Tuesday 5th May, 2009
Beware of Greeks
bearing Gifts
Timeo Danaos et Dona Ferentes
ings they are able to move seamlessly
to a double thinking, double talking,
double standards mode. Witness their
pronouncements, or conspicuous
lack of them, on human rights violations against civilians in the fight
against terrorism in Iraq (hundreds
of thousands dead and millions displaced), Afghanistan (bombing of
civilians) and Pakistan (drone bombs
killing civilians) and on US torture of
detainees. That is in sharp contrast to
the hectoring of Sri Lanka with
veiled threats, notwithstanding the
by Atticus
ne major lesson to be drawn
from the conflict of the Sri
Lankan State and the LTTE is
to be wary of the advice of the
Western (white?) international community (Governments, NGOs, UN
agencies controlled by the West and
assorted groups such as Human
Rights Watch and the International
Crisis Group). That advice has consistently been flawed.
The Norwegian peace mediation
was an unmitigated disaster. A ceasefire resulted in the LTTE extending
de facto control over a vast area of
the Island and the surrounding sea,
being ever bolder in carrying out terrorist acts in all parts of the country
and building up a formidable military machine both in terms of arsenal and trained cadres. The end of
the Sri Lankan State, as we know it,
was nigh.
Next was the reaction of the
Western international community
(excluding neutral Switzerland; and
Japan is not part of the West) to the
determination of the Government to
defeat the LTTE militarily, once and
for all, in response to the grabbing of
the sources Mavilaru Oya, the assassination attempts on the Army
Commander
and
the
Defence
Secretary, and numerous terrorist
acts against civilians.
O
Western counsel
Sri Lanka was advised over and
over again by all and sundry in the
Western international community,
especially the so-called Co-Chairs
(includes Japan), that there was no
military solution to the conflict
between the Government and the
LTTE. Much to its surprise, and perhaps chagrin, events proved otherwise. The Sri Lankan armed forces,
under formidable leadership and
direction, defeated, step by step, the
LTTE militarily. The LTTE retreated
ultimately to the “no fire zone”, with
heavy weaponry. Civilians were corralled to flee with the LTTE cadre so
as to act as human shields.
With the recent impending military defeat of the LTTE, the argument took a new form. The Western
international community warned
that, in the absence of Sri Lankan
Government declaring a ceasefire, a
blood bath faced hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilians in the “no
fire zone” as the Sri Lankan armed
forces moved to capture this area.
Alas for its judgment. Far from a
bloodbath, over 115,000 civilians
escaped from the LTTE clutches and
streamed into Government territory
since April 20th and tens of thou-
by A. N. Suranimala
his little country is said to
have had a glorious past;
from about the 2 c BC to 9
c or so AC, was the
Anuradhapura civilization of
which Arnold Toynbee, the
acclaimed historian, wrote that
it was one of the very few civilizations in human history that
lasted over a thousand years.
But what we have now, with
murders and assaults on pressmen who speak their mind, and
verminnous (or Mervinous)
politicians who make indiscipline and corruption
entrenched in our contemporary society and thrive on it,
and make the sane and upright
frightened to speak their mind
lest they too be murdered or
assaulted, and taken away in
white un-numbered white vans,
with our little country meanwhile on the slippery slope to
becoming a failed state? Is it
that there are cycles in the sorry
scheme of things, of a Zenith
and the Nadir that affect civilizations? that if something goes
up, it must also come down?
Even on a micro-scale, within a
few decades, we have these phases. Take the great Traditional
Physician Pandit G.P.
Wickramarachchi, who set up a
hospital with his own funds,
T
11
cumstances to deal with huge numbers of the sick and wounded without
publicity seeking showmanship and
media outpourings.
The Government should also negotiate with the western international
community to fast track the grant of
visas to IDPs ( perhaps 75,000 a year)
to settle in Western countries, especially to those who have family connections in the countries concerned.
That would be a fitting way for the
Western international community
(nearly 30 countries in Europe North
America and Oceania)) to show the
sincerity of their recent expressions
of concern for the untold suffering of
the Tamil IDP`s. This is one area
where the Sri Lankan authorities and
the Tamil Diaspora should be able to
work together in a constructive manner.
Post-war settlement
Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama, center, arrives along with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, left, and and British
Foreign Secretary David Miliband, right, before their meeting in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, April 29, 2009. (AP)
sands had done so earlier.
The Western international community had made up its mind that,
come what may, it would keep on
advocating a ceasefire. It was not
going to be confused by facts or the
ground reality. Not to be daunted by
successive misjudgments, the ceasefire demand took another new turn.
The aim of the ceasefire it was said
was to save the lives of 50,000 civilians who faced a massacre if the Sri
Lankan armed forces pressed on with
its military campaign. The call for a
ceasefire was associated with the
demand that the UN and other western humanitarian aid bodies be permitted to go to the “no fire zone”
under LTTE control to provide relief
to the civilians. In effect it implied
allowing the UN to talk directly to the
LTTE, something that the LTTE had
been demanding for quite a while as a
way out from having to unconditionally surrender to the Sri Lankan
forces. It was also a ploy to make the
Sri Lanka authorities agree to a solution for the escape of the LTTE leadership in return for releasing the
human shield civilians.
The two foreign Ministers
It was in the context of the latest
call for a ceasefire that two Foreign
Ministers of the Western international community descended in
Colombo. They ostensibly came to
discuss what they consider a
“humanitarian catastrophe” facing
internally displaced persons (IDPs)
in government territory, as well as
the plight of civilians in LTTE hands.
Their demands included unfettered
access of the UN and aid workers of
the Western international community to IDP camps and to the “no fire
zone”. The sine qua non for that to be
realized was a humanitarian ceasefire in the conflict zone.
It is well to separate the observations, statements, advice given to the
Sri Lanka Government by the
Western international community, on
the one hand, and the people making
them on the other. There can be little
dispute that unverifiable observations, shocking statements and the
gratuitous advice of the western
international community has been
damaging to the country and its people, and sometimes pernicious. But it
would be wrong to accuse all the people doing so of acting in bad faith and
with malice. It is an example of otherwise sensible people becoming irrational and imprudent.
Clever clogs David Milliband
(Comprehensive school and then an
Oxford First) is not a “bad egg” being
the son of
principled Ralph
Milliband, revered by LSE alumni of
times past. Bernard Kouchner too
has liberal instincts like Milliband
though his personality and judgment
on humanitarian and other issues
throughout his somewhat colourful
and chequered career are controversial.
The problem with liberals of this
ilk is that lacking ideological moor-
far more morally justified actions by
the Sri Lankan authorities. Perhaps
they feel that Western countries are
big enough to be inconsistent and
that the rules of engagement against
terrorism that applied to whites did
not apply to ”those funny little brown
folk”.
Next steps for Sri Lanka
So how should Sri Lanka deal with
the western international community? Sri Lanka no doubt should welcome financial and other aid from the
Western international community
for relief and rehabilitation of IDPs,
the resettlement of IDPs and the
reconstruction of the North. That is
in the interest of the IDPs. It would
also ease the financial burden on the
country.
It is important however for the Sri
Lankan authorities to set the agenda
for this work in the North and set the
ground rules for foreign assistance.
The latter must include good conduct
and behaviour of foreign outfits and
their nationals working in the country. There must be no repetition of
foreign aid outfits carrying out their
own agendas. The media outbursts
recently of some of the UN agencies
like UNICEF, even the supposedly
neutral ICRC and humanitarian medical outfits, were questionable, if not
downright offensive. In sharp contrast was the exemplary conduct of
the Indian aid mission that went
about their business in trying cir-
Then and now or periodicity
in human affairs
The Anuradhapura civilization of which Arnold Toynbee, the acclaimed historian, wrote that it was one of the very few civilizations in human history that
lasted over a thousand years
and, though this is just one
example, the temptation is to
ask whether we have such great
medical men today. I’m sure we
have but they don’t appear to
enter into the mainstream of
medicine-men who make us
rather talk of strikes, malpractice and the urge to mine gold,
and to feel the purse of his
patient rather than their pulse.
Take, again our contemporary
medical students who in cahoot
with senior consultant staff, are
up-in-arms against the education of the, what’s-called, the
Allied Health students in
Peradeniya, the pharmacists,
the nurses, the physiotherapists
etc that our country is in great
need of. I couldn’t help thinking,
isn’t this attitude what the commonest graffiti on buses and
three-wheelers state: Suwa
karanna baeri ekama ledey,
eersiyawai; the only disease that
cannot be cured is jealousy,
which today seems to be the
foundation of our decrepit, failing society. When I grumbled to
my senior lecturer years ago
that students of that time
(1970s) were so ignorant and
indisciplined, my lecturer said,
Sir, Hippocrates (about 200 BC)
said the same of his students.
Then the question is: Are these
comparative views, a matter of
relativism, from what we experienced in our hey-day with an
The postwar political settlement in
Sri Lanka to reconcile all communities living in the country is a different matter. The Government of Sri
Lanka should be very firm in rejecting any international mediation (an
euphemism for interference by the
western international community).
Many western countries and UN
agencies are itching to meddle in the
designing of new political arrangements in Sri Lanka. The NGOs too
are rearing to throw their weight
around (see the blog of the notorious
Gareth Evans for a not so hidden
somewhat sinister agenda).
There is no place for foreign
involvement in the political process
anymore (including the Tamil and
Sinhala Diaspora who are not citizens of Sri Lanka ). The political settlement seemingly is a “done deal”—
— the implementation of the 13th
Amendment in the nine provinces
plus a few changes at the margin.
Fresh thinking, however, has to be
given by the Government in particular, and all political parties, of measures to achieve long term communal
peace and prosperity. It must go well
beyond the promised political settlement that would be implemented
albeit not in terms of more devolution of powers to the provinces. A
well funded system to disperse power
within Provinces and to promote and
strengthen self reliance at village
level is one strand that merits priority.
The other is national action to
increase understanding and goodwill
among all communities. Such action
should include compulsory teaching
of Sinhala and Tamil to all students
in all schools say from 2010, compulsory bilingualism in the public service by the end of a limited time frame,
positive discrimination of Tamil language job seekers in the public service until specific targets are reached,
promotion of extensive BuddhistHindu religious interaction, especially in the plantation sector. All these
actions, however, require a great deal
of political will and the support of
the majority community. The only
man who has the stature and force of
personality to provide leadership to
persuade the Nation to accept such
home grown forward looking changes
is President Rajapakse.
!
inevitable change of scene that
we cannot subscribe to, and
hence the magnified image of
our own great days of the past?
The contrast appears to be
universal and not confined to
our little island. Here is what
Harold Pinter, who died recently,
said in his 2005 lecture on
receiving the Nobel Prize for
Literature:
Unholy truths. Nobel
Foundation 2005. Printed in the
South China Morning Post, Dec
9, 2005
What has happened to our
moral sensibility? Did we ever
have any? What do these words
mean? Do they refer to a term
very rarely employed these days
– conscience? A conscience to do
not only with our own acts but
to do with our shared responsibility in the acts of others? Is all
this dead?
These words remind me of
Dr Siri Gunasinghe’s
Peradeniya D. Litt. convocation
address a few years ago, that he
titled, A Sense of Shame, and
our contemporary lack of it.
Perhaps we will have to wait for
a few more centuries to have
our crumbling society rise from
the dust, before we develop a
sense of. Shame that will immunize us against the societal horrors of today.
!