A sad 'anti-war' episode

THE Anti-War Front has mocked its own name tag by letting some of its members assault a group of Bikkhus during a skirmish at the Viharamaha Devi Park.

True, the Bikkhus intruded into a meeting of the so-called peace crusaders who were demanding that the Government put a halt to the current operations in the North.

They (the Bikkhus) wanted the protestors to take their demo to Kilinochchi. Their logic was that anti-war protests in salubrious Colombo is redundant when the theatre of war is elsewhere.

Also the progenitor of the war was in the Vanni some 250 miles away from Colombo. Besides it was not the time to shift the focus of the fighting soldiers who are engaged in a valiant battle against a deadly enemy.

Free expression is a cardinal principle in a functioning democracy and the Anti-War Front is well within its rights to take its views to the public.

There are of course serious doubts cast on the motives of organisations like the Anti-War Front which is part of the NGO caboodle that does not conceal its hostility towards the security forces and is openly sympathetic to the LTTE.

The hypocrisy of some of these bodies have been exposed time and again particularly their silence in the face of atrocities committed by the LTTE and the alacrity with which they condemn the Government for any perceived misdemeanours of the forces in the theatre of conflict.

Still, no one who respects democracy would deny them the right to canvass their views in public whether one agrees with such views or not. But it also behoves on them also to respect deferring views to their own which is the essence of democracy.

The intolerance displayed on Thursday by the Anti-War Front only went on to expose the brouhaha of some of its top notch members who disport themselves as the paragons of cultured discourse and the custodians of highfalutin principles, social niceties and democratic etiquette.

Supporters of the Anti-War Front could argue here that the protesting Bikkhus could have had their demo on a subsequent day to lodge their protest without intruding into the venue and causing disruption. On this score we are not condoning the act of the group of Bikkhus.

But one should also do well to take cognizance of the current situation. The Government Forces and the LTTE are currently locked in a fierce battle in the North and there is not an inconsiderable casualty toll among the members of the security forces. Alley this to other attacks in the south such as the massacre of civilians in Kebithigollewa and there is climate for feelings to run high.

Although what the Bikkhus did here cannot be justified we should not be unaware of this element too. Still, this by no means justified the action of the Anti-War Front members. It was certainly an overreaction to an evidently harmless act of a group holding different views making their protest within the boundaries of democracy.

Perhaps the point driven home by the Bikkhus may have irked the peace crusaders. But the public who saw TV visuals of this scene would no doubt have been shocked by the manhandling of several Buddhist monks by those professing to foster peace, with some even virtually stripped of their robes.

The pro-peace demo, included a large number of Christian clergy and leaders of other religions as well. All in all it was an incongruous scene where clergy were in opposing camps divided between war and peace and where one group of clergy watched by when violence was been unleashed on another.

It certainly would not have redounded to the credit of the Anti-War Front to see the very symbols of peace depicted by the presence of clergy in their midst being made witness to an assault on their brethren of another faith, by its very own members.

If ever there was a misnomer to the tag Anti-War Front then this was demonstrated to the hilt on Thursday evening at the Viharamaha Devi Park.

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