The Re-Birth Of McCarthyism In Sri Lanka

The institutionalisation of the Big Lie is not only a reality in this country but one which appears to be growing. A part of this, a significant part, is the abuse and demonisation of anyone of stature, local or foreign, who might have had the gall to be critical of the current ruling clique or its minions.
The list is a long and interesting one and goes from the sublime to the ridiculous.  It extends from Nobel Laureates such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela to “MIA” Arulpragasam of rock music fame, from Louise Arbour, a retired judge of the Supreme Court of Canada and with a couple of dozen honorary doctorates to her name (eat your heart out, Dr. Mervyn Silva!), to writers whose skill has been recognised by the receipt of such as the Booker Prize.
The list is a continuously growing one, primarily because of the demeanour of this government and the fact that it appears government policy to cut loose every illiterate abuser and his brothers and sisters on those who are seen as “not for us.”  The fact that the tone and content of the torrent does little but pander to an audience largely ignorant of the people who are being demonised serves this government well because all it is interested in is maintaining its support at the local level irrespective of the collateral damage to this country’s image internationally.
All of this is eerily reminiscent of what emerged in the United States of America before the end of World War II and which was solidified and given enormous power by the mindset developed during the time of the Cold War, a time of panic about the “Red Menace.”
There it was red-baiting, in the name of which everyone not prepared to swear allegiance to U.S. Capitalism was vilified, harassed, prosecuted and jailed and (in the case of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg) sent to the electric chair.  Here the crime is that of being “unpatriotic,” a term that can cover a seemingly endless variety of dissent, all of which has a common denominator: disagreement with what the Rajapaksa Regime stands for.
The House Un-American Affairs Committee (HUAC), headed by a Senator from Wisconsin, “Tail-Gunner” Joe McCarthy was the apex body, with such as the Committee on Employee Loyalty created lower down the chain.  Sound familiar in the current Sri Lankan context?
The famous question that McCarthy’s witch-hunting gang posed to those appearing before them was, “Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?”
The substitution in 21st century Sri Lanka would consist of replacing “Communist Party” with “disloyal to the current regime.”  Not much else.
However, in the U.S, even in that dark time, there was nothing like the banditry and violence visited upon opponents of the government as has been the case in Sri Lanka. Journalists were not assaulted or killed or “disappeared” even in Truman’s and Eisenhower’s USA.  Opponents were not put behind bars without as much as a sham prosecution.
There were some other less dramatic similarities.  Paul Robeson, the pre-eminent black (“Negro” in the parlance of that time) actor, singer and political personality of the time had his passport impounded so he couldn’t leave his home country while his ability to ply his profession(s) was destroyed by his not being able to so much as rent a hall in which to hold a concert in the land of his birth.  A similar, though less dramatic fate, seems to be the reality for anyone in Sri Lanka’s small show biz world who dares to oppose the current government and what it stands for.
Just as HUAC held interminable witch-hunts self-described as “Hearings,” we have the sham of “Commissions of Inquiry” or “Teams” appointed to pursue some issue or unidentified miscreant(s) about this, that and the other which — take your choice – 1) disband before delivering their reports (“Eminent Persons” anybody!),
2) disappear into thin air immediately after appointment or, as in the case of the APRC holds endless meetings which produce reports which are ceremonially presented to the President and which then seem to be consigned to some very large waste paper basket somewhere.  “Charade” might be one way to describe these exercises.  In all fairness to McCarthy, he meant business and didn’t indulge in smokescreens and feints of the kind that our rulers do.
Our most recent exercise in the matter of Commissions of Inquiry, the terms of reference of which speak louder than any words that this column could contain, is the “Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission.”  It has some interesting facets, among which are that two of those already prominent in its hearings, one heading it up, are C.R. de Silva and S.L. Gunesekera.  To say that both of these gentlemen played controversial roles in the “Udalagama Commission” is to understate the case.  Even though the report of that Commission is yet to see the light of day, the exodus of the “Eminent Persons” invited by our Head of State to sit in on its proceedings, can be largely attributed to conflict generated by the conduct of these two gentlemen.  In the circumstances, their reappearance could legitimately be considered ominous.
The broad similarities between Sri Lanka today and the McCarthy witch hunt era are overwhelming.
The demonisation of any dissenters and their active persecution, the shielding of the 21st Century Sri Lankan equivalents of David Schine and Roy Cohn in the persons of Weerawansa  and Mervyn Silva are more than coincidental.
What do they say?  “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
Sri Lankans – at least enough of them – obviously do not read enough history.