Our tolerance on undue interference
Posted on September 21st, 2012
S. Akurugoda
Robert Blake has come and gone once again. As usual, Blake has expressed his concern about our security forces presence in the north, human rights, issues of accountability, election in north and power devolution etc, the same stories he and his local political friends in TNA, Tamil Diaspora and the so-called civil societies funded by the west are concerned since the elimination of LTTE.
According to media reports, Blake has asked the government of Sri LankaƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ for reduction of military in northern part ofƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Sri Lanka, while the military of the United States is deployed in more than 150 countries around the world (based on United States Department of Defence statistics from December 2011) with 196,248 of its 1,414,149 active-duty personnel serving outside the United States and its territories, spanning Europe, North Africa, and part of the Middle East. Most of these overseas personnel are deployed in combat zones in the Middle East, as part of the so-called War on Terror.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚
The whole world is aware of US military operations, their records of atrocities (what US called ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”justiceƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢), invading countries, installing puppet regimes etc. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Yet they continue to preach us how we should behave, and what they expect us to do to their satisfaction.
Let us examine what is going on around the world and what is happening in our country to see how we tolerate, interference, religions, races, compared to the rest of the world.
What is happening now in countries where Islamic people live is a typical example of intolerance.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ In Libya, people attack US embassy and killed the ambassador in protest at a US film that they deemed blasphemous to the Prophet Muhammad.
On the other hand, statues of Lord Buddha are being used in the Christian world as a garden decoration along with various other sculptures of animals and nudes. Yet, we do not resort to violence against those who opted to insult a religious leader who preached non-violence and worshiped by millions of people around the world because patience is part of our Buddhist culture.
Even pilgrims are attacked in Tamil Nadu, not because they interfere with the Indian politics, because we Sinhalese are a minority race in the region.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ On the other hand, despite the fact that the countyƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s Sinhala population is more than 75%, we are a minority in our own business Capital Colombo. Perhaps, Colombo could be the only Capital in the world where the population of the countryƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s minority exceeds countryƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s majority.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Yet we live in peace and harmony.
Sinhalese couldnƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t go to most of the areas in North and East when those areas were under Tamil terrorists.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ But Tamils were allowed to move around other areas freely where predominantly Sinhala people live. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ We witnessed how the two parties formed on communal basis, TNA and SLMC, conducted their elections campaign in the last eastern province council elections, spreading communal hate among people in the province. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The obvious question we have is, if those communal parties have had the opportunity to form a provincial council administration of their own, what would be the fate of the Sinhala people living in the eastern province?ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Yet, we tolerate these racial elements, because tolerance is part of our Sinhala Buddhist culture.
Egyptian protesters, who couldnƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t tolerate US interference, threw tomatoes and shoes at U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton, when she arrived in Alexandria, where she was attending the opening of a U.S. consulate in June this year. When US President George Bush visited Iraq in 2007 after the invasion of Iraq, an Iraqi journalist threw two shoes at him after he called Mr Bush “a dog” during a news conference. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Egyptian or the Iraqi way of retaliation is not effective since shamelessness is part of the western culture.
On the other hand, people like Blake can come here and do whatever he wants without any resistance.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ It is the very same Blake who told us to stop fighting against terrorist and to go for a ceasefire. It is he who worked hard to stop war against terrorist until the last moment. What would be the situation in this country today and how many lives would have been lost by now, since May 2009, if the government of Sri Lanka had listen to Blake and his friends in the west?
While he was the US Ambassador to Sri Lanka, what he did and what he said was not different from our local opponents of the democratically elected government. Even after he left Sri Lanka, he used to visit Sri Lanka during crucial times and meet his local supporters /opponents of the government just to give a boost-up to their necessities and amenities. His last two visits, one coinciding with the last Presidential election and the other with the last UN Human Rights Council meeting are cases in point.
Thanks to Sinhala Buddhist culture of ours and its tolerance level, any person from anywhere can come here and interfere with our internal affairs as he or she pleased and go back freely.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Can we expect the same tolerance in any other country?
The best way to tackle this undue interference on our internal affairs by these shameless arrogant elements is to practice patience and do whatever is the best for the country and its people.
September 21st, 2012 at 4:19 pm
India, as the nation that trained, delivered, funded and supported Tamil terrorists in Sri Lanka, and bullied and invaded our Motherland with the IPKF to partition it in favor of Tamil separatists, has MUCH TO ATONE FOR to win Sri Lanka’s traditional friendship and love for India.
Supporting UN War Crimes charges, and pressuring Sri Lanka to devolve power to ethnic minorities on racial, religious, caste, or sex communal bases is NOT THE WAY TO DO IT. All PATRIOTIC Sri Lankans RESENT those moves.
As a nation that injured Sri Lanka and initiated, aided and abetted, a 30-year conflict between communities in Sri Lanka, India has NO STANDING in Sri Lankan eyes to interfere in our INTERNAL MATTERS with proposals for devolution of power to Tamils designed to further EMBED and EXACERBATE communal divisions in our country.
We Sri Lankans INDEED oppose devolution of power on communal bases. So, BUTT OUT!
ALL of Sri Lanka, in its entirety, is the home of ALL Sri Lankans to be enjoyed EQUALLY EVERYWHERE, irrespective of communal differences. There are no Sinhala areas, Tamil Areas, or Muslim Areas in Sri Lanka. Any citizen can move to any place in Sri Lanka, but land and settle down, as the majority of Tamil people of Sri Lanka already do by living in the Sinhala majority areas.
We do not accept either India’s or the United States, FEDERAL models as promoting social amity and national stability. In India that system has largely failed to preserve the peace and to uplift all Indians equally.
We in Sri Lanka have an enviable record social justice unmatched by India. Therefore, India, far behind Sri Lanka in assuring social justice and progress of its citizens, has NOTHING of VALUE to offer Sri Lanka.
Instead, India should follow Sri Lanka’s example and uplift its people with equity in employment, education, healthcare, land ownership, etc without regard to communal attributes (eg. scheduled castes etc) on the basis of NEED ALONE, and India should CEASE & DESIST from PLACATING RACIST DEMAGOGUES in Tamil Nadu for political advantage at Sri Lanka’s expense.
If India CONSISTENTLY does that, India will regain Sri Lanka as its most reliable and supportive ally.
It is up to India to WIN Sri Lankan HEARTS & MINDS with NON-INTERFERENCE in our internal matters and with increased assistance in infrastructure development, and in trade and cultural interactions.
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India-Sri Lanka: Change tack
By Ajay Vaishnav
September 21, 2012
As Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa begins his three-day visit to India, the challenge faced by the two countries is to restore a sense of urgency in bilateral ties.
The first positive sign has already come with New Delhi’s decision to accord summit-level status to Sri Lankan President’s visit to inaugurate a Buddhist university in Sanchi, Madhya Pradesh at the invitation of the state government. The development augurs well for India-Sri Lanka ties which have cooled down a bit in the post-LTTE era.
The primary factor behind it has been Colombo evincing no interest in India’s repeated advice to devolve greater autonomy and power to ethnic Tamils in the island nation’s federal polity.
Gautam Sen at New Delhi-based Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) commented: “India-Sri Lanka relations appear to be reaching a phase of stagnation. While bilateral relations at the political level are still cordial, Colombo does not seem to be interested in or solicitous of Indian advice and suggestions with regard to its constitutional experiments concerning devolution of administrative and financial powers to the provinces.”
To drive home its point, India even voted in favour of the UN Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) resolution against Sri Lanka. The hardened stance of Dravidian parties in Tamil Nadu hasn’t helped the two nation’s cause. In recent months, the two main parties in the state – the AIADMK and DMK – are vying with each other to harness pro-Tamil sentiments in the state. Whether it is Jayalalitha’s opposition to the visit of a junior football team from Sri Lanka to latest opposition to Rajapaksa visit, Dravidian parties have left no stone unturned to espouse Sri Lankan Tamils’ cause.
Rather than helping the cause of Tamils across the Palk Strait, such attitude has in turn produced negative consequences.
India’s vote against Lanka only soured bilateral ties and didn’t produce any intended impact on Tamil’s cause. “The UNHRC
Resolution has not had any perceptible impact on the Sri Lankan Government”, remarked Sen at IDSA. On the other hand, “President Rajapaksa, in fact, now feels more at ease and justified in cultivating China with a posture of even-handedness while dealing with New Delhi and Beijing”, he added.
India cannot ignore ‘the China factor’ and that a drift in India-Sri Lankan relations will serve Beijing’s interest in Colombo is increasingly being realised. N Sathiya Moorthy, Senior Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation commented, “the ‘China factor’ could become a reality if the anticipated drift in India-Sri Lanka relations reached a point of no-return, and the US emerges as the big bully in the immediate Indian Ocean neighbourhood in the Sri Lankan eyes with India seen as politically weak and militarily incapable of stalling the process.”
China, however, has already firmly entrenched itself all over the island nation and Colombo is actively soliciting Chinese aid and investment. As Daniel Wagner and Daniel Jackman commented in the Huffingtonpost.com, “China is now Sri Lanka’s number one aid donor (more than US$1 billion per year), main trading partner, and majority supplier of more than half the country’s construction and development loans.”
Moreover, growing Sino-Lankan cooperation has serious strategic implications for India. “The construction of the Hambantota Development Zone has been a particular source of concern. China is financing 85% of the zone, which will house an international container port, oil refinery and international airport, as well being used as a refuelling center for both countries’ navies”, stress Daniel Wagner and Daniel Jackman at Huffingtonpost.com.
Hambantota’s proximity to Kundakulam nuclear site and Indian satellite launch centers in Kerala will boost China’s intelligence-gathering capabilities even though both Sri Lanka and China maintain the zone as a purely commercial venture. Not only this, Colombo will be getting a wide variety of arms and ammunition under a $37.6 million deal signed with Beijing.
To counter growing Chinese influence, New Delhi must infuse new energy into its ties with Sri Lanka. It must leverage its strengths and adopt a strategy that engages rather than alienates Sri Lankan government. The approach should be similar to Myanmar.
As highlighted by Sen at IDSA “Pressurising the Sri Lankan government on devolution should be avoided beyond a point.” Simultaneously, New Delhi must maintain the flow of aid to the southern neighbour for rehabilitation of Tamils. A diversified approach that combines interaction between the two nations through different platforms including enhanced trade ties must be encouraged.
September 23rd, 2012 at 9:10 am
India has a different set of problems to Sri Lanka : Reneged Tamil Nadu issues, more poverty, caste issues, language issues, border issues, neighbor country issues etc. That we are interdependent with India is certain, given the geo-politicla realities.
Basic need to keep East/West issues in balance is the same.
Let us IGNORE what is Intolerable, and go our Sane way of taking care of the People of Lanka. Let the Law of the Land prevail.