ROGUE SHIP AND THE NOBEL PRIZE
The Navy should be congratulated for destroying the rogue ship that carried weapons for the LTTE. Destroying a rogue ship may not be a high achievement according to many people, but in the context of having minsters and others in the "government" and so called high officials in the ministry of defense who are "committed" to safeguard the "memorandum of understanding" of February last year, that has made the LTTE more equal than the GOSL, and that has recognised the terrorist outfit as equivalent to the armed forces, the initiative taken by the Navy has to be commended. If not for the armed forces doing what they could, in spite of the "government" and the ministry of defense, the Northern and the Eastern provinces would have been handed over to Prabhakaran by now.
The Navy, when it decided to destroy the rogue ship, would have thought not about the so called peace process or the "MOU", but of the country. The armed forces are maintained to defend the country and not the peace process. The "government" believes and the Norwegians emphasise that it is the "peace process" and the "MOU" that have to be defended and not the country. The ministry of defense is pre occupied with defending "the peace process" and the "MOU", so much so that they must be thinking that people in a country called Sri Lanka are interfering with the good work done by them. The ministers also seem to believe that it is the peace process that matters and that they are minsters in the "peace process space".
Dr. G. L. Peiris wants to know whether there are any alternatives to the peace process. He is convinced that the there is no alternative to a confederation, which is nothing but a stepping stone for a separate country. He appears to believe that though a confederation of Eelam and "Rest" (what would it be called?) is an alternative to a unitary Sri Lanka, there is no alternative to the "peace process". I thought that Dr. Peiris and the rest were ministers, cabinet, non cabinet,etc., of a Unitary Sri Lanka and that they have been elected to uphold the constitution, especially the sixth amendment to it. Instead, they are burning midnight oil, of course, imported from the middle eastern countries, at the expense of poor house maids whom neither the UNP (F) nor SLFP (PA) governments looked after in their country of birth, in trying to find ways and means of upholding the "peace process" at any cost. As far as the ministers are concerned it is not the country at any cost, but the "peace process" at any cost.
Dr. Peiris is not serious about alternatives to the "peace process". When he challenges (it is nothing but a challenge) the others to come out with alternatives to the "peace process", he wants others to propose alternative "solutions" to a problem. However, the problem as usual, has not been defined. Is it the problem of the "grievances" of the Tamils that Dr. Peiris intends to solve? Or is it the problem of the "aspirations" of the Tamil racists? Or the Tamil racist problem that is being sponsored by Norway and their masters USA and UK? Without knowing the problem no one would be able to offer any alternatives to Dr. Peiris. The alternatives would depend on the formulation of the problem but even if one were to offer a solution based on one's formulation of the problem, going by my experience, Dr. Peiris would come out with the stock answer that the alternative is not practical.
Dr. Peiris is not serious when he asks for alternatives, and all that we have to say is that the solution to the Tamil racist problem sponsored by the west, is to destroy the LTTE. Though Dr. Peiris would cry that it is not practical, it is well known that if we had governments that were taking decisions without bowing down to the foreign powers, the armed forces would have seen to it that by this time there would not have been a Prabhakaran. From Vadamarachchi to the special unit that operated from the Millennium City complex, the armed forces had opportunities of destroying the LTTE if not for the interfering of the politicians. It is sad that the efforts of the armed forces have been in vain and if they had a political leadership from the ministers and the others we would not have had any need for the USA backed Norwegians to operate in Sri Lanka to undermine the sovereignty of the country. The Norwegians who became independent from Sweden, only in the twentieth century, do not understand the significance of a history of more than twenty five centuries.
In any event, we have to question Dr. Peiris as to how practical his solution would be. Though I have said "his solution" Dr. Peiris has no original solution to the problem. He understands neither peace nor war and all that he could do is to implement what the westerners tell him. As such I do not think he knows where he is being directed or much about the solutions he is advocating. He has never been an original thinker and some of the problems he is supposed to have "solved" at the institutions where he has worked before he took up macro politics, are still there. He is undoubtedly very good at presenting others' ideas at examinations, seminars, conferences etc., but unfortunately these qualities are not necessarily the hallmark of a creative intellectual. The change from micro politics to macro politics has not changed him and he is not capable of identifying a problem, let alone solving it. How practical is having negotiations with the LTTE terrorists to solve the so-called problems of the Tamils. The terrorists represent only the hierarchy of the church, the NGO "intellectuals", and the westerners who have an axe to grind with the Sinhala Buddhists.They do not represent even the Tamils in Sri Lanka, in general.
The Japanese politicians, who are no better than most of the other Asian and African politicians, would do anything that their western masters would tell them, as long as they are safe in their seats of power. The peace bandwagon would move to Tokyo under the sponsorship of these politicians who have nothing to do with their culture. In this respect they could have learnt something from some of their scientists such as the founder of Japanese primatology (when I say Japanese primatology I do not mean western primatology in Japan) Kinji Imanishi who formulated an un-Darwinian theory of evolution based not on competition but on corporation. In this regard the reader is referred to the article "Without Walls" that appeared in the New Scientist on 15th December 2001.
The western powers are obviously not happy with the emerging understanding between the "Children of Fifty Six" in the SLFP and the JVP. A new alliance, that unites the SLFP, the JVP, the MEP and other such parties is being made. Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga, Messrs. Anura Bandaranaike, Mahinda Rajapakse, Wimal Weerawansa and Dinesh Gunawardane are children of fifty six in more than one way. The NGOs and the ex, neo and retired Marxists, who try to drive a wedge between Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse and the others, are bound to fail in their attempt. It is in this background that Vidar Helgesen the deputy foreign minister of Norway met the President Chandrika Kumaratunga. Earlier Helgesen had tried to meet the terrorist Prabhakaran whom they sponsor but the terrorist had canceled the meeting claiming that he had had to attend a central committee meeting of the LTTE! It is well known that the terrorist had not attended this particular central committee meeting, as there was no such meeting. Helgesen had wanted to discuss the issue of the rogue ship that was sunk by the Navy but Prabhakaran was not ready for such meetings. The sunken ship has created some problems for the Norwegians and Helgesen had wanted to discuss the matter with Prabhakaran as well as the President.
Eventually only the President was willing to talk to Helgesen. While Anton Balasingham was busy with opening banks and courts in what he calls the Thamil Eelam and telling the world in no uncertain terms that the LTTE take part in the so-called peace talks only to gain international recognition Helgesen had a meeting with the President not to discuss Balasingham's challenges but to bait Ms. Kumaratunga with a speech at the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony. In the meantime Balasingham had told his good friends in the BBC that they would not take part in future talks as a result of the sinking of the rogue ship. The Navy apparently has information to the effect that the LTTE would take revenge and attack the Navy ship "Sayura" that was involved in the incident.
The Norwegians may have decided not to award the Nobel Prize for Peace to Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga as had been anticipated earlier. Instead, now they want to "honour" the President with merely a speech at the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony. They must be thinking that the "third world" politicians could be bought with a mere speech. It is reported that the meeting of Helgesen with the President was not very calm as the latter had had some important questions to be asked from the former. In any event the President should not have met with a mere junior minister from a European or any other country, and should have requested proper protocol to be adhered to. How easy is for a Sri Lankan junior minister to meet a President or a Prime Minister of a European or North American country? If a Sri Lankan junior minister meets with such an "important" person we would be bombarded with the photographs that would be taken at the meeting for weeks with the help of the print and electronic media. I wonder whether the Norwegian press carried any photographs of Helgesen meeting President Kumaratunga. We should at least now, fifty five years after the so-called independence try to be independent. Though Helgesen may be knowledgable about the LTTE and Anton Balasingham who is most probably a personal friend of his, he is not an important enough member of the Norwegian government to meet with the President of Sri Lanka.
Unfortunately this asymmetric relationship is not confined to politics. It could be seen in the academia as well. How often the English language newspapers in Sri Lanka advertise speeches given by mediocre graduate students in the western countries working for their Ph. D.s and M. Phil.s. What is the publicity given to Sri Lankan graduate students working for their degrees in the western countries. The Sinhala language newspapers are blissfully unaware of the existence of these graduate creatures but they are burdened with some others who have read a few books published in English and think that they know the world as their backyard. However, they are unaware that even their backyard is described in terms of western concepts and theories and the westerners claim to know the backyard better than these Pundit creatures. These are only examples of political and cultural colonialism and we have a long way to go before we become independent.
I could only hope that the President would not agree to deliver this worthless speech at the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony and stay away from Nobel or any other Prizes awarded by the western powers. She could one day earn the Vihara Maha Devi Prize awarded by the people, may be posthumously, if she would respect the independence of the country and stand up to western colonialism and its agent Tamil racism. The Navy has shown the way and the armed forces are ready to defend the country and not the "peace process" if proper leadership is given.
Professor Nalin de Silva
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