As an organization, the Centre for Policy Alternatives has faced a number of challenges in the work that it does, but we feel very strongly that we need to continue to do it, to take a public role in respect of the defence of these rights, and hopefully that provides some insurance against a backlash.
For example, I personally have received death threats. I am constantly subjected to a campaign of vilification in the state media. The government has put up posters around the country condemning me and accusing me of being a secessionist and a Tiger, an LTTE sympathizer, for taking stands that they do not agree with. They named us as well in the charges of impeachment against the chief justice.
The space for civil society is shrinking considerably, and there are only a few organizations that are willing and able at the end of the day to stand up, but we are, in the public discourse, controlled by the powers that be. In terms of government, we are seen and branded as traitors, as agents of foreign powers, as supporters of the LTTE, etc., so there is always the risk, the danger, the possibility of being detained at airports, taken in, “disappeared”, threatened. There is also the everyday reality of being castigated as traitors and agents of a foreign power in the state-controlled media.