OPEN LETTER TO RAJAPAKSA FROM SRI LANKA FM SAMARAWEERA ON UNHRC RESOLUTION
UNHRC in session
15/05/2016
My dear Mahinda,
I still vividly recall the first time I met you. It was at the SLFP Party Headquarters on Darley Road in June 1988, which I attended in my capacity as the new SLFP organiser for Matara. I also remember being moved by the impassioned speech you made during the meeting about the widespread disappearances across the country and the responsibility of the SLFP playing an active role in finding these persons. I found your words exhilarating and it was the beginning of a long friendship. At the end of the meeting, Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike who chaired the meeting called you over and introduced me to you as Mahanama’s son.
Having graduated from Central Saint Martins in London as a fashion and textile designer, I was more at home in the bohemian artistic world of London at that time having qualified as a fashion and textile designer. My belief that I should do something about the large scale disappearances and other human rights violations in the South especially in and around my birthplace, Matara, finally pushed me to leave the comfort-zone of fashion, art and design and become a full time politician. And then we became ‘brothers-in-arms’, championing a number of democratic, progressive and humane causes. This led to the formation of the Mother’s Front Movement on the verandah of my ancestral house in Walpola, Matara in 1990 where you graciously accepted my invitation to be a co-convenor, along with me, of this historic movement.
Buoyed by the attention the Mothers’ Front was receiving, you started portraying yourself as a savior of human rights. You also became a champion of the free media and workers’ rights. In fact, we attended the inaugural meeting of the Free Media Movement at the New Town Hall together. You also took a leading role in the Padha Yathra protest made against alleged human rights violations of the Premadasa administration. Your single minded commitment to many of the values I too cherished since my student days struck a familiar chord bonding our friendship even further.
However, the many statements you have been making lately, especially the recent statement made by you opposing the Human Rights Council resolution, brings me genuine sorrow because it reminds once again that your role as a great human rights defender and upholder of democracy was merely an act done for the sake of political expediency while you were in the Opposition.
In fact, I realised this bitter truth only after you climbed to the top of the greasy poll of power and became President ten years ago. If you remember, before parting company in 2007, I sent you a thirteen page handwritten letter emphasising my concerns that your policy of dismantling democracy, ignoring reconciliation and violating the basic tenants of good governance would lead to the country’s ruin and your own downfall as well. But instead of learning from those mistakes, I fear that stubbornness, hate and greed continue to cloud your judgement, leading you down the very same path of destruction.
