{"id":129877,"date":"2014-09-06T00:06:17","date_gmt":"2014-09-05T18:36:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=129877"},"modified":"2014-09-14T17:03:29","modified_gmt":"2014-09-14T11:33:29","slug":"abject-cowardice-vs-common-or-garden-fear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/abject-cowardice-vs-common-or-garden-fear\/","title":{"rendered":"Abject Cowardice Vs Common-Or-Garden Fear"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"Emil<\/a>

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

As someone who has been accused of foolhardiness up to and including exhibiting suicidal impulses in the matter of criticizing the most violent government in Sri Lanka\u2019s post-independence history and, perhaps of all time, I suppose I bring to this piece some experience, if not expertise, in matters associated with its title.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the outset let me say that I have been wearied by the constant admonitions from my friends, almost without exception, not to provoke a government that has given ample evidence of its capacity to respond to those who are seen as its \u201cenemies\u201d with less than the application of the rules and philosophy attributed to the Marquess of Queensbury.\u00a0 Worse than the veiled and not-so-veiled-threats has been the advice of friends and relations to \u201cback off,\u201d \u201cnot act as a cat\u2019s paw for people lacking the intestinal fortitude to call a spade a spade,\u201d etc.\u00a0 Some of this has even come from those I know<\/b> to be acolytes of the current regime and I can but guess at their motivation!<\/p>\n

As I might have answered in another time and in another place, \u201cI have not now nor ever had\u201d ambitions of being a Horatius prepared to sacrifice life and limb in defence of some bridge of democracy.\u00a0 No, mine is a far more mundane motivation, one that is driven by a belief that it is one\u2019s right (and duty) as a thinking human being to apply whatever skills are at one\u2019s disposal to the defence of those elements of behavior that separate human beings from the lesser mammals.\u00a0 As simple and, maybe, as complex as that!<\/p>\n

Even if I did have pretensions of being some heaven–sent saviour of Sri Lankan democracy and good governance, the recent reality is that I would not have had to fight to be some kind of primus inter pares<\/i> in that regard \u00a0in this country.\u00a0 The reason for that state of affairs is that I have seen few, if any, certainly among those writing for publication, that fit in the category of outspoken opponents of Fascism<\/span><\/a> as it is being practiced in Sri Lanka.\u00a0 The exception to this rule has been the coterie of women journalists of skill and courage who have given evidence of being prepared to face the wrath of the Rajapaksa Regime in their search for the truth and the exposure of the (totally rotten) status quo<\/i> in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

While the beginnings of this piece have been sitting in the bowels of my laptop, Tisaranee Gunasekara<\/span><\/a> has written a chilling piece<\/span><\/a> to Colombo Telegraph on a truly Orwellian dimension of intrusion into Sri Lankans\u2019 private lives under the guise of issuing an Electronic ID Card.\u00a0 If it hasn\u2019t already happened, the usual suspects will trot out their defence of this, the final nail in the coffin of anything resembling personal privacy, falling back on the very tired \u201cexplanation\u201d that\u00a0 \u201cthose who have nothing to hide, need have no fear.\u201d\u00a0 That kind of blatant rubbish hardly deserves comment except to look at what that kind of intrusion has led to.\u00a0 And pardon me if I have no patience with those who are going to trot out the examples of the United States\u2019 security services of various kinds having targeted the likes of Julian Assange and Edward Snowden as an excuse for what an US citizen is seeking to do in this country to Sri Lankan citizens.\u00a0 In case the ranks of Sri Lankan dolts don\u2019t comprehend the fact, principles are supposed to be applied across the board, not reserved for selective application to one country, to the exclusion of another.\u00a0 It is just as reprehensible that a so-called democratic country brutalizes those not prepared to march in lock-step with a junta that happens to rule it as it is for the land that gave birth to Magna Carta or that which provided Lincoln with the means of making the journey from log cabin to White House to do so.\u00a0 In matters of principle, ethics and morality there aren\u2019t <\/b>\u201cdifferent strokes for different folks\u201d as much as the Rajapaksa Regime<\/span><\/a> believes that it rules by divine right and The Family and its acolytes, no matter how criminal, are above the common weal in anything and everything.<\/p>\n

I might have taken longer than I intended to in the effort to distance myself from any claim to bravery of a historic dimension, however, I believe that just as much as there have been certain risks to the enterprise, one has a duty<\/b> and responsibility<\/b> to stand up for what one believes to be right.\u00a0 If you claim to belong to the human race, to abjure such responsibility is to forfeit that membership.\u00a0 Simple as that?\u00a0 Yes, simple as that.<\/p>\n

If this sounds like yet another diatribe against the lily-livered of this nation who must have a veritable treasure chest of excuses for demonstrating sniveling cowardice purely and simply for personal gain parading it as a survival instinct, I make no apologies.\u00a0 When history deposits on that Great Garbage Heap in the Sky the horde that looks on while their \u201cleaders\u201d are making life intolerable for all but the bribe-takers and dope-dealers of this country, I will not shed a tear.\u00a0 In fact, I might just wear a little smirk because they would be getting their just desserts in advance of those whose fortunes they have advanced by their deliberate inaction and silence.<\/p>\n

There is no room in this conflict for bystanders.\u00a0 To use what the Rajapaksa Regime constantly intones in slightly modified form, \u201cThose who will not actively support democratic practice are against it\u201d and deserve to meet their maker on their knees if that has been their chosen posture in life.\u00a0 Fear is certainly a more than acceptable emotion for any human being living in this nation and opposed to its willy nilly descent into darkness. However, paralytic, abject cowardice is not.\u00a0 The alternative? Stretching every sinew for the democratic removal of the pestilence that has plagued this country, under one political banner or another, for far too long.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":93580,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\nAbject Cowardice Vs Common-Or-Garden Fear - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/abject-cowardice-vs-common-or-garden-fear\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Abject Cowardice Vs Common-Or-Garden Fear - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/abject-cowardice-vs-common-or-garden-fear\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-09-05T18:36:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-09-14T11:33:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Emil.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"356\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"433\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/abject-cowardice-vs-common-or-garden-fear\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/abject-cowardice-vs-common-or-garden-fear\/\",\"name\":\"Abject Cowardice Vs Common-Or-Garden Fear - 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