On the plight of our workers in the Middle East

"As for the Sri Lankan Government, thousands and thousands of young women and men seeking employment under such atrocious conditions is the consequence of the preoccupation of politicians with racist issues and the injustice perpetrated on the minority Tamil-speaking people – and even now unwilling to address this issue as a primary factor in nation-building after 50 years of discriminatory practices."

(Noveber, 29, Sydney, Australia, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Hindu’s Colombo representative Muralidhar Reddy has in a penetratingly incisive feature – given below - on the plight of our women most of them, frightfully young, reflects the shame of Sri Lanka. The Government of Sri Lanka extremely heavy on its ministerial composition seems unmoved; even worse is unable to understand the shameful state to which the country has been condemned.

The Case of Rizana Naffeek

He has also spot-lighted the horrendous fate of Razia Nafeek, variously spelt Rizana Naffeek, who now awaits the decision of the Court of Appeal in Riyadh after the Shariah Court in a one-sided trial against her interests sentenced her to death charged with a crime for which she was not responsible. But for the intervention of Asian Human Rights Watch, Rizana’s fate by now would have been sealed and executed. It took an incredibly long time for the Government of Sri Lanka to act in this case.

If there is any element of justice and fairness in how the Shariah Court of Saudi Arabia functions, Razia Nafeek would not have been charged but instead, the mother of the child who obviously died of choking on milk should have been charged with child neglect and for the illegal employment of an under aged domestic aid as a child minder. Along with her, the agent who contracted Razia’s employment should also have been charged with malpractice.

As for the Sri Lankan Government, thousands and thousands of young women and men seeking employment under such atrocious conditions is the consequence of the preoccupation of politicians with racist issues and the injustice perpetrated on the minority Tamil-speaking people – and even now unwilling to address this issue as a primary factor in nation-building after 50 years of discriminatory practices. The minorities have been fooled too long and whatever government that comes to power is unwilling to consider the only solution that will ensure equal rights to all the communities and that is a federal system that is popular and successful in many countries in the world today.

Watch Towers against India

Instead, fashioned by corrupt practices of the worst kinds, Sri Lanka has become the dumping grounds for obsolete arms as well as experimental sites for new forms of munitions and the playground of geopolitical adventurers who want to set up camps on the island to watch, affect negatively and intimidate India’s progress. As long as Sri Lankan politicians are in their pay, they have no will or interest to solve the problems of the minorities, develop the country, bring back our abused and tortured young people from the Middle East and ensure not one Sri Lankan needs to seek employment overseas.

What Sri Lanka really needs now is a revolution against corrupt and violent political elements, a revolution that will be based on active non-violent actions that Gandhi practiced successfully against Great Britain and in recent years how South Africa’s apartheid system was done away under the leadership of Nelson Mandela, the way Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos were thrown out of the Philippines by a movement headed by Corazon Aquino and what Aung Sang Suu Kyi is now doing in Burma.

The people of Sri Lanka have to rise up against the politicians united from Tissa to KKS and Batticaloa to Puttalam, Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Burghers and others to whom Sri Lanka is home and dear to them.