Way Forward after the Resolution

| by Sarath Wijesinghe

( March 23, 2012, UAE, Sri Lanka Guardian) It is very sad and worrying that the Resolution was adopted 24 in favour, 08 absent and 15 against. But the fact remains that this resolution is against the State and not against any individual or a group. The vote was casted on various reasons, political, economical and not necessarily on merit. Had it been on merit Sri Lanka would have won with overwhelming majority. The nation consists of human beings with human weaknesses. Every nation is selfish for themselves. This is human nature which we should understand and also these are lessons for our future.

File Photo

We must at the outset thank those counties which helped us by voting in favour , despite lot of resistance, influence by powerful and rich sponsoring countries . China, Uganda, Indonesia, Maldives, Bangladesh, Cuba, Congo, Equador, Kuwait, Mauritania, Philippines, Qatar, Russia , Saudi Arabia and Thailand voted against the Motion in favour of Sri Lanka. The explanation given by these countries at the UNHRC Summit were of high standard. They gave reasons why they voted against by giving the actual situation in the country and the standards maintained by Sri Lankans and Sri Lanka. The countries voted in favour are United States, Mexico, India, Nigeria, Austria , Belgium , Benin , Cameroon, Chile , Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Guatemala, Hungary, Italy , Libya , Mauritius , Norway , Peru , Poland . Republic of Moldova, Romania, Spain, Switzerland and Uruguay. Most of these countries are friendly with us and we should maintain and engage our friendship with them as we need the goodwill of these nations in future, during our future engagements in the Family of Nations. At times one has to take a step backwards to go forward with vigour and strength. For a nation that has shown the world that terrorism could be defeated militarily and defeating terrorism and terrorists and the terrorist war which the world said unwinnable the temporary drawbacks will be lessons and a road map to be the Wonder of Asia and to maintain peace and stability enjoying currently as dividends of peace. Today Sri Lanka is one of the most peaceful and stable countries in the world. In Sri Lanka economy and tourism are booming but it is not the case in some countries voted in favour of the Resolution. The European countries that voted against Sri Lanka en bloc are in financial and political crisis. So is UK and USA. Culturally we are a tolerant nation and extends compassion to all the parties during success and defeat . We are worried and bitter that we were misunderstood. So that our good nature, qualities and the services were not properly understood by a fraction of the community. But it is time that we determine to work harder to rise above and to make our future representations forcefully and vigorously year after year. After the resolution we will repeatedly face this issue in October during periodical deliberations and thereafter on specific events. We should be ready and we are ready by being inherently passionate and extending human rights to everybody.

We salute President Rajapaksa for having led the country to achieve peace and spearheading in the right direction. It is the duty of all the citizens who stood by him as what matters in the United Nations are matters pertaining to State. People must understand differences between war crimes that are against individuals and resolutions against States. In that context every citizen irrespective of political differences must stand by to save the country and the leader to lead the nation for a better future.

Now it is time to look into the ramifications and consequences of this Motion by a UN Subsidiary body that cannot be immediately implemented. Implementation process has a long procedure. It has to go to various strata for implementation and there are ways and means to control and block it. Fortunately we have two main world powers sincere and close friends to help us in need . Based on our future conduct we will be in a position to change the rest of the world to our side.

We are very concerned that our great neighbour was not in a position to help us. It may be due to internal politics and to save the Government in power as there was a threat from a main partner to withdraw from the Government. That is a reluctant vote that was given at the cost of friendships and relationships that has gone through thousands of years from the time of Asoka the Great King who gave us one of our great assets we cherish every day through Theravada Buddhism and Buddhist way of life which is our life style based on human rights and humanity which we extend to every citizen in Sri Lanka and to outsiders as well. It is time that we understand the others difficulties and adopt ourselves to the circumstances.

It is appropriate to develop a Home Grown solution and not what others are trying to impose on us. Most of the Western countries are failures because their systems may be with defects. Their thinking strategies for governing systems will not help us . We have greater cultures and greater civilizations. We never hunted people for land and our culture goes back to thousands of years – not few hundred years.

Therefore Sri Lankans will have to think hard and be ready for a long voyage towards success, progress and development based on humanity, loving kindness coupled with hard work and determination.

( The writer is a carrier diplomat, who can be reached sarath8@hotmail.com )