Lohan Ratwatte Award for bravery and courage in journalism

It is understandable if the press is collectively feeling a little lyrical about the new government. Everybody including Ranil Wickremesinghe deserves a good decent no-questions-asked honeymoon. Even in a state of semi-darkness, a honeymoon, a settling-in, is something that even this most acrimonious nation will not grudge Ranil Wickremesinghe, and his currently earnest band of men and women.

But, the very strange thing is that the press has suddenly turned mellifluous, or even silent about some of the legacies of the previous government. If the press doesn't have Chandrika to kick around anymore, that may cause high-anxiety, definitely, for the cartoonists particularly, and for certain award - winning newspapers! But, that does not mean that they should not kick the garbage that Chandrika Kumaratunga left behind, right into the — omigosh – is Mangala listening, the dustbin of history?

But, the press is shy-shy now. Very shy to talk about Lohan Ratwatte for instance. A press which was almost apoplectic in its frenzied attacks on the Chandrika Kumaratunga government, on issues ranging from her habitual lateness to corruption graft and state Mafiosi, is almost totally mute about the ten men who were gunned down in Udathalawinna in Kandy by , according to witnesses, Lohan Ratwatte and his band of borrowed army brigands. I suppose the Editors Guild, in all its tobacco induced wisdom, will bestow an award for journalistic bravery and courage in the face of adversity and whatnot, for this thundering ( let's leave the cliché word "deafening'' for the mellifluous serenading sound that accompanies the award…) silence? Or perhaps the Editor's Guild doesn't inhale? Or maybe, just maybe – judging by the citations that must be being written for journalistic bravery — the Editors have inhaled, but haven't exhaled yet? 

Ooops, now that this has made it past my Editor, is there any single explanation why the Sri Lankan press, to a man and to a Editor almost, has chosen to relegate the Lohan Ratwatte issue to the dustbin, if not the dustbin of history, to the dustbin that generally hovers about the Editorial Department toilet? The stories that deal with the Udatalawinne murders, pretend that Lohan Ratwatte was not in the picture. No one has said, HE is the story. Where is Lohan Ratwatte?

It's not an issue that ten men were gunned down, in Udatalawinna, and it is not an issue that the police cannot get at the chief actors in the tragedy? There are no screaming front page headlines, 80 point and IN-YOUR-FACE, about the facts such as-a) where are the Ratwatte's, b) if they are out of the country, how did that happen? c) if they are not out of the country, where are they, and why is the police not launching the biggest combing operation, as somebody else somewhere said, to "smoke them out of their holes?'' d) how come there was no Supreme Court censure about the audacity of the Ratwattes coming to court on a fundamental rights application, when there was a warrant out for murder? This from the same Supreme Court which said "those who are remanded for not paying EPF, who come to court pleading fundamental rights should be charged for contempt of court?'' !!

e) where is the general state of indignant agitation that the press has maintained, ( sustained bed-sheet size articles, day in and day out , Editorials, protest marches even, seminars organized, investigative reports, scoops, double-scoops and cartoons ) about the Ratwatte issue?

Answer: As far as the press is concerned, for reasons best known to it, the Ratwatte story has been small beer and handello. What's killing ten men for award winning journalism, compared to getting one corrupt little Board of Investment Chief out of office? That's journalism for you now. Get out that serenade. Bring on the John Player Gold Leaf. Have a party. Maybe at least that will smoke out the Ratwattes.

Of course there can be the usual hurt hanging of heads. Tch tch. This from one of our own men. He shouldn't have. After all, we did carry stories about the Ratwattes, on let us see – such and such a date, Sunday such and such a issue, third page, see, you see it there, right there, in black and white, be careful about that magnifying glass okay?? Surely, Ratwattes are sacred. They went to Trinity College. So there. They are not common criminals. Those who diddle the Board of Investment are common criminals, that's what. Anyway – who is this Rajpal? He doesn't write serious articles. He only writes satire, aney, that's what.