{"id":111720,"date":"2021-02-15T16:57:28","date_gmt":"2021-02-15T23:57:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=111720"},"modified":"2021-02-15T16:57:28","modified_gmt":"2021-02-15T23:57:28","slug":"a-march-a-tweet-some-angst-and-mild-sabre-rattling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/02\/15\/a-march-a-tweet-some-angst-and-mild-sabre-rattling\/","title":{"rendered":"A march, a tweet, some angst and mild sabre-rattling"},"content":{"rendered":"

Malinda Seneviratne<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

If something deserves to be called \u2018Event of the Week\u2019 it would be the \u2018Pothuvil to Poligandy (P2P) March\u2019 which ended on Sunday, February 7. At the end of the march there were around 2,000 people. Most significantly, it was an event that saw the participation of both Tamils and Muslims. The basic differences in grievances were obviously negated by a felt need to be united against, let\u2019s say, a perceived common enemy, the Government to some, \u2018Sinhala Chauvinism\u2019 to others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It marked also, as D B S Jeyaraj has mentioned in his weekly column, a return of sorts to non-violent protests. Now it is not that all Tamil and Political action was violent. There have been all kinds of non-violent protests even during the conflict. However, this was a sustained, determined and even colorful affirmation of a politics that harked back to a different time. \u2018The Satyagraha of 1961,\u2019 is what Jeyaraj was reminded of.

There are two interesting statements that are related to this march. First we had the government withdrawing STF security assigned to TNA MP M.A. Sumanthiran. Sumanthiran retorted, \u2018if something happens to me the Government will be held responsible.\u2019 Now the agitation of the man does seem misplaced considering that he was involved in a five-day march (ok, he may not have be \u2018on the moving spot\u2019 all five days, but still! Was he not worried about security? Also, Sumanthiran has openly supported the LTTE, indulged heavily in Eelam-speak as well as celebration of the terrorists. He would do well to reflect on the fate of others who came before who did the very same thing, especially the leader of the TULF, Appapillai Amirthalingam. Amirthalingam spouted rhetoric which was like an endless nutritional feed to extremism. The beast, in his insatiable hunger, at one point did much more than bite the hand that fed. One hopes that things don\u2019t snowball to a repeat of all that, but Sumanthiran, having seen what happens to hands thrust into fires ought to keep his in his pockets.

The second is a hilarious tweet from the tweet-happiest diplomat in Colombo, Alaina B Teplitz: ‘#Peacefulprotests is an important right in any #democracy and significant, legitimate concerns should be heard. I saw Tamil media coverage of the march from Pottuvil to Point Pedro and wondered why it was not more widely covered by Colombo-based media?\u2019

She has a point. The English, Sinhala and Tamil media have different preferences that have little to do with newsworthiness. Perhaps it is all about the target audience; after all there\u2019s a reason why entertainment value has framed reporting and presentation, why sensationalism has become an important driver and so on. This holds for different media houses as well; owners have agendas. Nevertheless, there is a serious problem if matters of political significance are down-played or ignored altogether, one has to question the sense of responsibility of the particular media institutions.

On the other hand, we cannot ignore the \u2018Season of Vexatious Persecution\u2019 (i.e. the annual human rights circus in Geneva) which is all about whipping things up from December to February. Now it could be a coincidence that P2P was organized at this particular moment, but few will buy it considering the personalities involved and their political history. The Teplitz tweet only serves to add credence to the view that this was just another side show of the above mentioned circus.

The tweet also indicates an important fact: Teplitz is running out of slogans. Before we get to that, let\u2019s have a say on the key words \u2014 the hash tagged \u2018peaceful protests,\u2019 \u2018democracy\u2019 and \u2018legitimate concerns.\u2019 It is downright laughable for a US diplomat to talk about such things given that country\u2019s absolute rubbishing of such things, domestically and internationally. That aside, there\u2019s the fact that Teplitz has been pained to the point that she has to whine about media coverage. Is it that a pet project directly or indirectly sponsored, planned and executed, didn\u2019t move as many Tamils and Muslims as was envisaged?

We didn\u2019t hear Muslim and Tamil leaders complaining about news coverage. Have they deferred that kind of task to Teplitz? If that\u2019s the case, who is the pawn or who are the pawns here? Is it Teplitz? Are they Tamil and Muslim leaders who in their wisdom believe that the best bet to get grievances, real or imagined, sorted and aspirations, reasonable or outrageous, fulfilled is to support the US in securing strategic objectives in Sri Lanka? If such happens (not a certainty, certainly) do they believe they\u2019ll get some crumbs off the table? And what does all this have to say about the agency of Tamil and Muslim citizens? Are they too pawns? Indeed, are all peoples of all communities pawns in games where they are sacrificed at will?

Jeyaraj sees in P2P \u2018a remarkable show of solidarity and unity\u2019 between the Tamil and Muslim communities. He does exaggerate about the numbers (tens of thousands, he says) and deliberately introduces the \u2018Tamil-speaking\u2019 qualifier which Tamil nationalists have often used to rope in rhetorically \u2018The Muslims\u2019 to their various political projects. Jeyaraj remembers 1961 but has forgotten the late eighties when M H M Ashroff (in)famously stated that even if Prabhakaran abandons Eelam, he would not. He dialed down the rhetoric over the next decade, but what did Prabhakaran do to the (Tamil-speaking) Muslims, has Jeyaraj forgotten? The LTTE ethnically cleansed the Jaffna Peninsula of Muslims. The LTTE turned one in ten Muslims into refugees, slaughtering dozens, driving them off their homes, seizing properties etc. Muslim leaders cannot pretend to be unaware of that history.

Muslim Affairs, if you will, featured in other ways over the week. Recently returned to Parliament, Ven Athureliye Rathana Thero presented a private member\u2019s bill to repeal the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act. Justice Minister Ali Sabri who prior to entering Parliament championed the notion \u2018One Country, One Law,\u2019 responded by saying \u2018steps are being taken to amend the Muslim Laws and that a Cabinet Paper had already been presented in that regard.\u2019

Elaborating, Sabri said that the Cabinet Paper sought to amend the minimum marriageable age of Muslim girls as 18, to permit women to act as Kathis and also to make it necessary to get the consent of Muslim women when they get married.

That\u2019s it? That makes it \u2018One Country, One Law\u2019? Sabri must do a serious rethink on what he says and does and the meaning of the terms he uses (so loosely!).

He is correct when he says that \u2018if the personal laws were to be abolished, all the personal laws such as Muslim Laws, Kandyan law and Thesawalamai Law should be abolished altogether.\u2019 \u2018Through a social discussion,\u2019 he adds. There\u2019s been enough social discussion, he knows this. One-country-one-law would certainly all for abolishing all customary laws. His concern seems to be limited to correcting existing laws that privilege Muslim men over Muslim women. That\u2019s not even scratching the surface of the problem though!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are a question for Sabry: Are there plans to abolish polygamy (can\u2019t have it for some and not others, noh?)? Here\u2019s another: The Special Parliamentary Committee on Extremism appointed by the previous administration presented a report in February 2020 recommending extensive measures with respect to Muslim laws as well as \u2018educational\u2019 institutions \u2014 have you read it? Are you in agreement? If so, what have you done so far? Are you planning to defer everything to the experts tasked to draft a new constitution? What are those experts doing by the way? When will we see a draft? And finally, what exactly do you understand by \u2018One country, one law\u2019? Let\u2019s have some answers, please.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week also saw Wimal Weerawansa making some news. He openly advocated a prominent and even principal role for Gotabaya Rajapaksa in the SLPP leadership. He was taken on by the General Secretary of the SLPP, Sagara Kariyawasam who questioned Wimal\u2019s rights to talk of the SLPP since he\u2019s not a member. Wimal retorted that people in the SLPP talk of other parties. Sagara wondered what Wimal\u2019s fate would be had he and his party contested independently. Wimal pointed out that Sagara, a national list MP, hadn\u2019t even contested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Light banter at best. Some sections of the Opposition have salivated, naturally. They believe and talk of \u2018a rift!\u2019 in the Rajapaksa camp, friction between the brothers (Wimal\u2019s antipathies to Basil being well known).Too early to conclude such of course, but as debating points go, both Wimal and Sagara have scored. What this \u2018scoring\u2019 says about the future of the SLPP is of course left to be seen. There\u2019s bound to be differences of opinion in any political coalition. If everyone was on the same page there wouldn\u2019t be a coalition in the first place. You win some, you lose some \u2014 this is something that junior or weaker partners know very well (ask Prof Tissa Vitharana of the LSSP).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The so-called \u2018smaller parties\u2019 did make a lot of noise regarding the East Container Terminal issue. It seems, as of now, that the \u2018big party\u2019 listened. Whether they\u2019ll still have the \u2018big ear\u2019 regarding the West Container Terminal is left to be seen. On the other hand, we know the story about the dog and the tail, no offense to canines or tails. Politicians and political parties are about power and about elections. If, for example, Champika Ranawaka and the Jathika Hela Urumaya, having broken ranks with the UPFA decided to go it alone and not join the UNP-led coalition as they did, where would Ranawaka be today, one might ask. Indeed is it not such questions that persuaded him to resign from the JHU and become a 100% SJBer, one could also ask. There are no elections in sight, but when they do come around, all parties big and small will revisit \u2018coalition\u2019 and calculate the impact of decisions (and rhetoric) on electability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For now, though, noises can and will be made. The likes of Wimal would have to pick their battles and select decibel levels. That said, his point about the distance between president and parliament on account of political sway within the party is valid. It goes without saying that the effectiveness of a program sometimes comes down to parliamentary weight which of course can be deployed best if the executive has a degree of control. The President either doesn\u2019t have it or cannot count on it or imagines he doesn\u2019t need it. He could ask his brothers, both veterans in this respect. That however might mean give-and-take, if we were to believe the notion that the brothers are bound by blood but not about vision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

India, meanwhile, is not happy, going by statements issued regarding the East Container Terminal. India cannot be happy about the \u2018Chinese Footprint\u2019 whose size was considerably expanded by the previous government by virtually handing over the Hambantota Port to China. India cannot be happy about energy projects given to the Chinese. India cannot be happy about the scheduled visit by Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and MoUs that are said to be signed and\/or renewed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

India speaks of Sri Lanka \u2018reneging\u2019 on an MoU. However, India forgets that MoUs are not exactly agreements, signed after crossing the t\u2019s and dotting the i\u2019s. They are by definition non-binding and amenable to change. Circumstances can change and changing circumstances have to be taken into account.
If an agreement causes political instability it would be foolish for a government to go ahead with it. If, prior to inking an agreement, one party (India in this case) stands with a country that seems hell bent on bullying Sri Lanka (the USA in this case), then it would be silly for that party to assume that the counterpart be oblivious to such developments. If one party has in the part \u2018reneged\u2019 (as India has with respect to the Indo-Lanka Accord which from the get-go was a product of shamelessness bullying and moreover was heavily slanted in India\u2019s favor), then that party should be careful before using the word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And on the subject of \u2018foreign affairs,\u2019 we have Dinesh Gunawardena claiming that Sri Lanka is not afraid of the soon to be tabled resolution in Geneva. There are 47 members in the Human Rights Council (HRC). The Minister of Foreign Affairs cannot be saying \u2018the majority are with us.\u2019 The brave words could probably mean \u2018we except this, we know the consequences, we know it\u2019s the work of nations wallowing in a cesspool of bias, we know that they\u2019re hinting at sanctions, we know what the UN itself has found out about the impact of sanctions in other countries, especially Venezuela in recent times, we know there\u2019s talk of taking things to the General Assembly and then the Security Council, we know who are friends are and more importantly who our enemies are, and we know what it takes to secure sovereignty to the extent possible.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dinesh Gunawardena might not elaborate in the above manner. After all, he is required to be \u2018diplomatic\u2019 although he is not averse to calling a spade a spade. \u2018Geneva\u2019 is just over a week from now. A resolution is likely to be tabled. It is likely that it will be passed. Most importantly, it will show us what India\u2019s \u2018neighborhood first\u2019 foreign policy is really about. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

malindasenevi@gmail.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Malinda Seneviratne If something deserves to be called \u2018Event of the Week\u2019 it would be the \u2018Pothuvil to Poligandy (P2P) March\u2019 which ended on Sunday, February 7. At the end of the march there were around 2,000 people. Most significantly, it was an event that saw the participation of both Tamils and Muslims. The basic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-malinda-seneviratne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111720","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=111720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111720\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}