Brown + Browne = white imperialism

By H. L. D. Mahindapala

(February 13, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) "I've asked Des Browne, our former defence secretary, to be an envoy for Sri Lanka," British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told a parliamentary committee yesrterday. But who asked Gordon Browne to send his near-namesake, Browne, to Sri Lanka? Quite appropriately, Rohitha Bogollagama, Foreign Minister, has asked both Brown/es to go jump in the Thames.

The arrogance of Gordon Brown to unilaterally appoint one of his unemployed cronies (Browne was on Gordon Browne’s side in the inner struggle against Tony Blair) without consulting the Sri Lankan government to bring about (1) a ceasefire and (2) achieve a political settlement takes not only the cake but the whole bakery. Is Gordon Brown hallucinating that he is also the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka?

Where are British niceties in diplomacy? Isn’t it common courtesy that he should first ask another sovereign state whether he can be of assistance by way of sending one of his emissaries instead of jumping, boots and all, into a diplomatic mess? His unilateral action can only be counter-productive. The backlash was predictable. Such unwarranted action can only rouse the wrath of Sri Lankans. His brash action is as welcome as dog’s vomit at the breakfast table.

This is the second time in post-independence era that Britain has aggressively interfered in the domestic politics of Sri Lanka. The first was when David Gladstone, the meddlesome British High Commissioner, stepped into a polling booth and questioned the polling procedures. President Ranasinghe Premadasa kicked him out for acting like a demented Col. Blimp.

This time it’s worse. Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, has no mandate either in international law or in normal inter-state relations, particularly that of a fellow member of the Commonwealth, to put his sticky finger in another country. If he has a problem of finding a place to put his sticky finger he should stick it up his jumper instead of ordering his former Secretary of Defence whom he sacked in a Cabinet reshuffle to interfere in the domestic affairs of Sri Lanka.

It is an insult to the democratically elected government and its people for the Prime Minister of UK to interfere so crudely in the internal affairs of Sri Lanka. He should know that the days when Brown’s imperial ancestors inhumanly pursued pogroms and policies of scorched earth to quell our people are over.

Instead of paying compensation for the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the bumbling British brutes he is now assuming the role of an imperial master sending one of his failed ministers to work out (1) a ceasefire and (2) a political settlement. Do the Sri Lankans need this kind of Brown/es to settle their internal disputes? Besides, he is sending his former failed Defence Secretary who could not fix the problem in Afghanistan to fix the problem in Sri Lanka. Shouldn’t Browne first prove his competence in Afghanistan before he could even consider purchasing a ticket to Sri Lanka? His appointment in Sri Lanka should be put on hold, if at all, until he finishes his incomplete job in Afghanistan.

When he completes that job in Afghanistan Sri Lanka should consider issuing a visa for him to get down at Katunayake airport. It is not fair for Gordon Brown to throw Mr. Browne to the wolves (Or isn’t it the Tigers?) If Mr. Browne couldn’t handle the Talibans in Afghanistan what are his chances of bringing the Tamil Talibans to lay down their arms and renounce violence. After all, aren’t these normal terms and conditions under which Britain deals with terrorists? Wasn’t decomissioning of Irish arms the priority that led to the Good Friday Agreement?

Going further back in time to colonial days it can be shown how the British, who are now pretending to be the bearers of peace and good will, are responsible for sowing the seeds of dissensions in Sri Lanka. The ex-colonies are still in throes of disentangling themselves from the legacies of colonialism. As in other colonies it is the lines drawn by British for their administrative convenience in Sri Lanka (like the McMohan line that divide India and China) that laid the boundaries for a fictitious Tamil separate state. It is the indentured labour imported from India that caused the ethnic cleansing of the Sinhala peasantry in their traditional homelands. Their lands were virtually confiscated under the legal fictions coded in the Waste Land Act and the socio-political consequences of British expropriation of the land from its traditional owners have yet to be redressed.

British investors (including some of the governors who bought the land at dirt cheap prices from the Crown) denuded our virgin forests in opening up land for commercial enterprises and ever since then our rivers have turned into blood red from the soil erosion. British rulers exported our fauna and flora on a large scale – from elephants to plants – causing irreparable damage to our ecology. These are only a few horrors of British colonial rule.

Prime Minister, Brown, must also insist that his unemployed colleague should look into these aspects and recommend a quantum of compensation for our people. Why not? Why is he so selective in his terms of reference given to Mr. Browne? Is it because Mr. Velupillai is now down like brown? Is Browne sent to rescue the nation which has suffered 33 years of agony (Prabhakaran got his first Tamil scalp in July 1976 and he has not stopped killing since then) or is he arriving to save Prabhakaran, the “latest Pol Pot of Asia” (New York Times)?

Britain is responsible not only for the worsening of the current crisis but also responsible for turning a blind eye in the early stages when it could have taken positive action to nip Tiger terrorism in the bud. In the early stages British hypocrisy went to the extent of refusing to take any action against Tamil Tiger activists operating on its soil saying that they had not violated any British laws. Emboldened by the nudge-nudge-wink-wink policies of British establishment and its panjandrums the Tamil Tigers made Britain their home from home. Britain was the international headquarters for all Tamil Tiger operations. Anton Balasingham, the leading ideologue of Tamil Tigers, settled down to run his international network from London. It is also the millions collected in UK that funded the killings in Sri Lanka.

Can the Sri Lankans keep on tolerating this pinch-the-baby-and-rock the cradle policy of Britain and some other international players? Isn’t it rather late for the Prime Minister of England to send an emissary to stop the war? Would his predecessor, Winston Churchill, sent an emissary to negotiate with Hitler when the Allied Forces were at the gates of Berlin on “humanitarian grounds”? In any case, why didn’t the British do it when they had the opportunity to do it earlier by cracking down agents of Tamil Tigers who were actively campaigning for the one-man regime committing war crimes and crimes against humanity? Why has the British Prime Minister suddenly seen the necessity to intervene at a time when the Sri Lankan forces, on their own steam, are on the verge finishing off the Tigers?

The neo-colonial answer is all too familiar: humanitarian cause. Yes, there is a huge humanitarian crisis. But who is primarily responsible for it? Velupillai Prabhakaran is aggressively and unashamedly using his own people as the last available weapon to protect himself. He is even shooting nuns, babies and their mothers running away from him. He is cynically resorting to this inhuman tactic because he knows that there are enough Browns – not to mention Whites -- in the world who will come to his rescue.
What can the world, the region, the Sri Lankans, particularly the Tamils, gain by the visit of Mr. Browne? Stop the war? For whose benefit? The Tamils? The only way to save the Tamils is to get them out of the grip of Prabhakaran. The longer he is allowed to keep them hostage the more tragic will be the consequences of appeasement.

This high-handed action of Gordon Brown should not stop the advance of the forces into the last sliver or land held by the Tamil Pol Pot. Prabhakaran has the option of laying down arms, releasing the Tamil people under his jackboot, and negotiating for conditions that are allowed under international and national laws. The role of the international community should be to grant the Tigers the mercy they granted to the Nazis, or even to the Pol Potists in Cambodia. Why should international law adopt double standards?

Giving Prabhakaran another lease of life at this stage is the sure way to keep the region destabilized. Besides, Tony Blair moved quick fast to “change the rules of Britain” when Islamic terrorists exploded a series of bombs in buses and trains. Sri Lanka did not send an emissary to stop British action that led to the death of an innocent Brazilian. Having set the example of “changing rules” to deal with terrorists at home Britain has no moral, legal or political authority to step into the sovereign state of Sri Lanka to tell us how to conduct our affairs.

Sri Lanka has quite rightly said, “Thank you. but no thank you!” Besides, British have a healthy reputation for minding their own business. It shouldn’t tarnish its image by poking their unwanted noses in Sri Lanka.

If Mr. Browne still wants to come over the Sri Lankan High Commission could issue him a tourist visa without charging a fee for it.

-Sri Lanka Guardian