Columns

For days, if not weeks, Sri Lanka has been under siege due to climate changes that caused death and devastation, as the world now knows. It was a tsunami of a different kind—different from the real tsunami we encountered two decades ago.

The loss of life then was decidedly more than what the nation suffered in the past ten days or so during the Cyclone Ditwah disaster, though the death toll possibly could rise as destroyed buildings, houses and other infrastructure are cleared and other debris is excavated.

The vast humanitarian assistance that has poured in from friendly nations near and far speaks of the readiness of countries to step in. It is testimony to the humanitarianism that prevails in some people despite the wars big and small and conflicts that end human life because of the greed of national governments and the aggrandisement, particularly among politicians determined to climb the power ladder.

What filled me with gall was when I read a piece of news a few days back which would have driven a hara kiri knife across one’s abdomen at the very thought of absorbing what passes off as concern, not for the people they claim to represent but hardly noticeable in word and deed.

As a prelude, what I intend to say is that our minister of health, wealth and media said a few months back that a new media policy would be let loose on the nation in the next three months. Since he is the minister of health as well, and the state of the nation’s health would require much more attention than the people, especially the people who voted for Anura Kumara Dissanayake, brimming with confidence promised in the pre-election days.

You, who followed the budget speech some days back, might remember a Clint Eastwood-like performance, taunting the opposition, asking the other side, “Crisis? What crisis?” with condescending dissension.

Just a few days after President AKD made that bravura show at Diyawanna Oya, down came a huge continuous gush of water—if I might call it that—sending the government rushing helter-skelter, having ignored weather experts’s early warning, over which there are continuing disputes between contending political parties.

Whatever the truth or otherwise, the force of the flowing water was so compelling that the NPP government had little option but to declare a state of emergency and deploy the three armed forces besides the police. The emergency was intended to rescue and save the people trapped in various parts of the country and help in the distribution of humanitarian necessities.

But what caused public shock was when a government member ordered the police to use emergency laws to suppress the media and people who acted to raise vital issues that mattered to an already heavily harmed citizenry.

The words that flew out of his mouth are surely disgraceful, coming as they did. It is increasingly becoming the habit of this government to pass the buck to the media, claiming that the news is doctored or fabricated and aimed at making the public believe that the NPP is guilty of such concoctions.

Hence, let me quote the words of the government member responsible for the offending words from the front page of the English-language daily with a front-page picture of the minister. He claimed he never said those words, which egged on the police to use the emergency powers against journalists who had committed no crime.

Since he intends to use emergency regulations to hit back at critics, maybe the government intends to extend the emergency as long as it can, using laws that still exist.

What the media needs to worry about is the impending rehash of the Right to Information law, which is part of the constitution and has proved to be a thorn in the side of governments, politicians, and officials. It would come as no surprise if some of the semi-judicial powers now exercised by the RTI are chopped or rehashed when it comes before Parliament in the next few months.

Right now there are a plethora of laws waiting to be discussed by the public.

This inclement weather has stopped me from completing what I started, especially dealing with freedom of the media, freedom of the press and the right to information. I hope to do so in the coming weeks, for these are vital because those who once promoted press freedom are now standing on their heads as they clean the stables with new jockeys and new horses.

(Neville de Silva is a veteran journalist who was Assistant Editor of the Hong Kong Standard and worked for Gemini News Service in London. Later, he was Deputy Chief de Mission in Bangkok and Deputy High Commissioner in London.)