Call of Conscience

Lasantha Wickramatunga, a leading Sri Lankan journalist and Chief Editor of "The Sunday Leader", was shot dead by unidentified gunmen riding motorcycles, while he was on his way to work.

He wrote an editorial apparently with instructions to publish it after his death and here is the posthumous editorial.

Quite quite remarkable, inspiring, with a raw honesty and incisiveness you seldom come across in the media circles of late. I could almost feel the passion of the man himself even though I have read just one article of his, till date (before this editorial).

About the role of a journalist and the media:

"Why then do we do it? I often wonder that. After all, I too am a husband, and the father of three wonderful children. I too have responsibilities and obligations that transcend my profession, be it the law or journalism. Is it worth the risk? Many people tell me it is not. Friends tell me to revert to the bar, and goodness knows it offers a better and safer livelihood. Others, including political leaders on both sides, have at various times sought to induce me to take to politics, going so far as to offer me ministries of my choice. Diplomats, recognising the risk journalists face in Sri Lanka, have offered me safe passage and the right of residence in their countries.
Whatever else I may have been stuck for, I have not been stuck for choice.
But there is a calling that is yet above high office, fame, lucre and security. It is the call of conscience. "

And the most inspiring part of it, which left me a bit moist-eyed and disturbed as well :

"People often ask me why I take such risks and tell me it is a matter of time before I am bumped off. Of course I know that: it is inevitable. But if we do not speak out now, there will be no one left to speak for those who cannot, whether they be ethnic minorities, the disadvantaged or the persecuted. An example that has inspired me throughout my career in journalism has been that of the German theologian, Martin Niem”ller. In his youth he was an anti-Semite and an admirer of Hitler. As Nazism took hold in Germany, however, he saw Nazism for what it was: it was not just the Jews Hitler sought to extirpate, it was just about anyone with an alternate point of view. Niem”ller spoke out, and for his trouble was incarcerated in the Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps from 1937 to 1945, and very nearly executed. While incarcerated, Niem”ller wrote a poem that, from the first time I read it in my teenage years, stuck hauntingly in my mind:
First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me."

At some level, parts of the essay ring true in the Indian context as well. Wonder what the supporters of Narendra Modi, Advani, Bal Thackeray and other members of our venerated political class feel about this.....