An appeal from all friends of Sri Lanka to come forward to prevent it from taking another wrong turn

-


History repeatedly teaches us how seemingly benign political leaders turned dangerous autocrats by taking cover behind symbols of peace or legal frameworks set in place to protect human rights. Swastika was a symbol of peace in South Asia. Even this was used by Hitler to recruit people en masse to commit crimes against humanity. Martin Luther King said “remember, all what Hitler did was legal”, because he wrapped up repressive agendas in legal frameworks that appeared to be humane on the face. This presses upon the fact that legality does not equate to morality in the test of time.

 

Who might suspect that Sri Lankan government would abuse the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) Act to arrest media personnel who challenge the political status quo? Section 3(1) of the ICCPR Act of 2007 states that no individual should advocate national, racial, or religious hatred that incites discrimination, hostility, or violence. On the face of it this section appears to have good intention. However, since then authorities have used this section to selectively target their critics. For instance, when hate mongering monks led a series of anti-Muslim violent acts, this law was not used against them.

 

Bruno Divakara runs the SL VlogYouTube channel. It has 251,000 subscribers and they have been doing very impactful interviews addressing some of Sri Lanka's pressing needs such as innovation, entrepreneurship, transparency, rule of law of governance,  and the practice of democracy. No wonder Bruno's channel has been a headache to some politicians.  In the most recent case, SL Vlog released a video of a joke done by stand-up comedian Nathasha Edirisooriya, about Prince Siddhartha who later realised Nibbana and became Buddha. Buddha himself clearly distinguished the character of Buddha from that of Prince Siddhartha accepting the emptiness of some of the things he did before realizing Nibbana. Being a Buddhist myself, Nathasha’s jokes did not upset me. In fact, this joke did not incite any violence in Sri Lanka. However, the authorities invoked Section 3(1) of the ICCPR Act to arrest Nathasha Edirisooriya and Bruno Divakara for releasing Nathasha’s alleged "insult on Buddhism" on SL Vlog.

 

This continuous abuse of Section 3(1) of the ICCPR Act of 2007 to conduct repressive politics on critics needs to be stopped before it makes more damage. On the other hand, such abuse is not doing any good to Buddhism too. It just paints an extremist face to Buddhism in Sri Lanka. 

 

President Ranil Wickremasinghe had been a respected politician who was trusted to lead the country out of chaos. To his credit, he is doing a good job so far. Even if Ranil as the president may not have been directly involved in directing the CID to make the above arrests, having known how Sri Lanka's law enforcement works, it is inevitable that the blame goes to Ranil as the president. This kind of backfires will only make him lose the liberal youth voters. Therefore, I beg true friends of President Ranil Wickremasinghe to come forward now to prevent him from falling prey to misleading advice from within his inner circles.

 

This is an appeal from all friends of Sri Lanka to come forward to use whatever the diplomatic channels you are aware of to urge Sri Lanka's top leadership to stop abusing Section 3(1) of the ICCPR Act to silence political critics. Please do so because Sri Lankans are working hard to build a better future, and it cannot be built on a shaky political foundation. I heard that the next court hearing for Bruno Divakara, who runs SL Vlog YouTube channel is on 21st June. We must act fast. Please sign this Avaaz petition I created.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A formula to ignite youth tech start-ups in developing countries

-
Image
  I was invited to give a talk on “Trends in Robotics and AI – How Sri Lanka can prepare to ride the economic wave” to the senior policy staffers of the honourable members of the Sri Lankan parliament (225 MPs in Sri Lankan parliament). In the Youtube video below, I talked in Sinhalese but kept the slides in English as a compromise to make maximum impact. I am not sure how far my final recommendations would go, but I think any developing country can benefit from the formula I proposed. Here is the essence: Economic development cannot be spoon-fed. People should be challenged to stand on their own feet, and they should be rewarded for trying. Just like making origami, kirigami, and other crafts is a household habit in Japan, playing football is a street thing in Brazil, playing Cricket is part of life in Sri Lanka, any country who wants to be a leader in any field, it should be cultivated at a grassroots level. The next waves of AI and Robotics will be the same.  How do we make...
Read more

Re visiting the foot prints

-
Image
April 2024 is a memorable month in my sabbatical. Not only did I have the privilege of reconnecting with numerous collaborators, friends, and colleagues across the East and West Coasts of the US, but I also dipped myself in nostalgia of revisiting locations that hold a special place in my heart. Baltimore On 5 th April, the Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) of Johns Hopkins University (JHU) celebrated the 60 th anniversary. I arrived a day early to visit the Reza Shadmehr lab where I did my postdoc 22 years ago. I also made this an opportunity to visit the Thread initiative founded by my friend Sarah Hemminger, who was a PhD student at Shadmehr lab when I was a postdoc. Walking around the School of Medicine with Reza brought back so many memories about this amazing bastion of intellectual exploration. Reza came to the lab on a Saturday to show me some new experiments. His explanations on the blackboard transported me back to my postdoctoral days, bringing back fond me...
Read more

For PhD students – a personal note on mental health

-
This note is strictly a piece of personal advice, and it is mainly based on my practice of Buddhism too. So, please take any of it if you feel comfortable and discard anything. When you go through your PhD course, you are expected to publish in high quality journals and conferences before writing a quality thesis you can be proud of. This inevitably imposes pressure on you to become somebody you are not right now. So, if you are not careful, this can lead to mental stress that may sometimes damage your health. Here are some advices you may consider taking: First distinguish the difference between “achievement” and “accomplishment”. Trying to achieve is about creating a void and trying to fill it. This causes stress. For instance, you determine that “I will somehow publish a paper in the prestigious journals of XYZ”. What it intrinsically means is that you “become a person” who “does not have a paper in the journal of XYZ”. Then, you work hard with the dream of “becoming the on...
Read more