Vituperative politics
As the presidential
polls campaign gathers momentum speakers at political platforms,
media conferences and interviews have a field day. They go by
the maxim the end justifies the means and villify and slander
the opponents to the amusement of the faithful.
They prefer not to put forward future programs for the
development of the country. Nor do they dabble in intelligent
criticism. Defamation and character assassination have been the
stock of ammunition mostly used in shooting down the adversary.
An orchestrated campaign has been unleashed on the pet topic
of corruption accusing the President and his next of kin of
various misdeameanours including ill-gotten wealth and misuse of
public funds.
One would expect anyone bringing such serious allegations to
substantiate them with proof. Otherwise it amounts to an
unethical conduct of defaming opponents. Some of the allegations
brought forward are not only malicious but have also been
already found to be untrue. The continued repetition of such
allegations reflects a hidden agenda to gain undue political
advantage.
Such accusations and even lodging of complaints with the
Bribery Commission during campaign time is now a common
phenomena. It must be recorded that none of the complaints made
by either side during the previous elections were substantiated
when the Commission started investigations. As a result they
were abandoned. However, the damage was done politically.
This situation should not be allowed to recur. Those who
bring forward allegations should show proof or else withdraw
their allegations.
Let us examine some of these allegations. One example is the
oft repeated allegation that the Defence Secretary has bought
the Apollo Hospitals. In actual fact, the Supreme Court in a
landmark decision decided that the privatization of the Sri
Lanka Insurance Corporation was illegal and reverted its
ownership to the Government. As the leading shareholder of the
hospital was the Insurance Corporation the ownership of it
passed on to the Government. It is now a Government owned
business enterprise and has been renamed the Lanka Hospitals.
Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has been invited to be the
Chairman of the Board of Directors. He holds the position on an
honorary basis without receiving any remuneration. This fact has
been explained by the Director Board of the Hospital. Yet the
unfounded accusation goes on. These are facts in the public
domain.
Similar stories are being circulated at election platforms
and by rumour mongers that Senior Presidential Advisor Basil
Rajapaksa MP has also bought some landed property. All land
transactions are registered at the Lands Registry and title
deeds are public documents. The strange thing is that no title
deeds are presented to substantiate the allegation.
Similar rumours are being circulated about holiday resorts
allegedly bought by the Rajapaksa family although the owners of
the named resorts have disclaimed them.
The Opposition seems to be following a Gobbelean propaganda
strategy according to which it is believed that an oft repeated
statement would stick in the memory of the listeners even if it
is not true.
Media freedom:
Double standards
These days there are plenty of people defending media
freedom. It includes those who gagged the media every time they
were in power. They include those who brought editors to
Parliament sitting as a tribunal. They include those who
campaigned to boycott certain media houses.
It is difficult to understand what their ideal of media
freedom means. Can media freedom be defined differently for
different media institutions? Going by the campaign conducted by
the Opposition and unfortunately sections of the media
subservient to them there seems to be two criteria - one for the
State media and one for the private media.
It is irrational and unjust. It is, at the same time a joke
to call upon the State media to shut up when the private media
is full of vituperative stuff vis-a-vis the Government and its
leaders. Give the media freedom and let the customers decide.
There is no media monopoly. The customer has a choice. Therefore
there is no sense in the demand to gag the State media alone. |