Tuesday 13th January, 2009 The Island ANALYSIS 6 Editorial COMMENTARY Foxes watching over poultry pall of gloom has were assaulted in 1995. Three week have been placed at the nabbed by the police while he The present government can- descended on the Sri years later, his house came doorstep of the Rajapaksa gov- was covering a protest march. not cite anything—not even the ALankan media following under a grenade attack. (In 2000, ernment! It was also under a UNP heinous crimes its rivals have the brutal murder of The his press was sealed.) Did she Curiously, UNP Leader Ranil regime that popular television perpetrated against the media in Sunday Leader editor Lasantha bring to book the goons respon- Wickremesinghe has also taken journalist Sagarika Gomes was the past––in extenuation of its Wickremetunga. It has sent a sible for those attacks carried up the cudgels for the media. murdered for unknown reasons failure to bring those responsi- chill down many a spine. Today out allegedly at the behest of her Last Friday, he gagged himself and the Aththa cartoonist ble for attacks on media institu- it is Lasantha and who will it be government? and protested against Yunoos mercilessly assaulted tions and journalists to book. tomorrow? Chandrika says she regrets Lasantha's murder in the very for pillorying the then govern- The government's track record But what troubles us is not so having sacked the UNF gov- ment potentates. But, the UNP and the violent disposition of much the spine or the chill in ernment in 2004. Does she also bigwigs championing media some of its members are such question but the restless gorge regret her decision to seal the The Island rights today did not even that it is only natural that the that rises at the sordid conduct Leader press? It was also Published by Upali Newspapers Ltd. make a whimper then. Why? public and the media have no of the wily practitioners of sar- under her watch that Rohana 223, Bloemendhal Road, Colombo 13. The JVP, too, has joined the alternative but to presume the cophagus politics. Kumara, Editor of the Satana Tel: 2497574, Fax: 2497543 campaign for protecting the government guilty until it E-mail: [email protected] There are many political wor- tabloid was gunned down. His Branch Advertising Office: media. Our Rathu proves itself innocent by hunt- thies weeping buckets for the killers were never brought to No. 6, Sir Chittampalam Sahodarayas deserve praise ing down and prosecuting the media that has come under justice! Taraki or D. Sivaram, A. Gardiner Mawatha for their concern for democra- culprits responsible for crimes attack. They even get off their one of the best political com- Colombo 1 cy. A JVP MP waxed eloquent against the media. Tuesday 13th January, 2009 bulletproof limos in the blazing mentators in this country was against the backdrop of the Meanwhile, it behoves jour- sun to shout themselves hoarse abducted and murdered in charred remains of the MTV nalists to bear in mind that in defence of media freedom. If April, 2005. No one has so far Parliament, where his party had studio complex destroyed by a politicians' love for the media only they had been so concerned been convicted of that crime! once insulted brilliant journal- goon squad last week and is nothing but lack of opportu- about media rights when they Ironically,while Lasantha was ist cum artiste Richard de Zoysa demanded that the culprits be nity to suppress it. Given half were in power! being harassed under the posthumously calling him many brought to justice immediately. a chance, they will seal print- Former President Chandrika Kumaratunga government, the a name in a veiled attempt to jus- He did the right thing, no doubt. ing presses, revoke licences of Kumaratunga has lashed out at then Minister Mahinda tify his violent death at the But, the mere sight of a JVPer TV and radio stations and have the Rajapaksa government over Rajapaksa, whom Chandrika hands of the death squads of the on TV evokes our memories of their critics assaulted or even the killing of Lasantha. She accused of being the ‘reporter’ Premadasa government in 1990. two eminent television personal- killed. So, forging any partner- appeared on TV the other day of her Cabinet because of his Ranil was also a prominent ities, Thevis Guruge and ship with them to protect asking why a government which rapport with the media, was on minister of the JRJ government Premakeerthi de Alwis, killed media rights is tantamount to boasted of its ability to tame the Lasantha's side. After the 2005 which had the gumption to by the JVP sparrow units in the having a fox to watch over LTTE could not deal with the presidential election which reward a police officer convicted late 1980s. poultry! killers of Lasantha. We have the Mahinda won, Lasantha and by the Supreme Court of violat- We would like to know from No media campaign against right question being asked by Chandrika patched up differ- ing the fundamental rights of the JVP knights in shining suppression will succeed so the wrong person! However, the ences and joined forces against Vivienne Goonewardena on the armour championing media long as it is in the grip of wily government ought to answer the present government. And International Women's Day in rights why they ever snuffed out politicians and the captains of that pertinent poser. the blame for the arson attack 1983. She had been beaten inside those innocent lives and caused the victim industry (read Chandrika was President on the Leader press in 2007 and a police station when she tried an irreparable loss to the Sri NGOs) looking for corpses to when Lasantha and his wife the killing of Lasantha last to defend one of our cameramen Lankan media. further their interests. Gaza: Worse than a Crime

The existing Arab regimes are willing to make peace with Israel on the basis of the 1967 borders, mainly because they fear the further radicalisation of their own populations, and perhaps even violent revolu- tion, if the Israeli-Palestinian conflict continues to fester.But the Arabs as a whole have all the time in the world: sooner or later the wheel will turn and Israel will become vulnerable. If it has not integrated into the region by then, it will be in mortal peril.

by Gwynne Dyer Obama later this month, because largely to shift the opinion polls rejectionist, the man who suc- he has no intention of squander- in favour of the ruling parties cessfully sabotaged the Oslo srael is not going to show ing his abundant but finite politi- before the election. However, it Accords and effectively killed the restraint,” Foreign cal capital on a quixotic attempt must be over, and somehow look “peace process” during his last “IMinister Tzipi Livni told to bring peace to the Middle East. like a success, before Israelis term as prime minister in 1996- the Washington Post on Saturday, He will spend it instead on goals actually vote. Good luck. 99. He rejects the very idea of a after the United States abstained that have some chance of being The war against Hamas in “two-state solution” to the on Friday’s UN Security Council achieved, and he will be right to Gaza looks more and more like Israeli-Palestinian conflict. resolution calling for a ceasefire do so. the three-week Israeli war Netanyahu is a glib ideologue in Gaza. All last week the specu- Yet the Israeli offensive in the against Hizbollah in Lebanon in who does not understand strate- lation grew that Washington was Gaza Strip will almost certainly 2006, which could hardly be gy and sees no reason for Israel going to defy its Israeli ally for end within the next two weeks. called a success. It will last about to seek peace with its neighbours once and vote for the resolution, International revulsion at the as long. It will kill about as many if the price is giving the but literally as the delegates sat carnage among Palestinian civil- Arabs, probably a thousand or so. Palestinians back their pre-1967 down in the Council chamber the ians will play a certain role. Any And it will end with Hamas, like borders. In the long run, there- phone call came from President big loss of life among Israeli sol- Hizbollah, still able to fire rock- fore, the war is more of a disaster Bush ordering Secretary of State diers, or the capture of even one ets at Israel. for the Israelis than it is for the Condoleezza Rice to abstain. or two soldiers, would turn This means that Binyamin Palestinians. So nothing will stop Israel Israeli public opinion against the Netanyahu, the Likud Party Israel currently enjoys three from hammering the Gaza Strip war overnight. And the clincher leader who was already leading huge strategic advantages. It has as hard as it likes — and the situ- is that the Israeli election is on 10 in the opinion polls, is almost the strongest army in the region ation is unlikely to change with February. certain to form the next Israeli by far, backed by the only modern the inauguration of Barack The war is being fought now government. He is the ultimate economy and the only technolog- ically competent population. It has an absolute monopoly on nuclear weapons within the region. And it has the unstinting, unquestioning support of the world’s only superpower. But none of these advantages is for- ever, and Israel needs to make A car burns following an Israeli air strike at the Rafah refugee camp southern peace with its neighbours while Gaza Strip, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2009. it still possesses them. The existing Arab regimes are Strip, but that does not mean that either the morality or the utility willing to make peace with Israel Israelis are in the wrong. of the war. on the basis of the 1967 borders, “The only reason there are It is the usefulness of this mainly because they fear the fur- more victims in Gaza than in war, not its morality, that Israel ther radicalisation of their own Sderot is because Hamas is not should be questioning. Unless populations, and perhaps even good at shooting rockets,” Zalli Israel re-occupies the Gaza violent revolution, if the Israeli- Jaffe, an Israeli civilian living in Strip permanently — which Palestinian conflict continues to Jerusalem, told a BBC reporter nobody wants to do, because it fester. But the Arabs as a whole last week. “To conclude that would mean a constant stream have all the time in the world: Israel is at fault would be like of Israeli military casualties — sooner or later the wheel will saying the US was wrong in then once the army pulls back turn and Israel will become vul- World War Two because many Hamas will re-emerge, stronger nerable. If it has not integrated more Germans died than did than ever. The Arab regimes into the region by then, it will be Americans.” that might make peace with in mortal peril. That is quite true: Hamas Israel will be further under- It is pointless to make moral would do exactly the same to mined, and Israel gets judgements about this war, and Israelis if it could. The prospect Binyamin Netanyahu as prime foolish to use the body count as of a seventy-to-one kill ratio minister. an indicator of virtue or blame. makes Israel much readier to use As was said after the execu- About seventy Palestinians have military force than if it had to tion of the Duc d’Enghien on been killed for every Israeli who sacrifice one Israeli life for every Napoleon’s orders, the Gaza has died during the current Palestinian it killed, but the kill operation “is worse than a Israeli offensive in the Gaza ratio tells us nothing about crime. It is a mistake.”