By Mahinda Weerasinghe, Author of Mission to Oslo

 The Dalai Lama is scheduled to visit Norway from May 7 to May 9 at the invitation of civil society groups in Oslo. This is partly to celebrate the 25th anniversary of his Nobel Peace Prize and partly to brush up his contacts. Yet the current Norwegian prime minister or the foreign minister nor the cabinet of Ministers, has accepted invitations to meet with him for some peculiar reason!

 Notwithstanding the slur, the Dalai Lama is scheduled to visit the ‘Stortinget’ and meet some of the MPs, including members of the “Tibet Committee” in Oslo.

 This is in stark contrast to the visit of His Holiness to Oslo on June 16th, 2005. The then Prime Minister of Norway, Mr. Kjell Magne Bondevik, rolled out the red carpet to welcome the visiting celebrity.

In fact in 2002 when Mr. Bondevik was the country’s foreign minister, everyone who was someone was jostling for an audience with His Holiness, including the current Prime Minister Einar Selberg!

 So what has changed from Bondevik’s tenure as Prime Minister  to the present Prime Ministers Einar Solberg’s ascent to the PM’s chair?

 In fact how should we decipher the reasons behind this fancy foot work of the current PM who is determined to avoid meeting this harmless old man?

The answer is simple: At that point of history (2004) the Chinese were nobodies so, Bondevik has been trying to use His Holiness as a tool to beat the Chinese. 

And the put on show of ‘love’ for the Tibetan Buddhists or the Lama was simply playing to the gallery!

Today the Chinese people are nearing the status of a world super power.  Hence these Norwegian preachers of human rights have changed their tune accordingly.

 Indeed Norway’s diplomatic relations with China have been frozen since 2010 when the Nobel Committee awarded the peace prize to Liu Xiaobo, a veteran of 1989 pro-democracy  movement which was crushed by the Chinese government.

 Subsequently China canceled meetings with Norwegian officials and denied visas to visiting dignitaries, even though Norway’s government insists that it has no influence over the Nobel Committee. China’s snub has taught the Norwegian a lesson they can’t forget. Bondeviks and Solberg’s have been taught that they can’t hunt with the West and run with China at the same time. The Chinese unlike the Norwegians wouldn’t forget history!

 The failure of Norway’s foreign policy has been admitted openly. “Norway-China relations are very poor, nearly non-existent. There has been no contact since 2010,” Norwegian Foreign Minister Boerge Brende told parliament on Wednesday. (14^th Aprial.2014)

“We must be prepared that if Norwegian authorities welcomed the Dalai Lama, it would be more difficult to normalize relations with China. We have to be honest about that.”

 The speaker of Norway’s parliament is refusing to meet the Dalai Lama, saying it is not in the best interests of Norway, prompting the opposition to call him a coward.

 “If we are going to be a nation working for international human rights and peacekeeping, then we can’t be the country with the worst relations of all to this great power,” Thommessen said.

 While diplomatic ties have floundered, trade is flourishing. In the first three months of the year, Norwegian exports to China rose 30 percent and imports went up six percent.

 So now we know; there are two types of human rights!  One for the great powers and one for the nations with no power!

 I wrote a piece called ‘Norwegian Prime Minister’s Fancy Footwork” (2004-10-13), where I wrote and I quote:

“So when that notorious terrorist Mr. V. Balakumar was entertained by his (Bundavik’s) Foreign office, the world at large held its breath.

To the ignorant, Mr. Balakumar is a professional assassin, who takes his business quite seriously. Being the mentor of Black Tiger suicide bomber unit, he demonstrated to the world at large, what can be achieved through intimidation and mass slaughter. He showed the world, how through meticulously planned genocide, a terror outfit can acquire respectability, recognition and legitimacy from European democratic nations, such as Norway and Denmark.

Democratic citizens were stunned to learn that the main speaker on 28th August in the Folketshus (Peoples’ House) in Oslo was no other person than this infamous terrorist. Well- wishing statements of Prime Minister Bondevik, Minister Erna Solberg and Special Envoy Solheim were read out to those gathered. The statement stressed Mr.Bondevik’s sympathetic support for the LTTE terrorists’ murderous work.”

 So much for human rights and not so noble prizes!

 In fact the policy of Minster Erna Solberg and her government is blatantly transparent, and the Norwegians do not like what they see. They realize that Erna is playing foot ball with His Holiness and Tibetan people’s fate.

 When Mr. Balakumar the mentor of Black Tiger suicide bomber unit were sent good wishes the Sinhalese knew what action they should take in order to rectify their destiny. That Black tiger chief was bumped off with the rest of his entourage by 2009 before they could bump off the more Sri Lankans!

 Now I have a feeling that Chinese are also not stupid.

Indeed world at large are not so easily “taken for a ride” by the likes of Bondeviks and Ernas.

 How can they trust people who gave Nobel price to Kissinger and Tutu the Desmond, Jimmy Carter and not to Mahatma Gandhi who broke the backbone of the British Empire?

 Indeed David Camerons, Bondeviks, Einar Solbergs are not fooling the world. On the contrary they would eventually discover that; they have only fooled themselves!

By Mahinda Weerasinghe

28.04.2014

Author of Mission to Oslo