Mahinda burning in effigy. Watch in high definition on YouTube.
Please note that I don’t really approve of this and I suspect that many at the peaceful procession for Lasantha Wickremetunge’s funeral don’t. I don’t wish violence or death upon anyone in any form because, as Notorious B.I.G. said, there’s no coming back from that. I think burning Mahinda is tasteless and draws more trouble than it merits. But it still makes for interesting video. And one of the more interesting slogans at the procession was ‘Gathakaya Satakaya’, or ‘the guy wearing the sash is the killer’. I guess, ‘the sasher is the slasher’. But getting to the main point, is Mahinda responsible. I’ve been having an ongoing debate with Dayan Jayatilleke on Groundviews on the subject. The last summing comment of which I’ve posted below.
To sum, in my mind the chain of evidence is pretty clear.
1. Mahinda and Gotabaya go on record equating dissenting media with the LTTE and calling them traitors. A threat to national security, to be stopped, etc.
2. They retain people in their cabinet (JHU’s Ranawaka and Silva for example) who go even further, actually assaulting the media (both the threat of violence and actual violence). [Ranawaka is known for saying people will die for their wild donkey freedom. Mervyn is know for actually assaulting the director of Rupavahini and trashing Sirasa cameras]
3. Who those people retain is beyond me. But Lasantha ends up dead in the streets. Everyone gets what they want, and no one has responsibility.
4. The Ambassador to the UN (Geneva) blames it on the LTTE or JVP or other more serious, unspecified problems which need to be addressed later.
5. Repeat
Does that mean advocating violence against Mahinda, or ever burning effigies? In my mind, no. Because we still have to work with Mahinda and his supporters like, apparently, Dayan. But to speak of responsibility, I think it’s pretty clear that the Rajapakse’s are responsible. Not in the sense that they ordered the hit, but a CEO doesn’t approve every street promotion either. They give general leadership, appoint people to carry out their vision, and then keep an eye on things and fire people when things don’t go as planned. The Rajapakse’s have called journalists a threat to national security, appointed people who threaten and assault journalists, and those people still have their jobs. And Lasantha Wickrematunge is still dead. The Rajapakse’s are the ones who set this vision of thrashing journalists as traitors, and I do consider them responsible.
hmm.. i dont thnk the rajapaksha’s are directly reponsible.. if you read lasantha’s last post he says that mahinda “will have to protect the killers”
anyway sad situation.. he blames the government for the murder.. no doubt in that..
Although I condemn this murder, the attack on sirasa was some what deserved.. capturing kilinochchi was a great military victory.. why it wasnt broadcasted i have no idea..
this is just my opinion..
Just a heads up about a sinhala typo: ‘Jathakaya Sathakaya’ should read “Gathakaya Satakaya.” G instead of J in the first word; and T instead of TH in the second word.
This is what I called “Politics Over Dead Bodies”. Some people turned Lasantha’s funeral into a political rally. A political Carnival, as The Island reports today. Do you believe they were “horrified” or “drawned in tears of sorrow” by Lasantha’s death?
If you think so, you are mistaken. Those people who gathered last evening in Borella, and conducted political rallies were jubillent! They were over the moon with the joy of “finding the dead body they were looking for”. At last they had someone’s dead body to do politics. After sometime, I saw Wickramabahu Karunaratne’s face! He got some place to deliver a speech!
There were several groups of people last evening, at the funeral.
1) True mourners of Lasantha’s death. With true tears.
2) Those who went there, just as a response to the “tide”. They don’t know what’s happening. But they had to be there, because some other people around them are pushing them.
3) Those happy bunch of people, who went to do the political carnival
As far as I believe, only the close family members of Lasantha were among the first group. Do you think, CBK, Mangala or Sanath Gunathilake had a real reason to mourn about Lasantha’s death??? They were the people who got hit by Lasantha the most!!!
An addendum to point 3: four guys on motorcycles dressed in black (uniform?) get away without the usual sinhala check at any of the myriad checkpoints. Gotta be state based to have that kind of freedom.
BTW, I got a message “we are sorry this video is no longer available”. Looks like Mahinda’s media bashing has gone into Youtube as well! May be a gang of 20 thugs, armed with claymores and fire arms, raided the Youtube server location, and crashed all the servers to the ground.
May be now you can go on another campaign to condemn this! “Satakaya! Hands off Youtube!!!” might be a good slogan.
I try to make sense of the feelings of you people who blame the government and Rajapakshe’s of every “un explained” things, and everytime it makes a “sense of humor” to me. I don’t see much difference between you guys and those ancient people who worshipped trees and rocks. They beleived, if there’s anything that we can’t understand; that’s something done by god. You believe, if there’s anything that we can’t understand, that’s something done by Rajapakshes. Difference is, you don’t believe Rajapakshe’s are gods. For you all, Ranil is almighty!
I know your Sinhala is not as good as mine (Just as my English is not as good as yours). But you got it wrong when saying ‘Jathakaya Sathakaya’. It should be corrected as “Satakaya Gathakaya” as I heard from the people who’ve been to the funeral. If this helps to improve your Sinhala/Local language vocabulary; “Jathakaya” means “Life” in Sanskrut. And “Satakaya” is what Mahinda wears around his neck. “Gathakaya” means Assassin. Hope, now this helps to get the meaning what they were shouting.
@Under Dog
corrected, my Sinhala is terrible
The YouTube is linked with the low-res version. The hack I’m using to embed HD doesn’t work anymore
Um…hate to be anal, but you have to also change “Sathakaya” to “Satakaya.”
“1) True mourners of Lasantha’s death. With true tears.
2) Those who went there, just as a response to the “tideâ€. They don’t know what’s happening. But they had to be there, because some other people around them are pushing them.
3) Those happy bunch of people, who went to do the political carnival”
This is an oversimplified depiction of what went on. why do you suggest that the political tears were “fake” and those who went there with “political” motivations were not “true” mourners? Then a political intervention into the present situation can be seen as a fake/dishonest attempt.
But then this assassination itself is a politically motivated act. I honestly think it was a MUST to make his funeral a political platform to fight against this anti-democratic tendency. It gives a totally negative impression when you name it a “political carnival”. I suggest that we call it a political platform :-)
Yes, unfortunately, it was UNPs political platform. But still, if the UNP isn’t legitimate enough to undertake and lead that fight “we” must invent political alternative. Proposing to depoliticize a funeral of a killed journalist means abandoning all viable solutions. Protests alone won’t make a change. Problem is a political one. So should be the solution.
You hit the nail on it’s head, to prove my point, I was trying to make in my blog post of “Politics over Dead Bodies”.
//But then this assassination itself is a politically motivated act\\ – May be that’s one theory. Other alternative is, some “top dog” (political, administrative, business, or underworld) decided to get rid of Lasantha, to avoid being black mailed by Lasantha. Not necasarily politically motivated.
If we stay inside the domain of “politically motivated murder”, they how can someone say only the governments can do politically motivated murders? You say “we (you) needed a political platform to fight against this anti-democratic tendency”. Now, to create that platform; can’t someone plan a murder like this? Isn’t it politically motivated.
What you are trying to prove here is; “someone” (as you propose us to do) can make a “funeral” of some prominent figure in the society,into a political platform to fight against the existing political power (Mahinda government), if they “think” or “believe” that the government is anti-democratic. Then, if that is possible to do (turining funerals into political platforms against existing government), isn’t it possible some anti-government hands to “create a funeral” and make it a political platform against the government?. And if you endorese the idea that it is a good tendency that people turn funerals into political platforms, then the type of people I am talking about are more motivated to create more funerals like this one in the future. Because, such funerals will continue to create them good platforms to carry out the politics they want. if you look at this development; it is very dangerous for all of us. So, what we have to do is not to burn dummies of Mahinda. But to be logical, and probe for the facts. This is the “core point” of my post “politics over dead bodies”. Hope at least few people will make sense of what I am trying to say; without being carried away with “anit Rajapakshe” emotions.
Indi, you are absolutely right about this effigy-burning. I think most people in this country would find it distasteful, probably downright offensive. It risks a major backlash in public opinion, and confirms that the UNP and their ilk remain clueless. I’m really not sure for what reason you posted this video.
I agree with you that Mahinda & Co. must be held responsible for the poisonous environment that resulted in Lasantha’s murder. I would go so far as to say that most people probably do. But do they want this government to fall? Not on your life. It is not that they don’t care. It is just that they feel that getting rid of the LTTE is job No.1, and they have no faith that the opposition, as it is currently constituted, can do it better than the incumbents. They may be wrong, but no one is giving them any good reasons why.
There is this perception that in the minds of the effigy-burning elite, the GoSL is more tyrannical than the LTTE, Mahinda is more savage than Prabhakaran, the death of Lasantha is of far more import than the fall of Killinochchi, the freedom to condemn the state deserves more protection than the unity of Sri Lanka, and the nation’s sovereignty should be traded away for money to bust at R&B. Of course I know these are all crude simplifications/prejudices/false choices. But falsehoods that have a grain of truth to them are the hardest ones to correct.
That chant is quite clever though.
True. I’m not sure why I posted it now either. But it is interesting and this site is generally irrelevant. And it did happen. I don’t agree with it.
I still ‘support’ the government and Mahinda as a citizen. In a democracy your party can lose but you’re still loyal to the nation, and its institutions. And I think that sort of basic citizenship and law-abidingness is possible while still being in the political opposition. I don’t want revolution, and certainly not violence. I just want the basic levers of democracy (free speech for one) to be available.
Perhaps after this land war is over, and the refrain that we must sacrifice just a little more life/freedom/money to get that one more parcel of land, we won’t have to choose between unity and freedom. Much as I hate the concept of war, I think there will be an opportunity for a real debate on this nation’s future when there is no more land to be won. There may be political space then to address the real ethnic problem. Lasantha’s killing would have generated more outrage if it had happened after the land war was over. People are willing to excuse anything until the war is ‘won.’
“I’m not sure why I posted it now either.”
You posted it because it happened. The official media sanitizes the news already; don’t be tempted to do the same. Just tell it how it happened, warts and all.
Haha the effigy burning is comical. Morbid sense of humour, sorry.
And bah.. regardless of MR is directly responsible for Lasantha’s death or not, he doesn’t really seem to be very CONCERNED at all with hunting down and punishing the real assassins. Too busy with the public show of sympathy ya see. And like you said, they started this shit, and don’t seem to have any inclination to finding a way to end it.
So in that sense, MR is definitely responsible.
“1) True mourners of Lasantha’s death. With true tears.”
Does that include those who cry ‘true tears’ for what Lasantha’s death symbolises? The rape and murder of democracy in Sri Lanka; with the democratically elected government cheering (and probably sponsoring) the rapists and murderers.
as much as i am not always all about his convictions, voice of colombo is doing the god’s work these days. lets see what the Democratic Chirpers come up for his ‘political platforms’ point
and the post is hilarious, please learn at least one of the two major languages of the country
For those who say that there is no evidence that the Govt was behind this, okay, maybe they didn’t. But the fact remains that many journalists and opponents of the Govt have been assaulted/murdered in the last few years, and not one perpetrator of those crimes has been brought to justice. Not one.
The irony of all this is that the Govt tells us that it is fighting the LTTE to free the people of the North and East from the oppression of a fascist dictator – to return to those people the freedoms of speech, dissention, and democratic franchise. If that is what the Govt is truly committed to achieving, then why are they not fighting the same fight in the South? Under the Govt’s logic, journalists and others who enshrine freedom-of-speech should be protected, and those who seek to silence them should be brought to justice.
If the Govt is truly fighting for a Sri Lanka where anyone is free to express their opinions and views, journalists should be receiving Police and/or military protection in order to safeguard said freedoms. The fact that the Govt turns a blind eye to the intimidation, assault and murder of journalists and other political opponents smacks of hypocrisy.
I ask myself, what exactly are we fighting for?
At the moment, the fight is against LTTE terrorism and seperatism. The fight against state tyranny will start after the interval.
Great site yours sincerely, Kayleigh Boben
You have heard of the ‘Doobie Brothers,’ and the ‘Bellamy Brothers.’ Now put your hands together Ladies and Gentlemen…for ‘Rogerproxy and the Righteous Brothers,’ who will perform their new ‘hit single,’ We Shot The Lasantha, And We Also Burnt The MTV (sung to the tune of ‘I Shot the Sheriff’) the harmonizing is done by the ‘Mahasone Balakaya Singers’ and the ‘K9 Choir of Vienna.’
We Shot The Lasantha, And We Also Burnt The MTV (sung to the tune of ‘I Shot the Sheriff’)
By Rogerproxy and the Righteous Brothers
We shot the Lasantha, and we also burnt the MTV.
We shot the Lasantha, and we also burnt the MTV.
All around in ‘The Land of the Blind,’
They are blaming our ‘Gang of Four’.
They say they want to bring us in guilty,
For the killing of ‘Lasantha’,
And burning of the ‘MTV’.
But we say:
We shot the Lasantha, and we also burnt the MTV,
but we swear it was not in self-defense, (it was just to teach the media a lesson.)
We shot the Lasantha, and we also burnt the MTV,
and we say it is a minor offense…(an International Conspiracy)
Lasantha always hated us;
For stealing the ‘Tsunami Aid’ and ‘Crooked Arms Deals’.
He exposed are dirty deals in the ‘Sunday Leader,’
So we said ‘Kill him before he exposes more!’
So we said ‘Kill him before he exposes more!’
We say:
We shot the Lasantha, and we also burnt the MTV,
but we swear it was not in self-defense, (it was just to teach the media a lesson.)
We shot the Lasantha, and we also burnt the MTV,
and we say it is a minor offense…(an International Conspiracy)
Lasantha was on his way to the office,
To expose all our dirty deals.
So we shot, we shot him down.
We say:
We shot the Lasantha, and we also burnt the MTV.
We shot the Lasantha, and we also burnt the MTV.
Future of Sorry Lunket:
After two days of dissent inside his Socialist party that threatened to bring down his government, Prime Minister George Papandreou named his main internal rival as finance minister. The move is expected to solidify the support from lawmakers Papandreou needs to pass a 28 billion euro ($39.5 billion) package of steep tax hikes and budget cuts so despised inside Greece that riots exploded outside parliament this week.
European donors and the International Monetary Fund require Greece to pass the austerity measures before releasing the next 12 billion euro ($17 billion) loan from a 110 billion euro package agreed on last year to keep Greece afloat until it reins in spending and increases government revenue.
The life of Lasantha Wickrematunga (who was a poor excuse of a journalist) is in no way more important than the deaths of 80 000 odd other Sri Lankans who died during the war. No one really gives a flying fuck about him except for a few NGOs, their hangers-on and the “Sunday Leader crowd.” I certainly don’t give a toss about the man.
Lasantha’s dead did not generate more outrage because the vast majority of Sri Lankans don’t give a flying fuck about some two bit journalist editing a Colombo-based English newspaper. It’s funny how people try to lionise the man when all he did was use his newspaper to go on personal witch hunts against whom he pleased. Lasantha and the Sunday Leader figure VERY LITTLE in the minds of Sri Lankans.
List of countries/places Mahinda is BANNED from visiting:
1. OXFORD UNION
2. WHITE HOUSE
3. BUCKINGHAM PALACE
4. WASHINGTON DC
100% guarantee you will NEVER see Mahinda at any of the above places.
Mahinda’s PREFERRED travel destinations:
1. Russia
2. China
3. Libya
4. Iran
5. Burma
DC Court to serve summons to Rajapakse
[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 February 2011, 01:38 GMT]
Attorney for the three Tamil plaintiffs who are suing Sri Lanka’s President Rajapakse in the District of Columbia Federal court for monetary damages under US’s Torture Victims Protection Act (TVPA) said in a press release issued Tuesday that he will be requesting the Clerk of the United States District Court to send summons by mail to Rajapakse’s residence “Temple Trees” in Colombo 3. Civil procedure rules normally require a properly served defendant 21days to file an answer.