FeaturesThe IslandSaturday 2nd July, 201110

“This above all: to thine ownself betrue,

And it must follow, as the night theday,

Thou canst not then be false to anyman.

Farewell: my blessing season this inthee!”

“O, it is excellent to have a giant’sstrength, but it is tyrannous to use it

like a giant.”

Shakespeare’s words, even after somany centuries and across severalgenerations and cultures, still ringvery apt and true. In the first quote fromHamlet, Polonius gives advice to his sonwho is leaving for France. In the secondfrom Measure for Measure, Isabellautters these words to a Regent who hasunfairly condemned her brother to death.In all his works, Shakespeare attachesgreat value to honour and integrity, tothe need to have a conscience. Every per-son, particularly the leaders of society,must be able to look themselves in themirror and not feel ashamed when theyreflect on their words and actions.

But not many people seem able to lookat themselves in the mirror and do anyself-reflection. Years of conflict, terror-ism and war appears to have taken some-thing out of many people. Leaders inpublic life seem unconcerned about los-ing their credibility by their arroganceand unwillingness to understand andaccommodate the ‘other’. Others, evenholding senior positions, degrade them-selves by becoming apologists and syco-phants. They not only lose their own dig-nity but also that of the office they hold.

The Mahinda Rajapaksa governmentcame into power with enormous good-will. They won the last election convinc-ingly, even accounting for electoral mal-practices. This was due both to itsachievement in eliminating the LTTEfrom the Sri Lankan scene and also to anunconvincing opposition. Thewar victory presented an oppor-tunity to bring about genuinepeace and unity among all thepeople of Sri Lanka. But overtwo years later, genuine peaceand unity seem as distant as itwas before. The government, ifit is sensitive to the people,should realise that it needs tolisten to voices other thanthat of their sycophants.Authoritarian governmentswhich silence the media havethis difficulty of hearingindependent voices.Believing their own propa-ganda, they think they canhold on to power for ever.Hitler thought that theThird Reich would last fora thousand years. The UNPgovernment of the nine-teen eighties, by manipu-lating the electoral systemand intimidating themedia and the opposition,thought their hold onpower was unshakeable.But both, like authoritarian regimeseverywhere, had a rude awakening toreality.

The UniversitiesRecent events show that the

Mahinda Rajapaksa government ismoving in the direction of the thenUNP government. It has and is continu-ing to mishandle the unrest in the uni-versities. First it was their heavy hand-edness in dealing with student protestsand now the trade union action by theuniversity teachers. Issues must beresolved through dialogue and not byissuing threats or by attempts to intimi-date the stakeholders. Dialogue and will-ingness to compromise are the surestway to retain the support and respect ofthe people. In the case of the universityteachers, the government has been delib-erately misrepresenting the demands ofthe Federation of University Teachers’Associations. The UGC which comprisessenior academics who have served inuniversities in our country, and the ViceChancellors and Directors of the tertiaryinstitutions should be in the forefront toprotect academic freedom and independ-ence of our universities. Instead, theseinstitutions have been so politicised thatthey have lost credibility and respectamong the academic community. Some ofthem privately express their reservationsbut it is now time, in the interests ofhigher education in Sri Lanka, that theytake a public stand. If all public institu-tions in our country succumb to politici-sation, it is the country and the freedomsof our people that will suffer.

The JudiciaryLike the Universities, the Attorney

General’s Department and the Judiciaryshould be resisting incursions into theirindependence by the politicians. TheJudiciary during the authoritarian UNPregime of the eighties showed remark-able independence in upholding the lawagainst arbitrary decisions and actionsby the government and state officials.But over the years, the independence ofour public institutions has graduallybeen eroded. The seventeenth amend-ment was unanimously enacted by thethen Parliament to halt the process ofpoliticisation that had been creeping intoour public institutions for a long time,

but accelerated during the UNP regimeof the eighties. The mechanism of aConstitutional Council was set up toensure, however inadequately, independ-ence of key public institutions. The eigh-teenth amendment has scuttled all that.The Supreme Court sadly upheld theeighteenth amendment. The Judiciary, toretain its credibility in the eyes of thepublic, must not only be independent butalso seen to be independent. That is whythe acceptance of the office of SeniorAdvisor to the President by the recentlyretired Chief Justice has raised manyeyebrows. Earlier, we had a sitting seniorSupreme Judge accepting the offer of akey diplomatic appointment when heretired which was several months away.Now, we have questions being raisedabout a senior Supreme Court Judgewhose spouse holds Presidential appoint-ments in the corporation sector. Thismay not affect the integrity of the judi-cial rulings by the Judge concerned, butit will certainly create doubts aboutimpartiality when it comes to the Judgesitting on the Bench in cases with politi-cal implications. Justice must not only bedone but also seen to be done.

The Police and the MilitaryThe eighteenth amendment has also

done away with the National PoliceCommission. One result of it is shown inthe recent promotions to the rank ofDeputy Inspectors General of Police.Some of the senior Police Officers whohave been bypassed or overlooked havegone to the Courts claiming a violation oftheir fundamental rights. There is norecord of the Public Service Commissionwhich recommended the promotions ofhaving called for applications. The listfor promotions must have been presentedthrough the present or the recentlyretired IGP. Did they actually have a

hand in the preparation of that list? TheSupreme Court is now called upon todetermine if that was done in terms ofthe established procedures for promo-tions in the Police Service.

In the North, there have been regularreports of increasing militarisation ofcivilian life. Recently, concern has beenraised by reports about the militaryintruding into meetings organised andheld by civilian organisations. First, wasa function being held at St Charles’School, the second was the meeting ofthe Noolaham Foundation (a privateorganisation of academics engaged incollecting and preserving historical docu-ments and monuments) and the last ameeting of the Tamil National Alliance.It is facile to treat these intrusions as evi-dence of militarisation of life in theNorth. It is really a part of the overallplan of the political establishment toexercise total over civilian life, in theNorth, East, South and West, but usingthe military. The Police and the Armyhave been politicised over the past sever-al months. The Army acting as they do inthe North seem really to be following theorders of the political establishment. Alocal government election is due to takeplace North soon. It is only the Northand East which have rejected in nouncertain terms the candidates of theruling political alliance. So the politicalestablishment seems to have decided thatthe only way to reverse that trend is tointimidate the voters into, at least refrainfrom exercising their franchise. This isthe only explanation for the way thisincident has been handled.

First reports stated that soldiersbarged into the hall where the closeddoor meeting of the TNA was being heldin the Tellipallai Police area. The sol-diers were armed with poles and beganto beat up the participants with an offi-cer claiming that the meeting was illegalas military/police permission had notbeen obtained. It is possible that this wasa genuine mistake and not a deliberateone; closed door meetings of political

parties do not require anypermission, unlike publicmeetings. But the violentattack was certainly pre-planned as the assailantscame armed with poles, etc,unless we like to believe thePolice spokesperson who hadonce stated that a mob led by aUPFA politician movingtowards opposition demonstra-tors at Lipton’s Circus were car-rying poles to possibly beataway dogs on the road! Anyway,at this meeting at Tellipallai,there were present some parlia-mentarians from the TNA alongwith their security personnelfrom the Police MinisterialSecurity Division. Among the par-liamentarians was M. A.Sumanthiran, who had gone to theTellipallai Police Station to make acomplaint. An Army officer, namedby Sumanthiran, had also arrivedat the Police Station, apologised toSumanthiran for the incident andprevailed on the latter not to lodgea complaint. However, later, anoth-er parliamentarian had lodged acomplaint.

The next reports claimed thatthe Army‘s Northern Commanderas having stated that the incidentinvolving some persons in militaryuniform was being investigated.The implication was to distancethe Army from the incident. The

latest report refers to the President him-self stating that there was no seriousincident and accusing the TNA of exag-geration. The conduct of the personnelfrom the MSD was being investigated!The MSD personnel, despite the risk tothemselves, had it appears courageouslydefended the parliamentarians whomthey were assigned to defend and werebeaten up in the process. An assault on ameeting of a political party is totallyindefensible. If the President has beenreported correctly, it is an astoundingstatement for him to make. It appears toindicate that the incident had theapproval of the political establishment inColombo. It is the same arrogance ofpower that J. R. Jayewardene showedduring the eighties when he defendedand encouraged guardians of the law totrample on the rights of the people. Oneremembers with horror Jayewardenepromoting a young sub-inspector whohad kicked with his boots Mrs VivienneGunawardene who was lying on theground at the Kollupitiya Police Station.But we had an independent judiciarythen which had found that sub-inspectorguilty of violating Mrs Gunawardene’srights.

The country today desperately needs avigorous civil society that will stand upand speak up for the preservation of ourdemocratic freedoms. These freedomsinclude not only the freedom of speechand association and equality before thelaw but also economic and social free-doms as the right to work, to an adequatelivelihood and the right to education. Avigorous civil society must be concernedif these freedoms are taken away fromany individual or any group, even if wedo not share that individual’s or group’sethnicity or political or religious beliefs.

Ensuring the integrity ofour public institutionsand democratic freedoms

BY ROHANA R. WASALAContinued from yesterday

After the Afghan war was overOsama returned home to SaudiArabia. The August 1990 invasion ofKuwait by Iraq posed a twofold threat tothe Saudis: the world’s richest oilfields layexposed to strikes by the massive Iraqiarmy stationed in Kuwait; SadamHussein’s appeal for pan-Arab/Islamicunity was identified as a threat to the rul-ing Saud family because it could triggerdissent within Saudi Arabia. Although theSaudi army was well equipped to face theIraqis, it was no match in numbers. Osamaoffered to protect the country by mobilis-ing his Mujahideen, but King Fahd reject-ed this. The latter, instead, allowed the USand its allies to deploy their forces inSaudi Arabia. Osama considered it an actof sacrilege to do so. He publicly criticisedthe monarchy for the presence of foreigntroops on the sacred soil of the land wherethe two holiest mosques of the Islamicworld, Mecca and Medina, stood. He waspunished for this offence by banishment,and he lived in exile in Sudan. Osama andthe Americans, erstwhile friends, whoprobably had conducted an uneasy liaisonwhen it served their mutual interests, fellout with each other. Thus was their rela-tionship strained.

In a recent article entitled “Obamakills US asset Osama” in the MWC (MediaWith Conscience) website dated Monday09, May 2011, Dr Gideon Polya, a biochem-istry professor in a major Australian uni-versity, authoritatively claims that the USmade use of Osama while he was alive,and then killed him in order to block thetruth about the 9/11 bombing, which isthat it was perpetrated by the US itselfrather than “the man in a cave Osama”.First, they used him to defeat the Sovietsin Afghanistan, and thereby initiated thebreakup of the Soviet Union. In the post-Cold War era, Osama was made to servethem “by killing hundreds of Westernersin terrorist atrocities, thus providing theanti-terrorism justification for the post-Cold War explosion of US state terrorismin the Muslim world (bombings, invasions,occupations and 11 million Muslim deadsince 1990 in US-attacked countries)”.Gideon warns that … “the lying, terrorhysteria narrative of the genocidal USAlliance and Zionists must be urgentlyexposed before it transmutes to an evenmore insidious variant”. He maintainsthat his allegation about 9/11 is based onscientific evidence. What Professor NoamChomsky wrote about Osama’s killing(“My reaction to Osama bin Laden’sdeath” in the online GuernicaMagazine/May 6, 2011) could lend cre-dence to Gideon’s claim: ProfessorChomsky points out that after the mostintensive investigations into the bombing,the head of the FBI Robert Mueller toldthe press that he could say no more thanthat it (the FBI) believed the plot to havebeen hatched in Afghanistan thoughimplemented in the UAE and Germany;Chomsky says that President Obama waslying when he said, in his statement onOsama’s death, “We quickly learned thatthe 9/11 attacks were carried out by AlQaeda”. Chomsky argues that surely theycouldn’t have known something they only“believed” eight months later!

America’s manipulative relation-ship with the Taliban rulers inAfghanistan was not a secret in spite ofapparent hostility between them.According to Robert Scheer (Los AngelesTimes, May 22, 2001) even as the US got theUN to impose sanctions against themPresident Bush doled out $43 million tothem. The Guardian of London reportedthat their own investigations had revealedthat Osama and the Talibans had beenthreatened with American military strikestwo months before 9/11. In fact, Americahad planned war in Afghanistan longbefore September 2001 (Patrick Martin,World Socialist Website, November 20th2001).

Their hunger for cheap oil is identifiedby many commentators as being the rootcause of the Americans’ involvement inthe oil rich Persian Gulf region. Americandealings with the usually autocraticregimes presiding over vast reserves ofpetroleum resources will remain cordialso long as their interests are not jeopar-dised. It appears that democracy andhuman rights do not serve their purposehere. Osama and the Talibans would havebeen left alone if they had agreed toAmerican demands. Once during negotia-tions between US representatives and the

Taliban in July 2001 the former threatenedthe latter in these words: “Either youaccept our carpet of gold, or we bury youunder a carpet of bombs” as Jean CharlesBrisard, co-author of “Bin Laden, theForbidden Truth” said in an interview inParis.

Internal conflicts in the area due topolitical instability, and religious sectari-anism and fanaticism create a highdemand for weapons, which is good forarms manufacturers and dealers.Democracy and democratic institutionsare still unknown to most countries in theregion which are ruled by more or lessbenevolent, but autocratic sheiks. (In fact,Israelis boast that they are the onlydemocracy in the Middle East). This is asituation which has contributed to theemergence of an unholy alliance betweenAmerican corporate bosses and the oilsheiks. Maggie Mulvihill et al of BostonHerald, December 11, 2001 had the follow-ing to say about how Bush advisers cashedin on the Saudi gravy train, and how theircorruption affected America adversely:

“Many of the American corporateexecutives who have reaped millions ofdollars from arms and oil deals with theSaudi monarchy have served or currentlyserve the highest level of US government,public records show.

“Those lucrative financial relation-ships call into question the ability ofAmerica’s political elite to make tough for-eign policy decisions about the kingdomthat produced Osama bin Laden, and isperhaps the biggest incubator for anti-Western Islamic terrorists.”

But Bush had his own foreign policymodel known as the Bush Doctrine, whichincluded the principle of preventive war.According to this policy, the US shoulddepose foreign regimes that represent apotential or perceived threat to the securi-ty of America. Such a threat need not beimmediate for the policy to be applied.Another component of the Bush Doctrinesought to spread ‘democracy’ around theworld, particularly in the Middle East as astrategy to fight terrorism. It also involveda willingness to unilaterally pursue USmilitary interests. In a speech to a JointSession of Congress on September 20, 2001Bush spoke quite bluntly about his atti-tude towards countries believed to har-bour terrorists:

“We will pursue nations that provideaid or safe haven to terrorism. Everynation in every region now has a decisionto make. Either you are with us, or you arewith the terrorists. From this day forward,any nation that continues to harbour orsupport terrorism will be regarded by theUnited States as a hostile regime.”

Though during the presidential elec-tion campaign Obama promised a changeif he won, he has hardly deviated fromthe beaten track. When Osama was killed,he claimed almost the whole of the creditfor it, although it was the Bush Doctrinepolicies which Obama had earlier criti-cised that produced that outcome.

The capture and killing of Osama wascarried out allegedly under the directionof President Obama. Although at first hesaid that the terror leader died in a firefight, later he revealed the truth that hewas unarmed when shot dead. So, it wasactually extrajudicial killing of a captiveterrorist suspect. But, which human rightsor accountability champion, organizationor institution will dare arraign the US forwar crimes before an international courtof justice?

In the final analysis, the episodeinvolving Osama was a confrontationbetween two types of terrorism in whichthe weaker got bested. Incidentally, talkingabout terrorisms, the emergent ‘ArabSpring’ sweeping across the Arab worldcomes to mind. It concerns ordinary Arabswho, like us, reject religious extremism aswell as terrorism. Unfortunately for them,it appears that this Arab Spring couldoffer them no more than a dangerous pas-sage between the Scylla and Charybdis oftwo types of terrorism, unless its leadersare careful to leave foreign meddlers out.It is also worth reminding them that mutu-ally antagonistic terrorists have a habit ofstrategically colluding with each otherwhen it serves their common purposes.

As far as the Osama incident is con-cerned we might say that we like it whenterrorists fall. But having suffered for along time under terrorism, and still grop-ing in its lingering shadow, we cannotcheer wholeheartedly when it is only acase of one terrorist being eliminated by amore ruthless one.

Concluded

A Clash ofTerrorisms?

The carrier USS Carl Vinson enters San Diego Bay with its sailors lining the deck as itreturns home from a seven month deployment Wednesday June 15, 2009 in San Diego.The Vinson was the carrier that buried the body of terrorist Osama bin Laden at sea. (AP)

Former IGPMahinda Balasuriya(L) with newly appointedIGP N K Ilangakoon

The eighteenth amend-ment has also done awaywith the National PoliceCommission. One result ofit is shown in the recentpromotions to the rank ofDeputy InspectorsGeneral of Police. Some ofthe senior Police Officerswho have been bypassedor overlooked have goneto the Courts claiming aviolation of their funda-mental rights. There is norecord of the PublicService Commissionwhich recommended thepromotions of havingcalled for applications.The list for promotionsmust have been present-ed through the present orthe recently retired IGP.Did they actually have ahand in the preparation ofthat list? The SupremeCourt is now called uponto determine if that wasdone in terms of theestablished proceduresfor promotions in thePolice Service.

NOTEBOOK OF ANOBODY

by Shanie