Must Jehan Perera cross-dress for separatism?

In August 1994, a few days after the People’s Alliance led by Chandrika Kumaratunga defeated the United National Party at the General Election, Jehan Perera wrote what to my mind was a preposterous piece in The Island newspaper. Jehan was falling over himself trying to salvage some pride for the defeated UNP, marveling at how ‘smooth’ the transition out of power was.
I remember responding to this shamelessly tearful article, pointing out that the UNP didn’t have a choice in the matter. Jehan responded and I responded back and if I remember right, we stopped there. I have had occasion to meet and chat with him and have found him to be an extremely cordial person and interesting to talk to. On the other hand, he does come up with howlers now and then which one could ignore if he is not bandied around like a poster-boy for right advocacy and ‘impartiality’.

Right-wingers

Jehan, like many in the rights-business, are closet right-wingers and have been directly or indirectly operating for years to promote UNP political interests. That’s their preference and right of course, but what is insufferable is the ‘neutral’ posturing. They are a club, intent on undermining the territorial integrity of Sri Lanka, rabidly opposed to the unitary state and inflicted with a vulgar fascination for embracing myth and championing it as ‘fact’.
They were all caught wrong-footed when the UNP couldn’t field a candidate of its own and its party symbol and colour were made irrelevant. These one-time LTTE-lovers (as in they mouthed those pro-LTTE lines such as sole-reps, we-can’t-leave-them-out, give-them-parity-of-status etc etc) were vociferous in vilifying Mahinda Rajapaksa. They worked for Ranil Wickremesinghe in 2005, decried the military offensive against the LTTE and ran to all forums, local and international, to subvert the government and give Prabhakaran breathing space. They were not fond of Sarath Fonseka then. Today, however, he has become their darling not because they like the man or subscribe to his policies (he has nothing but a wish-list) but they hate Rajapaksa’s face or at least that’s what one has to conclude.
A quick perusal of their writings over the past three years and their ‘change of face’ in the past three months show how uncomfortable they have been in saluting Fonseka and that they have somehow reconciled themselves to supporting the man. Yes, a democratic right, but one which shows that they are no neutral saints but are (as they have always been) UNP agents. Want names? Apart from Jehan, we have Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, Shanie and Emil de Vanderpoorten. Their pieces are hilarious these days because they’ve had to squirm so much to come out in support of the candidate their preferred party has been forced to back. And by the way, what has happened to that man Jayadeva Uyangoda these days?
Let’s leave these people alone and be nice to Jehan. He has written something which reminded me of that 1994 article: ‘The importance of Ranil Wickremesinghe’ (The Island of 12.01.2010). Here’s a hilarious line: ‘If the Tamil boycott had not taken place (in 2005) and Mr. Wickremesinghe had won, the Tamil people might have been spared the destruction of war’. First of all, is Jehan lamenting the fact that the LTTE was militarily crushed? Would he have preferred a scenario where we have Ranil Wickremesinghe as President and Prabhakaran still calling the shots, not to mention being able and willing to set off bombs in buses, trains and other crowded places?

Mainstream Tamil parties

In his convoluted effort to make a case for supporting Fonseka, Jehan tells us that it is great that the TNA has jumped into bed with the ex-Army Chief, along with the UNP and JVP. Here’s the joke: ‘It (the TNA, by doing so) has turned back the clock by over 35 years to give up on separatist policies and make the mainstream Tamil parties once again a part and parcel of national politics’. Wow!
Didn’t Jehan hear the TNA demanding that the North and East be re-merged? Didn’t he notice the language of Vadukoddai and Thimpu being echoed in the press conferences? Doesn’t he understand that we have to suffer three decades of bloodshed because myth was dressed up as fact and these kinds of demands and positions were what fuelled chauvinism on both sides? How can Jehan not see that articulating territory-based demands is in fact separatist in tone and content?
Jehan, true to form, passes the violence-buck to the Sinhalese. He doesn’t have any sense of history to acknowledge that Tamil chauvinism is as much or more culpable in generating the unhappy outcomes we suffered over the past three decades.
Jehan is upset that Mahinda Rajapaksa (perhaps, according to him) views the TNA as separatists and agents of the LTTE. Come on, Jehan, is there any other way to see the TNA? He salutes the TNA for backing Fonseka, quite forgetting that Fonseka is now backtracking on what the TNA said he promised. Jehan doesn’t have the words to call Fonseka a flip-floppper. Why? Well, Jehan loves the UNP, doesn’t he?
Don’t trust me; read his piece: http://www.island.lk/2010/01/12/features2.html. The title mentions Wickremesinghe, but the content is all about saluting the TNA and endorsing Fonseka indirectly. Towards the end, almost as an afterthought, Jehan thrusts in Ranil Wickremesinghe: ‘The TNA’s decision to support the candidacy of General Fonseka reflects the (misplaced!) trust and confidence that members of the ethnic minorities have in the UNP leader, Ranil Wickremesinghe’. Jehan doesn’t seem to have the political brains to figure out that should Fonseka win, Wickremesinghe becomes history, even if we went along with the myth that Ranil did something/anything for the ‘ethnic minorities’!
As for Fonseka, I urge Jehan to read what his erstwhile partners in the crime of hoodwinking the minorities and promoting separatism have had to say about Fonseka: http://transcurrents.com/tc/2008/09/cpa_statement_on_the_recent_co.html. Will Jehan tell his ‘ethnic minority’ pals that it’s Fonseka and not Wickremesinghe that is contesting this election? Will Jehan, since he is so responsive and responsible and good and decent and oh-so-caring about the lot of ‘ethnic minorities’ direct his friends in these communities to this particular article?
Isn’t it good that they are informed about all facets of Fonseka, what do you say Jehan? Will you do it, brother? In public? Say, in your next piece for The Island? You have a week Jehan. Let’s see what kind of convoluted response you come up with.

Malinda Seneviratne is a freelance writer who can be reached at malinsene@gmail.com.