{"id":111744,"date":"2013-10-27T00:07:37","date_gmt":"2013-10-26T18:37:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=111744"},"modified":"2013-11-01T12:41:18","modified_gmt":"2013-11-01T07:11:18","slug":"country-heads-into-heady-chogm-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/country-heads-into-heady-chogm-days\/","title":{"rendered":"Country Heads Into Heady CHOGM Days"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Malinda Seneviratne<\/a><\/span>\u00a0–<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Malinda Seneviratne<\/p><\/div>\n

Sri Lanka is heading into the last week before the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2013, which Colombo is hosting.\u00a0 The run-up to CHOGM<\/a><\/span> has been fraught with barbs from the usual voices in the anti-Sri Lanka chorus.\u00a0 The attendant wailing and calls for boycott began the moment Sri Lanka was \u2018awarded\u2019 CHOGM 2013 and followed similar whines when Colombo was considered as host city.<\/p>\n

Barbs notwithstanding, CHOGM will take place, whether or not Manmohan Singh attends due to pressure from potential coalition partner in next year\u2019s election, Jayalalithaa<\/a><\/span>, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.\u00a0 As for Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper<\/a><\/span>, he will not be missed.\u00a0\u00a0 The Tamil National Alliance, trying hard not to show fracture, has its leader asking India to boycott and the Chief Minister, Northern Province, elected on the TNA ticket, C.V. Wigneswaran<\/a><\/span> saying that boycotting does not help.\u00a0 He has acknowledged Tamil Nadu\u2019s concerns for Sri Lankan Tamils, but has firmly said resolving issues was a matter for the Tamils in Sri Lanka and no one else.<\/p>\n

There are noises about what will happen during the CHOGM.\u00a0 British Prime Minister David Cameron<\/a><\/span> has said he will use CHOGM to raise issues.\u00a0 Australia and New Zealand, largely in response to Canada\u2019s boycott and call for other countries to boycott, have got away with the \u2018better to engage\u2019 line.\u00a0 It is good to \u2018engage\u2019.<\/p>\n

First of all, following the rumor that Kenya was considering<\/a><\/span> a boycott because the Commonwealth.\u00a0 That rumor had a basis.\u00a0 A boycott call made sense in terms of rallying opposition to the International Criminal Court (ICC) at a forum outside the African Union (AU).\u00a0 Kenya already has substantial support among AU countries.\u00a0 Since one third of the member states of the Commonwealth of Nations are from Africa, any call for boycott would not go unheeded in the continent.\u00a0 Kenya will participate but notwithstanding that fact, the \u2018Kenyan Issue\u2019 is something that the Commonwealth can take up.\u00a0 CHOGM 2013 can deliberate on the worth of this gathering of nations if it remains silent when members destabilize other members (like India did and does to Sri Lanka) and when other multilateral bodies haul member states over the coals, so to speak.<\/p>\n

With respect to Sri Lanka and in light of British, Australian and Kiwi noises, President Mahinda Rajapaksa<\/a><\/span> can welcome criticism, never mind the indecency of insulting host, and take up the never taken up matter of reparations for crimes against humanity committed by certain \u2018decent\u2019, \u2018civilized\u2019 nations who are claiming robbed moral high ground protected by gun, bullet and dollar (!) as private property with \u2018No Trespassing\u2019 sign to boot.\u00a0 He could mention \u2018Wellassa\u2019 or talk about Britain\u2019s involvement in illegal invasions and complicity in drone attacks.\u00a0 He has a thick portfolio to draw from.<\/p>\n

Apart from all that, President Rajapaksa can educate noise-makers about Sri Lanka.\u00a0 He can speak about the anxieties of all communities.\u00a0 Since the Tamil anxieties are well-known he could talk about the sentiments of the Sinhalese, for example, pointing to a sense of cultural and linguistic isolation, and detail the context of historical aggression from South India leading to the drift of that community south of Polonnaruwa.\u00a0 He can mention how the LTTE eliminated Tamil politicians, intellectuals and priests and how Sinhalese leaders were assassinated.\u00a0 He can talk about his responsibilities to allay the fears of all communities in the process of post-conflict nation-building, not just those of Tamils. He can elaborate on the difference between constructive and destructive criticism.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile it has been revealed that the Colombo Spoilers Club, led by FGOs (Foreign Government Organizations, an apt re-name for NGOs by H.L.D. Mahindapala) are planning a \u2018show\u2019 along with \u2018journalists\u2019 so-called from rogue stations such as Channel 4<\/a><\/span> joining the party.<\/p>\n

Lost in all this and probably to the utter joy of Ranil Wickremesinghe<\/a><\/span> is the post-election dadi-bidi<\/em> within the UNP.\u00a0 The leadership issue, which saw an open-ended meeting between Wickremesinghe, Karu Jayasuriya<\/a><\/span> and Sajith Premadasa<\/a><\/span>, has been effectively overtaken by controversies yielded by the home-and-home in Matara where Mangala Samaraweera<\/a><\/span>\u2019s men are alleged to have attacked an anti-Ranil protest march. Samaraweera, a spin-master of considerable repute, is now claiming that there\u2019s a conspiracy to murder him, prompting lampooning in the form of the former right-hand man of Chandrika Kumaratunga<\/a><\/span> attacking himself with a cinnamon club.<\/p>\n

The party, as a result of all this, does not seem to have much to say about the political issues pertaining to CHOGM.\u00a0 Instead it talks of costs, which is of course quite legitimate since the economic benefits of hosting are at best claims with hardly anything to suggest that relevant sheets will be balanced.<\/p>\n

The political issues have been literally and metaphorically been cosmeticized by a speed-up of ongoing city beautification programs.\u00a0 Ordinary people see CHOGM signage while the politics of that less than august body don\u2019t seem to concern them.\u00a0 The perception was beautifully captured in a Facebook status message thus: \u2018It’s all well and good that the country, at least Colombo, is being made up for CHOGM. But just as a woman with too much make up looks hideous, Colombo too is starting to look fake and headache-inducing!\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot of road work and landscape development, necessary no doubt with pardonable inconveniences thrown in, but right now and probably until the 10th<\/sup> of November, it is more fake and headache-inducing than anything else.\u00a0 Fortunately, as far as the majority of commuters are concerned, the Katunayake-Colombo expressway didn\u2019t get in the way; it got built and at a pace that no one really knew about or cared.<\/p>\n

Just like the BMICH (which has got a \u2018new look\u2019 by the way) which was a concrete and valuable \u2018remainder\u2019 of the Non-Aligned Summit 1976, long after everyone has forgotten CHOGM 2013 and long after the Commonwealth ceases to exist (like the Non-Aligned Movement) except in name, we will have the roads, a better-looking Vihara Maha Devi Park and some other \u2018abiding\u2019 benefits.<\/p>\n

The entirety of CHOGM, however, i.e. politics and landscaping, history and invective, barb and counter-barb is best captured in a wonderful observation, again a Facebook status update, by Apsara Karunaratne, borrowing from the currently popular theme song of Jayantha Chandrasiri\u2019s \u2018Samanala Sandviniya\u2019<\/em> (Butterfly Symphony), \u2018ikigasaa andana atheethayaka\u2019<\/em>.\u00a0 The line from the song goes like this: mata mage novana magema aadarayak thibuna<\/em> (And I had a love that belonged only to me but was not mine). \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

This is what Apsara wrote: \u0d85\u0db4\u0dd2\u0da7 \u0d85\u0db4\u0dda \u0db1\u0ddc\u0dc0\u0db1 \u0d85\u0db4\u0dda\u0db8 CHOGM \u0d91\u0d9a\u0d9a\u0dca \u0dad\u0dd2\u0dba\u0dd9\u0db1\u0dc0\u0dcf! That\u2019s in the present tense, but it works in \u2018past\u2019 and \u2018future\u2019 too.\u00a0 This is what it means: \u2018There is a CHOGM that is our and ours alone, but does not belong to us\u2019.<\/p>\n

*Malinda Seneviratne is the Chief Editor of \u2018The Nation\u2019\u00a0and his articles can be found at\u00a0www.malindawords.blogspot.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":105560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\nCountry Heads Into Heady CHOGM Days - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/country-heads-into-heady-chogm-days\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Country Heads Into Heady CHOGM Days - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/country-heads-into-heady-chogm-days\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-10-26T18:37:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-11-01T07:11:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Malinda-Seneviratne-150x150.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"130\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"135\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/country-heads-into-heady-chogm-days\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/country-heads-into-heady-chogm-days\/\",\"name\":\"Country Heads Into Heady CHOGM Days - 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