5th Column
Stop dark June from becoming Black July
View(s):My Dear Mahinda maama,
I thought I must write to you because, while you were visiting Bolivia, Aluthgama was burning. Now, two people are dead, a lot of property has been destroyed and there are many questions that need urgent answers. I know you visited Aluthgama soon after you returned from overseas, despite having a busy schedule. I am sure you would have reassured everyone with your characteristic charm that all would be well, eventually-and it made for good press and television coverage as well.
Despite all that, Mahinda maama, I hope you realise that these incidents have caused a serious loss of trust between different communities and many people are wondering whether, or when, it will happen again, probably with even more disastrous consequences.
There are those who say that if a similar incident was to happen again, we might even see a repeat of July 1983 that plunged the country into more than twenty-five years of war which you were able to finally end five years ago. What most of us cannot understand is why, after winning that war so decisively, this has to happen now. There is peace in the country, people can travel freely and there is really no need for people to go about spreading racial hatred, setting fire to shops and killing people.
I am told all this started when a group of people thought it fit to hold a rally at Aluthgama, when there were already tensions between the communities there following a minor incident. The rallying cry at that meeting was for revenge, I believe. These calls come from people who wear the saffron robe, call themselves a ‘senawa’ and project themselves as saviours of the Sinhalese and Buddhists. Isn’t it funny that, during the decades of war when Sinhalese and Buddhists were being killed by bomb blasts every day, we didn’t hear from them?
So, Mahinda maama, why is it that these types of people were allowed to hold a rally in a town where tensions were running high when some of your own ministers had pleaded with the authorities not to allow the meeting, knowing that it would lead to a disaster?
After all, this is a time when the Police don’t allow even university undergraduates or nurses and midwives to stage a protest saying that it would disturb the peace. Yet, they somehow allowed this rally to go ahead and what followed was a great tragedy.
Then, Mahinda maama, why is it that the Police, with the military also available to call for assistance, were unable to stop the arson and the rioting? And, is it true that the Police looked the other way while all this was going on?
Didn’t we pride ourselves on having one of the best armed forces which were able to defeat the most ruthless terrorist organisation in the world? With such resources at our disposal, surely we should have been able to control the rioting mobs at Aluthgama, if we wanted to.
Then, Mahinda maama, what is most baffling is that those who led the rally and made those inflammatory speeches urging revenge have not even been questioned by the Police yet, let alone being taken to task or put behind bars.
This again raises many questions, Mahinda maama. Is it that some people are above the law just because they go about wearing a yellow robe and pretending to be Buddhists? We know that the law doesn’t apply to people like Mervyn, so are there others who have the same privilege?
If you want to put a stop to this type of incident from happening again, Mahinda maama, you will have to order that the law should deal with those who incited the violence at Aluthgama as quickly as it did with Shirani and Sarath. Or, is that too much to wish for?
I am sure you know that the big elections are due soon. We all know that you are the frontrunner because there is no ‘common’ candidate yet but don’t forget that you will need the support of all communities to win. Already, one community may not support you, now another might not as well.
I hope, Mahinda maama, you would learn a lesson from what happened to JR. Like you, he too had a majority in Parliament and the opposition was in disarray. So he let July ’83 carry on, thinking he can get away with it-until it came to haunt him later. You don’t want that to happen to you, do you?
Think about all this, Mahinda maama. Since that eighteenth amendment was passed, all powers are vested in you. You can also go on forever as our leader. But because of that, you will also be blamed for everything, so it is up to you to now sort matters out without allowing history to repeat itself.
Yours truly,
Punchi Putha
PS-I heard that Rauff and Rishard are quite upset at what happened. However they are always of the ‘No Action, Talk Only’ type, so I don’t think you need to worry too much about them resigning or leaving the government-I don’t think they will make that sacrifice, even if their community is at risk!