CHOGM and the challenge faced by the Govt. to put a brave face by the marginalized rulers of the day playing hide and seek!!

I wonder how the very politically astute and savvy Govt. will carry off the fact that they hosted the CHOGM in Colombo November successfully! I am sure they have one plan for domestic consumption and another for the international skeptics.

It will be interesting how they will fend off the various brickbats thrown at them, and I am sure there is a plan that will prevent any international journalist from penetrating their armor. The LTTE lobby, which has influenced much of international thinking via the hugely wealthy, and influential Tamil Diaspora will definitely vent its fury. However the Govt. has a tried and tested defense which they will not even budge from, and will be a waste of time for the Journos to try and penetrate. I also accept that the Govt. stance of who is the greater HR abuser does not give much leeway to the accusers, further reinforced by the latest salvos from Govt. press about abuse of minority rights in Canada, especially with regards to the indigenous inhabitants, citing ongoing UN investigations of credible HR violations. This is a direct hit on Harper’s non attendance asking him to sort his backyard out first before preaching to us. This is very effective to the local audience, and so is seen as a plus and not a minus.

It is therefore important that the foreign reporters try and desist from playing to their local gallery which is expecting pro Diaspora angles. It gives this regime more credibility of an international conspiracy of destabilizing the Country and gives the arrogant Govt. incredible electoral support within Sri Lanka.

My advice is either stick to reporting the facts of the Conference and anything about the tourism possibilities of Sri Lanka. If you must, find out the facts of the minorities in Sri Lanka where they live and what they do, not constrained to the Northern Province and its attendant peculiar issues coming out of a 30 year conflict. It would be better to concentrate on the current issues facing Sri Lanka today, with regards to the obvious issues of lack of governance, and the absence of the rule of law and order. The lack of separation of powers of the different branches of Govt. and Judiciary and using the recent examples of breakdown in the International Covenants we are signatories to, as well as the non adherence to the basic Commonwealth Principles.

Without a powerful opposition it is very hard for people within Sri Lanka to seek justice, where severe injustice has been meted, so we look to the external forces to address the obvious weaknesses of basic HR of people, and not continue to prod the Govt. on the events occurring within a very short period at the end of hostilities in 2009.