{"id":41017,"date":"2012-05-10T23:51:50","date_gmt":"2012-05-10T23:51:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=41017"},"modified":"2012-05-16T09:05:48","modified_gmt":"2012-05-16T09:05:48","slug":"peace-whose-business-is-it-anyway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/peace-whose-business-is-it-anyway\/","title":{"rendered":"Peace: Whose Business Is It Anyway?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>By\u00a0<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Malinda+Seneviratne&amp;x=16&amp;y=4\">Malinda Seneviratne<\/a>\u00a0&#8211;<\/strong><\/div>\n<div>\n<div id=\"attachment_1224\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wikileaks-us-the-worst-violators-of-human-rights-malinda-says\/malinda-seneviratne-at-the-dbu-colombo-3\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1224\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1224\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-1224\" title=\"Malinda Seneviratne. at the DBU, Colombo.\" src=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/malinda1-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/malinda1-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/malinda1-50x50.jpg 50w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1224\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Malinda Seneviratne<\/p><\/div>\n<p>It has been reported that US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton and Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh have \u2018agreed to work closely in expediting the Sri Lankan peace process (sic)\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0That \u2018decision\u2019 had been taken when the former visited the latter in New Delhi on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Interesting.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>First of all, neither Clinton nor Singh are representatives elected by the people of Sri Lanka.\u00a0\u00a0Nor were these individuals mandated to \u2018expedite\u2019 any process that concerns Sri Lanka.\u00a0\u00a0Neither of them have bothered to explain what \u2018peace process\u2019 means.\u00a0\u00a0Most importantly, neither of them has the moral authority to pass judgment, forward proposal or even comment on things Sri Lankan.\u00a0\u00a0Let us explain.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In March this year, the USA sponsored a resolution on Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council.\u00a0\u00a0It was a resolution that Sri Lanka objected to, vehemently, and perforce was one roundly seen as an unfriendly move on the part of the USA.\u00a0\u00a0It was a resolution that India supported, thereby dispelling all illusions about that country\u2019s friendship claims.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>If one were to go back further in history, then we can talk of how India \u2018expedited\u2019 the \u2018peace process\u2019 in Sri Lanka by funding, arming, training and giving refuge to terrorists.\u00a0\u00a0We can talk of how India PREVENTED the vanquishing of the fascist LTTE organization in 1987, postponing that eventuality by 22 years and thereby facilitating that many years worth of carnage. That act of thuggery also helped unleash an insurrection that left 60,000 dead in less than 2 years.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The USA, for all its anti-terrorist rhetoric, actively sought (through its local representative, Robert O Blake) to throw a lifeline to the fascists in the last days of the conflict, showing generosity of a kind that was and is patently absent in how that country dealt with its armed detractors in Afghanistan, most notably al Qaeda and Taliban operatives including Osama bin Laden.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Both countries were very active in supporting a largely pro-terrorist Ceasefire Agreement signed in 2002.\u00a0\u00a0There was no \u2018expediting\u2019 of anything other than destabilization, chaos, anarchy and separatist drives.<\/div>\n<div>Despite all these spokes in the wheels, Sri Lanka did defeat fascism.\u00a0\u00a0Sri Lanka opened the doors that the LTTE had closed to peace, normalcy and reconciliation.\u00a0\u00a0Singh and Clinton may have their own definitions of \u2018peace\u2019, and they are more than welcome to apply them to themselves, Singh in Kashmir and Clinton in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and other places where massive crimes against humanity are perpetrated in the name of democracy.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Sri Lanka, however, is not another state of either India or the USA. Guns, bucks and inflated egos do prompt people to be presumptuous, that\u2019s human of course.\u00a0\u00a0But this without-any-by-your-leave attitude will not help heal strained relations between these countries and Sri Lanka.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>There is reference to a \u2018stalled peace process\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0The wording is telling.\u00a0\u00a0There was a stumbling block to peace in Sri Lanka: the LTTE fascists.\u00a0\u00a0That obstacle was removed.\u00a0\u00a0There are unresolved grievances, yes.\u00a0\u00a0Not all of them are Tamil-specific.\u00a0\u00a0Not all of the articulated \u2018grievances\u2019 are myth-free.\u00a0\u00a0Neither are they un-tainted by \u2018aspiration\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0There\u2019s nothing among these \u2018grievances\u2019 that come even close to the suffering of certain communities in India and the USA.\u00a0\u00a0Indeed if there has been \u2018stalling\u2019 it is because of the TNA\u2019s intransigence, its long history of supporting LTTE fascism and its absolute reluctance to come to terms with political realities and historical facts.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In May 2009, Sri Lanka closed a chapter, the long and bloody story of fascism, spawned by chauvinism of all kinds but especially that of the likes of Ponnambalam Ramanathan, S.J.V. Chelvanayakam and G.G. Ponnambalam, and nurtured by the evil designs of Indira Gandhi and her son Rajiv.\u00a0\u00a0The meddling of the likes of Blake didn\u2019t help at all.\u00a0\u00a0Singh and Clinton can walk that path.\u00a0\u00a0They have the power to push Sri Lanka back into those terrible times.\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s not helping \u2018peace\u2019.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Given their histories and their abilities to rupture old wounds, if they really want to help, it\u2019s best they keep their distance.\u00a0\u00a0Rebuilding is easy and is happening. Curing a nation of old suspicions and animosities that are naturally birthed by conflict takes longer.\u00a0\u00a0If Singh and Clinton are impatient, hard luck! They can look at their own examples if they really want to know about \u2018inability to resolve\u2019 and \u2018insufferable delays\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0This is Sri Lanka.\u00a0\u00a0It is a country that has its own pace.\u00a0\u00a0Own way.\u00a0\u00a0Those who prescribed, dished out bad medicine.\u00a0\u00a0When that happens, such physicians are not re-visited.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Dr. Singh and Ms. Clinton are not citizens of \u2018peaceful\u2019 countries.\u00a0\u00a0They are both leaders of countries at war; at war with other countries and peoples and at war with their own people.\u00a0\u00a0They are hardly in a position to prescribe solutions to others.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Peace in Sri Lanka is the business of people who live in Sri Lanka.\u00a0\u00a0They can\u2019t find fault with anyone who says \u2018Thank you, but no!\u2019<\/div>\n<div><a href=\"http:\/\/malindawords.blogspot.co.uk\/\">http:\/\/malindawords.blogspot.co.uk<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":1224,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Peace: Whose Business Is It Anyway? 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