Compromising National Security for a few euros more...

Last week, the European Union decided to announce its withdrawal of the GSP+ facility for its imports from Sri Lanka citing 'shortcomings' in the country's human rights practices. This is a cruel blow to a country that has endured so much for the past 30 years, stretching its human and material resources to the very limit to over come the worst terror organization in the world. The irony here is that such aspersions should be cast on Sri Lanka when the country is beginning to show positive signs of emerging from the worst threat it faced to its very existence in its post independent history. The issue in this withdrawal however, is not just the loss of an economic concession which in any case is the prerogative of the EU, but the citing of 'human rights inadequacies' as the reason for same, bringing in to focus our human values and morals as a nation.

Tragedy

The problem with the west, as it has always been throughout the history is, that they view the problems confronting nations in other parts of the world through its own prism and this prism is made of economic, cultural and religious values exclusive to the west.

The tragedy of this attitude is, that it presupposes, either that other nations in the world have no values and civilizations of their own, or even if there is, such civilizations and values are not worth empathizing with.

Evidence of this biased attitude of the west towards Sri Lanka has been present over centuries of interaction, dating back to the very first times the Europeans set foot on the island in 1505. Father Fernao De Queyroz, the much quoted Catholic priest and Portuguese historian in his 'Temporal and Spiritual conquest of Ceylon' had described 15th century Sri Lanka as a land where 'every prospect pleased except the man that was vile'. Among the many reasons that made De Queyroz call our ancestors 'vile' was because they were different in appearance from Europeans with values and beliefs strikingly different from them.

Our industry and agriculture were not commercialized, like in Europe of the time: we did not have an industry to slaughter animals; nor did we have commercialized breweries and above all our life destroying weapons were no match to those of the Europeans.

Gratitude

Hence we were considered 'uncivilized' and De Qeuyroz and his entourage then arrogated the responsibility of 'civilizing' us by introducing tobacco smoking, wine drinking and establishing animal slaughter as industries. De Queyroz also accuses the Sinhalese of worshipping 'trees and stones'. This again was another wrong interpretation of our homage to the Bo tree (Feicus religiosa) which was performed essentially as a mark of gratitude for the tree's associated with the enlightenment of Buddha.

Gratitude of course has always been a virtue in Lankan society but we have never worshipped stones or cement statues as sources of blessings for our mundane affairs. Hence the European Union, just as their forefathers have been, continue to suffer from their inability to empathize with the values of civilizations that are different from their own.

Human rights, on the other hand, reached Sri Lanka when King Ashoka of the Mayura dynasty in India sent Buddhist emissaries to the island in 343 BC, and since then those have been a part and parcel of our lives and governance. Ashoka edicts in India's Kalinga (modern day Orissa), inscribed 2400 years ago, is today considered the forerunner to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The point about the Ashoka edicts however is, that the analogues cited therein for the relationship between the state and the citizenry is that of father and son.

Hence the state, like the father, had all the authority to take punitive action against the recalcitrant or prodigal children in good faith, without those actions being construed as 'violation of human rights' as the case is, in the west today. Hence the Ashoka edicts could always be considered as a more balanced approach to human rights, having studied the application of HR in all their practical ramifications.

Guidance

In the sixteenth century, democracy was not a popular method of governance anywhere in the world and we had a monarchy, similar to the west. But our monarchy was guided by 'Dasa Raja Dharma' where state power was devolved to the user. 'Dasa Raja Dharma' could also be considered as the forerunner to the modern day liberal democracy since 4 out of the 10 principles of Dasa Raja Dharma relates to liberality, mildness, forbearance and renunciation.

Hence when Europeans first invaded Ceylon we not only had human rights but even animal rights too and our cohabitation with the environment was very much sustainable and symbiotic. But still De Qeyroze had condemned us as 'heathens and pagans' and had elected to civilize us according to their paradigms of what civilization was. Thus, those who came to 'civilize' these 'primitive natives' found themselves deploying the most uncivilized means paradoxically, to conquer and govern the country ushering in the most traumatic experience in Sri Lankan history.

Practical necesscity

Two centuries later, it was the devastations the two World Wars brought on the European continent, causing millions of deaths and billions in collateral damage, that awakened the west to the practical necessity of adopting universal human rights as a condition precedent to world peace. Thus the west realized the hard way, what we knew all the while.

Now, 65 years after the establishment of the UNO and the universal declarations on human rights, the western nations, the ex colonialists, now calling themselves the 'international community', are making insidious attempts to undermine the very principles they upheld in the interest of world peace. They do this now by applying questionable and unilateral criteria against the tenets of these declarations to single out their political friends from foes. The instances of double standards the west employ to give tendentious interpretations to world events are a legion today and they will doubtless provide enough material for a few volumes of writings. This time however the arms and ammunitions have been replaced by propaganda. The west also seemed to have realized that making their subjects mentally servile is more important than their physical subjugation.

It is in this backdrop that Sri Lanka finds its duty concessions being taken off by the EU under the guise of 'shortcomings in human rights'. We cannot fight EU, the economic giant and in any case, how they waive their duty is their prerogative. All what we can do is to convey to the EU with due determination that, 'yes, we have understood your political message but sorry we are unable to comply as we are not prepared to compromise our sovereignty and national security for a few euros more'.