The extended holidays of our ambassadors!

By Swarnajith Udana

(March 28, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) About fifteen years or so ago a friend of then Sri Lankan President was appointed as the Ambassador to Australia. The presidential call was from his friend to have a nice holiday in Australia. This ambassador was insensitive enough to publicly state this in front of a group of Sinhalese (This shows that he could not see any thing wrong with that. That is how they think about public. Public is there to serve their each and every single wish and whim.). At the end of his tenure Sinhalese people did not even bother to give him a farewell. He might have said to himself, “ungrateful rascals!” This is the attitude of our government people and its representatives. What are they doing to counter LTTE propaganda? Yes they do a little as a hobby in a leisurely fashion not with any passion. How can the LTTE can still take the world for a ride? Infiltrations! That could be very true. Did our Governments anticipate this? Did or do they have a plan to counter this? If the lackeys are appointed to represent our nation as gifts for facilitating dirty political deals then we can expect only peanut services.

For instance, while this genocide accusation is making rounds in international arena, have our representatives endeavoured to point out that one has to drag Tamil Civilians by force from the Government controlled side to the LTTE safe heaven. While that is so, is there a loud cry by the Government to show that the Tamil civilians brave mines (that are set up by LTTE to stop civilian escape), Tamil civilians have even become sheer insensitive to shooting, torturing and live-burning done by the LTTE as punishment for attempts of escaping and Tamil civilians risk their lives by taking extremely dangerous jungle and sea routes just to cross to the side of the genocide camps. How strange is this?

Why cannot the world see this? The people who crossed to the “genocide” camps of Sri Lankan Government bare evidence to the trust they place in the security forces and atrocities committed by the LTTE. A UN official has commented that he cannot vouch for the number of civilian deaths due to war. This is understandable. To vouch for a number more or less one needs to count. If it is not possible, then one cannot vouch, but what does prevent UN from pointing out to this strange phenomenon that people voluntarily and deliberately going to the concentration camps of genocide and then express gratitude and relief? How come the Tamil civilians craze to cross to the side of death? This situation is indictment of our foreign services and government corrupt practices through decades. No wonder why the LTTE has been on top of the propaganda war.

The recent upheaval in the UNP camp is a blessing in disguise for Sri Lanka if the people pay proper attention. Loosing credibility of Government is nothing new and signals the death of the regime. That may not be bad itself, but loosing credibility of the Opposition signals the death of democracy. That is a disaster. Yet this recent upheavals in the UNP has a silver lining in it. It reveals the inner working of the modern political parties and provides glimpses into the soul and inner spirit of our society. The decay of society and the moral decay of political parties go in hand in hand and they feed on each other. If this is how the UNP has conspired against its own members it is not hard for anybody to imagine what might have they done against the government. How many accusations against the Government might have just cooked up in Siri Kotha?

How many crimes they might have committed or stage-managed just to point the finger at the Government? Is there any guarantee that the UNP has not provided disinformation on the Government and told tales against the Government in International arena with malicious intent, to short cut the war and reach their own dirty political aspirations by throwing the Nation to the Tiger, LTTE? This loosing credibility is a crime against the Nation, not just against the President.

Governments and Oppositions are both elected to serve the Nation. The task of the Government is to govern the country and the task of the Opposition is to govern the Government. Instead of performing these sacred national duties entrusted to them, the first priority of the Government is to outfox the Opposition and that of the opposition is to outfox the Government. While this game of outfoxing of each other is going on high gear foxes from outside meddle, control and govern the affairs of the country. What is being subjected to immense bleeding and torturous gangrene is the Nation itself; the sacred duty that they have been entrusted with is neglected and ignored. To see this just listen what our politicians say. UNP, JVP, Marxist Parties and the Government and all the other parties behave in this ludicrous manner. For instance a Trotskyite, once said that minority racism or nationalism is progressive and the majority racism or nationalism is oppressive. Minority or majority when a gun fires the bullet kills. Maybe, by the word progressive, the Marxist was referring to the increasing magnitude of mayhem.

Morality cannot win military wars; just because of that one cannot throw the morality away. If we do then we will later find that the Nation has lost in big time. Also, the war of morality cannot be won by military means. One of the excuses of our past Masters and International Lords that they still tend to find a pet in the Tiger is that the behaviour of our own leaders. (Another reason is the appointment of foreign services offices to extended holidays.) Let us say that Lasantha Wickramathunga , who has been hailed as saint of journalism (This I am not going to discuss and his duplicity and complicity has been amply exposed for the eyes that are open.), was killed by LTTE or UNP, just to trouble the Government. Let us agree all the dirty killings and attacks were cruel deeds of the UNP or/and the LTTE. Then I should ask who pardoned the wife of Minister Milroy Fernando? Was this done by UNP? Is this a thitha (period) to Mathata thitha of Mhinda Chinthana itself. The President mocks himself.

President you have been elected to a post of immense powers as JR once remarked, but remember none of these powers is vested in you to release convicted murderers without due legal process. Here I recall the release of Gonawala Sunil. How can an ambassador, even if he/she wants to and is equipped with skills to face and decimate LTTE propaganda, confront outside world and say our Government works on principles? This is not a human mistake. This is a traitorous act against the Nation. That is even more so in this delicate moment. This is as traitorous as the burning of Jaffna library and allowing the 1983 riots to go unabated for sometime. President you are not elected to this position to show your gratitude or express your friendships; (It is good that you have those good qualities but do not use the powers vested in you for personal favours). You are elected to be King Elara or the policeman in India who fined himself for running a red light and who sued his wife for abusing government property (the vehicle was given to him by the government for his official use.)

President has recently expressed that the ambassadors of Sri Lanka should be able to negate the LTTE propaganda. For this to happen, ambassadors should be able to stand on high moral ground. If the ambassadors have to defend murderers being pardoned with out due legal process by the highest authority of the country and if the security given to politicians is withdrawn as a mean of intimidation then they will have no credibility to start with and the pet rebels would win hands down. Providing security for these unscrupulous politicians is not done because their services are invaluable. It is to neutralise any propaganda against the Government. If the Government is so keen about winning the propaganda war (which is a more sacred national duty rather than a strategy of political expediency) then it is important that the Government stands on principles.

Mr. President when you came to power Sri Lanka was a divided country whose leaders chose to bend their heads to kiss the feet of the True God. You chose otherwise. You achieved this nearly impossible feat in a prudent manner with strategical cleverness and skills without haste or reluctance. This credit must go to you, Sir and to some of your team and of course to the soldiers. If you really want to, you can become the mythical Prince Diyasena. Stand on principles. People will be grateful to you. They already are. Do not betray their trust. History will mark appropriately the magnitude of Chandirka’s betrayal of people’s trust. Please do not follow that example, Sir. I believe that you are too good for that.

Sri Lankan people have come a long way from their 1983 racial disharmony. This is evident that they showed maturity and compassion to ignore provocations and stay calm bearing emotional distress. My feeling is that they have vastly moved away from straight forms of racial biases. At least Sinhalese people seem to be more compassionate towards the predicament of Tamils, yet they still have a long way to go. There should be campaigns to nurture this new unity. It is heartening to see that Tamil people who once feared the security forces (with good reasons I might add) now trust them and soldiers under extremely testing conditions keep their composure. These did not happen in a vacuum. Political and military leaderships and particularly soldiers should be praised for this achievement.

Muslim people seem to be going some extra mile to generate religious harmony by offering alms to temples. Have Buddhists reciprocated this magnificent gesture. How about other religions? To enhance this springing up national unity, Bodhi Puja needs to be organised in village level to bless health, safety and peace to Tamil civilians.

Some people may think and say that standing on fairness to all beyond racial lines on national unity is humanely impossible utopianism. In that case, we do not have to worry! We always have the luxury of inhumanely possible and economically ‘productive’ war. The choice is ours. Not making the choice itself is the choice of inhumanely possible war. If politicians resolve firmly to perform their sacred duty we can bring our Nation to the prosperity that it deserves and once it had. I believe that the President, Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksha, can do it if he really so desires.

-Sri Lanka Guardian