Saying Good Bye to Ms Navaneethan Pillay, Commissioner for Human Rights
Posted on April 27th, 2014
Dr D.Chandraratna, Perth Western Australia
The UNHRC was created after years of deliberations by the world at large in order to prevent the reoccurrence of the despair and degradation of millions who perished in the Nazi Holocaust and other places.
It was to act as the last sentry at the gate of human rights and human dignity. While preventing human rights violations in the world it is also UNHRC’s duty to stop the yesterday’s terrorists to bully their erstwhile prey.
The card carrying human rights mercenaries as well as organisations benefitting from the terrorist unspent largesse such as Amnesty international along with the moralists such as Australian Greens who refuse to see the irresponsibility and insouciance of assisting terrorism as an alternative to negotiated settlements for the manifold problems in multiethnic societies is sad indeed.
We Sri Lankans have a right to evaluate the contribution made by the present Commissioner to human interests during her tenure, which is coming to an end.
The Commissioner should understand that Sri Lanka is justifiably proud that it is a tolerant non racist society; it relishes its multi ethnic character and respects all groups to tolerate one another, based on the age old enabling traditions of Buddhist values subsequently enriched by other religions, both Eastern and Western.
The Tamils living rich in the European societies, in their supercilious opposition and spitting bitter venom consequent to the demise of the LTTE are ready to unleash a pent up tide of hate agenda assisted by Ms Pillay, who is ready to label Sri Lanka as a ‘country of concern’ at the drop of a hat, certainly will not give the UNHRC any credence.
The day is not far off for the entire world to realize that Ms Pillay, ably assisted by a few European countries will make the UNHRC, her own Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights, and the entire UN outfit an anachronism in the modern world.
It will come to light that institutions such as the UNHCR and the OCHR have become apologists for the extremist racist groups in the world. Pillay is keen to give a megaphone to the Tamil groups, perhaps proving to all and sundry that blood is thicker than water.
She must realize that as Commissioner she is heading an institution designed to give relief to around 9 billion people and at a cost of around a billion dollars to run the organisation annually.
There are numerous organisations in the world, which can do the job of the UNHRC much more efficiently with much less. Ms Pillay has proven that her organisation cannot do what the social media, with some morally upright people do, even though spasmodically, to hold the candle for human rights and individual welfare.
As an African she must ask herself what service was rendered to Africa with so much of transparent misery in the field human rights. When there is so much turmoil in Egypt what was she doing? What value has she added along with her staff, heavily subsidized by Norway, to the cause of human rights in the world? Is it not a travesty of justice that she acts on falsified reports written by her staff in places like Sri Lanka while enjoying the good life out of taxpayer’s money intended for the poorest of the world?
We like to know how much of her organisation’s time has been wasted on the non-existent human rights issues in a humanely executed terrorist war that she is pursuing with relentless alacrity for so long in a powerless country as Sri Lanka, when Israel has virtually asked her to go to hell. How about Ukraine one is tempted to ask her. What is her take on that? If she can muster enough courage to talk to Mr Putin we might even see leopards with trunks and elephants with spots.
In pure and simple terms we will like to say good-bye to you soon for you have desecrated the high office which will be languishing forever without a come back. The corruption that was rampant in your time will see the public perception of your organisations degraded. The heightening discontent that has been brought about by the ill governance of the office will grow as anything else only step-by-step, but the trend is already evident.
We do not know what the future holds for the UNCHR. We remain interested but will not be silenced by your successor if my country is persecuted like you did.
The mockery of the issue of human rights under Pillay’s leadership is an injustice to the thousands of Sri Lankans who offered us peace by sacrificing themselves before a ruthless terror gang. Furthermore, by continuing to offer a platform to recalcitrant racists who claim purity of race as a reason to inflict havoc on other groups is unacceptable to us all Sri Lankans of all ethnicities who are keen to live their lives free of harassment and intimidation.
Freedom from ethno-cultural coercion is the preferred motto of the majority of Sri Lankans for the future. Let the Commissioner be reminded that she took an oath to serve humankind in an ethically unbiased manner, because humans inhabiting this earth have to live together harmoniously with all the imperfections of their own nature, with the least possible degree of friction and open antagonism and sadly in the eight years of her tenure she failed miserably to uphold the dignity of that esteemed office.
April 27th, 2014 at 2:11 pm
The next one is Darusman.
April 28th, 2014 at 2:30 am
Yes, indeed ‘Blood is thicker than Water’ But what has Sri Lanka done about this may I ask for so long? Nothing! If I remember right the GoSL did support her when she was first nominated. We could not have done anything different at her point of entry to the UNHRC to avoid us being called prejudiced and racist even before she gets her feet under her desk. But, now years later, her attitude on Sri Lanka is dripping with prejudice but we have officially done nothing when there are now ample grounds to have her ejected on the basis of “conflict of interests”, et-al…the GoSL has to take full responsibility now fo Pillai’s existence. All this boils down to one fact, as I have spelled out many times in these columns – the word is sheer INCOMPETENCE of the GoSL- S de Silva – London
April 28th, 2014 at 4:41 pm
To quote the article:”The UNHRC was created after years of deliberations by the world at large in order to prevent the reoccurrence of the despair and degradation of millions who perished in the Nazi Holocaust and other places.” Created by whom? The US?
Let me tell the Lanakweb about the duplicity of the US, Nazi Germany and human rights. During world war 2 Germany perfected the V2 rocket. it was a deadly missile that multiplied the number of deaths targeted by these missiles, mostly on Great Britain. Just in 1944 the V2 rocket claimed over 40 thousand lives in London alone. The Nazi Scientist who perfected the V2 Rocket was a man named Von Broun. He worked in a death camp, using Jews as slave labor. Their value was only useful to the extent of their performance, so they were literally worked to death. Those who got sick got a one way ticket to the gas chamber.
Yet under “Operation Paperclip” the US set upon a program to get Von Broun and his wonder technology. So were the Soviets under Stalin. Von Broun realized he would do better under the patronage of the US and went to a US military post and handed himself in at the end of the war. Under “Operation Paperclip” the US also saved the lives of one thousand Nazi Scientists, many of whom directly or indirectly were responsible for the genocide of Jews. Among them included the Nazi German Scientist Oppenheimer who was the father of the US nuclear bomb. Von Broun became the father of the US missile program. He later on became the head of the US space program NASA and stayed head of that famous institute till the 1960’s.
Under “Operation Paperclip” not only over one thousand Nazi Scientists were allowed to enter the US but also their families and they lived in the lap of luxury and the toast of the town till they died. They never had to face the many crimes that other Nazis had to face in the Nuremberg trials.
When Stalin learned of this he was furious that he failed to capture this pool of knowledge. Nazi Germany was light years ahead of her enemies in missile technology and was about to perfect the atom bomb had the war extended beyond 1945. It was due to the input of these Nazi Scientists that the US put a man on the moon. Ironically the first man to be in space was a Soviet Cosmonot. But considering that it is the US that champions human rights and democracy the moral turpitude is worse and the hypocrisy of championing human rights twisted when it comes to the US.
One can come to the conclusion that human rights are only for those who have nothing to contribute to the US. I can understand Russia for she never claimed to be a champion of human rights or a Democracy but I cannot say the same for the US.
April 29th, 2014 at 7:48 am
Dr B.W. – Thank you for filling us in on the UNHRC background. My comments earlier, and elsewhere, are generally confined to understanding where we had gone wrong and what further can be done about it now. As a remedy to deflect action on SL, I had suggested a majority vote in the SL Parliament to formally dismiss the prejudiced UNHRC resolution as the unshakable will of the Sri Lankan people on the basis that the parliament in a democracy is Supreme – So your further thoughts, if you may, on these lines please – S de silva – London
April 29th, 2014 at 2:07 pm
S de Silva: Thank you for your response to my comment: To keep the record straight there is always a difference between the American people and the government that we elect. During the 1950s the media caught up with the issue of Von Broun’s Nazi past and it became a scandal. Obviously the government won for Von Broun continued to rise to head the new NASA (US space program).
Taking what I read and the current selective nature of the UNHRC there is no reason for any nation to adhere to the misconceptions, accusations based on unverifiable facts emanating from the UNHRC. More powerful nations are practically immune to any accusations. In 1991 the UNHRC tried to bring up the caste issue in India but India had enough clout to stop it. India may have stopped the UNHRC in 1991 but the Caste issue has not been remedied. Nations like China, Russia, The US, to many nations in the EU are immune. That nullifies the UNHRC as a functioning body who often puts politics before human rights.
In my opinion the UNHRC is as significant in the modern world as the League of Nation was after world war One. It is a tool used by those in the Security Council to single out particular nations for political reasons.