Prompted by renewed focus the recent discourse in your tribune generated on above, I was able to trace excerpts of an interview Priyath Liyanage, the Head of the BBC Sinhala (anti) service had with the ‘Divaina’ newspaper in April 2000. In a discussion with Nayanaka Ranvella published on the April 9th issue of the news paper, Liyanage maintains that BBC has no particular agenda as claimed by certain parties who are fond of ‘conspirator’ theories. “The fact that we broadcast in Sinhala does not mean that we should take the side of the Sinhalese. BBC is like an empty box (Pakis pettiya) where anybody can get on and say their piece”.
[ad#200×200]Then he goes on to say that,” Every organization has their own point of view. The Tamils have their view; the LTTE organization has its view; the Sinhalese have their view; even extremist rightist organizations like the ‘Anti terror movement’ and the ‘Sinhala Veera Vidhahana’ also have their own views; and we have to accommodate all those without the need to either adopt or exclude any one or the other.”
Sounds like a paragon of non partisan media integrity; but the discerning reader would notice that with that very statement the head of the ‘Sinhala service’ had said it all so subtly about what he adopts and what he excludes.
Sinhala Veera Vidhhana is an organization started by some Sinhalese businessmen, mainly Garment factory owners, to help the average Sinhala farmer to come out of the economic shackles of ‘cyclical exploitation’ at the hands of ‘middle men’. It was realized that while the other communities had sponsorships from Mosques, Churches and Diasporas the Sinhala farmer has been toiling for years with no external help. Veera Vidhahana had no expressed enmity towards any other community and did not advocate murder or any other violent methods to achieve its ends.
It should also be noted that this organization was formed at a time when CBK was painting a wicked image of the average Sinhalese Buddhist with her anti Sinhala propaganda and also at a time when no MP from the two so- called ‘secular parties’ could be made to stand up in Parliament to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the massacre of innocent Buddhist pilgrims at Sri Maha Bodhi by the LTTE. It is indeed unfortunate that the head of the BBC Sinhala service considers such an innocent organization formed to counter the physical and economic threats to the Sinhala community as ‘rightists and extremists.’
National Movement Against Terrorism was also formed around 1995 to counter the propaganda generated by the pro LTTE activists to justify the killings and mayhem LTTE was enacting over the years. They organized demonstrations and other related activities to denounce the LTTE and counter their sympathizers who were white washing the LTTE crimes. They never carried out any attacks or harmful activities against any community and were against terrorism in general. Could any person call anti terror an ‘extremist activity’ unless he intends to project terror as a normal and acceptable activity?
On the other hand, the LTTE has been a killing machine from the day it was borne, killing Sinhalese Tamil and Muslims indiscriminately and ethnically cleansing areas they want to own up as their exclusive homeland. It is this LTTE that is referred to by the head of the BBC Sinhala service just as an ‘organization’. If the judgments and standards of an international broadcasting institution is so impaired could the listeners expect anything ‘fair and reasonable’ from that broadcaster?
That is not all; the discussion gets funnier further down. In response to another question as to why the BBC treats the Government and the LTTE on an equal footing, Liyanage states that, “ Today’s rebel could be tomorrow’s state leader. For instance South Africa had an apartheid regime and Mandela was a rebel in prison.”
This signifies that this head of the BBC Sinhala service either does not know about Prabhkaran , the leader of the most ruthless terror group in the world or about Nelson Mandela , the internationally accepted icon who liberated the blacks in apartheid South Africa. Therefore for the purpose of enlightening this person the following comparison could be made between these two contrasting personalities.
Mandela is a lawyer and a community leader while Prabhakaran was a school dropout and a criminal from Velvettithurai.
Mandela was in prison for 27years arrested for ‘illegal exit from SA’ while Prabhakaran was a fugitive wanted for the worst crimes against humanity.
Mandela never killed anybody while Prabhakaran is known as the ‘Polpot in South Asia’ who killed his leader Uma Maheshwaran, his mentor Amirthalingam, his deputy Mahattaya and scores of Sinhala Tamil and Muslim civilians, deliberately targeting them for murder.
Mandela stood for the aggrieved majority in an apartheid state while Prabhkaran is the result of the hubris of a privileged minority in a democratic state.
Madela was never supported by the western powers in spite of John Voster’s apartheid crimes while Prabhakaran is, though indirectly, in the guise of ‘human rights’ ‘freedom of expression’ etc..
Mandela never advocated or took revenge even from those who imprisoned and tortured him for years, while Prabhakaran unleashed mayhem against those who offered to make him the Chief Minister of the North and East with impunity.
Death and destruction saddened Mandela but emboldened Prabhakaran.
Mandela was always ready to negotiate with the white racist regime but Prabhakara was never prepared to negotiate with the plural Government of Sri Lanka.
Mandela had a genuine cause for which he needed no arms but Prabhakaran’s cause was non tenable and hence had to be camouflaged with ‘cutting edge’ fighting power.
This list, as you could see, may go on and on without even an iota of similarity between the two. Priyath Liyanage’s inability to comprehend this situation could be explained as, either due to his ignorance of simple international facts or due to his extremist partisanship towards the most ruthless terror organization in the world; both of which makes him unsuitable for the post he is holding.
There is a pithy Sinhala saying that, “When you feel like eating, you make the innocent iguana look like an aggressive monitor”. Metaphorically, the saying signifies the proclivity in a person to give in to his self interest over conscience and ethics.
In the same discussion, in parenthesis but yet to buttress his stand in denigrating the Sinhala Buddhist, the head of the Sinhala service mentions about the cast system patronized by different Buddhist clergy sects etc. Well, Buddhism advocates that, ‘A person makes himself either a noble or an untouchable by his deeds alone and not by his birth.” Yet, there could be aberrations in any religion when it comes to present day practice. The fact however is that the Buddhist have never fought wars for a ‘religious cause’. If you see the history of the Catholic/ Christian church, in which Liyanage is a proselytized member, he could see that the worst wars in the history of mankind were due to religious hegemony of the Church. Such parenthetical positions only further expose Liayanage’s dubious agenda in white washing Prabhakaran.
Nobody expects the BBC ‘Sinhala service’ to distort facts and figures to favor the Sinjalese because ‘being fair’ has been the hallmark of the Sinhalese upbringing. But when the ‘Sinhala service’ attempts to distort simple truths to promote terror such dubious agendas have to be exposed in the name of humanity.
Any society has criminals and therefore it should have a mechanism in place to punish these criminals. The effectiveness of that mechanism would however, be decided by the level of civilization of the particular society which in turn would depend on the ethics and reasoning power of the members that constitute that society. If the members of that society adopts dubious agendas in white washing criminals for pecuniary, sectarian, religious or other such unethical motivations such a society would soon degenerate to anarchy and abyss. The present mayhem and murder in the Sri Lankan society is a typical case in point. What is the cause in life that is so sublime that it can be justified by the wanton snuffing away of life itself?
The problem however is that these unethical forces with vested interest wear cloaks of acceptability to camouflage their real identities. BBC is such an acceptable cloak one can hide behind.
Jane’s International weekly maintains that the LTTE’s annual income from international remittances is US $ 300 million. In addition the LTTE makes enough local income through taxes. The Government of Sri Lanka has been feeding, administering, educating and providing health facilities free to these so called LTTE areas. Since the LTTE has used gunnies with rice to fortify even their bunkers it is obvious that even the food bill of the LTTE is being met by the Sri Lanka Government. The question then is, what is the LTTE doing with all this international remittances?
Of course they may be employing such funds to rake the maximum benefit to the organization. Then what better way to do this than to buy, media men, legislators and international lobbyist to espouse their ‘cause’?
Over the years the BBC Sinhala service has been able to influence the Sinhalese in their way of thinking with such subtle propaganda. The purpose of this propaganda obviously is to make the Sinhalese apologetic about the LTTE crimes thereby making the Sinhalese more palatable to the devouring LTTE.
Nobody will have qualms about a person who migrated to the UK as a ‘male nurse’ eventually becoming the head of a media unit. But when the news, views and opinions dispensed by that media becomes inveterately extremists, partisan and bias towards the most ruthless and successful terror organization in the world, discerning and intelligent listeners would have no other plausible explanation but to suspect that media to be on that organization’s payroll.
By Palitha Senanayake.
– Asian Tribune –
