Et Tu Tutu: You Too

"Archbishop Desmond Tutu is widely and rightly acknowledged as a man of great wisdom and righteousness. In close association with Nelson Mandela he engaged in the heroic non-violent struggle against the abominable system called ‘apartheid’, a clearly and officially enunciated policy of a government that represented the essence of man’s inhumanity to man. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1984 for this accomplishment. We need to bear in mind that in 1995, Bishop Tutu was appointed by Nelson Mandela as the head of the ‘Truth and Reconciliation Commission’."

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by Eymard de Silva Wijeyeratne

(May 26, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) It was reported by the Media on last week that Jimmy Carter, former US President, Emeritus Archbishop of Cape Town and Adolfo Perez Esquivel of Argentina had "called on the United Nations to reject Sri Lanka’s candidacy for the UN Human Rights Council. The stand that Carter and Esquivel have taken is hardly worth comment in view of the human rights violations at Guantánamo Bay internment centre, and the endemic character of such violations committed by dictators in Latin America. The guilt that has been lodged deep in the collective unconscious of these nations, when it rises to the surface of the conscious mind of individuals, is usually transferred to other nations such as Sri Lanka.

Archbishop Tutu

Archbishop Desmond Tutu is widely and rightly acknowledged as a man of great wisdom and righteousness. In close association with Nelson Mandela he engaged in the heroic non-violent struggle against the abominable system called ‘apartheid’, a clearly and officially enunciated policy of a government that represented the essence of man’s inhumanity to man. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1984 for this accomplishment. We need to bear in mind that in 1995, Bishop Tutu was appointed by Nelson Mandela as the head of the ‘Truth and Reconciliation Commission’. The purpose of that Commission was to investigate and collect evidence that would establish the guilt of those who had violated human rights. A significant feature of that Commission was that those, who confessed participation in such crimes, were to be granted pardon. Truth was established and reconciliation effected thereafter. Bishop Tutu is reputed to have recorded his personal experience of the methods used in tormenting people and the harrowing tales of the victims in a book titled ‘No Future without Forgiveness’.

It is hard to believe that a man of proclaimed high moral integrity has ventured to pass a sweeping judgement on Sri Lanka and even gone to the deep end of vindictiveness to request the UN to reject Sri Lanka’s candidacy. Forgiveness is not a component of justice. It is purely a noble option. Surely, forgiveness has meaning only in circumstances where an individual, institution or country has been proved beyond doubt to be guilty of an offence or offences. Just as much as Sri Lanka has no need to seek forgiveness, it is not to be intimidated with threats of fake justice. I trust that Bishop Tutu believes that Jesus Christ was unjustly condemned to die for a crime that he did not commit. Does his novel interpretation of Christianity entail the apocalyptic conclusion that all others must be condemned at the behest of those who are hell-bent on destroying a putative enemy?

Conclusion

It is common knowledge that the rejection of Sri Lanka’s candidacy is a shameless response to the relentless efforts of NGOs and INGOs. One must include in this category, religious institutions too, who in their anxiety to prove that Sri Lanka has failed, have only proved that their version of God has failed. If one seeks specific instances of how Bishop Tutu would have been inveigled into coming to this wayward decision, one must go through the comedy enacted by the IIGEP. - Sri Lanka Guardian