| by Pearl Thevanayagam
(April 08, 2013 London Sri Lanka Guardian) Where is Prageeth Ekneliyagoda since he disappeared in early 2010? According to AG Mohan Peiris, he is living a life of luxury in a Western country. But his wife Sandya and their children know deep within their heart Rajapaksas have killed him as they did with 17 journalists since they came to power.
Lasantha Wickrematunga would have turned 55 on April 05 had he not been murdered in cold blood on January 09, 2009. Since Richard de Soysa’s brutal murder in 1990 by the Premadasa Government’s armed forces, almost 40 journalists have been bumped off by successive governments.
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Sri Lanka is a multi-cultural, multi-lingual and multi-religious nation and the sooner the rulers realise this the better it is since we need to progress towards economic empowerment and abolish Sinhala hegemony. In the eye of the world Sri Lanka is but a dot on the whole of the earth; no more no less.
What happens in Syria catches world attention. What happens in North Korea when it rightly or wrongly sends out signals that it is setting up nuclear missiles to attack US is world news and international media (read western agencies)focuses its lens. Media today does not care two hoots for countries which have no earthly benefit for the West.
A Tamil shop-keeper in London opined that the media frenzy of the US is to vilify N.Korea so that it can butch up its defence missiles to keep a check on China and Iran. Uneducated may he be but he made a lot of sense than world renowned defence analysts.
Roll over the X, an ex-tabloid journalist turned internationally renowned defence analyst, who would not hesitate to say that the rabbit has three legs without blinking –all for the price of petro-dollars the West throws at him.
The new world order is not new. It is a regurgitation of the past clothed in sophisticated media-savvy technology. The bottom line is that as long as the super-powers are kept in total comfort the rest of the 80 percent of the impoverished people on this earth should eat the crumbs from these la-di-da West.
Before this writer wanders off, there are serious human rights abuses Sri Lanka should pay attention to and exiled media workers have responsibility towards letting the world know what is going on vis-à-vis the plight of journalists.
The repeated attacks on Uthayan newspaper’s staff is testimony that Rakapaksa Government will not tolerate dissent particularly when it comes to minority Tamils. Sri Lanka is in a dangerous predicament and it is rapidly descending into a totally barbarian and autocratic rule which can only be resurrected through relentless championing through the UN and other western bodies which have a semblance of conscience.
Sri Lanka is a multi-cultural, multi-lingual and multi-religious nation and the sooner the rulers realise this the better it is since we need to progress towards economic empowerment and abolish Sinhala hegemony. In the eye of the world Sri Lanka is but a dot on the whole of the earth; no more no less.
The frog-in-the-well Buddhist monks should be made to realise this when they turned against the Sri Lankan Muslims over a paltry issue such as labelling food products halal. By heck, Muslims have held the Sri Lankan trade monopoly for centuries without losing their identity. They held the purse strings of this island’s treasury and there is no doubt about this. They are part of the fabric of the tapestry of this island of ours and the government has better get used to this fact.
And towards this the minorities must muscle in or else even the majority Sinhalese would be eating crumbs left over from the ruling dynasty. UNHRC sessions pertaining to Sri Lanka have concluded for the time being. But it is incumbent on the citizens of Sri Lanka to keep hammering on those western nations who provided the weapons to annihilate a significant percentage of Tamils throughout the period of ethnic strife to bring the Rajapaksa Government to show cause for its brutal thrust of force to annihilate the LTTE thereby killing many thousands of Tamils in their short tenure of governance.
UNHRC has taken its usual steps albeit rather tardily but media should keep its eye on the follow-up to the almost victorious UNHRC resolution come hell or high-water. No more can media turn a blind eye to what is happening to our serendib isle. We are already on the list of one the most violent nations on earth.
Richard de Soysa, Sivaram, Aiyathurai Nadesan, Lasantha and other intrepid journalists paid with their lives. So let others who are alive and lucky to be alive carry on the torch these brave men left behind to rescue a nation which was once a peaceful isle descend into anarchy.
(The writer has been a journalist for 23 years and worked at Weekend, The Daily News, Sunday Leader and Weekend Express in Sri Lanka as sub-editor, news reporter and news editor. She was Colombo Correspondent for Times of India and has contributed to Wall Street Journal; Washington Bureau, where she was on work experience from The Graduate School of Journalism, UC Berkeley, California. Currently residing in UK she is also co-founder of EJN (Exiled Journalists Network) UK in 2005 the membership of which is 200 from 40 countries. She can be reached at pearltheva@hotmail.com)
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