Mano Ganesan was recently featured on Rupavahini, the State and pro-government TV broadcaster, in a manner that suggested he unequivocally supported the LTTE and terrorism.This was noticed and taken up bloggers such as Voice in Colombo who challenged this site to answer a number of questions regarding our perceived bias towards Mano Ganesan and by extension the LTTE.
These questions included whether Mano Ganeshan violated the constitution of Sri Lanka by actively speaking on behalf of a separate state called a “Tamil Ealam”, whether he believes that Tamil Ealam is a reasonable idea or a “considered solution” in solving the problem in North, whether LTTE is responsible for massive human rights violations and if so, how he could justify speaking in favor of them in one of their rallies.
The challenges thus posed were interesting to take on as a case study that demonstrated the workings of the Government’s highly sophisticated and extremely effective propaganda machine. Mano Ganesan is a Member of Parliament and Convener of the Civil Monitoring Committee. He has been featured on Groundviews, amongst many others from political and civil society, speaking about his experiences during the anti-Tamil riots in July 1983. Vikalpa’s YouTube channel also has 6 videos of him taken on three occasions over the course of the past year, dealing with the situation of human rights in Sri Lanka including the outrageous rise of extrajudicial killings, abductions and the prevailing culture of impunity.
The speech in question by Mano Ganesan was delivered at the a Pongu Thamil event in 2005, with Sinhala commentary framing a select soundbite and video clip, available on YouTube here. This was broadcast during the lead up to the Western Provincial Council elections towards the end of April 2009. At around 1:50mins into the clip the Sinhala commentary vigorously notes the following, suggesting it is a verbatim translation of what Mano Ganesan says on stage:
What does this man say to the public? Inhabitants of the Tamil Eelam! Help the LTTE! Help the state of Tamil Eelam! Take up arms!
The visuals were carefully selected too. Mano Ganesan is in full flow, with arms flailing and speaking an alien tongue to many Sinhalese would really look as if he is saying these words.
This particular piece of propaganda worked so well, like many others akin to it, because of the language divide in Sri Lanka. The majority of the majority in Sri Lanka (including obviously Voice in Colombo) don’t speak or understand Tamil. It becomes easy therefore to suggest through misleading translations in productions such as these an expression or intent in Tamil far removed from the original content and submission.
The following video records Mano Ganesan’s reaction to the clip broadcast on Rupavahini in April and the other questions posed by Voice in Colombo.
To our knowledge, no retraction has been made to date on Rupavahini over what is clearly a false and misleading translation. Mano Ganesan also issues a clear challenge of his own to Rupavahini and the Government to produce any evidence that, as Rupavahini and Voice of Colombo allege, he has actively spoken in favour of Eelam or incited people to arms and violence.
It is certainly possible to take exception over Mano Ganesan’s prevarication on the essentially violent nature of the LTTE, its genesis or even contest his assertion that the Sri Lankan State is also responsible for human rights violations and violence.
However, attempts such as we find in this case study to paint him as a LTTE sympathiser inciting hatred and violence demonstrates a disturbing preoccupation of the Sri Lankan State today, and some bloggers, to use propaganda as a means to quell dissent and the growth of critical expression. Voters in the South are so conditioned to see conflict and its resolution in simplistic terms today that propaganda such as this plays to a large audience who unquestioningly believe whatever they see, read and hear in traditional / mainstream / web / mobile media.
This is hardly suprising. Both the LTTE and successive Governments, not just this one, have used the media to promote half-truths, lies and disinformation. Media after all is a weapon of war. We know that the reach and influence of this propaganda depends, in large part, on the media literacy of polity and society.
Any ideas on how it can be developed in a “post-war / post-LTTE” Sri Lanka?