Watching the Australia Network (ABC) weekly round-up last night, I was appalled by the biased coverage of CHOGM. They discussed only one issue, Human Rights in Sri Lanka, and from a far from independent standpoint. The bias was obvious from the moment they said that the Indian PM was not attending because of human rights violations in Sri Lanka - Indias Foreign Minister has been careful not to say this was the reason. They quoted various people, but not single member of the Provincial administration in the North. As a friend pointed out, if they had, their contention that Sri Lanka is not a democracy would have been proved untrue by the fact that the opposition had won an overwhelming victory at the PC elections. (After all, Britains position as a democracy is not changed by the fact that the crown ethnically cleansed its subjects from the Chagos Archipelago). This kind of propaganda by Western organs is not unobserved by Sri Lankans. For example, the BBCs Sinhala Service (listened to by a large part of the population of the island) is full of it. Noting this, politically aware Sri Lankans who were previously critical of CHOGM on account of the expense, etc, are angry with Mangala Samaraweera and Harsha de Silva and other spokespersons for the UNP, whom they see as front men for the colonialists. Hence the sheer volume as well as the nature of the outpourings from the Western organs has a deliterious effect on the fight to preserve the rights of the people. The dismissal of any opposition to state encroachment as a colonialist plot has been legitimised. Far from damaging the credibility of Mahinda in the eyes of Sri Lankans, his position is enhanced. Earlier, there was a possibility that if Chandrika contested him for the Presidency with support from Ranil and Fonseka, the Rajapaksa edifice might crack. That is an impossibility now.
Posted on: Sat, 16 Nov 2013 01:26:03 +0000
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