CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

That speech on human rights, media freedom and sins

S. Akurugoda

Speaking at a ceremony held to commemorate the 15th death anniversary of President Premadasa, Mr Ranil Wickramesinghe has said under the Premadasa regime, unlike now, there was media freedom and even permitted human rights organisations to visit Sri Lanka to observe and comment on the allegations against his administrations.

According to the opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe , today's media is silent about the so-called 'violating human rights', 'media freedoms' and 'sins' said to have been committed by the Mahinda Rajapaksa government.

Although it is a good practice to say nothing bad of those who have dead and gone, those who live in Sri Lanka during the infamous 'Bheesana Samaya' in late 1980s cannot simply erase their memories and keep quite, especially, when treacherous politicians are trying to mislead people making use of even the good practices to fulfil their sinister motives.

Those who have seen young boys and girls burning with tyres around there neck, almost every where, and those who have read and heard about the killing of personal (in thousands, some after taking into police custody) wonder where were those human rights champions, their observations and comments as claimed by the opposition leader. As we remember, no organisation (UN, NGOs, INGOs, so called international community of the west, foreign diplomats etc) were concerned about the loss of lives of those misguided Sinhala youth and their leaders and the way they were tortured and killed.

It is an open secret that both Wijeweera and Gamanayake were murdered when in custody. One Wijedasa Liyanaarchchi, a lawyer, was beaten to death while in police custody. Under whatever circumstances or whatever crimes they said to have been committed, it may not be fair or humane for a legally constituted government to kill any of its citizens after taking into custody without a trial. This is applicable even to Prabhakaran tomorrow.

There should not be any argument over the right of a democratically elected government to maintain the law and order and protect its people from armed groups.

However, Mr Wickramsinghe's qualifications to talk about 'violations of human rights' and 'sins' said to have been committed by the others are in doubt when we remember the period where there were torture chambers such as 'Batalanda' (perhaps not second to infamous 'Guantanamo Bay' of the US), in addition to what we have seen, while Mr Wickramasinghe was third in command of the governing party.

When it comes to media freedom, more than any other politician, Mr Premadasa loved publicity on his favour and had no hesitation to act or retaliate against those who criticised his administration. During his tenure of office, rumours and suspicions were at highest level (probably due to the fear psychosis that existed during that period) over fate of some well-known personalities, who were considered as political opponents, although such rumours and suspicions could have been baseless to some extent.

As a person who climbed up to the highest position in the country and his chosen party from the grassroots' level, obviously, Mr Premadasa had strengths more than the weaknesses. He knew how the heartbeat of the common man works and worked tirelessly to achieve his goals. Perhaps, his skill as an orator was not second to any other politician of his time. Unlike Ranil, who called foreign intervention in many occasions, Mr Premadasa did not tolerate foreign interference at all. He opposed Indo-Lanka pact and had the courage to made British High Commissioner, persona non grata, for undue interference.

On the other hand, Mr Ranil Wickramasinghe (who came from a well known elite group with close relation ship to the party's hierarchy) became the leader of the same party with least effort, probably, due to total elimination of the potential leaders by the LTTE. He appears to possess less strength than weaknesses, quite opposite to those of Mr Premadasa.

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