{"id":115597,"date":"2013-11-24T00:07:07","date_gmt":"2013-11-23T18:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=115597"},"modified":"2013-11-29T08:24:58","modified_gmt":"2013-11-29T02:54:58","slug":"david-camerons-reverie-during-the-long-flight-back-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/david-camerons-reverie-during-the-long-flight-back-home\/","title":{"rendered":"David Cameron\u2019s Reverie During The Long Flight Back Home"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b><b>By\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Malinda+Seneviratne+&amp;x=10&amp;y=6\">Malinda Seneviratne<\/a><\/span>\u00a0&#8211;<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_105560\" style=\"width: 140px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Malinda-Seneviratne-150x150.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-105560\" class=\"size-full wp-image-105560\" alt=\"Malinda Seneviratne\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Malinda-Seneviratne-150x150.jpg\" width=\"130\" height=\"135\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-105560\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Malinda Seneviratne<\/p><\/div>\n<p><b>Meanwhile in a parallel universe called \u2018humility\u2019<\/b><\/p>\n<p>I came, no one can say I did not. I saw.\u00a0 I mean, I saw some stuff, didn\u2019t see a lot of stuff and pretended not to see some of what I did see.\u00a0 I pretended to be conqueror.\u00a0 I can\u2019t say I talked tough or talked down, honestly, because I was at the receiving end of a lot of \u2018tough\u2019 and was left looking up a lot of times.<\/p>\n<p>I spoke about media freedom but didn\u2019t talk about the Leveson Inquiry which all of Britain knows is a judicial public probe into the culture, practices and ethics of our press following the News International phone-hacking scandal.\u00a0 When I tough-talked with my friend Mahinda, that tough-talk was tossed at me.\u00a0 I had to opt for thumb-twiddling.<\/p>\n<p>I spoke about human rights and I was asked about the Chilcot Report and about Bloody Sunday, the former about an illegal invasion 10 years ago and the latter about crimes against humanity perpetrated 40 years ago. The Chicot Report, if you really want to know, is being edited to clear our friends (should I say \u2018our masters\u2019?) across the Atlantic of any guilt.\u00a0 I got a lesson in arithmetic, since the LLRC Report came out just a couple of years after May 2009.\u00a0 The LLRC Report was not \u2018edited\u2019.\u00a0 So when I gave a March 2014 deadline and had to say \u2018please give me six months to get the sanitized version of the Chilcot Repoirt out, I was made to look like a first grader who was finding it tough to add one to one and get \u2018two\u2019.\u00a0 \u00a0More thumb-twiddling.<\/p>\n<p>There was other stuff that I had to listen to. It was altogether uncomfortable and disconcerting. But then again, I had a script in hand and I played my part. I had to say certain things to Mahinda so that I could come out and tell my journo-buddies (who alone were allowed to shoot questions at me, \u2018freebies\u2019 or \u2018full-tosses\u2019 I think they are called) \u2018I said this and that\u2019 in my \u2018free-and-frank\u2019 monologue.\u00a0 No one asked what was said to me, because I didn\u2019t allow intelligent journalists who subscribed to media ethics to query me.<\/p>\n<p>The flight home was long.\u00a0 I had time to think.\u00a0 I know for a fact that we allow, in the name of \u2018freedom of expression\u2019, LTTE operatives to demonstrate in London.\u00a0 We did that even when Prabhakaran was alive.\u00a0 Then, as now, the Tiger flag is waved.\u00a0 We would never allow an Al Qaeda flag to flutter anywhere in our fair land, folks.\u00a0 No Al Qaeda slogans either.<\/p>\n<p>And then there\u2019s this other funny thing.\u00a0 It\u2019s also about numbers, but those numbers were not shot at me when I met Mahinda.\u00a0 My government never listens to unions or union members who are more numerous than all the brown folk who take to the streets in London.<\/p>\n<p>I also thought how important the Commonwealth is to us.\u00a0 As a client state of the USA we have nothing to brag about except past glory.\u00a0 We need the monarchy because that\u2019s the only thing that gives us \u2018leadership\u2019 in the CHOGM.\u00a0 Truth be told, if we became a republic, India might take over the Commonwealth.\u00a0 That\u2019s what happened to the ICC.<\/p>\n<p>I closed my eyes and the words of a Yaka floated into my dreams.\u00a0 Loud and clear.\u00a0 Ox-bridge accent and all to make sure I got the lines right.\u00a0 Here\u2019s what I heard:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><i>\u201cThey have always used the early technique of &#8216;transference&#8217;&#8230;<br \/>\nthey hit us on the head to get rid of their headaches&#8230;<br \/>\nit clears the synapses apparently&#8230;<br \/>\nthe angst about debt&#8230;\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It was nice to get back to London.<\/p>\n<p><em>*Malinda Seneviratne is the Chief Editor of \u2018The Nation\u2019\u00a0and his articles can be found at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/malindawords.blogspot.co.uk\/\">www.malindawords.blogspot.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/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],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - 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