Ajit Randeniya

According to a report in the Guardian newspaper, Britain wants to block Sri Lanka from hosting the next Commonwealth heads of government meeting (CHOGM) in 2011.

It is reported that prime minister Gordon Brown plans to tell the current meeting in Trinidad and Tobago that it would be ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”wholly unacceptableƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ for Sri Lanka to be allowed to host the meeting. Apparently this is in protest at Sri Lanka’s military action against the Tigers earlier this year.

The funnier side of this threat is that Gordon Brown (politically a dead man walking!) considers that allowing the CHOGM meeting to take place in Sri Lanka is ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”a reward for its actionsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ and it would ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”give Sri Lanka respectabilityƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢.

This is unbelievably pretentious, even by British standards!

Little does Brown know that the intriguing question in the minds of ordinary Sri Lankans would be, not as to ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”whyƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ they are being deprived of this ineffectual circus referred to as CHOGM, but as to ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”what the hell is CommonwealthƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢?

The Commonwealth is an irrelevance the ordinary Sri Lankans couldnƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t care less about. They are aware that the so-called Commonwealth is another grand deception of the British imperialists, launched at the forced end of the empire of ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”direct controlƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ from London.

When exploitation through ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”direct controlƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ became no longer viable (due to Japanese action in Asia during the war), the British colonisers fooled the compliant Brown Sahibs with bogus ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”independenceƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢. Then they lured the Sahibs to a club of ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”former slavesƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢, the so-called Common-Wealth. The deceptive word play involved was totally lost on the Sahibs who have historically failed to perceive the nuances of English the British used to brainwash them! The wealth, of course was always ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”commonƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢, if you belonged to the British imperialist class (as against the decent ordinary British people, let alone former colonials).

Through this body known as the Commonwealth, British imperialists continue to deceive and control more than 2 billion people in 53 former ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”coloniesƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ spread over the globe. The sad irony is that these people are the descendents of the very people whose life blood had been sucked out for centuries by the British. Despite these shameful beginnings, the Commonwealth makes great play of ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”principles of democracy and human rights and shared systems of justiceƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ for its members.

The Commonwealth these days is inactive except for the periodic holidays they organise in the form of CHOGMs in exotic tropical countries. This year it is in Trinidad and Tobago! These meetings also serve as precursors to more globe-controlling summits. This time CHOGM precedes the so-called ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”climate changeƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ summit in Copenhagen by just a few weeks.

Sri Lanka will not miss any thing of substance by missing out on CHOGM. Let Gordon Brown wallow in the political mire he is in.

Hopefully old friend Indrajit Coomaraswamy is having a great time in Trinidad!