On obligatory amnesia and unforgettable images

My friend Thusha has kindly sent me a fascinating document by Eduardo Galeano. It is called ‘The Right to Rave’, a manifesto and a wish list at the same time.  The list was prefaced.

‘In 1948 and again in 1976, the United Nations proclaimed long lists of human rights, but the immense majority of humanity enjoys only the rights to see, hear and remain silent. Suppose we start by exercising the never-proclaimed right to dream? Suppose we rave a bit? Let's set our sights beyond the abominations of today to divine another possible world.’

There were many ‘articles’ in these ‘rights’ and the following caught my eye: ‘In Argentina, the crazy women of the Plaza de Mayo shall be held up as examples of mental health because they refused to forget in a time of obligatory amnesia.’  The reference was to the Mothers of the Disappeared in Argentina, the Madres de Plaza de Mayo, who stood silently, dentified only by their white kerchiefs, and sometimes by the pictures they held of their missing children.  They authorities, unable to deal with this silent statement of objection (protests were banned at the time), resorted to vilifying them. They were called the Crazy Women of Plaza de Mayo, las locas de Plaza de Mayo. 

I think the reason that I noticed that particular line in Galeanos deft capture of the world’s injustices in this ‘Rave’ was that I had received an email the same day about images that should not be forgotten.  The ‘forgotten images’ included one where US soldiers are shown looking at the body of a dead Vietcong soldier which presumably they had tied to the truck they were traveling on and dragging it along the road.  If reconciliation, redress, punishment and so on are things that have a political afterlife even following military victory/defeat, as the current howls and howlers emanating from certain ill-informed and myopic corners of the international community (read, USA + EU) serve to make us understand, then this photograph should warrant not just investigation and punishment but compensation as well.  It looks like the world is selective when it comes to war crimes, investigation, delivering judgment and dispensing punishment.

It is not even possible to say ‘that’s the past, let’s move on’, for the USA has bombed 18 countries since the second world war ended, maintains a military presence in dozens of countries, has invaded many others and have directly or indirectly caused the death of more than a million people in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past 20 years, displaced a similar number and produced more maimed and orphaned persons than any other country in the world during this period.

I had seen that ‘forgotten’ picture before, as I have some of the others that were included in the email.  There are more recent pictures and stories that we are being asked to forget and which people like Ban Ki-moon appear to have forgotten. 

If you go to the following site, you will read about a boy called Anas Hamed and his sister Inas both in the unhappy city called Fallujah who suffer from birth defects courtesy the US-British battles against suspected rebels, the bloodiest so far according to some accounts (http://www.countercurrents.org/rothscum110710.htm).  Fallujah was one of the most peaceful places in Iraq post-invasion.  On April 28, 2003, a crowd of 200 people defied a local curfew and gathered outside a local school to protest the presence of foreign troops in their city.  As things heated up, it is alleged, that US troops were fired upon.  US soldiers ‘returned’ the fire, killing 17 people.

An Italian documentary claims that the US used incendiary MK-77 bombs (similar to napalm) in military action.  The us of such weapons are illegal according to Protocol III of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, to which the USA (surprised?) is not a signatory. The US State Department initially denied using white phosphorus as a munition, but backtracked when it was found that a US Army magazine had run a story detailing its use in Fallujah. 

The infant mortality rate in Fallujah is 80/1000 per year, the birth rate a horrific 136 per 1,000 births.  In the first two months of 2010, as many infants died as in the whole of 2008.  Deformities, genetic mutations etc stand at unacceptable levels.  There’s a peace dividend here, then.  It’s not being reported or acknowledged in the British Parliament, which regularly engages in moral posturing with respect to Sri Lanka’s ‘alleged’ war crimes (unproven and extrapolated from statements from dubious sources).  The British, like the USA justified invasion citing the existence of ‘weapons of mass destruction (WMD)’. The US said ‘regime change’ but the British, constitutionally hampered called it ‘self-defense’.  Cute.  Tell that to Anas and Inas Hamed and thousands of other children who would not say ‘thank you’ to any Brit or Yank today or ever for all the crimes against humanity committed in their very names, for which they had to pay by foregoing normal lives, regular bodies and freedoms that the children of the ‘saviours’ get to enjoy.

There is another image that I want to see. Dr. David Kelly, the UK Government’s Nuclear Science expert sent to Iraq to find WMDs. Before the invasion. He found none and reported this.  His body was found in a walking path near his residence.  Verdict: suicide. Some JMOs protested. They were greeted with silence. I want a picture of the look on his face as he departed this earth.  Freeze it.  I am sure it will be a pin-up item that rebels against ‘obligatory amnesia’ as such decreed by the thugs of this world.

[first published in the Daily News, July 13, 2010]

The most beautiful child lived in Roxywatte

For Uma Shanthi, a necessary re-post

[I lost my mobile recently and when I got a new phone all my contact names were erased. I had been out of the country for a couple of weeks, so the moment I switched my new phone on, I got a bunch of text messages, many from numbers that I couldn't recognize.  One was cryptic and I just read and moved on.  I returned to that message later.  And wept.  This was what it said: 'Sir, Uma has left her body and gone. I am the most unfortunate father. Pradeep'.  A couple of years ago I wrote about Uma, the most beautiful child on earth, who happened to live in Roxywatte.  Today, I changed the title. Past tense.  It is a tribute to a little girl and a mark of respect to a remarkable father.] 

About ten years ago, my friend Ayca Cubukcu, then an undergraduate at Cornell University and now a Professor in Anthropology, alerted me to a poem by the most celebrated poet from her native Turkey, Nazim Hikmet. It was about the most beautiful things. This was written 64 years ago.

The most beautiful sea

hasn’t been crossed yet.

The most beautiful child

hasn’t grown up yet.

Our most beautiful days

we haven’t seen yet.

And the most beautiful words I wanted to tell you

I haven’t said yet...

For years what captured me was the last line, an eminently for-all-time quotable quote for those in love, especially those who find themselves in what could be termed ‘impossible love’. Until last Monday.

Last Monday I actually saw the most beautiful child.

I used to think that there can be no children more beautiful than mine. I therefore glossed over Hikmet’s ‘child-line’ in this poem or thought of it as metaphor for innocence and the childlike quality that’s so endearing in the first flush of love. I am aware also of that telling observation about the Loris; that to the mother, her child is a gem. There are so many things about beauty to talk about. It’s in the eyes of the beholder, we are told. Beauty is truth, John Keats opined. Words can craft beauty out of things that are not pretty. There is a lot of illusion and self-delusion in the consideration of beauty.

It’s a lot of vague and transient things and notions that float around for us to pick and choose at our pleasure. Last Monday it all came together and I got a length, breadth and depth version of beauty. Tangible.

Beauty came with a name. Uma Shiny Fernando. She is six years old. She came in the arms of her father, Pradeep Fernando. Pradeep Fernando is a single father, I later learnt. No, he is not a widower. Pradeep Fernando is a sculptor, he told me: mama moorthi shilpiyek. I haven’t seen his work but I can’t think of any sculptor having crafted anything more beautiful than the precious little thing he was carrying. Uma Shiny Fernando is a special child. She suffers from a rare disease I had never heard about until her father told me. Goldenhar Syndrome. The little child had breathing difficulties and had to depend on a tube-like contraption. She didn’t say a word and didn’t have to.

Her father spoke softly. She takes only liquids. She’s already been through 13 operations and I have to find Rs. 30,000 a month for her medicines.

My children are so blessed (I had to say this).

Shiny is a beautiful child. I didn’t know how to help and even though some money passed hands I felt it was not enough and sadly that nothing would be ‘enough’ and that even the ‘something’ that could mean more than ‘something is better than nothing’ was beyond me.

I went to the Internet. Here’s what I found. Goldenhar Syndrome is also known as Oculo-Auriculo Vertebral (OAV) Syndrome and is a rare congenital defect characterized by incomplete development of the ear, nose, soft palate, lip and mandible, usually on one side of the body. Additionally, patients can have growing issues with internal organs, especially heart, kidneys and lungs with the particular organ either not being present on one side of being underdeveloped. There can be severe twisting of the vertebrae, deafness/blindness in or both ears/eyes.

Here are the positives. The intellect is usually normal. Most abnormalities are amenable to surgical correction and do not require specific treatment. Most affected individuals have a good quality of life.

Last Monday, let me repeat, I saw the most beautiful child. I was also privileged to see the most beautiful father. Not just beautiful. He was proud. Unbowed. Determined. And in his eyes I saw a kind of equanimity that is probably rarer than the condition little Uma Shiny Fernando was suffering from.

I don’t like to take anything away from the beautiful little girl, but some perspective can’t do harm, I think.

Last Monday I stepped on to Galle Road and came face to face with the ugliest faces in this country. They were splashed all over the walls. The city walls were carrying a lot of money, as is usually the case during elections. They were carrying trees in fact, considering that a big spender on posters would, according to Environment and Natural Resources Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka, cause around 300 big trees to be felled. What a waste, I thought.

I am not sure how much corrective surgery would cost or the total annual cost of treatment thereafter. My sense is that it would be a fraction of what one single candidate would spend over the next few weeks.

There’s a beautiful little girl living with her sculptor father at the following address: 12/20 Roxywatte, Galle Road, Colombo 6. I know beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, but I don’t think it will harm anyone to get some sense of beauty, perspective and sense of proportion about beauty, life, what’s important and what’s not and a better understanding of the gems lying around us that we don’t get to see.

Last Monday I saw the most beautiful child. She hasn’t grown up yet. Perhaps she never will. Is that good or bad? I don’t know. Perhaps we never will know.

POSTSCRIPT:  I called Pradeep the moment I read the message. There's no comforting a father who lost his child and his life.  I told him that I am sure she would have passed to a happier place. He said 'Yes, she could not have harboured any harsh thought ever'.  The alms-giving is tomorrow.  Pradeep said 'My life is over; I will now retreat into meditation in some aramaya'.   I said 'We'll talk', but honestly I don't know any words that I could fall back on.  Sometimes we must resolve to say nothing.

Dimensions of discipline and ways of punishing

FOR GIHAN ELIKEWALA

 

In 1978, the first time Ranjan Madugalle captained Royal at the Big Match, a sporting declaration by him responded to by positive batting by the Thomians almost cost Royal the match.  If I remember right, S. Thomas’ had to score 44 in 8 overs with 4 wickets in hand (a piece of cake these days) but settled for a draw.  This year, another sporty declaration by Royal was responded to as positively by the Thomians.  The umpires, unfortunately decided the light was too weak.   

In 1978, Ranjan’s team won the Mustangs Trophy, comfortably beating their arch rivals in the 50 over encounter.  What happened therefore is the subject of this piece.   

The Master-in-Charge of cricket at Royal was H. Nanayakkara, who was also the hostel warden.  He was affectionately referred to as H. Nana (to differentiate him fro D.D.R. Nanayakkara or ‘Bus Nana’ who handled matters related to the school bus service) and sometimes as Haramanis or simply ‘Hara’.  The following conversation is said have taken place between Hara and one of the coloursmen.  Hara, true to form had been disarmingly genial and good humoured. 

Hara: So you people would have had a big party after the match?

 Coloursman: No, sir, it was a small party.

Hara: Ah, so all you would have got cocked (drunk)?

Coloursman: No sir, we just had a couple of beers, that’s all.

Hara: Only a couple of beers?  The whole team? 

Coloursman: No sir, just 5 of us. 

The five, all coloursman, were duly suspended. Royal had to field a team made of the captain and 10 freshers in the Exide Trophy tournament (the 50 over inter-schools event).  Royal nevertheless won the Excide Trophy.   

I related the story to a friend at this year’s Royal-Thomian and he responded with a story (big matches are about swapping stories of old times).  This was a soccer story. The chief protagonist was the soccer captain Gihan Elikewala, the naughtiest, most mischievous boy in our batch, according to some.  Gihan is said to have turned a teacher out of the class once.  The said teacher had said (in Sinhala), ‘Elikewala, either you go out or else I will,’ and ‘Elike’, legend has it, had said ‘then you go out sir!’  He had been hauled up to the Vice Principal (E.C. Gunasekera, aka ‘Kataya’) and is said to have successfully pleased his case, pointing out that he had been given a choice and had figured that had he gone out of the class, he might have got into deeper trouble if Kataya or some other strict teacher had seen him. 

Elike, according to my friend, had been ‘put on detention’ by Kataya.  This meant that he would not be allowed to take part in extra curricular activities for a week.  Sadly, probably for this first time, the Royal soccer team had made it to the finals of the inter-school tournament, thanks mostly to Elike’s individual brilliance.  Elike had broken the detention-rule and played in the final, calculating that Kataya would not be present at a soccer match. Kataya indeed had not been there.  Unfortunately, Kataya had tuned into the Bristol Sports News at 7.30 pm that night.  Royal had won.  Elike had scored the winning goal and therefore his name was mentioned.  My friend said that Kataya had summoned Elike the following Monday, congratulated him for the historic victory and duly slapped a punishment of 2 more weeks of detention.   

Elike lives abroad.  I sent him a message asking him to verify this story. Here’s his response: 

‘Yes malla, mara waday macho...everything went well in the match...next day Kataya called me around 1000 o'clock...had a nice chat, even shared a chinese roll and tea with me, asked about the match !!! I mumbled saying it was ok, and he told me it was wonderful that we had won the championship, wanted to know if I had a twin, because he was bemused as to how I could be in two places at the same time...of course he congratulated me, and then told me that since my twin was still at detention, to make it a family affair by sitting next to him for two weeks...of course he brought it down to three days, when his chinese roll went missing...heh heh...’ 

That’s the Elike of 1983/84.  A quarter of a century has changed nothing, I felt.  

I told him that this deserves to be written about because it illustrates several things. His commitment to his sport, team and the school at the cost of punishment; Kataya’s sense of humour, ability to be gracious, readiness to reward him for his efforts and the determination to ensure that Elike learned that other things are as important as a victory on the sports field. I told him also that the person who told me this story said that things like this moulded him, guided him when faced with tough decisions and that we learned more from such things and such people than from our school books!

Eleke was also easy going and despite his impishness by and large sided with the ‘right’ and ‘good’ in things that counted. He send a short response: ‘No worries macho...up to you malla, i have absolute faith in your ability....if i can do ANYTHING to develop someone to become better, then I'm your man...You take care, bro, and keep in touch when you can.’ 

Several decades after both incidents, my friend and I recalled how life-moulding they have been and perhaps not just for the two of us.  Both stories were prompted by a recent incident where two school captains representing a national Under 19 team were caught entertaining prostitutes in the hotel where they were staying for the duration of an important international encounter. Both were highly talented.  I don’t know if the relevant authorities chided them or put them on detention or spoke about twins over chinese rolls and tea, but neither were suspended from their respective teams.    

I am wondering what kind of conversation two random men in their mid-forties would have 25-30 years from now about discipline and punishment.  I only hope that there are as many Elikewalas and Haras as there are power-backed ruffians and arm-twistable authorities so that those two unknown individuals can speak in positive terms about school days and the lessons they learnt, of books and of men.    

The truth lies in the 6th ‘O’ of Goooooooooooooooogle

We live in a world of claims.  Look around you.  You are being greeted by countless ‘I am this, that and the other’ signs.  Corporate entities, political parties, politicians, do-gooders, faith healers, tuition masters, meditation gurus, film makers, playwrights, rights advocates and others are smiling at you, aren’t they?  And aren’t they all telling you what to do and why you should believe that they know what’s best for you?

Open a newspaper.  It’s all claim.  It is all, ‘I will do this’ or ‘I can’, ‘I alone can’, ‘buy me’, ‘I am the best value for your money in the market’ etc.  These claims don’t come with disclaimers that are worth that tag.  They don’t come with references to objecting opinion.  They are definite.  They are the I-know-alls that crowd our lives, make us punier than we are and worse, persuade us to join the claiming bandwagon.  It’s a claim or perish kind of world that we inhabit. 

Am I painting a dismal picture? Depends.  I see claim and I take refuge, as I frequently do, in the incomparable wisdom of Siddhartha Gauthama, Lord Buddha, the Enlightened One, who too claims, but discourages blind faith, recommending instead the application of intellect, the cultivation of compassion and disavowal of ego which un-clutter the inquiring mind and persuades us to come to our own conclusion:

‘Do not go upon what has been acquired by repeated hearing; nor upon tradition; nor upon rumour; nor upon what is in a scripture; nor upon surmise; nor upon an axiom; nor upon specious reasoning; nor upon a bias towards a notion that has been pondered over; nor upon another’s seeming ability; nor upon the consideration, “The monk is our teacher.” Kalamas, when you yourselves know: “These things are good; these things are not blameable; these things are praised by the wise; undertaken and observed, these things lead to benefit and happiness,” enter on and abide in them.’ (Anguttara Nikaya III.65 – Kalama Sutta).

Consequently, when I see ‘claim’, I ask some questions.  ‘What is the source?’ I ask myself.   Is the source reliable?  Is claim verifiable in these and other ways?  If any of the worthies who are spitting venom at Sri Lanka regarding impropriety in war-conduct had intellects endowed with such inquiring preamble, they would dump the report that the ICG (International Crisis Group) is passing around as though it was written by an omniscient entity as unadulterated rubbish, but that’s another issue altogether. 

I believed, I confess, that technology had made claim-lie-and-get-away tough.  I was thinking of the internet.  Then I learned that it is not as innocent and free or as accessible as one might think.  In the first place, one has to know what one should be looking for.  Ok, we need to know some English too, not ‘conversational’ English, but enough to know how to spell certain words, technical terms and most importantly, names, brands and corporate entities. 

Even this is not enough.  I was told recently that if you wanted information about quitting smoking, there’s tons of information but your search is filtered in ways that you might have no clue about.  It is possible that if you know the correct key words, to get through these irritants, but that requires previous reading, long searches in different knowledge-spaces, the perusal of journals and the listening to expert.  But wait, did I say ‘journal’ and ‘expert’? Are they value-free, are they independent and even if they are, to what degree?  Isn’t it true that things have prices and people too have value-tag?

Check the internet for information about quitting smoking and then do what most don’t, i.e. check owner and source, the verifiability and validity.  I got an answer that astounded me.  The first fifty entries for a particular search based on particular key words were all linked directly or indirectly to the tobacco industry! In other words, even the ‘opposition’ is ‘managed’, the perpetrator decides to a large extent the dimensions of your escape options.

Journals.  We like to think that academics are pure, that they are objective and are ‘above board’.  Here’s news.  Wyeth, one of the top pharmaceutical companies in the world (now a division of Pfizer), it has been revealed, has used ghostwriters to place over 40 ‘scientific’ articles in medical journals!  Yes, we know that a lot of ‘medical research’ is funded by the drug industry, but when the ‘findings’ are doctored (bad word, yes) to mislead, there’s something terribly wrong. 

‘In July of 2009, a U.S. District Court Judge granted the motion to make discovery materials that were part of an on-going lawsuit public. These papers supporting the use of Premproand other derivatives of the Premarin family of drugs written by non-accredited writers were then “authored” by medical academics. What is most disturbing is that these ghostwritten articles “emphasized the benefits and de-emphasized the risks” of using hormone replacements. Equally alarming is that this type of marketing strategy is routinely used by pharmaceutical manufacturers to establish credibility for new and existing drugs while distorting scientific fact.’

We need to keep in mind that these are corporate entities that have lots of money.  What they have to pay the few people needed to write web copy and design web pages to guarantee a high hit rate and privileged access position in web searches is peanuts.  All the more reason for us to be extra vigilant, don’t you think? 

We are lazy, though. We type some words on the search box in www.google.com and press the ‘enter’ key.  We click on the top most entry.  We think we are getting authoritative knowledge. Think again.  This is a claim world, remember?  You might as well click randomly, about 6 O’s from your left in the ‘gooooooogle’ line at the bottom of the site. 

There are no guarantees of course.  Our innocence has been exploited.  Faith in ‘experts’ and ‘expertise’ has blinded us.  That which appears liberating is often nothing more than a thoughtfully crafted avenue of deceit.  

It is good to question though.  Good to revisit ‘authority’, put it under the magnifying glass of reason.  Just as The Buddha recommended.  There’s no substitute to this.

[First published on July 22, 2010 in the 'Daily News']

The credibility and incredibility of India

These are India-days, clearly.  No, not in the 'every dog has its day' sense of the word, although someone did correct the not very complimentary description of Indian machinations ('India doing the Yankee-Doodle-Dandy'), calling it India doing the Yankee Poodle Dandy.  These are 'India-days' because of Indian shy-making in the before, during and after of the US Resolution on Sri Lanka at the UNHRC.  The following was written in May 2011 and first published in The 'Nation' gives, I believe, some perspective to things Indian, acknowledged and otherwise by India-lovers, Indian and otherwise. 

‘Incredible India’ is the tagline or theme of India’s drive to attract tourism.  It is a tag that has multiple uses of course.  It is a call for pride in nation.  It is also made for jingoistic hurrahs.  What is ‘incredible’ though and what is incredible (or credible) about India, I wondered.  

The word is derived from ‘credible’, i.e. ‘capable of being believed’ or ‘plausible’.  It refers to things that are worthy of confidence; things that are reliable.  Incredible, being the antonym, means ‘so implausible as to elicit disbelief’ or ‘astonishing’.  I think the impression that India is trying to create is that it is an out-of-this-world kind of nation and experience and therefore the most alluring tourist destination for those want to see and experience something that’s sorely missing in their respective worlds. 

I am sure that a country as vast as India is naturally endowed with many treasures that people from different parts of the world would never have seen and as such would be duly amazed by.  It is a country that has a history, has diversity of people, language, culture, literature, music and religious beliefs and attendant customs and rituals, all of which are of the ‘out of the world’ kind as far as the random visitor is concerned.  There are other things ‘incredible’ about India.

India is essentially a product of a gelling that occurred consequent to invasion and withdrawal by the invader.  It is incredible that it has not broken into its consequent parts, therefore, especially considering there are 123 secessionist movements.  Peasant insurgency is on the rise and various groups are now active in 220 districts in 20 states, covering almost 40% of the country’s geographical area.  The Centre does not talk about such things, but deals with these issues in ways as brutal as those practiced in Kashmir. 

It is incredible that India, in the name of democracy, has killed or tortured over 250,000 Sikhs over the past 14 years.

It is incredible that India, even while lobbying to obtain permanent membership in a restructured UN Security Council, strutting around as a ‘First World’ aspirant with a healthy growth rate and endowed with nuclear capabilities, is saddled with close to 450 million people who are illiterate (37% of the population), with more than a quarter of the people living in abject poverty.  Under 5 mortality stands at close to 70 per 1000 live births.

It is incredible also that India, with so many skeletons in its cupboard thinks fit to fish for non-existent skeletons in other people’s cupboards.  India, endowed with traditional knowledge on a vast range of subjects including medicine, and indeed having acquired the latest knowledge and technology in the matter of treating illnesses, seems so reluctant to take the medicine it prescribes for others, Sri Lanka for example. 

It is incredible that India wants Sri Lanka to investigate alleged human rights abuses while happily disregarding all protocols pertaining to dealing with dissent (including protests and violence) and in treating detained suspects. 

Can Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi, S.M. Krishna, Shivshankar Menon, Nirupama Rao et al honestly say they are not being two-tongued when it comes to Sri Lanka?  Are they not tongue-tied in Geneva on the moves to destabilize Sri Lanka and turn back the achievements with respect to separatism and terrorism, because they are worried about regime change back home after the key ally of the Congress Party got booted by Jayalalitha? Isn’t it true they have to make sure that the lady is kept happy by pandering to the anti-Sri Lankan mafia, cajoled, hoodwinked and/or purchased by the riffraff rump of the LTTE, a dreaded terrorist group which by the way India armed, trained and funded?  Or is it because India wants to be on the good books of the USA, UK and the EU in light of Security Council aspirations? 

India is an incredible country for many reasons. It is pretty pedestrian too, as countries go, when it comes to double standards, double-speak, pointing fingers at the mote in someone else’s eye while doing nothing about the beam that blocks its political vision. 

India must do what’s best in India’s interest. If India wants to remain a thug in the eyes of Sri Lanka and other countries in the region and doesn’t really care for their opinion, that’s fine.  The problem is that while such a course of action would serve the Congress Party and its corrupt and self-serving politicians, it will not automatically yield nation-resolve in that country.  The 123 secessionist struggles will not end. The peasants will not stop revolting. Poverty will continue to scar opulence, and roadsides will remain as lavatories even as visitors marvel at all the other ‘incredible’ things that are part and parcel of ‘India’. 

In credible Sri Lanka, we will continue to cheer Sachin Tendulkar and be sad the day he hangs up his cricketing gear, be amused by Sonia Gandhi’s ignorance and S.M. Krishna’s arrogance, be amazed at India’s ‘friendship’ claims, and we will suffer the consequences that those who have integrity and self-respect must undergo when faced with storms beyond their strength.  I am certain we will not panic as a nation, for we know that time is longer than life and a nation that was self-made and not pieced together by an invader does not have to deal with the burden of self-doubt. 

The serendipitous don’t shout. They live. For centuries.  They don’t have to claim incredibility.  That’s for the arrogant and arrogance, ladies and gentlemen is typical of the ignorant, the inferior and those lacking in substance. 

 

Arrest this thug!

A few years ago, a man called Poddala Jayantha was abducted.  He was found not too long after that.  His abductors had assaulted him and caused him grievous harm.  A journalist and an advocate for media freedom,  Poddala Jayantha was also a man with a poor track record when it comes to accountability, integrity and honesty.  This is evident in ‘the lack of clarity’ in well documented transactions associated with media advocacy organizations.

Poddala Jayantha, however, has never been charged with wrongdoing by those who ought to have.  He is a citizen and as such should not have been harmed in any way. Moreover, having been harmed, the authorities ought to have found his abductors and assailants.  This has not happened.

Minister Mervyn Silva has now openly stated that he was responsible for Poddala Jayantha leaving the country.  Now no one knows where Poddala Jayantha is, but it is clear that he could make a case that his life was in danger.  Silva’s reference to Jayantha was said in the same breath with which he threatened to personally break the limbs of Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, Sunila Abeysekera and Nimalka Fernando. 

These three individuals, Silva claimed, had conspired against Sri Lanka during the recently concluded sessions of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.  They had in fact stated that they have been subjected to ‘a barrage of attacks and intimidation from various quarters, including state and non-state entities.  The trio have certainly been criticized and not without cause, including ‘lack of clarity’ in financial dealings, intellectual sloth and operating as apologists of one form or the other for terrorists.  They have not used the wide spaces in the media available to them to clear their names.  Criticism is not coterminous with vilification or intimidation, but this is not something they have intimated to their friends in Geneva who shed many a tear on their behalf.  Integrity is not their strong point, clearly. 

Closely linked though they are to LTTE groups, none of them can be called thugs.  They state their positions and refuse to response to critique, but don’t go around with clenched fists and knuckledusters.   If anyone threatens them (or anyone else) with physical harm, it is a serious matter.  When the man who threatens has a track record of strong-arm tactics, it is even more serious.  When this individual claims that he caused a man who was abducted and assaulted to leave the country it is time for the authorities to stop pretending to sleep.  It is a confession, nothing less. 

While many would find most of Silva’s antics funny, this is no laughing matter.  The country’s detractors would market these threats as confirmation of the lies agreed upon by the likes of Saravanamuttu.  That’s something that the country cannot afford.  Silva is a political risk for the President and it will be he (the President) who has to pay for the incomprehensible levels of indulgence.  Silva’s antics must be arrested immediately by the President, for his own good and the larger good of the nation in these trying times.

Silva, more importantly, has now virtually confessed to involvement in the abduction of Poddala Jayantha.  Thuggery cannot be condoned, ever, and least of all in the name of the nation.  It is not ‘nationalism’ as Silva purports it to be, just as much as Gulags set up in the name of Marx is not Marxism or the Crusades in the name of Jesus is not ‘Christianity’.  Indeed, nationalism is, among other things, about law and order, the freedom of expression and the greater worth of debate (over fisticuffs). 

Mervyn Silva has implicated himself.  Inextricably.  The President must take action, in the name of the nation.  The nation demands it.