"A section of racist, hate mongering, extremists, one family and a handful of chauvinist Buddhist clergy, determine government policy and decisions. A pliable and weak parliament may be high on Rajapakse's Santa Claus list but says FP, the world's most vulnerable states are also home to the weakest parliaments, according to the Parliamentary Powers Index, a ranking of these bodies based on factors such as the power to declare war, impeach the executive, and establish veto-proof laws."
________________
by Sonali Samarasinghe
(June 29, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The world's weakest states are not just killing and oppressing their own people through war, corruption, despotism and economic failure; they are constantly threatening the progress of countries thousands of miles away. Countries that are quite unlike these despotic regimes. Free nations, rich nations with democratic principles at work. Perhaps more than anything else this is the singular most vital reason for global concern over failed states. It affects everybody regardless of where you are.
Just as much as a flutter of a butterfly's wings fluttering in Pakistan can months later cause a tornado in New York City, so can a weak state endanger the security of a stable nation. Welcome to the chaos theory in its simplest form.
In 2007, Naom Chomsky published his book on failed states. By this time Sri Lanka was already ranked 25 in the Foreign Policy (FP) Failed States Index by the Fund for Peace think tank based in Washington. In a list of 177 states considered weak or failed Sri Lanka scored 93.1 points. We were preceded only by such inescapable monstrosities like Sudan, Iraq, Somalia, Zimbabwe Chad, Afghanistan, North Korea, Burma, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Yemen, Uzbekistan, Nepal, Timor Leste and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Shameful ranking
Little did the freedom fighters of the D.S. Senanayake era know that come 2007 the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka would be ranking among the worst in such a shameful index. Yet, in June 2008 we climbed further up the ladder of instability to number 20. While nations like Sierra Leone, Yemen, Uzbekistan, Nepal, and Timor Leste were improving, Sri Lanka deteriorated to such an extent it climbed up a further five ranks in one year. Sierra Leone meanwhile dropped down the scale of instability from 23 to 31.
MR must look sharp
As the human rights abuse increases, the refugee camps multiply, press freedom deteriorates, para militaries take over and economic failure sets inflation at over 30 percent, Sri Lanka is looking more and more like a pageant of instability and failure. If Sri Lanka is not to be the pin up model for neglect of its own people and the poster child for weak states, the Rajapakse regime has to look sharp and look sharp quick.
Included in the Fund for Peace indicators for instability were such crucial elements as extensive corruption and criminal behaviour, large-scale involuntary dislocation of the population, sharp economic decline, group-based inequality, institutionalised persecution or discrimination, severe demographic pressures, brain drain, the erosion of legitimate authority to make collective decisions, an inability to provide reasonable public services, the inability to interact wholesomely with other states and environmental decay.
While a failing state has several attributes, one of the most vital at least in the Sri Lankan context is the loss of physical control of its territory or a monopoly on the legitimate use of force.
Physical control of territory
There are often jeremiads by Rajapakse acolytes in the state controlled newspapers against international organisations, think tanks and human rights watchdogs such as Freedom House and The Fund for Peace when the regime has to face up to its performance indicators before the global community. But think about it. Sri Lanka has lost physical control of its territory not only to the Wanni Tigers in a more tangible way but also to the eastern breakaway armed groups.
No monopoly on the use of legitimate force
Like it or like it not, Sri Lanka has two armies, two navies, two air forces, two judicial systems, two legal education bodies and two police forces. One called Sri Lanka armed forces the other Tamil Eelam armed forces. Meanwhile para-military groups and terrorist factions with political aspirations maintain a synergic and symbiotic relationship with the state in order to further their own political and power agenda.
Massive movement of refugees and IDPs
Sri Lanka has a massive movement of refugees or IDPs creating complex humanitarian emergencies. The refugees are spilling over to India and the northeast has over 200,000 internally displaced persons with thousands upon thousands of men, women and children mostly Tamils living in makeshift camps where a shortage of food, medicine and medical care is an every day occurrence. Living in conditions where there is little or no privacy, no freedom of movement or access to work or proper education. Where mothers and wives live in constant fear their men would be taken in for questioning never to return.
Severe economic decline
There is sharp and severe economic decline in the country with inflation at over 30 percent and the public reduced to buying teaspoonfuls of milk powder from the village boutique down the road. Where supermarkets can only be visited by the super rich and the poor man's transportation is a cruel game of Russian roulette where a bomb could go off in any bus any where, anytime.
The sharp economic decline has dealt a severe blow to the sola plexus of the fixed income earner, and the middle class family can scarcely bear the burden of one square meal a day. Rapid increases in the cost of basic goods can cause chaos. Countries with high levels of inflation are also the world's weakest, according to the Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom.
Violation of human rights
There is a suspension or arbitrary application of the Rule of Law and widespread violation of human rights. Twelve journalists have been killed in the past two years. A fear psychosis has been created where journalists are labelled traitors to the nation for presenting alternative views to all out war. Abductions, arbitrary arrests, torture and indiscriminate killings continue unabated in a culture of impunity as the rules of war are shattered beneath pounding bombs.
Any attempt by the government to hold independent inquiries - such as in the case of the Commission of Inquiry or the IIGEP - into disappearances, abductions and other human rights violations are purely cosmetic and designed only to appease the international community at a particularly sticky moment rather than a genuine attempt to find and punish the perpetrators.
Failed interaction with other states
The Rajapakse regime is at war with the international community with pro government groups burning effigies of diplomats and the national flags of Norway, USA etc., in rowdy demonstrations in front of their diplomatic missions. Sri Lanka is at war not only with the Tiger terrorists it is at war with international human rights organisations, NGOs, humanitarian agencies and its Western allies.
The Rajapakse regime has instead embraced the likes of Burma, Pakistan, Iran and other weak states also considered failures, with Burma ranked 12th and Pakistan ranked 9th this year. Iran is doing better at number 49.
Erosion of legitimate authority to make collective decisions
A section of racist, hate mongering, extremists, one family and a handful of chauvinist Buddhist clergy, determine government policy and decisions. A pliable and weak parliament may be high on Rajapakse's Santa Claus list but says FP, the world's most vulnerable states are also home to the weakest parliaments, according to the Parliamentary Powers Index, a ranking of these bodies based on factors such as the power to declare war, impeach the executive, and establish veto-proof laws.
The world's weakest states are also the most religiously intolerant. Sri Lanka's majority Buddhists are becoming increasingly intolerant and paranoid of other religions. Reportedly vulnerable states display a greater degree of religious intolerance, according to scores calculated by the Hudson Institute's Centre for Religious Freedom.
A deterioration of public services
The government cannot provide the basic needs of the people. There is no infrastructure for development. The entire local government system is in collapse, there is no proper sewerage system, garbage disposal, water and electricity. The transport system is in disarray, including the entire road network. The public service is saturated, overpaid and spilling over with ministerial hangers on given government jobs like lozenges from a hat. Very expensive lozenges paid for by public funds.
(h) Corruption
There is widespread corruption from very high levels down. Transparency International in a report has said that the Sri Lanka Police Department is one of the most corrupt institutions in the country. There has been a sharp increase in the underworld network linked to ruling elites.
Ironically even as weapons procurement is increasingly scrutinised by investigative newspapers at a time most conducive to corrupt practices and underhand deals the Defence Ministry issued guidelines prohibiting the press from scrutinising promotions and transfers within the armed forces and questioning military procurements and the processes adopted for these.
Ironically also the corruption indicator deals specifically with the resistance of ruling elites to transparency, accountability and political representation and the rise of massive and endemic corruption or profiteering by ruling elites.
Security apparatus operates as a 'state within a state'
This means according to the Fund For Peace Think Tank (1) an emergence of elite or praetorian guards that operate with impunity, (2) emergence of state-sponsored or state-supported private militias that terrorise political opponents, suspected "enemies," or civilians seen to be sympathetic to the opposition, (3) emergence of an "army within an army" that serves the interests of the dominant military or political clique, emergence of rival militias, (4) guerrilla forces or private armies in an armed struggle or protracted violent campaigns against state security forces.
There is today in Sri Lanka a culture of impunity that has paved the way for abductions, disappearances, arbitrary arrests, and indiscriminate killing. The present regime is under the misapprehension it has carte blanche to act outside democratic norms in the name of war. The war has become both its meal ticket and its life line.
The Defence Ministry in a recent move to strangulate the media proposed harsh 'guidelines' in an editorial on the Ministry's website which stated that critical media scrutiny of military issues risk national security and is akin to supporting terrorism.
The 'guidelines' state the media should not be critical of military strategy or seek to analyse it, should not scrutinise promotions and transfers within the armed forces, should not question military procurements and the processes adopted for these, should not espouse or discuss anti-war positions, and should not obtain information from military officers other than officially designated spokesmen.
An earlier editorial posted on May 31 called on "all members of the armed forces to unite and guard against" a "treacherous media campaign (being run) against them." Journalists were accused of "terrorist propaganda." Journalists who report on defence issues have been subjected to a series of attacks, threats and intimidation in the past month.
Deliverance
So why did I reference Chomsky at the beginning of this commentary - A radical left intellectual who calls America the foremost failed state for wallowing in military aggression, ignoring public opinion on vital environmental issues, and provoking hatred and instability abroad that may lead to a terrorist blow back or nuclear conflict? Mainly because Chomsky begins his 2007 work by recalling an extraordinary appeal made to the people of the world 53 years ago, in July 1955, by Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein. The duo entreated the global community "to set aside" the strong feelings they have about many issues and to consider themselves "only as members of a biological species which has had a remarkable history, and whose disappearance none of us can desire."
That is powerful stuff. It is perhaps freedom in its true sense and the road to deliverance from evil.
- Sri Lanka Guardian
(June 29, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The world's weakest states are not just killing and oppressing their own people through war, corruption, despotism and economic failure; they are constantly threatening the progress of countries thousands of miles away. Countries that are quite unlike these despotic regimes. Free nations, rich nations with democratic principles at work. Perhaps more than anything else this is the singular most vital reason for global concern over failed states. It affects everybody regardless of where you are.
Just as much as a flutter of a butterfly's wings fluttering in Pakistan can months later cause a tornado in New York City, so can a weak state endanger the security of a stable nation. Welcome to the chaos theory in its simplest form.
In 2007, Naom Chomsky published his book on failed states. By this time Sri Lanka was already ranked 25 in the Foreign Policy (FP) Failed States Index by the Fund for Peace think tank based in Washington. In a list of 177 states considered weak or failed Sri Lanka scored 93.1 points. We were preceded only by such inescapable monstrosities like Sudan, Iraq, Somalia, Zimbabwe Chad, Afghanistan, North Korea, Burma, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Yemen, Uzbekistan, Nepal, Timor Leste and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Shameful ranking
Little did the freedom fighters of the D.S. Senanayake era know that come 2007 the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka would be ranking among the worst in such a shameful index. Yet, in June 2008 we climbed further up the ladder of instability to number 20. While nations like Sierra Leone, Yemen, Uzbekistan, Nepal, and Timor Leste were improving, Sri Lanka deteriorated to such an extent it climbed up a further five ranks in one year. Sierra Leone meanwhile dropped down the scale of instability from 23 to 31.
MR must look sharp
As the human rights abuse increases, the refugee camps multiply, press freedom deteriorates, para militaries take over and economic failure sets inflation at over 30 percent, Sri Lanka is looking more and more like a pageant of instability and failure. If Sri Lanka is not to be the pin up model for neglect of its own people and the poster child for weak states, the Rajapakse regime has to look sharp and look sharp quick.
Included in the Fund for Peace indicators for instability were such crucial elements as extensive corruption and criminal behaviour, large-scale involuntary dislocation of the population, sharp economic decline, group-based inequality, institutionalised persecution or discrimination, severe demographic pressures, brain drain, the erosion of legitimate authority to make collective decisions, an inability to provide reasonable public services, the inability to interact wholesomely with other states and environmental decay.
While a failing state has several attributes, one of the most vital at least in the Sri Lankan context is the loss of physical control of its territory or a monopoly on the legitimate use of force.
Physical control of territory
There are often jeremiads by Rajapakse acolytes in the state controlled newspapers against international organisations, think tanks and human rights watchdogs such as Freedom House and The Fund for Peace when the regime has to face up to its performance indicators before the global community. But think about it. Sri Lanka has lost physical control of its territory not only to the Wanni Tigers in a more tangible way but also to the eastern breakaway armed groups.
No monopoly on the use of legitimate force
Like it or like it not, Sri Lanka has two armies, two navies, two air forces, two judicial systems, two legal education bodies and two police forces. One called Sri Lanka armed forces the other Tamil Eelam armed forces. Meanwhile para-military groups and terrorist factions with political aspirations maintain a synergic and symbiotic relationship with the state in order to further their own political and power agenda.
Massive movement of refugees and IDPs
Sri Lanka has a massive movement of refugees or IDPs creating complex humanitarian emergencies. The refugees are spilling over to India and the northeast has over 200,000 internally displaced persons with thousands upon thousands of men, women and children mostly Tamils living in makeshift camps where a shortage of food, medicine and medical care is an every day occurrence. Living in conditions where there is little or no privacy, no freedom of movement or access to work or proper education. Where mothers and wives live in constant fear their men would be taken in for questioning never to return.
Severe economic decline
There is sharp and severe economic decline in the country with inflation at over 30 percent and the public reduced to buying teaspoonfuls of milk powder from the village boutique down the road. Where supermarkets can only be visited by the super rich and the poor man's transportation is a cruel game of Russian roulette where a bomb could go off in any bus any where, anytime.
The sharp economic decline has dealt a severe blow to the sola plexus of the fixed income earner, and the middle class family can scarcely bear the burden of one square meal a day. Rapid increases in the cost of basic goods can cause chaos. Countries with high levels of inflation are also the world's weakest, according to the Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom.
Violation of human rights
There is a suspension or arbitrary application of the Rule of Law and widespread violation of human rights. Twelve journalists have been killed in the past two years. A fear psychosis has been created where journalists are labelled traitors to the nation for presenting alternative views to all out war. Abductions, arbitrary arrests, torture and indiscriminate killings continue unabated in a culture of impunity as the rules of war are shattered beneath pounding bombs.
Any attempt by the government to hold independent inquiries - such as in the case of the Commission of Inquiry or the IIGEP - into disappearances, abductions and other human rights violations are purely cosmetic and designed only to appease the international community at a particularly sticky moment rather than a genuine attempt to find and punish the perpetrators.
Failed interaction with other states
The Rajapakse regime is at war with the international community with pro government groups burning effigies of diplomats and the national flags of Norway, USA etc., in rowdy demonstrations in front of their diplomatic missions. Sri Lanka is at war not only with the Tiger terrorists it is at war with international human rights organisations, NGOs, humanitarian agencies and its Western allies.
The Rajapakse regime has instead embraced the likes of Burma, Pakistan, Iran and other weak states also considered failures, with Burma ranked 12th and Pakistan ranked 9th this year. Iran is doing better at number 49.
Erosion of legitimate authority to make collective decisions
A section of racist, hate mongering, extremists, one family and a handful of chauvinist Buddhist clergy, determine government policy and decisions. A pliable and weak parliament may be high on Rajapakse's Santa Claus list but says FP, the world's most vulnerable states are also home to the weakest parliaments, according to the Parliamentary Powers Index, a ranking of these bodies based on factors such as the power to declare war, impeach the executive, and establish veto-proof laws.
The world's weakest states are also the most religiously intolerant. Sri Lanka's majority Buddhists are becoming increasingly intolerant and paranoid of other religions. Reportedly vulnerable states display a greater degree of religious intolerance, according to scores calculated by the Hudson Institute's Centre for Religious Freedom.
A deterioration of public services
The government cannot provide the basic needs of the people. There is no infrastructure for development. The entire local government system is in collapse, there is no proper sewerage system, garbage disposal, water and electricity. The transport system is in disarray, including the entire road network. The public service is saturated, overpaid and spilling over with ministerial hangers on given government jobs like lozenges from a hat. Very expensive lozenges paid for by public funds.
(h) Corruption
There is widespread corruption from very high levels down. Transparency International in a report has said that the Sri Lanka Police Department is one of the most corrupt institutions in the country. There has been a sharp increase in the underworld network linked to ruling elites.
Ironically even as weapons procurement is increasingly scrutinised by investigative newspapers at a time most conducive to corrupt practices and underhand deals the Defence Ministry issued guidelines prohibiting the press from scrutinising promotions and transfers within the armed forces and questioning military procurements and the processes adopted for these.
Ironically also the corruption indicator deals specifically with the resistance of ruling elites to transparency, accountability and political representation and the rise of massive and endemic corruption or profiteering by ruling elites.
Security apparatus operates as a 'state within a state'
This means according to the Fund For Peace Think Tank (1) an emergence of elite or praetorian guards that operate with impunity, (2) emergence of state-sponsored or state-supported private militias that terrorise political opponents, suspected "enemies," or civilians seen to be sympathetic to the opposition, (3) emergence of an "army within an army" that serves the interests of the dominant military or political clique, emergence of rival militias, (4) guerrilla forces or private armies in an armed struggle or protracted violent campaigns against state security forces.
There is today in Sri Lanka a culture of impunity that has paved the way for abductions, disappearances, arbitrary arrests, and indiscriminate killing. The present regime is under the misapprehension it has carte blanche to act outside democratic norms in the name of war. The war has become both its meal ticket and its life line.
The Defence Ministry in a recent move to strangulate the media proposed harsh 'guidelines' in an editorial on the Ministry's website which stated that critical media scrutiny of military issues risk national security and is akin to supporting terrorism.
The 'guidelines' state the media should not be critical of military strategy or seek to analyse it, should not scrutinise promotions and transfers within the armed forces, should not question military procurements and the processes adopted for these, should not espouse or discuss anti-war positions, and should not obtain information from military officers other than officially designated spokesmen.
An earlier editorial posted on May 31 called on "all members of the armed forces to unite and guard against" a "treacherous media campaign (being run) against them." Journalists were accused of "terrorist propaganda." Journalists who report on defence issues have been subjected to a series of attacks, threats and intimidation in the past month.
Deliverance
So why did I reference Chomsky at the beginning of this commentary - A radical left intellectual who calls America the foremost failed state for wallowing in military aggression, ignoring public opinion on vital environmental issues, and provoking hatred and instability abroad that may lead to a terrorist blow back or nuclear conflict? Mainly because Chomsky begins his 2007 work by recalling an extraordinary appeal made to the people of the world 53 years ago, in July 1955, by Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein. The duo entreated the global community "to set aside" the strong feelings they have about many issues and to consider themselves "only as members of a biological species which has had a remarkable history, and whose disappearance none of us can desire."
That is powerful stuff. It is perhaps freedom in its true sense and the road to deliverance from evil.
- Sri Lanka Guardian
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