Bullies move from R2P TO GSP Plus
K GODAGE
The Garment Industry - a vital foreign exchange earner
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The European Union appears to have taken a page out of Shakespeare
and is, like Shylock, demanding its pound of flesh unless we conform to
their demands. Their demand, in this instance comes all dressed up in
very moral attire, namely the conforming with treaties and obligations
pertaining to Human Rights.
I have read with interest how two unelected Commissioners Mandelson
and Feraro (they are only officials of the European Commission) cut
loose and read the riot act to a Minister of an elected Government.
Brave
They would not have dared to open their mouths had it been India or
for that matter, had they faced a Mahathir or a Lee Kwan Yu. They had an
opportunity to show how brave they were against a vulnerable country.
One might even say, who could fault them when they take such high
moral ground but I can only quote to them from the Gospels (Matthew 7)
“Why then do you look at the mote in your brother’s eye and pay no
attention to the mote in your own eye, first cast out the mote from
thine own eye then thou shall see clearly to cast out the mote in thy
brother’s eye”.
I would commend this particularly to Commissioner Peter Mandelson,
who was the principal advisor to former Prime Minister Blair, during the
Bosnian war, when he and his Government did not intervene whilst the
Serbs slaughtered the Muslims whose only crime was being Muslim.
His government is indulging in killing innocent civilians in Iraq and
Afghanistan, when the British poodle followed the US into their holy war
against Iraq on the pretext that Saddam, whom they had assisted in his
war against Iran, possessed WMDs.
They are said to be seeking to establish Democracy in War Lord
country Afghanistan ! Commissioner Mandelson should answer the man in
the mirror before he threatens others.
As for Benita Ferrero- Waldner, she as Durand Appuhamy had stated,
recently hails from Austria, which country recently held a national
vigil to expiate themselves from the shame of having collaborated with
Hitler, does she now seek to help Hitler Prabhakaran achieve his Eelam ?
Yes let he or her who is without sin cast the first stone.
Are the representatives of the EU countries in Sri Lanka indulging in
duplicity when they state “We don’t negotiate with terrorists, we will
stay in Iraq even if it takes a hundred years”. It is these same folk
that preach to us “stop fighting and negotiate or else....”!!! no GSP
Plus is it ?
To the issue of GSP plus, a facility which we have enjoyed since 2005
and is coming up for review this year; GSP Plus confers a comprehensive
advantage and gives us a competitive edge; the garment industry won this
concession because of the exemplary manner in which it treated labour in
particular and because of the working conditions in our factories.
Contribution
The industry today contributes over forty five percent of our export
earnings, employs over three hundred and fifty thousand (350, 000)
directly and a similar number find employment indirectly - this would
mean that almost one million people, inclusive of families, are
dependent on this industry for their sustenance.
High inflation coupled with high interest rates, high cost of power
which has increased production costs makes it difficult to remain
competitive against such countries such as Bangladesh and Vietnam now
the EU is seeking to kill off this industry.
‘Nargis’
The industry has been struggling to stay alive and this vulnerability
is being exploited without doubt for political ends by EU.
It is an accepted fact that there is no love lost between this
elected Government of ours and the western countries as represented by
the EU, which is using the Human Rights platform to make things
difficult and if possible, to bring down the Government. Is the EU
seeking to bring upon us a man made political ‘Nargis’ to destroy this
country?
To my mind the Government has also played into the hands of the EU.
There are two incidents in particular in Trincomalee which are being
laid at the door step of the government.
There is absolutely no doubt that, unlike in Chile of Pinochet or in
Argentina of the generals, it is not the policy of the Government to
violate human rights but as the EU itself should know better, it does
happen during a disturbed situation as does exists in this country
today, but this certainly no excuse.
There is however also no excuse to indulge in any cover-up and to
shield anyone and to, in the process, get tarred when the crimes alleged
were not committed at the instance of the government.
Approach
My thoughts go back to that the massacre at Kokadaicholai and the
then Government’s efforts to shield the perpetrators and the fall out of
that crime; the whole country paid for a crime committed by a few.
The Government needs to change its approach to the problem. Two and a
half years have elapsed since it came into office and yet there is no
sign of any proposals forthcoming (despite the best efforts of Minister
Vitharne) to address the Tamil issue; the political will appears to be
absent.
The ideal situation which would have won for this country the support
of the international community, would have been to place before the
country the government’s proposals after having obtained the endorsement
of India in particular and the rest of the international community with
whom we have close relations; and if the LTTE rejected them we would
have had the support of the world to crush the insurgency.
The only Sri Lankan leader who came up with any proposals after the
Bandaranaike - Chelvanayagam Pact and the Dudley Senanayake -Chelvanayagam
Pact was President CBK, even her efforts came to naught because of cheap
irresponsible confrontational politics that has been the bane of this
country.
To revert to the GSP Plus issue, it appears that the matter is being
laid at the door of Minister GL Peiris, the Minister for international
trade; whilst it is, on the surface, a trade related issue, it is also a
political issue with huge social ramifications and has the potential to
wreck the economy of this country; the Minister for Human Rights Mahinda
Samarasinghe is also an important player.
Strategy
It is therefore obvious that our strategy to deal with this present
crisis needs to be a coordinated team effort involving many important
Ministries of the government. The Foreign Ministry needs to also play a
huge role, but with the differences we hear about, is a coordinated
effort possible? It is an absolute imperative.
These times remind me of the manner in which President Premadasa
dealt with a difficult HR situation and when the European Commission was
not prepared to grant adequate quota to make his 200 garment factory
programme a success.
He, it would be recalled, implemented 31 of the proposals submitted
by Amnesty International; he also established a Human Rights Task Force
with a retired Supreme Court Justice Sosa as head, Justice Sosa did
quite a fantastic job and won credibility in the eyes of the
international community.
Government’s move
The result was that Sri Lanka received much higher quotas at a time
when the EU had decided that at best there would only be a roll over. In
the present situation of the 27 international conventions covering
labour rights(our proud slogan in the US was “Garments without guilt”)
the environment and many other issues. It is only on ‘Good Governance
and Human Rights that we have been found wanting.
So in the first instance the Government needs to get its act together
in a transparent and credible manner with regard to the protection of
human rights. If legislation needs to be introduced even the UNP has
gone on record that it would support the Government to obtain a two
thirds majority.
Next, we need to mount a huge diplomatic offensive, this certainly is
not a matter that should be unfairly the responsibility of Minister
Bogollagama alone, just as much as obtaining the GSP Plus concession is
not the sole responsibility of Minister Professor G.L. Peiris.
Team work
Perhaps the President should act as President Premadasa would have
done in the circumstances; all concerned Ministers would have to work as
a team with a coherent strategy. We need to get the support of India and
perhaps the US; I have no doubt that support would be forthcoming as the
last thing India for instance, would wish to see is this country being
plunged into chaos.
We need also to reach out to the 25 countries of the EU and the
European Parliament, in this regard India and other friendly countries
would no doubt be able to help.
Since this is a national issue I was extremely pleased to note the
positive attitude of the leader of the Opposition Ranil Wickremesinghe,
who has stated that he would be visiting Brussels to lend a hand. This
is indeed how we expect responsible leaders to act.
Let us put aside our differences and come together when the country
is faced with a perilous situation, for too many livelihoods are at
stake and we cannot allow the EU to wreck disaster on us merely because
we have become hostage on account of the imperative need to protect our
garment industry. |