INDEPENDENT FOR SIXTY FIVE YEARS
Theoretically we are and have been an `Independent’, Sovereign’ State that is equal to all others – i.e equal in all respects to the International Thug, [a.k.a. the United States of America], its `lap-dog’ the once `Great’ Britain, India, our giant neighbour and `Regional Thug’, [now castigating Pakistan for allegedly sending armed thugs to murder its citizens in Mumbai] and all others. That, is the `theory’, but how is it in `practice’???
Today, even as preparations are underway for an extravagant ceremony in Trincomalee to commemorate 65 years of alleged `independence’, a team of Bureaucrats from the State Department of the `International Thug’ and a political functionary named Burt from its `Lapdog’ across t he Atlantic, are here i n `Independent’ Sri Lanka to inquire into our internal affairs while the Regional Thug has the crass impertinence to keep telling us how to manage our internal affairs after having done to us in a several-fold more virulent form what it now accuses Pakistan of having done to it, and another interfering foreigner named Pillay has expressed a desire to send 10 more foreigners whom she calls “rapporteurs” to inquire into our internal affairs prior to the forthcoming meeting of the UNHRC. While it is reported that Pillay has been refused permission to send her 10 minions it is also reported that she has been told that she could come herself for the same purpose !!!
All this is at odds with the noisy and unruly political demonstrations sponsored by the Government against the last meeting of the UNHRC and the anti-Sri Lanka resolution proposed thereat by the International Thug.
The contradictory stances taken by the Government of `Independent’ Sri Lanka in this regard are reminiscent of the like stances taken by it in respect of the panel of purported `experts’ appointed by Ban Ki Moon purportedly to advise him about what steps should be taken in respect of the situation in `Independent’ Sri Lanka. It would be recalled how , on that occasion, Minister Weerawansa skipped a few meals with much fuss, fanfare and inconvenience to the public, calling that temporary diet a “fast unto death” until Moon disbanded his `panel’ and was `persuaded’ to `give up’ his temporary diet by President Mahinda Rajapaksa himself who visited the site of this monumental farce and gave Weerawansa some `nourishment’ Moon himself was predictably unmoved by this farce in public though presumably highly amused by it in private !!!
The enactment of this farce notwithstanding, the Government had sent some of its functionaries to the International Thug [at public expense] to `explain’ matters to the `Ugly American’ at the helm of its State Department as well as to Moon !!!
In the meantime, the Governor of Tamilnadu, on the political support of which the Central Government of the Regional Thug depends to remain in power, has made a strident call for sanctions against Sri Lanka until all Tamils displaced by the armed conflict with the LTTE are re-settled in their original habitats. The manifest fact that there would have been no displacement of any one but for the Regional Thug having armed and trained Tamil thugs to create mayhem in our Country was conveniently ignored by this Governor. This Governor has also made public statements in support of South Indian fishermen who illegally enter the territorial waters of `Independent’ Sri Lanka and rob the fish that would otherwise have formed the `catch’ and livelihood of Sri Lankan Tamil fishermen of the North and East. The patently jingoistic and equally moronic statements of this Governor only resonate those made by the comical Chief Minister of that unfortunate State, Jayalalitha Jeyaram.
To cap it all various foreign countries and international NGOs such as the International Commission of Jurists and the International Council of Jurists have taken liberties with Sri Lanka and made public statements both `for’ and mostly `against’ what was and continues to be, a purely internal matter of Sri Lanka, namely, the dismissal of Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake and the appointment of Mohan Peiris to replace her. The fact that the views of these foreign busybodies are wholly irrelevant to us and constitute an assault upon our independence appears to be wholly ignored by Government and Opposition alike who lose no time in trumpeting these presumptuous views of foreigners with glee when they support their stance on the subject.
To add to all this, today’s papers report a statement by one Aggarwal who is allegedly the President of the International Council of Jurists to the effect that “Council” supports the new Chief Justice to the hilt. The obvious questions about whether the support or opposition of this foreign NGO to the incumbent Chief Justice mattered one whit and that their presumption in thinking it did was offensive to our independence and sovereignty are matters that are yet ignored by the Government, the Opposition and their lickspittle lackeys.
Would the International Thug or even its Lapdog or the Regional Thug have tolerated another sovereign State or international NGO sending bureaucrats, politicians or officials to investigate and report upon its internal affairs or either tolerated or taken kindly to presumptuous foreigners expressing views `for’ and/or `against’ a purely internal matter of such Country like the dismissal and replacement of a Chief Justice.
Yet, we are different. The billions spent on tamashas to commemorate independence and our proud boast of our glorious past notwithstanding, we are still a Country which worships the foreigner, specially if he is white skinned. We did have room to hope that we had changed for the better and gave a practical display of our independence and sovereignty when Mahinda Rajapaksa commendably, rejected the moronic demands (couched as requests) of the likes of Moon, Clinton, Milliband and Kouchner for a ceasefire when we were on the verge of defeating the LTTE. Yet we were to be disappointed. Mahinda Rajapaksa’s display of independence was but a `flash in the pan’ and we have now gone back to square one vis-à-vis the foreigner. With the defeat of the LTTE on the 18th/19th May 2009, Mahinda Rajapaksa has gone back to being but a parochial politician intent on perpetuating and expanding upon the power now possessed by him and his family and ensuring that it stays where it is, within his family first, and secondly, his party, as a necessary vehicle for him, his kith and his kin to ride to power.
Yet, `independence’ means more than becoming `independent’ in theory from our former colonial ruler. It means being `independent’ of all other Countries in fact. It means far more than the incumbent President, his kith and kin being assured of a long or permanent sojourn in power – for it means that our People of all ethnic groups who constitute it having a better life enjoying the equality assured to them with all others by the Constitution, with more freedom than they had under our former colonial ruler. It means the powers that be practicing in every day life the noble doctrine that power is a “public trust” entrusted to our rulers at any given time temporarily to be used for the benefit of the People as a whole; it means building up a National Consciousness and identity as a Sri Lankan Nation, comprised of all our People, whatever be their ethnicity or religious beliefs. While this is a manifest duty of all parties, it is indeed a tragedy that the racist parties of the Tamils in particular have not only not made any contribution to this noble object but expressly opposed it by propagating the patently nonsensical fictions that there exist in Sri Lanka, two separate Nations, comprised of the Tamils and the Sinhalese respectively, each with a right of self determination which is separate and distinct from that of the other and that the Northern and Eastern Provinces are the EXCLUSIVE homeland of the Tamils. There can be no doubt that they have propagated and continue to propagate these ridiculous myths as well as the equally ridiculous myth of there being an `ethnic conflict’ in Sri Lanka because such myths are the lifeblood of their pathetic party and their hopes of riding to power in the North and East on the backs of the long suffering Tamils as the SLFP and UNP [together with their `hangers on’] have been doing to the Sinhalese for the last 65 years.
The problem with our political `leaders’ both in the Government as well as in the purported `Opposition’ is that they are all wholly infatuated by power and the privileges and perquisites [both legal and illegal] which accompany that power. The “public trust” doctrine is nothing more than a crazy notion to them and the People are not their `masters’ as the law decrees but their serfs to be used and discarded like condoms. Never will they risk incurring the ire of their political leaders by speaking the unvarnished truth about any matter – so much so that none of them will pose the question why those foreign hypocrites who now express concern about us and interfere in our internal affairs were silent [like the TNA] when the Regional Thug armed and trained Tamil thugs to murder our citizens and destroy our property on our soil, and why they are now silent when fisherman of Tamilnadu keep robbing the livelihood of our Tamil fishermen of the North and East.
How could they do so when their own parties fall over each other to express their `undying love’ for the Regional Thug and actually negotiate with the former lackeys of the Tiger Terrorists and present lackeys of the Tigers’ political heirs in the Global Tamil Forum, the TNA, to try and inveigle them into lending their political support to them.
When, if ever, will our “Independence” be transformed from a mere theoretical concept to a living breathing concept from which the People at large derive the benefits that are their due. I for one cannot visualize seeing such a happy transformation in my life-time.