“Skinning Cats” And Other Figures Of Speech

By Emil van der Poorten -November 4, 2012

Emil van der Poorten

The past five years has provided me with a political education that rivals that provided by the preceding five decades!

Apart from the “advice” about the necessity to abjure criticism of the current regime and more overt threats at high noon on the streets of cities, there have been warnings channeled through friends who steadfastly refused to reveal where they originated. Mind you, these were conveyed in good faith and were intended to be protective in nature.

I have increasingly heeded the advice of a much younger friend who has followed the lead of the prominent Czech writer and head of the post-Iron Curtain Czech Republic, Vaclav Havel, in acting “As if…..” Sri Lanka was a democratic state. Even before I was aware of the late Mr. Havel’s virtual appropriation of that phrase and philosophy in pre-democratic Czechoslovakia, my own instincts, experience, politics and circumstances had me treading the same path, though not consciously, perhaps.

In the event that the foregoing needs more explanation, here goes:

It is my belief that when one is compelled to live under a regime such as that which has prevailed in Sri Lanka, particularly since the ascent of Mahinda Rajapaksa to the Presidency, it becomes very necessary that one stakes out their place in the scheme of things, irrespective of whether that position meets with the approval of a repressive regime or not. In an era of ‘disappearances’ and when the highways and, particularly, by-ways are seemingly full of white vans, this is considered suicidal in some quarters. However, not to stake out a position of integrity at a time of repression would, in my opinion, constitute a living death for a thinking, feeling human being. Quixotic? Perhaps, but certainly less unacceptable than the alternative which has been so readily embraced by so many, from exam-successful and thesis-writing PhDs to those who’ve come by those and similar qualifications by far less reputable means!                                                     Read More