{"id":110070,"date":"2013-10-13T00:02:11","date_gmt":"2013-10-12T18:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=110070"},"modified":"2013-10-18T12:44:32","modified_gmt":"2013-10-18T07:14:32","slug":"and-then-what","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/and-then-what\/","title":{"rendered":"And Then What?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Emil van der Poorten<\/a><\/span>\u00a0–<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Emil van der Poorten<\/p><\/div>\n

This is a piece that I wrote for the December 15th, 2007 \u2013 January 15th<\/sup>, 2008 issue of the now-defunct Montage Magazine. I\u2019m leaving it with no effort at editing or updating for readers to decide what, if anything, has changed in Sri Lanka in very nearly six years.<\/em><\/p>\n

And Then What?<\/strong><\/p>\n

With the Sri Lankan armed forces\u2019 juggernaut seemingly on an unstoppable march and the prospect of the LTTE being vanquished (read Tamils of the North and East being reduced to abject fear and misery), what is in store for the country as a whole?<\/p>\n

There have already been ominous signals of the emergence of robber gangs armed with sophisticated light arms running loose, it has been suggested, with the connivance of the local security personnel.\u00a0 In fact, in one small town in the North Western Province, there was a symbolic shop closure and protest by local merchants who had seen about two dozen break and enter thefts of their premises within a very short period of time.\u00a0 Their contention was that there was no way that this could have happened without the local constabulary, at the very least, turning a blind eye.\u00a0 What emerged from this attempt to obtain redress is anybody\u2019s guess, because the climate of fear prevailing in the area has prevented the discussion of the issue any further, a general consensus appearing to be that to exceed the one symbolic gesture would be tempting the fates in a country where the law of the jungle enforced by white-van-driving Sri Lankan Ton Ton Macoutes prevails.<\/p>\n

If the prospect of armed gangs running rampant wasn\u2019t enough, the lack of discipline of elements of the security forces should give us pause.\u00a0 The better-than-a-hundred troops sent back from the UN Peace Keeping Force in Haiti for what one paper called \u201cbeing naughty\u201d should make us sit up and pay attention.\u00a0 The alleged sexual misconduct, inclusive of sexual assault of minors by members of an army that the President very recently proclaimed as being the most disciplined armed force in the world hardly merits additional comment.<\/p>\n

A recent newspaper defined Sri Lanka\u2019s response to anything resembling question, criticism or censure from sources outside the country as simply, \u201cDeny\u201d and \u201cDefy.\u201d\u00a0 Whether within the triumphalism that will be reinforced in spades after the subjugation of the LTTE (read Tamil people) even this response would be felt necessary, is anybody\u2019s guess.\u00a0 After all, once you have established absolute power, it would hardly be necessary to fall back on Richard M. Nixon\u2019s exhortation to his troops when the chickens came home to roost: \u201cDeny, deny, deny.\u201d In such a situation the ability of external forces to influence events in Sri Lanka is not something to wager on.<\/p>\n

Apropos of the post-conflict prospect of people trained and exhorted to kill at every turn being cut loose on the land, there might be a few people even in this country, who are aware of the situation that prevailed in Guatemala when, after decades of terrible conflict, there was a cessation of hostilities.\u00a0 The guerrillas and soldiers who were demobilized were left with very limited choices.\u00a0 The obvious route for many of them was to go back to doing what they were trained to do and well practiced in doing \u2013 visit rape and pillage upon the countryside.<\/p>\n

And what about the elites of this country, primarily those who live in Colombo?\u00a0 They will continue to live in the style to which they have grown accustomed with the crumbs from the table, so to speak, from the ruling kleptocracy.\u00a0 If they have to tolerate the occasional inconvenience of road blocks and traffic checks and \u201csecurity sweeps,\u201d so be it.\u00a0 That\u2019s a small enough price to pay for being permitted to live above the commonweal!\u00a0 Their meals (on corporate expense accounts) in five star hotels and their annual sojourns overseas will be compensation enough for the occasional inconvenience of having to dig out an identity card demanded by an armed member of the security services.\u00a0 That this privileged lifestyle may be ephemeral in the larger scheme of things will be of little consequence.\u00a0 After all, sufficient to the day is the need thereof!<\/p>\n

What of the fate of the great unwashed, particularly those living outside the capital city and anywhere outside where the security blanket provided for minions of the government might otherwise have provided them with shelter?\u00a0 A simple phrase might well describe their predicament: \u201cTough, buddy, them\u2019s the breaks!\u201d<\/p>\n

The poor, particularly the rural poor will continue to eke out an existence, but just.\u00a0 Their more fortunate neighbours who aspire to something akin to a middle-class existence will be at substantially greater risk.\u00a0 Remember not only is the one-eyed man king in the land of the blind, his middle class cousin will be the natural target of the truly deprived living around them.\u00a0 And the self same middle class will be at greater risk because they often subscribe or aspire to an acceptance of \u201cbourgeois, thuppahi\u201d rules and regulations and a quixotic belief in human rights and the rule of law.\u00a0 Talk about living in a fool\u2019s paradise (and, potentially, paying the price for it!)<\/p>\n

If this seems like an apocalyptic vision for the immediate future of Sri Lanka, so be it.\u00a0 This writer thinks it is a logical and simple, rather than simplistic, vision of what lies ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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