{"id":48426,"date":"2012-07-14T21:14:32","date_gmt":"2012-07-14T21:14:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=48426"},"modified":"2012-07-21T19:46:42","modified_gmt":"2012-07-21T19:46:42","slug":"gotabaya-rajapaksa-o-tempora-o-mores","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/gotabaya-rajapaksa-o-tempora-o-mores\/","title":{"rendered":"Gotabaya Rajapaksa \u2013 O Tempora O Mores"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Frederica+Jansz&amp;x=5&amp;y=6\">Frederica Jansz<\/a><\/span> &#8211;<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_48427\" style=\"width: 75px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/gotabaya-rajapaksa-o-tempora-o-mores\/frederica-jansz-c-colombo-telegraph-2\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-48427\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-48427\" class=\"size-full wp-image-48427\" title=\"Frederica Jansz c-colombo telegraph\" src=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Frederica-Jansz-c-colombo-telegraph.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"65\" height=\"84\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-48427\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Frederica Jansz<\/p><\/div>\n<p>There is no difference or should be none between human beings. But, is that a reality in Sri Lanka? No. Certainly not. The most recent incident where Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Defense Secretary lost his temper and used foul language brought home some truths about human behaviour, at least from some sections of our people.<br \/>\nThe language and tone of the delivery evoked a huge outcry from journalists across the civilized world. The international press and electronic media were aghast and responded immediately. Just like\u00a0humans and even animals who help each other to face, for example, a harsh winter. But, the local media true to form remained mum.\u00a0 Why? We would leave that to you readers to come to your own judgment.<br \/>\nAt the expense of quoting Thomas Niemoller ad nauseum,\u00a0fellow journalists consider those words; \u201cAnd then they came for me\u2026\u201d.\u00a0 It could and will be you next. That is certain. Your silence is telling.<br \/>\nThat the occupant of high public office in our land could utter such foul, lewd and disgusting words: indeed the language of the gutter \u2013 speaks volumes on the depths to which Sri Lanka has sunk.<br \/>\nGotabaya Rajapaksa may have or did indeed play a pivotal role in winning the war for which we all remain grateful \u2013 this however does not give him the prerogative to believe that we remain subjugated \u2013 mere serfs \u2013 who continue to live in a land where he reigns as Lord of the Manor.<br \/>\nIt is indeed unbecoming and disgraceful of Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a public servant,\u00a0to have uttered the threats he did against this newspaper, and today we wish to reiterate our position which we did during his hysterical ranting that The Sunday Leader will not be cowed by them.<br \/>\nGotabaya Rajapaksa more than any other public servant has paid lip service to the building of a decent society in Sri Lanka. It is all the more shocking then, that he should conduct himself in such a low manner.<br \/>\nGiven the office he holds, we have no doubt it is well within his power to do us harm, whether or not through the abuse of the state machinery that lies at his disposal. We have therefore no choice but to give his threats the widest possible publicity in the hope that this will persuade him to desist from the course of action he may contemplate, to eliminate the Editor of this newspaper or do physical harm.<br \/>\nRajapaksa knows better than anyone that The Sunday Leader has consistently been critical of consecutive regimes not for partisan reasons but to uphold the democratic values essential to our society.\u00a0 Yet, none of his predecessors have ever stooped to the level he has.<br \/>\nWhen we contacted him last week it was purely to ascertain if he was aware that\u00a0the management at SriLankan Airlines had taken a decision to change a wide bodied A340 scheduled to fly to\u00a0Zurich\u00a0on Friday July 13, to a smaller A330,\u00a0 in order to accommodate a pilot who he himself admitted \u201cis a close friend\u201d, to bring down a puppy dog for him from Zurich.\u00a0 The change in aircraft would have resulted in 56 passengers having to be off-loaded costing the state owned airline hundreds of thousands of rupees.<br \/>\nHe was called by The Sunday Leader not with any intention to defame him or otherwise but merely to clarify what we had been told by sources within SriLankan Airlines.\u00a0 Instead, of responding with civility he resorted to abuse using foul language and threats.<br \/>\nOur second telephone call to him on Friday July 6, was to tell him that we had since decided not to carry this story following a telephone conversation we were told that had taken place between a confidante to the President and himself.\u00a0 Rajapaksa had maintained he knew nothing of a flight schedule change and would \u201cfly the dog down on another airline\u201d if this was indeed the case.\u00a0 The reason for the second telephone call was to tell him that The Sunday Leader would not carry the story but it was NOT because he had threatened its Editor the previous evening.<br \/>\nHe however, again turned abusive and used the most foul, lewd and disgusting language, going so far as to say ninety percent of the people in Sri Lanka wanted the Editor of this newspaper dead.<br \/>\nChilling words indeed, given that it is only a mere three years since its previous Editor was murdered in broad daylight and his killers continue to roam free. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He further accused us of accepting \u201cmonies\u201d from the US Ambassador, NGOs and Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu \u2013 Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives.\u00a0 Rajapaksa should know better than anyone that The Sunday Leader is not one to be swayed by third parties. Indeed, when there is news that is in the national interest, be assured that nothing will prevent The Sunday Leader from publishing it. We urge Gotabaya Rajapaksa, even now, to respect the office he holds, and to conduct himself with the dignity and decorum the people of Sri Lanka have a right to expect of him. It does not become his brother the President nor him that he should threaten journalists or indeed, plot violence against them.<\/p>\n<p>The Sunday Leader Editorial<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":43694,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8,2938],"tags":[2983],"class_list":["post-48426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial","category-popular","tag-frederica-jansz-and-gotabhaya-dog-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Gotabaya Rajapaksa \u2013 O Tempora O Mores - 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\/gotabaya-rajapaksa-o-tempora-o-mores\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gotabaya Rajapaksa \u2013 O Tempora O Mores - 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