Picture Courtesy ADRN

Non Sinhala View:

Lanka’s ethnic ‘mountain’ and the wee mouse of ‘PTA pardons’

Ideally we should not ‘celebrate’ the Independence anniversary at all if common sense ruled the day. Christmas celebrations may well take place at Colombo’s hotels but the message of peace and compassion that was the core of the teachings of Jesus Christ is notably absent. Sri Lanka’s society grows more brutalized day by day as bestiality reigns and human being are strangled, shot at and down in broad daylight with state mechanisms either ineffective or part of the process of non-accountability.

Indeed, the President’s communications team (if not the President) should have been more alive to the idiocy in even framing such an outcome along the lines of an ‘Independence Day Celebration.’ One wonders as to the target audience of such rhetoric, it is hard to believe that even newly come observers of the country’s complex political dynamic, with all possible good intentions, will uncritically fall for this tripe. Certainly the mass citizenry, battered to near extinction by endemic gross corruption which still runs unchecked despite the collapse of the economy, with worse beckoning in 2023, will only be scornful.

While the Government’s antics are understandable, it is far less easy to understand asinine chortling from Tamil political parties over release of a meagre amount of PTA prisoners. Apparently, these are convicted prisoners whose releases are being ‘considered’ by the (in principle, problematic) device of Presidential pardons. But if ever we talk about bandaids not sufficing to cure a prolonged and systemic cancer of the Lankan governance system, this must be it. To parade these as democratic ‘gains’ makes a mockery, to put it mildly of sustained struggles to mitigate the more formidably cruel aspects of the PTA.

👉Full article: https://www.sundaytimes.lk/221225/columns/lankas-ethnic-mountain-and-the-wee-mouse-of-pta-pardons-506678.html

Sinhala View:

Government’s willingness to change the PTA set a bad precedent. Weakening counter terrorism law in Sri Lanka is a serious breach of Article 9 of the constitution, and compromise nation security for the advancement of terrorism.

Unilateral decision by GoSL to change nation’s security architecture without consulting regional countries that are under the threat of LTTE and ISIS – K cross border terrorism; violates international law against terrorism.

Sri Lanka as a signatory to multiple UNSC resolutions passed to combat terrorist financing and activities is universally bound to honour and abide established international counter terrorism laws.
©2022

✍️ Indika Sahabandu
Geopolitical Observer for Asian Millennium