Thoughts from London

Doctors heal thyselves first

On a visit to London some months ago, Minister Rajitha Senaratne had a go at Sri Lankan expatriates who,while enjoying their foreign lifestyles, were advocating the continuance of the war in Sri Lanka.
Speaking on the peace process, at a Buddhist Vihare in London, he ran into heavy weather from some of the expatriates.

Later other expatriates turned their heavy artillery on Dr Senaratne for drawing false conclusions from inadequate facts.

It appears that this experience has not in any way chastened the minister nor tempered his sense of idiosyncratic logic which, to say the least, is hardly based on a deductive or inductive process.

The other day I ran into the minister quite casually at a wedding and before long he had climbed his favourite hobby horse and was cantering away as though chased by a thousand expatriates.

There he was again accusing expatriates of warmongering and demanding that the Sri Lanka Government continues its military action against the LTTE.

Whatever system of higher mathematics or algebra on which he bases his conclusions, it is one that is not known to mankind.

It is true that there are those who believe that the only way to destroy the LTTE is by military means, however long it takes to do so.

But to conclude therefore that all Sri Lankan expatriates wherever they live are advocating war is the kind of silly argument that some politicians are capable of and might go down well in parliament but would be laughed out at any sensible debate.

For the sake of his patients, I hope it is not the kind of approach that he extends to his dental practice. I mean one does not go about extracting all the teeth because one tooth is decayed.

The good doctor might disagree that this is the way to solve the problem of northern terrorism or struggle for fundamental rights or whatever.

But whether warmongers or not, they have a right to express their point of view and it is for the advocates of the present approach to conflict resolution such as Dr Senaratne to convince others of its validity.

That is not all. The minister is being dismissive of the Sinhala expatriates who he believes are one cohesive group and are raising the war cry.

Far from it. If the minister spent any time meeting a cross section of the Sinhala community in the UK, he would have found a variety of views, some of which might have surprised the minister.

Tamil warmongers

Moreover, it is not just sections of the Sinhala community that believes the war against the LTTE should be conducted with expedition and vigour.

There are many Tamils who believe that the LTTE should continue to fight not only because it has the military strength to do so but also because many of them had made sacrifices in the hope of attaining their dream of a Tamil Eelam.

They fear that those sacrifices, made by them and their families and friends would be in vain if the LTTE leadership settles for anything less than what they had been made to believe would be the final glory.

I know this because I talk to Tamils of different hues, from different parts of the north and east and from different castes. Not all of them have the same aspirations, not all share the dream of an Eelam. But they are all very interested in the future - their future as well as those of their relatives who are still living in the war-affected parts of the country.

It is because I talk to them so regularly and listen to their points of view that I realise it would be a tragic mistake to imagine that they are all supporters of the LTTE or that they would be happy if the LTTE dominates their lives if they were to return to their former homes.

Furthermore, Minister Senaratne is very free with his criticism of expatriates and seems quite contented with making baseless generalisations.

Local warmongers

But he forgets that there are also those who believe that a military solution should be pursued, living in this country. Not all the warmongers are abroad. What about our own agents of death, the arms suppliers, the agents of arms dealers and manufacturers who have been minting money because the J.R.Jayewardene government prosecuted a war mainly against the LTTE?

Does the dentist minister think that these merchants of death are happy about a possible peace or the fact that their weapons of destruction are lying idle at the moment.

After all it is not that these people who have been making more than a living out of the dying are not known to the public. They have been close to some politicians, to some parties in power and the top levels of the political establishment.

Among them have been the sons of prominent officials and wielders of power. They have not faded away and would still like to see the sale of arms conducted as though war was upon us.

So perhaps Dr Senaratne might be better advised to try and convert such people who are much closer home to his high sense of morality and political rectitude than caterwaul against expatriate Sri Lankans who are not entirely convinced that the government's present strategy of subservience to the LTTE is the correct approach to problem solving.

G.L.Peiris, another doctor - not medical but academic - popularly known as professori and a Cabinet colleague of Dr. Senaratne, told a recent seminar that before the peace agreement one could not walk about freely at night and that Colombo lived in fear.

Peiris is correct. But can he assure people who are currently concerned at the concessions extended to the LTTE, that there will not be barriers somewhere in the north and east - and who knows maybe in the hills too - that will be far more permanent than the ones in Colombo?

Can Peiris assure the people of the north and east that they will be able to walk around freely without fear from a militarily-dominant LTTE that has now assumed political dominance?

Can Prof. Peiris assure me that I can arrive at the Katunayake airport from abroad and not declare anything to the Customs even if asked, and have 25 uninspected parcels loaded onto government helicopters and whisked away?

When you can assure the people of this country that they have the same rights as a group that was declared a terrorist group in this country and still bears that imprimatur in other countries, then let Peiris and Senaratne speak.

Until then, let the doctors go and heal themselves in whatever way they can.

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