Soon after Lasantha’s killing the American Ambassador had met president Rajapakse and blamed the government for the killing. The president had asked, "Don’t you think it could have been the LTTE?" The Ambassador had said that the LTTE would not do something like that, to which the president had replied "You’re sadly mistaken!"
A guilty government?
http://www.island.lk/2009/01/11/politics1.html
Lasantha Wickremetunga was not just a newspaper editor. He was the de facto opposition leader of this country. It was he who led the opposition against the Chandrika Kumaratunga regime and later the present Rajapakse regime. What has been silenced now, with the killing of Lasantha, is the opposition itself, and not just a newspaper. Besides this, everything else that occurred last week, including the capture of Elephant Pass and the attack of Sirasa TV, pales into insignificance. In his chosen profession, Lasantha was a colossus. He was the bravest of us all, barring perhaps Victor Ivan. Some said that his journalism was biased. But such accusations can come only from those who believe in the myth that the media is impartial. In actual fact, there is no such thing as impartiality in the media, especially in the print media. The only media organizations that can be impartial are perhaps the TV stations, because news is only one small segment of the fare they offer the viewer, and the rest is all song and dance.
But in the print media, where comment plays a major role, impartiality is well-neigh impossible. In Sydney, Australia, the Daily Telegraph is seen to be pro-Liberal and the Sydney Morning Herald is seen to be pro-Labour. These newspapers have acquired their identities not because of the news they publish – both newspapers are not so stupid as to try and suppress news – but because of the tenor of the commentaries published in them. The Daily Telegraph made no bones about their pro-Liberal Party leanings, and on John Howard’s birthday, they would stand outside his gate with a card and a gift at 6.00am when he went out for his daily walk, and be the first to wish him happy birthday. That was also Lasantha’s brand of journalism. He never made bones about the fact that he was pro-UNP. Some said that he was not just pro-UNP, but a UNP politician, actually participating in party matters. It was also said that had the UNP won in 2005, he was tipped to be a cabinet minister.
Political ambitions
As a personal friend of Lasantha’s I know that he did harbour political ambitions. That story that circulated at the time of the 2005 presidential elections that he would be minister of justice in a UNP government, was true. The justice ministry was what he wanted. What he told me was that he wanted to reform the legal system in this country. What surprised me was that an ambitious individual like Lasantha, would be eyeing the Justice ministry instead of something more high profile or important like finance or foreign affairs. The justice ministry is a respectable portfolio, but not exactly a high profile post. By aspiring for something which I would have considered below his capacity, I gathered that he was driven by a genuine desire to make a mark in a field he knew as a lawyer. I for my part, would have liked to see him becoming justice minister, because this post had to be held by a journalist with legal training in order for reform to take place and not a lawyer who actually made money out of the confusion and obscurantism that now prevails in our legal system.
His political ambition drove his journalism. But I would dispute the view that some in the profession hold that he was more a politician than a journalist. Lasantha was an extraordinarily talented journalist with a nose for news like no other. He was an investigative journalist par excellence. The ability that he had in this sphere cannot be replaced. He was also one of the most hardworking journalists in the field, being on the job round the clock. Among journalists, he was a leader. There was a time, when we were both against the Chandrika Kumaratunga regime. When I was placed under arrest in the run up to the 2000 parliamentary election, Lasantha co-ordinated my affairs from outside. I was taken into custody a couple of hours after I left Lasantha’s office. From that time onwards until my release three months later, it was to Lasantha that my mother ran for everything.
My regret is that he died before I could do anything to repay the debt I owed. In later years, our paths diverged to the extent where what I wrote, was diametrically opposed to his. Yet we remained friends to the very end. As in the case of Janaka Perera, Lasantha is yet another friend to whom I must now bid farewell. Saman Wagaarachchi, the former editor of Irida Peramuna, the sister paper of the Sunday Leader and precursor to the present Irudina, phoned me on Friday morning from the USA, in an emotional and angry state. He described Lasantha as a man endowed with great human qualities and he gave me one example of how he had helped a down and out journalist, not just once but many times. This is an aspect of Lasantha that those who have been at the receiving end of his investigative journalism will naturally fail to see – his generosity and his helpfulness to those in trouble. He was no doubt a leader within the journalistic fraternity.
Government involvement
The manner in which the killing was carried out seems to point directly at the government. It was done in broad daylight, there were four motorcycles according to eyewitnesses, and the assailants had used silencers on their weapons. Those who had been watching had not heard gunshots but a different sound which indicates that silencers had been used. This had occurred in close proximity to the high security zone around the Ratmalana airport and the assailants are said to have ridden off on the four black motorcycles towards the high security zone. Who could carry out such an operation but the security forces of the government? On Thursday, the day he was killed, the 9.30 pm news bulletin of the government owned ITN had not one word to say about the killing of one of this country’s foremost newspaper editors. Why? Next morning’s Daily News did run a below the lead front page news item about Lasantha’s killing giving equal play to the president’s statement on the subject).
There are various theories about this killing. On the one hand, some people question why the government would want to do something like attacking Sirasa or killing Lasantha Wickremetunga at a time when they were riding high. The present government, at the time Lasantha was gunned down, was riding on a crest of unadulterated popularity rarely experienced by any mid-term government in the past four decades. The capture of Kilinochchi and the government’s economic package introduced on the 30th of December had given the country a kind of buoyancy rarely experienced in the fourth year of a government’s term. As the term of a government progresses, they usually decline in popularity. The UNP government of 2001-2004, took only two and a half years to go from glorious victory to abject defeat. But the Rajapakse government, even into its fourth year seemed to be gaining in popularity with each passing year. Then at the moment of one of their greatest triumphs, which was celebrated by people across the country comes this assassination which proverbially put dung in the pot of milk.
In the wake of Lasantha’s killing, this is the very question that the government asked the people. "Would we be mad enough do something like this, at this particular juncture?" The fact that the government was riding high does not necessarily preclude them from doing something like this, because it could well be that the very fact that they were riding high could be the reason why they thought they could get away with something like this. Firstly, they could ask the public, "Do you think we are mad to do something like this to spoil our own victory?" Secondly, they could also hope that in the general euphoria, the getting rid of a political opponent would be forgotten especially if more victories were expected which would have eclipsed the assassination in the media. If we look at it in this manner, then the Kilinochchi victory and the expected follow up victories provided the ideal opportunity to take out a target like Lasantha, in the hope that it would be forgotten in the general euphoria.
Another argument put forward by the government with regard to both the attack on Sirasa TV, and the killing of Lasantha was that their anti-government reporting was not having any effect, and in such a scenario, why would they want to attack those who had failed in their objective? This too sounds plausible because Sirasa and Wickrematunga were both generally perceived to be anti-government and pro-UNP. Even though both reported against the government, the effect in fact was close to zero. The more the government was attacked, the more they appeared to gain in popularity. That however was with the whole nation at one with the government in the national cause to rid the country of terrorism. So the propaganda carried out by detractors, just rolled off like water from a duck’s back. However, the attacks and propaganda carried out could be needling to those at the receiving end. Lasantha had an ‘in your face’ style of doing things which could rub people on the wrong side.
So because of this irritation factor, it cannot be ruled out that the government was behind both these incidents. Even though the propaganda was ineffective at the public level, the irritation factor could easily goad someone in the government to such acts and the general euphoria in the country could be an ideal cover in which to carry out hate crimes. So the circumstantial argument does not necessarily rule out government complicity in these attacks. Whichever way you look at it, these attacks have put the government in a bad light.
President’s involvement
Hence the other theory - that this was done by the LTTE in order to discredit the government. Certainly if one looks at the deleterious effects these crimes have had on the government, this is the kind of damage that the LTTE would dearly like to inflict upon the government. Whoever has done this, has done more damage to the government than the LTTE is capable of inflicting at the moment. The example that comes to mind is the assassination of Lalith Athulathmudali in 1993. It was done in such a manner that the blame fell on president Premadasa. In fact with the death of Athulathmudali, Premadasa died a political death before he too was finished off by an LTTE suicide bomber a few days later. Soon after Lasantha’s killing the American Ambassador had met president Rajapakse and blamed the government for the killing. The president had asked, "Don’t you think it could have been the LTTE?" The Ambassador had said that the LTTE would not do something like that, to which the president had replied "You’re sadly mistaken!"
The fact is that the LTTE can in fact carry out an operation in close proximity to a high security zone. They can use one or more motor-bikes to carry out an assassination, and they can use silencers on their weapons. They have done all this an umpteen times before. And the present juncture is an occasion when they would bring out the best they have to undermine their adversary. I would not rule out the possibility that it is either the government or the LTTE that could be behind this assassination. But what I would rule out is that the president was behind this assassination. Unlike during the time of President Premadasa where he was blamed for every killing that took place in the country including those of Generals Denzil Kobbekaduwa and Vijaya Wimalaratne, nobody has yet suggested that president Rajapakse was personally responsible.
While President Rajapakse did have some conflict with Lasantha in the early days of his presidency, they had in latter times patched up. At the last monthly breakfast meeting the editors had with the president, someone had made a reference to the Sunday Leader and the president had said that he was now on good terms with Lasantha and that they had made up. Asked whether he meets Lasantha, the president had answered in the affirmative and when asked when he had last met Lasantha, he had said just a couple of days ago. This had been in the form of good natured banter and those present had not known whether the president was joking or serious.
But the president keeps strange company at night. Lasantha had met the president in the company of Dr Eliyantha White and businessman Pasan Madanayake on more than one occasion and even had dinner with him. In fact, I myself first read of Dr Eliyantha White and his remarkable abilities in curing illnesses in an article in the Sunday Leader, where the president had instructed Dr White to help the well known cricketer Lasith Malinga. It appears that Dr White had also treated Lasantha as well.
In a way, this tallies with what Lasantha told me the last time I spoke to him. What he told me was that without a national government, there is no hope for this country. Because of his combative attitude towards the Rajapakse regime, I was surprised to hear this. But it could well be that he latterly had begun to feel that he was flogging a dead horse. He also told me that if nothing happens by the time of the next election, he’s going to pack up and leave the country. He would have realized at the latter stages as any man should, that there was something wrong with the those whom he had chosen to identify with. He had known the president for years, having been a high up in the SLFP himself as the private secretary to Mrs Sirima Bandaranaike from around 1986 and if the two had made up, this was not surprising. President Rajapakse is not the type to dine with a man in the night and to have him bumped off in the morning.
The main reason why the finger is pointed at the government is because of the previous incidents involving Keith Noyhar and Namal Perera. There was little doubt that these were by the security forces. Both Nohyar and Perera have fled overseas and are not uttering a word for fear that there will be reprisals against their family members still living in Sri Lanka. This shows the ridiculous extent to which things have gone in the south. There is a tacit understanding between the LTTE and the armed forces that they will not target each other’s families. Thus one never hears of the LTTE harming the families of military personnel in the south and military personnel do not harm the families of Tigers in the north. This is in contrast to what happened during the second JVP insurrection in 1989. It now appears that the relationship between the press and certain sections of the security forces is even less civilized than the battle raging in the north. Very clearly, this is a trend that has to be arrested.
When the leader of the opposition spoke in parliament, he too seemed to point the finger squarely at the armed forces, speaking of the need to rein in these various squads on the loose. The reason why everyone seems to be pointing the finger at the armed forces, is because anyone with an iota of political sense will know that no government that is riding high will want to commit this kind of blunder and that such acts could have been committed only by those with no political sense. The question that the opposition raised, is whether the tail has begun wagging the dog. However, one has to be careful in apportioning blame in matters like this. One good example is the abduction and murder of D.P.Sivaram in 2005. Sivaram’s abduction also took place in close proximity to a police station and it was in many ways even more difficult than the hit job against Lasantha. The abductors had to chase away Sivaram’s companions outside a bar, and then wrestle a combative Siva into a van – all this with dozens of onlookers. Later Siva was found dead somewhere near parliament.
The Sivaram case
Given the manner in which Sivaram was abducted, everybody thought it was the armed forces. Dayan Jayatilleke in fact lamented that even though Sivaram was a Tiger, every Tiger is not a Sivaram. He was in other words berating the security forces for having been less selective in their choice of a target. D.B.S.Jeyaraj said that Sivaram had been abducted by the Karuna group and that Karuna wanted to personally shoot Siva because the latter, being a Batticaloa Tamil, had sided with the northern dominated mainline LTTE during the split. I for my part, thought the police had done it, as a reprisal killing because a Tamil police officer had gone missing around that time, believed to have been abducted by the LTTE. Moreover, the police had been in the habit of raiding Siva’s house from time to time, looking for weapons and explosives. After all these accusations, had been traded, it so transpired that those who had carried out the abduction and killing were members of PLOTE, in what can be described as one of the last in a string of PLOTE internal killings that went back twenty years. A member of PLOTE was nabbed with Siva’s mobile phone and even his SIM card and he could not adequately explain how he came to possess these items. All our theories were thus proved wrong and nobody now says that the Chandrika Kumaratunga regime bumped off Sivaram.
Then with regard to the killing of Richard de Zoysa, much earlier in 1990, in the course of a running battle that I had in 1995, with the ‘Premadasa’ camp within the UNP in the pages of The Island, the Irida Lakbima, and the Ravaya, I said that the abduction and murder of Richard was the incident that turned the ‘triumph’ of 1989 into a ‘terror’ and that this was a private political hit job of President Premadasa mainly because Richard was a protégé of Lalith Athulathmudali and he was in the process of producing a stage play lampooning Premadasa. I am usually extremely careful about making unsubstantiated accusations of this nature, but in the heat of battle I dropped my guard just this once.
Five years later in 2000, when Victor Ivan revealed Richard’s connections with the JVP, and that his mother Mrs Manorani Saravanamuttu had not wanted a commission appointed to probe the Richard’s killing for fear that all the unsavory details of his involvement with the terrorists would come to light, I had to rush to correct the statement I made five years earlier and to apologize to the Premadasa family for having made those unsubstantiated accusations against President Premadasa.
My public apology which was published in The Island raised a hornet’s nest among Richard’s friends. Amaradasa Fernando, a well known contributor to newspapers, and the brother in law of the late Reggi Siriwardene, sarcastically described me as ‘a kitten that had just opened its eyes’. Soon after Richard’s killing some of his close friends like Rajiva Wijesinha did say that Richard was involved with the JVP. But at that time, I furiously brushed this off as an attempt to brown nose President Premadasa in order to get a UNP parliamentary seat for the Liberal Party! This was partly because I had done extensive research on the JVP myself, and I naturally assumed that if Richard was involved I would have known about it.
But my concentration was on the JVP proper and not on Johnny-come-lately auxiliaries like Richard and he escaped my notice. Hence in cases like this, what appears to have happened, may not be what actually happened. Because of the way it was carried out, Lasantha’s killing does look like a government hit job and even if the president may not have had a motive to get rid of him, there are other powerful figures in the government who would have. To this extent, the government is guilty until they prove themselves innocent. The only way the Rajapakse regime can get out of this one is the same way that Chandrika Kumaratunga got out of the Sivaram killing – by carrying out a through investigation. Had Chandrika not got out of that one, you can be certain that many chapters in Victor Ivan’s Choura Regina would have been devoted to the Sivaram Killing.
end:
It is rather strange that the representative of the US government and State Department privately directly accuses the President Rajapakse's government in the cold blooded murder of Sunday Leader Editor Lasantha Wickrematuge, but would not encourage the same State Terrorist government to talk peace with the "sole representative" of the Tamils for two and a half decades as proven from the peace talks the GOSL has had in world capitals from Thimpu Bhutan in 1985. Many world governments had recognized the fact that the LTTE are the partner in peace if there has to be a settlement to the 30 year civil war between the Singhalese and the Tamils.
The international community needs to recognize and realize that it is the LTTE which has the strength, power, and support of the Tamils in Sri Lanka, Diaspora, and the 70 million Tamils around the world to represent the Tamils in bringing about a just and lasting settlement which also has the potential of really succeeding. There is NO point in talking peace with Tamil quislings or traitors like what the American Ambassador Robert Blake and the State Department (Purportedly) have now advised the GOSL. What more can we at T4J can say other than it is distinctively "naive'.
No power in Sri Lanka can eradicate or destroy a "liberation organization and a liberation struggle which enjoys great support, and has been led by one leader for over 33 years. Tamils might loose towns in a conventional battle like they have done before, but the Tamil spirit will never die or be conquered with overwhelming military power and strength. The town of Killinochci has exchanged hands a few times, and the government forces last lost it in 1998, with over 1,000 casualties. Similarly they lost the Elephan Pass military complex, which has been totally dismantled completely. What remains there are only THE SALTERNS.
History tends to repeat itself.
In 3 months the GOSL finally admits that they have lost 3,000 soldiers whereas the opposition states they lost 15,000. This is without a battle in Killinochchi where for whatever reasons the LTTE made a strategic withdrawal not even leaving a stray cow or dog behind. The 330,000 civilians moved into Mullaitheevu despite becoming IDP's/Refugees/Homeless. They all fear of rape, death, and inhuman treatment under the military tyranny.
If the IC and GOSL wishes to continue this calamity of 3 decades, with death, destruction, loss of life and limb, disastrous economy, loss of millions of jobs, and creation of millions of refugees around the world and the Island they can promote a military war, and bogus settlement or deals with Tamil quislings and traitors.
Only "Time" will tell with such futile exercises.
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