Open letter to the President of Sri Lanka....!!!

Open letter to the President of Sri Lanka

I am a well educated senior citizen of Sri Lanka. I have been a committed socialist since my early youth. I have supported and voted for the candidates of the SLFP or its alliance left-wing parties at every election since I became a registered voter, i.e. for the past 45 years.

I am strongly in support of your policies of strengthening the State Sector and your commitment to maintain the backbone of Sri Lanka's economy and its welfare system as a responsibility of the State. I regard highly, your sensitivity and concern for the plight and of the poor people of this country; your 'common touch'; and your natural empathy for people with rural roots. You are a 'People's President' without the negative characteristics seen in President Premadasa.

I admire your confidence, conviction, commitment and strength that enabled you, together with the Secretary of Defence and the armed forces, to eradicate terrorism from Sri Lanka. Though I am of the view that just grievances of the Tamil people exist, and they should be addressed and solved, I have always considered the "armed struggle" as a misplaced and inappropriate instrument to gain the rights of the Tamil People in the politico-cultural context of Sri Lanka. Furthermore, I have always categorized the LTTE as fascist and terrorist in ideology, policy and action. I salute you most for the resolute manner in which you rejected the unprecedented coercion and pressure brought on you by the so-called 'international community' to save Prabhakaran and the LTTE right up to his/its final hours. That to me is the defining moment. It is the characteristic of a great leader of a developing country in today's context of rampant 'globalisation' in an unbalanced unipolar world. "It was an Acid Test; you have passed it convincingly.

I have always rejected the UNP as a comprador capitalist party. Though I have accepted some policies of the UNP as contributory to Sri Lanka's long-term development goals, the net effect of UNP policies have been detrimental to Sri Lanka as an independent sovereign republic. Its history is replete with instances of subjugation of the national interest to western vested interests.

Before I get back to the main intended theme of this letter, I need to make one further point. I need to clarify to you and others who may read this, as to why I chose to remain anonymous. The reason is a sad reflection of the 'state of the nation' as it is today, and has been for the past 30 years, especially since 1977, when the phrase "political goon squads" entered Sri Lanka's political lexicon. In other words, I have no confidence that what I say henceforth will be taken in the manner I expect them to be taken. I have no confidence in our country's leaders yet, to feel completely free to express my views on the 'state of the nation' that may be considered critical of the present administration. This includes Your Excellency as well as the plethora of Presidential Advisors and other hangers-on that surround you. This includes also many members of your bloated Cabinet who were never schooled in democratic, transparent and accountable governance. I have no confidence that what I say will not result in me being taken away at gun-point in the dead of night or broad day light and that my bullet-riddled body will not be found by the wayside to be identified by my wife and children a day or two later. I have no confidence that I will not be intimidated by known or unknown persons by word or deed or will not be threatened with grave consequences to me or my family unless I "shut up". I have no confidence that some ruse will not be used to sack me from my job for saying what I say in this letter. My lack of confidence should not be surprising. We have had journalists and newspaper editors being killed, abducted and assaulted for wielding nothing more than their pens, however malicious their intent or however vitriolic their words. I am no journalist, but it seems clear enough that there are agents within Your Excellency's administration or who are in their pay who seem to fear the pen more than the sword. I have no immediate desire to suffer pain or injury or seek an early end to my life. Until such time, when I will have complete confidence in our leaders, I beg an apology from all concerned for remaining anonymous.

What has prompted me, or in another way, what my conscience has compelled me, to write this letter is the observance of a dangerous sense of "lawlessness within the law" that has pervaded this country once again. I say once again due to the fact that this same "lawlessness within the law" was seen on many occasions in the relatively recent past in our political history. This "lawlessness within the law" was seen at its zenith in the immediate aftermath of the 1977 elections when the police were given leave for a week during the DDC elections in Jaffna in 1981; during the Presidential Elections in September 1982 and the referendum thereafter in December when election officials were threatened at gun-point and ballot boxes were stuffed on a grand scale all over the country by political thugs - for the first time in Sri Lanka's election history; when policemen who physically traumatized women were given promotions and the fines imposed on them as individuals by the judiciary was paid by the State; when houses of the Judges of the Supreme Court were stoned by thugs and they were given publicity by the State Press to flaunt their evil deeds and the President of that time said "This is a free country"!!: during the ethnic pogrom of 1983 when the police and the armed forces looked on, or at times aided and abetted the violence against innocent Tamil civilians; during the second uprising of the JVP in 1988- 89 when other 'tigers' of many hues roamed the darkened streets at night in unmarked number-plateless vehicles and headless bodies and body-less heads were exhibited for all to see; and during the Wayamba elections of 1999 when votes were cast by the bundle at gun-point and voters were paraded naked in the streets.

The recent events that are unfolding - the discovery of bodies of underworld kingpins - have been matters of grave concern. This is not because I am in any way in sympathy with those underworld killers. The concern is due to the extra-judicial nature of the process. I am fully aware that, the due 'legitimate process' has been totally ineffective in bringing these killers to justice. In my view this is due to the 'fear of death' instilled into prospective witnesses, and in particular, due to the corruption within the law enforcement agencies - the police as well as the judiciary. There is little doubt that the law-abiding people of this country want a 'clean up'; but the power and leadership of that 'clean up' has to be given to person/s of impeccable credentials of integrity and honesty. This is the only way that ordinary law-abiding citizens of this country will be safeguarded from arbitrary arrests and summary justice in the night.

The next question is, do we have enough persons with impeccable credentials of integrity and honesty in the right places to do this? Perhaps not; perhaps we do. Even so, from my long experience in government service, I know that they are a very small minority. But we need to find them to ensure that 'justice' is done in such a manner that the law-abiding citizens of this country do not have to live in fear or doubt. That is the duty of a responsible government.


At the present time, can a law-abiding citizen of this country have that confidence? In my opinion it is an emphatic No. Why do I say so? Take a few recent events.

1. The assault of a SLIIT student - Nipuna Ramanayake - by a group of policemen at the instigation of the son of SSP Vas Gunawardene, Director, CCD Colombo. The police have been vaccilating the extent of extreme embarrassment of the police force. To the great consternation of us all, and according to reports, SSP Vas Gunawardene has been directly involved (together with his wife), in the assault of the student and subsequent attempts to frame him with a statement taken under extreme duress that he was involved with a notorious member of the Borella underworld! Then, the SSP has the audacity to go on record that it was mistaken identity! As a very senior police officer, he thinks that his 'explanation' settles everything and he, his police goons and his son are not culpable of possibly attempted murder!

Then to the further embarrassment of the police, after days of inaction, the police spokesman SSP Ranjith Gunasekera announced that 6 policemen involved have been transferred to other police stations!!! Transferred!!! The IGP, Jayantha Wickramaratne, with all his grandiose pronouncements at regular intervals about maintaining discipline in the Police Force, mumbles incoherent sweet nothings and shows official impotence and incompetence! When there was overwhelming prima-facie evidence about the details of the assault, the police did not interdict the policemen pending formal inquiry; the son of SSP Vas Gunawardene was not arrested or questioned; the SSP remained in his post long enough to concoct a fairy-tale about the detection of a van laden with 100kg of explosives in Mannar to deviate the attention of the public, the IGP, the defence establishment and Your Excellency from his criminal acts. Thankfully, Senior DIG Nimal Leuke exposed his criminal fraud. He has now only been 'transferred' to Police Headquarters. As an example to all policemen, particularly those in the highest ranks, whose duty towards responsible conduct should be at the highest, Your Excellency or the Secretary, Ministry of Defence should have directed the IGP or the Police Commission to interdict the SSP with immediate effect pending inquiry. The law-abiding people of this country would have applauded Your Excellency and would have enhanced your votes at the next Presidential Election that much more if you had done so promptly.

Not only that, the law-abiding people of this country would have begun to gain confidence that they have a government that is just and equitable; that it can be trusted to safeguard the people; that it will mete out just punishments to those who break the law irrespective of caste, class, creed or colour (political). Up until now, that has not happened. What should we citizens make of this? If the citizens of this country believe that this has not happened because it is indicative of the early stages of a cover-up once the present 'heat' recedes, no one can blame them.

2. The 'Angulana Murders'. It is true that swift action was taken to arrest the OIC and the policemen and remand them. But the question that springs up in our minds when we compare it with the soft-pedaling seen in the 'SSP Vas Gunawardene case' is: Was it because they are expendable small fry in the police force? What is most worrying is that these policemen felt that they had enough impunity to do this dastardly act and possibly get away with it in the present situation where bodies of 'dead young men' with criminal histories are found strewn about. The question also remains whether the same swift approach to justice would have taken place if not for the fact that people of Angulana had organized mass protests and disrupted train services on the coastal line. Is it necessary for citizens to organize mass protests that become major media events which in turn cause embarrassment to the government for the normal course of justice to take place in this country? If so, Your Excellency, it is an indictment against your governance and sense of justice. It is an expression that people do not have confidence in your government that justice will be done as justice should be done. The citizens of this country, including myself must have the confidence that whatever the circumstances, no 'wielder' of state power or authority can have impunity when he/she breaks the law. It is only then that I, and people like me, can write letters to you or the media without hiding behind anonymity.

3. I do not need to elaborate on the antics, and very dangerous ones at that, that your party organizer for Kelaniya has been, and is, indulging in. The manner he intimidated media persons - State media at that - and the manner in which he got away with impunity; the fact that you did nothing to reign him in, even though it was very bad publicity to your government and yourself; that it emboldened him to continue to indulge in such anti- democratic, crass acts which he continues to do; the manner in which he brutalizes your own party men in Kelaniya and is not hauled up by a disciplinary committee of the party; that he had the audacity to accompany a criminal to the tarmac of the Bandaranaike International Airport and that no security officer stopped him from doing do so; that he got away with such a brazen act of being seen doing so when criminals with similar records are found dead in the streets; is an unsavoury, unacceptable and unforgivable record of the period of your governance. As much as you will be remembered for the great contributions you have made for the unification of Sri Lanka and defending it against not only the extremist separatist terrorists but also against the unrelenting onslaught of a group of self-proclaimed democratic, liberal and civilized Western countries practicing a flagrant and unashamed form of double-standards and hypocrisy, you will be remembered for the impunity you have offered persons of the ilk of your organizer for Kelaniya, Mr. Mervyn Silva.

Your Excellency, I am writing this letter to you so that you can improve your standards of governance, your standards of duty, responsibility and accountability so that you will be remembered by the people of this country, the discerning and the less discerning, with equal pride and admiration. So that when you leave this office, hopefully, after a full second term in 2017, without becoming an example of the well-known adage "power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely", you would have served yourself, your conscience, your country and your people well. You can then spend your political retirement with a more complete sense of accomplishment; you can spend your retirement without fear of judicial review of your actions; without fear of being ridiculed in Court and without being the 'laughing stock' of most citizens of this country as your predecessor has become.

I wish you well in all your endeavours to bring peace, prosperity and contentment to people of Sri Lanka. May the Gods give you strength and courage to tread the correct and righteous path with all its challenges, obstacles and difficulties.

May the blessings of the Triple Gem be with you always.

Yours very sincerely

A CONCERNED AND DISCERNING SRI LANKAN CITIZEN

Copies to: Mr. Lalith Weeratunga, Secretary to the President

Editors of Sunday Times, Sunday Island, Sunday Observer and the Nation.



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