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Murky moment

The opposition's virulent propaganda war against the Government hit a new low recently with a barrage of abusive language being unleashed against President Kumaratunga by S.B. Dissanayake. This we highlighted on page one yesterday along with a cross section of opinion on the incident by some well known female public figures.

The overall tone of the reactions to the abuse heaped on the President was one of shock and dismay. We associate ourselves fully with these sentiments because no one with a refined sensibility would endorse indulgence in gross personal abuse, at election time or otherwise.

The civilized sections of society are likely to be both outraged and saddened by the sordid abuse dished out by S.B. Dissanayake to the President. The shockingly irreverent remarks are solid proof that the speaker attaches no value to the humanity of the target of his vitriolic verbal attack. This is the most sad and tragic aspect of the demeaning act.

We are reminded of how great a source of pollution the tongue could be. This is also confirmation that the untutored and destructive tongue received its fire from hell itself.

That local politics should fall to these low depths is a tragedy to be deeply bemoaned. A society is brutalized and fatally fractured by politicians who flout civilized norms for the sake of fleeting power.

The moral climate of a country determines its stability and wholesomeness to a great extent. When the political discourse within a society degenerates into unrestrained vituperative slander the floodgates are opened to the most repugnant and violent behaviour. This is how the tongue, one of the smallest organs in the human body, pollutes a country's moral environment and creates a climate conducive to the worst violence. The untutored tongue is a flint that sparks a forest fire.

If S.B. Dissanayake expected to catch some votes by abusing the Head of State and Government of Sri Lanka by using intemperate language on her, he is sadly mistaken because most voters would be repelled by this shameful show of indecency. He has only managed to take the current moral decadence several notches lower.

This disheartening event points, once again to the essential nature of local politics.

Political differences should be expected to generate polemical debate but not inhumane personal insults and abuse. The latter, however, is our sad lot because no effort is being made to improve the tenor and content of political debate. This is a sound measure of intellectual bankruptcy.

It is up to the decision-makers in the opposition and other frontline politicians to rein-in their hot heads, and guide them in the civilized modes of political discourse. The quality of political debate degenerates when leaders fail to establish the relevant standards and norms.

• Editorial of  The Observer - 1.11.2001: Political thuggery
  

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