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print versionMy brother’s brutal murder has shamed Sri Lankans
Whether Lasantha’s death brings liberty or whether this island slips further into repression is yet to be seen
Each time I am confronted by the large billboards on the busy streets of Colombo advertising Sri Lanka as a tourist destination, I wonder if they have another relevance. "A land like no other" is the tagline used by the national tourist board. Wracked by a separatist war, this nation has been unfortunate on more than one front for the last 30 years or more.
After Mahinda Rajapaksa was elected president of Sri Lanka in 2005, there was only a brief respite before the Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam (LTTE) provoked him into prosecuting an all-out war. His predecessor, the architect of a ceasefire who was considering devolving power, was defeated largely because of the Tiger-enforced boycott of the Tamil electorate in the north. Now the irony is that the terrorist outfit is on the receiving end as never before.
The Sri Lankan army, with its superior firepower, has pushed the Tigers into a small area. The LTTE have taken more than 150,000 civilians with them as a human shield - and the danger is that large numbers of these people could now be in peril.
But the government and the army have not taken kindly to any form of comment that would "demoralise the heroic troops" in their quest to annihilate the LTTE. There has been a systematic approach since the start of the campaign to bolster the people’s respect towards the Sri Lankan soldier. The government has admitted that since 2006 nine journalists have been killed and 27 abducted or assaulted. To date, none of these crimes has been solved by the police.
My brother Lasantha, the Sunday Leader editor, was brutally killed at 10.31am on 8 January, as he drove along a public highway on his way to work; he was shot dead by eight men riding motorbikes and dressed in black, with their faces hidden by helmets. The Sri Lankan air force camp is a mere 500 metres away from the point of attack, but the perpetrators got away and so far there have been no clues.
Two days before this killing, a television station was attacked and its main control room bombed. Senior government officials on national TV had accused this station of being biased towards the LTTE on many previous occasions. One staff member was accused of being a "terrorist" by Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the defence secretary - and the president’s brother - and had to leave the country in terror.
Prior to this Keith Noyahr, the associate editor of the Nation newspaper (since purchased by a relative of President Rajapaksa), had been abducted, and assaulted. He was released a day later. Noyahr - perhaps out of the fear of knowing who the perpetrators were - did not make a complaint to the police. Those who have carried out these attacks have never been found and are roaming the streets of the city.
Such systematic attacks by goons, backed by hate speech from high ranking officials in the army and defence establishment, have spread a psychosis of fear across the entire media. More than a dozen journalists, activists and officials in the Free Media Movement have left the island. Out of fear, no one speaks - and self-censorship is adhered to in the strictest form. The government-owned media, print, electronic and radio, are mere mouthpieces of the regime. Dissent is not tolerated.
There has been an influx of foreign journalists into Sri Lanka since Lasantha’s death, due also to the LTTE holding civilians hostage under intense mortar fire. Most local news services do not want to talk to the foreign media; if they do, it is off the record. And the foreign journalists are also apprehensive and edgy. They have no access to the area where the war is raging, other than organised junkets. Only news that emanates from the media centre for defence is disseminated by the government.
Once the war is over, hope should spring up in the breasts of the media in Sri Lanka. But will that be a reality? Could an establishment toasting the successful muzzling of dissent be willing to do an about-turn, to be liberal and value democratic norms enshrined in the constitution? Or would it be politically expedient to continue in the same vein in order to stay in power? Will there be light at the end of the tunnel for Sri Lanka? Or would that light be another train coming the other way? Only the murdered Lasantha Wickrematunge, gazing at this island from beyond, might know what future there is for democracy and freedom of speech here.
The tremendous wave of worldwide emotion that has been created by his death has embarrassed this nation. Whether his death will bring the liberty enjoyed elsewhere to this island, or whether it will slip further into repression, is yet to be seen. If the dream of freedom does not reach Sri Lanka now, Lasantha will have died in vain.
• Lal Wickrematunge is the managing editor of the Sunday Leader, the newspaper founded by his brother
editor@thesundayleader.lk
