{"id":115495,"date":"2013-11-22T13:33:55","date_gmt":"2013-11-22T08:03:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=115495"},"modified":"2013-11-27T16:18:33","modified_gmt":"2013-11-27T10:48:33","slug":"chogm-and-post-chogm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/chogm-and-post-chogm\/","title":{"rendered":"CHOGM And Post-CHOGM"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"Malinda<\/a>

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

Once the final CHOGM<\/span><\/a> document is released we will be in post-CHOGM Sri Lanka.\u00a0 The Commonwealth hasn\u2019t changed much since it was formed and given realities it is unlikely that the Colombo Summit would see change in color, tone or substance.\u00a0 That\u2019s no fault of the host or the participants; it is, as a wit put it, akin to an Alumni Association meeting up several decades after the particular school ceased to exist.\u00a0 It has been, is and will likely be a platform for moral posturing and affirmation of principles and values that few if any abide by, least of all those who swear by them.<\/p>\n

This CHOGM has been about off-summit antics as much as the summit itself.\u00a0 Channel 4 clearly found the proceedings too boring to cover. \u00a0The Bodu Bala Sena<\/span><\/a> had to get into the action too.\u00a0 The NGO circus, as expected, came to town.\u00a0 The UNP was reduced to a rent-a-premises outfit, a come-down that puts it on par with the Communist Party.\u00a0 Good entertainment all around.<\/p>\n

British Prime Minister David Cameron<\/span><\/a> was making a pitch for expatriate Sri Lankan Tamil votes.\u00a0 He issued a warning about calling for an \u2018international investigation\u2019 into allegations regurgitated by people who really don\u2019t care about reliability of source or the principles of proportion. He did not let anyone utter a word about the Chilcott Report.\u00a0 Instead he played the old colonial tune called \u2018Divide and Rule\u2019 to which, sadly, judge-turned-politico Wigneswaran was only too happy to dance.<\/p>\n

Not wanting to be quite the fish out of water at his media conference, the man watered his surroundings with friendly foreign media. He fielded scripted questions and shied away from the local media.\u00a0 That choreographed exercise made his somber pronouncements about freedom and democracy sound rather incongruous.\u00a0 He looked quite a hero on turf deliberately made soft for his tender feet giving the impression that had he ventured from comfort zone he would have ended with bloodied nose.<\/p>\n

His Canadian counterpart, Stephen Harper<\/span><\/a>, had already done what he could in this regard.\u00a0 He sent a minion to get a photograph that could be used as proof of support for that vociferous vote bank whose key movers and shakers have given an extra oomph to criminality in that country.<\/p>\n

Then there has been the foreign media.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Selective, prejudicial and kept.\u00a0 Wait, quite happy to utter falsehood, we could add.\u00a0 Australia\u2019s ABC reported that the Indian Prime Minister<\/span><\/a> was not attending because of human rights violations in Sri Lanka.\u00a0 Neither Singh nor any of his emissaries has stated anything of the kind.\u00a0 BBC and other Cameron-friendly media stations carefully edited out anything and everything that might embarrass those who are virulently anti-Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

The Youth and People\u2019s forums deliberated, debated and finalized position-documents on their relevant subjects.\u00a0 In a context where the main forum yields little, the only positive remains the energy and enthusiasm shown, not that which was expended.\u00a0 The Business Forum was different.\u00a0 Well-attended, this forum of pragmatic people focused on costs and benefits, might prove to yield something tangible and substantial, unlike the main event and the other two side shows.<\/p>\n

By and large, the circus stole the thunder from the event it was supposed to frill.\u00a0 Colombo got more than a facelift.\u00a0 That\u2019s something to cheer.\u00a0 The question that will continue to be asked is \u2018was it all worth it?\u2019\u00a0 Well, there\u2019s one positive that will stay: if there\u2019s a will, things can be done and done fast too.<\/p>\n

Tomorrow, Monday, we will be in post-CHOGM land.\u00a0 The allegations that were voiced pre-CHOGM and tossed around during CHOGM will be heard again and again.\u00a0 Counter-allegations will not be picked by the anti-Sri Lanka media circus.\u00a0 Nothing will satisfy the likes of Cameron and anyway there\u2019s nothing in Sri Lanka\u2019s Constitution about having to adjust policy, law and ways of being to suit the whims and fancies of a colonial has-been.<\/p>\n

The only thing they\u2019ve achieved by their antics is to strengthen the hand of the government, not because the government is made of saints, but the devilry of Cameron\u2019s ilk makes the government look good in comparison.\u00a0 Cameron and others must understand that when they attack the government, the people will not forget that it is the entire country that is threatened.\u00a0 That plays into the hands of the regime.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t make it any easier for those who want to expand the territories of democracy (and we are not talking here about the pet poodles of the West in the NGO sector).\u00a0 Cameron would not care less of course.<\/p>\n

Post-CHOGM, we live in the same Sri Lanka, pretty much.\u00a0 With much less clamor and squalor.\u00a0 Let us to our familiar pace and ways return.\u00a0 We could do worse.<\/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-115495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\nCHOGM And Post-CHOGM - 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\/chogm-and-post-chogm\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"CHOGM And Post-CHOGM - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/chogm-and-post-chogm\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-11-22T08:03:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-11-27T10:48:33+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=\"4 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\/chogm-and-post-chogm\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/chogm-and-post-chogm\/\",\"name\":\"CHOGM And Post-CHOGM - 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