Geethanjana Kudaligamage

Rajapakse, regional politics, ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Eurocentric DevelopmentalismƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ and the western hegemony (Part 11)

Now the hot spot of BankiƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s panel has been shifted from New York to Bauddhaloka Mawatha in Colombo. Although Banki hasnƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t given any statement yet, Colombian media guards of western neo-colonial interests have expressed their ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”graveƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ concerns over the situation. Some web sites even going further had criticized and branded the event as an act of terrorism. No wonder, because they always had confusion on terrorism. In another statement, an NGO spokesman, keeping the balance as much as possible had insinuated to postpone this probe until a better political environment is dawned, implying of a probe after a regime change, may be under the presidency of a treacherous leader of the nation. We all know who that can be.

According to the situation, what is evident due to the events at UN office in Colombo is that the protesters have put some of the neo-conservative interventionist strategies in litmus test. For ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”right to protestƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ being one of westƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s main instruments in their arsenal of NGO activities deployed in societies of ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”liberal democratic peoplesƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ or in their own words, ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”the societies of decent peopleƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ in third world, they cannot condemn these activities as undemocratic or illegal. Although few media personal supporting a western intervention in Sri Lanka have criticized the event, the UN itself and the western administrations know pretty well that they cannot brand this mass movement as illegal or terrorist act due to their dependency on the prevalence of same ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”rightsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ in the local polity for the advantage of their interventionist tools.

Some writers even questioned about the absence of a brutal use of force by police against the agitators in front of UN office. ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-How come, you are not beating them, it is very unfairƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ these writers questioned in different words. So they demand the brutality. The writers who are demanding accountability of a government of its legitimate actions against terrorism, contradicting their position of humanity demand a brutality against a peaceful demonstrations and hunger strikes of masses. They are damn critical of firm actions of a legitimate government against terrorism, and at the same time they are viciously critical of a government for not being brutal against unarmed agitators.

In this regard our position is different; brutality is not a tool that must be used to handle mass movements, whether it is for the regime or against it. Would they demand such violent force of police for any political demonstrations that goes against the regime? What ever these writers say about inaction of police, this inaction is exactly what west was demanding from dissident third world regimes not following their dictates, to ensure the safety of the opposition of those regimes. The idea is clear, usually demonstrations held only to oppose regimes but not to safeguard regimes. In the case of UN issue in Colombo, the west has being in crisis because they cannot demand a use of force here although they want to. But according to the standards set-forth by western countries, in order to become ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”a society of decent peoplesƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ the government can not use force. That is an international norm set-forth by western countries.

Although the protests and demonstrations organized by NGOs in our societies cannot consider as mass movements due to their artificial and mysterious origins–mainly driven by external payments, safeguarding the function of such activities in third world is an essential part of the western interventionist agenda. Depending heavily on the domestic laws safeguarding freedom of expression and right to protest for their action plans in neo-colonial agendas of the west, as a front running lackey of the west, Banki has been left under the spot light while having his mouth stuffed with ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”pittuƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ (kate pittu). Can Ban-Ki tell us what his position is about these mass movements, if he considers them as illegal or not? If these are illegal, what does he have to say about the hired artificial protests, parroting in parades and in circuses of NGOs in third world? Are they legitimate protests? On what morality these NGOs organizing their protests, parades and demonstrations on imported slogans and payments that have no relevance to the lives of the people of respective lands?

In addition, although they never observed the standards they preach us, west wants this ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”right to public protests and gatheringƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ to be preserved and safeguarded by respective governments, in order to avoid the branding of those countries as ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”outlaw statesƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ by the IC. Similar demands have been reiterated in the recently issued list of political conditions of EU for the granting of GSP rights for Sri Lanka.

Yes, right to protest is a fundamental human right. We agree about it, but how if the protest is not authentic and wholly paid by foreign elements to hijack the internal political space? How if these slogans are not spontaneous, natural demands of the peoples of the land, but mere events to support some other external agendas?? ItƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s a matter of morality and ethics of politics. People of Sri Lanka have moral right to protest this illegal action of the UNSG. With or without police intervention, no one can take away that right from people. After all, what is left for the people when the highest level institutions those which supposed to safeguard justice in the world are being corrupt?

How come these writers were silent when the natural human ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”rightsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ were violated and denied to the people of the island including the terror enclave in the north and the east of Sri Lanka for thirty years? Why these international bodies never had any concerns over that situation? Not only even they could not stop forcing children in those areas into the war machine of the LTTE, but also they lavishly funded them, provided covert and overt support to the terrorist outfit, given media coverage and moral support to these real culprits of violators of human rights. Now we are very much eager to see how IC wants our government to handle this affair of public protest against UNO, because general public of Sri Lanka believe that UN is an organization hijacked by global terrorists. And we even more ardent to see how our NGOs and so-called civil society going to react on this issue, because their reaction will set standards for the government to treat them in the same manner in future.

By appointing a panel without a mandate, UNSG has created an uneasy situation. He is the only one can resolve the issue as well. Due to existing corrupt international system, Sri Lanka as a nation has been left without having a trustworthy global authority to bring justice to their case. Now this situation has placed the UNO in the bench of the accused, because two third of the world population has disapproved this panel in their verdict. Whole world is waiting to know about the position of the UNSG Ban KI Moon?. After all, unlike usual paid protests of hired charlatans of NGOs that supply heavenly music for the UNSG and western media, the ongoing situation in Colombo is spontaneous reaction of the masses who have come forward to fast unto death. This is the weapon used by Mahatma Gandhi, this is the weapon approved by Rev. Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela, why all these critics have been aggravated even in the absence of UN comprehensive official statement about this?

Few days back we also noticed some of the political annalists in the electronic media trying to separate Rajapakses and national sovereignty from each other. Their intentions were clear; they desire to separate and isolate Rajapaksas from the nation. But at this point especially, what we can say is that they like it or not, to the scale the external and anti-national forces intensify their attack against Rajapaksas, the bondage of national sovereignty and Rajapakses symbolically getting intertwined strength to strength. It has become indivisible bondage at the moment, to sayƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚¦ this symbolic representation of Sri LankaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s national sovereignty by Rajapaksas at this historical moment, has made people to consider any defeat of Rajapakse as a defeat to Sri Lankan sovereignty. For that reason history demands the nation to protect Rajapaksas and Rajapakses to safeguard the nation.

IC knows that their interventionist agendas have been curtailed by Rajapaksas and Rajapaksa has become an obstacle to it. For that reason, for their point of view, Rajapaksa must go. For us, what we need is the exact opposite of it. On the other hand, as they have assessed, as far as Rajapaksas have become the spokesmen of national sovereignty, removal of Rajapaksas has become an unrealistic target. Therefore, they try to portray Rajapaksas as despotic bunch who is hiding behind national sovereignty in the face of mounting western pressure for a human rights probe. Good try. But bad target, because Sri Lanka is not Zimbabwe. Our literacy rate is above ninety percent and the global awareness is very high. Above all for Sri Lankans being inherently analytical, they can recognize these ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”fishyƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ smells in political statements however high their intellectual rhetoric may pretend to be.

In the outskirts of this situation, this historical movement has demanded from Rajapakses to keep masses on their side without leaving any space for those who seeking to force wedges to cause a crack within the camp for the benefit of the conspirators of the nation to take advantage. For that reason, the government has to resolve some of the burning issues of the masses including the unbearable cost of living before these anti-national elements taking advantage of them. However this task must be fulfilled at any cost.

Although they did not mention it in ICG report, we can read it between the lines to realize that, their only hope is to get rid of Rajapakses through a detour plan. Therefore our main objective must be the opposite of it. From the nationƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s point of view, it is the worst thing can happen at this moment.

However they try to paint some legitimacy for the panel, the whole world knows that the panel is illegal. They also know that this so-called panel is just the first step towards punishing Sri Lankan authority which defeated the western neo-colonial military tool in the region. The other truth is Banki is none but a neo-colonial agent; a man without a character, conscience or integrity; whose latest task has been performing the role of the chef to barbeque our hard earned ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”peace doveƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ according to the recipe of neo-colonialists in the west.

The architecture of the twenty-first century interventionist global politics of the west

AmericaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s leading late twentieth century philosopher John Rawls outlined his ideas of ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”moralityƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ acceptable for the international community as follows. He proposed a ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”Law of peoplesƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ that should be appropriate for ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”the society of the liberal democratic peoplesƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ and ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”the society of decent peoplesƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢. The characteristic of these societies as he argued is the admissibility to the international community into these societies. Outside the realm of these ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”well-ordered peoplesƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ are ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”Outlaw StatesƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ that refuse to comply with the Law of Peoples. The Law of Peoples on the other hand include the commitments to observe treaties and undertakings, to recognize that all are ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”equal and parties to the agreements that bind them,ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ to reject use of force ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”for reason other than self-defense,ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ and ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”to honor human rights,ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ and other principles that should be readily acceptedƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬‚though not by ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”outlaw statesƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ and their acolytes. (Chomsky, [John Rowel, The Law of Peoples, Harvard University Press, 1999])

(ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”MoralityƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ I honestly wonder how this word came into their vocabulary, since all their actions tantamount to the absence of it in their language. When western man talks about morality, it is not les arrogant joke than the fox telling the innocence of a rabbit; or a poetic verse of a hungry monkey about the beauty of a rose in its hands.)

The idea of ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”all states are equalƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ has been long been codified in international norms such as Geneva conventions and the principles of Nuremburg Tribunal that has been adopted by the international law Commission of the UNO in 1950. Under this law, German war time foreign minister was hung, considering that he was also responsible for his role in the preemptive attack on Norway. But, the point is, any system of law can become legitimate only if the system functions impartially and also if the controlling bodies of the said system are neutral to any given conflict situations. According to said standards, current international system of law fails and disqualifies to justify its credentials. The reason is clear. The parties involved in this system of law have been proved to be bias and prejudice due to their being stake holders of the problems in the global south in general and Sri Lankan terrorism issue in particular.

Apart from them not being impartial, the handlers of the international system of law have proved that they even have been part of the problem they meant to resolve. When the judge has gotten his hand in the very root of the problem, and if he desires to resolve the problem in a particular way serving his own interests in the region, then we call such a situation as ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-law has gone into the hands of dogsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚. That is exactly what has happened in international system of justice, law and order. If this is the order of the day, then one cannot expect a natural justice in this whole process. Under those conditions it has being proved that although international laws meant to create a just environment around the globe, due to the involvement of the historically well known notorious criminals in the legal system of the international law, their enforcing mechanisms of this legal system has become illegal and a full of scam.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

Now so many questions arise here under above conditions. As far as any law is concerned, it implies that there are related institutions pertaining to the function of such system of law. There need to be a body that bringing such laws (a legislature, in this case it is the UNO), a body to determine if there is any breach of such laws, (a judiciary, in this case it is the body UN suppose to appoint, like the currently controversial three member panel), a body to enforce law and order, and a mechanism to penalize the perpetrators. Through past experience, these bodies of law enforcement have been western dominated military forces whether they are coming with UN label or not, or whether their battle tanks are painted in white or green. Whatever the appearance it may be, still their shots will be called by the west and the out come of these humanitarian operations, like we saw in Kosovo, will bring results according to the political whims and fancies of the west. Or in other words, it also has been practiced as if anyone defying the rules of ruthless superpowers, like what has happened in Sri Lanka, the western leadership intends to shape the world according to their own forceful world view. That is a well known fact other than our NGOs.

Then the second body, UN sponsored ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”judiciaryƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ also cannot be impartial due to the fact that the authority appoints such panels of judges is not impartial. Then the third, the law enforcement and panelizing the perpetrators has become a history. So I do not think we need even to discuss about it.

Now all three branches pertaining to our case of Sri Lanka occupied by parties have prejudices in one form or the other. Firstly they were the creators of our national problem, maintainers of the problem, corrupt mediators of the problem, and were the ones who had their own interests in the very core of the problem and therefore, functioned under vested interests and obviously, were not impartial to the problem. Then what is the reason for us to agree with them to have them in the helm of this legal system? The only reason is fear factor, the fear of reprisals in many forms. Why we do not submit our disagreement about the whole system? Why we do not tell them that they have no moral right to judge our issues, not only just because it is our internal problem, but also we do not trust these institutions as impartial?

UNO is the body that supposed to be monitoring the whole world of any breaches of such international conventions. For that reason, this institution supposed to be impartial and neutral before the eyes of true international community. But UNO has proven, beyond any doubt that it has been hijacked by western powers. UN sees things selectively, and UN has proved that all states are not equal. Now at this point, can we expect justice from UN or seek impartial judgment for our issues from UN? If we know that UNO is not impartial anymore, what are the options we have?

Furthermore, according to Geneva Convention, the signatory states are obliged to enact any legislation necessary to provide effective panel sanctions for persons committing or ordering to commit such breaches of laws of the convention. This threat of obedience to the rule of law is serious indeed.. IsnƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t that what is going on in Sri Lanka?

If we summarize the Sri Lankan case, it is similar to that of a criminal making a case to give a legal cloak to a cold blooded murder he is mapping-out to victimize a weak. If the weak on the other hand left without having fair and proper authority to seek justice for his case, then we have to decide if we have any reason to boast about civilization, because we are indeed ruled by the law of the jungle. Furthermore, we are accustomed to talk about despotic regimes elsewhere without comprehending that the whole world is completely a despotic regime one way or the other.

Sri Lankan example is nicely fitting into the mold of John RowelƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s model of creating ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”material conditionƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ for western interventionist agenda in third world. This theory nicely describes the trap that had been laid-out by the west to entrap Sri Lanka for past three decades. We were asked to uphold the above said morality with the admissibility of the international community, which is Europe, while this said international community was sponsoring the self same terrorist outfit within their own territories in the west. This admissibility on the other hand had wide range of involvements in our society, including having its hand in war effort (by regulating and controlling it), in the peace process, economical, judiciary, law enforcement and development.

By direct or indirect means, they were handling all three branches of our democracy, namely the legislature, executive, and judicial, to make the state to be paralyzed and inactive to safeguard the sovereign rights of the nation, while intensifying the assault that had been prearranged by the same sources who supposed to be the guardians of these rules of war, peace and truce on the other hand. Although symbolically we had elections, our sovereignty had been misplaced to western foreign offices through above said hidden hands in all three branches of our system of government. Public opinion was constructed falsely by NGOs, non NGO opinions were either marginalized, discarded or branded as hard line or chauvinist through their diplomatic pronouncements, seminars, workshops, periodicals and a couple of columnists written in English language for city news papers. The mass movement was wholly hijacked by mushrooming NGOs taking over our political space, which were also a part of the lavish funding and the manipulation of the west. We, the masses were reduced to just spectators. They were the actors in this high-handed circus.

Now although everything is in hands of the west, still one vital aspect is missing to make a case against Sri Lanka. It is none other than the ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”legitimacyƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ for intervention. The on going drama is nothing but to create that condition. The only method of resistance left is ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”peopleƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s powerƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢.