WORLD FULL OF HYPOCRITES

B Piyal, Sri Lanka

Asoka Seneviratne (AS) of USA, in the above titled article, shows that he/she is deeply hurt by some comments made by Mr Wimal Weerawansa (WW) of the JVP in the Sri Lanka parliament. I do not know the details or the context of the comments made by WW, as I do not follow him, or the JVP for that matter. Nevertheless, according to AS, WW had commented that the US Government is hypocrite.

By making that comment, WW made no revelation. It is an undeniable fact that the US government is the biggest hypocrite in the entire world, and it is abundantly clear from the events in the Middle East. This is the view of the majority of free-thinking US citizens including the well-respected intellectuals and reputed journalists.

It is probably true that all politicians in the world are hypocrites to some extent, including those of Sri Lanka, Cuba, China, Malaysia and Singapore etc. But unlike the US (and some other Western countries), neither Cuba nor China nor Malaysia nor Singapore interferes with our internal affairs. We, the Sri Lankans, do not interfere with the affairs of other countries either. We need friends such as China, Malaysia, Pakistan, Russia and Singapore. Not those who still think they are our masters as in the colonial times.

Whenever the US and other Western countries give loans under the label of "foreign aid" either directly or through IMF or WB to a developing country, they ruin the economy of that country and make it poorer than what it was before. The poor nation then becomes politically destabilised and more dependent on the West, and the West keep exploiting them even more. This is the "real benefit" to a developing country such as ours from the so called "friendly country" the US, which, according to AS, pumped millions of US tax payer dollars to help us in Sri Lanka! But the reality is the US never solved any of our economic problems, it worsened them.

If AS has any doubt on the economic damage his adopted country has been doing to the impoverished nations such as ours, he should refer authentic publications dealing with this subject, without repeating the US propaganda like a parrot. Some of these publications are cited in an article titled "A response to Britain warns Sri Lanka" written by Dr Gavin Karunaratne, published in The Island of 28 February 2007.

Just because our leaders are hypocrites, we do not want the biggest hypocrite in the world to interfere with our domestic affairs. We welcome any foreigner to our country and do not discriminate against them whether they are from the US or Cuba, as long as they come and enjoy our hospitality without interfering into our internal affairs. But this is not so especially with respect to the US officials. They tell our President how to run our country while our President never tells them how to run their business.

For instance, the American Ambassador in Colombo Mr Robert Blake recently said that the SL government should put forward a devolution proposal soon and that it should go beyond the proposals put forward by Mrs Kumaratunga in 2000. Reacting to this, Ven Ellawala Medhananda of the JHU said that this a case of directly interfering in Sri Lanka’s internal affairs, and if things continue like this, the Sinhalese will also have to take up arms. This is the feeling in Sri Lanka against the US interference. It may not be the JVP that takes up arms if this trend continues. It may be the monks!

When the US government launched war against terrorism, they did not discuss political solutions to the Middle East. But they tell us of political solutions. The extent of hypocrisy is such that, while the US is fighting the terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to recent news reports backed by a former US State Department counter-terrorism agent, the US has been funding Iranian ethnic terrorists to terrorise Iran. This is what they would do to any country. We do not need this type of friends.

AS wants us to align with the most powerful country in the world. What for? To make ourselves even more poorer and to become present day US slaves? Unlike AS, who found his heaven in the US, we, in SL, are brave enough to stand on our feet and fight for our country. Perhaps, our leaders can learn from the leader of Cuba, although I do not follow his ideology. He, despite 50 years of economic sanctions and military threats, has ruled his country without bending backwards to appease anyone.

According to the UN, Cuba has the most effective public health care system and the best public education system in the world. Not bad for a country under 50 years of economic sanctions. Even after the fall of the Soviet Union the Cuban leader stood firm and still firm in his death bed. What a lesson to learn form a leader of a tiny Nation!

AS tells us that "poor Sri Lanka needs a powerful ally like the US if we are to even dream of winning Prabhakaran's own hypocritical evil war". But the US diplomats in Sri Lanka tell us we cannot win the war against Prabhakaran! Even after the LTTE mortar fire in Batticaloa targeting the diplomats the US Ambassador said that war is not winnable without talks. Who do you want us to believe AS? You or the US diplomats? Perhaps, AS may not be aware that our brave soldiers, without any support from the US, keep Prabhakaran on the run. They would have finished Prabhakaran long time ago, if not for the interference of the West including the US, which AS wants us to worship!

According to AS the universities in Sri Lanka are funded by the US tax payer dollars! This is news for us in Sri Lanka. Perhaps, this is why AS is residing in the USA and paying back his/her perceived masters. We should appreciate AS's gratitude to the US masters. However, as far as I am aware our entire free education system, including the universities, is funded by our government using public money (Thanks to late Mr CWW Kannangara, a true politician and not a hypocrite). One who defected to the US after reaping the benefits of the free education in Sri Lanka and then campaigns for the US interests is the biggest hypocrite. No one can ever match the hypocrisy of such a person. In fact such hypocrisy is worse than the hypocrisy of the US government. No wonder why the world is full of hypocrites!