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By Susantha Goonatilake

America do not repeat Vietnam mistake
The latest in the series of conferences that are being held around the world by foreigners to determine our future was in Washington. The main contributors were the Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Armitage and Minister Moragoda.
The latter is the nearest aspirant we have to an American puppet, in that he has welcomed US hegemony and stands to heel when the US Ambassador calls. I can't find any minister of any other country who would, in this day and age, do such a thing.

Not even during the Vietnam War did the Catholic dictators there want to proclaim the US as their hegemonic power. Armitage's views therefore are the significant ones in the conference. He is the policeman, we can ignore the puppet. Let us see what Armitage said about our country; and the lessons we can draw. He designated Sri Lanka as "this brew of caste, class, religion and race", a phrase almost directly out of colonialists' views of the 19th century, the classic age of imperialism.

It had echoes of the white man's burden as well as of the Bishop who called Sri Lanka the country where everything pleases except its inhabitants. With this as Armitage's background on our country, and Moragoda as puppet-in-waiting, any Sri Lankan with national respect would tend to ignore his statements. Armitage, however had some telling statements.

Let me directly quote his suggestions for addressing what he called the "legitimate aspirations of the Tamil people": "This means allowing Tamils the simple right to stay in their own homes and to pursue a living such as fishing in coastal waters, without prejudice or harassment.

But it also means protecting the full range of human rights for all the people of Sri Lanka. In particular the burden will be on the government, military and civilian officers alike, to prove that they can accord these rights to residents of the Northern and Eastern parts of the nation including the refugees returning to the area. And that they will hold officials accountable for their conduct"

He further adds that the Tigers should disarm, that they should stop child recruitment, have respect for the rights of the Sinhalese and Muslims, as well as those among its own community, namely Tamils in the North and East, and that they should accept the democratic system.

And as Armitage is a spokesman for the hegemonic power, let me also add something he did not say, namely about his own country and system of government. In the US, there are no ethnic boundaries and no ethnically demarcated artificial borders. America is a mixture of a large number of ethnic groups. Some of them exist in relatively large clusters as among recent Spanish speaking migrants in their South, like Tamils also living as a cluster in our North.

And in larger cities like New York, there are slices of ethnicity and language that crisscross in a welter of diversity. Some might think I was speaking of parts of Colombo. The US has multiculturalism without ethnic borders.

Puppets that have the ear of hegemonic powers generally do not tell the actual ground reality to their masters. Ho Chi Minh's plan for the future of Vietnam incorporated large chunks of the American Declaration of Independence. But instead of embracing him, America at the time opted to supporting its puppets, a Christian dominated minority government. This eventually led to the US's first defeat in the world. And of course, to much greater suffering among the Vietnamese. Now, if Armitage (and the American government) had been given accurate information, they would have known that what he has prescribed for Tamil aspirations is precisely what the SLFP (not to be confused with the PA), JVP, MEP and SU have always formally stood for. It was also what the UNP of previous leaders stood for.

They all have stood for all the peoples of this country- in Armitage's words of whatever "caste, class, religion and race" - being able to live freely with equality and dignity in any part of the country like in the US without ethnic or religious boundaries and barriers. Like Armitage they also stand against LTTE terrorism, child recruitment, and the need for democracy all over the country. It appears therefore, that in unthinkingly supporting local puppets, the USA may precisely be doing in Sri Lanka what they did wrong in Vietnam.

What is good for your country - multiculturalism without ethnic borders - will be good enough for us. So, Deputy Secretary, learn from the past, dump the puppets. Switch sides. (Please also do understand, even if you do not, the people of this country, and truth, will ultimately prevail.)

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