{"id":104272,"date":"2013-09-08T00:39:42","date_gmt":"2013-09-07T19:09:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=104272"},"modified":"2013-09-11T04:01:36","modified_gmt":"2013-09-10T22:31:36","slug":"navi-pillays-visit-she-came-she-saw-she-did-not-concur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/navi-pillays-visit-she-came-she-saw-she-did-not-concur\/","title":{"rendered":"Navi Pillay\u2019s Visit: She Came, She Saw, She Did Not Concur"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0By\u00a0<\/strong>Rajan Philips<\/a><\/span> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Rajan Philips<\/p><\/div>\n

UN Human Rights Commissioner Navanetham Pillay<\/a><\/span>\u2019s weeklong visit to the country is remarkable on several counts.\u00a0 As always, the visit has since been overshadowed by other events both local and international.\u00a0 It is a fact of life in our time that real-time information and rapid news dissemination impose on us, ordinary mortals, new developments everywhere and in quick succession before we are able to digest and\/or deal with preceding developments.\u00a0 Ms. Pillay\u2019s visit has been overshadowed by the depressing news about the international farce over Syria\u2019s tragedy, as well as local developments including, to mention a few, the TNA manifesto for the Northern PC election, the shameful saga of UPFA infighting in the Northwestern PC election, and the headline grabbing public spat between Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapksa<\/a><\/span> and Minister Rauff Hakeem<\/a><\/span> over global (allegedly Muslim) extremism and its local (allegedly Muslim) manifestations.<\/span><\/p>\n

While overshadowing, these developments also provide a helpful context for digesting the significance of Ms. Pillay\u2019s visit and the meaning of her long parting message.\u00a0 The Gotabhaya-Hakeem spat is indicative of life inside the Rajapaksa regime \u2013 cynical tolerance of confusion and conflicting messages from all and sundry while leaving all decision making to the brothers.\u00a0 Mr. Hakeem may protest, comrade Vasudeva could charm the UN Commissioner, but their words carry little weight in the President\u2019s court.\u00a0 The life of message confusion and conflict did not spare even the visiting dignitary.\u00a0 Ms. Pillay was subjected to a moronic marriage proposal, not to mention her being challenged by the editorial page boy from the Lake House.\u00a0 But being a South African of South Indian Tamil origin, she seemed insightful of South Asian societal antics, if not mores.<\/p>\n

Respect for human life<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was not surprising that the President and government spokesmen apologized to Ms. Pillay but no one literally took to task the offending culprits.\u00a0 It was an keeping with the same old, same old, wink-wink, nudge-nudge, shape-korala-danne Rajapaksa modus operandi.\u00a0 For her part Ms. Pillay offered a stellar lesson in what it is to be a public, and international, persona regardless of one\u2019s family, religious, ethnic or geographical roots or origins.\u00a0 She dismissed the description of herself in sections of the Sri Lankan media and political circles as the \u201cTamil Tigress in the UN\u201d, as \u201cnot only wildly incorrect\u201d, but also \u201cdeeply offensive.\u201d\u00a0 She dissociated herself absolutely and thoroughly from the LTTE<\/a><\/span>, and advised those in the diaspora revering its memory that \u201cthere should be no place for the glorification of such a ruthless organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the next breath, she said what no Sri Lankan political leader has said so far, as far as I can remember.\u00a0 I believe Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe<\/a><\/span> tried to say something reparative in Jaffna, after the war, but as usual made a botch of it.\u00a0 Ms. Pillay paid her \u201crespects to all Sri Lankans, across the country, who were killed during those three decades of conflict …\u201d, and offered her \u201cheartfelt sympathy to their families, all of whom \u2013 no matter who they are \u2013 share one thing: they have lost someone they can never replace.\u201d\u00a0 From Syria to Sri Lanka, their obvious differences notwithstanding, the respect for human life, and not the glorification of war in furtherance of sovereignty or self-determination or national security, must be the essence of politics in our time.<\/p>\n

At the press conference in Colombo, she handsomely thanked the government for \u201cits invitation and excellent cooperation\u201d during what was a very complex mission, which was\u00a0 also her longest visit to a single country.\u00a0 Pleasantries aside, she was forthright about the oral update she will be presenting to the UNHRC in Geneva, in September, and the full written report due March next year.\u00a0 She went on to highlight all the key human rights issues that are afflicting the country and are of concern to the international community.<\/p>\n

While recognizing the rebuilding of physical infrastructure in the Northern and Eastern Provinces, she noted the woeful lack of social infrastructure that is required for restoring human life in these areas to its pre-war status.\u00a0 The continuing expansion of military bases and forays into civilian activities such as education, agriculture and tourism are neither necessary nor helpful.\u00a0 Quite apart from their implications for political reconciliation, roads and troops cannot bring redress to the disproportionately large war victims comprising widows, orphans, and persons without sight or limbs.\u00a0 They constitute a collective universe of trauma and special measures are necessary to redress them.<\/p>\n

This is one area where NGOs are needed (unlike in undertaking post-disaster physical infrastructure work which should never be their business) and have proved their worth in crisis situations everywhere in the world.\u00a0 And Ms Pillay was justifiably \u201csurprised and disappointed to learn that the authorities have restricted NGO activity in this sector.\u201d\u00a0 Why this restriction? What sense of priority? Are prawn farms and tourist resorts more important than providing solace, as the first step in restoring normalcy, to the tens of thousands of widows, orphans and otherwise afflicted persons?<\/p>\n

Promises and Performance<\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite its imperfections, the LLRC<\/a><\/span> report remains the principal framework to compare the government\u2019s promises and performance.\u00a0 If it was the intention of the government to persuade the UN Human Rights Commissioner into believing that its performance matches or exceeds its limited promises, the government should feel disappointed that the Commissioner left it open to continuing examination.\u00a0 The government should know that it would not be difficult to convince others in the international community or anywhere else if it is demonstrably sincere in its commitment to doing the right thing and has the capacity to objectively and critically measure its performance before inviting others into believing it.\u00a0 And the evidence of performance must be seen in the lives of the people on the ground and not in tomes of glossy binders or power point presentations.<\/p>\n

The government could also help its case and credibility immeasurably if it could put an end to continuing human rights violations even after the end of the war, and not just among the Tamils but affecting the Muslims as well as the growing dissenters among the Sinhalese.\u00a0 It is not very convincing to assert that your right hand is implementing the LLRC recommendations, while your left hand is violating human rights in new areas.\u00a0 And it was not good image for the country to have the visiting UN Human Rights Commissioner read out from a list of ongoing violations at her press conference in Colombo.<\/p>\n

The government has its work cut out in addressing these issues, and the way to do it is not by resorting moralizing verbal gymnastics that the Secretary of Defense seems to have reportedly tried in his meeting with the Commissioner.\u00a0 Lashing out at the US is not the way to answer the questions that are being asked of the Sri Lankan government in Geneva and elsewhere.\u00a0 Nor invoking the bogey of global extremism is the approach to building positive relationships with local Muslims.\u00a0 These could be self-serving arguments that may also be intended for local headlines and enthusing BBS storm troopers, but they will not persuade an informed and intelligent diplomat like\u00a0 Navanetham Pillay.<\/p>\n

Hot on the heels of Ms. Pillay\u2019s departure , the TNA released its manifesto for the Northern Provincial Council election.\u00a0 Rather than boosting the dramatic choice of Justice Wigneswaran<\/a><\/span> as candidate for Chief Minister, the manifesto detracts it.\u00a0 It is not a coincidence that there is considerable correspondence between what the manifesto calls \u201cMatters of immediate concern for the Tamil People\u201d, and the key issues that Navi Pillay highlighted in her press conference.\u00a0 These are the facts of life, and \u2018this is how things are\u2019 on the ground, in the north and in the east.\u00a0 The manifesto could have exclusively focused on these matters of immediate concern and the political means to address them – instead of burdening them with a preamble,\u00a0 that is, for all practical intent, no more than the figurative (Old Testament) history of Tamil politics.\u00a0 Not every political narrative, or manifesto, needs to start with the original sin. \u00a0And that is a matter for another day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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