Unuth Ekai, Munuth Ekai Or Six Of One & Half A Dozen Of The Other

By Emil van der Poorten –December 20, 2015

Emil van der Poorten

I have chosen to use the vernacular, followed by the English equivalent because, to anyone with a familiarity with both languages, the former is, by far, the pithier and conveys what the thinking Sri Lankan is faced with in the matter of making choices between the main political conglomerations in Sri Lanka today. One is almost tempted to exhort readers, “Don’t vote, it only encourages the b……ds,” except that such action will only lead to the (endless) perpetration of what Sri Lankans have had to put up with for far too long already: lies, duplicity, game-playing and more of the “same old, same old” performed in the sole interests of the performers (I was going to say “clowns” but changed my mind because this is allegedly the season of goodwill to all human kind and I wouldn’t want to deride that decent, honourable, honest occupation in any way).

What provoked this particular bit of bile was the fact that I was told that Sir Desmond de Silva, P.C. was being kept on in one of the caricatures of investigative/reconciliation/peace-making committees appointed byMahinda Rajapaksa (MR1) prior to his being consigned to the dustbin of Sri Lankan history (we hope!). Information in the public domain specifies that the retainer that Mr. De Silva was being paid was of some consequence, even by the standards of the upper echelons of the British bar, £60,000 per month.

I am also aware that several responsible journalists such as D. B. S. Jeyaraj (I know, I know, he’s a Tamil!) raised very serious concerns about this appointment at the time it was made. Sir Desmond, it was alleged, had made statements at a major forum in Britain preceding his appointment by MR1 that indicated that he already had strong (if not biased) views about the matters into which he was now going, by the grace of God and MR1 (there IS a difference, you know!), to inquire and on which he was, presumably going to deliver judgement, particularly in the matter of “collateral damage.”

There have also been other rather serious allegations made against Sir Desmond to which quite wide publicity has been given in the foreign media that would suggest that his appointment to deliver judgement on the recent conflict in Sri Lanka could be considered less than an ideal one.

Before I wrote this piece I checked from a responsible Cabinet Minister known to be close to the Prime Minister whether the information I had was accurate, quoting my source. He had the courtesy to respond quite quickly in the affirmative.                                                               Read More