‘The past is past; you don’t dig into the wounds’

The world did not give a chance to Hitler to say

by Rajasingham Jayadevan

(December 05, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Adolph Hitler’s legacy is still haunting the world. Since the end of the World War 2, the world is still to grapple with the very appalling crimes against humanity by some states and non state actors.

The very purpose of the formation of the United Nations remain undermined and the UN being a body representing the sovereign nations is unable to assert its mandate on member states on crimes against humanity, due to inherent weaknesses in its functioning. Millions of people have died world-over since the Jewish holocaust and international justice has not been accorded for these people because of the negative politics and constraints faced by the United Nations.

The time has come to redefine the status of ‘sovereignty’ of the nations and the ‘diplomatic immunity’ enjoyed by the perpetrators and contributors of war crimes. The nations and combatants must not be allowed to take cover under their sovereign and indigenous status any more and effective mechanisms must be created to fast tract the halt of human tragedies at the budding stages.

In an exclusive interview (23/11) to the veteran ‘The Hindu’ newspaper editor N Ram, the euphoric President of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapakse had asked the international community not to dig into the past and have invited them to think positively to advance his programme of work for the future.

The question posed by The Hindu editor was: ‘As you embark on your second term, your new term, as President of Sri Lanka, what is your message to your people and to the international community? How should they respond to Sri Lanka’s new situation?’

The President responded by saying, ‘The message to my people is that I am concentrating on development work. I want to make Sri Lanka a hub for the development of knowledge, energy, commerce, naval transportation, and aviation. To achieve that, our people must stay together, rally round the government and achieve it – for the people. To the international community, my message is they must understand our position. We defeated terrorists, not freedom fighters. The whole world is facing this problem. So they must realise what we have achieved and help to develop the country, develop the North-East. They must help us not to widen the gap between the communities but to bring them closer. The past is past; you don’t dig into the wounds. We must think positively, not negatively’.

If Adolph Hitler had the opportunity to say to the world community ‘the past is past; you don’t dig into the wounds. We must think positively, not negatively’’ would the international community have tolerated him. The degree of the Jewish holocaust and systematic marginalization and massacre of Tamils, in the scale of justice is same, though the manner and stages where they were executed are different. The international community is lacking the interest to deal with the issues in an equal manner in Sri Lanka.

Having blocked all the passages for an independent inquiry into the war crimes charges, the President of Sri Lanka is now asking the international community to shut up and put up with his agenda for the future development of the country.

The war waged was not limited to defeating the combating LTTE, it went further and the government forces massacred the civilian population. The entire Tamil population in the country remain effectively subdued following the unethical war efforts of the government. Not only the civilian population was used as fodder, even the surrendering LTTE combatants and the LTTE’s unarmed administrators were callously murdered in the war, violating all the international human rights and humanitarian norms the country has subscribed to.

The government executed the war behind an iron curtain by shutting the doors for the reasonable media and the humanitarian access. It is clear the defence establishment of Sri Lanka used the methodologies of Hitler. In addition to barricading the media and the INGO’s, it followed the Hitler’s Propaganda Minister Paul Joseph Goebbels (also spelt Göbbels) work of perfecting lies and compounding them into bigger lies. Goebbels perfected the Big Lie technique of propaganda, which is based on the principle that a lie, if audacious enough and repeated enough times, will be believed by the masses. This technique became the well known Goebbels theory.

Paul Joseph Goebbels -file photo

Mahinda Rajapakse regime too is trying hard to perfect this theory and shamelessly, loudly and clearly denying the claim of war crimes committed by its forces. The Goebels time of the WW2 and the present technologically advanced global village is two different playgrounds to hold on to the methodologies of yesteryears. Sri Lanka’s effort is not only making lies truth, but is having the compounding effect of making lies much bigger lies.

The media in Sri Lanka is subjected to violent control. Many outspoken and independent media-men were systematically murdered to extend Sri Lanka’s Goebbles mission and the murder of the fearless Lasantha Wickramatunga is a lasting testimony that the world is watching with considerable eagerness. In order to mouth strap the Sunday Leader Lasantha Wickramatunga founded and edited, the Defence Secretary and President’s sibling Gotabaya Rajapakse and his nasty establishment is all out to use all avenues to silence the independent media.

The government is also perfecting its influence on the judiciary. There is unprecedented fear amongst the civil society in Sri Lanka that the mechanisms of the government are only dictating the Hitlarian agenda of the President. The judiciary has become the puppet regime of the executive and the overall fear psychosis prevailing in the country.

The wounds of the Tamil people are deep rooted and the Indian External Affairs Minister appropriately acknowledged it in his speech in Jaffna last week. There are no fair mechanisms for these people to redress their pain and sufferings. Even the basic democratic values of freedom of speech, public protests and campaigns not exercised by these people due fear of the state against them.

If Sri Lanka wishes to remain as part of the global village, it cannot follow its foolhardy policy of subjugating its people and very basics of democratic values people must enjoy.

Sri Lanka must be made to account for its misdeeds to facilitate a process of good behaviour in its conduct in the future. It is the responsibility of the international community to facilitate a effective process for Sri Lanka to become accountable over its conduct al least hereafter.