{"id":103384,"date":"2020-06-10T15:21:06","date_gmt":"2020-06-10T22:21:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=103384"},"modified":"2020-06-10T15:21:06","modified_gmt":"2020-06-10T22:21:06","slug":"please-allow-innocent-sri-lankans-to-breathe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/06\/10\/please-allow-innocent-sri-lankans-to-breathe\/","title":{"rendered":"PLEASE ALLOW INNOCENT SRI LANKANS TO BREATHE!"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Rohana R. Wasala<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The Sinhala language online lankacnews\/June 6, 2020 reported that\nthe controversial Elections Commission member Ratnajeevan Hoole, in an\ninterview with the regional Tamil language DAN TV channel in Jaffna, asked the\nvoters in the north not to vote for the SLPP at the coming general election.\nThe website carried the piece of news with a facsimile of the top part of an\nEnglish language publication from which it was relaying the item of news; the\nlatter carried Hoole\u2019s picture alongside the headline in big letters, which\nran: \u2018Do not vote for SLPP\u2026\u2019. Hoole allegedly said this in Tamil. A number of\nother news sources have disputed this; Hoole said no such thing; his message\nhad been garbled by supporters of the SLPP. According to lankacnews\/June\n8,Hoole,  interviewed by Sirasa TV\/June 7, 2020, denied having asked\nvoters not to vote for the SLPP; he had only stated that they should not vote\nfor corrupt persons, liquor bar owners, individuals prone to violence, etc.\nAsked to comment on Hoole\u2019s alleged controversial remarks supposed to have been\nmade in Tamil, EC chairman Mahinda Deshapriya refused to comment on it until he\nreceived an authentic translation of the same. (Subsequently, Deshapriya has\ndeclared that he agrees with Hoole\u2019s position, which suggests that the latter\nis not acting alone.) Some opposition speakers, meanwhile, are gleefully\ntaunting the SLPP: \u2018If the cap fits, wear it!\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, the opposition might have something more than this\nchance of jeering the SLPP to thank Hoole for. Be that as it may, what, in my\nview, is important here is whether Ratnajeevan Hoole is capable of saying what\nhe has been rightly or wrongly blamed for saying. Certainly he is capable of\nshooting his mouth off like that in the current highly charged pre-poll\nsituation. His accustomed political postures, actions, and utterances over a\nlong period of time, apparently inspired by a strange tribalism never expected\nin such a respected knowledgeable person, leave us in no doubt that it is not\nbeyond him to act in that morally and legally unacceptable\nway.                                                                                                                                                                                                          <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is it because he probably thinks that he is about to be in at the\nkill, when, as he hopes, the coup de grace is delivered to the unitary Sri\nLanka by completing the interrupted Yahapalana agenda after having the\ndissolved parliament recalled through some constitutional sleight of hand with\nthe help of Sumanthiran exploiting the Covid-19 situation? Hoole charged, as\nreported in the online lankacnews mentioned at the beginning of this piece,\nthat the SLPP is engaged in spreading misinformation against him through the\nmedia; news channels supportive of the SLPP are disseminating falsehoods about\nhim, he complained. He has declared that he does not know Sinhala to read the\n\u2018garbage\u2019 published in that language. He is also reported to have stated that\nsome people claim that he is going to resign from the EC, because they think\nthat, when they say so, he will stop his activities. But, he added, the 19th\nAmendment makes it difficult to mess around with the election. (Now, who is\ntrying to \u2018mess around with the election\u2019 by trying to postpone it indefinitely\nor cancel it altogether under the pretext of allowing time for dealing with the\ncatastrophic Covid-19, which, however, has by now been definitely brought under\ncontrol?  The government or the opposition? Any rational observer can\nunderstand it is the opposition.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To date, while being an EC member, he has conducted himself as if\nhe is interested only in what he believes is good for his own tribe, to the\nexclusion of the rest 85% of the multiethnic population. I am 100% sure that\nthe vast majority of ordinary Tamils do not expect him to behave in the way he\ndoes, which must be embarrassing to them. Obviously, the LTTE\u2019s alleged\nhostility to him did not mean that he was a friend of the Sinhalese, or of all\nthose including Tamils who opposed it. The older Sri Lankans have not forgotten\nnews reports to the effect that he was accused of collecting funds for the LTTE\nin Nigeria in the 1980s.  Just before the presidential election in\nNovember 2019, Hoole made public utterances encouraging MP Sumanthiran of the\nappointed opposition\u2019s TNA, who used to hector in parliament to bungling\nministers of the UNP administration (the rump of Yahapalanaya on its last\nlegs); when parliament was dissolved, he unsuccessfully moved court against it.\nWikipedia says that Ratnajeevan Hoole is a dual citizenship holder (SL and US),\nwhich must be true. But he  didn\u2019t seem concerned about the injustice the\ncurrent president Gotabaya Rajapakse was subjected to by his opponents and\ntheir NGO allies or sponsors persistently challenging his candidature for\npresidency on the false charge that he had failed to renounce his USA\ncitizenship, despite the American embassy in Colombo having confirmed that GR\nhad legally given up his American citizenship well ahead of the announcement of\nhis nomination. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Practically, Hoole opens his mouth only with a view to frustrating\nthe country\u2019s democratic return to the permanent peace and political stability\nof the five years 2009 to 2015, established after the nation having paid for it\nin blood, sweat, and tears, and thousands of innocent lives lost, and some\nfourteen thousand young soldiers – some in their early twenties – maimed for\nlife, and now lingering in army hospices, some of them lying in bed like\nvegetables; to this must be added losses incurred and casualties, mostly\nsuffered by the young, on the rebel side, very much a part of the cream of Sri\nLanka\u2019s human population, like the young soldiers who fought in defence of the\nstate. Only the mindless racist fringe represented by Hoole and others of his\nilk are impervious to their pain and suffering, and now remain deliberately in\ndenial of the collective anxiety experienced in that deadly past returning to\nhaunt innocent Sri Lankans of all communities  in the menacing shadow of\nthe Covid-19 monster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ratnajeevan Hoole seems to be nursing a pathological hatred of the\nSinhalese, particularly, of Sinhalese Buddhists. He despises everything\nassociated with the Sinhalese, their history, their literature, their ancient\nknowledge, and their spiritual heritage. Once, referring to the claim by a\nscholar that the 15th century CE Sri Lankan Buddhist university Vijayaba\nPirivena of Thotagamuva (- though primarily a large Buddhist pirivena, it was a\ncentre of secular learning as well, that flourished during the reign of king Parakramabahu\nVI of Kotte) was one of the earliest universities of the world, Hoole took\numbrage at that description and denounced it as an insult to other universities\nof the world! His recent confession that he does not know the Sinhala language\nreflects his mysterious antagonism towards the Sinhalese. It doesn\u2019t seem to\nmatter that he was born and had school education in Nallur, Jaffna, in the\nnorth and that he completed his university education in Colombo in the south,\nas a beneficiary of free education, among the traditionally peaceful and\negalitarian Sinhalese, before proceeding to UK and US for his postgraduate\nstudies in engineering. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trouble dealing with Hoole is that, in the country\u2019s dominant\ntraditional culture, people believe that the learned are disciplined (vidya\ndadaati vinayang – knowledge imparts discipline)   and therefore, are\nworthy of respect and paying heed to); in their innocence, they equate learning\nwith education; they don\u2019t know that a person may have much learning but little\neducation. We have been plagued with quite a number of characters like that in\npolitics recently. But the cultured ordinary citizens, out of the respect they\nhave for this engineering professor, have so far viewed his ludicrous behaviour\nwhich is unworthy of him as a member of the august body that the elected\nparliament assigned him to, with some amused indulgence. Probably, he has\nforgotten about his own self respect in his anxiety to live up to the\ncommitments he might have made to the cynical politicians who put him in that\nposition with certain ulterior motives. But enough is enough! He must either\nresign or serve out his term with the appearance of an honoured senior citizen\nwho is growing old gracefully, something he owes to the peace-loving Sri Lankan\npeople.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rohana R. Wasala The Sinhala language online lankacnews\/June 6, 2020 reported that the controversial Elections Commission member Ratnajeevan Hoole, in an interview with the regional Tamil language DAN TV channel in Jaffna, asked the voters in the north not to vote for the SLPP at the coming general election. The website carried the piece […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rohana-r-wasala"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103384\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}