By Izeth Hussain –

Izeth Hussain

I refer to HLDM’s attack on me in the Colombo Telegraph of October 13 under the title A- Izeth of Hussein’s Haram Politics. That title shows a highly eccentric use of the English language pointing to the ethnolunacy of which the whole attack reeks. By ethnolunacy I mean the extreme irrationality that is characteristic of extreme racists. HLDM has a wide notoriety, a richly deserved one, as an extreme Sinhala racist. Several of the readers’ replies to his article show that.

What is in question is sovereignty in the contemporary world. His prolix and rambling article fails altogether to address that question. I made two simple points that the average reader can understand without difficulty. The first is that after the Second World War there has been a steady erosion of state sovereignty. Anyone who disputes that well-established fact shows himself up as an utter ignoramus on international relations. The second point is that in the second half of the eighteenth century it came to be established that the people and not the wielders of power are sovereign. It follows that a UNHRC Resolution could be unfriendly to the sovereign state and friendly to the sovereign people. Instead of dealing with that argument HLDM rambles along at great length bringing in irrelevant issues such as globalization. He has failed to understand my simple and straightforward argument. So advanced is his state of ethnolunacy.

He charges that I proclaim myself to be one of the five best diplomats in the world. That was a statement made about me, not by myself, but by the late Indian journalist G.K. Reddy. I have clarified that fact in the past but HLDM prefers to ignore that. He claims that I was relegated to the position of a backroom boy by A.C.S Hameed. But that same Hameed got me appointed as Ambassador to Paris, an appointment that was aborted – I am reliably informed – because of representations made by Buddhist monks in Paris. It looks like he cannot get anything right about me because of his ethnolunacy.

There is something very odd about the hysterical hatred and mad dog rage that HLDM has shown against me now and in the past. It is a performance not matched by any other Sinhalese. I suspect that the explanation is that he is not a Sinhalese, but only partly one. I am told that his father was Malay. I am wondering whether his ultranationalism and Sinhala racism is a form of over-compensation for his incomplete identity as a Sinhalese. Hey Tuan Mahindapala – Is that it?