By Emil van der Poorten –

Emil van der Poorten

….of the never-ending, refrain that we “should be eternally grateful to Mahinda Rajapaksa and his family for putting an end to the Tamil Tigers and bringing Sri Lanka out of (enter your figures) years of terror.”

Let’s get this straight, in no way can Mahinda Rajapaksa or his acolytes make ANY claim to single-handedly destroying the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE, “Tigers”) and its vicious war machine.

What I am about to say is no way hindsight because I went on record in Montage Magazine (in 2007, long before the final denouement at Nanthikadal) describing what was as obvious as the nose on one’s face: the Tigers were “done” long before the war was officially ended with the wholesale butchery in that tiny North East corner of Sri Lanka and a useless loss of service lives in a stage-managed ending to a horrible conflict, meant simply to provide a crescendo of kiribath-and-kavun celebration which, in turn, was to herald the wholesale destruction of every vestige of democracy, decency and the rule of law in the name of the Second Coming of a 21^st Century Dutugemunu and his hegemonic rule, parading as some particularly peculiar brand of “Sri Lankan Democracy.”

The Tigers’ supply lines had not just been disrupted, they had been completely severed by the interception and sinking of ships bringing in huge loads of explosives, armaments and other supplies essential to their war effort.  This was done thousands of miles outside Sri Lanka’s territorial waters and  was possible only because of intelligence supplied by the current “enemies of 2500 years of Sinhala Buddhist civilization,” the so-called “western democracies.”  Yes, it wasn’t China or Russia that supplied Sri Lanka with the intelligence that enabled the total destruction of the Tigers’ supply lines – it was those “western democracies” that have become, oh so handily, the whipping boys of the current bunch of self-identified geniuses parading as representatives of the “master race.”

And what of the Tiger rump that survived Nanthikadal? (A pretty substantial “rump” it was!)

The financial mastermind, the infamous “KP” who bears direct responsibility for, literally, thousands of civilian deaths from every ethnic entity in Sri Lanka is now in the bosom of the current government, allegedly due to his ability to pass on a part of the largesse that he had control of with the demise of the Tiger hierarchy on the battlefields of north-east Sri Lanka.  And in case there is any doubt as to what awaits those who butchered unarmed civilians and hundreds of policemen who’d surrendered to the Tigers, we have another of KP’s erstwhile comrades elevated to the National Legislature and given the trappings of one but the most senior functionary in the lead party of the current governing coalition.  I speak here of “Colonel” Karuna, jailed in Britain for illegal entry through use of a “diplomatic passport” issued by one of the highest in the land. And, just in case there is any doubt with regard to the  “principles” of the ruling junta in dealing with those who butchered hundreds of unarmed civilians, we have two “Masters” in positions of importance and authority and another pint-sized character whose distinguishing feature is a receding forehead which speaks volumes in the matter of intelligence who, through nothing but the exercise of monumental stupidity, succeeded in doing himself out of the job of Chief Minister of the Eastern Province to which he had ascended by virtue of “anointment.”

Hard to accept?  Bite hard and swallow, buddy, for them’s the breaks when fact needs to supersede monumental and deliberately contrived fiction in the matter of recent Sri Lankan history.

This is the government that claims to have, singlehandedly defeated “the most feared terrorist outfit in the world” and insists on its right to conduct its own investigations into its own conduct of a war in which it is accused of less-than-gentlemanly conduct!

That members of the parties opposed to the Rajapaksa Regime insist that, no matter what political differences they have with that regime, they will not permit “foreign interference” in the matter of investigations of alleged destruction of human rights in Sri Lanka speaks simply to the fact that those accusing politicians of being totally bereft of decency and elementary intelligence might not be exaggerating!  I do not recall anyone subscribing to the belief that members of the National Socialist Party of the Fatherland should have been in charge of the Nurnberg trials.  However, with our self-propelled meteoric rise to Master Race status, there is a certain twisted logic to such an approach, I suppose.

No, it is time that the recent history of the destruction of democracy in the Debacle of Asia be placed on the record.  The fact that democratic dissent can and has led to cold-blooded, gangland-style executions (as in the case of Lasantha Wickrematunge), “disappearances” as in the case of Ekneligoda or political exile in the case of too many to even begin to count in an article such as this amounts to a simple statement of fact. The intimidation of the media, what’s left of it after the purchase of most of it by government stooges utilizing “black” money or even using such purchases as a means of laundering dirty money, needs to be stopped in its tracks and then reversed. Those elements of the media that have survived by simply doing the bidding of the most corrupt and violent government in Sri Lanka’s history must be exposed for what they are – simply propagandists parading as custodians of “freedom of expression.” They must be drummed out of the profession of journalism, be it print, electronic or any other form. May I also take this opportunity to indulge in a little “side-bar?”  Some years ago, I referred to my difficulty in distinguishing monkey from organ grinder in the case of two of the most reprehensible lackeys in the practice of “journalism” in Sri Lanka. I owe them both an apology for failing to recognize the fact that they were both monkeys in the pay of Sri Lanka’s No. 1 Organ Grinder, something they have since proved by going into his direct, un-shadowed employ!

In order for the essential national catharsis to happen, we need a cleansing of the body politic without fear or attention to who’s related to whom.

We have the laws. After first having removed from the judiciary those who have been appointed to do the bidding of the Grand Vizier, engaging in corrupt and unethical practice without precedent, we need to put in places of authority and responsibility those able to carry out the law without fear or favour, thereafter commencing an absolute cleansing.  This is, truly, a sine qua non if we are ever to claim to be a civil and civilized society again.

We need to clean out our Augean Stable beginning January the 9^th 2015. Not one day later!