MORAL OF THE MORALES STORY

It's imperative that we return today to the subject of the diversion of Bolivian President Eva Morales's aircraft. Today, in Bolivia Mr. Morales has called it one high-handed act of Imperialism.

Hyperbole? Not likely, since a great many of his compatriot leaders in Latin America are echoing the same sentiments. They have, in the latest development, called for an extraordinary meeting of Latin American heads of state to discuss the incident.

As the story unfolds, the details are filling in. As the Bolivian President's jet proceeded towards his country after President Morales had attended a summit meeting in Moscow, he found he is not allowed to cross the airspace of either France, Italy, Spain or Portugal.

His pilot had no alternative but to ask to land in Austria, and the cockpit voice recordings indicate that the gentleman was saying he had to land somewhere quickly as his aircraft was running out of fuel!

In other words his precious cargo -- the President of Bolivia no less -- would have perished, along with him and more than a dozen others, if the aircraft had not landed in Austria.

Now, taking that into cognizance obviously, the Austrians allowed Mr. Morales to land in Vienna, but it was no act of support for a foreign leader, in the context of the earlier run-around given by several civilized European powers.

Mr. Morales soon was to learn that if he had hoped for 'free passage' through Austria, that the Austrians had other ideas. No sooner than he had landed, Austrian authorities boarded the craft and started searching for a 'fugitive.'

Apparently they had been informed -- as they say, no prizes for guessing by whom -- that Edward Snowden the US whistleblower was on board the President's flight. President Morales called the act of the raid on his airplane, an infringement of the inviolable sovereignty of Bolivia, and moreover, a violation of the Vienna Convention.

When the Bolivian authorities were asked why they had force searched a foreign President's aircraft, they said that they did so at the behest of 'friends.' (!)

President Morales' Vice President said that the bahaviour of the European countries that didn't allow Morales to cross their airspace was reminiscent of the behaviour of colonies; in fact he suggested these must still be colonies.

Something certainly turns on that. If the behaviour of the majority of the European powers is unquestioning of any act of aggression by the U.S, we in Sri Lanka can only infer that the European nations have one agenda relative to Sri Lanka as well -- that which is the one decided in Washington.

How so? When some European powers are so blatant about it, there is hardly a veneer of respectability that one can attach to the European power bloc, and its kowtowing to American interests.

Not that such a proclivity is anything very new -- but the Morales affair shows that the Europeans have bartered their own sovereignty and self-respect because they do not want to antagonize, to put it by way of understatement, a 'friend.'

That's fine except that the Europeans will not make any other friends particularly in Latin America -- where Mr. Morales and his fellow leaders are livid about their behaviour, and of course in Asia where the leaders are kindred with those in the South American continent.

This may all sound as if it's one gigantic cavil -- except when one considers the full import of what has happened. President Morales and his Vice President have put this issue in perspective by stating that if a North American leader was in this way not allowed to land in one of their countries, there would have been 'war'.

They have in fact characterized the denial of access to airspace as an act of 'war.' Certainly, civilizational impulses militate against Asians behaving in this way - but, on the other hand, there is overwhelming solidarity towards the Bolivian President after what happened. Back home at least we'd remember that whenever the Europeans vote with the Americans at international fora, it can't be because they know anything about us in our Asian or Latin American countries -- it can only be because they know only too well on which side their bread is buttered ...