{"id":29050,"date":"2014-03-27T00:05:58","date_gmt":"2014-03-27T04:05:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=29050"},"modified":"2014-03-27T00:05:58","modified_gmt":"2014-03-27T04:05:58","slug":"those-presenting-our-case-at-the-unhrc-sessions-are-up-against-their-own-deficiencies-and-shortcomings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=29050","title":{"rendered":"Those Presenting our Case at the UNHRC Sessions are up Against their own Deficiencies and Shortcomings."},"content":{"rendered":"

by<\/p>\n

Vishnuguptha<\/strong><\/p>\n


\n\u201cThe idea that you can merchandise candidates for high office like breakfast cereal – that you can gather votes like box tops – is, I think, the ultimate indignity to the democratic process.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

~ Adlai E. Stevenson<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although they pretend otherwise for obviously local reasons, the last three years must have been very traumatic for the ruling politicians in Sri Lanka. The Geneva fiasco has been plaguing them and as Dr. Dayan Jayatilleke rightly asserted in his recent contribution to the media, the Government has chosen to be frozen on a fixed standpoint instead of showing any flexibility that is usually associated with statesmen in general and thereby dragging the county and her people towards a diplomatic impasse, any departure from which would only appear as one of retreat rather than a wise maneuver. <\/p>\n

Small minds aren’t supple and flexible; when they bend, they always tend to break.<\/p>\n

Pros and cons of the Geneva standoff have been argued and counter-argued by many pundits and scholars. Local politicians on both sides of the isle have been engaged in counterproductive innuendos and debates while the international community led by the United States of America, Britain, Canada and India have been busy drafting and redrafting resolution after resolution to condemn Sri Lanka to the garbage heap of the world where only rogue nations such as North Korea, Myanmar and Libya habitually inhabit. That is not good company.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It’s rather ironic and at the same time, sad to note that egos of some prominent politicos are occupying a more decisive place in the diplomatic chess game. Politicians and officials who have no clue whatsoever about the wordings of resolutions, their binding and\/or non-binding clauses and chapters, their preambles and executive summaries, data tabulations etc. have been chosen to represent Sri Lanka both at political and official levels.<\/p>\n

This alarming lack of wisdom at global fora is coming to haunt Sri Lanka and it’s a crying shame that a country that produced such ‘giants’ as Claude Corea, Shirley Amarasinghe, Raju Coomaraswamy, Jayantha Dhanapala in the past and Dayan Jayatilleke in contemporary times is found wanting in such a crucial juncture of our nation’s need. <\/p>\n

It is neither beyond Government’s means nor is it technically impossible to co-opt outsiders to a ‘special team’ of experts and academics and brief them as to the wants and needs of the Government to avert the looming collapse at the upcoming Geneva United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) sessions on the 29th of this month.<\/p>\n

But as already stated above, egos play a big role in sabotaging the whole scenario. Our politicians are not ‘big’ enough nor are they sufficiently humble to accept their incapacities and inadequacies when dealing with the top-notch diplomats who would be representing the big powers of the world. <\/p>\n

That is all in the messenger side of the equation which is only forty percent (40%) of the problem. The balance sixty percent (60%) is ‘in and of’ the message itself. However clever your emissaries are, if what they are expected to articulate and enunciate falls below the acceptability line, then the task is more daunting and challenging. A properly drafted and clearly articulated message or policy is easier to put across, whether the audience is international or local. The present rulers are extremely handy in and capable of convincing the local public or at least a sizeable majority of them, of their point of view. Their choice of the lingo, their means of communication, their overwhelming hold over the wherewithal and availability of financial means are extraordinary and the real players at the local level are exceptionally crafty and able. They are motivated and focused. <\/p>\n

But, alas, when it comes to the international stage, our talents seem to be mournfully inadequate. It looks as if two different sets of players are playing a complicated game- on the local side, a team of exceptionally skilled players while on the global arena, to use a cricketing simile, unskilled and uncoached amateurs collapsing on a tricky and turning wicket.<\/p>\n

The ‘synthetic’ humility and disarming candor are forgotten, even as a political tactic; the real reason that has made the rulers get bogged down in this rut is what no loyalist or subordinate would dare question. When one delves deeper into the primary and sub-causes of this impasse, one would invariably come across the falsehood and cosmetic character of the inner belief of the ruling circles, ranging from defense to civil, official and political leadership rungs. One simply cannot help oneself when one believes in one’s own lies and half-truths.<\/p>\n

As the reader can see, the problem is more elementary than one could acknowledge. It’s not only the mechanism or messenger-boys that have caused this problem for the Government; it was caused by the very message or the set of policies that the Government is trying to present with no convincing results, to the international fora accompanied by contributions by Government’s sycophants whose credentials for a high-powered global presentation are seriously lacking.<\/p>\n

In such an uninspiring setup, those who have been billed to present our case at the UNHRC sessions at the end of this month are up against their own deficiencies and shortcomings. And they are aware of this situation. <\/p>\n

However, the conspicuous acts of omissions on the part of the country’s Parliamentary ‘Opposition’ have helped the Government to cushion the blows thrown at them by the international community. It is unpardonable for the Opposition, as a whole or even individually, to adopt a very apathetic political strategy towards the whole question of ‘good governance’ and ‘transparency’. Being literally afraid to confront the issue of serious allegations made by global players, such as Navi Pillai, David Cameron of the United Kingdom and Harper of Canada, the Parliamentary Opposition has adopted a very sedentary posture. They look more clueless than the Government itself and have no idea how to operate in a socially volatile and culturally explosive environment that the Government itself has been instrumental in creating in the first place. <\/p>\n

One is reminded, of how Prime Minister Sir John Kotelawala of all leaders of yesteryear, initiated talks between India and Ceylon in the early Nineteen Fifties to cajole India and secure India’s goodwill for Ceylon. Sir John asked the then Leader of the Opposition, S W R D Bandaranaike and also Dudley Senanayake who had by then, retired from politics after the 1953 Hartal riots, to accompany him to India to allay fears from Indian minds regarding citizenship issue of the Estate Tamils. Sir John Kotelawala, with all his faults and lack of political acumen, could never be classified as one who had a ‘small’ mind. He was a big man in every sense of the word.<\/p>\n

Had Mahinda Rajapaksa asked Ranil Wickremesinghe and some other leading Opposition figures to help him secure India’s support, no local political leader would have had the guts or heart to say no. A golden opportunity was let go. And the country suffers for it. There is middle ground, I dare say. But that middle ground has to be found by letting go of the stinking past and rotting present. The stakes are much more intimidating and demanding than the ordinary man and woman on the street could comprehend.<\/p>\n

What suffers most is that dynamic process of democracy. That process has bestowed our country with some great leaders in the past; it will continue to produce more in the future although the present lot is far too inadequate compared to those in the past. That process of democracy must be kept alive and well. Any breakdown, however temporary, cannot be tolerated; that process which gave us the universal franchise, that process which gave us a Republican Constitution, that process which gave us a Parliament and Provincial Councils and Pradesheeya Sabhas cannot be sacrificed for political expediency. That process of democracy is the one that gets hurt and suffers most as our failure looms at the upcoming UNHRC sessions. <\/p>\n


\nWriter can be contacted at vishnuguptha2012@gmail.com<\/em><\/p>\n

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by Vishnuguptha \u201cThe idea that you can merchandise candidates for high office like breakfast cereal – that you can gather votes like box tops – is, I think, the ultimate indignity to the democratic process.\u201d ~ Adlai E. Stevenson Although they pretend otherwise for obviously local reasons, the last three years must have been very …<\/p>\n

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