The national panto- mime or the Susanthika affair that is now playing to packed houses, more than anything else, exposes some facets of the national condition. A star athlete is suddenly a player in a soap opera that is going from the ridiculous to the absurd.
But, to make a long story short, it is a pity that Susanthika Jayasinghe, like many girls of her age, does not realise that she is being made a pawn in a bigger game by all kinds of players who have anything but her athletic interests at heart.
Being the first major case of sexual harassment to come into the national spotlight, its not surprising that the whole Susanthika affair has held the attention of the public. After the hype is buried, there could be a case of sexual harassment that should be thoroughly and scrupulously investigated.
If the country’s star athlete was sexually harassed by officials who could exercise a certain degree of control over her, then, there is no question that she was exploited . That’s bad enough. It is a clear case of “village girl comes to town, to be devoured by big bad rapacious wolves,’’ —something that would have been the plot for the classic Peradeniya novel.
But, then, village girl gets smart, and thinks of exposing the culprits. Full marks. But, in her endeavour, she is set upon by other big bad men, who are of course not only big and bad, but cunning as well.
The bottom line is that Susanthika the village girl, in her immaturity, has let herself be the pawn in the hands of bigger players who want the whole Susanthika affaire to be in the spotlight so that they can serve their own narrow political ends.
These people are not necessarily politicians. If a politician cries out on behalf of Susanthika with political motives, that’s half expected, because in many ways an opposition is duty bound to expose the misdemeanors of government. But, what’s more pertinent about the Susanthika affair is that nobody seems to see behind the whole smokescreen.
There is no need for this lass to expose herself to the nation at the bidding of people who are patently self-serving. Reason being that she is only going to hurt herself.
This certainly is not to say that Susanthika should, if she was sexually harassed, forget the whole sordid unwholesome experience. (She can’t, if she wants to get on with her athletic career. ) It is only to suggest that she should see things the way they are, and that she should take more prudent action that will get her the redress she seeks, without having to be a anyone’s tool, either the government’s or any others.
Susanthika Jayasinghe has in the remembered past had backers who have by and large been apolitical. There has been a Susanthika Fan Club, whose members were not politicians or politicians in another garb. There were persons such as Prof Anton Jayasuriya Dr. A.R.L. Wijesekera and Mr Eardley Perera, whose avowed intention was to foster her career and not to bring down the government.
There is nothing wrong in anybody’s wanting to bring down the government, because this is a free country and that would be anybody’s prerogative. But, from the athlete’s own perspective, its a pity that she nor her advisors see that she should not be a piece in a game of crude political chess.
It is the role of the press to expose, but not to ensnare.
Susanthika should not have been made into a can of worms. Obviously she is a woman with her share of kinks and idiosyncrasies, which is clear by the way she insinuates at people in her interviews.
She has reached celebrity before her time, before she is at an age she could handle it, which is not bad at all because there should not be a time- frame on success.
But, what’s happening now is that she is being dissected by, well, mostly muckrakers, whose only aim in life is to make use of Susanthika or anybody else who has a case against the state, in order that they whittle away at the credibility of government
That’s not working for the public cause; its working for the private cause. It makes Susanthika look like a joke, adds insult to her injury. Something she might not admit now, but will probably admit when she sees the same tapes when she is thirty.
She is also not doing her cause any good,. Her cause is important. She was probably sexually harassed. It is indubitably serious. There is more chance that her case will be viewed as a case of sexual harassment, and investigated as such, if it is not made into a political prestige battle between the government and its assorted detractors.
She should get off the media bandwagon, and go back to her genuine backers. Most important, people in the NGO’s, rights activists etc., who have her interests at heart, should also see the pantomime for what it is. Somebody should tell them: This is raw ugly politics. Get away from it. If you want to help Susanthika fight sexual harrasment, give her legal aid, fight for her cause in the correct fora. But, don’t get yourself tainted in a political powerplay, because that will only get Susanthika into a political compartment, something she may have already got herself into unwittingly, by doing the bidding of disguised political opportunists, who pretend to be her saviours.
They will drop her, when they see the next prey, its their style....
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