The Phoenix Files by Karunachala

July 22 should be a day of reflection for any serious politician or student of politics in this country. Sixteen years ago, it was on the night of July 22 that the action began leading to the dawn of July 23 – Black July – the most horrible day in the recent political history of this country. It was the day that saw a complete change in the trend and history of modern politics. It introduced a period of tragedy and destruction, murder and mayhem, caused both by State violence and terror and the deadly force of terrorism bred by militancy in the North and South. It also saddled the country with the burden of a war of separation.

But, for the leadership of the UNP, the largest party in the Opposition benches of parliament and the party that has ruled the longest since independence, July 22 was not a day of reflection on the crisis facing the country. Rather it was a day of agitation, of all things calling for the abolition of the office of the Executive Presidency, and a protest at the violent demonstrators of the party having to beat a retreat when the police and security forces prevented them from breaching security barriers and marching into the high security area in the precincts of “Temple Trees” on July 15, 1999.

In going through some old papers relating to July 1983, I came across Special Report 5 by the University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) which was issued, among other matters, to mark the 10th anniversary of the July 1983 violence. Here is part of what the report states:

“The spirit in which minority questions were handled since Ceylon became independent in 1948, had by July 1983 given considerable popular legitimacy to the incipient militancy in the North-East. The character of the presiding government did not allow for a resolution of the minority question through statesmanship and accommodation.

“The shameful violence of July 1983 was a direct consequence of trying to resolve these grievances through brute force. The impetus this gave the Tamil militancy, dominated by a nationalism blind to basic morality and human values, gained such destructive strength not merely to threaten the integrity of the nation, but also to have grave repercussions beyond these shores. It dominated the affairs of this country, so as even to determine the form of insurrection in the South”.

It is obvious from the UNP’s demonstrations of July 15 and July 22, that the resolution of any question through statesmanship and accommodation is not part of its political agenda. Shocked by the fact that it did not emerge as the winner in any of the recent provincial council elections, the UNP is now busy spilling its own defeat on to the streets, in the hope that sufficient unrest in the country would lead to the defeat of the PA Government.

It does not bother to find out whether the abolition of the Executive Presidency (not merely the office of Executive President) is anywhere high on the agenda of the political needs of the people. There is no concern for the fact that the country still continues to bleed due to a war, caused mainly by its majority racist arrogance. The demonstration at Lipton Circus on July 22, was an effort to make the victims of the Black July of 16 years ago, and the many others who still hold the UNP responsible for that despicably ugly blotch on the image of our country and people, forget the unforgettable. The reality they seek to hide, is that the UNP planned, caused and encouraged the massive attack on Tamils for more than a week, beginning from the night of July 22, 1983.

The politics of decency

With all the attempts now being made to translate the pledges made by the PA at the last Presidential Election to be the core stuff of the politics of today. I think it useful to quote just a part of what the UNP’s original candidate for the Presidency, the late Gamini Dissanayake, had to say in his own manifesto for the election. Referring to the situation of the UNP at the time he took over the mantle of leadership of the party, this is what he had to say: “Since I took over the leadership of this party, I sought to take it back to its original culture of a kinder, gentler, more honourable party. That culture was evident to me when I first became a Member of Parliament in 1970 and when the UNP was being led by Mr. Dudley Senanayake”.

Mr. Dissanayake had seen the rot that had set in the party that was once led by Dudley Senanayake, and vowed to take its culture back to the politics of decency. Unfortunately, a suicide bomb attack deprived the country of having a person with that vision as the leader of the UNP. “A kinder, gentler more honourable party” – can anyone in the UNP, or any of its supporters today, say it has come closer to any of these laudable aims of its last assassinated leader? It is a question that the UNP should ask itself, especially in this week of the Black July. It is also a question that the public should ask about the UNP, especially with the empty promises that it gives the youth of today that it is the party with a New Vision.

Having quoted the late Gamini Dissanayake on his aims for the UNP, and especially his regard for the late Dudley Senanayake as its leader, I believe it would be apt to quote from Mr. Dudley Senanayake himself on a solution to the ethnic issue. Speaking in Parliament when supporting regulations under the Tamil Language (Special Provisions) Act of 1966, introduced by his government, Mr. Senanayake said:

“A settlement is essential, absolutely essential. I cannot permit this country to be subjected to racial strife and cannot permit any section of our people, be it great or small, to feel that Ceylon is not equally the country of all its people … I am prepared to take the bludgeon blows in the interests of a settlement. For, if as a result of a reasonable settlement I have to leave this place I will do so gladly”.

Full thirty three years after Dudly Senanayake said that in 1966, and 16 years after the violence and bloodshed of July 1983, who in the UNP is ready to take not a bludgeon blow, but even a deserving smack on the face, in the larger interests of a settlement of this crisis that was largely caused by its own actions, and has been allowed by it to go on for so long. Is there a leader in the UNP who is ready to say today that if as a result of a reasonable settlement he has to leave his place, he would do so gladlly? The answer is obviously in the negative.

If there was such a leadership in that party, then it would not have been carrying out its rowdy demonstration on the eve of July 23, for the cause of bringing down this government, but, would instead be demonstrating in some form for national reconciliation. It would demonstrate in the best ways it could think of to achieve ethnic and religious integration. It would carry the torch of peace and understanding of the rights of the minorities, while being concerned about the rights of the majority, too.

The UNP cannot ever be divorced from all the tragedies of black July. Its responsibility remains from the electoral lists that the goondhas were carrying as they went about attacking Tamil homes and business establishments in that spree of killing, looting and burning, to the orders given to the Police not to interfere. The many Sinhalese homes, Buddhist temples, Christian churches and voluntary organisations that gave shelter and support the threatened and attacked Tamils, were helpless in the face of the bloodlust of the UNP. The memory of those tragic days is not easily erased from the mind of those fair minded people too.

That is why it becomes necessary to ask the UNP why it has been tarrying for so long to extend its support, no doubt with suitable amendments, to the draft proposals for a negotiated settlement of the ethnic question by way of major constitutional changes that have been presented by this government? These proposals also include the abolition of the Executive Presidency, and not just the office of Executive President.

If from 1998 Milovan Slobovich carried out the ethnic cleansing of the Kosovans of Albanians origin from Kosovo, then the leadership of the UNP in 1983 did certainly initiate the ethnic cleansing of the Tamils from many Sinhalese areas, particularly the metropolitican and urban centres. The mass transportation of them to the North and East, with the admission that they could not be protected in the South and other areas, naturally created in them the feeling that the North and East in their only safe homeland. That in turn gave credibility to the LTTE’s demand that the Tamil people would not be safe except in their own state, and as the UTHR says, created the atmosphere for a Tamil nationalism “blind to basic and human values”.

The agony suffered by the Tamils in July 1983, and in the several previous attacks on them initiated by the UNP government and by UNP led goondhas from 1958, and accelerated attacks after its sweeping victory in 1977, cannot now be erased from the collective memory of the Tamils. It is the cause of the Tamil diaspora, and all other issues relating to minority rights in Sri Lanka. If in such a situation, the UNP is not ready, even at this late stage to extend the hand of co-operation for greater devolution of power to the regions and the many other matters that need changing in our constitutional structure, then it cannot be a party acting in the national interests. It may shout slogans that it believes are popular and hope to gather more votes than it did in the provincial elections, but it certainly demonstrates its total bankruptcy in offering a solution to the ethnic crisis.

The draft proposals for constitutional change presented by the government are in no way the perfect solution. But at least it is they are before parliament, and were presented after lengthy deliberation in Parliamentary Select Committee. They have also been the most widely discussed and debated constitutional changes in this country, from before independence. They were presented by the President in keeping with her election pledge to find a negotiated political solution to the ethnic crisis. Although delayed due to the UNP’s tardiness and also the deadly political ripples of LTTE bombs, the President still stands by the proposals. There is no doubt that as Mr. Dudley Senanayake said about himself, she too is ready to take the bludgeons blows for it, and would be happy to do so if it helps end the war and resolve the ethnic crisis, especially ensuring the equality of all. If not she would not have reiterated her commitment to these proposals in the recent provincial elections, especially in the Southern Province.

The sad anniversary of Black July, even 16 years later, is a time for a political catharsis to bring about genuine reconciliation among the peoples of our country, the healing of differences and restoring the badly damaged bridges to unity among our peoples. The call of the people is for peace and reconciliation. Statistics show that the majority favour a negotiated settlement. The issue is before the political leaders of the country to show statesmanship in responding to the call of the people, and not beat the war drums of one’s own political agenda. This is the challenge mainly before the UNP. It has to be faced by the PA too. It is not something that even the JVP can escape. Let them all make a genuine pledge to ensure that there is nothing even remotely like the Black July of 1983 ever again, and work towards that vision becoming a reality. That is the biggest debt that today’s political leaders owe to the next generation.

Hooligans of Media Freedom

Media Freedom was never more “protected’ as we saw it last Wednesday, when the protest against assault on media personnel on July 15 was carried out. The leaders of the protest in a cheap show of bravado broke through an unarmed police cordon and went into a place where they were fully protected from the public eye. There, unseen by the public, they carried out their protest which to the many who saw it on television and in newspaper photos was nothing but a disgusting display of hooliganism. It was a far cry from the disciplined protests that were carried out in earlier days by the Free Media Movement, when it was agitating against the repeated attacks on journalists, including their killing and abduction, by the UNP regime. Last Wednesday’s slogans had only threats, there were no demands made of the government, not even that a proper inquiry be held into the attacks by members of the PSD, whether in or out of uniform.

Those who keep insisting that media freedom is under grave threat today, should ponder on the fact that the protest they made was shown on all channels of TV, both state and private. Some covered it live on TV and radio. Was there ever an occasion under the UNP regime, when any protest by journalists against the then government was shown on State TV or covered by State radio, which were the only stations permitted to broadcast and telecast news at the time.

The hypocrisy, and possible party sectarianism of the leaders of that protest lay in the fact that nary a word of protest was said about the fact that UNP thugs too attacked media personnel during the incidents at Kollupitiya on July 15th. Their protest was only aimed at the government and the PSD. True, the PSD had no business to attack journalists who were carrying out their professional duties. It cannot be by mistake that they attack TV journalists carrying prominent TV cameras, and other photographers. It may be necessary for the PSD and other sections of the police to be given some lessons in dealing with the media, in the process of dealing with an unruly crowd, trying to force themselves into a high security zone. But the UNP should also have been asked to tell its goondhas, even those with privilege, to keep their hands off the Press.

I could not help being humoured by the reports in the Press that the attack on some media personnel by the PSD on July 15 was the worst attack ever faced by the media. Space prevents me from recalling the many other incidents when journalists were deliberately targeted by the Police and thugs of the UNP, when it was in power. We know very well that some of the leaders of last Wednesday’s media protest were those who tried hard to mislead the voters of this country through the crooked monitoring of election violence. Their credibility among the public is certainly not high. It is possible that memories become shortened when politics is involved. But media personnel, from whatever hue they maybe, must avoid the pitfalls of political amnesia, for it is they who are expected to keep the records for history.

Courtesy: The Sunday Observer, 25 July, 1999