And Then They Came For Me, The Lasantha Wickrematunge Story
By Angie Singam -August 27, 2013
When Lasantha Wickrematunge, the Editor of the Sri Lankan newspaper, The Sunday Leader was shot dead on a Colombo street in 2009, the posthumous editorial resonated not just with the local media, but with the world in general. He wrote from beyond the grave, ‘I hope my murder will not be seen as a defeat of freedom, but an inspiration.’
I read the book ‘And Then They Came For Me’ expecting sentimentality and pathos, but instead was surprised by the tightly reined content. Here is an author in the uncomfortable position of being emotionally involved both with the subject and the journalistic world that he inhabited, but it never deteriorates into the maudlin. Raine, a journalist in her own right, pioneered The Sunday Leader in 1994 with her then husband Lasantha, his brother Lal and Haris Hulugalle, Chairman of Multi-Packs. She puts the newspaper in its political context with incisive skill and Lasantha’s story after the first few chapters becomes part of the newspaper’s development, as it should. The two are inextricably linked in the journalistic history of Sri Lanka.
Was Lasantha brave or foolhardy? Did he want fame and fortune and was he reckless in the pursuit of it? The questions are put to rest in the book. It is apparent that brought up in a mainstream Sinhala Buddhist family with political affiliations, he inherited a social position which he divested for the sake of his idealism. He turned down political posts, overseas assignments and attempts by successive governments to buy him out of the powerful role he played uncovering nepotism, corruption and political skullduggery under the nom de plume Suranimala.
A qualified lawyer, he used not just his understanding of the law and legislature but his sphere of influence to gain access to the inner circles and write ‘politically dynamite stories’. Raine writes, ‘Lasantha’s authoritative journalism wasn’t the kind that simply ruffled feathers; it ignited public debate. It was his exposures on the government that prodded a lethargic opposition to sit up, take note and move into action’.
