EDITORIAL

When Mangala Samaraweera, donning his new cap as media minister, urged the state media to focus on the UNF as the real enemy of the government, he wasn’t kidding. Ever since then, the kept press has redoubled its efforts in terms of mass disinformation, and how!

The state media’s tragicomic reaction to the resignation of UNF MP Zahir Mowlana was so pathetic, one did not know whether to laugh (at their amateurishness) or cry (for the plight in which the nation is). Although painted as a criminal, Mowlana had done nothing illegal. By his own admission, he had transported LTTE renegade Karuna in his own vehicle, to Colombo. By his own admission, he had not kept his party leadership, especially his Party Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, informed of this fact. Lake House however, believes that Karuna’s escape to Colombo was a plot hatched by Wickremesinghe. Well, if it is a plot, Chandrika Kumaratunga, as commander in chief of the army and defence minister is doubly responsible, for it was the army that gave Karuna refuge once Mowlana brought him to Colombo. And the President has never said she was unaware of this fact, or indeed, that she disapproved of it. In fact, given that the alliance government has been providing air force helicopters willy-nilly to the LTTE, Mowlana is only as much a criminal as the commander of the Sri Lanka Air Force is, or for that matter, his boss, Chandrika Kumaratunga.

What is more noteworthy of the whole incident is the fact that when Mowlana realised that he had embarrassed his party and its leader, he resigned forthwith. Now, that is something an alliance MP has never yet had the honour to do on any issue, except for personal gain. The Lake House allegations also beg the question of what Wickremesinghe might have had to gain by having given refuge to Karuna. After all, aiding or attacking the renegade Tiger wins no one brownie points. On the contrary, it only stood to lose for him the support of the 22 TNA MPs in parliament. It does not take an Einstein to work that one out. But then, to the perverted mind of Mangala Samaraweera, it probably seems entirely logical.

Having lied continuously and well to the electorate with countless empty promises, and unable to deliver anything more than cheap propaganda, the JVP-SLFP alliance is now desperate for distractions, especially in the run up to the provincial council elections. Almost three months in office, the alliance has been able to deliver nothing, and succeeded only in plunging the country from one crisis into another. As in Rome of yore, the need of the hour is a circus, for what better can distract the owner of an empty stomach?

While people are accustomed through years of experience to lying Bandaranaikes, the JVP’s performance (or lack of it) has come as a surprise to many. This is the first test of their mettle in governance, and what a disaster it has been. The JVP has shown itself to be every bit the successor of the political school of Rohana Wijeweera, which ruthlessly tried to slaughter its way into power. Having won office, the Reds now find themselves totally impotent, unable to deliver anything but rhetoric. And so a victim had to be found.

That the victim had to be Ravi Karunanayake is no surprise, for Karunanayake had defied the JVP head-on only the previous week with his damning open letter to its leadership. And Wimal Weerawansa cannot but be sensitive to Karunanayake’s influence on his Kotte electorate. The fact that the state media uttered premeditated lies when it claimed that the police sought the opposition MP’s arrest armed with a warrant shows that the propaganda had been well planned in advance. After all, it is asking too much of happenstance that a number of ‘independent’ institutions should simultaneously utter the same lie. Indeed, the politically-motivated police officer, ASP Srinath Wedisinghe, a catcher of Kumaratunga’s, was caught on camera saying that he had a court order, which assertion was later denied by the courts themselves. What a common fraud and liar like this is doing being an ASP is something the Independent Police Commission needs to tell us.

The attempt to utilise Karunanayake as principal gladiator in the alliance circus, thankfully for the former, laid a resounding egg. So much so that Colombo Magistrate Sanath Karunaratne was brutally and embarrassingly curt to the police, whose overtly political motivation was hard to hide. Incredibly, neither the Attorney General nor the IGP were aware that a unit of the police intended to arrest an MP and former minister. Secretary, Public Security, Law and Order Ministry, Tilak Ranaviraja and his Deputy Minister, former Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake were oblivious to the arrest. Incredibly, even Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse was taken aback by the news: "At this rate I might be next!" was his reaction.

It is a worrying fact that Kumaratunga has taken it upon herself to put together a Gestapo-like political police comprising of catchers like Wedisinghe, charged with harassing the opposition. With Presidential sanction, last week’s excesses are likely to be only the tip of the iceberg. We are dealing here with a President who has on her own admission discussed with her ministers the prospect of "killing an editor or two" with no blush of shame. Eager to please his mistress, one cannot see where Wedisinghe’s ambition will end, given that he is a proven liar and has already engaged in a gross abuse of authority with total impunity, and in all probability, a Presidential pat on the back. The extent to which democracy has been eroded since the alliance ‘victory’ of April 2 is palpable, and one wonders what Colombo’s holier-than-thou diplomatic community makes of all this.

As for Ravi Karunanayake, the arrest was to be a political gimmick, as evidenced by the state media’s cameras poised at the ready outside the MP’s residence. One has to be grateful that judges of the calibre of Karunaratne still grace the benches of this nation’s courts, especially given that political favouritism has been the President’s strong suit when making promotions in the judiciary.

What is becoming increasingly clear is that there is now a government within the government. The majority of ministers are being kept in the dark, unable to contribute to either the political process or the business of government. That Finance Minister Sarath Amunugama, facing a bleak balance of the books, cannot agree with his Secretary, P.B. Jayasundera, who answers directly to the President, is well known. Amunugama has now begun venting his frustration publicly, clearly unhappy about being a figurehead puppet in the nation’s most important ministry.

The alliance’s Nazification of Sri Lanka however, must be resisted by all right thinking people. It will not do for the opposition to issue puerile statements condemning such actions. Fire must be fought with fire, and Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe must show himself not to be a sheep in sheep’s clothing. The abuse of power involved in the Karunanayake incident, to say nothing of the Goebelsian manipulation of the state media, are not actions that can be lightly passed over. Democracy in Sri Lanka is at stake and the democratic opposition must step forward to defend it.

We have publicly urged already that Chandrika Kumaratunga is not fit to hold public office. An opposition with any courage whatsoever in its convictions cannot stand idly by. She must be removed and there is no good reason not to utilise the constitutional remedy that is available for just this purpose: impeachment. Enough is enough. Wickremesinghe has to come to terms with the fact that it is not just his MPs who will be picked upon piecemeal: his turn will surely come. And if he does not act decisively and with courage now, his sailors could well choose to abandon ship. Kumaratunga’s excess cannot be shrugged off: it is too serious for that. Bell the cat now, or risk being transformed into catnip.