Editorial

Today is devoted to an International Day to focus on Disabilities. Life is about mobility and accessibility for every individual.

An Accessibility Rights activist of the recent past, the late Dr. Ajith C.S. Perera, was a standout crusader campaigning for the rights of the physically marginalised. He was himself a wheelchair user later in life after a freak accident. He, along with some others went up to the Supreme Court on a Fundamental Rights case saying there was poor compliance with a comprehensive set of laws on Accessibility gazetted in 2006 by the Social Services Ministry, passed by Parliament in 2007 and reinforced by Courts thereafter.

The Protection of Rights of Persons Act No. 28 of 1966 is outdated as it covers only the rights to education, access to public places and the right to work. A Public Administration circular has asked state institutions to recruit at least three percent of their staff from among the disabled, but only the Education Department is keeping to it.

The number of physically disabled (including the war wounded and the deaf and the blind) is officially put at 1.6 million or just below 10 percent of Sri Lanka’s population. That figure doubles when those temporarily having restricted mobility are factored in: the elderly, the million annually hospitalised from accidents and those recuperating after illnesses, pregnant women etc.

The worst offenders in terms of access are public institutions like government departments, banks, court houses, higher education colleges, private sector hospitals, high-end shopping complexes, supermarkets, star-class hotels and all forms of public transport. They have no railings, special toilets, ramps, signages and even tables and chairs designed for those with mobility issues – needs that advanced economies have looked at and catered to, long ago.

The State Minister of Social Empowerment told a news conference last month that fresh legislation is being “actively crafted”. This legislation is being ‘actively crafted’ since 2004. Even the UN Convention on the subject ratified by Sri Lanka in 2016 and several rights that citizens in economically advanced countries have are not available to the Sri Lankan citizen with disabilities. And these are only referring to the physically disabled, not those with psycho-social disorders, those with mental health conditions – also recognised globally as a disability.

 

Henry Kissinger (1923-2023)

 

ailed by many of his compatriots, the child refugee from Germany became an icon in his adopted country, in academia and in the seat of government, first as National Security Adviser and then as Secretary of State (Foreign Minister).

The world saw him differently. Some saw him as a brilliant strategist, some as a manipulator, a ‘war criminal’ and mass murderer, and some saw in him, all of those qualities in one man. The influential Foreign Policy magazine said he helped author America’s greatest triumphs – and tragedies – overseas. At the famous Times Square in New York, people at a rally supporting the Palestinian cause cheered when his death was announced.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe in a letter to him on his 100th birthday referred to his “often controversial” contribution to US strategic policy. He called the centenarian an “intellectual, historian and foreign policy theorist” and for good measure added; “Though not always in agreement with the outcome of the policies you influenced”, that his insights and contribution to understanding the world we live in was to be admired.

Dr. Kissinger said of himself while penning a conclusion to his book World Order – Reflections on the Character of Nations and the Course of History; “Long ago, in youth, I was brash enough to think myself able to pronounce on ‘The Meaning of History’. I now know that history’s meaning is a matter to be discovered, not declared…. that each generation will be judged by whether the greatest, most consequential issues of the human condition have been faced, and that decisions to meet these challenges must be taken by statesmen before it is possible to know what the outcome may be.”

He was best known for promoting ‘detente’, the easing of tension over the nuclear arms race with the then Soviet Union during the Cold War years, and ‘ping-pong’ diplomacy with China which opened up US-China relations (which ironically the US is now trying to reverse as China went on to become an economic and military powerhouse). In Beijing, the Foreign Ministry reacted to Dr. Kissinger’s death praising him for his “historic contribution” to US-Sino relations. Moscow also responded with praise for his “significant contribution” to world politics.

The US has long been at odds with both Russia and China. Seeing them as Communists and threats to the ‘American way of life’ ever since World War II, they have engaged them in proxy wars in Korea, Cuba, Indo-China, Africa, Latin America, now Ukraine, and in not-so-subtle battles for influence in South Asia. When Sri Lanka entered into a Rubber-Rice Pact with China in the 1950s, Sri Lanka’s ambassador to Washington was invited to the White House to explain why. Around the same time, Russia blocked Sri Lanka’s entry into the United Nations because it had a Defence Pact with Britain. Sri Lanka had to pay the price for neutrality in this tussle among the big powers.

In now declassified US Presidential papers, Dr. Kissinger writes to his President on August 1, 1973 asking him to consider Mrs. Sirima Bandaranaike’s plea for PL480 wheat flour telling him to “express sympathy and understanding for Sri Lanka’s situation”, but to also tell her the US “cannot make a specific commitment yet, but will be in touch with her as soon as possible”. In his memo, he adds that Mrs. Bandaranaike is following a “pragmatic and balanced foreign policy”.

Dr. Kissinger then says; “Also contributing to that policy has been Mrs. Bandaranaike’s suspicion (unfounded as far as we know) of Soviet complicity in the insurrection, her uneasiness over India’s enhanced friendship with the USSR and over India’s unrivalled position of dominance on the subcontinent since the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war”. He had earlier arranged for Mrs. Bandaranaike to meet President Nixon in appreciation of allowing Pakistani troops fly through Colombo as ‘civilians’ during that war. The motives for and the impact of Dr. Kissinger’s influence on US foreign policy have been debated – and challenged – by nations like Sri Lanka committed to a policy of non-alignment eschewing realpolitik and great power rivalry. The more things change, the more they stay the same.