Never a Commonwealth; a common thief perhaps!

By Malinda Seneviratne

(March 29, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) I just finished reading the ‘Westminster Hall Debate’ of March 24, 2009, on the topic ‘Sri Lanka and the Commonwealth’ and realized that one of the key reasons for the decline of the British Empire must have been the play of low IQ, confusion of fact and rhetoric, high degree of naiveté, wild imagination and paucity of analytical rigor. Post-empire pangs were clearly much in evidence. Reading through it all, I am not surprised one bit that today the United Kingdom has been reduced to a client state of the USA. It is quite the poor man of Europe. And if they are so gullible as to believe everything that the mouthpieces of a terrorist outfit tell them, we must be kind and forgive these ladies and gentlemen for entertaining the mistaken belief that the sun never set on their sorry behinds.

Okay, that’s a lot of rhetoric. The crass generalization, lack of substantiation, a manifest determination to be partisan and utter ignorance of the situation in Sri Lanka, not to mention scandalous indulgence in double standards, warranted a rant, I thought. Now let me take a sober look at what these ladies and gentlemen have had to say.

Someone called Siobhain McDonagh, a Labour Party representative for Mitcham and Morden, argues for the expulsion of Sri Lanka from the Commonwealth. All the other speakers salute McDonagh for the painstaking work she has done in this regard. Trust me, it’s funny. Take a peek: http://www.theyworkforyou.com/whall/?id=2009-03-24a.25.0.

McDonagh laments that the Sri Lankan Government has been ‘incredibly successful at propaganda’: ‘The hon. Members in the Chamber would be amazed by the number of people who want nothing to do with the matter (of expelling Sri Lanka from the Commonwealth) and do not want to talk about it. They believe that the Tigers are terrorists and therefore they are not willing to engage on the issue’. The lady implies that the LTTE is not a terrorist organization and that if not for the propaganda of the Sri Lankan Government, there would be no ban on the LTTE! Let her do a quick Google search on the following: a) Rajiv Gandhi b) Arantalawa, c) Kebithigollewa, d) Mavil Aru, e) suicide bomb, f) cyanide capsule, g) suicide kits, h) transborder terrorism, i) TELO, and j) Lakshman Kadirgamar for starters.

Joan Ryan (Enfield North, Labour), thinks that ‘suspension from the Commonwealth is an important step’ and mistakenly believes that ‘the Commonwealth is an important organization’ that enjoys a ‘huge respect’. The appropriate thing for the Commonwealth to do, according to Joan, is to say "We will not tolerate this in our midst. This is not acceptable." Sri Lanka would be told that it must desist from such activity, stop genocidal warfare and sue for peace."

She is really upset that the Sri Lankan Government rejected a special representative appointed by her Prime Minister on the grounds that they were not consulted. She says ‘they are never consulted on ministerial appointments’. She is right in that Gordon Brown can appoint anyone he likes. On the other hand Ms. Colonial Brat forgets that there is a thing called protocol and that ‘special representatives’ have to present credentials and have the Government accept the same.

As for ‘genocide’ one wonders if the good lady even understands what the word means and if she has ever reflected on what her ancestors have done in countries such as ours and what her current leaders have been up to in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Andrew Dismore (Hendon, Labour) is upset that the Sri Lankan High Commission has taken issue with statements he has made. He wants to abuse but can’t take it in return, poor boy. "We need a ceasefire" he says. ‘We’, did he say? Who?

Lee Scott (Ilford North, Conservative) concurs that pressure should be brought on the Sri Lankan Government in the form of expulsion from the Commmonwealth. Others, such as Andrew Pelling (Croydon Central, Independent), Edward Davey (Kingston & Surbiton, Liberal Democrat), Tom Brake (Carshalton & Wallington, Liberal Democrat) and Andrew George (St Ives, Liberal Democrat) do little more than playing the ‘say-the-lie-again-and-again’ number. The complaint is that the Government is doing nothing to address humanitarian concerns, is perpetrating genocide and should be arm-twisted by way of expulsion into negotiating with the LTTE.

Not a single member mentions that the IDPs in the ‘No War Zone’ were in fact forced there by the LTTE, that the LTTE uses them as a human shield, that the LTTE continues to shoot at anyone and everyone who attempts to flee into Government-controlled areas. They say nothing of the fact that if the Government was so genocidal, it could have finished the LTTE off in January and that the security forces have had to pay dearly on account of concern for the civilians held captive by the LTTE. They are obviously ignorant of the fact that the Government continues to send food and medicine to LTTE-controlled areas and much of this is grabbed by the terrorists. Not a word about the true situation in IDP camps, which are not exactly abounding in heaven-on-earth facilities but are certainly paradisial compared to the hell they left behind.

Then we have James Duddridge, (Rochford and Southend East, Conservative) getting it as close to ‘right’ as possible in that forum for the dumb. He says, ‘I wonder whether suspension from the Commonwealth only really makes sense as a stepping stone and a rallying point to a UN resolution, and whether in practical terms—other than giving voice to a subject that does not have a proper voice in the UK—it would not actually be that substantive to the Government of Sri Lanka.’ He admits, ‘Commonwealth is a talk shop’. He points to the danger that Sri Lanka faces, however, saying that expulsion only makes sense if it is ‘a stepping stone to a full UN resolution’.

Finally, we get Bill Rammell (Minister of State, Foreign & Commonwealth Office; Harlow, Labour) telling the gathering some home truths about what Britain can and cannot do. He basically said that the sentiments articulated have been heard, discussed and that the Government had considered also the comments on people who were better informed, such as John Holmes, the Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs. He pointed out that had a resolution been taken to the Security Council, it would have been defeated. Probably because other members of the Security Council are better informed, have superior IQ and fewer chips on their shoulder, one has to conclude.

Please note that Rammell is not a backbencher but a Minister of State of the British government who ostensibly speaks on behalf of the government itself.

Those who did their little local politics at the Westminster House debate would do well to understand that we are doing what any sovereign country would do if it had to contend with the brand of terrorism that the LTTE has perfected over the years. They would, if they had an iota of intelligence and a semblance of intellectual integrity, realize that our track record in terms of responding to civilian issues has been exemplary compared with, say, the United States or Britain. They forget that the sun has set on Big Brother USA as well and this is why they look like blind kittens groping in the dark these days.

The Government of Sri Lanka should invite these low-IQ politicians who are only worried about obtaining or losing the support of Tamil voters in their respective constituencies to come to Sri Lanka and see what actually happens. Not because these people really count, but out of pity for individuals who, when it comes to grey cells, were clearly short-changed in the commerce that took place in the gene pool.

Better still, we can do what we should have done a long time ago, resign from the Commonwealth. Membership in that talk shop has not given us anything and as a friend told me about 15 years ago, ‘there was never a Commonweath, only a Common Thief, and talking about it is not going to get us back the loot’. In the very least we should move to expel the British from the Commonwealth, first for not paying compensation to the countries they pillaged and the cultures they wrecked and secondly for sheer imbecility.

My friend Udayasiri Wickramaratne once wrote, ‘Some people have dogs as pets, some rabbits and some have parrots; but all of us sustain a sudda in our minds as a pet’. That’s the rub. We owe these ladies and gentlemen nothing. They owe us much. Being coy wins us nothing. In fact whether we are coy or not, these people have little value in our friendship or our civility. We might as well tell them where to get off. It would be a big step in recovering our sense of national dignity. It is an integral part of recovering our nation. Now is as good a time as any, I believe.

Malinda Seneviratne is a freelance journalist who edits the monthly magazine ‘Spectrum’. He can be contacted at malinsene@gmail.com

-Sri Lanka Guardian