{"id":99987,"date":"2013-08-13T00:03:55","date_gmt":"2013-08-12T18:33:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=99987"},"modified":"2013-08-17T15:02:56","modified_gmt":"2013-08-17T09:32:56","slug":"then-we-asked-that-our-drinking-water-not-be-poisoned-and-we-were-shot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/then-we-asked-that-our-drinking-water-not-be-poisoned-and-we-were-shot\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201c…Then We Asked That Our Drinking Water Not Be Poisoned And We Were Shot.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>

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

I make no apologies for the seemingly melodramatic title of this column because it is all that will fit from the fuller version which, in turn, is a paraphrasing of the very famous one by Pastor Niemoller<\/a><\/span> in historically similar times and which should read in its entirety:<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst we asked that our EPF savings not be embezzled and we were shot; then we complained about the adverse impact of the increase in kerosene prices on our livelihoods as fishermen and we were shot; then we asked that our drinking water not be poisoned and we were shot. What other crimes are being created to justify our executions in the future?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

If confirmation be needed of the ruthlessness of this regime<\/a><\/span>, the events at Weliveriya<\/a><\/span> provided it in spades!\u00a0 A turbulent but, by all descriptions, non-violent demonstration of local people \u2013 thousands \u2013 against contamination of their drinking water was met with what can only be described as a show of force not simply intended to \u201cshow who\u2019s boss\u201d but to instill terror.<\/p>\n

When was the last time that you heard of a battle-hardened unit of the army being called in by the police, arriving in armoured personnel carriers, wearing bandannas across their faces?\u00a0 One might be tempted to proffer the suggestion that white hoods, a la the Ku Klux Klan<\/a><\/span>, would have been more appropriate given the conduct of those in uniform, but, one hardly needs to proffer advice about \u201cimproving\u201d such<\/p>\n

techniques to this lot.<\/p>\n

These are forces completely and absolutely under the control of the President\u2019s brother, Gotabhaya<\/a><\/span>, and for yet another member of his family to be engaged in discussions with representatives of the protestors while the assault was being launched has a very simple message from these monarchs parading as saviours: to defy us and ours is to do so at peril of limb and, literally, life.<\/p>\n

Insofar as pollution of drinking water sources is concerned, my neighbourhood has suffered for ten years <\/strong>because of an unauthorized and illegal garbage dump that the local Pradeshiya Sabhawa continues to use, depositing in it all the garbage generated within its jurisdiction, inclusive of hospital wastes.\u00a0\u00a0 The effluent from this environmental catastrophe empties into the headwaters of the Deduru Oya but is concealed from view in such a manner that those who consume this water downstream are unaware of what the water they use for EVERY domestic purpose contains.\u00a0 A recent question in this regard in the national legislature resulted in a deliberate half-truth being placed on the record with the intention of concealing the reality of the prevailing situation.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the icing on that morning\u2019s (\u201cDaily Mirror\u201d) cake was that the same issue that carried an extensive report on this act of terrorism at Weliveriya had a paean of praise to J. R. \u201cYankee Dick\u201d Jayewardene<\/a><\/span> by a relation of his, a generation or so removed.\u00a0 It ended with the statement that the late President would be looking on with unalloyed joy at what his successor, Mahinda Rajapaksa<\/a><\/span>, was doing to carry forward his \u201cvision\u201d for Sri Lanka.\u00a0 To quote his exact words,<\/p>\n

\u201cMy take is that the course being charted by this present successor to the Presidency Mahinda Rajapaksa would meet with his approval \u2013 his vision and dream being carried forward for Sri Lanka to retake its place at the very top of all nations.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

While some might consider this a statement of simple bombast and unmitigated nonsense in the interests of adding to a past litany of sycophantic claptrap, I tend to agree with the sentiments expressed because \u201cthe Weliveriya incident\u201d certainly does carry forward the (Fascist) agenda of J.R.J. and by the most appropriate of his successors, one who makes even the late R. Premadasa<\/a><\/span> look like one of the Maggie Thatcher\u2019s much-reviled \u201cwets!\u201d\u00a0 I wonder, also, whether the author of that puff piece remembers a conversation he had with me in the lobby of the Mount Lavinia Hotel in, I believe, 1985 after he\u2019d left a senior position to which he\u2019d been appointed by the elder Jayewardene.\u00a0 He told me at great length how disastrous things had become under the self-same President.\u00a0 But then I suppose time lends luster to events that were not so lustrous at the time they occurred!<\/p>\n

However, it is also one of Sri Lanka\u2019s less well kept secrets that this particular family has not fared too badly under the Rajapaksa Regime with one of JR.\u2019s grandsons serving as our head diplomat in Malaysia, a position to which he does not bring a wealth of qualification or experience.\u00a0 There are also other members of that clan displaying their (well-rewarded) loyalty to the caricature of a \u201cDemocratic Socialist\u201d government in Sri Lanka, reinforcing the message of their support to the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime whenever and wherever the opportunity presents itself.<\/p>\n

A comment about political terminology might seem appropriate in closing.\u00a0 If \u201cYankee Dick\u201d could use language such as \u201cDemocratic Socialist\u201d in a constitutional construct that, at the time it was promulgated, was adversely<\/strong> compared to that which Charles de Gaulle visited upon France, there is certainly nothing wrong with the present incumbent of the President\u2019s throne in Sri Lanka characterizing what he practices as \u201cdemocratic socialism.\u201d\u00a0 And, speaking of \u201csocialism,\u201d didn\u2019t Herr Schickelgruber aka Adolf Hitler call his party \u201cNational Socialist,<\/strong>\u201d too?<\/p>\n

Is further comment about the \u201cSri Lankan condition\u201d necessary in these circumstances?<\/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-99987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\n\u201c...Then We Asked That Our Drinking Water Not Be Poisoned And We Were Shot.\u201d - 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\/then-we-asked-that-our-drinking-water-not-be-poisoned-and-we-were-shot\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u201c...Then We Asked That Our Drinking Water Not Be Poisoned And We Were Shot.\u201d - 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