Patriots and crimes against culture

Saturday 25th July, 2020

The incumbent administration markets itself as a government of patriots by patriots for patriots. Its leaders never miss any opportunity to wrap themselves in the flag and rub their brand of patriotism on others. They are so proud of the country’s glorious past that they have undertaken to prove that millennia before the Wright brothers invented the first motor-operated airplane, mythical King of Lanka Ravana had flown an aircraft, called Dandumonera, which is believed to have inspired the original logo of Air Lanka, which later became SriLankan. (The current logo of the national carrier resembles a diyabariya or water snake!) One of these SLPP patriots has demolished an ancient building believed to be the royal pavilion of King Buvenakabahu II.

The demolition of a cultural heritage site could not have come at a worse time for the SLPP leaders. Their rivals have found something to hold on to in the run-up to a crucial election, and are flogging the issue hard in a bid to turn public opinion against the government. The SLPP is reeling because Kurunegala is represented by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa himself. The government appointed a committee to probe the incident and make recommendations. There is absolutely no need for a lengthy investigation; the monument is of archeological significance and those responsible for demolishing it must be arrested and prosecuted immediately. The Kurunegala Mayor should take the blame for the demolition work carried out by his council. In fact, speaking at a media briefing, he tried to justify the bulldozing of the monument. So, legal action should be instituted against him as well.

It has now been revealed that there was a restaurant within the ancient assembly hall precincts, and liquor was sold there. Who granted permission for setting up the restaurant? Who issued the liquor permit at issue? Why didn’t the patriots who are calling for the arrest of the Mayor protest against the restaurant and bar sitting on a historical site?

Both the UNP and its offshoot, the SJB, are staging street protests, calling for action against those responsible for the demolition of the royal pavilion. They ought to keep cranking up pressure on the government to have the culprits arrested. But some of the Opposition politicians leading the protests were in the yahapalana government, which failed to protect churches and hotels from terrorists despite having received intelligence warnings of terror attacks, which destroyed more than 250 lives, on Easter Sunday, last year. They never called for action against the LTTE, which bombed the Dalada Maligawa, destroying part of the much-venerated shrine; instead, they talked peace with the LTTE. Where were they when the Jaffna library was burnt down under a UNP government? They have not condemned that crime.

The most vociferous among the politicians protesting against the destruction of the archaeological site in Kurunegala are the JVP leaders. Nothing describes the predicament of the government better than an analogy one of them used at a recent media briefing. He said the SLPP was trying to cover up the mess it had created like a cat that had defecated on a rock. But the JVP also has a history of destroying valuable buildings. On 15 March 2009, the then Agriculture and Agrarian Services Minister Maithripala Sirisena revealed, at a ceremony to mark the reopening of the Gotatuwa Agrarian Service Centre, burnt down by the JVP 20 years back, that the JVP had destroyed 247 out of 545 agrarian service centres and the state-owned warehouses with huge stocks of paddy in them during its reign of terror in the late 1980s.

The self-proclaimed patriots of the SLPP should be ashamed of shielding the destroyers of a cultural heritage site. Similarly, their rivals letting out howls of protest against that crime against culture should realise that they cannot dupe the discerning public into believing that they are real patriots.