Drama and dichotomy of democracy

President Wickremesinghe speaking to the director Rajith Dissanayake (R) and the cast members

On Friday (July 28) evening President Ranil Wickremesinghe and his wife Maithree Wickremesinghe sat at the Lionel Wendt theatre to witness the play “2019 Jooli Mase Dawasak” or “A day in July 2019” directed by award winning playwright Rajitha Dissanayake. In keeping with its title the play remembered the month of July. The month the ugliest incidents in Sri Lankan history took place -anti-Tamil pogrom in July 1983 and many other acts of ethnic, racial and religious extremism.   

President Wickremesinghe enjoyed the political play which touched deep rooted and ever growing extremism that has engulfed Sri Lankan society, the use of media and social media that often fuel extremism.   
“A day in July 2019” though not directly speaking of the infamous black July, it refers to many other Julys including a series of anti-Muslim attacks in a way of ‘Wandha Koththu’, unfair and unjust arrests and the incarceration of Dr. Shafi which happened around July 2019 and the boycotting of certain Muslim clothes shops, which took place following the Easter Sunday attacks.   

Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who came to power with the same popular momentum of an anti-Muslim and anti-minority wave, was forced to flee the country amidst protests by the very people who elected him in July 2022.   
President Wickremesinghe who joined the play after purchasing tickets and occupying his seat well in time had so much to learn from the well-crafted script of the playwright. Dedicating one and half hours of his extremely busy schedule on Friday evening would definitely have not gone waste on the Sri Lankan President who is currently struggling to implement the 13th Amendment. He is also touching on extremely dangerous topics of reconciliation and power sharing among the minorities.   

Great from a leader who had only one seat in the parliament but became the President and has survived one year.   
 The President’s presence at the play is even more significant as he made it while waiting to welcome the French President Emmanuel Macron, who made the historic first ever visit by a French President, and a few hours later the arrival of Japan’s Foreign Minister Hayashi Yoshimasa on the same night.   

Methodical President Wickremesinghe, who is known for his deep love for art and culture, had dedicated time not only to experience the play but to get on to the stage after the curtain call and congratulate director Dissanayake, the cast and the crew for their exceptional production. As the President left Lionel Wendt, there was barely one hour left for the arrival of President Macron.   

However, as the President was enjoying the play at the Lionel Wendt at Colombo 7, a little distance away within the city suburbs, Colombo-8, at the Borella Police Station was another drama, a real one was unfolding.   
Young Journalists’ Association Executive Member and award winning print journalist-turned social media activist, Tharindu Uduwaragedara, who was dragged from a three-wheeler, mercilessly beaten, pulled from his hair and bundled into a police jeep on the same evening, was locked up at the Borella Police .   

Tharindu was taken into police custody as he was leaving after covering a protest organised by trade unions, civil and political activists in Sahasrapura in Wanathamulla; where the protesters were demanding to protect the EPF fund. On the way to Borella Police Station, while still in the jeep, the police personnel had mercilessly beaten the young journalist. While beating him, the Police had charged him of working for dollars of an NGO. A popular slogan muttered by Sinhala extremists of the likes of Wimal Weerawansa.   

The arrest scene of Tharindu

But Tharindu, who had verbally protested against the allegation and responded to them, was reciprocated by punches on his head, face, back, and in wherever places possible. He was screamed at by police not to talk too much. But Tharindu insisted he would not keep quiet until the police stop punching him inside the jeep.   
At the Borella Police Station, the request by his lawyers to admit him to the hospital was not heeded and the law enforcement officers kept him overnight at the police cell.   

What happened to journalist Tharindu is a reflection of the gloomy and dark history experienced over the years by journalists. It could also be a forerunner of what is to come.   

Having started his journalistic career at ‘Ravaya’-the bold alternative Sinhala weekend publication, Tharindu joined ‘Anidda’ -the new newspaper- started by most of the Ravaya team. With the shift from print to electronic media, Tharindu was one of the first to identify the change and started his ‘Satahana Radio’ YouTube channel and his reporting was very much in demand. This was especially so during the ‘Aragalaya’ period where he gave updates on almost all major incidents that were taking place.   

 Standing up against extremism and racism, Tharindu’s face was not unfamiliar to the Borella Police as he along with other like-minded individuals on July 23 in front of the Borella Cemetery protested against the Sinhala extremists who attacked a memorial event organised to mark Black July in 1983.   

Organised by the North-South Brotherhood and the Socialist Youth Union under the theme “Let us not allow division and fly together”, the event with the lighting of lamps was to commemorate the people in the north and the south killed in July 1983 -an incident which happened 40 years ago involving Sinhala racists. However extremists and goons came to disrupt this event. They had claimed that ‘No Tamil was killed in Sri Lanka’ and Tharindu and other Sinhalese had tried to protect those who came to remember the darkest day of Sri Lankan history. The goons attacked trade unionist Sirithunga Jayasuriya, activist Sandhya Ekneligoda and many others.   

 It was clearly evident in the videos shared by Tharindu himself that the extremists barged into the gathering with their usual aggression and hurled abuse at the peaceful participants; branding them as “Koti” or “Tigers” before disrupting the proceedings. The worst was the presence of the heavily armed black anti-riot squad and the police who did not take any action to remove the violently aggressive disruptors but demanded the participants-who joined the peaceful memorial-to disperse immediately. The police -who made no effort to stop the goons who came to Borella to attack the memorial event- had instead claimed that the rally itself was an illegal demonstration.   
“Barbarian police backing up the Sinhala-Buddhist goons to crush the Black July commemoration today in front of Borella cemetery,” posted Tharindu with the live video of what happened there on last July 23.   

Having endured a disturbing religious and political history and adding to it unprecedented economic disasters, President Wickremesinghe, who praised the police and the military for protecting the parliament and other democratic institutions, immediately after he assumed power, would need to tame the security forces so that they would not meddle with at least the limited democratic spaces that had been saved not by politicians, but by the civil rights groups, youth and journalists who at times had to pay with their lives.   

Unless this happens, not only Rajitha but many other artistes will have to remind politicians in future not only of what happened in the past but what is happening right now in front of their own eyes.