British community life threatened to silence President - Prof. Peiris

"Is threatening the life of a community in a British city, to prevent the expression of a point of view, acceptable in a functioning and vibrant democracy?" asked the Minister of External Affairs Prof. G.L. Peiris, addressing the media in London last week.

Speaking at a media briefing at the Sri Lanka High Commission in London, to explain current political developments in Sri Lanka, and the situation arising from the prevention of President Mahinda Rajapaksa addressing the Oxford Union, Prof. Peiris said the two statements by the Oxford Union showed an immense degree of pressure and threats being brought on the Union for the purpose.

He said this went against the core values of Oxford, which believed in the freedom of speech, the articulation of differing views, however disagreeable they may be, and the ability to counter in words the views of another, State one's position and challenge the views of a speaker.

Two statements by the Oxford Union, its public statement on why it had to withdraw the invitation to President Rajapaksa to address the Union, and a personal letter to President Rajapaksa from the President of the Union showed the nature of the danger the Union and the community in Oxford were faced with in this situation.

While the public statement referred to the sheer scale of expected protests, that they did not feel the talk can reasonably and safely go ahead as planned, the letter to President Rajapaksa presented this danger in more detail and in its true perspective.Prof. Peiris said the threat that compelled the Union to cancel the talk by President Rajapaksa was clearly a direct threat to the community, the businesses, offices and pedestrians of Oxford, placing a whole community to ransom, to achieve the undemocratic aims of small groups, the LTTE and its supporters, who were clearly opposed to free speech and the values of democracy. He asked whether such intolerance of differing views could be allowed in a democracy, and warned of the dangers that such threats posed to the very fabric of democracy and British society. This is not an attack on Sri Lanka or President Rajapaksa, but on the values of democracy in the UK, and was totally incompatible with the British political system and the hallowed traditions of Oxford, he said.