Asada M Erpini

The UK Mail Online on 25 February had a story headlined ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Hillary Clinton blasts Russia and China as ‘despicable’ for opposing UN action on SyriaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚. The apt response to that comment, assuming it deserves a reply, should be one of the calibre of what the foreign Minister of Russia gave a the Foreign Secretary of the UK in September 2008 when the latter objected to the involvement of Russia in Georgia: ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Who the f*** are you to lecture me?

The issue of importance in this context is not whether the language used by the Russian Foreign Minister is accepted diplomatic lingo, but whether it is right for one country to tell another sovereign nation how it should run its affairs or what the latter should do and not do. Just as the US feels that it has a right to take a stand and promote it, the other countries, too, have their own right to hold on to what they believe in and defend their positions, so long as they come within the accepted norms.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Sri Lanka obviously is a country that needs to come into the scene in a discussion of this nature, although Russia and Sri Lanka are vastly different from each other as regards resources, the military strength and the power they wield at the UN. Thus, when the US Secretary of State feels that she is amply qualified to tell how Russia should behave as regards Syria, her deputies at various levels, such as the Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs who is based in New Delhi, the State DepartmentƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s Undersecretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights, and the Colombo-based Head of the US Embassy, all trying to outdo one another in acting as viceroys of a colony when it comes to matters of Sri Lanka is hardly surprising. The latest to join the bandwagon dishing out unsolicited advice, and admonitions, to Sri Lanka is a person named Mark Toner – the US State Department Deputy Spokesperson ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” who calls for a ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-detailed action plan from Sri Lanka on LLRC recommendationsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The writer has been living under the impression that the then Ceylon gained independence from Great Britain in 1948, and that Sri Lanka now has the sovereignty to manage its own affairs, and to draw up any action plan taking whatever time deemed necessary for the tasks at hand. Obviously the poor chap had got his facts wrong!

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ How I wish the oil drilling in the Mannar Basin by Cairn Lanka leads to the discovery of vast oil resources! If Sri Lanka can come anywhere close to what is there in the Middle East (Saudi ArabiaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s 267 billion barrels of oil reserves, KuwaitƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s 104 billion barrels and UAEƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s 98 billion barrels) the country will be the darling of the West, and more specifically of the US, or if it is more fortunate and discovers black gold as in the faraway Venezuela (297 barrels of oil reserves), it would only be at the receiving end of an occasional bark. There will be no persistent demands for accountability or threats of sanctions that would cripple a resource-limited nation that got rid of a gang of terrorists in exemplary fashion and is now trying its best to bring back the normalcy that existed before the West-backed gangsters hijacked it.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Peace-loving people in the world are bound to categorise the involvements of the US in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya in the recent past, and now in Syria, as being the best illustrations of despicable actions. If the good lady heading the Department of State cares, she can unearth juicy examples of goings on of the despicable kind within the White House premises itself reported in the media a decade or so back!

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Asada M Erpini