{"id":90418,"date":"2019-06-16T14:05:30","date_gmt":"2019-06-16T21:05:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=90418"},"modified":"2019-06-16T14:06:11","modified_gmt":"2019-06-16T21:06:11","slug":"eu-statement-some-queries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/06\/16\/eu-statement-some-queries\/","title":{"rendered":"EU statement: Some queries"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editorial – Courtesy The Island<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Time was when the European Union (EU) was known for treading cautiously with measured steps anent sensitive issues. Its responses used to be balanced and buttressed with solid facts and figures. But the EU seems to have departed from tradition if the recent statement issued by the EU mission in Colombo on the Sri Lankan media, among other things, is any indication.
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The EU has accused the local media of repeatedly publishing \u2018prejudiced and unsubstantiated allegations\u2019. Here is the relevant excerpt: “We are deeply concerned by political and religious pressure being directed at Sri Lanka’s Muslim community which is undermining peace and reconciliation in the country. Prejudiced and unsubstantiated allegations repeatedly published by media serve only to fuel intolerance.” (Emphasis added.)
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The EU mission is being hauled over the coals, in some quarters, for its swipe at the Sri Lankan media. But we believe its right to express its opinion should be defended. The media is not infallible the world over. The ongoing controversy over a newspaper cartoon, in the US, is a case in point. A New York Times cartoon depicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a guide dog leading US President Donald Trump has come to be considered anti-Semitic and evocative of Nazi propaganda. Heavy flak it drew has caused NYT to stop publishing political cartoons in its international edition as well. (The reference to Nazi propaganda reminds us of the World War II era, when many Swedish media outfits capitulated to Hitler.)
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There are various allegations against the Sri Lankan media. But an organisation like the EU, which pontificates on international best practices, should be specific when it levels allegations instead of tarring all the Sri Lankan media with the same brush. It stands accused of having sought to give a turbo boost to the government\u2019s alleged plans to muzzle the media through the new anti-terror laws which Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is all out to bring in, on the pretext of helping tackle terrorism more effectively. Whether the EU is guilty as charged, one may not know, but the government will definitely use its statement against the media. The proposed anti-terror laws have perturbed even some allies of the government such as the JVP, which has said the Counter Terrorism Bill is far worse than a time bomb. The EU is among those pressuring Sri Lanka to scrap the existing Prevention of Terrorism Act and adopt new anti-terror laws, and, therefore, it is thought to be promoting the government\u2019s Counter Terrorism Bill.
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The European human rights gods, as it were, have feet of clay. The issuance of the aforesaid EU statement almost coincided with a massive protest in Switzerland, where tens of thousands of women took to the streets against persistent inequalities affecting them. Equality has been enshrined in the Swiss Constitution, but women continue to be discriminated against. The protesters demanded equal pay. A similar situation is said to prevail in some other western countries as well.
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It is puzzling why the EU delegation, at its meetings with government leaders, did not take up the issue of the deplorable polls postponements, which are antithetical to good governance and pose a grave danger to democracy. There have been no elections to eight Provincial Councils which stand dissolved. They are without elected representatives, as a result, and have been placed under Governors in contravention of the UNHRC Resolution (No: 30\/1 of 01 October 2015), which \u2018encourages the Government to ensure that all Provincial Councils are able to operate effectively, in accordance with the thirteenth amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka\u2019. So much for the EU\u2019s concern for democracy, people\u2019s franchise and devolution!
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Meanwhile, we find a section of the EU statement confusing. In the italicised sentence in the above-mentioned excerpt, the subordinate clause introduced by a relative pronoun\u2014\u2018which is undermining peace and reconciliation in the country\u2019\u2014is seen to describe the antecedent, \u2018Muslim community\u2019. A grammarian may accuse the EU of having levelled a very serious allegation against the \u2018Muslim community\u2019! Is it a Freudian slip on the part of the EU, some of whose members are prejudiced against Muslims?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editorial – Courtesy The Island Time was when the European Union (EU) was known for treading cautiously with measured steps anent sensitive issues. Its responses used to be balanced and buttressed with solid facts and figures. But the EU seems to have departed from tradition if the recent statement issued by the EU mission in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90418\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}