The age of reason or treason?

"The challenge before voters on January 26 is not to be shackled to by this naïve doctrine of treason and sham patriotism and breakout into the enlightened world of reason."

By Gamini Weerakoon

(December 28, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Much before the Twenty First Century, the Age of Reason dawned on humanity including Sri Lankans. Sri Lanka, now, however, appears to be slipping back in time from the Age of Reason into an Age of Treason.

It began soon after President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s speech in parliament immediately after the victory over LTTE terrorism. Rajapaksa in his speech which has been called ‘historic’ — most of what he does or says now fitting into that description of being ‘historic’ — divided the people of Sri Lanka into two categories: Those with him and those not with him. Those with him were patriots while those against him were traitors.

That left out millions of Sri Lankans in a terrible predicament. At the last presidential election Rajapaksa won polling 4,887,152 votes as against 4,709,306 for Ranil Wickremesinghe. Now, going by the counting of Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake, there had to be 4,887,152 patriots as against 4,709,306 traitors. And the number of traitors did not include those who did not cast their ballots which would have exceeded the total number significantly.

With that revelation, if the Rajapaksa definition of Patriots and Traitors of Sri Lanka was accepted, it created another record in the Guinness Book of Records on ‘Traitors’.

Conversion of Patriots into Traitors

Now with the presidential election campaign gathering steam, the fierce debate between Patriots and Traitors has re-commenced with renewed vigour.

We are constrained to point out that the thoughts of Rajapaksa which are considered infallible by the Patriots, is flawed to a significant extent. General Sarath Fonseka who was hailed as one of the greatest patriots — if not the greatest — after having led the army to victory over the foremost terrorist group in the world has now been shifted out from the Patriots category into the Traitors: the reason being that Gen. Fonseka contested the claim of Rajapaksa & Brothers that Mahinda Rajapaksa was the Man of the Match whereas it was Fonseka who led the side in the field that was entitled to that claim. Whether Gen. Fonseka would accept expulsion from the Patriots’ camp is to be seen.

Traitors as Patriots

There is also another flaw in the categorisation. Many in the star-studded team of Patriots of Rajapaksa belonged to the Traitors club of the UNP. To name a few: Amunugama, Milinda Moragoda, G.L. Peiris, Rajitha Senaratne, Keheliya Rambukwella, Mahinda Samarasinghe, Bandula Gunawardena, Navin Dissanayake, Rohitha Bogollagama, S.B. Dissanayake, Johnston Fernando etc. were all in the ‘traitorous’ UNP. Could Traitors become Patriots on the offer of a ministerial portfolio is not only a question of semantics but of political morality, if there is anything called morality remaining in Sri Lankan politics.

The closest definition to patriotism we can quote is from Sir Walter Scott’s poem on the subject which we had to mug up in the Fifth Form:
‘Breathes there a man with so dead,
Who never to himself had said

This is my own my native land…….

Now Wimal Weerawansa the JVP renegade who has joined the Rajapaksa patriotic gang appears to be thinking on the same lines. Gen. Fonseka, he has declared cannot be a presidential candidate because he holds a Green Card and therefore is a citizen of the United States and not one of Sri Lanka. Weerawansa seems to have a proclivity to dabble in international law as well and the great Prof. G.L.P could do him a favour by giving him tuition in such esoteric subjects such as American citizenship and international law.

Holding a Green Card does not make one an American citizen, the learned Peiris, we hope, will inform him. But does the possession of a Green Card disqualify any one being a member of the Rajapaksa Patriot Company? The majority in Rajapaksa & Company appear to be holders of the Green Card commencing from the Rajapaksa brothers and extending to Milinda Moragoda and even Dulles Alahapperuma. If all these are disqualified to hold higher posts, comrade Weerawansa’s chances of climbing up the Rajapaksa ladder may be greater but the top rungs it is said are crawling with Rajapaksas.

Treason with shrieks

Last week charges of treason rent the air without any charges being made. Charges of treason, if real, should be brought up in court and not in the market place. Such trials in the market or railway station parking lots could only hurt the country and patriots kicking into their own goal. This is another valid demonstration of the quip of Bernard Shaw: Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.

The words of the famed rationalist philosopher Bertrand Russell could also guide voters: ‘It is undesirable to believe in a proposition which appear to be wildly paradoxical and subversive’.

The challenge before voters on January 26 is not to be shackled to by this naïve doctrine of treason and sham patriotism and breakout into the enlightened world of reason.