Lanka Citizen

“Today both Ranil Wickremesinghe and Mahinda Rajapakse talk about the nation, about making sure that the nation will not be divided. Mahinda, more than Ranil, talks about the “national” interest, but even Ranil talks of election-time iconography. The weva, the dagoba, the ketha, the temple, the Dalada Maligawa, the Sri Maha Bodhiya, Parakramabahu and his palace, Sapumal Kumaraya and the need to eksesath the nation, we’ve heard it all, seen it all.”

Malinda Seneviratne, in his weekly column to the Daily Mirror, commenting on that both the Presidential candidates have remained conspicuously silent about the position that they would take, if elected, at the Ministerial Meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Hong Kong in December, had to say this:

This is perplexing because if Sri Lanka signs on to the GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Services), none of the promises as found in manifestos and as articulated in campaign rallies, will have any meaning. Two conclusions are possible. One, both candidates (and their advisors) are absolutely ignorant of GATS. Two, they are not interested in protecting this country, its people, its culture, its history and heritage. I would err on the latter, given the track records of politicians in this country.
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Today both Ranil Wickremesinghe and Mahinda Rajapakse talk about the nation, about making sure that the nation will not be divided. Mahinda, more than Ranil, talks about the “national” interest, but even Ranil talks of election-time iconography. The weva, the dagoba, the ketha, the temple, the Dalada Maligawa, the Sri Maha Bodhiya, Parakramabahu and his palace, Sapumal Kumaraya and the need to eksesath the nation, we’ve heard it all, seen it all.
After GATS, Sri Lanka will be unrecognisable from what it is now. The following is not a far-fetched dooms day scenario (how I wish it is!), but a most likely outcome: Eppawala: Gone. Water resources: Gone. Sinharaja: Gone. Sigiriya frescoes: obliterated. Clean air: Gone. You name it, it will not be what you remember it to be, what you expect it to be for your children. It will cease to be a republic, cease to be democratic in any meaningful sense, cease to be a nation with borders, with a culture, with a history and a civilisation. All that will remain is nostalgia. Are you ready?
Let us put it in crudely, for the sake of easy comprehension. A floating casino is set up on the Kandy Lake, in full view of the Dalada Maligawa. Can the Mayor of Kandy protest? Can the Diyawadana Nilame or the Chief Prelates of the Asgiriya and Malwatte Chapters? The answer is, “no”. Forget casinos. It could be a brothel. And if Catholics, Hindus and Muslims are wont to say, “none of our business”, let them consider brothels, taverns, casinos and other places where vice is peddled at the following locations: Madhu Church, St. Anne’s Church at Thalawila, St.Anthony’s Church at Kochchikade, St. Jude’s Church at Indigolla, Nallur Kovil, Munneswaram Kovil in Chilaw. Consider putting up a place to slaughter pigs just outside the Dewatagaha Mosque in Town Hall. Or let’s go multi-religious. How about a casino on top of Sri Pada? Or a brothel in Kataragama. Our Minister of Trade will decide in December in Hong Kong whether we reserve the right to oppose such things, or if we let these places and things that define who we are to be desecrated in front of our eyes.
The point is not that it will be done, the desecration I mean, but that we open ourselves to that violence against which we agree not to raise a finger in protest. And it is not just about places of worship or matters religious. It is about all life. Every little thing that contributes to the matter of living, if it is a tradeable service, will be subject to GATS. What we would be signing away, if in December we become party to this barbaric agreement, would be not just our sovereignty but our very lives.
Is all life contained or containable in the sterile and materialistic article called “free trade”? Surely not! Let us consider a cemetery that contains the remains of your dead grandfather. Let us suppose someone wants to replace it with a military academy that provides the service of education. GATS would require us to erase the word sacrosanct from our vocabulary, would require us to allow the graves of our ancestors to be vandalised. All in the interest of facilitating free trade. All that will remain is nostalgia and maybe not even that. Are you ready?
On November 17, 2005 the people of this country will vote for a President. In December, in Hong Kong, his Minister of Trade will decide whether his President is a puppet or worse a forsaken soft toy, or a leader worthy of a people who believe that freedom, history, nation, dignity and indeed their very lives are important. In December, that Minister of Trade will be subjected to all kinds of direct and indirect pressures. His moral integrity will be tested to the maximum. His human frailties will be found out and they will be preyed upon. He will be pitted against his counterparts in other developing countries. His President will be arm-twisted in much the same way. We all know what happened in the infamous Green Rooms as the Uruguay Round of the GATT was arm-twisted to a close in the early nineties.
This time the stakes are higher. This time, the forces of resource extraction, labour exploitation and cultural erasure are playing for an outright win. We can expect them to give it their all. Are we ready to give our all to resist them? Do our candidates have the intellect, the integrity and the patriotism that are absolutely necessary to fight this fight? These are questions we need to ask.
In December, our country and everything that the word “nation” connotes will fight what could well be the last fight. Mahinda Rajapakse and Ranil Wickremesinghe have not uttered one word about GATS. That is their prerogative.

As citizens of this country, as human beings who have lives, livelihoods, aspirations, memories, ancestry and progeny, as human beings who want to dream about futures, can you and I afford to remain silent, though? I think not.

excerpts, courtesy Daily Mirror, 30.10.2005