Why do they hate us so much?
This is seems to be the general feeling prevailing among most Sri Lankans. Their wrath is mostly directed against the foreign news organisations. Recently, the focus has been on the BBC, and specially the slant with which they edit the Sinhala broadcast to Sri Lanka. Other news agencies fare no better. BBC is specially vulnerable because of its long-standing reputation as being a fair news agency among the Sri Lankans. I have also heard murmurs to the effect that its reporting is purposefully biased towards the LTTE.This is the crux of the matter.
One might ask: is this program, the "Sandesaya", (or "message"), really that much useful to the listeners in Sri Lanka? Is it not an anachronism? Who in Sri Lanka would want to know what happens in London, when the centre of power and influence has shifted elsewhere?
When did all this "hatred" or the anti-Sri Lankan bias, if there is one, begin to materialise? I think, it goes back to the days of August 1983, when mobs went berserk, allegedly at the instigation of certain politicians and political elements. Countless innocent Tamil people were harmed in that misdirected, misplaced, cowardly show of nationalism.
That one event sealed the fate of Sri Lanka in the international arena. That gave the biggest and the most powerful weapon to the LTTE on a plate. Sri Lanka has yet to dispel the bad taste that left behind in the Western world, in spite of the countless atrocities committed by the LTTE against innocent Sinhala and Muslim civilians.
LTTE still remain the darling of most of the Westerners, not at official level perhaps, but among the population at large.
How can this be reversed? That is the big question.By defeating the LTTE in the battlefield, as events are unfolding now (02-01-2009) in that direction?
Or, show of magnanimity towards the ordinary population, the way their concerns are addressed? Showing the real human face, the face Sri Lankans are endowed with, in spite of that barbaric moment?
Will despising the foreign media help in the matters? I wonder.