Slain editor Lasantha Wickrematunga writes one last editorial

By Nalaka Gunawardene

Having been at meetings all morning, I heard about the brutal attack on courageous newspaper editor Lasantha Wickrematunga only around 12.30 pm on Thursday, January 8 -- almost two hours after he was shot and seriously injured on his way to work. At that moment, doctors were desperately trying to save his life at a public hospital just two kilometres from my office.

My colleague Manori, who passed on the shocking news, added hopefully: "If I know anything about Lasantha, he's a real fighter."

Indeed. We'd each known him as a colleague in our own newspaper days: dogged defiance was his hallmark.

We both clung on to the (slim) chance that he would somehow make it. Across the nation, thousands collectively held their breath. Breaking news on TV and radio repeated the same story every few minutes. A news hound all his life, Lasantha would have enjoyed this attention.

The suspense was too much. So just past 1 pm, I phoned my friend Dilrukshi, one of Lasantha's deputy editors. She wasn't answering and I didn't persist.

She phoned back a few minutes later to say Lasantha was still in a 'critical condition' even as emergency head and chest surgery was ending. Doctors won't say anything else. She briefly described what she knew and saw - details that would soon be reported worldwide by a myriad of news outlets across the media spectrum.

Lasantha and his team understood the dangers involved. In the past decade, he'd been shot at and assaulted, while their newspaper office was sealed by a censorious government and set on fire by goons. As the Editor-in-Chief of The Sunday Leader, Sri Lanka's most investigative newspaper, he had exposed hundreds of corrupt deals involving politicians, officials, generals and businessmen.

'Unbowed and Unafraid' was the newspaper's motto, and that's what they have been, for nearly 15 years. Among the 20 million Sri Lankans, there were surely a few hundred who would dearly like to see his voice silenced for good.

For Dilrukshi and team, their worst fear was suddenly unfolding. But there was work to be done, and a newspaper to be readied for Sunday publication. Having spent two tensed hours at the Kalubowila Hospital, Dilrukshi was already heading back to their office in Ratmalana.

Thursday was typically the busiest day of the week for her team. "We have to put the paper together, no matter what," she said in a crackling yet resolute voice. "He would expect nothing less."

The grim news came an hour later: Lasantha had lost his final battle. As the news spread at the speed of light, statements of condemnation and outrage came from around the world.

I decided to leave Dilrukshi and team to do their job. Later that afternoon, I sent her a text message: "I am so very sorry. Been in tears most of this pm. Suggest you print Pastor Niemoeller as a caution to our zombies who still cheerlead blood thirsty 'war heroes'."

I found myself numbed and unable to write. That doesn't happen often. Before the sun went down that day, I only managed to make a brief blog post which started with this:

"Saluting the memory of courageous newspaper editor, fearless investigative journalist, jovial human being and my former colleague Lasantha Wickramatunga, Editor in Chief of The Sunday Leader, Sri Lanka, shot dead by four gunmen within sight of his newspaper office. Today, we lost the real Leader of the Opposition."

I added: "For once, I’m at a loss for words. When prose fails, we must turn to verse which is always more potent.
I remember Martin Niemoeller.
I remember Niyi Osundare.
I remember Adrian Mitchell."

By unhappy coincidence, I had already quoted the famous words ("First they came for the Jews...") by the German theologian Martin Niemoeller in a blog comment protesting the attack on Sirasa/MTV, Sri Lanka's largest private broadcaster, on the night of January 5/6. The two attacks both aimed to silence independent voices that were not easily coerced by the rhetoric of patriotism and Sinhala nationalism.

What I didn't know at the time was that Lasantha had been fond of these very words of Niemoeller, and quoted it often.

And Niemoeller figures prominently in - and provides an ironic heading for - the very last editorial to be signed under Lasantha's name, which appears in The Sunday Leader on 11 January 2009. This edition was produced and distributed to the same standard and was on newsstands as Sunday broke. Just as when Lasantha was at the helm, leading from the front.

I have no idea which one - or several - of his team members actually penned this 'Last Editorial', but it reads authentic Lasantha all over: passionate and accommodating, liberal yet uncompromising on what he held dear. I can't discern the slightest difference in style.

And there lies our hope: while Lasantha at 51 lies fallen by bullets, his spirit and passion are out there, continuing his life's mission. That seems a good measure of the institutional legacy he leaves behind. If investigative journalism were a bug, the man has already infected at least a few of his team members…

Meanwhile, here it is: the inimitable Lasantha Wickramatunga for the very last time, speaking from across the Great Divide.

The Sunday Leader Editorial:
11 January 2009
And Then They Came For Me