Sri Lanka: Mr. President, We Have Your Files Too

Dear Mr. President we are no longer a nation based on the ideology of the cancer cell which, as Edward Abbey, a priceless man of our times who speaks out against the unjust in the United States, described as growth for the sake of growth.

It is true that many politicians and bureaucrats including you attempted to make this nation of ostriches, people quite happy to hide their heads in the sand when confront by injustice, but the times are changing, Sri Lanka now is eager to see the positive changes. Once again, the principles of non-violence is growing among the authentic political ideologies.

It is impressive to listen to the common opposition candidate and the former General Secretary of the ruling party, Maithripala Sirisena, highlight the values of non-violence. However, the journey has just started. There is a long way to go. Real challenges, obstacles and burdens as well as failures are yet to come. It is not easy to get rid of the tyrant who has disabled the morality of the nation.

It has been the main story for most of the media outlets based in Colombo. President Rajapaksa has openly challenged those who crossed over and those who are planning to walk out on him in the coming few days.

According to the president, he has files of many ministers and others who are licking his feet. The implication being that the very reason of why they are with the president is just because of those files. The bugs may have eaten the facts, but it’s all over the country and no longer invisible to the public that most of politicians in the country have contributed to the ruin of the country and the plunder of public resources.

However, no one knows the contents of those files. But bugs insides the files have revealed that the subjects of those files have aided and abetted the destruction of the stability, integrity and dignity of the country in the name of politics. Every file may have its own own uniqueness or art of the stealing of the public resources. Is this a new type of magic?

“I will not use them against those who had left betraying the party, but I warn them not to throw stones from inside glass houses,” he stressed his “gentlemanly” political tricks in a public function. This is nothing else but the utter bitterness of political opportunism and the reflections of the bbreakdown of the power he once held.

His theory of files on others has two faces.

First: the morality of the leadership which he maintained in last decade, and second, the political behaviour and dissimulation of the ruler and his clan and their colleagues.

If the country and the state institutes are deserving of their independent power, the president should submit those files to the Attorney General and the AG should prosecute each case on its merits. But why he does not proceed with due process? It is not because, he is unable to do so, but he has to keep those files under the carpet to protect himself. His politics have become a self-destructive parasite.

His theory of files on others in nothing but a deliberate attack on the country itself. This is an indication of the cynical manipulation of the basic norms of the integrity of the nation. This is an indication of the aberration of executive power which was further augmented by the 18th amendment to the constitution. The whole story of dissimulation of the constitutional crisis lies on this basic notion. Why do we need a leader who is protecting thieves to protect himself?

This is an indication of further decay of the moral and ethical quality of the state apparatus. Instead of finding justice according to the law, he used those files to blackmail the thieves to protect and enhance the executive power. The whole story behind the rising of Rajapaksa’s power is based on this deteriorated disagreeable cynical lure. This is nothing but the real nihilism of the “Mahinda Chinthanaya”.

However, he has made the real threat to his thieves who are licking his feet. “I will exposed you if you cross over,” is the basic motto of the president.

But the important challenge is to the public, the people have to decide take all the files, including the known files of Rajapaksa into the public domain.

Do the files on President Rajapaksa and his clan differ in content from the files that he is keeping on others? For one thing the amounts plundered will be unimaginably higher. By announcing the existence of these files on his present and former colleagues President Rajapaksa has truly opened a can of worms. He is not the only person keeping files on others.

The public has files on all those who plundered the nation. The public will decide which kick is suitable to whom. This is only a matter of time.

Nilantha Ilangamuwa is Editor of Torture: Asian and Global Perspectives. He also edits the Sri Lanka Guardian, an online daily newspaper. He is the author of the recently released non-fiction books, “Nagna Balaya” (The Naked Power), published in Sinhalese, and “The Conflation”, published in English. 

Nilantha Ilangamuwa is a Sri Lankan born author. He was the-editor of Sri Lanka Guardian, an online daily newspaper. He was also the editor of the Torture: Asian and Global Perspectives, bi-monthly print magazine, co-published by the Danish Institute Against Torture ( DIGNITY) based in Copenhagen, Denmark.