ටී. එම්. ජී. චන්ද්‍රසේකර: මර්වින් සිල්වාගෙන් ගුටි කෑ අහිංසකයාගේ වර්තමාන කතාව

2007 දෙසැම්බර් මාසයේ දිනෙක, තමන් මෙරට බුදුන්ට පමණක් දෙවැනි මිනිසාය සිතා සිටින මර්වින් සිල්වා නම් මැරයා, තම තග් සහචරයන්ද කැටුව රූපවාහිනි සංස්ථා ගොඩ නැඟිල්ලට කඩා වදින්නේය. ඒ ඉන් පෙර දිනයෙහි ඔහු මාතරදී මංගල සමරවීරයන්ගේ මෑණියන් ගැන කී කුණු කතාවක් රූපවාහිනියෙහි ප්‍රචාරය නොකළැයි කේන්තියෙනි. විනය හා හැදියාව ගැන නිතර පොර ටෝක් දෙන කුරක්කන් රජ්ජුරුවන්ද මුල්පෙළෙහි තියාගෙන, මර්වින් සිල්වා කරන මේ ප්‍රකාශය මේ රටේ රජයේ මාධ්‍යයකින් පවා ප්‍රචාරය නොකළ හැකි අන්දමේ, ඔහුටම අපූරුවට ගැළපෙන වනචර කතාවකි.

මේ ඓතිහාසික රූපවාහිනි ගමනේදී මර්වින් සිල්වා හා ඔහුගේ තගයෝ රූපවාහිණියේ ප්‍රවෘත්ති අධ්‍යක්ෂ ටී. එම් ජී. චන්ද්‍රසේකරට පහර දෙති. මර්වින් සිල්වා, චන්ද්‍රසේකර කමිස කොලරයෙන් ඇදගෙන සභාපතිවරයාගේ කාමරයට ඇද ගෙන යන්නට තැත්කරන මුත් ඒ උත්සාහය අසාර්ථක වේ. මේ අතර තම සගයාට නිරපරාදේ පහර දෙනු දකින රූපවාහිනී සේවකයෝ මර්වින් සිල්වාට අමතක නොවන පාඩමක් උගන්වති. තම ජීවිතයේ ප්‍රථම හා විශාලතම පරාජය මර්වින් සිල්වා ලබන්නේ එදිනය. හිසින් ලේ පෙරාගෙන, රෝස පැහැති තීන්ත නා ඔහු සංස්ථා භූමියෙන් පිට වන්නේ තෙමිච්ච කුකුළකු ලෙසිනි.

මින් සති කිහිපයකට පසු වරින් වර රූපවාහිනී සේවක පිරිසට මැර ප්‍රහාර එල්ල වේ. ඒවා පිටුපස සිටින්නේ කවරකුදැයි කිසිවකුට රහසක් නොවේ. අවසානයේ ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ මැදිහත් වීමෙන් මේ සිද්ධි මාලාව නතර වේ. අරුමයකි. කිසිදු වරදකරුවෙක් දඬුවම් නොලබති. ඒ කුරක්කන් රජ්ජුරුවන්ගේ විජිතයේ නීතියය.

ඒ අතීත කතාවය.

වර්තමාන කතාව මීට වඩා ශෝචනීයය. මර්වින් සිල්වාගේ මැර ක්‍රියාවට සැබැවින්ම දඬුවම් ලබන්නේ ඒ අවාසනාවන්ත සිද්ධියට මැදි වූ අහිංසකයාමය. සිද්ධිය වන අවස්ථාවේ රූපවාහිනියේ ප්‍රවෘත්ති අධ්‍යක්ෂකගේ පුටුවේ වාඩිවී සිටි ටී. එම්. ජී. චන්ද්‍රසේකර මේ වන විට කාර්ය භාරයක් නැති නිලධරයකුගේ තත්ත්වයට ඇද දමා ඇත. ඔහු Eye චැනලයට මාරුකර යවා ඇති එකම නිලධරයා වේ. එහි ඔහුට කරන්නට යමක් නැත. වරෙක ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ හොඳම ප්‍රවෘත්ති වාර්තාකරුවකු වූ චන්ද්‍රසේකර දැන් උදෑසන වැඩට පැමිණ පොත අස්සන් කොට නැවත සවස පොත අස්සන් කර ගෙදර යයි. ඔහුට වැටුප් ලැබෙතත් කරන්නට වැඩක් නැත.

මෙය ටී. එම්. ජී. චන්ද්‍රසේකරට පමණක් සීමාවූ දඬුවමක් නොවේ. මර්වින් සිල්වා සිද්ධියට සම්බන්ධ හැම කෙනකුටම මෙවන් දඬුවම් මාරු ලබා දී ඇත. ඒ ඔවුන්ගේ හැකියාවට කිසිසේත් නොගැළපෙන අංශ වලටය. මූල්‍ය අංශයේ නිලධරයන් පරිපාලන අංශයට මාරුකර යවා ඇත. ගණකාධිවරයකු පර්යේෂණ අංශයට යවා තිබේ. මේ කිසිම කෙනකුට තම නව පදවි යටතේ රූපවාහිනියට හෝ රටට කළ හැකි සේවාවක් නැත. එක අතකින් එය ඔවුන්ගේ කාලය වැනසීමකි. අනෙක් අතින් රටේ ජාතික ධනය වැනසීමකි.

රටේ මාධ්‍ය සියල්ලක්ම තමන්ගේ පෞද්ගලික දේශපාලන න්‍යාය පත්‍රය ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීම උදෙසා නිර්ලජ්ජි ලෙස යොදා ගත යුතුය සිතන මෝඩ නායකයකු යටතේ මේවා සිදුවීම එක අතකින් පුදුමයට කාරණාවක්ද නොවේ. එය මේ කාලකණ්ණි පාලන තන්ත්‍රයේ තවත් අවාසනාවන්ත පැතිකඩක් පමණය.

University of Colombo gives “MAHA RAJAANO” a fake doctorate; but can they give him a BRAIN?

Till yesterday I thought only Mervin Silvas and Dhanawardena Guruges need fake doctorates to boost their otherwise shallow profiles. I also thought only dubious ‘universities’ like Medicina Alternativa offered such fake degrees. It was a surprise to see a prestigious institution like University of Colombo, apparently the only Sri Lankan one to be selected under the best 100 Asian universities by Asiaweek in 2002, joining the same game by bamboozling the gullible offering them something they rightly never deserve.

This is what the state owned ‘Sunday Observer’ reported:

The Senate of the University of Colombo unanimously resolved that the Degree of Doctor of Laws (Honoris Causa) be conferred on President Mahinda Rajapakse. The Senate has also resolved that the Degree of Doctor of Letters (Honoris Causa) be conferred on Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse.

The degrees will be conferred on President Rajapaksa and Gotabhaya Rajapaksa in recognition of their yeoman service to the nation in safeguarding sovereignty, territorial integrity; restoring peace and harmony among all Sri Lankan communities and uplifting the image of Sri Lanka within the international community, a statement of the Senate of the Colombo University states.

Political achievements needs appreciation, no doubt, but why mix them with academic honours? The academic honour system should be dedicated to recognize the appreciable work done by experts in their respective fields, and should not be exploited by corrupted and stupid politicians to boost their images. Can’t we just have some respectable universities offering these honorary degrees to those who truly deserve them, instead of making the whole system a big joke?

Let so called maha sanga honour the politicians they blindly worship. ‘Sri Rohana Janaranjana’ and ‘Vishva Keerthy Sri Thrisinhaladhishvara’ are quite mouthfuls. That is more than enough. Let the joke end there. There is absolutely no need for University of Colombo to join the game making fun of a stupid man. If he wants to be the emperor, let him enjoy that illusion, for this limited period, till he loses the next election. Why subject the poor man to a never ceasing stream of jokes by offering him fake doctorates?

As Buddhists, should we further milk local Talibans?

No doubt that Buddhism is the most flexible, tolerable and nonviolent religion in the world. Some of its pillars, known to Buddhists for more than two and half millennia, such as ‘ahimsa’ (nonviolence), ‘samanathmatha’ (equality) and ‘upekhaka’ (indifference) constitute the very basis of civilized life.

The same thing can be said about the sea too. It is vast, calm and deep. Still there can be tsunamis.

The first wave of so called ‘Sinhalese Buddhist’ talibanic tsunami hit us in 2003 – in the immediate aftermath of the demise of Ven. Gangodawila Soma thero. Racism and ethnic hatred are not uncommon in Lankan society but there were no precedents for the abuse of religion for political purposes at such low level. Not even in 1956, with the liberal unleash of chauvinism under the opportunistic leadership of S W R D Bandaranaike.

To give credit to those who deserve it, Ven. Soma thero has always been reluctant to jump to the mud hole of politics. Perhaps he realized it was not his forte. Perhaps he was not dreaming for a Mercedes Benz. In the non-materialistic universe of Ven. Soma thero the place for a Bhikku was at a higher orbit – not so close to earth. So he kept out of politics, leaving it for mortal souls like ourselves.

The politically motivated JHU Benz-wallahs were the opposite. Seeing the opportunity they jumped immediately –like bunch of pariah dogs jump for a bone or bitch under heat. They could win nine seats in the 2004 General Election – a significant number for a party born yesterday – but little did the apolitical upasaka ammas who voted under a kind of religious giddiness know what was in for them.

Ever since it was a bumpy ride. Benz-wallahs broke every possible rule in the book. They sold car permits, abducted their own colleagues, threw ‘parusha vacha’ and ‘pisuna vacha’ not only at political enemies, but also at others belong to different factions. Staged few dramas like the event at Sharuk Khan’s show. (Poor Sharuk! He never returned!) During a ‘fast unto death’ (rather fast unto hospitalization) event at Kandy JHU cheevaradharis behaved like common thugs in closing down the shops.

Still there is something called ‘karma’. We saw it at work when some of them got their testicles massaged by the good doctor Mervin Silva reminding us ‘ditta dhamma vedaniya karmaya’.

All this would have been fine. We would have been enjoyed the comedy if not the believers of other religions were unnecessarily brought in the middle of all this.

Christians and Catholics were the first victims. Overnight even the Sinhalese Christians became non-indigenous; non-Bhumiputra, ‘arrived yesterday’ outsiders. All Christians and Catholics were the target for handful of conversions that have been carried out by few non-traditional and small Christian groups. The madness knew no limits. Only God would have known how many churches have been burnt down ever since.

Then the Muslims. Courtesy of JHU , poor in Ampara were denied shelter simply because of their belief. When thousands of Muslims were unceremoniously chased off from Glennie street there wasn’t anybody even to raise a voice.

Things would not have been so deplorable if not for the Kurrakkan uncle – the opportunists’ opportunist – who saw nothing wrong in riding this racist wave for his own political gains. The outcome was catastrophic. The level of racism unleashed at the 2005 Presidential election was incredible. The divisions in society caused deep wounds, which will never be healed. All these because of the greed of one individual – to make his the royal family of Lanka.

The recent incidents in and out of the Supreme Court too are the continuation of the same drama. What Taliban wants it clear. They look for a discrimination that treats them better than the rest of the society. Muslims chanting ‘Allahu Akbar’ is not tolerable; but noise pollution by temples is not only acceptable but welcome as well. No, we do not want to stand for anybody. We are supreme and above the law. See where they are leading?

As Buddhists, how long are we going to tolerate this Taliban mafia? Shouldn’t it high time that we stand up and say we are tired of all this nonsense and that as Buddhists we do not expect to be treated better than the rest – rather we do not want anyone else mistreated?

These are questions we should ask ourselves as Buddhists, Sinhalese and Sri Lankans. It is not a question of a political party. It is a question of our common future. The damage caused by these extremists to the Lankan society is no means small. We already live in a highly divided society thanks to all racist forces that divided us ever since 1956. Isn’t this the time to use our brains and not our hearts?

A candid postscript: Why UNP lost North Central and Sabaragamuwa Provincial Councils?

A defeat is not a pleasant experience. For somebody directly involved in the campaign for the main opposition party, it becomes even more difficult. However, an analysis is essential as this is not the end. Realising our weaknesses is crucial for future success.

Before I get into details, let me tell this. What follows is my personal opinion. I write this as Ajith P. Perera, after removing all hats. I waited long enough so that the party has done its own postmortem and a reader might not take my analysis as official. Any overlaps are unintentional.

UNP performance at PC elections can hardly be called satisfactory. It failed to win even one electorate from any province. Certainly this cannot be the performance one anticipates from the main opposition party especially when the government is becoming increasingly unpopular.

There were slight improvements in the number of votes from 2004. (See figure above) In both provinces we increased our votes by 4% while UPFA lost a fair share. However, that was hardly adequate to bridge the gap. Numerically have improved our performance, but that should certainly not make us complacent.

No doubt, the results reflected the inherent weaknesses in the UNP campaign. There were strong communication failures. Government’s war madness gimmicks went unchallenged, and it seems the voting public bought them wholesale. Even ludicrous claims like “security forces will reach Kilinochchi prior to elections” were not seriously questioned by us. Creation of favorouble short term artificial economic conditions by government purely for election purposes went unexposed. Even our best attempts failed to convince the voters the impending dangers in continually rising Cost of Living and Government’s incapability to face the challenge.

A common argument is that the impact of inflation is truly faced only by fixed income earners while others (like farmers, for example) having options to meet it by increasing the prices of their own produce. A ‘rice crisis’ as we call elsewhere is not a ‘crisis’ but an opportunity for farmers in North Central provinces. This makes majority in these two provinces immune to the harsh economic conditions largely a creation of the economic mismanagement of the present government. The results would have been different if it were the Western province.

There is no question UNP fought in an extremely difficult wicket. In a fair election any contestant should be given equal opportunities. This was something difficult to expect from a Rajapakse.

From the beginning it was clear the government intended to shamelessly use the state resources in its political campaign. This was not limited to releasing ministry and government agency vehicles for the UPFA campaign. Every government agency published full colour advertisements one after the other in national dailies. There was even an eight page ‘SAARC’ supplement in Sinhala newspapers just two days prior to the election. The state channels Rupavahini and ITN gave virtually no publicity to opposition campaign – unless they found a point to attack us. They went even further misinterpreting news for the benefit of their political masters.

In addition to state media, government abused private media too through its henchmen. Publishing a flipped photograph of Ranjan Ramanayake in ‘Divamina’ of Upali Newspapers under the patronage of UPFA henchmen Nimal Welgama and having Bandula Padmakumara brining up the issue in his ‘Mul Pituwa’ surely was a planned gimmick. Sadly we too were not successful in encountering such election follies.

Most pathetic was Army-Navy and Police top brass becoming part f the UPFA campaign. We have passed the good old days of non-political military. The military spokesman had no shame in presenting inaccurate information on the status of the battlefield. Well, that is what he does every day but this time he did it solely for the elections. It is not a surprise in a country the Chief of Army publicly pronounces the political affiliations of his family.

Performance of the police was even more pathetic. In spite of the court order, IGP took no action to arrest Mervin Silva over his alleged attacks to Sirasa journalists – because that would have looked negative for the government at the election. In spite of that pending order Mervin Silva spoke at several election meetings in both provinces. It was a clear message to UPFA henchmen: Do any dirty thing to win the election; I will protect you.

The message was understood at the grassroots. Within few days Dr. Johnpulle’s house at Anuradhapura was torched. Vehicles of UNP candidates were burned. The supporters were assaulted.

I do not say that these were reasons why we, the UNP lost. The government might have still won in a hypothetical situation of them not using state property for the campaign or not unleashing that level of violence. However the margin would not have been that big.

This is my reading. I should not expect everyone to agree. Please feel free to present your own conclusions as comments below.

Govt’s pre-election violence rocks Anuradhapura: UNP district office torched!

Anticipating free and fair elections under Kurakkan regime is akin to requesting feathers from turtles! (Can we ever forget that the man himself was once remanded for election violence and unauthorized bearing of firearms?)

The pre-election violence by the ruling party yesterday was adequate indication for their plans for the election day.

The UNP office housed at the residence of senior party member Dr. Raja Johnpulle in the Anuradhapura town has been set on fire by an unidentified gang yesterday night. Shooting had also taken place during the incident, police said.

With a miserable police force that serves only the needs of the ruling party and top politikkas; not the national interests, public in this country have only Gods to turn to. That too is questionable because just like the IGP Jayantha Wickramaratna God too so far maintaining a blind eye on Dr. Mervin Silva, in spite of the wishful thinking of Minister Maithripala Sirisena.

(Photo from Lankadeepa.com)

MERVIN SILVA and MALAKA SILVA: Isn’t it time to handover these demonic apes to Dehiwala zoo?

Doctor Dutugemunu Mervin Silva has done it again. He was ministering his labour at Araganwila, in Nuwaragala. The good ole doctor had entered a shop carrying a gun, threatened the owner, run havoc and caused more than Rs. 75,000 damage to the property, in a manner which would have put most cow boy movie makers to shame. (Now, where we have heard this before?)

Well, Doctor. Mervin Silva has not come alone. He was with a gang of about 35 SLFP henchmen. Among the evidence found by Police were seven used bullets, some of them recovered from the walls of the shop. Somebody from the group has also aimed at a passer-by. Only God knows why – perhaps he is watching too many cow boy films. The poor bewildered man had to take cover of his motor bike to avoid being hit. As the passive observers were not as brave/naïve as the Rupavahini staff, the doctor and his henchmen have left unharmed.

The reason for this mayhem? Apparently the shop owner is a supporter of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and rejected some of the promotional material of JVP.

The objective of this post is not to condemn the act. Neither I intend to request anybody to take action about it. Whether we like to admit it or not, we have passed that stage. Our collective voices so far have failed to change even an iota of the behavior of the mad doctor.

Doctor Dutugemunu and his son have violated the law of the land, so many times in multiple ways that if the law enforcing forces have taken the right action both father Mervin Silva and son Malaka Silva should be behind bars by now. The only major crime this father and son duo has to commit yet is raping a woman in public, but I do not think we need to wait long to hear it. I am certain one day they will do it together. With this father and son anything is possible.

His present boss and mentor, who brought the good doctor fist into politics from latter’s humble home at Hambantota, which is famous for kurrakan and big buffaloes, does not give a darn. Either he is not man enough to counter Doctor Mervin or silently approves the acts. (After all, we talk about an individual who was once remanded for handling illegal firearms. It is perfectly natural such a character to tolerate Mervin’s behavior. They are birds of a feather.)

The sole idea of this post is to raise a simple question. Why do individuals behave in this idiotic manner, which is certainly disastrous? What do they gain?

My first impression was Mervin takes all these troubles for survival. The God had forgotten to bestow any skills to this poor soul and so finds it difficult to live on in politics. No rationale human being votes for him. So the only way he can survive is by massaging the egos of his bosses. The only way he can add value to an election campaign is threatening the supporter of the rival parties. This he does to his best.

However, a friend argues against this theory. According to him there are so many other ways someone like Doctor Dutugemunu can win the hearts of those who yield power. I do not intend to go into details but let us just say that many aged politicians, with their once beautiful wives now getting older, still find village damsels mouth-watering – even if they are no beauty queens. With right connections at both ends Doctors like Dutugemunu can easily operate a supply chain. My friend could not prove his theory, but seeing Doctor Dutugenumu goes unpunished for every one of his stupid acts I have almost no reason to deny this.

So if Mervin Silva has others means of winning hearts of the influential and for his own survival why this trouble?

The reason can be biological. Both he and his son have an irresistible urge for violence. For some sadistic individuals violence is a way of achieving sexual satisfaction, especially in a situation where the real thing is not possible.

Desmond Morris too has talked about it, but the following excerpt is from ‘Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence’ by Jonathan Mark, who for the first time proved violence against its own is a common trait seen among other apes too.

“Suddenly the peaceful moment is shattered by a hunting bark from a hundred yards away. Everyone lurches awake, up and running to see what’s going on. Three males have cornered an unwary group of red colobus monkeys in a tall tree with only one good escape route. One of the hunters climbs high toward the terrified colobus group and rushes at them, pretending to come straight on but stopping short and shaking a branch at them, hoping to scare them into trying the escape route. One monkey jumps wildly, lands far away in another tree, and manages to scamper off. But the next one tries the more obvious escape and is snatched by a waiting chimpanzee as soon as he lands. The remaining monkeys pause in terror on their high perch. Now a hunter approaches, grasps their five-inch-thick branch, and furiously shakes it, until one, two, and finally three colobus jump or are shaken off. They leap and scamper frantically. And so it goes. Some chimpanzees press the attack, others focus the quarry’s retreat, others wait in ambush, and soon the hunter apes have killed four monkeys.”

Don’t you see similarities between what happened in this African jungle and Nuwaragala? Is Doctor Dutugemunu’s behavior different from those of these monkeys? Does he appear to be any more sensible?

So now you know what I mean. When I say they should be behind bars – I don’t mean in a prison. It would be more logical to have these two in a zoo.

(I hope Malaka Silva will not mind me publishing two of his Face Book images, under creative commons license. I thought the readers would prefer them to the photographs of his father leaving Rupavahini painted in pink.)

Mahinda Chinthana on Rupavahini and Dr. Mervin Silva

The continuing brutal attacks against the Rupavahini corporation employees expose the nudity of current regime in the most pitiable manner. How can one trust an incompetent government who cannot even stop such attacks against innocent victims in broad daylight to fight terrorism and bring peace to this country? How can they catch Prabhakaran, if they cannot catch even a ‘delipihi-kaaraya’ at Orugodawatte?

Let me deviate from the popular opinion by not focusing criticism at a single individual. Doctor Dutugemunu certainly played and most probably continues to play a role in this drama, but to quote Adolf Eichmann, he is only a cog in a larger machine. Little can be achieved by replacing one cog, when the necessity is to dispose the mechanism before it does irrecoverable damage to the society we live.

When Minister Mervin Silva played that now infamous havoc at Rupavahini, many inaccurately took it a part of personal agenda.  Demonstrating his true self, he talked filth making insulting and sexually connoted references to former minister Mangala Samaraweera’s parents and was apparently outraged when Rupavahni, a TV station puppet-controlled by the very government he is a part of did not broadcast it. (In fact, the station did him a favour by not broadcasting the speech, but surely brain is a not fully functional organ in Dr. Mervin Silva’s anatomy)

A simple and straightforward explanation but, if that were the case, given the unprecedented and enormous damage this incident caused not only to the government and the party but to the President himself (as the one who first brought his ‘game miniha’ to politics!) the immediate rational reaction would have been a formal request or failing that a stern order to resign. That was how disciplined and responsible political world behaves elsewhere.

Had we witnessed any call for resign? Forget that. Had we seen something even like a reprimand for Doctor Dutugemunu for all what he did? (Mind you, it is not the first instance he or his son got into similar troubles!)

No. We have witnessed nothing of that sort. Mervin Silva is still a minister, and surprisingly continuous to be the SLFP organizer for Kelaniya. He yields the same power he had before the incident. Nothing had ever changed.

What does this imply? One possibility is that nobody in this country is man enough to warn Mervin Silva. The very people who give ‘pora talks’ about killing Prabahkaran within deadlines seem to be sheepishly kneeling in front of Doctor Dutugemunu. If that is the case, this is the turn of Malaka Silva to send some women’s attire to the spineless political leaders who treats his father like deity, patiently tolerating all his acts of violence against innocent people. Time for them to change their ‘amude lensuvas’ to some sexy lingerie from House of fashion or Odel.

 Image: With good friends at higher places it looks like Mervin is asking “API KAATADA BAYA?”

The other, more logical possibility is what Doctor Dutugemunu is doing is part and parcel of Mahinda Chintana. The original document missed most of the actual deliveries we were about to get (like incredible price hikes, electric shock treatments and weekly bomb blasts in South) so this too can be a late annexure.

Yes, he does some damage but he there is nobody better than him to distract people from their more pressing day to day issues. Imagine if not for Mervin, what would have been the headlines of national dailies. Which leader in government likes to see headline about rising prices of essential commodities or bomb blasts day after day? So Mervin provides them a perfect shield, by creating a safety margin between people and issues. What more the leaders of the already failed state can ask for? And for those who are even ready to team up with TMVP ex-terrorists for their political survival, Mervin Silva is more like a ‘poos petiya’.

The latest victim of the violence was Arunasiri Hettige, an Assistant Director and a pro-JVP union leader. He was attacked by two unidentified men at Kotikawatte on Friday who dragged him by legs and slashed his neck with a sharp instrument. He was lucky. Had the injury been half an inch above he would have been with Sripathy now.

Ironic is that the same people like Hettige who was part of a political party that played a key role in bringing the current regime to power, but it would be too harsh if anyone to call it poetic justice. Right of opinion is something everyone is a democratic society enjoys, and it is pathetic if one were to be assaulted for protesting the uninvited and uncivilized petty performances of a pathetic individual at their own premises.

Finally, it is the duty of all right thinking men and women to stand by the Rupavahini staff at this difficult moment. This is not a moment to think about political divisions.

Remember the words of Pastor Martin Niemöller.

WHEN THEY CAME FOR ME, NOBODY WAS LEFT TO SPEAK UP.