Dr D. Chandraratna Perth

Though the topic under discussion in this essay, the Canadian terror episode, from the Sri Lankan perspective can be tackled in a hell cattish brew of fury and vengefulness, to do so will be to diminish oneself and the country. Sad indeed is the Ottawa murder of an innocent young man who was only doing the duty to his nation as recompense for the sacrifice his forebears endured in the name of freedom. But in spite of the fact that the Canadian Government as well as the Embassy in Colombo humiliated Sri Lanka at every point, we as decent civilized people shall not succumb to the rage and bitterness that we feel inside of us. How can we forget the drama played by the Canadian delegation to Chogum?  The Canadian Indian member of Parliament who behaved in the most despicable manner, humiliating the innocent dead in our country should apologize, at least now, for his cowardly and undignified behaviour. It was an unwarranted gesture, which brought shame to the Canadian Parliament, quite the opposite of the Prime Ministers stoical reference to Canadian values

Inside the saviour faire of diplomacy was an armoury of poison darts intended to take Sri Lanka to the UN and also to incite the Tamils to protest in front of the visiting delegates. It was a dish of icy cold revenge aided by the other ‘Sri Lankan loving’ Prime Minister from UK. The methods were astonishingly indiscreet and were meant to do the country irreparable damage before the world community.  Sri Lankans, the patriotic ones, will have zero sympathy to the politicians of Mr harper’s ilk, who nearly would have borne the brunt of an attack, if not for the timely intervention by a former Mountie.  The President of Sri Lanka did the right thing to commiserate with the people of Canada. While the Canadian Prime Minister like David Cameron would like Sri Lanka to be an obedient client state of the Commonwealth, which it will never be. We shall assert our sovereignty anywhere, anytime against anybody until we are subjugated by force.

Mr Harper and his colleagues need to understand that there are no good and bad terrorists. Any terror group is calibrated to destroy the democratic societies that allow them to coexist among decent people. Murdering innocent civilians will never justify the goal however important it may be to them. It is also well to remember that to any group prone to violence will be hard to teach an alternative to violence. It is ludicrous some may say, to get a violent terrorist to be taught the sanctity of human life, Canada has never ever denounced, or publically castigated the spate of violence perpetrated by the brutal terrorists in Sri Lanka. It never accepted that it was Canadian money for the most part that was used to brutalize hundreds and thousands of people in Sri Lanka. While it still harbours the LTTE rump that is conniving to destabilize Sri Lanka and even plan the next stage of the separatist war Stephen Harper’s words against terrorism wrings hollow. The West must come clean on terrorism. Wherever it happens it must be condemned because we cannot ignore when democratic societies, whether we like them or not, are savaged by the zealots of terror.

Canadians must realise that by nurturing terror in other lands they can never feel safe at home for what goes around will come around. There is bound to be other incidents in the future and that is certain as night follows day. The gate has now been flung open and it will not be shut for a long time to come. This attempt on the Canadian Parliament is symbolic of the events, which are to unfold in the future. Mr Harper should revisit his stance towards Sri Lanka even at this late stage.

Dr D. Chandraratna

Perth