The Sri Lankan governments propaganda war regarding Amnesty Internationals campaign based on an innocent slogan in which they call on all Sri Lankans to play by the rules is reminiscent of Don Quixote tilting at the windmills.
At the first sight it may appear ridiculous for anyone to oppose a call . This is, after all, what everyone is expected to be doing at any given time. It should, in particular, gladden the hearts of a government when an international chorus supports the ambition that any reasonable government should have, which is and to get its opponents to play by the same rules. However, the Sri Lankan government is not pleased by this call. The concerns it raises are purely of a psychological nature as to how this call may affect the national cricket team in their game. In the governments ardent enthusiasm for cricket they have started a counter-campaign against all Sri Lankans who play by the rules. An outsider cannot be blamed if he or she forms the opinion that the government is opposed to the idea of playing by the rules. The outsider may even further believe that this is very strange.
However, to those who have closely followed the behaviour of the Sri Lankan state as well as its main opponent, the LTTE and the LTTEs own opponents in other militant groups may not find this opposition to playing by the rules at all strange. The official ideology of several Sri Lankan governments was expressed by the former Minister of Defense, Ranjan Wijeratna in parliament when referring to the governments repression in the late eighties against its then opponents saying that these things cannot be done according to the law. He went on to say that the government has by now destroyed the second eleven and soon it will destroy the first. The matter, in cricket jargon was that the lower ranks of the JVP (the governments then opponents had already been terminated, which was a euphemism for disappeared) and that the top leadership will soon meet the same end. True to its word the government of the day saw to the physical extermination of the JVPs main leaders after their arrest in a summary manner.
The irony of this is that others who believed in the same philosophy of not following the rules also killed Ranjan Wijeratna himself with a massive car bomb. The ideological stance of the government, the LTTE, other militant groups, as well as the more extreme right wing section of the Sinhala opinion makers is that this match should be won by terminating the players rather than wining the game by playing according to the rules within the framework of democracy and the rule of law. A former president, J.R. Jayawardene said that, this is killing match.
The call for a democratic solution and a return to the rule of law are today considered subversive ideas to all parties to the conflict. All attempts to bring in issues relating to human rights and even the rules of the Geneva Convention are considered detrimental to the fighters of all sides who are encouraged to fight it out to a bloody end. The government is merely echoing this general opposition to playing by the rules as it believes such a policy would be self defeating. After all, the slogan is kill poison by poison.
The Sri Lankan cricket team has endeared itself to the whole world by its charming sportsmanship. They know and they have also proved that they can still win when playing by the rules. Their experience has been positive and that is good reason to develop a healthy mentality of being an example of sportsmanship. They are psychologically upbeat because in the field of cricket they know the rules and play by them.
However, unfortunately in the field of politics in recent decades the Sri Lankan mind has become deranged. It is mortally scared of playing by the rules and does not even hide its opposition, even for the sake of not being embarrassed internationally. The plea is for the international world to understand that Sri Lanka cannot afford . It is this deeply entrenched position that the government is expressing to the international community by their unrestrained attacks on the call . The international community instead of being irritated by such a message from the government should see it as an eye-opener to the depth of the problems Sri Lanka is facing. It should fathom this mentality which considers that a rational and decent solution to the multiple crises the country is faced with does not exist. This mentality itself is one of the major obstructions to a wholesome understanding of the problems as well as for finding rational solutions.
The Asian Human Rights Commission has characterized the situation of Sri Lanka as one of an exceptional collapse of the rule of law. Unless the international community positively and strongly supports the people of the country, who are the only ones who seem to want to return to normalcy, and to reestablish the normal framework for playing by the rules, which is the framework of democracy and rule of law, things are likely to get worse. It is not enough for the international community to call on all Sri Lankans it must positively assist the country and its people to make that possible.
