IS GORDON WISE OR otherwise ?

Bandula Jayasekara
(This article first sent to The Australian appeared in that newspaper in a watered-down version)

The main thrust of Gordon Weiss’s latest fusillade against the Sri Lankan government is to dismiss the ground situation analysed objectively by the visit of Julie Bishop, the deputy leader of the Liberal Party. Having got the inconvenient facts out of his way he cites the report of the International Crisis Group produced in distant New York as the acceptable analysis of the current situation in Sri Lanka.

Taking the ICG report as his holy Bible he then proceeds to demand regime change of the elected government of Sri Lanka as the panacea for all ills, including the spike in boat people coming to Australia. By saying ‘only upheaval can stem flow from Sri Lanka’ the not so wise, Weiss using Australian soil is encouraging a violent, sudden change and disruption in my country.

External intervention

The shortest reply to this bizarre scenario painted by him is to quote Australia's Foreign Minister, Senator Bob Carr, who told his diplomats recently: "We are running a foreign policy for a nation-state; not for a non-governmental organisation." (The Australian --7/2/2013, p.12. Greg Sheridan.) I/NGOs that pose as all-knowing problem-solvers have invariably worsened conflict and post-conflict zones. In most cases they have become a part of the problem instead of being the solution. Greg Sheridan also wrote “Some NGOs may not like Carr’s approach on Sri Lanka, but it is right, morally and in terms of Australia’s national interest” But, here is Weiss working and writing only in his own interest purely for a pot of gold.

Julie Bishop	Bob Carr

As a self-appointed pundit on Sri Lanka who can't even get his facts straight it is the height of arrogance mixed with foolishness for GW to broadcast his fiction that regime of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, most popular elected leader of Sri Lanka since its Independence, should be changed for an unknown entity in the divided opposition which has lost the democratic vote not once, not twice but several times in the post-terrorist period, starting from May 2009. Besides, those who propose to destroy today for a new tomorrow should know precisely what will surface after midnight. That is the lesson of the Middle East. But Sri Lanka, the oldest voting democracy in the Asia-Pacific region was never in need of a democratic spring. Its democratic roots are entrenched deeply in the hearts and minds of the Sri Lankans that the screaming of foreign Jeremiahs like Weiss cannot take it away from the people.

Besides, GW's infantile notion of restoring democracy by regime change without the consent of the people goes counter to all respected liberal traditions of giving the people the right to elect their governments.

His idea of democracy seems totally disconnected from the universally accepted government of the people, by the people, for the people. Instead his idea is to impose a government of his ‘fancy’ through external intervention.

He is literally asking for external intervention when he writes: "Australia should support Sri Lanka government intent on restoring Sri Lanka's democratic traditions." If he knew his facts he would not have written such balderdash. Sri Lankan democracy has survived a right-wing coup, two left-wing uprisings, and the longest running terrorist war in Asia. It is because Sri Lanka is rooted in democratic traditions. With all its infirmities -- there is no five-star democracy in the world -- Sri Lanka maintains its democratic traditions, without the aid of "hollow men, head piece filled with straw" like GW.

Facts and figures

His second point is to raise the fear of Moses about a spike in the flood of boat people. Scott Morrison who was in the visiting team with Bishop, argued convincingly that the boat people are economic refugees and not political refugees. GW's fear-mongering goes to the extreme of drawing scenarios of an apocalyptic end in which a fourth bloody civil war erupts leading to a flood of boat people. This confirms that he has a lurid imagination but not a grasp of the ground realities where the war-weary people, after 33 years of terrorism, are moving away from organised political violence.

They are opting for the benefits of the rapid economic recovery which was witnessed and reported by both Senator Carr and the Australian opposition.

Australia bound boat people: Economic and not political refugees

Gordon Weiss

Thirdly, his ‘not so wise’ mind is running like a broken record repeating over and over again facts and figures which he can't substantiate. For instance, he quotes a figure of 40,000 Tamils killed "mostly by government forces." When he was UN factotum in Sri Lanka he reported a figure of 7,000 dead in the last few months of the war.

When he came to Australia after he was thrown out of Sri Lanka and the UN, he backed it up to 40,000 presumably to market his book. Now the question is who counted the bodies for him or the UN in the middle of a raging war? House-to-house census to count the missing was conducted by Sri Lankan Tamil teachers and sundry public officers in the region under the UN approved guidelines.

Last but not the least; he says that the army in the north is an "occupation force". Obviously, he does not know even the meaning of an "occupation of force".

For instance, if Australia sends troops to the Northern Territory for security reasons, is that an occupation force? It would be an occupation force only if a foreign source hostile to Australia occupies any part of Australia against the will of the elected government. Every inch of Sri Lanka belongs to all Sri Lankans and the state has the right to station its forces in any part of the island.

In short, an occupation force moves in forcibly to take over foreign territory. Is the north of Sri Lanka a foreign territory?

Next time GW comes with his tirade against Sri Lanka I hope he would have better understanding of the ground realities of a nation recovering from the deadliest Tamil Tiger terrorists who, according to the calculations of the Tamil leaders both in India and Sri Lanka, killed more Tamils than all the other forces put together -- and this includes the Indian peace keeping forces.

If Weiss who is scheduled to appear with a pro-Tamil Tiger terrorist group forum soon, devotes more time to reading instead of writing he may -- I repeat, he may -- improve his knowledge of Sri Lanka.

(Bandula Jayasekara is the Consul General of Sri Lanka for New South Wales and Queensland)