Hitler, Stalin and others

Wednesday 30th November, 2022

The Nazis of Sri Lanka (read the members of the current SLPP-UNP government, whose leader, President Ranil Wickremesinghe, has called himself Hitler recently in Parliament) have gone into overdrive to suppress democratic dissent. They invaded an auditorium at Hanguranketha, on Sunday, in a bid to sabotage a conference held by a group of SLPP dissidents. Thankfully, they failed in their endeavour.

The fact that the Sri Lanka police are functioning as the Sturmabteilung or Brown Shirts under the Third Reich in Germany, and the prevailing culture of impunity seem to have emboldened the Nazis here to unleash violence to intimidate their political opponents. The Hanguranketha attack presages trouble for democracy, the Opposition and the distressed citizens who are left with no alternative but to take to the streets.

What is up the government’s sleeve is not difficult to guess; even a female ruling party MP has warned that there will be attacks on the Opposition. State Minister Diana Gamage warned Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa, the other day, in Parliament; she asked him to cancel a protest march to be held from Kandy to Colombo lest the people should set upon him on the way. The term, ‘people’, is a euphemism Sri Lankan governments use for their goons. One may recall that in the early 1990s, when some journalists covering a DUNF leaflet distribution campaign near the Fort Railway Station were attacked by a gang of UNP thugs, the then Minister of Defence D. B. Wijetunga claimed that ‘irate train commuters’ had assaulted the media personnel who were blocking the entrance to the railway station! We asked him, in this column, whether commuters carried firearms, swords, bicycle chains, and knives. President Ranasinghe Premadasa, who was in power at the time, may not have thought his beloved son would come under similar attacks by ‘people’.

The government has sought to justify the use of draconian laws such as the PTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act) to curb public protests on the grounds that political upheavals adversely impact tourism. If so, will the SLPP and the UNP explain why they resorted to street protests to engineer regime changes? The UNP held a large number of protests against the Mahinda Rajapaksa administration, and the SLPP unsettled the Yahapalana administration by means of mass protests. The UNP backed the Galle Face protest campaign to the hilt when Gotabaya Rajapaksa was the President. No sooner had Wickremesinghe been appointed the Prime Minister than he appointed a committee to look after the interests of the anti-government protesters!

Power cuts, scarcities of essentials, attacks on democracy and the exploitation of foreigners affect tourism more than peaceful protests do.

Political stability is no doubt a prerequisite for economic revival, but it cannot be achieved by suppressing public protests. Similarly, it is well-nigh impossible to overcome political instability while the people are undergoing economic hardships and demanding relief. The government must not only take action to stabilise the economy but also be seen to be doing so. Unfortunately, it is seen to be busy solving the problems of the Rajapaksa family, the SLPP, the UNP and their cronies! It also lacks legitimacy because it comprises the SLPP grandees who ruined the economy, and other failed leaders who were rejected by the people at the last general election for neglecting national security and mismanaging the economy.

There are some troublemakers hell-bent on plunging the country into chaos on the pretext of fighting for the rights of the people. They are the ones who carried out arson attacks, assaulted people and even killed an MP during anti-government protests in May and July. But that is no reason why the people’s fundamental rights should be curtailed. All violent elements that break the law have to be dealt with separately. Interestingly, President Wickremesinghe, who calls himself Hitler, has condemned anti-government protesters as Fascists! Some violent characters among protesters claim to be ‘students’. The government refuses to accept their claim. It does not seem to be aware that the terrorists who have ruined Afghanistan are also called ‘students’ or Taliban in Pashto!

Meanwhile, the unfolding politico-economic tragedy is not devoid of some comic relief. In the 1940s, Stalin had Hitler on the run. But, about seven decades on, here in this land like no other, we see ‘Stalin’ running like a rabbit with ‘Hitler’ in hot pursuit! General Secretary of the Ceylon Teachers’ Union, Joseph Stalin, valiantly led mass protests against President Gotabaya Rajapaksa from the front, and was instrumental in engineering the collapse of the Rajapaksa regime, but today he is on the defensive, facing as he does harassment at the hands of the current dispensation. He has proved to be no match for Gotabaya’s successor, who calls himself Der Fuhrer; his bark is now worse than his bite.