Mahinda triumphs over Tamils and I/NGOs in Perth
Posted on November 6th, 2011
H. L. D. Mahindapala
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ There were only two winners at the CHOGM held in Perth: Queen Elizabeth and President Mahinda Rajapakse. Both got what they wanted. Queen wanted succession to pass on to a female, overturning the British tradition of passing it first to the male even if the females are senior and she won. She also won the right to lift the ban on Catholics ascending the throne ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” a law observed since Henry VIII refused to recognize the supremacy of the Pope in the domestic affairs of England. She sailed through smoothly.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The big victory, however, was that of President Mahinda Rajapakse. He faced 54 nations ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” the largest international gathering of heads of states ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” and won all what he wanted in his political agenda. To begin with, he won the right to hold the 2013 CHOGM against a formidable gang of the West led by Canada, with New Zealand, tagging along. This victory was great because he defeated the Tamil expats and the I/NGOs (most of all Amnesty International and Australian Chapter of the International Commission of Jurists) who moved heaven and earth to push the Commonwealth heads of states to deny Sri Lanka the scheduled opportunity to hold the next CHOGM meeting in 2013.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Stephen Harper, the Canadian Prime Minister, was the most vociferous in this campaign. He was posing as the champion of human rights hiding the fact that he was maneuvering in Perth to manipulate the Tamil votes in Canada.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Considering the powerful forces of the West ganging up to corner him, with the host country Australia coming under massive pressure to marginalize Sri Lanka, Mahinda RajapakseƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s victory at Perth can be regarded as another feather in his cap. One of the heavy guns that fired on behalf of the Tamil lobby was the Secretary-General of Amnesty International, Salil Shitty. He had a one-to-one meeting with Kevin Rudd, the Foreign Minister, to swing the Australian vote against Sri Lanka. Besides, the entire mainstream media in Australia weighed in demanding punitive action against the Sri Lanka. The victory against this massive lobby should not be underestimated. Placed in another context, it is indeed a great victory considering that the Commonwealth in the past had not hesitated to take action against Nigeria, Pakistan, Zimbabwe and Fiji.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The Tamil expats and the I/NGOs were the biggest losers. How did this resource rich lobby fail again in their campaigns against Sri Lanka? The contours of the anti- Sri Lankan lobby abroad and at home are quite apparent: Western foreign offices, I/NGOs (Human Rights Watch, International Crisis Group, Amnesty International etc) also financed by Western foreign offices and big business (e.g., Ford Foundation), Western media, academia and Churches have direct or indirect links to the expatriate Tamil lobby campaigning against Sri Lanka. It is a formidable lobby and the Sri Lankan expatriates who do not have a fraction of the financial resources of the Tamil lobby find it difficult to combat the well-oiled Tamil lobby. For instance, the billionaire Raja Rajaratnam, who roused the suspicions of the American anti-terrorist intelligence outfits because of his links with the Tamil Tiger terrorists, is reported to have forked out one million dollars to the US Tamils planning to get the ban lifted against them.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ But with all these forces behind the anti-Sri Lankan lobby the Tamil expatriate have failed repeatedly to make a significant dent in the political agenda of President Rajapakse. Behind the cover of human rights they are running a vindictive campaign to get even with him for defeating their cult hero, Velupillai Prabhakaran.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The main aim of the Tamil expats and I/NGOs in running their massive campaign is to denigrate Sri Lanka and ostracize it from the international community. The latest was in Perth. CHOGM exploded the myth of the power of Tamil expats and the I/NGOs to make the international community dance to their drum beat, or to run Sri LankaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s domestic agenda from their bases in the West. Each time the Tamil expats made an anti-Sri Lankan move ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” whether legal, political or economic — they had gone away empty handed. The list of their failures is lengthening by the day. In Australia, for instance, they demanded that Australia should 1.stop playing cricket; 2. stop aid to Sri Lanka; 3. stop trade; 4. refuse to accept Tisara Samarasinghe as the High Commissioner 5.Greens even insisted on recalling AustraliaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Kathy Klugman; 6. stop issuing visas to delegates attending CHOGM; 7. stop the move to hold 2013 CHOGM in Sri Lanka
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The Tamil expats spent tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees alone in Australia and did not win a thing. As usual they were the biggest noise-makers. They spend a lot of money making noises in the media, lobbies, academia etc. But at the end of the day they wind up without achieving anything. The peak point of their international campaign was to stop the war in the last stages (from January 2009 to May 2009). With their electoral clout in the West they managed even to send two foreign minister ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” David Milliband of UK and Richard Kouchner of France ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” to Sri Lanka to stop the war. Some Tamils even committed suicide. They blocked the highways in Toronto, London and Sydney. But they all ended up like their leader, Prabhakaran in Nandikadal.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Then they moved with the Western lobbies to censure Sri Lanka at the UNHRC in Geneva. Ms. Navi Pillay, in fact opened the 2009 sessions with a video presentation urging that the UNHRC condemn Sri Lanka for violations of international humanitarian law in the last stages of the Vadukoddai War. But a majority of states refused to accept her diktat and told her to commend Sri Lanka for the manner in which it saved 300,000 Tamils used as a human shield by the deadliest terrorist, Velupillai Prabhakaran. Tamils were shocked by this vote. In fact, Radhika Coomaraswamy, the crypto-Tamil-racist, threw up her hands in horror when the results were announced.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The Tamil lobby has been manipulating tirelessly to get the accusations against President Rajapakse at the UN and in the courts in UK, USA etc. They have been throwing millions of dollars into this exercise promising the deluded Tamil expats that they have got the President. But they have failed each time.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Their biggest move in Australia was to file a case against the President in the Melbourne magistratesƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ court. It is estimated that this case cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Tamil radios were screaming that this time they can send President Mahinda Rajapakse to jail if the Tamil expats contribute a minimum of $100 per person. But Robert McClelland, AustraliaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s Attorney-General, squashed it saying that visiting heads of state are immune from prosecution. This was obvious. Australia, hosting the CHOGM, was not going to invite a head of state to put him in jail. But the gullible Tamils believed it. Citing Prof. Kumar David who said that the Jaffna Tamil leadership is ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-stupidƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚, a Tamil engineer in Melbourne remarked that the Tamils who contribute money to these futile causes are ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-congenital idiotsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚. Tamil radios and print media raised the hopes of the frustrated Tamil expats to jail President Mahinda Rajapakse for violating international humanitarian law. They succeed in corralling an impressive array of big names. But once the hot air evaporated their anti-Sri Lankan balloons hit the ground leaving them nothing to take home.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ It appears that the Tamil lobbies abroad are running aground not only because of divisions within their ranks but also because of rank idiocy. They are also joined by a few Sinhala idiots. For instance, Lionel Bopage, a third rate leader of the fascist Sinhala murderers in the JVP, too joined the Tamil ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-idiotsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ at a seminar held in Sydney. After going on a murderous rampage, misleading the Sinhala youth in the seventies, he is now posing as the high priest of human rights. This is another hilarious trend of human rights campaigners: practically all of them (both Sinhalese and Tamils) who are in the forefront of the human rights campaign have been associated in the past, either actively or ideologically, with fascist tyrants and murderers. Bopage led a team of youth to capture Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike, dead or alive, and the ran away abandoning the youth who followed them and hid under a bed in a temple in Panadura, along with his associate brigade commander Jayadeva (Marthelis) Uyangoda, another champion of human rights. These frustrated wannabees have failed in their theories, political campaigns, military adventures, and pseudo-Marxist mumbo-jumbo and have nowhere to go except to pose as cheap salesmen of human rights. BopageƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s latest anti-Sri Lankan campaign in Sydney too ended with him falling flat along with his fellow-idiots in Perth.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The failure of the Tamils is reflected in the reports of the TamilNet ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” the mouthpiece of the frustrated Tamils who were crying out loud in Perth to suspend Sri Lanka from the Commonwealth and to arrest Mahinda Rajapakse. According to TamilNet, n Tamil protester in Perth, Yogan, said Rajapakse had been given a ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-red carpet welcomeƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ to CHOGM when he should have been in jail. TamilNet sounded very unhappy that Mahinda Rajapakse was still on top of them despite the Tamil ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-idiotsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ shouting their lungs out in Perth.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Tamil idiocy has reached a new level with some rival factions arguing that ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-pongu TamilƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ (Tamil resurgence) should be held only after the second coming of Prabhakaran. D. B. S. Jeyaraj reported this bizarre news from Canada. He said that despite free transport provided to Tamils in Toronto in Canada the attendance for the latest ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-pongu TamilƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ (October 29) had dropped from 35,000 to 3,500. He attributed this to the rivalry of Tamil factions. One faction is led by Perinpanayagam Sivaparan alias ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-NediyavanƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ based in Norway. He added: Attempts by ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-NediyavanƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ loyalists to conduct a ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-pongu ThamizhƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ event were strongly opposed by pro-Tiger elements from another LTTE faction
ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-This faction is loyal to senior LTTE intelligence leader Sekarapillai Vinayagamoorthy aliasƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚VinayagamƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ who now operates from France & Germany.ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ And here comes the punch line:
ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…- ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-VinayagamƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ loyalists opposed ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-NediyavanƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ loyalists saying ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-pongu ThamizhƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ should be held only after LTTE chief Prabhakaran emerges publicly.ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚
Tamil leaders are still banking on the delusion of the Second Coming of Prabhakaran. The last known case was Lazarus. But there has been no repetition of Lazarus after Jesus came down from the Cross. Tamil idiocy is yet to realize that a soufflƒÆ’†’ƒ”š‚© like Prabhakaran can never rise twice.
November 6th, 2011 at 7:51 pm
Australia is asking for help to get a Security Council seat, but it has only about 25 million people. There are other countries in Asia and in the world, in that sense, deserve seats in the security council.
May be that is why Australia became good with MR.
November 7th, 2011 at 1:45 am
No one can put down our President so easily. He is strong,He has a vision for our country and lastly majority of our population is with him. Beacuse he had a backbone we managed to win the war if not we still live in fear. I hope the whole world soon will realize who is right and who is wrong and allow us to live in peace. MR will keep on winning every battle for many more years to come.We all must without shaking should give our support to finish the job and bring our Motherland to par with other developed countries in the world.
Let those ungreatful Tamil Idiots die along with Prabakaran’s ghost. Sinhala and Tamil traitors shouldnt be allowed to visit our Motherland at any time. Bopage’s,Uyangoda’s,Somawansa’s were all traitors who hide under the beds during their coward insurection which killed thousands of innocent youths in our country. This pathetic individuals will just vanish into thin air without knowing what has happened to them in the future. So let them dance as much as they wants to the tunes of Tamil death songs. They are paid for that by the western crooks who wants MR’s scalp. Long live our President he who walks staright and talks straight.
November 7th, 2011 at 2:15 am
This was another resounding victory and Tamil Diaspora jokers tucked their tails between the legs and retreated into their bunkers.
Now not a word about this from the Tamil Diaspora. Comprehensively defeated, again.
November 7th, 2011 at 7:26 am
Further pressure shall be pursuied relenlessly.
That is the arrest of the terrorist in Australia and Canada. Adele Bala in UK shall also be tried in crime agaist humanity for handing over sleeping pills to young Tamil girls while she is still in a safe heaven.
Al those gave evidence in Kangaroo Courts in Australia and UK , while commiting crime in Sirlanka by training and fighting and dressing up wounds of the terrorist shall also be arrested and deported to Sri Lanka for real humane treatment.
November 7th, 2011 at 3:18 pm
Out of topic.. Have not heard from Mr. Walter Jayawardhana for a long time.. Hope he is OK.
November 8th, 2011 at 2:15 pm
Long live Mahinda but we should establish strong institutions just like state depts in America and UK who would not shake with the change of the govts and continue with what is identified as the best for them.Obama or Cameron are simple figureheads who cannot set too much outside this chosen path;Obama continuing with Afgan policy a simple example.Gota setting six wings for intelligence a good step in this direction.Our national intitutions should be set strong if a spineless chap like Ranil ever wins ,he is not capable of deviating too much from the chosen path.
C.S.
November 9th, 2011 at 7:50 pm
The Sri Lankan delegation to CHOGM 2011 would have had good reason to enjoy their end of conference drinks, relieved that their worst fears had come to naught and feeling satisfied generally with the way the meeting went. But I am not sure the outcome of the conference justifies the title of HLDM’s article or his claim that “there were only two winners at the CHOGM held in Perth: Queen Elizabeth and President Mahinda Rajapakse”
The reference regarding the Queen seems irrelevant. As far as I am aware, the proposal to change the rules governing succession to the British throne – a non controversial matter whose acceptance was never in doubt, anyway – was tabled by the British Prime Minister. So, the question of the Queen winning or losing at CHOGM 2011 did not arise. Her role there was limited to formally opening the conference, and it is hardly likely she will have botched that up.
And how correct is it to say that President Rajapakse ‘won the right to hold the 2013 CHOGM’, considering that the venue for 2013 had already been decided two years before? The 2013 venue did not therefore have to be won at Perth.
President Rajapakse did of course have other issues to face. At the conference itself, there were ‘unfriendly noises’ chiefly, it seemed, from the Canadian Prime Minister. Then there were some presentations over the Australian ABC and press reports leading up to the conference which were not helpful to the Sri Lankan cause. Nor was the intervention of Salil Shetty (not exactly a great name to have?) of Amnesty International. And there were protesters – even if their numbers were less than had been expected and their impact, negligible. President Rajapakse and his team dealt with these matters adequately.
The Tamil Australian – and his backers – seeking to bring President Rajapakse before the Australian courts to answer charges of alleged human rights violations, would have had to be optimistic in the extreme to think they would actually succeeded in their efforts. These people are not fools. I suspect they knew – like most sensible persons – that realistically they had no chance of achieving their ostensible goal, and were happy to settle for what they did achieve – wide negative publicity for Sri Lanka and keeping it in the spotlight. As HLDM has said, those efforts will have cost them much but that was a price they were clearly prepared to pay.
I imagine that overall Sri Lanka will not be unhappy with CHOGM 2011. But I cannot be as upbeat as HLDM and agree with him that the Perth conference represented a resounding victory for President Rajapakse. Sure, those who wished him to be ‘punished’ failed in their objectives but I feel that, at best, he managed to effectively repulse the ‘enemy’ rather than overwhelm it. But regardless of how one views the outcome of CHOGM 2011 for Sri Lanka, the fact is that the issues that surfaced in Perth – even if effectively countered for the time being – have not gone away. And I note even as I write that Channel 4 has said it was planning another presentation to follow its first infamous earlier effort. These things have to be meaningfully addressed and effectively put to bed. Otherwise they will continue to haunt Sri Lanka, and the considerable talents of the likes of Professor GL Peiris, which might otherwise be employed in productive endeavour, will be wasted in having to counter various charges against the government.
And, let’s be clear about another thing. It is not only the charges, reflected formally principally in the Darusman Report, that is affecting Sri Lanka’s international image. Developments like the 18th Amendment which strengthened an already strong office of the President and further diluted the ‘checks and balances’ so vital for a healthy democracy, have done little to raise the country’s international profile. And now we have the Business Appropriation Bill which like the 18th Amendment is being rushed through parliament with obscene hurry.
So, even if you regard Sri Lanka won a battle at Perth, it seems there is still the war to be won.
November 10th, 2011 at 12:06 pm
President Mahinda Rajapaksha going from strength to strength. One of the few truly great leaders in the world today. Along with maybe President Putin and maybe Ron Paul of the USA if he wins the presidency next year.