Abject Cowardice Vs Common-Or-Garden Fear
Emil van der Poorten
As someone who has been accused of foolhardiness up to and including exhibiting suicidal impulses in the matter of criticizing the most violent government in Sri Lanka’s post-independence history and, perhaps of all time, I suppose I bring to this piece some experience, if not expertise, in matters associated with its title.
At the outset let me say that I have been wearied by the constant admonitions from my friends, almost without exception, not to provoke a government that has given ample evidence of its capacity to respond to those who are seen as its “enemies” with less than the application of the rules and philosophy attributed to the Marquess of Queensbury. Worse than the veiled and not-so-veiled-threats has been the advice of friends and relations to “back off,” “not act as a cat’s paw for people lacking the intestinal fortitude to call a spade a spade,” etc. Some of this has even come from those I know to be acolytes of the current regime and I can but guess at their motivation!
As I might have answered in another time and in another place, “I have not now nor ever had” ambitions of being a Horatius prepared to sacrifice life and limb in defence of some bridge of democracy. No, mine is a far more mundane motivation, one that is driven by a belief that it is one’s right (and duty) as a thinking human being to apply whatever skills are at one’s disposal to the defence of those elements of behavior that separate human beings from the lesser mammals. As simple and, maybe, as complex as that!
Even if I did have pretensions of being some heaven–sent saviour of Sri Lankan democracy and good governance, the recent reality is that I would not have had to fight to be some kind of primus inter pares in that regard in this country. The reason for that state of affairs is that I have seen few, if any, certainly among those writing for publication, that fit in the category of outspoken opponents of Fascism as it is being practiced in Sri Lanka. The exception to this rule has been the coterie of women journalists of skill and courage who have given evidence of being prepared to face the wrath of the Rajapaksa Regime in their search for the truth and the exposure of the (totally rotten) status quo in Sri Lanka.Read More
