri Lanka with the entry of Dr Mahendra Percy Rajapakse as President is proving to be a humbug authority, oxygenated by the thirst for blood and pain that has become the focus for the very survival of the government. The level of humbug is such that it will assert itself with autocratic dictates until people wake up one day and show the exit to end the miserable trend. It does not realize that it is walking on a thin edge. The opposition UNP too ruled under such intoxication for more than a decade following J R Jayawardena’s election in 1977 but the change people wanted progressed into another worst form of a humbug ruling the country.
We said then to the LTTE and Pirabakaran that the LTTE cannot outlive the Tamil people and in the same token we assert to Rajapakse & Co., and their loonies that they cannot outlast the people of the island nation. Ups and downs are part of a cycle and in that cycle what is now up has to come down one day.
The comments above will be irritable for the government, which no media (except the battered and bruised Sunday Leader) will assert in the soil of Sri Lanka. Adverse comments are only acceptable when referred to the opponents but when it is the government, it is classified as character assassination by the paranoid blood thirsts.
The government action against the Sri Lanka Guardian made us to revisit our memory lane to reflect some of what caused the government to arbitrarily proscribe us.
Let us start with the Chief Executive Officer of the island nation. In our published articles, we have rightly called him Dr Mahendra Percy Rajapakese. We have regularly depicted his honorary doctorate title dished out to him at the Lumumba University in Moscow with the much razzmatazz. Even the president or his hero worshiping newspapers do not use this hard earned title of the President for reasons unknown. Since the honorary title was bestowed, it has been inexplicably archived in the storeroom of the President’s office, like many other unpublished investigative reports. By using the title in the write-ups, Sri Lanka Guardian may have offended the Rajapakse Bros., and hence paved the way for the ban.
In addition to using his esteemed doctorate title, we touched on many issues including his engagement with the reclusive states like Libya, Pakistan, Iran, Mynamar, China etc. His much publicized relationship with his godfather Maumar Gadafffi could have been irritable to him and his bandwagon.
The Sunday Leader editor Lasantha Wickramatunga paid the ultimate price for being a thorough investigative journalist the country ever produced. Whilst exposing the deliberate intent of the government to prevent an independent and fair investigation and a just judicial process on his death, we have occasionally referred the culprits as the goon squad of the Defense establishment. Lasantha was about to reveal some startling facts about the 10% pagar (commission)deal of the President’s sibling Basil Rajapakse that is believed to have caused his brutal killing in the broad day light.
Then the Sri Lanka Guardian did not go quiet on the aspirations of the President’s other sibling-the Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse. The war crimes machinery is bestowed in his hand and his military men’s violent onslaught on the Tamil civilian population in the war against the LTTE was highlighted by our contributors. Sri Lanka Guardian did not say anything more than the mud he himself emptied on him by his arrogant and threatening remarks to the reputed media.
We gave fair coverage for Mahinda’s puppy Namal Rajapakse who had gone quiet recently, possibly being canned by the dad for jumping too much uncontrolled. His conduct of forcefully and publicly stealing NGO’s aids for the war victims was a hit story for our writers.
Then all the other poodles in the government machinery had a fair share of exposure.
The infamous of them was the government minister Mervin Silva who should have been the first to be rapped by Rajapakse & Co., instead of the patriotic media like the Sri Lanka Guardian. This amulet is bolstered by the regime to sidetrack the worrying national issues. Even Mahinda Rajapakse would not learn how to use his ‘Dr’ title from this gangster minister who pride himself as Dr Mervin Silva.
We were honest in exposing the true character of the Minister Wimal Weerawanse. His bigotry reached the peak when he went on a hunger strike against UN General Secretary Ban Ki Moon. What a razzmatazz. His food processor in his body did not allow him die like a dog in the street and he was soon rescued by Dr Mahendra Percy Rajapakse with a cocktail of tropical juice poured through his throat in the street of Colombo.
Then the present Rajapakse regime earned the much esteemed title of ‘Rajapakistan’ bestowed by a reputed and fearless Sri Lankan writer. The title speaks the scale of the governance of Rajapakse & Co. All the making of Rajapakistan and its progress is guided by the nauseating regime of Pakistan and the paranoid Raja’s are guided by such standards to pull their way through.
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