In January 2009, a fearless Sri Lankan journalist was slain by unknown assailants. Like many others around the world who were assassinated by power hungry politicians, Lasantha Wickrematunge lives on, troubling the consciences of those who aided and abetted his murder.

Neither presidents nor prime ministers or cabinet ministers over the past 14 years revealed the names of those responsible for his assassination, and police officials who probed the killing have been shunned and vilified.

This book, which was written in 2013 by Wickrematunge’s ex-wife Raine, recaps many instances in which he was attacked physically and had bombs hurled at his residence. And this year, a revised version with more details was published by the author in Sri Lanka.

Raine reveals that Lasantha was known as ‘Hoona’ (gecko) among his friends at school because he was skinny and scrawny. But later, he lived up to his nickname by unobtrusively listening to others’ conversations and reproducing those details in the newspapers.

Lasantha joined the Sun newspaper as a subeditor and was reluctant to be a reporter – perhaps because he was being trained as a subeditor by Raine, the girl he adored! He was finally moved to the journa-listic side of the trade but didn’t make a mark as such.

His friendship with Vijaya Kumaratunga that led to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) grilling him for Naxalite connections annoyed the management of the Sun however, which also grilled him about his affiliations with Kumaratunga and asked if he was a Naxalite.

The result was that he was suspended with immediate effect. “In that case, I’m quitting this newspaper,” he retorted and stormed out.

I was the Editor of The Island and Sunday Island newspapers at the time, and he met me and asked if there was a vacancy as he’d resigned from the Sun. Being familiar with his writing, I was delighted to recruit him immediately.

Raine writes that at The Island, he was breaking political stories that stood out but doesn’t go into details.

Lasantha was responsible for my first case as editor. He brought in a story about a Sri Lankan diplomat whose sons were interrogated by authorities in an Asian country regarding arms supplies to terrorists. I took the precaution of editing the story to read ‘a South Asian…’

But the diplomat sent us a letter of demand, which we ignored as no names published. He then went to court and sued for defamation, and The Island recruited legal eagle President’s Counsel Romesh de Silva to defend us. He cleverly pointed out that the letter of demand, a private complaint, was typed on the official letterhead of a ministry – and the case was thrown out.

Lasantha’s involvement as a columnist with The Sunday Times was in the late 1980s. He met me privately at my home when I was Editor of the Sunday Times and asked if he could write a political column – but on the condition that no one should know the identity of the columnist.

Knowing that he was the private secretary of former prime minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike, I agreed – and so was born Suranimala, who became a sensation, revealing secret information not only about the activities of our politicians but also their corrupt dealings.

To conceal his identity, the articles with scrawled lettering were brought to my home on Saturday mornings and my wife would type them.

It was the freedom to write freely at The Sunday Times that laid the foundation for his future actions to seek and reveal the truth. A piece he penned about former president Ranasinghe Premadasa led to pressure on the management and I was instructed to suspend his column.

It is a story that has no ending because the final chapter of who killed this fighter for truth and why he was killed still waits to be written

 

I refused and resigned as editorial independence was important to me as a professional journalist.

Lasantha Wickrematunge bided his time and set up The Sunday Leader. He was a man of integrity who strove for the truth and had the courtesy to ask if he could continue to use the pseudonym Suranimala.

I agreed since it was he who created it.

Truth. Yes, truth! My favourite quote is what Mr. Brown – the main character of the play ‘Mr Brown Comes Down the Hill,’ by British journalist Peter Howard – tells a group of ‘new morality’ bishops who ask him: “What is truth?” And he replies: “Truth is the right you deny and the wrong you justify.”

Those words summarise what Lasantha believed in. This is illustrated wonderfully in what Raine writes about him. It’s a book worth reading, analysing and reflecting on, as what he fought for was freedom and democracy in our land.

It is a story that has no ending because the final chapter of who killed this fighter for truth and why he was killed still waits to be written.