8 September 2023 12:02 am Views - 1319
Sri Lanka is again under the spotlight because Britain’s controversial television channel ‘Channel 4’ has released a documentary on the island’s Easter Sunday bombings which were carried out in 2019.
When one speaks to the common man on the street the vibe is that there was the possibility of a political motive being behind the bombings. Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith has said on television that he would accept the findings in the documentary only after a thorough study is done on
this production.
It’s always hard to recall the carnage that was caused by the suicide bombers because there are friends and relations of the deceased who are still living with those memories. Christians believe that those who lived pious lives will go to heaven when they breathe their last. But that doesn’t in any way suggest that Christians are willing to let go of the killers who had a hand in one of the most brutal acts recorded in the island’s bloody history.
The latest documentary by Channel 4 on the carnage includes inputs made by the Cardinal himself and also a person by the name of Hanzeer Azard Maulana, who is playing the role of whistleblower in the video. Maulana was the spokesperson of Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP), a breakaway organization of the LTTE. The TMVP was formed by former terrorist area leader Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan Alias Pillayan. The latter appeared on television on Wednesday and gave his views on the documentary. Pillayan, now a state minister, appeared in parliament and said that he intended to seek legal action against the producers of this documentary. Pillayan has agitated because his name has been mentioned in the documentary.
Any documentary compiled against the interests of this nation must be investigated. The regime must use the best of legal experts for this and have clear and unbiased heads when attending to this matter. People of this country are not going to trust or believe the words of vociferous parliamentarians who virtually cook up stories when it fits their agendas; putting to use privileges lawmakers enjoy when parliament sessions are on.
The majority of people in the country too are likely to believe what the Cardinal said on television on Wednesday that it raises so much suspicion when the government or successive regimes have maintained a lukewarm interest when it comes to the exposing of the masterminds behind the Easter Bombings. There is an old saying ‘justice delayed is justice denied’.
The government has naturally maintained through their representatives in parliament the fact that the documentary is the work of outside forces who wish to attack Sri Lanka because the UNHRC sessions are around the corner. The next sessions of the UNHRC –the 54th in the series- are to be held from September 11 to October 13 in Geneva.
Critics with open minds might say that the Buddhist community here in the island experienced the same trauma when the LTTE bombed the Temple of the Tooth in 1998. The regime at the time under the presidency of Chandrika Kumaratunga urged the majority people of this country to stay calm without retaliating. Pillayan, mentioned in this editorial, was an active member of the LTTE back then. In later years Pillayan was allowed by Buddhist monks to visit the Temple of the Tooth and offer flowers when he took up the role of chief minister for the Eastern Province. This was after he relinquished the arms struggle and took to a democratic process aimed at finding solutions to the ethnic issue.
Sri Lanka needs to go forward in its drive to build this nation and Pillayan has understood this fact quite well. But this thinking cannot be compared to the rebuilding of the lives shattered by the Easter Carnage. Over 260 people were killed in the bombings and that forms a long chain of people who are still grieving. This government mustn’t react when time and again documentaries are produced associated with the bombings. It’s good for everyone if the masterminds of the Easter Bombings are named, shamed and taken to task once
and for all!