{"id":113343,"date":"2013-11-04T14:30:18","date_gmt":"2013-11-04T09:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=113343"},"modified":"2013-11-15T05:38:15","modified_gmt":"2013-11-15T00:08:15","slug":"sri-lanka-hosting-chogm-is-a-joke-is-the-british-commonwealth-relevant-any-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lanka-hosting-chogm-is-a-joke-is-the-british-commonwealth-relevant-any-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka Hosting CHOGM Is A Joke: Is The (British) Commonwealth Relevant Any More?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brian Senewiratne<\/a><\/span> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Dr. Brian Senewiratne<\/p><\/div>\n

I argued that the Commonwealth was a farce, and the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM<\/a><\/span>) a joke. That is not correct. I have re-written it to draw attention to an entirely different \u2018event\u2019 associated<\/span> with CHOGM, the Commonwealth Business Forum (CBF).<\/p>\n

CHOGM is not a farce. Hosting this event is an opportunity for the host country to make a lot of money. That<\/em> is why Sri Lanka<\/a><\/span> lobbied so hard in 2009 at CHOGM in Trinidad and Tobago to host the 2013 meeting. What goes on in the main meeting(s) might well be a farce, but the forums that accompany<\/span> CHOGM, CBF in particular, is anything but a farce.<\/p>\n

CBF is a gathering of businessmen from developed and emerging markets that aim to promote trade and investment. It is a business meeting, which has nothing to do with \u201cCommonwealth core values\u201d. It presents a tremendous opportunity for the \u2018host nation\u2019 to look at new partnerships and business opportunities \u2013 to hell with human rights, democracy or the rule of law.<\/p>\n

Typically at every CBF the host country benefits most. At the last CBF (during\u00a0 CHOGM in Perth, Australia, 2011), some $10 billion in deals were sealed for Australia. For Sri Lanka, a $2 billion \u2018business opportunity\u2019 is projected for the November 2013 meeting.<\/p>\n

Since 1997, CHOGM has an \u2018official theme\u2019 set by the host country on which the primary discussions are focussed. Sri Lanka\u2019s choice was predictable. With the \u2018need\u2019 to maintain a massive Army of some 230,000 soldiers (up from 180,000 during the \u2018war\u2019 to 230,00 in \u2018peace time\u2019, and a call to increase this to 300,000), mega-corruption, fraud, extensive bribery, financial mismanagement and stealing all the way to the top, the country is desperately in need of money.<\/p>\n

The budget deficit of US $ 4.2 Bn (revenue US$10.2 Bn, expenditure $ 14.5 Bn) is financed from domestic and foreign borrowings especially from the IMF, putting the country deeper and deeper into debt. \u00a0Of the total expenditure of SL Rs 1.6 Tn (US$ 14.5 Bn), Rs 230 Bn is for \u2018defence\u2019, of which 88% goes to the military – to \u2018defend\u2019 the country from a non-existent enemy. The IMF, with its usual conditions of restricting social welfare and essential services which must be met, is creating massive problems for those at the bottom of the economic ladder, even higher up, which are resulting in intolerable living conditions, especially the upward spiralling of the cost of living. This is resulting in increasing unrest. A revolt in the Sinhalese South is likely.<\/p>\n

As such, the most urgent need for President Mahinda Rajapaksa<\/a><\/span>\u2019s government is money, not advise on human rights. The predictable choice of the \u2018official theme\u2019 of the up-coming CHOGM is: \u201cPartnering for Wealth Creation and Social Development\u201d.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Simply put, CHOGM is the much-needed opportunity to keep the ruling Rajapaksa junta in power and prevent an almost certain uprising of the majority Sinhalese<\/span> at the escalating cost of living and grinding poverty. This is already happening, and is being crushed by the Army \u2013 hence the \u2018need\u2019 for a 230,000 strong Army, by far the largest Army per capita of the population of any country in the world.<\/p>\n

Those who think that CHOGM will afford an opportunity to hold the Sri Lankan government accountable for the well-documented serious violation of human rights and crimes against humanity that have occurred after Rajapaksa came into power (November 2005) and is continuing today<\/span>, more than 4 years after the genocidal massacre of the Tamil people in the North and East, have no idea of realpolitick.<\/em><\/p>\n

Those who attend CHOGM do not know, or want to know, what is going on behind the closed and censored doors of Sri Lanka, or the agenda of the Totalitarian State under the Rajapaksas (all of them). In practical terms \u201cPartnering for Wealth creation\u201d<\/em> is \u2018wealth creation\u2019 for the Rajapaksa family<\/a><\/span> (all of them) and their stooges.<\/p>\n

People who think that some country, any country, will ask the hard questions on the violation of human rights, the dismantling of democracy and the separation of powers, strangling the media, interfering with judicial independence and rule of Law, and demand a response from the Sri Lankan government, do not know how these tea-clubs function.<\/p>\n

For example, will some country ask Sri Lanka why it is necessary to have such a large Army (as President Rajapaksa was asked in the recent disastrous AlJazeera TV interview at which he was visibly shaking<\/a><\/span>), and why Amnesty International (AI), Human Rights Watch (HRW) and International Crisis Group (ICG) are barred from entering the country, let alone the Tamil North and East? It will not happen. If it does, the answer from Sri Lanka will be a downright lie.<\/p>\n

The answer will be that that the Tamil people have been \u2018successfully rehabilitated\u2019 and there are now only happy smiling (Tamil) faces in the former conflict area in the North and East. Will the follow-up question, \u201cCan AI, HRW and ICG check that out?<\/em>\u201d be asked? No, it will not be asked because that will rock the boat which is \u2018not good for business\u2019.\u00a0 That is how realpolitik<\/em> operates.<\/p>\n

Fiji is the only country in the 52 nation Commonwealth to remain suspended. No action has been taken against Sri Lanka, the country with the worst human rights record in the Commonwealth, and far worse than what Fiji did which was relatively minor in comparison to the extensive violation of the Commonwealth \u2018core values\u2019 by Sri Lanka. The double standards, one for Fiji, and an entirely different one for Sri Lanka, is downright hypocrisy.<\/p>\n

The start<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Declaration of the Commonwealth Prime Ministers creating the modern Commonwealth (28 April 1949) stated:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026\u2026the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Ceylon, hereby pledge that they remain united as free and equal members of the Commonwealth of Nations, freely co-operating in the pursuit of peace, liberty and progress\u201d.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

60 years later, Queen Elizabeth II, Head of the Commonwealth, in December 2009, said:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Commonwealth is not an organisation with a mission. It is rather an opportunity for its people to work together to achieve practical solutions to problems\u201d.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To put this in the current context, \u201cthe practical solutions\u201d is to get Commonwealth countries to provide the money for Rajapaksa to solve his \u201cproblems\u201d. That is what is needed, not advise on human rights or democracy.<\/p>\n

In the course of its history, the Commonwealth membership has grown from 8 to 52 countries. Some have been suspended, two of them, twice. The suspension has been revoked in some, remains suspended in one (Fiji).<\/p>\n

The aim<\/strong><\/p>\n

The (supposed) aim of the Commonwealth has been to address issues such as:<\/p>\n