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Politics on the surface and politics subterranean If that is the case -- as it appears to be - - obviously the UNICEF was being used, for the LTTE to carry out a game of "grab a child and release a few.'' A group of Norwegian journalists who were earlier in the week on a familiarisation tour in various areas of Sri Lanka, met a group of Sri Lankan journalists and were shocked to learn of this UNICEF duplicity, even though previously they had been given a different picture of the situation as it obtains here. But, the opposition, which had been only lukewarm about the LTTE's recruitment of child soldiers but has been heavy on the fact that there is a threat being posed to Trincomale by the LTTE, had its own Trincomalee bubble punctured earlier in the week when visiting Indian External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha said that 'there is no threat to the Indian oil installations from the LTTE.'' Though the opposition later sought clarification from the Indian authorities on the matter, the fact that Sinha made such a comment and was quoted extensively, made the opposition's Trincomalee theory a little less tenable. Also, this was significant, with this being a week in which posters appeared of course with a totally political overtone, in which the maps of the so called threatened areas in Trincomalee were seen in background to photographs of various political potentates. Absurd
theatre The National Peace Council which has played a very dubious role with regard to the peace process by pursuing a very partisan and alien agenda, this week got into the controversy of attacks on Churches. While any such attacks are in need of square condemnation, the NPC and its NGO fellow travellers have been loath to talk about the fact that there are reasons for these provocations, and that the agent provocateurs must first be brought under control. But the NGO lobby is at the moment going ahead with a canard that seeks to legitimise the nonsense that the constitutional freedom to practise ones own religion is a licence to propagate and convert at the drop of a hat. This is monotheistic imperialism at its worst, but the NGO community seems to be on a roll, in an attempt to legitimise these very provocative conversions. Not only are they seeking to legitimise these conversions, they are also seeking to say that there is a tendency to "attack churches' and therefore create a separate front in the nation's litany of divisions. This is a very insidious move to paint the "Church attackers'' as the vermin, when in fact the vermin are in fact those who are seeking to propagate religion and convert unethically by taking cover behind a constitutional fig leaf. Legitimise On top of this the insidious NGO complicity was also seen in other matters such as the move to legitimise the Manirasakulam camp, which is also a move that takes a direct swipe at the authority of the SLMM and is therefore an insidious move under cover of a legitimate drive to "confront serious issues head on.'' The fact is there can be no brainstorming on this issue, for the simple reason that the SLMM, the agreed body of arbiters has already decided on this matter, and it is therefore not a subject for any discussion. The umpire's word IS law. So, meanwhile, the subterranean alien forces were making other covert moves to move ahead on this so called Church legislation. There is a move to make nonsense of the judgements that held that making use of the constitutional prerogative to practise ones chosen religion (Article 12(2)) is not paramount, and has a challenge from the other provision that holds that Buddhism enjoys the foremost place. The arguments being made is secularism, but even in countries such as India for instance, the secular argument has been countervailed by the fact that there is a Hinduthva party in power. Nobody is holding a brief for Hinduthva hegemony - but in India too the matter of unethical conversion and monotheistic imperialism had ugly repercussions with Church burnings etc., that followed. This kind of snowballing violence to be nipped in the root has to be identified as resulting from unethical conversions that are being encouraged by the NGO-Catholic- imperialist nexus. The unethical conversions must be stopped forthwith, and recourse to constitutional devices to legitimise them should also be disallowed in no uncertain terms. NGO complicity in other matters such as legitimising LTTE camps, in legitimising the recruitment of child soldiers by pointing out that the LTTE is in fact releasing them (with the aid of the also foreign) UNICEF should be put on the cross hairs and the NGOs exposed. The majority parties instead of focussing on these seem to be steeped in their petty squabbles and their locking of horns in their bid to grab power. That's another story though. Subterranean
But the more sub terranean moves here were the attempts to woo MPs from other parties, and the President's meetings with a group of four of UNF MPs was marked as far as this is concerned. While the UNF was focussed on the budget, the President tried to deliver on her promise to dislodge the UNF government by November this year. To this end, she is engaged in an attempt to win over UNF MPs, particularly disgruntled Muslim MPs who are part of the SLMC - - and these are some of the MPs she met at President's house (no special consolation awards for guessing who these MPs were.) The UNF on the other and made it clear that the budget was its priority with Professor Peiris saying that the peace talks will not take place this year, even though there might be an informal meeting to fix dates for talks the coming year. But, the usual game of destabilising the Presidency from within was also evident, and with Professor G. L. Peiris and Minister Ravi Karunanayake both having the President on the firing line, for misusing the monies of the President's fund etc., it was clear that the pre-budget politics were those that were anything but conciliatory. Those close to the powers that be had described the ensuing two-month period before the end of the year as being ''tense.'' This is clear. But more than tense, it seems to be a period of "vague uncertainty.'' Will the government nail the opposition with a Santa Claus budget? Will the President and the opposition succeed in unseating the government? Will the LTTE nix all comfortable suppositions by doing something out of the ordinary? The EPDP for instance reported that the LTTE was en masse manufacturing coffins, and this was interpreted as a sign that the LTTE is going to war very soon. But the Prime Minister at least was attempting to be the man who keeps a cool head while everybody else around was losing theirs. He said that UNF parliamentarians have been neglecting duty due to various bogeys, and for instance and that they had neglected their official functions by not being present at Parliamentary Select Committee meetings. One was the Parliamentary Select Committee on the Bribery Commission, whose report is still nowhere in sight. Politics,
people power and judiciary But Param Commsraswamy had the most stunning indictment of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka. He said that the Bar Association has been in total neglect of its function, and said "if the lawyers are going to be afraid of the judiciary, what of the litigants.'' He cautioned, however, that if the Bar Association and civil society is in neglect, the people are finally going to be fed up about the judiciary and will eventually ''take the law into their own hands.' He cited the case of Belgium where the people took to the streets and demonstrated against a corrupt judiciary until serious action had to be taken. Dato Param Comaraswamy said that the most serious indication (though not the first) that the Sri Lankan Chief Justice was a serious threat to the independence of the judiciary in Sri Lanka was when he empanelled a bench in his own case, to hear a constitutional challenge against his appointment. But he said, the Sri Lanka Bar Association has been so emaciated that lawyers in Malaysia and judges such as Sandra Day O'Conner of the US have been asking serious questions about the inability of the legal profession in Sri Lanka to come forward in its own defence. |
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