Country Heads Into Heady CHOGM Days
Malinda Seneviratne
Sri Lanka is heading into the last week before the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2013, which Colombo is hosting. The run-up to CHOGMhas been fraught with barbs from the usual voices in the anti-Sri Lanka chorus. The attendant wailing and calls for boycott began the moment Sri Lanka was ‘awarded’ CHOGM 2013 and followed similar whines when Colombo was considered as host city.
Barbs notwithstanding, CHOGM will take place, whether or not Manmohan Singh attends due to pressure from potential coalition partner in next year’s election,Jayalalithaa, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. As for Canadian Prime MinisterStephen Harper, he will not be missed. The Tamil National Alliance, trying hard not to show fracture, has its leader asking India to boycott and the Chief Minister, Northern Province, elected on the TNA ticket, C.V. Wigneswaran saying that boycotting does not help. He has acknowledged Tamil Nadu’s concerns for Sri Lankan Tamils, but has firmly said resolving issues was a matter for the Tamils in Sri Lanka and no one else.
There are noises about what will happen during the CHOGM. British Prime Minister David Cameron has said he will use CHOGM to raise issues. Australia and New Zealand, largely in response to Canada’s boycott and call for other countries to boycott, have got away with the ‘better to engage’ line. It is good to ‘engage’.
First of all, following the rumor that Kenya was considering a boycott because the Commonwealth. That rumor had a basis. A boycott call made sense in terms of rallying opposition to the International Criminal Court (ICC) at a forum outside the African Union (AU). Kenya already has substantial support among AU countries. Since one third of the member states of the Commonwealth of Nations are from Africa, any call for boycott would not go unheeded in the continent. Kenya will participate but notwithstanding that fact, the ‘Kenyan Issue’ is something that the Commonwealth can take up. CHOGM 2013 can deliberate on the worth of this gathering of nations if it remains silent when members destabilize other members (like India did and does to Sri Lanka) and when other multilateral bodies haul member states over the coals, so to speak. Read More
With respect to Sri Lanka and in light of British, Australian and Kiwi noises, President Mahinda Rajapaksacan welcome criticism, never mind the indecency of insulting host, and take up the never taken up matter of reparations for crimes against humanity committed by certain ‘decent’, ‘civilized’ nations who are claiming robbed moral high ground protected by gun, bullet and dollar (!) as private property with ‘No Trespassing’ sign to boot. He could mention ‘Wellassa’ or talk about Britain’s involvement in illegal invasions and complicity in drone attacks. He has a thick portfolio to draw from.
