Editorial

6th December 1998

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Damned anyway

If last week’s column in this space be gan with a reference to the President’s roguish twinkling in the eye and the fleeting twitch of a smile, it’s not by accident that we start this week with a reference to, shall we say, her opposite number? It may not be a roguish twinkle but a boyish grin , not a fleeting twitch of a smile but a puckish smirk. Either way the Leader of the Opposition and the Leader of the UNP with almost matinee idol good looks can also attract public attention if he so wishes.

But, if our grouse with the President last week was that her captivating manner is no substitute for her spoken word, this week we have to wager that the Leader of the Opposition is not long on the “spoken word thing” either. Maybe youthful loquaciousness is infectious, or is it that this garrulous condition runs in the genes of Sri Lankan political families? But, either way, Ranil Wickremesinghe’s assertion that the newspapers belonging to his relatives are the ones which have arraigned their forces against him and is propping up the ailing regime of his arch rival is as unfair as the President’s assertion the week before that “Ranil’s Uncle’s newspaper” is plotting her downfall. But at least Mr. Wickremesinghe’s speech makes one thing clear, which for a persecuted tribe of newsmen would gladden their sagging seasonal spirits.

The President and the Leader of the Opposition may both have been shooting from their hip when they castigated this newspaper group for backing the other side, but at least their statements cancel each other out so beautifully that one thing is definite. If both sides find this newspaper group to be equally unfair by them then we surely must qualify for the highest accolade any independent newspaper group can lay claim to. This is the certificate of unadulterated impartiality in our politics.

At the end of the day it seems almost funny that both the President and the Leader of the Opposition have almost tried to outdo each other in blaming the independent media of this country for sleeping with their enemy. Ergo, the prevailing political logic of these youthful leaders must be that if you are not on our side, then you be must be on the other side. That if you are not with us, you are against us.

But, as far as we journalists are concerned the journalistic dictum which we are supposed to live by is that we shall not take any side at all.. Being independent, even under pain of being called an enemy by one party simply because we do not toady upto it is a signal honour as far as we are concerned.

We refuse to be labelled as UNPers, or PA supporters even if politicians in office try to affix labels on us. For they must know sooner than later that people in this country need not be, as if by compulsion, card carrying members of a political party. That there can, and indeed must be people who can think independently and act independently. This in political language which they understand best is known as the “floating voter” and that in politics as well as among the free media there are no permanent friends and yes, maybe nowadays no permanent relatives as well.

There are other ways of looking at this situation of course. If we don’t support one side overtly we are blamed that we are partisan against them. Perchance if we do decide to support a side, like the newspapers in America which give endorsements to political parties, we are still blamed. So it is easy to see that in this business we will be damned if we do and damned if we don’t.

All that aside, it is this tendency of shooting the mouth , the lambaste and be damned syndrome among our political leadership that is quite unsettling in these times . Particularly where the public utterances by public figures are increasingly losing credibility. For example, UNP speakers in parliament this week hailed the LTTE as a monolithic organisation and that its international organisation is mammoth. They in unison urged this government to beware of this great organisation and to grasp the moment of Prabhakaran’s call for talks, which is not a call for talks anyway. So what is the UNP’s beef? Maybe the Government is also to be damned if they did and damned if they didn’t.

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