By Mahendra De Silva –
Dictators and their supporters throughout the world always complain of the double standards of Western Countries when it comes to human rights violations. Was it correct for Americans and Western Countries to tolerate human rights violations of dictators who were supporting them such as Pervez Musharraf, Hosni Mubarak, Marcos and many others and also encouraging overthrowing of regimes that opposed them even though these regimes have been elected by people? It is no secret that Americans helped the coup against Salvador Allende who was elected by Chilean people and they supported the ruthless military dictator Augusto Pinochet, who took power after Allende. Was it correct for America and allies to invade Iraq, by making false charges of holding the weapons of mass destructions? Is it correct for America to try 9/11 terrorists in, Guantanamo Bay detection camp, subjecting them to an inferior standard of justice than what is in America. Is it correct for America and Western Countries to support Israel, irrespective of its track record of violating human rights of Palestinian people? The record of America and Western Countries with regard to most of the above issues has been condemned by Human rights Activist and Amnesty international regularly. It is no secret that self-interest of these countries comes first than the interest of other countries. However criticism by their own media and the unpopularity within these countries is compelling them to take more realistic and just approaches recently. They were compelled withdraw support for their own man former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, which brought in to power Mohamed Morse, whose policies are not in the good books of Western Countries. In future they would have to continue support popular uprisings, irrespective of the regime taking over is favourable to them. Question remains whether some bad acts of Western Countries would take away their right to preach human rights to third world countries or dictatorial regimes in the world.
Dictators and their supporters throughout the world always complain of the double standards of Western Countries when it comes to human rights violations.
The main difference of Western World and Dictatorial regimes in the world is comparatively higher standards in Rule of Law and good governance and free media in the Western World. No one in America or in Western democracies will question the validity of their elections. Misuse of power by Politicians or their attempt to interfere with public service or judiciary, is minimum. Even if it happens due to high media scrutiny they get exposed in a short time. In the Western World, media will not dare to condemn or expose any wrong acts or scandal of any politician irrespective of the position a person holds. Infamous Watergate scandal made President Nixon to resign in 1974. This was first exposed by New York Times. Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal resulted in impeachment of President Clinton. Executive power vested with American or French Presidents are comparatively high compared to other democracies. But there are Senate and Congress in American system which could apply brakes on whatever the President wants to do. President Obama, who was elected by popular vote last year, is struggling hard to get through his Fiscal policies and other progressive proposals go through the Congress led by opposition Republicans. But he will never dream of amending the constitution or doing something drastic that will be against the constitution or accepted traditions. Every day President is being bombarded with very vicious campaigns by Fox news agency and other conservative media institutions. Even if President wants to supress media who attacks him, he knows Americans will not tolerate him in the position even for a day if he resorts to anti-democratic moves. The democratic standards in Australia, Canada and European countries are even higher. Main Radio and TV stations like BBC, Canadian Broadcasting Corp, Australian Broadcasting Corp are funded by government.. But that does not bother them in exposing corruption in the government or having an independent line of reporting. Former Tory cabinet minister Jonathan Aitken in UK was investigated by the Guardian and World in Action for corrupt deals with leading Saudi Arabians. In 1999 he was jailed for perjury and perverting the course of justice. Then there is the scandal of MPs’ expenses. The Daily Telegraph exposed a massive culture of claim abuse that ripped off the taxpayer’s .Former British Defence Secretary Liam Fox was forced to resign due to the exposure of his links to his friend who posed as a government adviser while foreign donors funded his trips with the minister.
All of this is proof that we need free media to investigate and keep the public well informed. This is vital for the continuation of democracy in any country. In a dictatorship which controls the media, people would be compelled to read news, current affairs and everything which is only favourable to the government. This is what is happening in most of the totalitarian states in the world like North Korea, China, Iran etc. In Sri Lanka we can see the news which favors only the ruling party in the government owned newspapers published by Lake House. With regard to privately owned newspapers, government controls the publication of news which is adverse to them by using its influence through the owners of the newspapers and also by threatening to reduce the government advertisements. The media is scared to expose large scale corruptions or scandals of the politicians and as a result corruption could continue to grow. In North Korea government propaganda are very similar to the messages portrayed by other communist countries. North Korean propaganda focus on military might, Utopian society and devotion to the state, and the leader’s personality. They are used to depict the opposite of what is really happening in the country to the outside world. Kim Jung IL is credited with using propaganda art and posters to make the Kim family’s identity inseparable from the state. The country’s supreme leaders have had hymns dedicated to them that served as their signature tune and were repetitively broadcast by the state media: The Korean government also runs a film industry that promotes movie depicting the glory of North Korean life, and the atrocities of Western Imperialism. The people in such totalitarian states become prisoners of their own government.
In Western World, media is mostly owned by private companies which may be having their own interests and agendas. However there is competition to inform the correct news responsibly. People have the choice of getting the news from various sources legally allowed to operate in the country. In most of the Western Countries, even Al Jazeera and other news agencies which are generally against western foreign policies and Israel are also allowed to operate.. The chances of anyone carrying distorted news is less under this environment. That does not mean this environment is in anyway perfect. There were allegations against conduct of BBC itself. There were allegations that BBC and most of the Western media highlighted the human right violations of Sri Lankan forces more than the human right violations of Tamil Tigers. There were allegations that Tamil Diaspora was active in influencing the Western media.
Too much of freedom in the western countries have its own problems. People have too many choices to think and in the process very often people get selfish, not caring for other beings. Chasing after more and more pleasure could end up with unrest and depression. It has led to more violence and drug and alcohol addiction. There are hidden racial discriminations in some sections of the society. Bringing up children in such a society which has different cultural values is a challenge for a parents coming from an Asian cultural background. Despite all the short comings l people from third world countries, who have lived in the past with fear of arbitrary arrests or unfair treatment, would consider it as a privilege to live in this part of the world, where there is higher standard in freedom of expression, rule of law, good governance and respect of human rights,
Any right thinking man would agree that despite all the bad things, Western countries have a much more superior track record of democracy than rough States like Burma, Iran, North Korea or any other third world country including Sri Lanka. Therefore they still could speak of improving the standards of human rights in other countries. The other reason is that they provide most of the aid to third world countries and it is quite correct in linking aid with improvements in human right standards. The people under the suppression of dictators in many third world countries have only hope that UN and Western countries would apply pressure on dictators to do more to improve human rights and good governance and fairness. The pressure applied by Western governments has worked marvelously in Burma and even in China. These countries are opening up more and more to improve their horrible human rights record over the years. Even in Sri Lanka, if Western countries had ignored all the violations of human rights and misuse of power and did not apply pressure on rulers, our country would have been a totally dictatorial regime a long time ago.
Another tactic used by Dictators and their supporters to deviate the public anger against them on human right violations, is to make allegations that that those who speak up for human rights and media freedom are funded by Western countries or organizations who want to destroy the achievements of the country. Often NGOs and human right activists are branded as traitors to the nation. Iran, North Korea and many dictators of third world countries including Sri Lanka do this regularly. It is a fact that most of the NGOs are funded by Western countries and they sometimes have their own agendas in addition to protection of human rights. But that does not mean that all human right activists and NGOs are working for an unholy purpose. Most of the people involved do this with genuine desire to see the standard of human rights and rule of law improvements in the country in addition to improvements in living standards of the poorest people.
Sri Lankan government and state sponsored media often claim that Tamil diaspora is behind all bad publicity received by Sri Lanka internationally. There is no doubt that Tamil Tigers are the greatest benefactor of the present bad publicity Sri Lanka is receiving worldwide. However much a government tries to hide in what is happening in the country, in an era where globalization is the order of the day; news will pass through internet easily and quickly throughout the world. Tamil Tigers who have not given up their goal of Tamil Elam would be very happy that Sri Lanka is going in to chaos and more and more misuse of power and deterioration of democracy, law and order are coming to light. This will help them to justify their claim and prove to the world that expecting fairness within the country for their people is impossible. Right minded Sinhalese should think whether the real traitors of the nation are the Sri Lankans who demand more reforms in Human Rights, Rule of Law and Good Governance in the country or those who blindly endorse and support the rulers to misuse power and do all the undemocratic acts and human right violations in the country.
Conclusion:
There are no perfect democracies in the world. Western countries have their flaws and setbacks in their human rights performances. But the standard of democracy practiced within their countries is far more superiors to that of third world countries or regimes run by dictators. There is strong media and public opinion together with the alertness of the public with regard to their rights which makes it difficult for corrupt politicians to deceive and exploit the country for a long time. On the other hand in dictatorial regimes, dictators suppress the media and public opinion effectively so that they could exploit the country continuously without any obstacles. The argument that western countries do not have any right to criticize or interfere with regard to human rights violations of the dictators is baseless and made by dictators themselves or their supporters. The civilians of a country suppressed by unjust rule of dictators will have no escape unless International Community cooperate to rescue them by applying pressure on such regimes by way of isolation or trade embargos. Basic human rights are universal and do not differentiate between countries. It is the duty of all intelligent citizens to demand improvements in Human Rights and Rule of Law in the country.
Piranha / December 29, 2012
Dictators are able to fool the people with such propaganda because the masses are mostly uneducated. There is no one with charisma and public appeal in Sri Lanka today who is able to counter the dictator’s propaganda. Even those educated fools like Rajiva Wijesinha, Dayan Jayatilleka, Carlo Fonseka, S L Gunasekera are hero worshipping a village idiot Rajapakasa because he defeated the Tamils and gives them power and positions.
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Newton / December 30, 2012
Differences between the western democracies and the countries like Sri Lanka are not much lying with the leaders but with the masses.Leaders always emerging from the masses.Unless the masses start to think in a rational way leadership/regime change wont be any help.Even if you get rid off this regime ,the new regime wont be any better.The same regime (may be the son of MR) will come back to power after 10 or 15 years
and the same cycle will continue.
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Safa / December 30, 2012
Masses are held captive and fed all the lies by state media. Govt is also controlling the private media through takeovers and physical intimidation. So when a lie is repeated people begin to believe it is true.
Most people are like frogs in the well. They have not gone beyond the borders of their village or town. For them to meet the president and get a 200 rupee meal at temple trees is the ultimate accomplishment in life.
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Oh Danny boy / December 30, 2012
THERE IS A SAYING “THERE IS ALWAYS LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL”. THE END OF THE TUNNEL IS NOT FAR, FOR THE REGIME AND THE CITIZENS OS SRI LANKA.
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Rajan Walpola / December 31, 2012
Really. Danny litte boy has now become a fortune teller. Keep dreaming my friend.
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Bande / December 31, 2012
Aha the end of tunnel is not far? A lovely pipe dream of regime change indeed! The majority are no fools and know exactly who is best to govern the country as demonstrated repeated by electoral verdicts! As long as rights of the majority of people are not violated and doesn’t affect their day to day life, no one is bothered. There will be no absolute democracy anywhere in the world and one has to look it in relative terms. The moment a leader violates this cardinal principal he will be rejected by the people and even light crackers at his demise as happened with a past leader in Sri Lanka. And at present the choice of the majority is very clear as to who stands by the country and its people. Perhaps bad news for the worshipers of white masters up west!
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Rajan Walpola / December 31, 2012
Well said Bande.
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fernando / December 31, 2012
This comment was removed by a moderator because our comment language is English – CT
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Antany Peter / January 1, 2013
Dear Mahendra De Silva, I hope you would be enlighten after reading my article.
The inconceivable lies and cover-ups of the Western Governments
I am a writer, but I have been facing extreme censorship and financial hardship due to my writings. I have been writing to spread awareness nationally and internationally about the Indigenous communities’ harsh life in the outback of Australia. I have been volunteering for the Indigenous communities to improve their harsh life; however, we need the world’s help to make a significant difference in their life. The Australian Indigenous communities remain the most vulnerable sectors of the society throughout Australia. Some parts of indigenous communities are worse off than the poorest African communities in the remotest regions of Africa. Australia abolished its white Australia policy in the 70’s, but its constitution continues to portraits white Australia policy. The Australian government still refuses to acknowledge indigenous people as the first inhabitants of Australia through its constitution. Four out of seven indigenous kids are damaging their brain by paint and petrol sniffing before they even get into teenage life. Australia is in Asia’s backyard, yet more attacks on Asians in Australia than in Europe and North America. Australia’s injustice was systematically engineered by the best political minds, in order to use indigenous communities’ resources without any restriction. It is very apparent that at each historical point in time, indigenous communities have suffered from a deep rooted distrust of giving practical effect to their rights, and the idea of justice. Among Australia’s elite today, there is a habit of blaming indigenous communities for their harsh lifestyle in order to hide the Australia’s injustice. The lack of justice is affecting all citizens; especially it is affecting white Australians ethically. This deficit of justice has impacted the indigenous communities adversely throughout many generations; resulting in physical and psychological torture, enforced separations from their family members, even death. “Most importantly, this phenomenon has been manifested not only during the British colonization, but also in the present”. Due to the Australian government’s injustice in the outback and detention centres, I wrote many letters to the federal and state ministers about their awful treatment of Indigenous people in the outback; and refugees in the detention centres. Due to my writings, I was threatened by the government intelligence members. I was warned that if I continued to lobby for indigenous people and refugees they would find a way to connect me with drug trafficking or terrorism. I was banned from a university in Australia in 2004, while I was making students aware of Australia’s harsh treatment of its Indigenous people and refugees. When I started to make awareness internationally, the Australian government not only stopped me from getting a job, but they even stopped me from selling my house, which led to a file for bankruptcy. The Australian government also stolen my passport, cancelled my citizenship, and threatened to throw me in a detention centre as an illegal immigrant. I wrote to the United Nations, and the Canadian and New Zealand High Commissions about this barbaric action. Due to the international pressure, the Australian government had decided to reinstate my name in the citizenship database. Finally, I received a new passport and moved to Canada under the skill migration program to live a normal life; and also to have the freedom of opinion and expression to carry on my writings to promote human rights.
However, after four years living in Canada, I found that Canada does not practice what it preaches to the developing countries, in terms of democracy. The ideology and histories of Australia and Canada are the same. I should not have moved to Canada. Nevertheless, while I was in Canada I have read hundreds of political books and gained extensive knowledge of North American history and politics. Canada also treats its First Nation People badly; and the Canadian government also feels uncomfortable about my writings. Canada allows its First Nations to live in their lands, but refuses to give ownership to the First Nations, in order to use the resources without any restriction. This tactic allows the Canadian government to have full control of the money profited from the sale of resources. It is all about money and ruling others. They just talk about democracy and human rights to have access to the resources through the most sophisticated way. Since I landed in Canada, my emails and phone calls were closely monitored by the Canadian Security intelligence Service (CSIS). Since I began exposing Canada’s dirty democracy, the CSIS has been deliberately diverting incoming calls to voice mail and deleting the messages to keep in isolation. I have changed three cell phone companies and cell phones, but still incoming calls were getting diverted to the voice mail, but I did not get the messages. Between December 2010 and April 2011 I have applied for hundreds of jobs in Canada, including seasonal Christmas jobs. However the CSIS has been stopping all incoming calls to prevent me from getting a job. The CSIS has placed me in extreme financial difficulty. According to the UN human rights article 23, everyone has the right to work, but my right has been denied due to my writings. I was denied access to my account, since I started to expose the western countries’ dirty democracy on Facebook. Last year I was in Germany to tell the story of injustice I have experienced in Australia and Canada. However, the German government did not allow me to work in Germany to carry on my writings. Therefore, I had to apply for a political asylum. Since I had applied for a political asylum, I was forced to live in a filthy camp in Germany. Few weeks later I was forced to live with three others in a one bedroom apartment. I wasn’t allowed to work. I wasn’t allowed to leave the city without permission. I couldn’t even afford to buy a winter jacket. I never lived in this kind of condition in my life. Last January my mother had passed away in Sri Lanka, it was my duty and responsibility to be at the funeral. I requested for permission to go to Sri Lanka for the funeral, but I was told by the German immigration officer that they would not grant me permission. I was also told that if I wanted to be at the funeral then I had to withdraw my asylum, and leave Germany for good. Using my mother`s funeral to hide the dirty democracy and human rights abuses of Australia and Canada is not humane, this was pure Nazism. I withdrew my political asylum in writing, but they have refused to return my passport to attend my mother’s funeral. I called everywhere to get my passport back, but no one was willing to return it. Finally, I got my passport back on Thursday afternoon. I came to my apartment straight from the immigration office to get my luggage to catch a flight, but they have changed my apartment lock. Due to this Nazi act I could not get my luggage, and could not catch the flight on Thursday evening to attend my mother’s funeral. The funeral was on Friday morning, but I could not make it to my mother’s funeral. The German government deliberately stopped me from attending my mother’s funeral. They have enjoyed doing this to me as they have enjoyed killing millions of innocent people in the gas champers. I have experienced real Nazism while I was in Germany; therefore I left Naziland for good in March 2012.
The Australian government must be held responsible for all of my hardships in Australia, Canada and Germany. The Australian government must understand one thing clearly; it can prolong to deal with its own people’s suffering in the outback, but can not ignore it forever. The Australian government believes that keeping me in financial hardship; and isolating me from others is the solution for what has been happening in the outback. It is simply wrong, it will backfire on Australia in due time. Regrettably, the New Zealand government will continue to support the Australian government even at the expense of democracy. Since Last June I have applied more than three hundred jobs, but I could not get any job at all. I have an Australian business degree, and have been working as an accountant in Australia. However, I could not even get a basic job in New Zealand. I have been applying for accounting roles, administration roles as well as basic supermarket checkout operator roles, but I could not get any job whatsoever. It is very obvious to me that the New Zealand government is preventing me from getting a job to stop me having a website, or publishing a book, in order to hide the Western Countries’ dirty democracy. The way they create ill stories to isolate me from others is really unbelievable and shocking. Soon as I start to get to know people, and start to keep in touch with those people via emails and mobile phone, the western intelligence members use my email account and mobile phone number to send dreadful emails and text messages to those people, in order to make them think that I am not normal. This is how they make others to avoid me in order to hide the truth. The western intelligence members also follow me wherever I go and spread lies about me, in order to keep in isolation from others. They are not keeping me in a prison cell, but in an open air prison; so they can preach democracy to others in order to rule the world. They are the masters at occupying the high ground, and translating it into great power. In their hands morality becomes a weapon, they wield to attract attention to their cause while distracting attention to the others. They make such a show of moral superiority that the others feel ashamed to disagree with them. They are free to do whatever they want, by waving their magic cards so call “democracy and human rights”. In fact, the Americans, Australians and Canadians do not even live in their own country, if that is the case then how they can talk more about democracy than others? The Spanish took parts of South America, the Dutch and Protégées took parts of South America and the Indian subcontinent, the French took Africa, and the British took most parts of the world. Hundreds of million innocent people were killed by the Westerners. More than hundred million indigenous people were killed around the world. Twenty two million Africans were killed during the slave trade. Fifty nine million Indians were killed by starvation while the British rulers were sending India’s own foods to the United Kingdom. Furthermore, more than one million people were killed in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. But no one was held accountable for those innocent people’s deaths. However, the British and the Americans kept the records of German Nazis’ atrocities in detail, and exposing to the world, in order to cover-up their own atrocities. The Western Countries have killed millions of innocent people, yet they present themselves as moral superiors. The Western Countries’ core focus in the Middle Eastern countries is oil, not democracy or human rights. It is all about exploiting others’ resources and keeping others under them. In fact, the British knew the meaning of democracy and human rights from the 12th century, but they never practised while killing millions of innocent people to takeover others’ homelands, in order to have plenty of resources. The Western Countries will never admit their atrocities; if they do then they can not keep themselves on the top, and fool others in the name of democracy and human rights.
The Western governments are extremely clever in disguising their ulterior motives and their evil tricks. According to the Independent newspaper of London, Britain discussed plans to exploit Iraq’s oil reserves with some of the world’s biggest oil companies five months before it joined the United States in invading the country in 2003. Citing previously secret documents, the newspaper said at least five meetings were held between British officials and BP and Royal Dutch Shell in late 2002. BP privately said to the British Foreign Office that Iraq was “more important than anything we’ve seen for a long time.” The documents were obtained by the oil campaigner Greg Muttitt, author of the new book Fuel on the Fire: Oil and Politics in Occupied Iraq”. “Mr Blair famously said in early 2003, ‘The idea that we’re interested in Iraq’s oil is absurd, it’s one of the most absurd conspiracy theories you can imagine”. While he was saying that, there was an internal secret document reveals the British strategy to exploit Iraqi oil, and it said, “Britain has an absolutely vital interest in Iraq’s oil”. The Westerners have created Israel based on the history, and the circumstances of the Jews. However, they have refused do the same for the Australian indigenous people. We have enough tangible evidences to prove that the Australian Indigenous people were the first inhabitants of Australia more than anyone could ever prove that Israel is belongs to the Jews. Clearly, it was easier for the Westerners to create a country for the Jews on others’ homeland to have a Jewish state as “the representatives of the West”, in order to control the Middle East. However, the same people who acknowledge the Jewish state have refused to acknowledge indigenous people in their homeland. It is nothing but a double standard and dirty ethic of the Westerners. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? Obviously, the Westerners who have refused to acknowledge Indigenous people in their homeland for centuries would not have started the Arab Spring for the benefit of the Arabs, they have an ulterior motive. The Chinese are dominating the manufacturing sector, and the Indians are dominating the service sector. The Western Countries have lost their economic dominant; therefore they are removing the Middle Eastern Regimes in the name of democracy to place the Western puppets to control the oil, in order to continue to rule the world. The Westerners are desperate to continue to rule the world, even at the expense of democracy and human rights. Whoever exposes the Westerners dirty democracy has been treated as their enemy. The American soldier Bradley Manning and Wikileaks founder Julian Assange have sacrificed their life to inform the truth to the world, in order to enhance democracy. They are heroes for exposing war crimes, and the true civilian costs of the US wars in the Middle East. However, Bradley Manning is facing all kinds of interrogation and abuses on top of solitary confinement. The government of Ecuador granted diplomatic asylum to Julian Assange, citing genuine concerns that his human rights might be violated by the US for exposing the truth. As a human being I would not do to others what the western governments and their intelligence members have been doing to me. Nevertheless, “I do not focus on the hardships that I face due to my actions that I have taken towards the injustice, but only on my dream that the injustice will turn to justice in due time.” This is my own quote, and it gives me courage and strength to carry on, no matter what circumstances or difficulties I am going through.
Author: Antany Peter, contact in New Zealand mobile phone number 021 949 902. About the author, Antany loves world history and cultures. He has lived in four continents, and red more than three hundred books to understand world history, cultures, languages, capitalism, communism, global economy and international politics. He is also a part time writer. Please pass this article to others, in order to expose the lies of the power elites. Remember, democracy starts with you; therefore you must speak-up against the Western governments’ injustices.
Antany Peter, New Zealand.
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Mahendra de silva / January 1, 2013
Thank you, Mr.Antany Peter, for responding to my article. I have admitted in my article the western double standards and injustices. I have given some specific examples similar to ones you have given.
It is sad that you have not appreciated the good things in the western world where people from third world countries could follow. It appears that you have only lived in developed countries and with that experience you condemn their human right record. What do you think of third world countries and countries ruled by dictators? Do you know what happened in former Communist countries and today in countries like North Korea, Burma or Iran? Today you are free to criticize New Zealand government and people on their human right record without any fear. But if you have been living in a dictatorial regime they will come after you for condemning them. They will not tolerate you for writing against them. They might even put you in prison. That is the difference between western world and dictatorial regimes or countries going towards that direction. Please read my article fully and make the comments. With regard to indigenous people. Don’t you agree that they have their own problems which are very difficult to resolve. The indigenous people in Latin American countries like Brazil, Venezuela, are much worse than their colleagues in Canada, Australia, New Zealand or USA. At least in these countries they get welfare and many privileges. But the problem is they are finding it difficult to come out of their free life style with addiction to alcohol and drugs. I know media in western world and human right activists continuously campaign to persuade governments to do more to indigenous people. In my article I pointed out serious shortcomings in the western world. But I stated with all the shortcomings people from third world countries living there, still consider it as a privilege to live here, compared to a third world country where there is no media freedom, rule of law or human rights.
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Nuwan Ratnapala / January 4, 2013
I was very flattered to receive a new year wish from our president. But when i realized that about 10 million others have also received his good wishes I realized this was another instant of a large scale racket. To send a SMS to millions of Sri Lankans the President is spending a lot of public money. But the worse is if the Dialog is sending them free how does Dialog show that in their accounts ? How do they justify their costs ? Maybe Dialog which is a foreign company ( Malaysian) considers the favour done to president Rajapakse a bribe. How does President Rajapakse show his gratitude to Dialog for all these free SMSs ? Or maybe Rajapakse is the kind of person who eats at a foreign restaurant but does not pay for the food !After all he is a politician from Hambantota !
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