Getting India 'right'

Now that the CHOGM circus is done, along with frills, clowns and performing monkeys, we can return to the man and country that had teased and taunted but in the end was hardly missed. That’s Manmohan Singh and India.

India cannot wish away Sri Lanka and neither can Sri Lanka wish away India. That’s geography. That’s political reality.  India snubbed Sri Lanka when Manmohan Singh chose to privilege domestic electoral compulsions.  CHOGM came and went, but the significance of snub remains. 

Perhaps it is an indication that Delhi is in damage-control mode that we now here ‘tut-tut’ noises emanating from India about David Cameron’s CHOGM antics, but then again as the proverb goes no cat that defecates on rock can do cover-up with sand, however hard the scratching is. 

India’s last-minute support for Sri Lanka’s military putsch on the LTTE was understandably covert, but that change of heart was less about love for Sri Lanka’s political stability or territorial integrity as it was about necessity to put to rest a Delhi-spawned monster that had got out of control.  No illusions there. 

Now there were those who didn’t want Sri Lanka to be awarded CHOGM 2013.  Once awarded, they agitated for venue change.  When that didn’t happen, they lobbied for boycotts.  When Manmohan decided at the last minute to send someone else in his place, they cheered. They were thrilled when Harper said ‘no can do’.  They were upset when Cameron said ‘I will go’.  They were consoled when he said ‘I will talk tough’.  They were happy when he fielded friendly questions and fired shots at Sri Lanka from a veritable no-fire zone.  They cling to Cameron’s ultimatums and do not question his moral right to talk about human rights, freedom of expression and such given his own and his country’s horrendous track records on these matters.

Most of the above was predictable.  Sri Lanka would do well to take stock of Delhi’s snub and use it to good effect.

It is no secret that India has never been Sri Lanka’s friend and certainly was not a friend-in-need.  India need not be either, for in international relations only ‘interests’ matter, ‘love’ being a mere rhetorical tool, a sweetener to help a bitter thing go down.  The political significance of the snub means, however, that India has conceded the diplomatic right to sweet-talk Sri Lanka. From now on, India has to engage in the raw; no more beating around the bush, no more love talk, no more big-brother.  From now on, if at all, it has to be big-thug-talk.  And that may very well be the biggest (unintended) gift that India has offered Sri Lanka in well over three decades.

From now on India cannot pretend that it is trying to help Sri Lanka.  Sri Lanka can now move on or more correctly move away from aberrations celebrated or suffered in silence in the name of ‘friendly bilateral relations’ such as the 13^th Amendment.  If Delhi objects, it will have to say, ‘we object because we want you to inhabit our version of your reality.’  And Sri Lanka can say ‘Really?’ 

Sri Lanka has multiple tasks to handle.  First there is a post-conflict reconciliation process where the Government is supposed to clap with one hand.  Then there’s the matter of fending off pressure from the biggest perpetrators of crimes against humanity.  Sri Lanka has to find ways of opening the eyes of those who pretend to be asleep or who, if one is generous, just cannot understand that terrorism can be eliminated without resorting to the methods of dealing with enemies that these criminals have used for so long that they know no other way. 

Things have to begin at home of course and there’s a lot to be done, even though  a lot has already been done.  The ‘beyond home’ part of it begins with India. 

The island of Sri Lanka will not unmoor itself somehow and float away towards, let’s say, Australia.  Sri Lanka will have to live with a bad-tempered bully as neighbor.  This does not mean that Sri Lanka has to capitulate to Indian hegemony in its affairs.  The world and its processes are not reducible to the prerogatives of simple geographical proximities.  They are more complex.  In navigating the options afforded by these complexities one thing is of paramount import: accurate reading of factors.  Right now there’s an easy ‘truth’ that must be accepted and factored into all calculations when it comes to policy formulation: India is not friend. 

msenevira@gmail.com

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The free-n-frank that Cameron did not tell the press

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom David Cameron was more of a presence on the sidelines of the recently concluded Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) held in Colombo. Indeed he tried to upstage the main event with his visit to Jaffna, on-field spin-on-spin with former Test Cricketer Muttiah Muralidharan and a cleverly stage-managed ‘meet the press’ event following discussions with President Mahinda Rajapaksa.  Much of this was of course anticipated after Cameron pledged ‘tough talk’ with President Rajapaksa weeks before he actually arrived in Colombo. 

Cameron certainly talked tough.  He thereafter detailed the tough-talk in his ‘From the Comfort Zone’ engagement with the media where he only fielded questions from his hand-picked entourage of journalists, leading to many complaints of unfair treatment from the Sri Lankan press.  He said that there was a ‘free and frank exchange of views’.  Unfortunately Cameron only told his part of the exchange, carefully leaving out the ‘free and frank’ that came from the other side. 

In the interest of offering ‘whole picture’ to a world where media outfits such as the BBC and Channel 4 are signature by slant and selectivity, we detail with relevant comment the free-n-frank that Cameron was silent on.

Cameron had to talk about human rights, accountability and closure.  He had to concede and applaud the post-conflict reconstruction and development efforts of the Government. He had to say that the LTTE was a despicable terrorist outfit and express satisfaction that it was no more. He did this.  He framed it well, conceding all that but insisting that the excellent opportunity can only be exploited to the full if there is reconciliation, which of course, according to him, has to be preceded by ‘independent investigation’ into alleged atrocities so that ‘justice is done’. 

Nothing was said about reconciliation being a two-way matter, that the representatives of the Tamil community has to come clean about their complicity in the crimes of the LTTE (proven, not ‘alleged’) and that glorifying the terrorist organization does nothing to dispel suspicions about their (rarely) stated ‘need to reconcile’. 

He had to talk about demilitarization. He trotted out some numbers and earned a rebuke for sloth from Secretary Ministry of Defence and Urban Development Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, who corrected misconceptions about military presence and the process of demilitarization.  

Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner in the United Kingdon Dr Chris Nonis, according to sources, however, put things in context, reminding Cameron that his country had invaded (illegally, according Cameron’s deputy, Nick Clegg) Iraq 10 years before and that the Chilcot Report is still to see the light of day, whereas the LLRC Report was published a couple of years after the LTTE was militarily defeated and is being implemented. 

The Prime Minister did not refer to Field Marshall Charles Guthrie’s damning revelations about that invasion.  Guthrie, the professional head of the British Army between 1994 and 1997 and Chief of Defence Staff from 1997 to 2001 admits that Saddam Hussein did not possess weapons of mass destruction and that Tony Blair was selective about intelligence reports, preferring those that told him what he already believed.  Or pretended to believe, we might add. 

Cameron said, ‘it will be out in six months’.  Six months?  What is he going to do in those six months?  Is he going to ‘delete and dilute’?  Is he under pressure from Washington to clear Dubya Bush?  In the end we have Cameron sitting on a report of a war launched more than a decade ago and requesting six month’s grace, even as he insists that Sri Lanka implements recommendations of an unedited report compiled just a couple of years after terrorism was defeated.  Those recommendations are being implemented; Cameron knows and demands that Sri Lanka stick to his, Cameron’s time-table.  The arrogance could be excused if not for the hypocrisy!  

It was also pointed out to Cameron that the Sunday Times of London had reported a few weeks before that the Police Service of Northern Ireland was to launch an investigation into ‘Bloody Sunday’, aka ‘Bogside Massacre’, where 26 unarmed civil rights protesters and bystanders were short by British soldiers.  This is not an allegation based on flimsy evidence compromised by clever editing (and editing out) and unreliability of sources but fact.  The massacre took place in January 1972.  But Britain, which has twiddled investigative thumbs and felt no moral compulsion to obtain justice and deliver closure to loved ones of victims and the community they belonged to in the interest of reconciliation, thinks fit to read riot act to and set deadline for Sri Lanka! 

That’s patronizing. That’s the height of arrogance.  But Cameron, to his credit, was good on his feet.  ‘We don’t want you to make our mistakes!’ he had responded.   Then again we are talking of four years to Britain’s forty, fact versus fiddling, no-contest versus obfuscation.  If 40,000 civilians had been killed, the US/UK cameras hovering in the skies would have captured the whole scene. Those who demand justice for the 40,000 could give the names of those they grieve over.  The truth is that Cameron cannot lecture but could listen to lecture.  Looks like that was what happened, although he didn’t talk about the listening part when he met the full-toss tossing journalists after the free-n’-frank session with President Rajapaksa.

And yes, this champion of rights and freedoms had to offer his two-cents on the media.  Now there’s been a lot of media-talk before, during and after CHOGM.  There’s been Channel 4’s Jonathan Miller doing a Cameron-like ‘talk-down’ to Sri Lankan journalists.  Channel 4’s media ethics was also evidenced in that much-quoted outfit whittling down a 45 minute interview with Muttiah Muralidharn to a 3 minute clip, clearly another of their ‘de-contexting’ maneuver s.  And then of course   Cameron’s own ‘my script, my journalists’ behavior. 

He was asked, ‘Prime Minister, look at the outcome of the Leveson Inquiry’.  That, folks, is the judicial public inquiry into the culture, practices and ethics of the British press following the News International phone-hacking scandal.  It was not only about phone-tapping and deleting text messages.  It led to inquiries about the government, the police and press; the nexus, that is.  

Cameron might have been made to squirm had he been queried about his role in bringing in new regulations to curtail press freedom.  Perhaps this is why, he interjected the face-saving ‘I will deal with your mischievous High Commissioner in London’, raising a laugh. 

Through it all, William Hague remained quiet.  He did pass a note to his Prime Minister.  Did he advise, ‘let’s cut this now’?

So, ladies and gentlemen, let’s get this straight.  David Cameron is not a bad guy. He has electoral pressures to deal with.  He has to bat for his funders.  He had a script to read.  In order to read that script to the media and the world, he had to first read it out to President Rajapaksa.  He did that.  He could now go back to London and say ‘I read the script’. 

It works for him, no doubt.  He could spare the lectures, though.  

msenevira@gmail.com

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David Cameron’s reverie during the long flight back home

[IN A PARALLEL UNIVERSE CALLED ‘HUMILITY’]

I came, no one can say I did not. I saw.  I mean, I saw some stuff, didn’t see a lot of stuff and pretended not to see some of what I did see.  I pretended to be conqueror.  I can’t say I talked tough or talked down, honestly, because I was at the receiving end of a lot of ‘tough’ and was left looking up a lot of times. 

I spoke about media freedom but didn’t talk about the Leveson Inquiry which all of Britain knows is a judicial public probe into the culture, practices and ethics of our press following the News International phone-hacking scandal.  When I tough-talked with my friend Mahinda, that tough-talk was tossed at me.  I had to opt for thumb-twiddling. 

I spoke about human rights and I was asked about the Chilcot Report and about Bloody Sunday, the former about an illegal invasion 10 years ago and the latter about crimes against humanity perpetrated 40 years ago. The Chicot Report, if you really want to know, is being edited to clear our friends (should I say ‘our masters’?) across the Atlantic of any guilt.  I got a lesson in arithmetic, since the LLRC Report came out just a couple of years after May 2009.  The LLRC Report was not ‘edited’.  So when I gave a March 2014 deadline and had to say ‘please give me six months to get the sanitized version of the Chilcot Repoirt out, I was made to look like a first grader who was finding it tough to add one to one and get ‘two’.   More thumb-twiddling. 

There was other stuff that I had to listen to. It was altogether uncomfortable and disconcerting. But then again, I had a script in hand and I played my part. I had to say certain things to Mahinda so that I could come out and tell my journo-buddies (who alone were allowed to shoot questions at me, ‘freebies’ or ‘full-tosses’ I think they are called) ‘I said this and that’ in my ‘free-and-frank’ monologue.  No one asked what was said to me, because I didn’t allow intelligent journalists who subscribed to media ethics to query me.  

The flight home is long.  I have time to think.  I know for a fact that we allow, in the name of ‘freedom of expression’, LTTE operatives to demonstrate in London.  We did that even when Prabhakaran was alive.  Then, as now, the Tiger flag is waved.  We would never allow an Al Qaeda flag to flutter anywhere in our fair land, folks.  No Al Qaeda slogans either.

And then there’s this other funny thing.  It’s also about numbers, but those numbers were not shot at me when I met Mahinda.  My government never listens to unions or union members who are more numerous than all the brown folk who take to the streets in London.  

I also thought how important the Commonwealth is to us.  As a client state of the USA we have nothing to brag about except past glory.  We need the monarchy because that’s the only thing that gives us ‘leadership’ in the CHOGM.  Truth be told, if we became a republic, India might take over the Commonwealth.  That’s what happened to the ICC.  

I closed my eyes and the words of a Yaka floated into my dreams.  Loud and clear.  Ox-bridge accent and all to make sure I got the lines right.  Here’s what I heard:

“They have always used the early technique of 'transference'...
they hit us on the head to get rid of their headaches...
it clears the synapses apparently...
the angst about debt...”

It will be nice to get back to London. 

msenevira@gmail.com

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CHOGM and post-CHOGM

Once the final CHOGM document is released we will be in post-CHOGM Sri Lanka.  The Commonwealth hasn’t changed much since it was formed and given realities it is unlikely that the Colombo Summit would see change in color, tone or substance.  That’s no fault of the host or the participants; it is, as a wit put it, akin to an Alumni Association meeting up several decades after the particular school ceased to exist.  It has been, is and will likely be a platform for moral posturing and affirmation of principles and values that few if any abide by, least of all those who swear by them. 

This CHOGM has been about off-summit antics as much as the summit itself.  Channel 4 clearly found the proceedings too boring to cover.  The Bodu Bala Sena had to get into the action too.  The NGO circus, as expected, came to town.  The UNP was reduced to a rent-a-premises outfit, a come-down that puts it on par with the Communist Party.  Good entertainment all around. 

British Prime Minister David Cameron was making a pitch for expatriate Sri Lankan Tamil votes.  He issued a warning about calling for an ‘international investigation’ into allegations regurgitated by people who really don’t care about reliability of source or the principles of proportion. He did not let anyone utter a word about the Chilcott Report.  Instead he played the old colonial tune called ‘Divide and Rule’ to which, sadly, judge-turned-politico Wigneswaran was only too happy to dance. 

Not wanting to be quite the fish out of water at his media conference, the man watered his surroundings with friendly foreign media. He fielded scripted questions and shied away from the local media.  That choreographed exercise made his somber pronouncements about freedom and democracy sound rather incongruous.  He looked quite a hero on turf deliberately made soft for his tender feet giving the impression that had he ventured from comfort zone he would have ended with bloodied nose.  

His Canadian counterpart, Stephen Harper, had already done what he could in this regard.  He sent a minion to get a photograph that could be used as proof of support for that vociferous vote bank whose key movers and shakers have given an extra oomph to criminality in that country. 

Then there has been the foreign media.    Selective, prejudicial and kept.  Wait, quite happy to utter falsehood, we could add.  Australia’s ABC reported that the Indian Prime Minister was not attending because of human rights violations in Sri Lanka.  Neither Singh nor any of his emissaries has stated anything of the kind.  BBC and other Cameron-friendly media stations carefully edited out anything and everything that might embarrass those who are virulently anti-Sri Lanka. 

The Youth and People’s forums deliberated, debated and finalized position-documents on their relevant subjects.  In a context where the main forum yields little, the only positive remains the energy and enthusiasm shown, not that which was expended.  The Business Forum was different.  Well-attended, this forum of pragmatic people focused on costs and benefits, might prove to yield something tangible and substantial, unlike the main event and the other two side shows. 

By and large, the circus stole the thunder from the event it was supposed to frill.  Colombo got more than a facelift.  That’s something to cheer.  The question that will continue to be asked is ‘was it all worth it?’  Well, there’s one positive that will stay: if there’s a will, things can be done and done fast too. 

Today we are in post-CHOGM land.  The allegations that were voiced pre-CHOGM and tossed around during CHOGM will be heard again and again.  Counter-allegations will not be picked by the anti-Sri Lanka media circus.  Nothing will satisfy the likes of Cameron and anyway there’s nothing in Sri Lanka’s Constitution about having to adjust policy, law and ways of being to suit the whims and fancies of a colonial has-been.

The only thing they’ve achieved by their antics is to strengthen the hand of the government, not because the government is made of saints, but the devilry of Cameron’s ilk makes the government look good in comparison.  Cameron and others must understand that when they attack the government, the people will not forget that it is the entire country that is threatened.  That plays into the hands of the regime.  It doesn’t make it any easier for those who want to expand the territories of democracy (and we are not talking here about the pet poodles of the West in the NGO sector).  Cameron would not care less of course. 

Post-CHOGM, we live in the same Sri Lanka, pretty much.  With much less clamor and squalor.  Let us to our familiar pace and ways return.  We could do worse.

msenevira@gmail.com

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