MahamahaRaja

It canƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t be stopped now. Ordinary people ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” students, workers, teachers, professors, doctors, nurses, journalists, lawyers, religious, secular, men, women, even children ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” these ordinary citizens, these average Joes, these huddled masses yearning to breathe free, they have all awoken now.

Across the Middle East and North Africa, they, the people, have shown courage, bravery, moral fortitude, strength and above all else, an unrelenting determination to claim for themselves freedoms and liberties long withheld from them by their foreign-backed rulers, rights which we in Sri Lanka take for granted.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ But from Libya to Bahrain, from Jordan to Egypt, from Tunisia to Yemen, amidst all the clamour of revolution something is amiss. The loud noise we hear today is from the voices of the peaceful protesters, and from the ringing of gunshots fired at them and the explosions of shells rained down upon them by the militaries trying to suppress them. But one particular sound, one particular noise, is missing. Its absence, its silence, is truly deafening.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ We in Sri Lanka are quite familiar with the noise IƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢m talking about. It is the sound of the lecturing, the posturing, the finger wagging, the condescending pronouncements, the support for terrorism, the denigration of the Sri Lankan people and government. Yes, itƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s the voices of the NGOs, the mainstream media, and the western officials, in short: the usual suspects.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The war, the peace talks, the local government elections, the presidential elections, ministerial appointments, constitutional amendments, food prices, business practices, the media, the cost of living, the floods ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” for the usual suspects, all these are considered fair game for lectures and derision. They are just unable to contain themselves on these issues in Sri Lanka.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ But Bahrain? Libya? Egypt? Tunisia? Jordan? Yemen? Algeria? Saudi Arabia? Come on guys, what happened to your preaching? Why the silence? Cat got your tongue?

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ In each of these nations exists a western interest and a western puppet regime to protect that interest. In each of these nations, the dictatorships killed their own people when the people asked for their dignity with nothing more than their voices. There were no attacks on the state and there were no suicide bombs, but these peaceful protests were met with state brutality, violence and murder. And the usual suspects were silent, conspicuous by their absence.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ In Sri Lanka, HRW, AI, RSF, and even the UN officials were bandying about figures for deaths at the end of the war against Tamil terrorism. ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-4500!ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ they shouted, ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-7000!ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ they exclaimed, ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-40,000!ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ they cried, without even a scrap of evidence.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The UKƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s Channel 4 had a field day twice with a single fabricated video. First there was a leg which was dancing about long after an apparently fatal shot to the head. When that was shown to be a sham they decided to re-release the very same video, saying it was actually from six months before the time they initially said it was, and that this was ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-newƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ evidence against Sri Lanka.

The Times of London front page showed a field with empty tents, with neither craters nor limbs nor bodies, but they still had the confidence to proclaim that there was a ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-genocideƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ going on, despite 300,000 Tamils being rescued from the terrorist human shield. UN trucks were taking medicine, food and water into the human shield, but the BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, and other media was saying these supplies were being withheld.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Now, we have verified video footage which actually shows genocide against Arab peoples by western-backed dictators, we see Nigerian mercenaries being paid bounties by Gaddafi for killing innocent people (unlike the not-so-innocent Tamils who willingly went with the Tigers), we hear bullets being fired at peaceful protesters, lethal midnight raids against protest camps in Bahrain, ambulances prevented from getting to the injured, doctors and paramedics being beaten by the army for helping the wounded,ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  supplies of blood and medicines being blocked by governments, and we see used heavy weapon casings littering the ground where protesters were slaughtered (even anti-aircraft weapons were used against these protesters), but there is not a peep from the usual suspects. (And in all these videos the victims actually speak the correct language, unlike the Channel 4 video).

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Where is the condemnation of the Arab dictatorships? Where are the slogans about ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-human rights,ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-war crimesƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ and ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-genocideƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚? Where are the estimated casualty figures? Are they even present in these countries? They werenƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t in Sri LankaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s war zones, but they were still able to come up with figures for the number of dead and injured. Why canƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t they do the same now?

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Alas, there is no press release or statement or media briefing. No, the usual suspects ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” and their comrade-in-arms Ban Ki Moon (remember him? He had a lot to say about Sri Lanka!) ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” are nowhere to be seen or heard, no matter how hard one may look for them or listen out for them.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ In the final stages of our war, a man called James Traub wrote an editorial in the Washington Post advocating invoking the ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-right to protect (R2P)ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ doctrine against Sri Lanka, and invading our nation in the name of ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-humanitarianismƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ to end the war. Of course this intervention would have had the consequence of preventing justice being dealt on Prabha and the rest of the terror leadership, and that was probably exactly what Traub and the rest wanted. Their grand plan was to smuggle the Tamil terrorists out of the country and to use the foreign military presence to create a new ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-green lineƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ as the precursor for a Kosovo style illegal partition of Sri Lanka.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The R2P is most fitting for what is going on in the Arab world today. Here, civilians are being deliberately targeted and killed by tyrannical rulers. So Mr Traub, would you like to ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-interveneƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ in a ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-humanitarianƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ manner and help these people get rid of the ruthless dictators? To free these people from the dictators who you havenƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t mentioned a word about?

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ No? I thought not. So take your R2P and stick it where Prabha, Pottu and the rest are ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” in Hell ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” and get lost. Leave Sri Lanka alone.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ This essay can also be found at thambiraja.wordpress.com