FEAR AND FARCE IN LANKA

During and even before the war, ordinary Sinhalas considered Mahinda Rajapakse, a national hero. Some one who had dared to do what no other President could even contemplate in mere thoughts. Today, after the war, he is revered. Almost saintly. Someone who can do no wrong. And more importantly, even if he does, cannot be criticized.

Mahinda, along with his two brothers, Gotabhaya and Basil have reduced Sri Lanka to a family run business. Their word is the Gospel truth and their will be done. So much so, independent journalists are today either dragged to court in frivolous libel suits or even better, coldly bumped off.

It’s best illustrated by this incident which happened last week. The Sunday Leader, the only paper in Sri Lanka which has a modicum of independence has been dragged to court by Gotabhaya, the Defence Secretary. Apparently an article in the Leader had dared to criticize the President’s brother. This was the response from the Ministry of Defence, posted on their website. “It is traitorous and unethical to oppose a national hero like the Secretary of Defence, with whose unwavering commitment and focus Sri Lanka is a free country today.” Reminds you of a certain German Nazi dictator?

In May, Sri Lanka clung at the cusp of hope, after the defeat of the LTTE. After all, Rajapakse had promised the Tamils the moon and beyond, after the war. Today over a tenth of Sri Lanka’s population is cooped in internment camps. All of them Tamil. Like pariahs in their own land. The government had promised to send them back to their homes soon after they were screened for remnants of the LTTE and after their villages were de-mined. Three months on, nothing has changed. More than 2,80,000 languish like livestock, in the most abysmal conditions.

And it only gets worse. The ICRC, the only international aid agency has now been prevented from entering these internment camps. Four of their offices in Trincomale and Batticaloa in the east, have been shut. And in this background, the government is preparing for elections in the North.

How does one explain this to Mr. Rajapakse? A token election when basics like food, water and shelter are hard to come by is self-defeating. There’s an occupational army, the bulk of the population is in far-away refugee camps, and there are just govt propped candidates in the electoral fray. Is Mr. Rajapakse holding this election, just for his friends who stood by him during the war?

The government has put up Mr. Douglas Devananda, a controversial Tamil Leader in Jaffna. Someone who was staunchly opposed to the LTTE and a stooge of the government of the day. He can hardly be called a true representative of the Tamil people. There’s no visible opposition. Devananda will win this election, hands down.

The government has clearly got its priorities warped. A recent survey by Social Indicator in Jaffna shows that more 40 percent of the population is indifferent to this election. In fact, about one in three feels their condition has worsened in the last one year. So much for military success. Three out of five kids in internment camps are suffering from malnutrition.

Things are eerily similar to 1975, when the EPDP ruled the north with an extra-judicial iron fist. It led to the birth of the LTTE. After 30 years of blood and battle is the government just rewinding Sri Lanka’s history? Has the decimation of the LTTE meant nothing? One can’t escape the sense of déjà vu.