{"id":62599,"date":"2012-12-01T18:00:03","date_gmt":"2012-12-01T18:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=62599"},"modified":"2012-12-04T07:56:51","modified_gmt":"2012-12-04T07:56:51","slug":"applying-old-sayings-to-new-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/applying-old-sayings-to-new-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"Applying Old Sayings To New Sri Lanka"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Emil van der Poorten<\/a><\/span>\u00a0–<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Emil van der Poorten<\/p><\/div>\n

I must confess to having used the title of this week\u2019s column previously when I invoked the memory of a father who was very fond of aphorisms of many kinds.\u00a0 Even though my friends and I, in our callow youth, used to make fun of such \u201cold-fashioned stuff,\u201d over the years, I have found that those sayings had lasted through the years for very good reason: they expressed, to use that hackneyed term, the eternal verities.<\/p>\n

But to business!\u00a0 When I wrote the first piece which took as its jumping off point this aphorism, I referred to a slew of countries and governments the association with whom gave our government a particular complexion, even if \u201conly\u201d by virtue of association.<\/p>\n

Among this lot was Myanmar\/Burma<\/a><\/span> (before the recent attempt at democratization began and the release of Aung San Suu Ky<\/a><\/span>i from house arrest), Libya<\/a><\/span> prior to Gaddafi<\/a><\/span>\u2019s overthrow, China, Iran and Russia.<\/p>\n

I do recall quite vividly the head of the Myanmarese\/Burmese government of the day being accorded the singular honour of a special exposition of the Tooth Relic while on a state visit to Sri Lanka<\/a><\/span> and the gift of a baby elephant to that country during the same period of its suppression of democracy and killing of demonstrators for democracy, including monks.<\/p>\n

Gaddafi had already achieved pariah status in the world generally, primarily thanks to his erratic behavior and extreme violence directed at anything resembling dissent before state visits to Tripoli by \u201cthose who matter\u201d from our shores.\u00a0 A commonality held by both parties to this dialogue in North Africa at the time could well have been the fact that both male parents were convinced of the \u201csporting genius\u201d of their progeny.\u00a0 In Gaddafi\u2019s case this extended into an effort to get one of his sons on to the team roster of a top European club and, failing there, an attempt to BUY that club!\u00a0 As a coda to that son\u2019s fading sporting ambitions, I recall Ben Johnson the Canadian athlete (remember him winning at the Seoul\u00a0 Olympics only to be stripped of his medal for doping?) being hired as a personal trainer by the North African despot to take care of the \u201cathletic progress\u201d of his son!\u00a0 Of course we\u2019ve had our own \u201cpersonal trainers\u201d to our Royalty but I do not recall any of them doping themselves up to achieve \u201cexcellence\u201d though their violent behavior after rugger matches is certainly reminiscent of that of users of cocaine or crystal meth!<\/p>\n

Since the fall of Gaddafi, the silence of our regime about that nation and the need to cultivate relations with its new regime has been nothing short of deafening!<\/p>\n

What is significant about events (or the lack thereof) since the sea change in Burma which resulted in the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and the return of a number of democratic practices to the realm of governance, is that, as far as the Sri Lankan government is concerned, that country might as well have ceased to exist!\u00a0 Leave alone state visits and special expositions of the Tooth Relic<\/a><\/span>, there is not so much as a mention of Sri Lanka-Burma relations in the bought-and-paid-for-media (BaPFM ) of this country. \u00a0\u00a0Given the fact that the BaPFM now comprises close to all the nation\u2019s print publications, radio and television, this is really saying something, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

As for China<\/a><\/span>, we were very much in thrall to this new world power who was also developing a reputation as a modern-day Shylock to developing countries, a reputation that its recent conduct has done nothing to change as it sets about exploiting resources of every kind in countries that are in grave economic difficulty and have monumentally corrupt regimes.\u00a0 The real \u201cin\u201d that China (and India) have in these efforts is that they don\u2019t even make a pretence of ethical conduct in business relations with their client countries and treat every bribe and commission as a simple \u201ccost of doing business.\u201d\u00a0 As one businessman friend of mine put it, the only reason Chinese businessmen were more popular than their Indian counterparts in Sri Lanka was that they didn\u2019t go around whining and complaining about how much they\u2019d paid for the privilege of supplying defective equipment (remember Norochcholai<\/a><\/span>?) to corrupt minions of our Regime!<\/p>\n

Russia?\u00a0 Need one do more than simply refer to the term \u201cRussian Mafia\u201d as an indicator of its progress down the path of democratization?\u00a0 The murder and incarceration of human rights activists and its suppression of dissent, up to and including \u201cstreet theatre,\u201d more than speaks for itself.\u00a0 The icing on that particular post-USSR cake is Putin\u2019s cavorting with assorted show-biz \u2018starlets,\u2019 and installing them in the national legislature.\u00a0 Sound familiar?<\/p>\n

Iran for which many have a soft spot because of its being \u201ctargeted\u201d by the US and Israel, in pursuit of the fraudulent , \u201cwar against terrorism<\/a><\/span>,\u201d continues on its path of fundamentalist religion, all but institutionalizing Sharia law and crushing every emergence of dissent of even the mildest kind.<\/p>\n

As for China, the monumental corruption that is being exposed as several of the outgoing leadership are exposed for their violence (inclusive of murder) and embezzlement of state funds, by the New York Times and Bloomberg News speaks for itself.\u00a0 The fact that China is seeking to use the most blatant means of censorship<\/a><\/span> to prevent this information reaching its own citizens makes interesting reading in a Sri Lankan context.<\/p>\n

And then there are our new bosom buddies.<\/p>\n

The most flamboyant of these and certainly the most outrageous is an Absolute Monarch.\u00a0 Let me open my account of him with a recent news clip which is indicative of the kind of person he is and the regime he leads:<\/p>\n

\u201cSwaziland\u2019s King Mswati has been betrayed by his childhood friend, Justice Minister Ndumiso Mamba, who was caught sleeping with one of his young wives, Nothando Dube.
\nSouthern African newspapers and online sources say the minister and queen were arrested last week<\/em>.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Just to spice up that account of His Majesty, here\u2019s another little tidbit from Wikipedia:<\/p>\n

In an attempt to mitigate the HIV and AIDS pandemic in 2001, the king used his traditional powers to invoke a time-honoured chastity<\/a> rite<\/a> (umcwasho<\/a>), which encouraged all Swazi maidens to abstain from sexual relations for five years.[2]<\/a><\/sup> This rite banned sexual relations for Swazis under 18 years of age from 9 September 2001 and 19 August 2005, but just two months after imposing the ban, he violated this decree when he married a 17-year-old girl, who became his 13th wife. As per custom, he was fined a cow by members of her regiment, which he duly paid.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A reference to the accounts carried in the archives of any of our national websites, particularly the more blatantly sycophantic of them, dealing with this visit, will provide a picture of an African \u201cRoyal\u201d who is the epitome of all that is good, gracious and modern, without any mention of the fine of a cow!<\/p>\n

From the same continent comes Yoweri Musaveni of Uganda who was recently a guest of honour in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

Musaveni, like Ceaucescu of Romania, Honecker of the former East Germany and other freedom fighters started his revolutionary career putting his life on the line for the freedom of his people.\u00a0 In Musaveni\u2019s case it was first Idi Amin Dada and then Milton Obote that he fought against.\u00a0 However, like Honecker and Ceaucescu, he has ended up as yet another common-or-garden despot, embracing every kind of outlandish policy to create the typical \u201csmoke and mirrors\u201d or \u201cbread and circuses\u201d diversions to hide the ugly reality of what he now does.\u00a0 In Musaveni\u2019s case he has, for the second time, introduced a bill making homosexuality punishable by death and, for the second time, there is an international petition asking that he not proceed with this absolutely dastardly piece of law!\u00a0 There has also been a huge uproar in Britain because of the embezzlement of funds provided by that country for the rescue of an education system that was well on its way to disappearing.<\/p>\n

We now appear to be cultivating, from the remnants of the old Soviet Union, Kazakhstan, a country of 16.6 million people but covering a land mass larger than Europe\u2019s.\u00a0 An epitome of democracy this country is not, Nursultan Nazarbayev being the only President it has known since it first came into existence.\u00a0 Again a quote from old faithful Wikipedia might be in order:<\/p>\n

Kazakhstan is officially a unitary republic. The first and only supreme chancellor is Nursultan Nazarbayev<\/a>. The supreme chancellor is also the commander in chief<\/a> of the armed forces and may veto<\/a> legislation that has been passed by the Parliament<\/a><\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I have previously dealt with freedom fighters and brave patriots who have turned into despots once their primary goal was achieved \u2013 getting rid of the immediate danger or threat – and both Gaddafi, in getting rid of King Idris, and Musaveni are examples of this. \u00a0In addition, the following extract from Wikipedia about Uganda could well provide an \u201cAha!\u201d moment for most readers:<\/p>\n

Recent developments, including the abolition of presidential term limits before the 2006 elections and the harassment of democratic opposition, have attracted concern from domestic commentators and the international community<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I will leave you, dear reader, to arrive at your own conclusions in the matter of why our government has, in the past, cultivated the least democratic of regimes and continues to nurture relations with those that continue on that path while dropping, like the proverbial hot potato, relations with such as Myanmar which has shown clear signs of charting a new course. Also, while consolidating relationships with the repressive among old friends, there appears to be more than a suggestion of deliberate cultivation of those of a similar stripe who have not been previously courted!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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