Editorial

The Swiss authorities seem to wipe the ‘egg off their face’ from the purported abduction of one of their embassy employees by throwing mud in return at the Sri Lankan law enforcement agencies, and even the judiciary.

Offering unsolicited advice, Bern states that “Sri Lanka’s reputation as a country that upholds the rule of law is at stake”. As if that is not enough, it sends envoys to Colombo to intervene in the ongoing investigations. Coming as it does from a country whose judiciary has just ruled that the LTTE — once given the dubious distinction of being the world’s most dangerous terrorist organisation by no less than the US State Department, is not a “criminal organisation”, the Swiss Government might want to turn the searchlight inward.

Its own history is not particularly remarkable in these matters. Take its well-known stance of profiting from World War II. Ostensibly ‘neutral’, Switzerland did a roaring business with Nazi Germany and its Reichsbank, even hoarding the gold from the teeth of Holocaust victims. This became a thorough embarrassment to the country in the post-war years leading to legal suits in the 1990s for retaining stolen property, including priceless art.

Today, Switzerland is a haven for Sri Lankan economic refugees masquerading as victims of ethnic pogroms. So much so, when Bern introduced tougher asylum restrictions, the hotel industry was up in arms protesting as it would lose cheap labour.

It was former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s journalist daughter Carol who wrote in a Swiss tourist promotion publication that the Swiss ‘hospitality’ industry nowadays is more Lebanese or Sri Lankan.

Giving false evidence and wasting police time are offences in any criminal code, even in the West which is where, they believe, are the fountains of justice. The perverse magisterial order recently against Sri Lanka’s Defence Attache in the UK while LTTE sympathisers waved their flags outside the court house (while the police looked the other way) speaks for how Western countries uphold the rule of law.

If the Swiss embassy’s lady employee, now in the eye of the storm, is not guilty of fabricating a story, she must have lawyers defend her in court. The Swiss Foreign Ministry statement on Tuesday says as an employer they will do “everything in their power to assist the member of their staff concerned”.

This they must do. But not by interference, veiled threats and innuendos against another sovereign state. No legal system in the world is perfect, not least in Sri Lanka. However, it is one thing to defend your employee and another to poke your finger into another nation’s legal system. It is one thing to declare neutrality in foreign policy and another to be a state, harbouring terrorist organisations.

Global warmings and local warnings

Despite what clearly is overwhelming evidence that Planet Earth is ‘melting’ and freak weather patterns are to be seen worldwide, including in Sri Lanka, the biggest contributors to self-destruct humanity are in denial mode refusing to change their ways.

An exasperated UN Secretary General said after Madrid; “The international community lost an important opportunity to show increased ambition on mitigation, adaptation and finance to tackle the climate crisis.” For good measure he added, “I am more determined than ever to work for 2020 to be the year in which all countries commit to do what science tells us is necessary to reach carbon neutrality in 2050 and no more than 1.5 degree temperature rise.”

The United States, as historically the biggest polluter of the global environment, refuses to take moral, legal, financial or collective responsibility. It has stymied efforts to help the economically exploited “global south” meet challenges inherent in scaling down on economic development as is practised today.

The Palestinian delegate asked how could they go for electric cars when they don’t have enough stations to recharge the vehicles. Another delegate accused the US of committing ‘crimes against humanity’ over its disregard for global warming.

Here in Sri Lanka, the effects of climate change are there to see. Severe droughts followed by severe rains. No in-between period for the farmers to till their fields.

Last week, this newspaper published a report on the ‘sand rush’ by sand miners raping the rivers and streams in the wake of a contentious suspension of a permit scheme. The Cabinet said it was “temporary” — only for a week till a committee went into the matter. The committee is yet to be appointed a fortnight later and the very legality of a Cabinet decision circumventing legislation is being questioned.

The Government argues the suspension was to break the ‘sand mafia’ and to bring down the costs in the housing and construction sectors.

Everyone knows, however, that this is a mafia hand-in-glove with provincial politicians. Villagers and environmentalists are protesting on the streets accusing the ruling party of giving their ‘catchers’ a free run to make a quick buck — and to hell with the environment.

The Supreme Court once intervened to stop this calamity, but even its orders are treated with contempt. Ask motorists on a provincial road and they will tell you of the arrogance with which tippers carrying sand to Colombo are being driven betraying their disrespect for the law of the land.

Haphazard sand mining, now with the Government’s blessings is causing drinking water problems for villagers and sea erosion along the coast. One does not need COP25 or a future COP26 in 2020 in Glasgow when man-made disasters are in the making by Governments looking for short-term gain at the expense of long-term national interest.