{"id":43685,"date":"2012-06-02T18:56:33","date_gmt":"2012-06-02T18:56:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=43685"},"modified":"2012-06-03T14:34:26","modified_gmt":"2012-06-03T14:34:26","slug":"from-here-to-houla","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/from-here-to-houla\/","title":{"rendered":"From Here To \u2018Houla\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>

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

Those who are tagged \u2018World Leaders\u2019 are those who have two things: money and power.\u00a0 Those who have intellect and have contributed to the alleviation of disease or have made life easier are called scientists.\u00a0 Those who hone sensitivities are called artists.\u00a0 World leaders call the shots.\u00a0 The others are peripheral to history or rather historiography,<\/p>\n

We live in times where world leaders preach democracy, peace and justice.\u00a0 We live in times where these same benefactors of humankind and prophets of decency and civilization are also guilty of unimaginable crimes against humanity.\u00a0 George W Bush is a war criminal, it has now been acknowledged.\u00a0 Tony Blair has not been named and shamed.\u00a0 David Cameron too.\u00a0 Barack Obama who bailed out robber barons who caused a global financial meltdown and who incarcerated the victims who cried \u2018foul\u2019, the same man who Rev. Jesse Jackson called a war criminal (\u2018Those who own the drones are war criminals,\u2019 Geneva, March 2012), was given the Nobel Prize for Peace in a way akin to someone being named \u2018Man of the Match\u2019 before the toss.<\/p>\n

We got the \u2018Houla Massacre\u2019 in Syria, courtesy a media industry that went to town at end-point and scarcely murmured about all that went before, not to mention its scandalous myopia and shy-making when the authors of war criminality have addresses in Washington DC, London, Paris etc. \u00a0It\u2019s all about ousting unfriendly regimes and getting the world to cheer war criminals re-christened as benefactors of oppressed peoples.\u00a0 If you want to know the script, go to Page 14 of this newspaper.<\/p>\n

It is all about R2P or \u2018Responsibility to Protect\u2019, the 21st<\/sup> Century name for \u2018White Man\u2019s Burden\u2019.\u00a0 And the \u2018protectors\u2019 can, if they so wish, bypass the worst butchers and swoop down on relatively benign polities.\u00a0 Has happened, is happening and will probably happen again. And the \u2018protectors\u2019 can always count on help from within, for no country on earth has a population that cheers its leaders en masss<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Now there have been times when helplessness prods people to call for help, but help-calling in general although done in the name of \u2018the people\u2019 are essentially exercises in power-capture.\u00a0 In general, it is best that people deal with the horrors that rule them, sometimes even elected by them, by themselves.\u00a0 Even the strongest of regimes have weaknesses. No one is invincible.<\/p>\n

This however is not about regime change but about resisting interference.\u00a0 Strong states resist better, naturally.\u00a0 Strong governments are more resilient than weak ones.<\/p>\n

There are all kinds of \u2018strong states\u2019. They need not be \u2018democracies\u2019.\u00a0 Military juntas, monarchies, totalitarian systems and theocracies have proved to be as strong as certain democracies.\u00a0 And there\u2019s nothing to say that one type less popular than another, unless of course you happen to be an uncritical consumer of drivel dished out by Washington-friendly media.<\/p>\n

But is Sri Lanka under threat?\u00a0 All countries are and those (like Sri Lanka) which are reluctant to follow Washington-scripted policies are particularly vulnerable; and a threat is often more potent than its execution, Ksawery Tartakower, the Polish chess grandmaster noted more than a century ago . \u00a0We must also add the arm-twisting neighbor India into the equation, the machinations in Geneva and the veiled and open threats issued against Sri Lanka to get the full picture of intent.<\/p>\n

What does the domestic picture look like?\u00a0 Bleak.\u00a0 We have a constitution that is made to make dictators.\u00a0 We have institutional flaws that no one is interested in correcting while those pointing out error have themselves benefitted from the same when in power or else have so aided and abetted spoilers (like the LTTE) to be taken seriously by the masses.\u00a0 There is corruption.\u00a0 There is power-abuse.\u00a0 Checks and balances are woefully inadequate.\u00a0 We can be thankful for the more-than-a-small-mercy of not having to deal with terrorism, but that won\u2019t erase away the abiding anomalies, systemic flaws and the truth that citizen is not insulated by arrogant and thieving politician.<\/p>\n

All these, in light of what one may call the \u2018Houla Doctrine\u2019, are eminently exploitable by external forces who may appear to be regime-haters but in reality have no love for people or nation (unless as exploitable labour, \u2018plunderable\u2019 resources or convenient bases for military purposes).<\/p>\n

Two things need to be done.\u00a0 First of all, we must be aware of the possibilities, the avenues that the interferer may take and the allies they may depend on.\u00a0 Secondly, we must become stronger as a nation.<\/p>\n

The first is easy.\u00a0 The second, tough.\u00a0 Strong government is not the same as strong nation.\u00a0 A strong nation is one that can make a government that is strong, effective and just.\u00a0 And this, in spite of a flawed constitution, bribe-taking politicians and officials, a pathetic opposition, easily purchasable academics and media personnel, and racketeers masquerading as civil society activists.<\/p>\n

On thing is certain.\u00a0 We are not Bahrain.\u00a0 We are not Saudi Arabia.\u00a0 We won\u2019t be granted favours.\u00a0 Neither are we Syria. Yet.\u00a0 And that \u2018yet\u2019 is something that can be taken out of the sentence without too much difficulty.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":41991,"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-43685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\nFrom Here To \u2018Houla\u2019 - 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\/from-here-to-houla\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From Here To \u2018Houla\u2019 - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/from-here-to-houla\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-06-02T18:56:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-06-03T14:34:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Dominics-Pic-Copy-3.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1368\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1750\" \/>\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\/from-here-to-houla\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/from-here-to-houla\/\",\"name\":\"From Here To \u2018Houla\u2019 - 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