Saturday 7th December, 2024

The Rajapaksa governments used labels such as ‘traitor’ and ‘terror sympathiser’ to vilify their political opponents. They effectively created a bogey to rally support for their repressive actions, on the pretext of protecting national security, which they made out to be their raison d’etre. They succeeded in marketing their brand of patriotism to retain their hold on power and go on enriching themselves until they bankrupted the economy, provoking the public into rising against them. Most of those who voted for them became so frustrated in the end that they switched their allegiance to the JVP-led NPP, enabling its mammoth electoral wins.

The NPP government has moved to the other extreme. It promptly dubs those who flag potential threats to national security as ‘racists’ and enemies of ethnic reconciliation in a bid to prevent its opponents from criticizing its policies and actions aimed at consolidating its electoral gains in the North and the East. Several persons have already been arrested over what the government calls the dissemination of false information to promote racial disharmony and derail its reconciliation efforts. The CID has gone to the extent of using the much-dreaded Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), which the NPP bigwigs condemned during their opposition days, to deal with some social media activists who have highlighted a recent commemoration of slain LTTE members, including Velupillai Prabhakaran. It is a case of using a sledge hammer to crack a nut.

Thankfully, the draconian police action against the aforesaid suspects has not passed muster with the judiciary. When some of them were arrested and produced in court, recently, Colombo Chief Magistrate Thilana Gamage pointed out that the CID should have taken action against the organisers of the commemorations at issue rather than those who reported on them. The suspects were released on bail. On Thursday, Colombo Additional Magistrate Manjula Ratnayake likened such police action to shooting the messenger, when the CID produced in court another person arrested for using social media to highlight the commemoration of dead LTTE members. That suspect was also granted bail.

If anyone abuses social media to incite racial hatred and disseminate misinformation to disrupt social order by destabilising ethno-religious relations and instigating violence, he or she must be severely dealt with, according to the law. But that task does not require the invocation of the PTA; there are enough and more other laws that can be used for that purpose. Above all, arrests must not be politically motivated, and the police must not provide their service to the politicians in power as stormtroopers or hunting Mastiffs on the pretext of bringing ‘the enemies of national reconciliation’ to justice. They must desist from making arrests at the behest of politicians. Many police high rankers unashamedly did political work for previous governments so much so that one wondered whether they had sold their souls to the rulers of the day, such as the Rajapaksa brothers, Ranil Wickremesinghe and Maithripala Sirisena. Worryingly, some of those puppets in uniform are occupying key positions in the Police Department and serving the interests of the incumbent government. No wonder they swoop on the critics of their current political masters at the drop of a hat.

The Rajapaksas realised that they had failed to fool all the people all the time, only when they had to head for the hills, with angry mobs in close pursuit, after bankrupting the country. Their method of labelling and vilifying their political opponents came with a short sell-by date. It will be a huge mistake for the JVP/NPP leaders not to learn from the dreadful experience of the Rajapaksas. Demonising political rivals is no substitute for effective governance and fulfilling promises.