WESTBORG COMES AGAIN
Westborg is coming to Sri Lanka as the special envoy of Norway in respect of the so called peace process. The man who, as the head of Red Barna, was behind the settling of estate workers in and around Vavuniya, and who as head of the Norwegian embassy in Sri Lanka was responsible for the so called memorandum of understanding which was in effect a capitulation treaty signed by the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka and the mass murderer Prabhakaran, according to some newspapers, is coming to give a new "impetus" to the so called peace talks, temporarily boycotted by the LTTE. How many more special envoys from Norway would be coming to Sri Lanka to make us happy with a peace packaged by the westerners. In any event how does one define the functions of these special envoys? Why not have some co envoys as well.
It is public knowledge that Westborg is not welcome by the majority of the Sinhala people, especially the Sinhala Buddhists. The SLFP obtained the votes of the majority of the Sinhala Buddhists at the last general elections, a fact that could be demonstrated by an analysis of the votes that the major parties polled, and with the JVP in an alliance with the SLFP, we could say that the SLFP - JVP -MEP together polled more than 60% of the Sinhala Buddhist votes. Though Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga herself "invited" the Norwegians as so called facilitators, it is well known that the Norwegians were never satisfied with the facilitator tag. They are effectively running the so called peace talks, on behalf of the USA, and as Ms. Kumaratunga herself has mentioned the Norwegians have well passed the role of facilitators and have become the mediators. In fact they have passed that stage as well and are now running the country, on behalf of the USA, whether we like it not. The third coming of Westborg indicates that he could be seen as the new Viceroy running the country from Colombo and Vavuniya.
If both the SLFP and the JVP do not like Westborg and the Norwegians in general, that means that the majority of the Sinhala Buddhists do not want him here. He is coming this time in spite of the campaign by the opposition parties that represent the Sinhala Buddhists. The implication of this is that neither the Norwegians nor Westborg is tolerated by the majority of the Sinhala Buddhists. However Norway is not concerned with the views of the Sinhala people especially of the Sinhala Buddhists. The Norwegians and the other western powers including the USA and the UK do not consider the views of the Sinhala people when taking decisions.
This could not be due to the fact that there is no group among the Sinhala people that has armed itself. After all the westerners are very democratic and would not be prepared to bow down to terrorists or others who take up arms. This has been amply demonstrated in the case of the IRA and the British have been very consistent in demanding that the IRA is decommissioned before any talks begin with them. Further when the JVP took up arms in 1971 and 1987 against the democratically elected governments the British and the other western powers helped the governments in power to crush the armed group.
Nobody should believe that the USA state department sends Westborg to Sri Lanka because they are intimidated by the fascist gang of Prabhakaran. (Westborg is being sent to Sri Lanka by Norway officially, but we should not be naive to believe that the USA does not know anything about the appointment.) It is well known that if the westerners want they could easily help Sri Lanka to defeat the LTTE. ( In fact, if not for the western pressure, the Sri Lankan armed forces could have defeated this gang of terrorists long time ago.) After all there are no deep jungles in Vanni nor the LTTE leaders are in a big area. They are tied to a small area and it is not a big task for a country such as USA to find out the whereabouts of Prabhakaran. The USA is such a big power not to be bullied by a fascist murderer. However unlike in the case of the JVP the western powers are not prepared to defeat the LTTE, though there are some Sinhalas who think that the USA would now rush to Sri Lanka to help the Sri Lankan armed forces to crush the terrorists.
This is the big question that we have to answer. Why is that the USA that helped the governments in power to defeat the JVP is not doing the same when it comes to the LTTE? It is said very often that there are injustices done to the Tamils in this country. In fact the President herself repeats this very often. However, this is perhaps the only country where the majority group is not given its rightful place. Though no Christian country would ever give equal status to Buddhism and the other non Christian religions, would ever teach Buddhism in schools the way they teach Christianity in schools having incorporated all those Christian teachings in the school text books (in the USA in certain states it is statutory to teach the genesis story in the Bible, in the schools), no Professor of English (there are no Professors of Sinhala) or Comparative Religion or whatever would campaign for the inclusion of Buddhist stories in the text books written for the school children in those countries. However in this country it is not the case. If Buddhism that inspired the people for more than two thousand years and the Sinhala Buddhist culture that was developed in this country unlike the Christian cultures, is given ten pages in the school text books then Christianity that came to this country with the western invaders and colonialists should also be given ten pages. This is nothing but cultural colonialism, that some professors of English practice.
In the early part of the last century there were more Tamils in the professions, and there are people educated in elite schools who argue that the Tamils only had an inclination for these jobs implying that the Sinhala people were not keen to get employed as professionals. Did the elite schools give the Sinhala students their due share? Did these schools admit students according to the population ratio? These schools that were run by the British always wanted to make sure that among the English speaking people the ratio of the Tamils was very much in excess of the population ratio. Are the products of these schools going to justify the discrimination against the Sinhalas by the British and even the locals who thought like the British, in admitting students to schools, by arguing that the Sinhalas were not inclined towards a "good" English education?
As we have repeated number of times there have been no discrimination against the Tamils in this country. There has been a discrimination against the Sinhalas by the British and the Anglicised locals. The percentage of the Tamils among the English speaking that had access to the "good" jobs and privileges was very much greater than the population percentage. After 1956 some steps were taken to correct these imbalances. When the rights of the Sinhalas were given the English speaking Tamils made a big fuss saying that the Tamils were discriminated. The hierarchy of the Christian and Catholic churches helped the Tamils because they had an axe to grind against the Sinhala Buddhists.
However, with the connivance of the western powers the Tamils have been successful in their propaganda against the Sinhalas. The west that wants to see that Sinhalthva is not given its due its rightful place helps the Tamils clinging onto the myth that there was and is discrimination against the Tamils. The west and the Tamil elite as well as the Christian hierarchy want the LTTE to weaken the Sinhalathva in the country. The west does not want the LTTE to be defeated as they know that in such an eventuality Tamil racism itself would be defeated in spite of the assistance given by them. The west is never serious when it asks the LTTE to give up violence. How many times has the west asked the LTTE to give up arms? Do they think that the LTTE would give up violence even if they are armed?
Westborg is being sent to make a final deal regarding the interim administration. The Tokyo loan is tied to the so called peace talks and it "has become necessary" that the LTTE should take part in the so called peace talks. What did GL Peiris, Moragoda and the Prime Minister do in London? It is clear that they were getting legal opinion on how to meet the LTTE demand and give the interim administration bypassing the constitution. It was an exercise in the Law to work out ways and means of giving an interim administration to Prabhakaran outside the constitution, pretending it to be within the law. The outcome of the future "peace talks" cannot be made public as it would give the correct information to the Sinhala people. Anton Balasingham who would be giving his place to Thmilselvan very soon in the so called "negotiations", has already said that no press conferences should be given after the talks. The so called solution has been already worked out in London and Balasingham knows what is given and what is not given to the LTTE and Prabhakaran. He is not satisfied with the solution and he wants more to be given to Prabhakaran.
The London formula would not be acceptable to Prabhakaran and it would be the duty of Westborg to arrive at a compromise solution that the LTTE is prepared to "buy" in the western terminology of buying and selling. What Prabhakaran is prepared to buy would have to be sold by the so called Sri Lankan government. There is nothing else to sell other than the sovereignty of the country and it has been priced at 4.5 US dollars. However unlike in the case of other deals involving money we would not have even the money as the 4.5 US dollars would be given as a loan and we would have to pay it back with interest. We would be selling the sovereignty of the country through the broker Westborg, and at the end of the day we would have paid the westerners a large some of money as the interest. Perhaps it is the brokerage that we have been asked to pay.
It is unfortunate that we cannot have much faith in the SLFP - JVP alliance that would become a reality in the coming weeks. Unless the JVP can apply pressure the SLFP leadership that has lost all the links with the nationalist traditions of the party would settle for talks with the LTTE if and when they come to power. The JVP with its Marxist leanings is still not a nationalist party and the Westborg factor is going to play a major role in the betrayal of the Sinhalas in the next few months. Is there anybody in the universities in the USA or elsewhere to write a book on Sinhalas (Sinhalese) Betrayed?
Professor Nalin de Silva
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