Sri Lanka: Sincere Ignorance And Conscientious Stupidity

March 15, 2012

An Article from the Asian Human Rights Commission

Nilantha Ilangamuwa

What the London based Channel 4 is showing the World again on Sri Lanka is not a new phenomenon for this country. This kind of barbaric knavery has a long history. At that time those victims were alone, no one had seen them. The guardian turned away for the time. As this writer pointed out last week; our culture and rule of law did not overlap each other but always tried to apagoge each other. This cultural contradiction has been used as a strategy by regimes to 'undermine peoples' rights for a long time. They play with human beings to gain absolute power. And we lost thousands of people in the cause of nothing but kept in power particular selected families. The long term game was and is still, being played by those families, perhaps the present regime to a worse degree. We did not see ability to adaptation to law and order or society based on equal opportunity for all. As a result those families that manipulated absolute power motivated the public to kill other members of the public.

Meanwhile, a draft resolution on Sri Lanka by the United States of America has been submitted to the United Nations HRC in Geneva. (click here to read full text of the Resolution). In less than 330 words, this resolution has pointed the finger at the Government of Sri Lanka and its half cooked proposal of reconciliation and accountability. Instead of understanding the context and dealing with it diplomatically, the ruling party has divided the public into two sections to get political advantage from the nightmare thus causing a stalemate at government level. As some of the commentators pointed out, it is not the US that has divided our society again but the ruling government and their cunning strategies have divided the public into two. The Rajapakse regime already has failed to deal with political-economic matters and there is no more Bell Pottinger to rescue their mission under million dollar contracts.

Meanwhile one of the Ministers in the Cabinet urged people to boycott American products. He called on people to boycott American brands such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi, KFC, McDonalds and Google's email service Gmail. "Let's create a country that boycotts American brands and then show the US that we are prepared to fight with them if they want to fight with us," he said in Colombo yesterday. The minister is also using a gmail address and he promised the people that he will soon quit gmail. This is laughable and is more than a joke when we compare it with his infamous death unto death drama against the UN few months ago in Colombo. The interesting point is the web site which he is maintaining and using to attack opponents is also hosted from the USA.

Let's start afresh and ask the question that if there was genuine anger against the US, would the Minister not ask the question from the two people within the Government who are holding US citizenship? If those self-acclaimed "patriots" were so proud of the Nation and were therefore against the USA, why have they not surrendered their US citizenship or permanent residency (green card) to fight on the basis of an international conspiracy against Sri Lanka? If they are this much angry about the US policy on Sri Lanka, why don't they just take away their other hand and put it somewhere in Iran, China, or Russia? To surrender their Green Card (permanent residence status) they must meet with and fill out the appropriate forms with the Office of Homeland Security and also file the appropriate forms with the IRS to end your obligation to continue to pay US income taxes as citizens/permanent residents. There is normally a charge of $450 for this process. Thus two Rajapakses and their relations can come out of the US the following day and fight against the "international conspiracy" that is urging the Nation to restore Rule of Law not by given chances to collude at exams in Law Collage to become an attorney at law but the proper system to implement rule of law where every citizen has Equal Opportunity to access common facilities. This is a major difference between the Citizen who submits to the King and the Citizen who believes in the Rule of Law. Today, the problem in Sri Lanka is centralization of core powers around those close to the self-proclaimed King who is killing the real value of the Rule of Law, as interpreted independently by the Citizen. When there is the King, there are no citizens of the Country who can enjoy real value of independent interpretation of the Rule of Law, but gradually become the blind subjects of that King.

There are many issues that people who are attached to the ruling party are raising against the US -- from the killing of hundreds of thousands of people in atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan at the end of WWII to Guantanamo Bay detention camp where hundreds of terrorist suspects have been detained without trial. Does it mean that if the US did bad things then we also can do the same, provided no one can raises the question whenever we do so? This is a question about our own conscience regarding our State Agencies committing crimes against humanity against our own people. What this ruling party needs to do now, instead of provoking people to come out to the streets is to deal with crimes against humanity that occurred not only in last period of the War but over the last three decades in various parts of the Country. This needs to be addressed in such a manner that people can find justice and peace by identifying with the Government's actions. One could ignore the issues, by using victory in the battlefield, or one could be transparent about the process that brought them that victory and address other outcomes that tarnish that victory to the point of negation.

Now if we focus on the US draft resolution regarding Sri Lanka, we see nothing in it to indicate division of our people or as our permanent representatives in Geneva highlighted that the US wants regime change in the Country. As far as the Resolution is concerned there is nothing to indicate that the US is planning against territorial integrity or that they are conspiring against the Sri Lankan sovereignty. Is urging for the implementation of the recommendations of the LLRC (appointed by President Rajapakse to counteract the UN report on Sri Lanka) wrong or appropriate? The LLRC report is a product of the Regime; it's not a result of so called 'Western Conspiracy'. Other countries of the UN are also asking the Government to implement the recommendations.

We experienced through a similar political typhoon, the loss of US$1.56 billion annually, when the European Union terminated the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) plus for our apparel products which eventually benefited Bangladesh. This is the cost we paid to maintain the ego of our politicians. The alarming message sent by the EU before their termination of the GSP plus is, "We very much regret the choice of Sri Lanka not to take up an offer made in good faith and in line with the EU commitment to a global human rights agenda. We will however keep the door open for Sri Lanka to return to talks." But the government chose to interpret this basic principle as a conspiracy against the people and then they were motivated the people into anger against the West. At the end of that vapid drama we got a result that we can see in every kitchen in Sri Lanka, now. If the Regime has a proper plan to make this country the 'Wonder of Asia' they need to act in time without telling tale of the dragon for development work and playing hide and seek games with the basic rights of the people.

The Government of Sri Lanka is again showing before the people their ignorance on how to restore the rule of law in the Country. They are spending in the name of public expenditure to emotionally rouse the public which would eventually change the bad political climate of the President and his regime. Now those who follow the Government of Sri Lanka, are using excessive control over power and most of crimes are happening just for personal revenge. This is the real problem that we are facing -- not only killing awareness of the people to make them ignorant but also spreading deadly stupidity in society. As Martin Luther King, Jr., once pointed out, nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

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About AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental organisation that monitors human rights in Asia, documents violations and advocates for justice and institutional reform to ensure the protection and promotion of these rights. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.

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