“They Were Only Doing Their Jobs!”
By Emil van der Poorten –March 6, 2016
Emil van der Poorten
Recently there has been a spate of appointments of camp-followers of the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime (MR1) to positions of responsibility and trust in government departments, research institutes and boards with operational and policy responsibilities.
When I have sought to engage some of the so-called movers and shakers and, particularly those loudly supportive of the current dispensation (MR2), I have been met with the response that forms the title of this piece.
To describe that response as being akin to what issues from the south end of a north-bound bull, would be an understatement.
I have had occasion recently to visit, frequently, a major health care institution in the Western Province which was deliberately neglected over the years of MR1 purely and simply because it bore the name of a past President of this country who wasn’t of the same political hue as the Rajapaksa Monarchy.
Among other things, it is patently obvious that the original structure, tile and fittings, particularly in the bathrooms, was of high quality but that neglect over more than a decade has taken its toll.
My initial impression was that there were a significant number of soldiers on the premises because, what turned out to be security guards were dressed in uniforms that, to the lay eye, were indistinguishable from the garb of battle-ready soldiers. The only difference – thank goodness – was the fact that they were not toting side arms or assault rifles. Not as far as I could see, at least.
Examination of their identification patches provided the reason for this uncanny and deliberate attempt to put a military face on a simply civil responsibility in a HOSPITAL, no less. The “unit” from where these men came was the subject of a piece I wrote some time ago on the subject of private armies and the effort being made in Sri Lanka to mimic what George “Dubya” Bush did years ago in Iraq with Blackwater Inc. which was found guilty of all kinds of atrocities. The identification patches said Rakna Arakshaka Lanka Ltd., (RALL) what I then identified (accurately) as the beginnings of Gota’s army, just the beginning of a far larger force with a sea -borne wing as well. A coincidental (?) footnote to that narrative would be the fact that the headquarters of RALL is just down the road from this hospital!
