Comments on: Aren’t we all in this together?

By: wijayapala

wijayapala — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 20:01:35 +0000

Hi Political Analyst

"Political freedom to seek secession or independence – which is their legitimate right accruing from history- is denied in India"

In that case, there are no democracies in this world, since no sane nation will allow secession unless there's a consensus within that nation for it.

"Fonseka was even rewarded with an extended term as military commander !!"

Fonseka was awarded an extended term not for his remarks to a newspaper, but because he is thrashing the LTTE left and right [Edited out].

By: Political Analyst

Political Analyst — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 09:08:22 +0000

The problem in South Asia is that there is political oppression and not democracy; this is the mother of evil. If Bush would have termed Pakistan-India-Sri Lanka as the axis of evil I would have totally agreed.

Political freedom to seek secession or independence – which is their legitimate right accruing from history- is denied in India; a reason why a Tamil lawmaker Vaiko is arrested and kept in custody now. This week, three TNA law makers were questioned in Sri Lanka, for expressing their desire for Tamil Eelam in the North East. The charge was that they acted against the constitution, though they expressed the despearte desire and the will of the people of North East, whom they represent.

Funnily enough, when Sarth Fonseka, the army commander and Champika Ranawaka a cabinet minister of the government, both Sinhalese, say that Sri Lanka belongs to the Sinhalese, a statement against the constitution, it is absolutely right and praiseworthy !! Fonseka was even rewarded with an extended term as military commander !!

Freedom of expression, a fundamental principle of democracy is being grossly violated through legislation and constitution of India and Sri Lanka.

By: The Under Dog

The Under Dog — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 09:03:18 +0000

Here’s a quote from Senator Ron Paul about Al-Qaeda that has parallels to the Sri Lankan tendency to create our own blowback. It is a more thoughtful statement than Obama’s ‘kill Bin-Laden’:

“I believe very sincerely that the CIA is correct when they teach and talk about blowback. When we went into Iran in 1953 and installed the shah, yes, there was blowback. A reaction to that was the taking of our hostages and that persists. And if we ignore that, we ignore that at our own risk. If we think that we can do what we want around the world and not incite hatred, then we have a problem.”

Here’s the link, for anyone interested:
http://mises.org/story/2588

By: Nimal

Nimal — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:54:50 +0000

No it's not a shame Jim. Barak Obama is clueless about Sri Lanka. Further, Barak Obama is not a Sri Lankan citzen.

By: jim

jim — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 07:58:09 +0000

Isn’t it a bloody shame we can’t substitute Mahinda Rajapakse for Barak Obama!

By: The_Under_Dog

The_Under_Dog — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 04:08:15 +0000

Here's a quote from Senator Ron Paul that has parallels to our tendency in SL to create blowback of our own. It is a more thoughtful statement than that of Obama's 'kill Bin-Laden.'

"I believe very sincerely that the CIA is correct when they teach and talk about blowback. When we went into Iran in 1953 and installed the shah, yes, there was blowback. A reaction to that was the taking of our hostages and that persists. And if we ignore that, we ignore that at our own risk. If we think that we can do what we want around the world and not incite hatred, then we have a problem."

For anyone interested, here's the link:
http://mises.org/story/2588

By: Ajith

Ajith — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 01:57:06 +0000

A perfect example of this “treading carefully” is the US relations with Pakistan during the operations in Afghanistan to this date. At the time just after 9/11 US had battle plans ready to invade Pakistan (this was high on the to do list of Cheny, Rumsfeld as Pakistan had a non democratic leadership and also those 2 are strong believers in spread of democracy through any necessary means), but common sense prevailed as they realised that would escalate the problem and expand the breeding grounds of radicalism from Afghan tribal areas to Pakistan as well. Despite very awkward diplomatic stances to this date they have avoided a confrontation.
Sri Lanka is in a similar situation (although not quite so) with India atm and I am quite certain they won’t occupy within Sri Lankan borders despite the fact we will see many awkward situations between the two. It just makes sense.

By: Ajith

Ajith — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 01:40:07 +0000

I do think the global view on the LTTE has changed drastically now. Even though India would love to trample over Sri Lanka their hands are tied – by the global perception of terrorism. The LTTE is almost forced to not target large scale suicide bombings of public places because soon as they do it they get bad head lines and the sympathy towards their cause is diminished.
This being their shock and awe tactic previously the org has now been reduced to a mere headless chicken.

Like many global leader have iterated sadly this battle against terror is here to stay indefinitely. Even after the brute force defeat of the remaining LTTE infantry, small pockets of survivors will resort to small arms guerrilla struggle as common sense would suggest. I personally project at least another 2-5 years before we see an acceptable reduction of violence levels and 10 years before we may truly sort out our difference among the many communities. So we’re in for the long haul here. Unless the LTTE is willing to disarm and negotiate I don’t see an alternative either. We just need to make sure the establishment and think tanks behind the operations are able to sustain necessary political atmosphere until the goal are achieved in the long run.

The era of achieving goals by violence against the unjustified has passed as the super powers them selves found out the travesty of terror the hard way. If they chose to exert double standards towards the less prosperous counter parts then they will simply be creating breeding grounds for the very enemy they’re trying to defeat. It’s a double edged sword. So I’m not surprised even India is treading carefully despite the ha ho in TN.