Then She Posthumously Assumed Mrs Wickrematunga!

Dilrook Kannangara

UNESCO award for Press Freedom was posthumously awarded to Lasantha Wickrematunga. His alleged posthumous editorial played a pivotal role in winning it. Upon the declaration of the award, Sonali Samarasinghe who posthumously assumed Mrs Wickrematunga as her surname seized the opportunity to blame the government, the war and the people supportive of the war for peace. Obviously too many things have happened posthumously it is difficult to figure out which ones actually are not posthumous! Unfortunately this is the legacy of Lasantha which has been exploited subsequent to his demise to project what he was not.

The alleged posthumous editorial should have been written on Wednesday 7 January 2009 if it was the work of Lasnatha as he was killed on the next morning. However, on Wednesday, his other newspaper – The Morning Leader – was published as regular. It is very unlikely for an editorial to be done before the readership has digested the previous editorial from the same editor board. Also it is well known that Sunday English newspapers, unlike Sunday Sinhala and Tamil newspapers, are edited on Saturday to encapsulate latest developments. Thirdly, the alleged posthumous editorial rather resemble too closely not with Lasantha’s work but someone else’s.

Lasantha was not an anti-war journalist; he was not against the war in Sri Lanka. However, the shadowy figure who claimed that the editorial titled ‘Then They Came for Me’ was penned by Lasantha, tries very hard to prove that the slain editor was against the war in Sri Lanka. However, The Morning Leader editorial on the day before the murder starts thus, “While troops of the Sri Lanka Army having valiantly fought and captured the LTTE de facto capital of Killinochchi were inching their way towards Elephant Pass and Mullaithivu to deliver what is believed to be the penultimate blow to LTTE terrorism….” Clearly and positively the editor manifests that the war is a war against terror. This is the exact opposite of what Mrs Wickrematunga (posthumous) had to say in May 2009. She asserts, “That this is a racist war is not a secret.” Coincidentally this is the same tone found in the posthumous editorial too!

The ‘posthumous editorial’ contains hilarious assertions about Lasantha. It reads, “Friends tell me to revert to the bar, and goodness knows it offers a better and safer livelihood.” Lasantha was never a successful lawyer vis-à-vis a journalist. One main reason for him to give up his legal career first to follow his father’s footsteps to politics and then to journalism was that. The editorial goes, “Others, including political leaders on both sides, have at various times sought to induce me to take to politics, going so far as to offer me ministries of my choice.” This is also not true as Lasantha was a disaster in politics losing every election he contested most notably the 1989 General Election. Besides more politicians were killed in Sri Lanka than journalists! Indeed the ‘posthumous editorial’ serves as a mirror in which the public can see concubinary journalism sans mascara and styling gel.

Lasantha’s children and Mrs Wickrematunga (their mother) flew in from Australia and attended his funeral. Mrs Wickrematunga was herself a journalist when Lasantha had his humble beginnings as a journo in early 1980s and they worked together. The President invited them to his place and their meeting was very cordial as the two families knew each other for decades. Surely the children loved their father and so did their mother and no allegation was made against the President for the death of Lasantha. However, Sonali Samarasinghe (posthumously Wickrematunga) continues to blame the President for no apparent reason. May be it is a fluke that the ‘posthumous editorial’ hinted the same thing!

Lasantha could have written an editorial of impending death many times before since he went through perilous times in the past. He also on a number of occasions claimed that he received death threats but never did he prepare his epitaph! That cast serious doubt on the alleged ‘posthumous editorial’ which talks only about death and ending! Very unlikely of Lasantha who never feared death.

Unfortunately he couldn’t dictate what goes under his name in his newspaper after his death and it was decided by someone else without any regard to him. This is akin to what happened to SP Thamilchelam who was the LTTE senior peace negotiator, LTTE political head and ‘peace dove’ until his death when he was posthumously promoted to the (military) rank of brigadier! It was long after Lasantha Wickrematunga’s death Sonali Samarasinghe assumed his surname. The saying goes, marriages are made in heaven; some may be and some may not. Certainly some are made in hell.