Revenge as an article of faith

Malinda SENEVIRATNE

"Semper et infirmi est animi exiguique voluptas ultio"

[Revenge is always the weak pleasure of a little and narrow mind - Decimus Junius Juvenal in 'Satires (XIII, 189)]

The other day I asked a fellow journalist what was wrong with Lasantha (Wickrametunge). "He is on a revenge trip" was his candid answer. It got me thinking, for I have often wondered what the source of the malice (so apparent in what the man writes) was.

Ardent supporter of UNP

It is no secret that Lasantha Wickrametunge is an ardent supporter of the United National Party and that he employs his newspaper to promote the cause of that party and its candidates.

He has attacked only those who are peripheral to the party leadership and has never taken on the key players apart from making some snide comment now and then.

It is also no secret that the Sunday Leader of which he is the editor operated like a party rag during the run-up to the Presidential Election last year.

As I have pointed out elsewhere such slavishness does little more than tickle and thrill the converted and, depending on the degree of nausea generated (and there was much of this during that time), can even result in turning away the potential convert for reasons of pure revulsion.

I have also argued that the Sunday Leader to the UNP is what 'Lanka' is to the JVP, both papers seemingly taking up the position that the party and personalities they champion are unblemished.

Mud factories may produce something that could stick but they invariably dirty the hands of the factory workers. Slinging mud always results in losing ground.

Lasantha and his ilk may not acknowledge that they are engaged in such an exercise through their newspapers of course, but when die-hard UNPers say this is true it is an allegation that is hard to dismiss.

Much smaller man

It is one thing for editors and journalists to be constrained by the dictates of the management, and something else for them to be blinded by political loyalties. Lasantha, for example, did receive accolades when he took to task Thilanga Sumathipala, relentlessly investigating alleged wrong-doing.

Lasantha looked a much smaller man later when he dropped the Thilanga issue like a hot potato when the man was appointed as Ranil's campaign organizer for Anuradhapura last year.

I have no quarrels with this, though. Lasantha or anyone else for that matter has every right to promote the candidate of his choice, there being no such thing as an 'independent newspaper'. He has the right to champion the cause of the candidate of his choice, attack his opponents and to be dismayed at the result.

The way he goes about it does smack of a certain servility that doesn't sit well with the ideals of the profession. There is a certain perversity, for example, that is very evident in the way that Lasantha and the Sunday Leader respond to the negotiations between the Government and the LTTE.

It is hard to say when exactly Lasantha and the Sunday Leader began bad-mouthing Mahinda, but it is clear that these people were suffering from a bad case of sour grapes for a long time.

It was not surprising therefore to see the Sunday Leader turn into a virtual LTTE rag immediately after the election, the editorial staff seemingly intent on using 'whatever means necessary' (even if, as they argued, it was Balasingham who effected Ranil's defeat) to trip Mahinda Rajapakse.

There was a perceptible congratulatory tone in the overall copy of that newspaper as Balasingham's brigades started picking off members of the security forces.

Championing Balasingham's agenda

Even in the run-up to the talks in Celigny we saw the Sunday Leader championing Balasingham's agenda, especially with regard to Karuna. Nothing was said about the extending the logic of the CFA to Karuna and include him in the equation.

There was no mention at all about the non-negotiability of democracy and human rights in any process seeking peace. It was all about providing Balasingham ammunition by way of atmospheric advantage as such media institutions are equipped to deliver.

The day before the two parties began talks, Rohitha Bogollagama held a media conference and Lasantha was at hand to bat for Ranil. Read his piece in the Sunday Leader of February 26, 2006 titled 'Rohitha ducks the hard questions' and you will understand that all Lasantha was interested was whether or not the Government delegation accepted the CFA or not.

Whether Mahinda and his allies lied to the electorate or not is of course something the public ought to know and Lasantha can be commended for seeking an answer to that question.

On the other hand, I find it surprising that a senior journalist like Lasantha didn't seem to know that there is a fundamental difference between an elected Government and a terrorist outfit like the LTTE, where the latter can abrogate, (mis)interpret and in other ways make irrelevant agreements, the former have to be far more circumspect for reasons that are obvious.

I have argued that it is possible that Mahinda himself may not have known that it is easier said than done to abrogate the CFA and that while the difficulty does confer an immutable black mark on his credibility, this doesn't automatically translate into brownie points for Ranil.

Rather, it demonstrates his (Ranil's) lack of vision and extent of his culpability in treason, no less, for he has forced the people to submit to a flawed document simply because, as I said before, Governments cannot act like terrorists.

Thumbs-up to Balasingham

Just after Eric Solheim and the Swiss representative made their opening remarks prior to the commencement of the talks, Lasantha gave a thumbs-up sign to Anton Balasingham.

He has every right to salute anyone he feels deserves salutation, but I find it hard to understand that Lasantha possess the kind of superior compassion evidenced in someone like Siddhartha Gauthama or Jesus Christ to be persuaded to salute one of the world's most ruthless terrorists.

Lasantha did not let up in the post-talks media conference. He went on to offer full tosses to Balasingham clearly designed to allow the LTTE to position itself better come the next round of talks in April.

He didn't ask Balasingham questions about killing political opponents or about child recruitment, but has gone out of his way to give the man and his method legitimacy and moral equivalency vis a vis the Government.

Government's pledge

He has clearly expended a lot of effort to put words in Balasingham's mouth so he can interpret the Joint Statement as a pledge on the part of the Government to take on Karuna.

The truth is that the Government has done nothing more nothing less than promise to do what governments are meant to do, namely maintain law and order.

It did not end in Switzerland of course. He returns to Sri Lanka and continues to bat for Balasingham, feeding Sonali Samarasinghe his version of what happened in Celigny (to be read as 'Balasingham's version' of course) so she can claim that 'Balasingham checkmated the Government'. Neither Sonali nor Lasantha seems to have actually read the Joint Statement, which shows nothing that deserves the label 'checkmated' as far as the Government is concerned.

The truth is that it is Balasingham who ends up being cornered as per Paragraph 5 (which I shall elaborate separately, I promise).

The following Sunday, he turns his paper into a Balasingham saluting circus, generously splashing that terrorist's laughable claims across the pages. This is of course not enough for Lasantha for he does his bit to pit members of the Government Delegation against each other. We can expect more of the same in the coming weeks.

A revenge trip

What is it with Lasantha? A revenge trip? I really don't know. What I do know is that Decimus Junius Juvenal also said that 'revenge is sweeter than life itself. So think fools.'

He appears to be operating (correct me if I am wrong) as though he is so upset that Ranil lost that he would relish the prospect of the country being sold for a song if it also means that Mahinda loses face to a terrorist.

If indeed revenge is what Lasantha seeks (and there is little by way of content and tone for me to conclude otherwise) then it follows, after Juvenal, that Mr. Wickrametunge's pot shots amount to nothing more that then weak pleasure of a little and narrow mind.

Proven wrong

I would love to be proven wrong but this would require Lasantha and the Sunday Leader to take on the substantive issues and not get lost in the bits and pieces gathered unprofessionally and processed not with intellect but the cruder instrument called political loyalty.

None of us are neutral in the pure sense of the word, I admit. We all have political positions and are motivated by the political ideologies we subscribe to. We all ask questions that are prompted by these things. I don't grudge Lasantha or anyone else that right.

I would reiterate, though, that the questions we ask elicit not just answers from those interviewed but facets of who we are. Lasantha and the Sunday Leader stands revealed. I am not sure that if I was in his shoes I would feel particularly thrilled.