Mawanella Incident: Nation Should Be Wary Of Racist Cat-Paws At Play!

By Mohamed Harees –DECEMBER 27, 2018

Lukman Harees

What happened in Mawanella involving the destruction of Buddhist statues is extremely tragic and should be severely deplored with all the emphasis at our disposal. Further, this act goes against the religious teachings, our people hold sacred. Impartial investigation should begin without any delay to identify if this is a lone wolf attack or the attackers are mere cat-paws of and part of a greater machination. Those involved in the dastardly act should be subjected to the severest punishment under the law. Even if is a lone wolf attack, a danger lurks where there are always possibilities that forces with self-centred vested interests and ruined political ambitions may exploit the emotions of the affected people to exasperate communal tensions and re-create another ‘Digana’ or bout of communal violence, in pursuance of their own agenda even at the cost of much needed communal harmony. The positive development has been the laudable manner in which the religious, political and civic leaders have approached this issue and have sat down around a table to discuss and extinguish these inflammatory issues is most praiseworthy at least for now.

Sri Lanka no longer can afford to go through any more periods of communal tensions and violence, on the heels of a continuing political crisis arising out of a constitutional coup initiated by the Head of State. Already the country’s economic progress has had many setbacks in the Post-war era with a galloping debt burden, chronic political corruption and an increasing cost of living while national reconciliation has become a distant cry. Post war era Sri Lanka has been sitting on a communal volcano and a powder keg exploding from time to time.

It is therefore imperative that the Police and the law enforcement authorities act both firmly and even-handedly to ensure that these types of vandalism and explosive issues do not explode into serious ones, by undertaking a thorough impartial investigation and identify if any possible cat-paws of conspirators hell-bent on creating mayhem in the country already wounded by 30 years of a bloody war and regular bouts of communal violence. Action of individuals should not be allowed to be amplified as actions of an entire community and tarred with communal colours, thereby allowing goons and hooligans to launch attacks on them, commit arson and loot their properties at will. Digana should serve an apt reminder and a bitter lesson.

The role of the Police in these types of communally tense situations in the past by and large has been controversial and their impartiality called into question. Police were blamed for not taking instant action to nip them in the bud, and for failure to conduct proper investigations, sometimes at the behest of some political higher-ups too. They were even accused of complicity in the riots by turning a blind eye, allowing perpetrators to indulge in mischief under the cover of curfew, and also by taking part in the acts of arson and looting. Even the good image of STF was tarnished recently. Both the government as well as the Police higher-ups should therefore treat these as serious issues and take preventive action in instances of this nature, as these types may not be the last. The President as the Minister in charge of ‘Law and order’ (despite our reservations of his credibility to hold this post) should take full responsibility to ensure that these types of incidents are properly investigated ,culprits identified and action taken against them irrespective of the race they belong to or positions they hold.

The communal riots and violence seen in this country are not spontaneous outbursts of violence between two communities; rather they all carry hallmarks of being meticulously planned and executed. It is necessary for the Police to make this distinction as the role of law and order machinery depends very much on whether the riots/violence are planned or is spontaneous. If it is well planned (as they are in respect of communal violence in our country), then it assumes a different character and requires more motivation and determination on the part of the Police to control it. These are usually pre planned by anti-social groups with pseudo patriotic labels or frustrated political elements with their own agenda or to serve the interests of their political patrons. After this planning phase, an appropriate atmosphere or scenario has to be created and this is often done with a view to raising the communal temperature by spreading atrocious rumours (Wanda pethi), an altercation causing serious or fatal injury (Aluthgama or Digana trishaw incident) or staging attacks on religious symbols ( like many ‘engineered’ incidents of destroying Buddha statues in Trinco, Colombo areas and in this case Mawanella). This greatly helps in spreading violence and justifying it. In other words, violence acquires legitimacy in the eyes of the affected community and difficult to control specially if the issues at hand involved are religious or historical deeply embedded in the emotions and psyche of the people and when political higher-ups act as patrons. The law enforcement and the government therefore have to take these perspectives and historic lessons into account when inquiring into and dealing with the incidents which happened in Mawanella.

Read More