Civil society comedy on the CJ and Douglas
What could be done when Civil Society becomes precipitously uncivil? Grameen Banks are absent in Sri Lanka -- but instead of micro-credit Non Governmental Organisations in Sri Lanka offer comic relief. "The LTTE needs to appreciate that they too killed around 40 or 50 informants of the military, which the government could do nothing about.'' That line is from the comment of one NGO operative who, albeit writing in his private capacity, no doubt reflects the views of at least the NGO he represents.

Such gossamer language with the Tigers (you need to appreciate the fact that suicide bombers actually cause deaths, he is bound to announce gravely in his next outing…) shows the general inability of Sri Lankan civil society to condemn where condemnation is due, or to offer commiseration or appreciation where that is called for instead. There is never the appropriate response for events, and it is as if these people practise laughing at funerals and crying at weddings. That proclivity is not out of any need to rebel. It's the result of their being out of touch, being so steeped in their singular mission of fulfilling the wishes of various assorted donors and vested interests. "The Tiger should appreciate…'' line extracted above in fact came by way of damage control.

The National Peace Council was earlier ridiculed by another Sunday columnist for its tepid remarks after the Kollupitiya police station suicide bombing. The NPC was trashed by this columnist for having totally ignored issues such as the killing of informants in the NPC statement following the bomb blast, which clearly seemed to justify at least in an implied way the LTTE's attempt to assassinate Devananda. Any reference to the informants in a subsequent column by the NPC's regular stand-up comedian was due to the fact that he could no longer ignore the pressure to state at least part of the truth regarding the LTTE's attempt on the Minister.

Then there was another NGO operative who was quoted in a weekend newspaper recently saying that he "does not care about the private life of the Chief Justice, but is worried about the fact that the media has been concentrating more on his private affairs than about various charges of malpractice levelled against him.'' The reference was in reply to a simple question put to him by a weekend Sinhala newspaper which asked for his views on the recent rumpus created by a police log on the alleged tryst by the Chief Justice with a young lady in a car parked near the parliament premises.

This academic was grandstanding to the extent that he wanted to display his sense of liberal values and his current holier-than-thou cameo with regard to ''private lives''. As if anybody in this country could care less about who people in positions of power sleep with. There was no need for this constitutional expert who works for an establishment group that cannily calls itself the Centre for Policy Alternatives, to climb the Kanchenjunga of morality. Nobody in the media in Sri Lanka has is any substantive way expressed any real concern with the CJ's private life. All along the accent in the coverage has been on alleged misdemeanours that stem from various alleged acts from his attempts to cover his tracks after certain liaisons.

The recent contretemps is also of that nature. If for instance the policemen who still stand by their story are correct about their log entry concerning this alleged tryst (which was apparently first investigated on the basis of a security threat near parliament, after recent events such as the suicide bombing) then the CJ's written attempt to implicate these men in a so called 'conspiracy to thwart justice in the Supreme Court'' is a very serious case of malicious persecution/prosecution against the said police officers.

NGO wallah does not care about all of that. All he cares is about getting some gloss on his suit --- a little bit of tinsel to make him appear above the rest of the pack, who, according to him is only interested in the CJ's private life.

What's up with NGO wallah?? Hasn't he read the papers?? Is he not aware that it is the media and not his profession or the legal profession that spotlighted -- and even filed cases in court against these alleged misdemeanours by the CJ -- all on the basis that the CJ tried to subvert justice after his alleged liaisons. Any coverage or condemnation in the newspapers of these affairs themselves were only in relation to the subsequent malpractices, and therefore only minimal.

But on the latest bimbo eruption concerning the CJ, NGO wallah strangely ignores the fact that here may be an attempt to entrap police officers who were only discharging their duty. The police officers maybe right or the CJ maybe correct - - but that's all for subsequent investigation and judgement. But the fact that our canonised NGO Director chose to flog the media while not saying a word about the seriousness of an alleged cover-up says much for his sense of perspective -- not to mention the sense of self congratulation (a la "I'm the only person who does not talk about the CJ's private life"-- a patently pompous notion considering the above mentioned facts.)

So while the government does not effectively govern, or combat dengue -- there is precious little help coming the way of the average Sri Lankan from the civil society lobbies. These groups instead have become part of the problem.

Though not tarring all of them with the same brush - - there are some genuine civil society groups which pursue genuine causes -- there is a need to expose these civil society Mafiosi who only act as props for vested interests.

Fortunately society has carried out already a certain disenfranchising of sorts by taking away the moral legitimacy of these civil society mountebanks. This has not been difficult of course as these fellows just keep putting their foot in the mouth all the time to look unerringly like frauds -- without any real help from anybody who wants to expose their hollowness.

The NGO man who uttered the moral diatribe on the CJ's matter may have not served vested interests in that particular instance. But what we want to get at here is the general hollowness of the civil society lobby groups which do not have the intellectual stature -- and definitely the moral authority -- to be social sentinels.

Their moral base is wafer thin - - their allegiance to vested interests so transparent that they sincerely think they can get away with gems like "the LTTE should appreciate the fact that 40 or 50 informants of the military were killed with the government being able to do nothing about it.'' If a book is written about civil society' spineless ingratiation of vested interests, this quote should certainly be on its front cover.

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