By
Vishnuguptha

“What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other’s folly – that is the first law of nature.”

~Voltaire

Navi Pillay’s statement on her findings at the end of her recent visit to Sri Lanka has succeeded, if not in opening eyes and ears of some of our self-glorified pundits and academics, in brushing on the wrong side of the ruling cabal of the Rajapaksas. The consummate diplomat that she is, Pillay pulled no punches, spared no villain and minced no words. In her official statement issued in the wake of the conclusion of her visit to Sri Lanka, she placed the blame where it belonged: right at the top.

Paragraph by paragraph and sentence by sentence, she spelt out her observations; she used her pen and piercing insight in the manner a renowned sculptor would craft her masterpiece; sharpening the edges and curving the bends, yet when the finished product is before one’s eyes, even an amateur reader would understand what is written between the lines, parting facts from rhetoric, stark colors from nuances and understanding subtlety. He, the reader, would comprehend the United Nations Human Rights High Commissioner’s statement as an authentic narrative of an experienced observer’s objective analysis of a deepening crisis in governance; a devastating indictment on a potentially-lethal ego-trip of a ruling cabal bent on enriching itself at the expense of the innocent many, while holding the banners of ‘patriotism’ in front. It’s a warning of an approaching tempest which would, if not confronted with sure safeguards and defenses, soon become a hurricane destroying everything that stands on its vicious and venomous way.

Condemnations, denials and character assassination would follow, if it has not already taken place, from Government-backed individuals, Cabinet Ministers, the ‘Defense Establishment’ and the usual suspects such as the Weerawansas and Ranawakas. One of the salient points or arguments put forth would be that the United Nations Human Rights Commissioner has sailed outside the scope of the investigation and has become too embroiled in the politics of the host country. Not one single issue that has been raised by the Pillay-statement would be addressed and answered; not a single charge, projection or prediction will be suitably tackled by the Government. The Government opened the doors for Navi Pillay not because it was the right thing to do but because of international pressure, particularly from India and other member countries of the Commonwealth. The CHOGM in fact played a very decisive part in coercing the Sri Lankan rulers to allow Navi Pillay to visit Sri Lanka and it may well be that they burnt their fingers quite badly.

Let us deal with the salient features of the Pillay-statement:

“Some media, Ministers, bloggers and various propagandists in Sri Lanka have, for several years now, on the basis of my Indian Tamil heritage, described me as a tool of the LTTE. They have claimed I was in their pay, the “Tamil Tigress in the UN.” This is not only wildly incorrect, it is deeply offensive. This type of abuse has reached an extraordinary crescendo during this past week, with at least three Government Ministers joining in.”, Pillay states. The Government has no answer to this charge.

‘Killing the messenger when the message is not agreeable’ syndrome was manifestly evident during the build-up to the Pillay visit and this writer firmly believes that none of those propagandists made the faintest of attempts to look into the credentials of Navanidham Pillay although it must also be emphatically stated that one’s academic, professional and educational credentials alone do not ensure the credibility or the authenticity of the report or statement issued by the individual in question. The individual’s past performance under similar circumstances and his or her inherent prejudices, if any, must be given due weightage before one starts one’s barrage of attack on the author of a report or statement. Navi Pillay’s performance in the Syrian human massacre, Myanmar’s anti-democratic drive and in other killing fields on the African continent bears ample testimony to her unbiased approach and thoroughly professional and objective reporting. Her uncompromising condemnation of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) and its remaining international backers such as the Tamil Diaspora has been in evidence in her recent statements and interviews.

Pillay goes on to state: “There are a number of specific factors impeding normalization, which – if not quickly rectified – may sow the seeds of future discord. These are by and large, to do with the curtailment or denial of personal freedoms and human rights or linked to persistent impunity and the failure of rule of law.”

Navanidham Pillay is merely echoing the chorus of many local journalists who, despite enduring tormenting self-censorship, fall outside the state-controlled media gambit. In addition to the repeated queries and questions raised by the media, many academics, university staff, trade unions, intelligentsia, parents and children too have joined the orchestra to play in the same symphony- a symphony of mass agitation and protest.

While the state-controlled media outlets are religiously following the Goebbels’s theory that ‘a lie, repeated a sufficient number of times, becomes a truth’, an intellectually- curious and politically-educated minority is paying attention to the sure signs of cultural and social decay in society. They have chosen not to pay any heed to government propaganda and they discuss, they debate and they ponder as to what has gone wrong and whether there is any way out of this quagmire of falsehoods and cynicism. The singer, whether it’s Pillay or a local professor, may differ, but the song is the same.

Then Navi Pillay gets into the crux of her visit. In the middle of her statement she states thus: “I was concerned to hear about the degree to which the military appears to be putting down roots and becoming involved in what should be civilian activities, for instance education, agriculture and even tourism. I also heard complaints about the acquisition of private land to build military camps and installations, including a holiday resort. This is only going to make the complex land issues with which the Government has been grappling even more complicated and difficult to resolve. Clearly, the army needs some camps but the prevalence and level of involvement of soldiers in the community seem much greater than is needed for strictly military or reconstruction purposes four years after the end of the war.”

When these matters were raised in Parliament by MPs, both of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the Janatha Vimukti Peramuna (JVP), the two-thirds majority in the House shut them down. All avenues for peaceful articulation of ideas and counter-opinions have been ‘closed until further notice’ by the powers that be. Militarization of the North and East is happening before our eyes and the Government and the Defense Establishment keep on buttressing each other’s position in the most efficient and unkind way, driving nail after nail in to the coffin of free speech and democracy.

Then she comes to a very poignant feature of our society today. Sexual harassment and perverse behavior on the part of some politicians on the one hand and some deranged individuals on the other. Reports on sexual harassment and even the practice of incest are increasing on a daily basis. When one reads the Pillay statement, one wonders as to which way the river is flowing: from the North to the South or South to the North. Whichever way it flows, it is tearing apart the very fabric of our society which we claim to have been in existence for over two thousand and six hundred years. And when one adds the lack of attention and heed paid to this aspect of our social decay by the government and its navigators, the problem is really compounded and the ready availability of internet cafes and laptop computers has contributed to this debilitating process, making the whole picture look like quite ‘normal and routine’ in modern day society.

Truth told by Pillay or a local journalist still remains the truth. Arguments for human rights could never be foreclosed. One should not even attempt to do so and if one does, he or she must be stopped then and there, period. Having touched upon, the impeachment motion against the former Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake, the Weliweriya debacle, forced disappearances of human rights activists and numerous attacks on the Uthayan Newspaper, Pillay reserves her last punch for the fitting finale of this fine assessment. In her own words:

“I am deeply concerned that Sri Lanka, despite the opportunity provided by the end of the war to construct a new, vibrant, all-embracing state, is showing signs of heading in an increasingly authoritarian direction.”

I rest my case.