EDITORIAL : THE DAILY MIRROR, SRILANKA

The fiction of fearful silence   The right of dissent or the right to be wrong – according to what any government presumes what’s right and wrong – is fundamental to the growth of a democratic society with time-tested checks and balances among the executive, the legislature, the judiciary and the free media. The right of disent was the right that first went wrong in every nation, which stumbled down the trail towards disastrous totalitarianism, as we are seeing now in nation after nation in the Middle East. The government must take care not to confuse dissent with disloyalty. For people to keep quiet when they know things are not right is the reverse of patriotism because then it turns out to be a cover-up for those interests that stand to gain from silence. Is it only the government of the day that holds the copyright on what’s right or what’s wrong, what’s true or what’s false? Are others wrong? This is not the path that the fearless tread but the one that’s tread by the insecure. Cassius hit the heart when he said, “The fault dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves”. Media activists rightly say that journalists have a duty to resist being simply corralled into obedient silence, which is not good for genuine journalism based on the foundational principle of free, accurate and balanced reporting, feature writing or political analysis. Neither is it good for the country or for a participatory and a people-friendly government. Against this backdrop hundreds braved the scorching heat to gather at the Lipton Circus last Thursday, to protest the disappearance of senior journalist and cartoonist Prageeth Ekneligoda. The protestors including his wife and two sons, friends, relatives, politicians, media groups and human rights activists charged that even 500 days after Mr. Ekneligoda went missing the government has done little or nothing to find him or find out what had happened to him. His wife Sandya Ekneligoda told BBC correspondent Charles Haviland in Colombo that the family was living under a pall of darkness and in agony not knowing his fate. Presidential advisor A.H.M Azwer, told Mr. Haviland the head of state cared about the disappeared people and the police were doing their best. He said the security machinery was working slowly and, “only God knows how he will be found, the Government does not know. The people do not know”. Like the killing of senior journalist Dharmaratnem Sivaram, and The Sunday Leader Editor Lasantha Wickramatunge, it is not necessary to be a genius to realise that Prageeth Ekneligoda’s disappearance was largely a result of holding and expressing dissenting views. Amid so much of opposition, threats and intimidation, they were outspoken and unafraid to say what they saw about events as they unfolded whether it was to do with politics or human rights. They refused the thirty pieces of silver and paid with their lives.