The London Debacle And The Rajapaksa-Psychosis

“The demoralising, destructive character of the patriotic degeneracy….”

Sebastian Haffner (Germany: Jekyll and Hyde)

By Tisaranee Gunasekara

It was the Oxford Debacle all over again.
The events were drearily predicable. Sri Lanka, like every Commonwealth nation, received an invitation for the Diamond Jubilee celebrations of Queen Elizabeth II. President Rajapaksa, unlike most Commonwealth leaders, decided to go himself. The pro-Tiger extremists of the Tamil Diaspora went into high-gear, delighted with this new opportunity to display their brawn. Their raucous opposition compelled the Commonwealth Business Council imitate the Oxford Union and cancel President Rajapaksa’s keynote speech to the Commonwealth Economic Forum.
So the main beneficiaries of the ill-advised Presidential visit to London were Tiger supporters in the Tamil Diaspora. The Rajapaksas, having annihilated the LTTE, are keeping the Tiger memory and aura alive not just by refusing to resolve the ethnic problem and alienating Lankan Tamils but also by providing the Diaspora-fanatics with avoidable triumphs.     Read More »