I had a thought provoking experience yesterday of attending a forum theater performance at the British Council. Forum theater is an experimental kind of theater based on interaction with the audience and high audience involvement. This in itself was a new experience for me. And I must add that I was surprised by the heightened interest of the audience to the presentation. ( In Sri lanka, people are generally not that forthcoming. )
The topic discussed was about Freedom of expression at a time of war. The presentation was pretty good and thought provoking. The main points discussed was the oppression caused by government influence and extortion. I found this really interesting cause the liberals among the audience and conservatives had totally different views on the subject. Since the majority of the audience were from Colombo suburbs, there was a definite left wing view on it. But I wonder how a rural community would have responded to such an issue.
We can see a definite divide in Sri Lanka with regard to this issue, the government supporters and a lot of military people are of the view that personal freedom has to be sacrificed in a time of war. However the opposition has a very different take… implying that human rights should not be compromised.
I am definitely a liberal, but I tend to side with the government on this issue. This is because I think the largest threat to freedom in Sri Lanka is from the LTTE rather than the govt. So the iradication of LTTE is imperative. However the govt must proactively work towards respecting the rights of any persons it detains. We must understand however that there is no perfect solution to this, no govt is perfect. So we must look for the best we can have. For me the optimal solution today is to continue the war till we iradicate the LTTE leadership.
