By Charles.S.Perera

There are certain accepted norms that should not be over stepped in civilized societies, in speech, word, or action. It is  to maintain a decorum in respect of a person’s intimate and personal relationships. That should be more so in written or electronic  media.  These accepted norms are not followed by some for gain, some seeking a cheap popularity to attract readers, or  internet surfers.  In the west there are  tabloid news papers specializing in scandals of celebrities , sex and pornography.

 It is the arousing of base instincts of people to be curious  to know what is going on next door, who sleeps with whom, what under wear such and such a person wears, all with photos from a paparazzi.  Some such news mongers even  rummage into other peoples garbage  to see what they have been eating, what compromising material they have thrown away. 

 There are people who would like  to  look through key holes.  Hence some media do not hesitate to  come down to their level to become social garbage collectors to make a business of  catering to satisfy these  curious people.  

 It becomes dirty and abusive when they   interview  a wife of a public figure just to know whether their intimate relationship is waning,  or just sublime and report what she says with gusto to  “news” starving public.   Or interview people to get news worthy information as to  what the wife of the man next door thinks of her husband, or how  the man next  door treats his wife.  No decent news paper or   website would  go that  low to print such material for public gaze.  Of course there are those specializing in providing such sexual details and erotic material.

 The Sri Lanka Guardian posing as a leading website  publishing articles from  respected writers and journalists has also gone down “ that drain”  interviewing    probably posing leading questions to make the wife  make  statements about  her husband and  her very personal thoughts  about what he says,   and proudly display it as an “exclusive report”. 

 There is no difference the interview is  about a wife’s  angry reaction to a husbands political ambitions or about his sexual escapades.

 But in either case  it does not seem to matter much to the Lanka Guardian what the  after math of  displaying   such scurrilous family matters would be to an otherwise normal couple with their usual ups and downs in life- same as all wives and husbands.

 With this interview with Karuna’s wife the Guardian Website is trying to kill two  birds with one stone.  One is to satisfy persons of dubious taste who have a penchant to devour with pleasure such family scandals, and .   secondly it seeks to scandalize and bring to shame a man who broke away from the terrorist group to follow a democratic political path. 

 The Guardian’s terrorist connection is not unknown. It  had shown a  certain sympathy towards the  terrorists during their days of glory. 

 In that respect it  is pertinent that  the Sri Lanka Guardian website seeks to interview the wife of Vinayagamurthi Muralitharan.  Otherwise why not interview the wife of another Minister, say the wife of  Douglas Devananda or  the First lady –the wife of the President ?  What else is the obsession to go after Karuna  ? The  Guardian seems over  concerned about family problems of Karuna Amman,  and none other.  

 But why is Sri Lanka Guardian taking on Karuna?  There is a reason for that, which of course does not  take long to search. It is because  Karuna represent the wisdom of the Tamil  People in the lineage of those great Tamil leaders like the late Laxman Kadirgamar, Thiruchelvam, Kethiswaran Loganathan, and many more  all assassinated by the terrorists.

 Karuna  is to-day’s  symbol of unity, the symbol of integration of the two principal communities the Sinhala and the Tamil. It is not the Kanaka Pulle (KP) the heir apparent to  Prabhakaran’s disaster against the Tamils,   who  represents the Tamil Intelligence.

 Kanaka Pulle  is  Prabhakaran’s   cyanide capsule  that had been named by Praphakaran as alleged , to  perpetuates  his  dream of  home land concept.  He is the symbol of separation , the symbol of Tamil National destruction, the time bomb  against development and progress of the Nation of Sri Lankans.  Therefore, those who profited from the largesses  of terrorism continue to target Tamil heroes who  stand to unite the Sinhala and Tamil communities. Karuna is therefore their principle target to-day.

 It is a fact far too deep to penetrate into by the  Lanka Guardian.  Perhaps the Lanka Guardian  is trying to make  a speciality  of breaking up families of Tamils who worked against  the terrorists.  It will not be surprising if the next interview  were to be the wife of Anandasangaree.

 There was a News paper in Sri Lanka  which carried  a series of articles interviewing wives of Ministers.  They were of course very decent interviews of a spouse of a Minister, who had  special interests such as painting,  music, or social work. The news paper reporter  asked her questions about her special interest and  how her husband participates in her activities.  But not about personal relationships and  family quarrels they have at home about their different activities.

 In France, and even in America  some News papers and TVs, interviewed the wives of Ministers or  even the wives of the Presidents, and again  on a very respectable note, without being critical or asking impertinent questions as to where they differ with their husbands political pronouncements.

 It would be interesting to hear what the wives of the TNA Parliamentarians say about their husbands. The Lanka Guardian may as well  make it a speciality and make it a means to break marriages or  make new marriages.

 The Lanka Guardian had interviewed the wife of Karuna with leading questions to ask where she differs with there husband and what she thinks about his political affiliations and pronouncements.  There was clear evidence to show that it was to discredit the Minister.

 The Lanka Guardian also  questions else where Karuna’s  proposal to visit the Western capitals to meet the Tamil expatriates.  It carried a news item again  to  say that Karuna Amman visits only Switzerland. It would be more healthy for the Lanka Guardian to leave  its preoccupation of  Karuna and concern itself with other matters which are burning questions of the day.

 Even the Federation for the Freedom of the Press may not defend  the Editor or the Reporter of  the Lanka Guardian if an irate husband would threaten them with death for publishing personal matters concerning a wife and a husband for public scrutiny.

 It is of course the business of the Sri Lanka Guardian  if  it wants to make exclusive reports of the martial conflicts between Ministers and their wives. At that rate  the Lanka Guardian may soon make exclusive reports on family affairs of politicians with a  “ for adults only” labels.

 The Lanka Guardian reports to day that it receives death threats from Karuna. Does it  surprise any one ?  Even the most religious and a pious husband would  feel like killing a reporter if he interviews his wife to find out how pious  he had been with her and publish what she says in the press.

 Having  commenced a smearing campaign against Karuna Amman  using  its correspondent Veeman now the Sri Lanka Guardian tries to collect the dirt to save Veeman from a feared threat  by attaching a  audio clip supposed to be a threat against Veeman, seeking further  to implicate  Karuna and his followers.

 There is a story in Sinhala which says of a man who catches a snake and puts it under his clothes and shouts” help….., help……, there is a snake biting me”.