Sri Lanka: A country to die in

by Tisaranee Gunasekara"When the merit-laden Motherland wants (me), why do I need the citizenship of another country?I will abandon all honours and will return Mother, to (undertake) the endeavour of protecting you."An internet poster by Viyath Maga, hailing Gotabaya Rajapaksa candidacy September 2019President Gotabaya Rajapaksa addressed the nation on the day Sri Lanka became South Asia's first in average Covid-19 deaths.

195 people died on that day, according to official figures, driving the total count distressingly close to 7000. The president expressed no word of regret about these deaths, no word of sympathy for the bereaved families. He had nothing reassuring or compassionate to say to the people beset by pandemic fears and economic uncertainties.

Instead he praised himself and groused about those who urged a lockdown on him. He also seemed to trivialise Covid-19 deaths by stating that most victims were over 60, had co-morbidities and were unvaccinated.

The lack of empathy, even common or garden civility, and the victim-blaming should not be surprising, for they are Rajapaksa trademarks. For the Rajapaksas, a tragedy is a Tragedy only if it can be exploited for their political good.

Victims of unusable tragedies are are not true victims deserving of compassion but criminals or malcontents responsible for their own plight.The Vallipunam bombing, which happened fifteen years ago, provided the clearest forewarning of this Rajapaksa characteristic.

In August 2006, the LTTE compelled more than scores of school girls to attend a compulsory training camp. Whether the training was in first aid only or in weapon-usage as well was uncertain.

What was indisputable was that the participants were not child soldiers but school girls, thus civilians.The Lankan air force bombed the camp, killing 61 of these school girls.

Subsequent information indicated that the bombing may have resulted from the mistaken belief that Vellupillai Pirapaharan was present in the camp. Whatever the motive, the fact that the victims were school children made the attack morally deplorable, a tragedy and a crime.

The government could have acknowledged its mistake and apologised. Any government that cared an iota for its own people, especially children, would have done so.

Instead, the still new Rajapaksa regime went on propaganda offensive, falsely claiming the dead children to be child soldiers.The Vallipunam bombing was a forerunner of what became standard Rajapaksa practice during the war never admit to mistakes and never count the human cost of military actions (In this, the Rajapaksas were unconsciously emulating the LTTE).

So every Tamil war-dead was turned into a Tiger by definition, even babies. The Sinhala South accepted this false equation, some...