Cost of the “Farcical” fast to Sri Lanka

"The least the Government could have done in the circumstances is to sack Wimal Weerawansa from the Cabinet and banish him to political wilderness. But what happened goes further to buttress the belief WW was merely a pawn in this poorly remote-controlled and failed charade. We will only be fooling ourselves if we are to conclude we have seen the last of this episode from the UN."
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by Luxman Arvind

(July 22, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Very little doubt a bunch of “Jokers” (if the General will allow me to use his language) conspired to do a “fast-one” on the country and the world with a “Fast” they figured will bring them multiple-rewards – an immediate withdrawal of the Panel by UNSG Ban Ki Moon, a pat in the back from the moustached-one to the bearded-one with the usual “mang kiwwa neda, veday lassanata yai kiyala” and further country-wide demonstrations and celebrations of “a further victory by the Rajapakse Royalty”.

Some of our fertile brains even expected BKM to personally arrive retinue and all; kneel down and offer Thambili with a smile remembering Harry Belafonte’s hit “Coconut water, Its good for your daughter” pleading with double-barreled WW to stop his patriotic Fast. But the whole rotten episode has ricocheted on the regime like a ton of bricks. The puss-vedilla is hitting them back all around. BKM is tightening the screws and is treating us like kindergarten kids calling for “acceptable behaviour” The entire Western diplomatic Corp based in Colombo took the unprecedented step of issuing a statement noting “with dismay and concern” this savage behaviour calculated to intimidate the UN staff with abduction and terrorise them into submission. For the first time this country was censured in strong language for the “breach of international norms harmful to Sri Lanka’s reputation in the world” The country that enjoyed a reputation as lawful and well-behaved while dealing with foreigners at home has suddenly become the new Pariah of the world. – Not that we were not far away in recent times. So within the ruling clique and their catchers-on it is the “Me, Sir? No, Sir; It’s you, Sir” as in-fighting and the blame-game going on. Sri Lanka, long respected globally for producing respected super-diplomats like RSS Gunawardena, Dr. GP Malalasekera, Shirley Amerasinghe, Raju Coomaraswamy and more recently Jayantha Dhanapala is suddenly pushed into strange unwelcome company – the perali Iranians, the twisted North Korean nuclear black-mailers, the ragged and unprincipled Somali pirates, the unpredictable Hugo Chavez lot and the other discards in the world. Chintanaya traveling at full steam.

WW makes it worse with his Statement – that is nothing but lies, lies and more lies. He pleads he behaved well and was lily-white throughout the disgusting saga. His crude face twisting with anger and his humiliating a Police DIG in front of the nation watching on TV are all in tape. The Police force is unlikely to take this ugly insult lying down and will, in all probability, move in defence of their colleague at the right time. WW's colleague - the ruffian-like Piyasiri Wijenaike and friends behaving like street thugs gives the lie to WW’s claim of innocence during the non-event. Burning of the effigy of President Obama, placards calling BKM “a pimp” have all gone out to ruin the good name this country carefully nurtured for long. Calling the USA names in his post-fast statement is likely to attract a response. The fast itself is a disgrace compared to that one of Thileepan in 1987 in Jaffna who gained martyrdom and sympathy – irrespective of whether one believes in his politics or not.

The least the Government could have done in the circumstances is to sack WW from the Cabinet and banish him to political wilderness. But what happened goes further to buttress the belief WW was merely a pawn in this poorly remote-controlled and failed charade. We will only be fooling ourselves if we are to conclude we have seen the last of this episode from the UN.

With this single act of folly WW and his fellow-conspirators have done irreparable damage to our potential as a good and safe country for investors, cast doubts if the country is one in which tourists will be safe from kidnappers and gheraoists. The many millions spent by the government to attract tourists and to win FDI's is dealt a death-blow by WW's crazy antics. The world is entitled to think if this is the behaviour of a responsible minister how will lesser mortals in the country behave. It is already reported a large number of investors from India and loaded Indian NRI’s - planning to come after the IIFA publicity - have the fright of Moses driven into them and are unlikely to come. The giants of electronic media BBC, CNN, CBS, ABC, Al-Jazeera, NKH carried WW’s theatrics live. All of that exposure cannot bring us much credit as a safe haven either for investment or for tourism. Sir John would have described it best “I say, when donkeys are made to do what should be the work of thoroughbreds what more do you expect, men?”