Dr Kamal Wickremasinghe Courtesy: The Daily News

The British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, John Rankin, has issued another of his vice-regal sounding demands that national reconciliation be expedited, following another ‘tour’ of the North for meetings with local NGOs. He has also attempted to prey on desperate IDPs and women’s groups, feigning interest in knowing about their problems.

The gentleman does not seem to realise that in order for us to expedite reconciliation, the likes of him need to get off our back first! The problem Rankin seems to share with Michele Sisson, Shelley Whiting and other so-called ‘diplomats’ representing the neocon-controlled regimes of the West, is that they seem to arrogantly assume that they have some god-given right to run our domestic affairs in a manner that suits their global agenda.

They seem to totally disregard the government’s often declared position that we do manage things within the borders of Sri Lanka the way we see appropriate, and at our own pace – and keep on issuing dictates designed to facilitate the division of Sri Lanka and its peoples permanently to suit their neocon agenda. The people of Sri Lanka consider such dictates as episodes of badly delivered light entertainment.

The underlying theme of all British, US and Canadian demands for hurried ‘reconciliation’ is to push the government to adopt models of “reconciliation” designed by them to serve their objectives of dividing the nation to smaller groups.

Obviously, their preference is to limit the government the opportunity for a full consideration of all aspects of issues, and to force models that facilitate their control of our national affairs to suit their plans. The cynicism is unbelievable!

Rankin is too clever by half

Rankin’s particular demands during his time in Colombo have all been aimed at pushing the government of Sri Lanka to adopt his Trojan-horse prescriptions – like the total ‘demilitarisation’ of the North and to desist from instituting any measures aimed at curbing the re-emergence of the dreaded LTTE.

His objective, seem to be to influence government policy and programs in a manner that will enable the regeneration of the terrorist movement, in order to keep us occupied with a war for another thirty years or longer.

Rankin should not attempt to operate on the basis that perceptive Sri Lankans have forgotten the role the British played in creating and nourishing Tamil rebel groups in the North in the 1970s.

The prominent role Sri Lanka played in mobilising the Non-Aligned Movement in the early 1970s and our role at the UN in declaring the Indian Ocean as a Zone of Peace (by passing resolution 2832 of December 16, 1971) prompted the British to effectively undermine Sri Lanka at all costs.

Panicked by the possibility that the UN resolution 2832 would upset their disgraceful clandestine plans to set up an expansive military base – including the facilities to berth nuclear-powered ships – on the nearby Diago Garcia islands leased free to the US neocon ‘cousins’ inheriting the empire, Britain began to create some domestic issues for us to worry about.

They started by recruiting Anton Balasingham as a translator at the Colombo Embassy. Balasingham quickly became a not-too-subtly-named “Information Specialist” and a Youth Coordinator stationed in Jaffna, with the sole function of unearthing and passing on resources to emerging Tamil rebel groups. It was Anton Balasingham who chose Pirabakaran and his Tigers as the favoured group, based on cast and religious alliances between the two.

By the early 1980s, Balasingham who had performed his antinational tasks for the empire was rewarded with migration to the UK and a second marriage to the MI6 agent Adel Wilby. The role the two played in creating hell for the Tamils in the North and the East of Sri Lanka and Wilby’s role in recruiting and corrupting young girls for the terrorist outfit are well known.

British HC John Rankin

British gentlemen like Rankin who clearly consider themselves ‘whiter than the lily’ seem to consider it perfectly alright to be providing sanctuary to a war criminal like Adel Wilby! With such a disgraceful history of undermining Sri Lanka by the country he is representing, Rankin fools no one.

He tried to cloak his latest tour of the North as a venture aimed at promoting “inter-faith harmony and community relations”.

Having allegedly made the astonishingly belated “discovery” that Sri Lanka is home to communities representing all major faiths, Rankin declared that the people he spoke with made clear their concerns about “religious extremism”.

He followed up this sinister move to play up rumblings about religious disharmony with a self-serving platitude that the visit reinforced his view that Sri Lanka’s tradition of religious co-existence is particularly important as it can play a significant role in healing the wounds of the past.

One does not need to be a Fulbright scholar to work out Rankin’s intention to spread seeds of dissension among the Muslims – the newest neocon target group in Sri Lanka, contrary to their well-known antipathy towards Muslims globally.

Fully knowing the texture of current issues the government is trying to resolve fairly and equitably to the satisfaction of all affected community groups, Rankin next alludes to the issue of land as one “that came up frequently”, during his discussions. He assured that the UK will continue to support projects that will bring about changes in these areas, including reconciliation – it seems strange that the incivility involved in a foreigner seeking to get so deeply entangled in proposing solutions to intricate domestic issues has never crossed Rankin’s mind!

Painter the spy chips in too!

In his latest uninvited incursion in to deeply private and domestic affair of reconciliation, Rankin has been assisted by a sidekick named Daniel Painter, purported to be the head of the “political team” at the British High Commission in Colombo. Alas, the name alone is a dead give-away!

Agent Painter has forcefully barged in to Sri Lanka’s domestic affairs by announcing that “The United Kingdom” will continue to “encourage” the Sri Lankan government to respect human rights, promote meaningful reconciliation and agree a political settlement with the Tamil and other opposition parties. He has painted a picture of “dented optimism” following the victory by the opposition Tamil National Alliance at the elections in the North, apparently raising his hopes and expectations!

In an apparent bid to soften the blow, he has asserted that the UK’s primary objective in Sri Lanka is to support the development of a stable and prosperous country, not simply because the Sri Lankan people deserve it, but also because it is UK’s national interest to do so. Sri Lankans know better than to pay heed!

Painter’s remarks have emanated following another trip to the North to visit “UK funded” projects across the North in Mullaitivu, Kilinochchi, Vavuniya, Mannar and Puttalam – There is strange logic involved in the US and UK financing numerous projects, allegedly aimed at helping Sri Lanka manage post-conflict challenges and foster reconciliation, exclusively in the North. They obviously do not believe that the poor in other regions of the country are relevant in any way for reconciliation purposes!

Painter promised to “continue to encourage the government” to respect human rights, promote meaningful reconciliation and agree to a political settlement with the Tamil and other opposition parties.

Rankin should familiarise himself with history

Before ascending to the pulpit to preach to Sri Lanka on reconciliation, Rankin should urgently make some effort to review his own nation’s record on reconciliation with countries of South Asia the British colonial power ransacked and robbed for nearly two centuries – not to mention the rest of the world.

Such navel-gazing is likely to help him realise that five years is hardly a ‘long time’ to put in place structures and processes designed to eliminate the recurrence of the type of terrorist outburst the country is admirably recovering from.

We can’t recall the “British” colonialist cabal ever attempting to reconcile with us for the untold atrocities of the last 200 years on our soil, shamefully crowned by events like the massacres of patriots during the 1818 and 1848 rebellions against the colonial blood sucking of our nation.

As an example, the 1818 Uva-Wellassa uprising also known as the Great Rebellion resulted in multiple atrocities against Sri Lankans by British imperialists. The entire male population above the age of 18 years in the Uva region were killed in revenge for resistance against British imperialist occupation under “Governor” Robert Brownrigg; They robbed the property of the people including the salt in their possession, killed all livestock, and razed villages. The irrigation systems of Uva and Wellassa, the rice-bowl of Sri Lanka at the time were systematically destroyed.

A disgraceful Gazette Notification issued by the murderous Robert Brownrigg, condemning all who participated in the uprising as “traitors”, and confiscating their properties, was revoked in 2011, on the instruction of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, recognising the condemned as National Heroes.

A demand first made in 1846 for a British Crown apology for the British colonial pillage, plunder and wanton murder of countless Sri Lankans have so far gone unanswered.

John Rankin needs to know that developing country administrations these days are aware of the “methods of Neo-colonialism based upon the principle of breaking up former colonial territories into a number of small non-viable States which are incapable of independent development and must rely upon the former imperial power for defence and even internal security” as prophesised by Kwame Nkrumah in Neo-Colonialism, The Last Stage of Imperialism, in 1965. Rankin also needs to urgently learn about the disgraceful British colonial history in Sri Lanka which he seems to be hell-bent in reinstituting.

Hopefully the realisation that he is representing a shameful British criminal history in Sri Lanka will help him stop shooting off his mouth – a pastime he seems to be enjoying a great deal.