Image is but a reflection of reality

In a recent speech to military personnel, Secretary to the Ministry of Defence Kamal Gunaratne lamented the humiliation caused to the country due to international media showing protesters bathing at the swimming pool at the President’s House. On 9 July as countrywide protests culminated with the storming of the President’s House in Colombo, several iconic images appeared in mainstream and social media. Among these were some protesters having a bath in the presidential swimming pool.

“The media showed a man applying soap and bathing at the swimming pool. We are humiliated in front of the world when such things are continuously shown to the world. There arises a question in the minds of those who see such images about the state of the judiciary and law and order in the country,” Gunaratne said. 

Advising the military personnel on how to maintain good relations with media personnel he added, “In order to prevent such situations and to obtain proper media coverage, you as military personnel, must first build trust and mutually beneficial relationships with journalists. Then when such a situation arises you can tell the journalist, ‘Malli if you publish such scenes, it’s not good for us and for the country’.”

It is quite rich for the Secretary to the Ministry of Defence to talk about the media distorting the image of Sri Lanka, when he himself and the military at large stand accused of some of the most heinous crimes which have not only brought humiliation to the country but international judicial action. 

Gunaratne himself is accused of war crimes during the last phase of the war and he is on record stating at a public gathering that those who support a new constitution further devolving power to the provinces and ensuring rights should be killed as traitors. The military intelligence units of the Sri Lanka Army are also accused of several specific crimes including the killing of journalist Lasantha Wickremetunga and an intelligence unit of the Navy is accused of abduction, holding to ransom and killing 11 men, mostly Tamils. While a few of these cases are now pending in court a vast majority are not. 

The Sri Lankan Police and the security forces in the past 50 years are alleged to have extra-judicially killed over 100,000 citizens. In 1971 at least 15,000 Sinhala youth disappeared, and that number is approximately 43,000 according to official figures for the 1987-89 period while the actual estimates are much higher. Tens of thousands of mostly Tamil civilians and combatants were extra-judicially killed or disappeared during the ethnic conflict from 1983 to 2009.

It is also ironic that while Gunaratne was concerned about an image of a man bathing in a swimming pool, he did not mention that a few minutes before his troops had opened fire, using live ammunition at the protesters. Video footage shared later showed heavily armed and masked soldiers taking aim and firing at the walls of the presidential house, with protestors clearly visible on the other side. Several individuals were injured in this incident. In the wake of condemnation of the military action the Ministry of Defence in a statement said, “Firing into the air and sidewalls do not therefore necessarily mean that those Army personnel on duty were intent on causing deliberate harm to the protesters.”

General Kamal Gunaratne is quite correct to lament about the image of the country and to note the humiliation it causes internationally. However, this humiliation is not over a man bathing in a swimming pool or a protester sitting on a chair at the President’s office. He should instead be concerned about the image of Sri Lanka as a nation of impunity where tens of thousands of its own people have been killed for the past 50 years with hardly any accountability. If Gunaratne is genuinely concerned about the image of the country, he should at the very least address the serious accusations against him and the military. Such a sign of accountability would be a far more significant reality in addressing the image of the country.