A galore of conspiracies Tuesday, 27 August 2013 10:29 E-mail | Print | PDF The Commonwealth that is made up of countries that were colonies of the British Empire consists of 54 countries including Sri Lanka. The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) will be held this time in Sri Lanka in November. President Mahinda Rajapaksa is to receive the leadership of the Commonwealth for two years once the CHOGM is held here. The summit will be a success and a grand occasion only if all relevant state leaders participate in it. State leaders spend busy lives. There is no bond or loyalty among them other than the slavery of being subjugated by a single master. As such, they would miss participation in CHOGM. The leader of the country where the summit is held would have a prestige that he could show the regressive sections of the people in his country. However, the country would not gain anything from the head of the country being elected the Chair-in-Office of the Commonwealth. This post would not reduce the per capita debt of a Sri Lankan which stands at Rs.300,000 per person, get crude oil at a cheaper rate, stabilize the rupee or increase the export income. However, Foreign Minister G.L. Peiris met Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the 19th and invited him to participate in the CHOGM. Someone would think that Minister G.L. Peiris would go round the world and invite heads of other 52 countries as well. It wouldn’t be so. For, state leaders would not take decisions on solicitations of a foreign minister. Not that G.L. Peiris was unaware of it. A person who had decided not to attend would never do so however much he or she is solicited. However, the Foreign Minister went to India and made a special invitation to Manmohan Singh. The media didn’t report that Sri Lanka informed India through the Foreign Minister that the Indian Prime Minister should participate in the CHOGM as the government was prepared to dance to the Indian tune. Instead what was reported was that ‘Sri Lanka was in compliance with its obligations in terms of the Indo-Lanka Accord which includes specific provisions on linguistic and cultural aspect’ and the Minister ‘referred to the Tamil language being given its due place. The media also reported that G.L. Peiris had told Indian Premier that the government was taking measures to take forward the 13th amendment and the affairs of the Parliamentary Select Committee. There is nothing new in these statements. For, such promises have been made by the government as well as the President on several occasions. The promise that northern provincial council elections would be held in September was made by President Mahinda Rajapaksa first to India. As the dates for the election got nearer several parties of the UPFA government raised a huge hue and cry that powers for provincial councils should be reduced and the 13th amendment should be amended. Several parties of the same government held media conferences against the clipping of powers of provincial councils. This exposed government’s chaotic situation. Rajapaksa stalwarts too came out with speeches of amendments to provincial council structure merely to adorn patriotic masks. However, the government became aware that their trumps had been neutralized only when media reported that Basil Rajapaksa who went to India to get India’s support got a sharp reprimand. With this all dialogues on slashing provincial council powers died down. May be they are put off until the conclusion of the summit. Government’s lap dogs that made arrogant speeches stating they would leave the government if the elections are held with police and land powers of provincial councils intact, withdrew hiding their tails between their buttocks. They made whining sounds murmuring they would be satisfied with President’s ‘truthfulness’. The masses in the North who wished for a new life after the end of the war have been thrown by the government from the pan to the hearth. People’s issues of houses, lands, education, health and economy have not been solved. The displaced have been given 12 roofing sheets and Rs.25,000 and have been forced to become ‘official residents’. A semi-military administration has frozen the right of these masses for a culturally, socially and politically independent life. This is why members of the security intelligence services question JVP candidates why they are contesting the provincial council election. Despite calling for elections for the Northern PC on an agreement with India, the government is not unaware that it is difficult to win the North. The government knows what it did in the North was suppression but did not do anything to win the masses. As such, all candidates who are not from the ruling party are threatened and assaulted. This gives a message to the international community that the government cannot give democracy to the North. The government, thinking that the masses in the South had no idea about the military administration in the North, made available a live experience by shooting, beating with poles the peaceful agitation carried out by people of Rathupaswala asking for clean drinking water and killing three youths. The ‘humanitarian operation’ carried out on behalf of the right of the affluent to joyride on the roads would have taught masses several lessons. Now, the government is holding an investigation regarding the incident. Perpetrators have been made judges! The investigation is by the Army regarding the Army. The people and the journalists who were beaten could go to Army camps (If they like to risk their lives) and give evidence against the Army. The Human Rights Commission too is marking time until a decision is given by President’s committee. This is not the first time a commission has been appointed when a person is killed in an agitation. When monies of IPF were to be plundered Roshen Chanaka who agitated against it was shot dead at Katunayake. Antony Fernando had to lay down his life for the ‘sin’ of asking for a fuel subsidy. The Army exercise at Rathupaswala was more brutal. The reports that US Embassy was concerned regarding the attack on a Catholic Church during the Rathupaswala incident were published not without a cause. It reveals that the international community is taking note of our mishits. It is in such an atmosphere that the United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Navaneedan Pillai is visiting Sri Lanka. On the one hand it is a mockery of history. The lap dogs that threatened they would carry out death fasts if Pillai and company came to Sri Lanka are not to be seen now. She comes to scrutinize government’s human rights record. At the human rights sessions held in Geneva it had been decided to examine government’s human rights record. However, the government pretends that it doesn’t care. We have a doubt whether the government is happy inviting more and more investigations and to get more resolutions passed against the government. The government, in its election stages, moans that there are conspiracies being hatched against it. However, it is the government that is with conspiracies by giving more opportunities for imperialism and the ‘conspirators’ the government complains about to interfere in the affairs of the country. It is the Rajapaksa government that has paved the way for Pillais to pulverize the country.
Posted on: Fri, 30 Aug 2013 05:29:01 +0000
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