One more killing, and where is the nation heading?

By N Sathiya Moorthy

The shocking killing of Weligama Pradeshiya Sabha Chairman, Lasantha Wickramasekara, in the council chamber during the Public Day, has taken the Law & Order situation in the country to a new low. This has also robbed the Government of the nabbing of Ishara Sewwandi, one of the alleged accomplices in the February killing of underworld figure Ganemulle Sanjeewa, that too in the open court, in distant Nepal.

Neither Sajeewa, nor Wickramasekara, might not have been a noble soul, but that does not mean that their lives could be taken away in ways other than under the law or owing to natural causes. In both instances, the killers wanted to prove more than a point. They possibly wanted to dramatize the event as much as possible – talk of the town, never to be forgotten, if you want to say so.

Both inside and outside Parliament, the political Opposition has charged the Government of JVP-NPP President Anura Kumara Dissanayake with failure to protect Law & Order. SJB Leader of the Opposition, Sajith Premadasa, to whose party the slain PS Chairman belonged, led the charge from the front – and naturally so.

SJB General Secretary and parliamentarian Ranjith Maddumabandara went straight for the jugular. He went as far as to claim that an air of criminal immunity may have crept in, leading to possible political killings of the kind, only after the incumbent Government withdrew the security cover for Opposition leaders.

Maddumabandara went as far as to recall the JVP past, recalling how security for politicians was introduced only after the original militant version of the present-day ruling coalition leader went after them in the early seventies. He even recalled the JVP attack on Parliament during the era.

It is unfair, yes, yet the present-day rulers cannot sleep in peace – or, would not be allowed to sleep in peace on the L&O front – until they unravel the avoidable violence and arson that accompanied the Aragalaya protests one single evening – and on dozens of targets across the country, nay, the ‘Sinhala South’.

The precision of the execution clearly indicated coordinated action, but that did not seem like the handiwork of professional gangs, but of trained and motivated cadres. Yes, the JVP fits the description, but that does not mean they were the ones behind it.  But they too have the responsibility to bring the guilty to book, if they have to usher in a violent-free society under their regime.

It is interesting to note that the predecessor Government of President Ranil Wickremesinghe did more talking, which too died down after a point. In between, one of their ministers went on record that the security agencies had busted an attempt for an armed coup against the Government, rather than the Sri Lankan State. But nothing came of it, either.

No closure

As may be recalled, even in the early days of the Aragalaya protests, there was a whisper campaign about a plot to recreate yet another insurgent moment, aimed at toppling the elected Government and the inherited parliamentary democratic system. The urban middle class that had launched the Aragalaya protests, and named it that way, had launched it only half-seriously, but with early whispers, they quietly moved away. Or, that was the impression.

Yet, there is no denying that the first of the arsonist campaigns was launched not by any faceless group, but valiantly so by SJB women’s wing, under controversial Hirunika Premachandran --- that too late evening, targeting the private residence of then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. That should take away some of the tinge attached to ‘Aragalaya arson’ but nothing still explained the later-day coordinated arson across the country.  

Likewise, there is no ‘closure’ yet to the armed forces command refusing to take orders from the elected Government, that too President Gota, who under the Constitution was also the Supreme Commander. The findings of a three-man committee of veterans that probed the incident under successor President Wickrermesinghe did submit its report, but no action seemed to have followed.

Caution, not threat

No, it is not a threat but a caution. The the JVP-NPP rulers are yet to fulfil the Aragalaya dreams of the masses even halfway, and show no signs or hopes of delivering on the promises made or not-made, yet that are now being unmade for them by their political rivals, day after day, people may be more frustrated than their seeped-out energies, enthusiasm and hopes might demonstrate.

Aragalaya was not an end in itself. Not to most of the innocent participants among them. Even among the rest, the ring-leaders may, if at all, have had a clue about where they were heading – or wanted to head. If it is an unfinished task, what awaits the nation next?

One likelihood is that the people would feel frustrated and at times cheated. They may end in despair and stop participating in the democratic processes, starting with periodic elections, in the same way and same numbers as they have been, all along. They might at best curse their fate, but do nothing more about it.

But there may be others who still form the periphery, even if in smaller numbers than at the time of Aragalaya. It was by itself a far cry from the days of the JVP Insurgency I & II, respectively in the early seventies and the late eighties. But there are others who were trained in that mould who are still motivating the younger generation.

On the face of it, they may not succeed, but a lot will also depend on the causes that the present-day Government and polity give the younger generation to feel motivated, not just frustrated. They are cause for your concern – and the nation, its rulers and polity be forewarned.

Already, the post-Aragalaya repeat-action of the kind in nations like Bangladesh, Nepal and more recently, Madagascar, all of them not far away from Sri Lanka, seem to be keeping the regional fire and flames alive. A failed L&O machinery is what they pray for, if the latter becomes an accomplice, even if through their treacherous silence or misleading advice to their own Governments.

Periodic killings of the Sanjeewa and Wicrkamasekara kind provide them with ‘evidence’ of the failure of law and order, and the rulers’ marked inability to do something about it. Add to that the incumbent Government’s earlier announcement that many T-56 guns had gone missing from the armoury of a single army camp, and men in all kinds of uniforms had turned ‘guns for hire’ even when on duty, even when they were / are in their official uniform.

The Government should feel scared and should be asking itself as to what had gone wrong – and how and how fast it could fix it. Brushing the earlier episode aside and breathing relief when a newer one pushed the earlier one under the carpet, may be good politics, but not good policy. Politics is what puts you in power, but policy is what sustains you up there!

(The writer is a Chennai-based Policy Analyst & Political Commentator. Email: sathiyam54@nsathiyamoorthy.com)