Ceylon Editorial

TNA’s diplomacy

28 November 2016

An important meeting between President Maithripala Sirisena and Tamil National Alliance Parliamentarians, led by Leader of the Opposition R. Sampanthan, took place in Parliament last Thursday (24).

The TNA played a tremendous role in ousting the Rajapaksa regime and establishing the National Unity Government, led by President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, in January 2015. Later, with the guidance of R. Sampanthan, the TNA as the main Opposition in Parliament played a responsible role to deal with Tamil political issues as well as voicing on national issues.

Last Thursday's meeting saw various unresolved issues in the Northern and Eastern Provinces being discussed. Unlike during the separatist war, the TNA's approach to deal with political and humanitarian issues in the North and East remains non-confrontational.

By learning a bitter lesson in adopting a tough stance in the past, the present TNA leadership is cautious in spearheading its political activities and in the past year, the alliance has proved its commitment to strengthening peace and reconciliation in the island.

The meeting took place a couple of days after Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe submitted the reports of six subcommittees to the Constitutional Assembly. With TNA already making its suggestions to draft the new Constitution, it expects that the longstanding ethnic crisis could be settled in the new Constitution.

Based on the reports of the six subcommittees to the Constitutional Assembly, an interim report is expected to be released in Parliament on 10 December and the report is likely to outline how far the new Constitution would be drafted in favour of fulfilling the political aspirations of the people in the North and East.

The present political atmosphere in the North and East, with several unresolved humanitarian issues such as the prolonged detention of Tamil political prisoners, delays in resettling Internally Displaced Persons, excessive military presence, ignoring investigating into disappearances and alleged war crimes, remain thorny issues for the Tamil National Alliance with civilians affected directly due to the separatist war even expressing their disappointment over the present National Unity Government.

Northern Chief Minister, C.V. Wigneswaran, at his Colombo media briefing last week, even pointed out that the 'Arise Tamil' (Eluha Tamil) demonstration held a month ago in Jaffna, was a reflection of the government's negligence in solving political and humanitarian issues in the North and East.

A mass demonstration was also held last week in Batticaloa against the communal outrage of Ampitiye Sumanaratana Thera of the Mangalaramaya Vihara, Batticaloa.

Despite the negative conditions gradually snowballing in the North and East, the Tamil National Alliance, under the able leadership of R. Sampanthan, is determined to safeguard its commitment to strengthening peace and reconciliation, while averting any confrontational approach with the National Unity Government.

Another meeting between the TNA leadership and President Sirisena and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe is due to take place in a week's time before the interim report of the Constitutional Assembly is to be released on 10 December.

In the meantime, the government should prepare itself to face the 34th session of the United Nations Human Rights Commission which will evaluate extensively Sri Lanka's pledges made in October 2015 as co-sponsor to the UNHRC resolution on resolving various issues.

At the 34th session, which is scheduled to take place from 27 February to 24 March, around four reports are expected to be submitted on the findings and the progress made to strengthen peace and reconciliation in the island along with resolving humanitarian issues since Sri Lanka became a co-sponsor to the UNHRC resolution.

Therefore, at this juncture, the government should not underestimate the non-confrontational approach of the TNA and take its stand for granted.

The able leadership of R. Sampanthan, as Leader of the Opposition and as TNA Leader, has given a good opportunity to the government to deal with minority issues in the country. The ball is now in the government's court!

Daily News Editorial

The incomparable revolutionary

28 November 2016

With the possible exception of South African icon Nelson Mandela, no other leader in living memory has made such a lasting impression on his country and the world than Fidel Castro Ruz, the Cuban revolutionary who died in Havana on Friday night. “El Comandante” Fidel was a towering figure who dominated news headlines for much of the 20th Century and polarized public opinion throughout the world. To many in Cuba, Latin America and elsewhere, he was a saviour who liberated the Cuban people from the tyranny of the Fulgencio Batista region. To others, especially Cuban exiles and many leaders in the US, he was a dictator who kept his people in the iron grip of communism. But they all agree on one thing – Fidel Castro was simply incomparable.

Fidel, who once said that “destiny produces the man of the hour”, ascended to power in a popular revolt led by him that ousted the Batista regime in 1959. He never looked back for the next 49 years – 10 Presidents would rule the US by the time he ceded power to his younger brother Raul in 2008. During the same period, he would also survive hundreds of assassination attempts engineered by the US intelligence community and Cuban exiles.

Fidel’s life was very eventful to say the least - he defeated the invasion at the Bay of Pigs; sparked off the Cuban Missile Crisis which was eventually resolved at the last minute; inspired several Marxist insurgencies in Latin America and Africa; dispatched Cubans to fight South African troops in Angola which helped weaken the apartheid regime; survived the collapse of the Soviet Union and kept Cuba’s communist system intact for another quarter century. He held sway over Cuba and remained extremely popular at home despite the crippling sanctions imposed by the US that retarded economic growth. Incidentally, no other country, not even the staunchest allies of the US, supported these sanctions. He however lived long enough to see the restoration of full diplomatic ties between the two nations that are only around 150 Km apart and a State Visit by a sitting US President. Most of the sanctions still remain, though commercial passenger flights between the US and Cuba began recently. US President-elect Donald Trump has been a harsh critic of Fidel and it is not very clear what is in store for US-Cuba relations in the future.

It is easy to think of his enmity with the US as the centrepoint of his administration, but his enduring legacy was actually his intense focus on health and education. To this day, Cuba is one of the few developing countries that has excellent health and education indices across the board that can match, if not surpass, the relevant statistics of the Western world. Even when Cuba received the double blow of the withdrawal of Soviet support upon its breakup in the 1990 and crippling US sanctions, he somehow managed to foster these two sectors amidst great difficulties. Perhaps the only other developing country that can match this “free education and healthcare for life” promise is Sri Lanka itself.

Fidel, who remained true to his statement that he would be a Marxist-Leninist until his last breath, defended the Cuban Revolution of 1959 at every turn. “Within the Revolution, everything; outside the Revolution, nothing”, he once said. He described communism as “a great step forward in the fight against colonialism and its inseparable companion, imperialism.” Even as Communist states such as China, Russia and Vietnam more or less embraced a market economy, Fidel firmly believed in the ideals of communism. His political vision inspired many other Latin American leaders including Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Evo Morales of Bolivia and Rafael Correa of Ecuador to follow a similar path.

Brother Raul has chosen a more middle of the road option, opening up more avenues for private enterprises and engaging in other economic and social reforms. While Fidel’s vision will always be the bedrock of his brother’s plans for Cuba, there is the distinct possibility of more reforms being introduced in every sector. His final hurdle will be working towards a lifting of US sanctions, but this also depends to a great extent on the policy direction of Washington’s new administration from January 2017.

Cuba will forever be associated with the Castros – both Fidel and Raul – but just two years from now, someone who is not from the days of Revolution will be at the helm. Miguel Diaz-Canel, the man named as Raul’s successor was born one year after the two brothers emerged from the Sierra Maestra Mountains near Santiago de Cuba to lead a rebellion that changed the face of Cuba. But whoever comes to the seat of power in Havana, it will be impossible to ignore the legacy of the man who almost single handedly steered Cuba amidst turbulent waters of the Florida Straits for nearly 50 years. In the words of his younger brother Raul, it will be a case of “hasta la victoria siempre” (Ever onward to victory)”.

The Island Editorial

Castro: The last of the Mohicans

28 November 2016

 

Another great leader has left the world stage. Fidel Castro’s demise has diminished right thinking people the world over though some Cuban immigrants who are trying to be more American than Americans themselves are reported to have celebrated his death in the US. These events have received undue publicity from the western propaganda hit men who failed to destroy Castro’s iconic image for five decades.

Castro was perhaps the last of the Mohicans among world leaders, so to speak. His greatest achievement, in our book, was not so much the emergence as a charismatic leader after ousting a repressive regime through a revolution and turning Cuba into a source of inspiration for the developing world but surviving numerous assassination attempts to live for his country. He was 90 at the time of his death. While living to struggle, he had to struggle to live, given the hostility of neocons in particular and the Global North in general towards him and his socialist administration.

Threats from imperialists only steeled Castro’s resolve to remain dedicated to his cause unwaveringly and opposing American hegemony with might and main. He defied and outlasted ten US presidents. Uncle Sam on Obama’s watch chose to ‘kiss that hand that he could not bite’.

The US unwittingly facilitated Castro’s rise to power. It is said that but for the Eisenhower administration’s decision to suspend arms shipments to Cuban dictator Batista in 1958, Castro’s revolution would perhaps have had a different ending. The 1962 Cuban missile crisis gave a new lease of life to the nascent socialist regime in Cuba in that the US was compelled to stop invasions in return for the Russians’ missile pullout. However, covert CIA operations to topple Castro continued albeit in vain.

Castro stood up to the US and walked tall while most of his counterparts in the developing world stooped so low as to lick the boots of not only US presidents but also American envoys in their respective countries.

It was only the other day that the US government and the Sri Lankan Parliament entered into a pact to promote what is being described as good governance here and the project is to cost the American taxpayers Rs. 1.9 billion, we are told. It may not be advisable for a small country to ruffle the feathers of the Eagle unnecessarily, but one’s gorge rises when the lily-livered leaders of smaller nations make a public display of their servility to foreign powers.

Interestingly, the Sri Lankan government is panhandling to the US while colossal amounts of borrowed money are being wasted on feathering the nests of political leaders. A supplementary estimate was presented to Parliament on Saturday to the tune of about Rs. 800 million for purchasing super luxury vehicles for ministers and their deputies! This, the government has done unashamedly and unconscionably while the hapless people who lost their houses and shops due to the blast of the army’s central armoury at Salawa are demanding compensation and public assistance is being sought to build a hospital to save children who have to undergo heart operations.

President Maithripala Sirisena declared, at an SLFP event the other day, that he had written to the US President elect, Donald Trump, seeking the latter’s help to protect Sri Lanka’s interest. Why should the head of state of any nation make such a plea? Ironically, President Sirisena has done so while claiming to be a great admirer of Castro!

Many political pundits predicted that the Castro administration would suffer a Humpty Dumpty style fall soon after the collapse of the mighty Soviet empire. But, Castro proved them all wrong despite US sanctions aimed at making the Cuban economy scream.

The Cuban economy suffered heavy blows repeatedly at the hands of imperialists, and Castro had to make course corrections vis-à-vis geo-political vicissitudes, threats and challenges that the new world order threw up. There was a discernible rethink on the dyed-in-the-wool utopian dirigisme after the baton was passed on to Castro’s brother Raul. But, Cuba remains resilient and continues to inspire the Global South.

That said, it needs to be added that Cuba is far from perfect. Castro was not infallible either. But, they have amply demonstrated that a country is capable of facing threats and challenges even from the world powers whose efforts to dominate the globe are governed by Rafferty’s rules if it is blessed with the leadership of an intrepid statesman who has only the national interest at heart.