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Chilcott, Punks, Skinheads and "Paki Bashing".By Charles. S.Perera
Chilcott does not speak like a diplomat in the real sense of the word. He is perhaps a political supporter of the former or the present Prime Minister of Great Britain, who had been given a diplomatic appointment in a country which the English think is a good training ground for new comers to English Diplomacy. Some of these stuck up Westerners mistake smiling Sri Lankans to be charming idiots who would swallow any thing that comes from a smiling Englishman.
Chilcott seemingly having no experience in diplomacy dishes out his meagre knowledge gathered from his school lessons on general knowledge, to educate the natives on governance. Unfortunately not only Chilcott but many of the Western Officials coming to Sri Lanka seem to be wanting in political correctness in their public pronouncements. Sri Lanka though it had been colonised by several spice hunting Western Nations, has a rich cultural past. The Sri Lankan people consisting of different communities had lived together for quite a number of years in peace and amity long before the advent of the Western adventurers into the Island.
The People of Sri Lanka has no lesson to learn from the West. The West has discovered human rights only recently, and they have still failed to apply the rules of it in their own countries. There was a time in England when the coloured community was beaten up by punks and skin heads. It was more the people of the Asian Community who were the victim of these aggressions. They called it "Paki bashing". Paki being a short term derived from the word Pakistanis that included all Asians from Indian subcontinent and around . They were the more meek , peaceful, and the least resisting victims of the aggressors, therefore easy targets of the punks and the skinheads.
Chicott and the likes of him coming from the UN, Human Rights Watch etc. are the modern punks and skinheads who continuing the same "Paki Bashing" with a difference. The Punks and the Skinheads used batons and knuckle dusters. Now they come to our own countries, not for physical but verbal "Paki Bashing", because we are still the meek, the peaceful, and least resisting victims of "verbal" aggressors.
These Western Pandits seem to have discovered Human Rights recently, because the violations of human rights in their own countries were normal , as it did not represent human right violations for them, because the emigrants who were the principle victims of their intolerance were of a different colour. Even in the colonies they subjected the natives to discriminate treatment. They prevented the natives from joining their clubs, swimming pools, or hotel lounges. There were times when the coloured people in some of their countries sat in different rows of seats even in buses. One may remember the Late Thelma Gunawardhana episode in America !
All that Chilcott says in public is what he and his invitees talk about in the privacy of the living rooms. Chilcott is not new to uncalled for remarks, for once he said that English should be the Official Language of Sri Lanka.
The blame for displaced sentiments expressed by Chilcott should go to the organisers of the Dudley Senanayake Commemorations. The Organisers should have invited some one who knows Dudley Senanayake, some one outside the UNP. These people like Chilcott though respected Ambassadors representing foreign countries should not be invited to speak at National Functions. Chilcott's speech was rather an insult to a dead National Leader, instead of it being an occasion to point out Late Dudley Senanayake's common touch and very affable human qualities.
Any way hope Chilcott has at least learnt his lessons of diplomacy
here in Sri Lanka, so that he may be able to use better his diplomatic
position elsewhere. We wish him well nevertheless, for a happy stay
in Washington. |
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