We thought that the criminalisation of politics and the politicisation of criminals had been buried in the dustbins of history. The PA solemnly promised that the era of violent politics would end, and indeed had ended and we would see democratic freedoms with openness, transparency and decency in public life.
But the incidents in and around Negombo and Katana over the past month - compounded by the President's unfortunate if not ominous remarks at Veyangoda recently - have put Sri Lanka on landmines again.
Apparently depressed or disoriented in a political and economic quagmire, the PA government appears to be becoming hardened, intolerant, vindictive if not violent, too proud and self-righteous and therefore unwilling to be checked or corrected. It appears to be forgetting that the state or the government is not the nation. For many high-ups in the PA today anyone who is critical of the government is anti-national. Such bigotry, history has shown, is often the root cause of most social evils.
In the aftermath of the Negombo-Katana violence certain moves and trends are sounding alarm bells all over the country. One such move was the mysterious decision to stop the CID investigators in their tracks, only a few days after being asked to investigate. We were told that the probe has been handed back to the Negombo police which is widely known to be little more than a puppet of the political authorities in the area. Now we are told the CID and the Negombo police are jointly investigating. It is demonstrative of the lack of direction generally in the country. Not that the people have much confidence in the CID anyway. In many instances the CID itself has shown how partial or prejudiced it could be in investigations. But what has been done in Negombo has turned the probe into a farce and a fallacy.
Only a few months ago, Justices P. Ramanathan and Sarath Silva recommended after probing the Vijaya Kumaratunga assassination, that an independent police authority be set up to investigate political killings. Those recommendations are probably now in the WPB.
On the Bandaranaike commemoration day last Thursday, Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike made a fervent appeal for an end to political violence. Thirty seven years after her husband and social revolutionary S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike became the first major victim of political violence in independent Sri Lanka, the scars of that horror apparently still hurt the Prime Minister. Some 30 years later President Kumaratunga herself had to go through the agony of seeing her husband being slain in political violence.
Yet it appears that many in the government are refusing to learn from history. Such people are condemned to repeat the mistakes of the past. Last Sunday state television broadcast a statement in which a leading politico while condemning violence in one sentence, appeared to justify it in another. A few days later state television broadcast an interview with a minister and a deputy minister where derogatory remarks were made about Supreme Court judges. While this may be open to contempt charges, what is worse is that it indicates a contempt for the rule of law by our lawmakers.
It is ironic that Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, addressing the United Nations General Assembly, has called on foreign governments not to condone terrorism in any way at a time when his own government leaders appear to be condoning a reign of terror in Negombo. Mr. Kadirgamar has appealed that there be no safe havens for agents of terror. So be it in Sri Lanka also.
Such an environment is dangerous. Politics in Sri Lanka recently has largely been one of killings, bombings, arson and intimidation. This political culture is what we are preparing to celebrate on February 4, 1998 as the golden jubilee of our independence. Fifty years after we released ourselves from foreign rule, see what we have done with ourselves.
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