From Ban To Wimal And An Indian Faux Pas

By Kusal Perera

What’s a ‘cock and bull story?’ Ban Ki-Moon recalling Neil Buhne to New York and UNDP closing shop in Colombo?
A well groomed man with a neatly trimmed beard, finely gelled and combed hair, sitting for a fast unto death? Many dictionaries said a “cock and bull story” is “a highly unbelievable and improbable story, rattled off as true.”
The story of Weerawansa, Minister or not of this Rajapaksa government, forcing himself through police barricades with a gang of protesters to take all UN staff in the Colombo office hostage on Tuesday morning and what happened thereafter was no “cock and bull story.” It happened with the Colombo based media seeing it as a “people’s protest” and giving a logical colour to the chaos being let loose.
While the government tried to water down the whole miscalculated fracas by getting the Information Department to issue a statement that said it respected the right of people to voice protests as Sri Lanka is a democratic nation, yet promising security to the UN staff and free access to the office,  Minister Peiris was on line with New York to assure the UN would not be hindered in their work.
Weerawansa was therefore called out and away from the scene of protest for a hurried briefing with the “elite” of the regime to scratch out a face saving retreat from the earlier defiant position of taking the UN staff hostage. Police personnel who were supposedly ordered out of the place by an angry Defence Secretary, were deployed again. External Affairs Ministry Secretary Jayasinghe hurried to the UN office to “sort out things”. Weerawansa came back thereafter to tell the media, a police officer on duty was bribed by the UN and promised, his sathyagraha would continue till Ban Ki-Moon drops his panel on Sri Lanka.
Weerawansa’s claim on bribery, while leaving Ban Ki Moon to investigate his own staff, once again accuses the Sri Lankan police as corrupt. And yet again, this highlights how the police was pushed and pulled and how a high ranking officer was humiliated for sinister politics of this regime.
This should thus demand for the immediate implementation of the 17th Amendment and the independent commissions with it.
With all such basic democratic issues demanding social discourse, this raises many concerns and stiff questions, despite its accompanying entertainment. It raises the question, is it only a government minister who could  publicly call for hostage taking and then resort to the criminal act of doing it himself with no legal repercussions?
Refraining to take police and legal action against Weerawansa under Sections 330, 331 and 332 of the Penal Code for “wrongful restraint and confinement” of UN staff  proves, Weerawansa was not alone in making the decision. This Rajapaksa government thus provides a clear precedence for any one to take any one hostage, hereafter. Undergrads can now take their Deans and Vice Chancellors hostage, not minding the act on ragging. Workers can now get back to that anarchy the JVP created in the FTZ’s in ‘80s and ‘90s, taking company managers and directors hostage. Protesting tenants can take the Minister of Construction and Engineering Services, Housing and Common Amenities hostage, if they wish to. Who would not have a grouse to act on, in this “Land of Gauthama Buddha” ?
Such a disturbing fall out in flouting our own law by this government in its arrogant haste to impress upon the local Sinhala ego, nevertheless proves its mediocrity. And, it’s sulking confidence in reducing international relations to village thuggery has led to permanent damage in getting the post war reconciliation on track as an all inclusive process. It has left Sri Lanka more entrapped within the Delhi scheme of Indian geo political subtleties.
It was not long ago the Indian Observer Research Foundation (ORF) organised a forum on “Taking the Sri Lankan Peace Process Forward”. Held at the Taj Mansingh in Delhi on May 11 – 12, Sri Lankan participants, Dr. T. Jeyasingham of the Eastern University, Dr. H.S. Hisbulla and Sumanasiri Liyanage of the University of Peradeniya and a Sri Lankan returnee from the West, settled in Jaffna since 2007, Shereen Xavier, Director of Home for Human Rights, along with some Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora members, were careful selections of the ORF.
The ORF, presumably a more independent-looking, policy-impacting outfit than the R&AW,  is backed by the Indian corporate sector, working in tandem with the Delhi administration. Its founder member and Chairman, R.K. Mishra was a Raj Sabha member and is known for his  back-channel diplomacy between India and Pakistan. He had worked very closely with Prime Ministers Narasimha Rao, Vajpayee and Rajiv Gandhi on very sensitive issues.
Their treasurer and one of the trustees, Brajesh Mishra is the first national security advisor and is a former foreign service (IFS) officer. He is also a former ambassador and was India’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva. The ORF also has a pool of colourful research fellows that include former Vice Chief of the Indian Navy, Vice Admiral K.K. Nayyar, former Corps Commander of the Counter Terrorist Operations in the Kashmir Valley, Lt. Gen. Vinayak Patankar, International Terrorism Expert, Dr. Harinder Sekhon and of course the present National Spokesperson of the Congress, MP Manish Tewari.
This very elite, state-focused ORF’s forum on Sri Lanka, officially inaugurated by Foreign Secretary, Nirupama Rao, emphasised all four SL participants as academics, who had the ‘blessings’ of the Rajapaksa regime. They perhaps helped the South Bloc to understand how far this regime could be pushed within the Sinhala unitary state, though in the absence of a trusted Tamil leadership.
Certainly this needs a Tamil platform in Sri Lanka; the Rajapaksa regime is unable to bring together, due to its own ideological short-sightedness. Therefore, the Indian South Bloc stepped in to have a new Tamil platform closer to India than to Sri Lanka.
Tamil Political Parties’ Forum (TPPF) which emerged, includes nine individual heads under the labels EPDP, EPRLF-Perumal faction, TULF, PLOTE, DPF and former TNA politico Sivajilingam. According to Indian sources, the direct link between the ORF forum and the TPPF is invitee to Taj Mansingh, Ms. Shereen Xavier.
Delhi is mirrored clear in this, with Pillayan in and Karuna left out, despite Devananda’s efforts on Sri Lankan regime’s interest. India has a scratchy irritation towards Karuna ever since Pillayan’s main advisor Raghu was gunned down in Athurugiriya in November 2008. That this TPPF would any way be looking towards India is nothing extra ordinary, with Varatharaja Perumal, Chandrahasan, Sidharthan and Sivajilingam firmly in it.
Now with the Non-Aligned Movement with India also backing out from supporting Sri Lanka on Ban Ki-Moon’s advisory panel issue, Rajapaksas would have to pin their faith in China and Russia to use veto power in keeping war crimes investigations at bay, though with sleepless nights. It would be India that could now force a political solution to convince the UN and international interests, all is getting sorted out here. Yet for Sri Lanka the faux pas would be the players India has chosen. Those who could give no credibility to the process and may end up as the now aborted 13th Amendment and limping provincial councils.