The perils of selective ignorance

OUTRAGE over the brutal gang rape and murder of 18-year-old schoolgirl Sivaloganathan Vidya erupted into violent protests outside the Jaffna Magistrate’s Court last week as angry demonstrators hurled stones at the courthouse premises, damaging property, injuring five police officers and leading to the arrest of 130 protesters at the scene. 

Legal proceedings against the nine suspects remanded in connection with this heinous crime are still ongoing, however, initial reports into the incident and the circumstances surrounding it hint at a continuous break down of law and order in some parts of Sri Lanka’s northern peninsula; an allegation raised and ignored several times over in Parliament by Tamil National Alliance Parliamentarian M. A. Sumanthiran and his colleagues.

Speaking to reporters in the aftermath of last week’s violent outburst, Sumanthiran described a disturbing rise in incidents of sexual violence in the North which was approaching a terrible zenith in the Kayts area, not far from the island of Pungudutivu where Sivaloganathan Vidya met her cruel fate. 

The narrative was further convoluted by allegations that one of the alleged perpetrators themselves holds close ties to TNA members and had even received support in evading the law from a potential TNA candidate in Colombo, an allegation which has since been refuted and remains unproven. 

Control over investigations into the the entire chain of events has been handed over to the Criminal Investigations Department in order to determine if “anti-national elements” had been involved in inciting tensions among area residents in order to further their own political agendas. 

Blundering his way into these muddy waters was former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Issuing a deeply flawed statement on the incident shortly after attending religious observances in Mahiyangana, Rajapaksa claimed support for the ideal that all people should be treated equally before the law and urged the police to take swift action against protesters in Jaffna in response to their “well organised” actions, warning that “the LTTE too began in a similar fashion.” 

Rajapaksa’s deafening silence on the shockingly violent gang rape and murder of an 18-year-old schoolgirl which was the cause of the protests he so vilified in the first place betrays an attitude that could generously be considered to be one of selective ignorance. From an objective standpoint, this can only be considered to be a petty play at capitalising on the horrendous tragedy unfolding in the North in order to incite ethnic tension as a means of gaining short-term political capital. This was a factor alluded to by State Minister of Defence Ruwan Wijewardene at a recent media briefing on the subject of unrest in Jaffna.

How many more times Rajapaksa and his ilk will raise the spectre of the LTTE in the run up to general elections is anyone’s guess. However, the one point that ought to have become abundantly clear to all Sri Lankans by now is that violence begets violence. A peaceful solution to Sri Lanka’s ethnic question has clearly not been reached if one of the chief architects in the LTTE’s demise himself believes that such a return is possible.

Therefore the only means forward is through the peaceful and meaningful reform of Sri Lanka’s political and legal institutions animated by the true spirit of the values already set forth in our Constitution and, above all else, sincere reconciliation and harmony between our diverse religious and ethnic communities.

In the backdrop of such tragedy, the commendable efforts taken yesterday by the State Ministry of Children’s Affairs, together with the Ministry of Justice, to organise a vigil at Independence Square to show solidarity with Vidya’s family and community must be emulated. Lest we forget the reasons for our recent War Remembrance Day.