Some UN Bullshit And Counter Bullshit Is Going On
The first casualty of media war is language. Photo from the Daily Mirror.
Sri Lanka is full of fake protest (fauxtests if you will) and everybody is live streaming the UN Human Rights sessions and, uh, I’m just trying to ignore it all and hope that it goes away. I’ve heard that international pressure forces the government to .. aaah. It’s all irrelevant. Everyone just comes off as posturing assholes.
The ‘international community’ honestly needs to treat Sri Lanka with more respect and stop being lobbied so hard by angry diasporals. The government also needs to stop being so sensitive and reactionary. Of course, one reaction engenders the other, so by now it’s just a bad feedback loop.
I think the government should implement its own LLRC report, and I commend them for acknowledging that around 8-9,000 civilians actually died in the war, though we don’t really know for sure. Before they were saying zero and everything is fine, so this is an improvement.
I’ve heard embassy types say that these steps wouldn’t happen without international pressure, but it quite possibly could have happened faster and better if the government felt more secure. The US does all kinds of horrible shit and documents it because they know that no one is going to hammer their economy or them personally. The GoSL doesn’t know that, and international bodies make every noise in the opposite direction. It’s an atmosphere of low trust, and that’s not good for anything.
I read the text of the resolution. It seems OK when it asks to implement the LLRC, but strays when it returns to ‘serious allegations of violations of international law’ and setting deadlines and stuff. It galls because this is raised by the USA, which really has violated international law (in the process of not winning wars and killing hundreds of thousands), but no one can call them on it. The whole tone is bullying and lecturing and, honestly, pisses even me off, who agrees with many of the sentiments. It’s just not diplomatic.
At the same time, the government has organized protests about how awesome the government is and how much the west sucks. I find these really creepy, especially when thugs like Mervyn Silva and somewhat reactionary JHU types are headlining. The international crap – which almost everyone is opposed to, including myself – is almost a godsend at a point where they’re facing actual protests for actual fuck-ups (ie, the economy). Now they can point over there and say, look, foreign douchebags! and everyone, for a few days at least, ignores the mundane, local douchebaggery in our midst.
Honestly, the war ended years ago amidst the same sides taking the same postures, and it’s like we keep having acid flashbacks every year. I’m not saying the issues aren’t important, but these are just a bunch of bullies hitting each other over the head with the issues, they’re not really addressing them. It’s just a bunch of posturing and bullshit on both sides. I’m going to stay in Dehiwela for a while and hope this whole thing just blows over.
Further Reading
These blogger reactions via Kottu are interesting:
What’s actually in the ‘resolution against Sri Lanka’?
What’s the point of this resolution?
I think they’re just trying to satisfy lobbyists and hyper-active human rights groups by ‘acknowledging’ casualties. It’s definitely helping the government divert attention from the actual economic problems our people are facing. (Jehanlive)
Is this our best? – Mahinda Samarasinghe’s words written by a toddler!
Now it is accepted in the recently released statistic that excess of 8,000 lost their lives in the last month of the conflict, it merely requires the explanation as why it occurred in the greater good of the war, rather than continue to pretend it never happened.
I also thought MP Sujeewa Senasinghe’s comments in the Daily Mirror were interesting. Dinidu has also posted Mahinda Samarasinghe’s entire speech to the UNHRC.
Posted on Monday, February 27th, 2012 in GoSL, Politics, Sri Lanka, war.
Mohsin Hamid, author of How To Get Filthy Rich In Rising Asia, has a nice 
I’m happy to be featured in Echelon magazine’s 40 Under 40 feature, profiling young people who contribute to the economy in some way, mainly in business but also in terms of innovation and thought leadership. It’s an interesting article not just in that I’m in it (mainly for work on indi.ca and 
I won’t add too much commentary, but just read I guess. The youngest Rajapaksa, Rohitha (Chi Chi) has given an amazing interview to the 
In 2009 this strange character appeared on the Sri Lankan Internet scene, getting angry, flaming, trolling whatever. Then he started naming anonymous bloggers, posting comments as people’s kids, nasty stuff, for which I removed him from 
“quite possibly could have happened faster and better if the government felt more secure” ? why would they even be interested in implementing the proposals? if they did act against the EPDP/Karuna goons.. they would loose clout in the north/east.. and same with acting against corruption, law/order situ etc.. it just does not fall in line with the dynastic and autocratic tendencties of the govt..
worst of all there is an utter insincerity in addressing the problems. they have not even implemented the LLRC’s interim recommendations, and even the LLRC was a knee jerk reaction to foreign pressure last year, and now we have ministers saying the govt will study and implement what they think is good.. , and we all know the meaning of that…
the foreign powers are hypocrites YES!! but GOSL is completely incapable and unwilling to deliver… and i don’t mind some hypocrites putting pressure right .. so that this regime gets a reality check..
Frankly, I don’t mind there being pressure on the government. The LLRC is what we have and the government should work with it.
the present acceptance of the LLRC must be humiliating for the Darusman panel, as it preemptively claimed that the LLRC is going to be bullshit.
Most people protesting today had absolutely no idea what they were protesting. No one talked about what’s in the resolution.
I personally think this govt has no intentions to genuinely reconcile or implement any solution that’s going to solve the root causes of war. As we have seen international pressure is the only time govt takes a tiny step forward.
Also interesting to read Rajiva Wijesinghe’s spin on this (http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=46247), which is essentially that the government has actually doing a lot of what the LLRC asked for but is just hopeless at publicising the positive work that is being undertaken – despite the country having a minister and deputy minister of media, a minister of public affairs and public relations, not to mention the minister (and deputy) of external affairs and goodness knows how many official spokespersons. If only they put some of the effort spent on spouting western conspiracy theories and organising these protests into something useful. oh, but perhaps there isn’t anything positive to communicate and Rajiva Wijesinghe is just spinning his own yarn!
My own personal conspiracy theory is that the Ministry of External Affairs were told to avoid doing anything proactive to head off this resolution so that the brouhaha could be milked by the government as a distraction from all the issues around cost of living that are of much more immediate concern to people.
It sounds like he wants to be the “minister of reconciliation” :)
The UN resolution is a godsend for the rulers.
It has presented them with an excellent opportunity to rally their supporters, who are currently reeling from a spate of tax increases.
The public was getting restless, what better way to distract them from their daily worries than to conjur up the foreign demon.
I must take my hat off to the maters of spin, they are doing a fantastic job. I don’t think any regime anywhere can match this performance, world class. Even had me taken in for a while….
Ha-ha! The first casualty is language. I saw that banner too. The lengths people go to glorify the king. What a waste of time and energy. This is what I detest about this government.
The slogans in the Jaffna protest seemed so false too. They were singing praises of the president and the war heroes. I cant believe any Tamil from Jaffna actually feeling that way, not yet.
On the resolution itself, how should a citizen react to it?
One must ask oneself, does this further the liberties or rights that a citizen enjoys? If so it should be supported, if not it should be opposed.
The appeal to patriotism. the assertion of sovereignty, the claims of hypocrisy are all irrelevant.
I find the hypocrisy galling and subtle hints at war crimes still makes me nervous. So I dont want to see a resolution passed. Foreign intervention of any sort will only bring more bitterness and suspicion.
I do hope the whole process will have a salutory effect on the government, like making them listen to the people who are genuinely interested in finding solutions, sans any agenda. Doesn’t seem very likely though.
So I’m yet undecided.
The resolution that will get passed will be much different from this one. It’s mostly likely be a joint draft between the US & Sri Lanka. And terms will be different as well. In that sense it’ll be a good thing
At least it’ll stop our crowd from gloating, and make them get on with some work instead.
http://groundviews.org/2012/02/26/new-wave-of-abductions-and-dead-bodies-in-sri-lanka/
There is NOTHING wrong with the resolution. The question is if it is passed, whether it would make any difference on the ground. The government has no one to blame except itself.
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