Daily News Online
   

Tuesday, 8 March 2011

Home

 | SHARE MARKET  | EXCHANGE RATE  | TRADING  | OTHER PUBLICATIONS   | ARCHIVES | 

dailynews
 ONLINE


OTHER PUBLICATIONS


OTHER LINKS

Marriage Proposals
Classified
Government Gazette

President vindicated

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has put the lid on a long-standing accusation against him by the main Opposition UNP. It had been the UNP’s claim all these years that then Opposition MP Mahinda Rajapaksa made frequent visits to Geneva to besmirch the image of the country and deny it Western aid.

That was the time of the height of the second JVP uprising when rivers of blood flowed across the country as a result of the JVP’s campaign of terror and the bloody crack down launched by the Government sponsored vigilante groups. Sri Lanka was described as a pariah State at the time, the same label that is now frequently being used by the self same UNP these days to embarrass the Government.

The country was witnessing a killing spree with innocents eliminated in the counter offensive including journalists and Opposition politicians. The blackest episode in that crackdown was the cruel death of journalist Richard de Zoysa which had all the hallmarks of a revenge killing on the orders of the political elite at the time. The killing of SLFP politician Indrapala Abeyweera was also by no means related to the anti-JVP crackdown.

It was at such a time when even the mainstream Opposition was rendered feeble and voiceless that one man single handedly took on the Government. Mahinda Rajapaksa came to the forefront to become the voice of the thousands of mothers who had lost their sons and daughters to the Government sponsored bloody retaliation. He was in the vanguard of the Mothers’ Front to trace and locate those disappeared in this killing spree and was the only voice among the Opposition that caused unease and discomfort among the Government ranks.

In fact Mahinda Rajapaksa’s crusade against the violation of human rights and enforced disappearances preceded his re-entry to Parliament in 1989 for a second time when he came to the forefront and gained prominence in agitating against the death in Police custody of Human Rights Lawyer Wijedasa Liyanaarchchi in 1988.

This is an indication that Mahinda Rajapaksa’s zealous crusade to protect human rights was virtually in his blood and devoid of political considerations. That is why the frequent accusations made against him by the Opposition these days distorting the purpose of his visit to Geneva during those harrowing days to say the least are malicious and without basis.

Addressing an election propaganda rally in Ratnapura on Sunday the President set the record straight. “I always spoke for the rights of the people. I went there (Geneva) to complain about the massacre of youth. In fact President Rajapaksa at the time underwent great risk and even humiliation in his bid to highlight the extra judicial killings taking place in the country. He was detained at the Airport and his baggage searched for ‘incriminating material’ that would expose the Premadasa Government.

He went to these great lengths to expose a Government who was killing its own people and to speak on behalf of the innocent and the defenceless as a doughty campaigner for human rights. This trait was indeed a hallmark of his entire political career and not confined to a single episode. This was misconstrued and distorted by the then Government who charged that his mission was designed to blacken the image of the country and halt aid. This refrain is being carried out to this very day by the bankrupt and faction ridden UNP who has no other ammunition to attack the President.

One does not recall the President during those humanitarian missions aligning himself with the LTTE groups in anti-Government protests or joining Tiger demonstrations in Geneva or any other Western capital like some of the present day UNP MPs who have no qualms about doing so. In fact the President remarked at the Ratnapura rally that when he went to the Geneva conference by foot Tiger terrorists arrived in Benz cars. Funny enough the UNP Government of the day even accused him of demoralising the Army who too was involved in counter terrorist measures. This indeed came from a party who at every turn tried to discredit and demoralize the Forces during the heroic battles to eliminate the LTTE.

The UNP leaders as always have missed the wood for the trees. The President’s mission to Geneva was purely to highlight the rampant human rights abuses under cover of the anti-JVP crack down where torture chambers were conducted under the supervision of leading politicians of the day. The UNP by harping on this point has only succeeded in unravelling its bloody past once again to the new generation of voters further plummeting its already depleted stocks.

Hopefully the Opposition will henceforth direct its artillery in another channel without self-inflicting itself with further damage to its credibility. Besides the Government of the day was a darling of the West and need not have feared about any aid cuts due to human rights violations whether raised by Mahinda Rajapaksa or any other Opposition politician at that time.

Misapplying M-E model and mode

The conversation I had on Lankan trajectories and ‘declinist’ discourses in a Paris cafe on a Sunday with my friend and former colleague, Prof Nira Wickramasingha, now holding the Chair of South Asian History at Leiden University, reminded me of a point she had made sharply in her slender book History Writing. Sri Lanka, she had remarked, was one of the few countries in which mainstream newspapers carried pieces on history by those without any credentials or formal training in the disciplines of history and historiography.

Full Story

Is it cricket or is it not?

The Morning Inspection

I remember reading in a Trinity College souvenir put out for the Bradby some decades ago an interesting comparison of cricket and rugby football: ‘Cricket is a gentlemen’s game played by rowdies; rugger is a rowdy’s game played by gentlemen.’ Over the years I’ve come to realize that this is rubbish; all sports have the same proportion of decent players and ‘rowdies’. Two things though have given cricket that ‘decent’ aura.

Full Story

Popular uprisings in Middle East and North Africa:

Indictment on West and its media

The unprecedented, peaceful and historic popular uprisings raging in the Middle East and North Africa remain clear indictment on the United States led Europe and their media known for spreading lies. It was with the support and blessings of the West and its media that tyranny which caused untold to misery to millions in the region flourished for decades.

Full Story

 

EMAIL |   PRINTABLE VIEW | FEEDBACK

Damro
 
 
Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL)
www.news.lk
www.defence.lk
Donate Now | defence.lk
www.apiwenuwenapi.co.uk
LANKAPUVATH - National News Agency of Sri Lanka
www.army.lk

| News | Editorial | Business | Features | Political | Security | Sport | World | Letters | Obituaries |

Produced by Lake House Copyright © 2011 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.

Comments and suggestions to : Web Editor