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Violence and democratic practice

We are compelled to return to the outrageous murder of senior undergraduate of the Sri Jayewardenepura University, Ovitigala Vithanage Samantha, by some undergraduate-hoodlums said to be linked to the JVP, on account of the shock and the horror it has left behind. In fact, it would prove impossible for civilized circles to forget this cruel tragedy on account of the shock waves even its mere mention is likely to trigger in years to come.

Brutality is nothing new to our universities, but this cold-blooded slaying of a student leader who, we are told, upheld humane values, marks a new low in the moral degeneracy and inhumanity which is pervading some of our seats of higher learning.

The impartial observer cannot be blamed for seeing shades of the Sri Lanka of the late Eighties of the last century, in this blood-curdling episode. The sheer inhumanity and brutality which were visited on Samantha for espousing the righteous cause of treating freshers to the university with the utmost cordiality, smacks strongly of the criminal conduct of groups which were locked in a bloody struggle for supremacy in those deeply troubled times. The manner in which Samantha was done to death bears a close similarity to those summary murders and "executions" which earned for Sri Lanka the infamy of a "killing field" of the East.

We call for the firm enforcement of the law and for the expeditious activation of the judicial procedure in relation to the killers of Samantha. No time should be lost in apprehending these killers and bringing them to justice.

Meanwhile, it would be in order for civil society and its organisations which care for the rehumanisation of Sri Lanka, to condemn in the most forthright terms, this dastardly murder which has earned for our seats of higher learning a further measure of disgrace. It is high time that the criminalisation of society and its sponsors, political or otherwise, were strongly denounced and alienated from the rest of society.

The JVP has gone on record as having denied involvement in the killing. If that is really so, this seems to be a case of the tail wagging the dog. For, its following seems to be practising a brand of politics which is not at all in keeping with the democratic principles which are implicit in the JVP's decision to enter mainstream politics and finally end up in Parliament.

Terror cannot be in the JVP's lexicon at present if it is earnestly seeking the democratic path to power. If its rank and file are insistent on resorting to the Satanic practices of the past, it is up to the JVP leadership to root out these ghoulish elements from among its cadres. If this doesn't happen pronto, the public could not be blamed for concluding that the terror of the cadres has the blessings and support of the leadership. If this happens to be the case, the JVP leadership should be held accountable for the criminal conduct of its following.

Heinous murders and democratic practice can never intermingle freely and harmoniously. The JVP needs to remember that it cannot follow a Janus-faced policy on these issues. When a party opts for the democratic path, as the JVP professes to have done, it must bear in mind that the methods of democracy need to be adopted. Tolerance of dissent, accommodation of the other's viewpoint and respect for public opinion are some of the main features of the democratic system of governance. There is no place in this system for murderous violence.

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