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After thought
Can we have some answers please?
Conscription
It’s the army once again. There are stories, speculation and talk that
if adequate numbers cannot be recruited to the army, the government is
thinking of conscripting youth between the ages 18 to 30. Conscription
means compulsory military service. Countries such as America, from what
I have gathered, had conscription, but scrapped it after the Vietnam war
in the mid-seventies. If I remember right, some youth, “conscientious objectors”,
one I think was boxing supremo Mohammed Ali refused to enlist and fight
in Vietnam. Ali even went to jail and the World Boxing Council (WBC) withheld
the title of WBC heavy weight champion.
Then again Germany had a system, it seems,where by any youth who had
a credible reason why he could not join military service had the option
of going in for national service and working for the benefit of the community
in hospitals etc. But now from what I hear Germany too has scrapped this
system. What is hilarious is that politicians take the example of countries
such as Britain and America only when it suits them. Only on some issues,
but not on so many others such as health and education.
To get back to more serious thought: if conscription is inevitable because
the army lacks man power, firstly the sons of all politicians — from the
very top to the Pradeshiya Sabha councillor and bureaucrats — who fall
into this age group should be drafted.
The excuse that they are studying abroad would not be good enough. Get
them back and conscript them along with my son and your son. Don’t let
them do a Bill Clinton draft-dodging act that he had apparently done in
his youth, which was highlighted when he was running for the Presidency
in America. The authorities should also make sure, as they are attempting
to do in the case of army deserters, that these youth are not sent out
of the country surreptitiously. Secondly, the sons of the high and mighty
should not be assigned to a “desk” job in the supposedly safe areas of
Colombo, but sent to the war areas like any soldier. Then conscription
would be fair and just - treat them all alike: the influential politician’s
son, the rich businessman’s son, the school teacher’s son and the peasant’s
son. Send all of them to the front, without exception.
India’s Nuke Tests
The world was aghast when India tested its nuclear weapons, ironically
on Vesak poya, then blatantly thumbed its nose at world opinion, and carried
out two more two days later. Neighbours Bangladesh and Bhutan expressed
concern over an arms race in the region. But what did tiny Sri Lanka do?
At the outset, we expressed concern, but later, without taking into
consideration the simmering hatred between India and Pakistan and also
the hostility between India and China, Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar
came out in support of India - like the Biblical David, this tiny, country,
jumped to defend India, which is a giant by its own right, from the world.
Why don’t we let India look after itself?
With regard to the nuke tests, Atomic Energy Authority Chairman Dr.
Prinath Dias explained that they conducted the filter technique to check
whether there was air contamination by radio activity in Sri Lanka after
those blasts. The result was that there was no contamination. For the moment
that is good enough. However, whether America has taken a high moral attitude
and France tested its nuclear weapons in someone else’s backyard, what
the Foreign Ministry should remember is that two wrongs don’t make a right.
Don’t put your foot in your mouth by coming out with statements such
as we don’t mind whether India and Pakistan both become nuclear states.
Because I’m sure the people of this country do mind and don’t want a nuclear
arms race in our frontyard. Are we ready for a nuclear arms race on the
sub continent, a hoot away from our land mass? Have we considered the repercussions
of such a situation? Have we forgotten the holocaust that was Hiroshima
and Nagasaki? Do we need to jog the memory of the Foreign Ministry and
the government how thousands of men, women and children died in agony after
the bomb_..how all life forms were wiped out on the two islands_.. how
even 50 years after the holocaust, children are born with deformities due
to the cell mutations of their parents or grandparents who survived it
how generations to come will continue to suffer these abnormalities?
The other major issue is: What is Sri Lanka’s policy on disarmament?
I thought we pushed very hard in the United Nations for the declaration
of the Indian Ocean as a Zone of Peace and we are not only strongly in
favour of disarmament but also of non poliferation. Or is it just double
speak? On the one hand we are for disarmament and non proliferation, but
on the other we don’t mind India and even Pakistan acquiring nuclear weapons
and joining the Big Five as nuclear states. Then there is also the frightening
thought, will Sri Lanka condone Iraq, Libya or Iran becoming nuclear states.
The argument would be simple: what is sauce for the goose is also sauce
for the gander. Can we have some clarification?
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