Among all the Members of the Commonwealth
of Nations, the Prime
Minister of Canada Stephen Harper is the worst violator of the Human Rights of his people.
He is neglecting the rights of the diminishing population of Canadian First People the original people of Canada
confined to their reserves under a most inhuman law of 1857.
Much has been written on the Canadian indifference to the suffering of
this group of its own people whose land was invaded by the ancestors of Stephen
Harper.
Stephen
Harper has therefore no lesson to give Sri Lanka which treats all its
Communities equally. It is only the
ungrateful Tamils lead by ambitious
Tamil politicians and the Tamil Intelligentsia who want for their 13 percent
of the population a special place over and above the rest of the Communities ,
and a part of the land carved out for them, that spread stories of violation of
human rights, rape of their women, and white van kidnapping. Every death of a Tamil man or woman in the
North of Sri Lanka is automatically taken to accuse the Sri Lanka Army for possible implication in those deaths.
Further more what is nauseating about Stephen Harper’s constant harping of boycotting CHOGM in Sri Lanka is , that he has no first hand information of what is going on in Sri Lanka and every bit of information on which he places Sri Lanka on the dock of accusation for violation of human rights , is dependent on what he hears from the increasing population of his Tamil Canadian Vote bank, which has taken over the rightful place of the Canadian First People.
That is Stephen Harper’s way of pampering the Canadian Tamils for personal political benefits, neglecting the rights of the original people of Canada, which in reality is more important than his political ambition-that being a human problem.
The Commonwealth of Nations stands for democracy, which it promoted during the period of colonisation of various Nations. Democracy without going into greater detail has many principles which every worthy democrat should follow. Apart from democracy coming from the sovereignty of the people, it is where decisions are taken from the principle of majority rule.
Democracy also demands toleration and compromise. If a country or a leader acts without respect to those principles he becomes an intolerant Dictator. This is what Stephen Harper has become, dictating terms to other members of the Commonwealth of Nations, because he lacks respect to the democratic principles of toleration and compromise, and refuses to accepts the majority rule over the minority. The undemocratic as Stephen Harper is , he expects the majority of the Commonwealth of Nations to follow Stephen Harper’s minority voice of Canada.
Stephen Harper who had not stepped any where near Sri Lanka, says, "In the past two years we have not only seen no improvement in these areas, in almost all of these areas we've seen a considerable rolling back, a considerable worsening of the situation,". Stephen Harper is surely suffering from an inappropriate, undemocratic verbal diarrhoea , with a high fever to keep the Tamil vote bank on his side to assure his parties re-election.
Stephen Harper has not stopped at a call for the boycott of the CHOGM in Sri Lanka but has warned the Commonwealth, that, “….. we will examine our engagement and our financing of the Commonwealth, which is quite considerable, to make sure that we are wisely using taxpayer dollars and reflecting Canadian values. …But this is a decision the Commonwealth has made and the Commonwealth will have to live with it."
More intelligent and democratic Paul Dewar, the NDP foreign affairs critic, had said , “…..It's a false and disingenuous connection between the merits of an individual member state and those of the broader institution,"
The British Prime Minister David Cameron had on the other hand issued a more understandable democratic statement, “We do not think that turning away from the problem is the best way to make progress in Sri Lanka. There’s nothing to suggest that not going will convince [President] Rajapaksa he must do more.”
Cameron had said, that he will attend carrying with him a tough messages for Sri Lanka’s leadership when he visits the country for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in November.
That is how it should be. A democracy should have a strong opposition that is another principle going along with the rule of the majority over the minority.
Canada with its Prime Minister Stephen Harper is giving to the world the wrong image of Democracy. If he is intelligent, and a democrat in the real sense of the word, he should attend the CHOGM in Sri Lanka, face the political leaders of Sri Lank and deliver his message of non acceptance of Sri Lanka’s human rights record.
Instead of that he defies the whole of the Commonwealth of Nations with a very low and mean threat of reviewing Canada’s Commonwealth Funding package, which is not in keeping with the Democratic Norms he is expected to, uphold.
Stephen Harper talking of violations of human rights is no better than some of his other colleagues who joined hands with America to get the NATO to bombard Libya, Iraq, and Afghanistan. The violations of human rights in these parts of the world are swept under the carpets of diplomacy, highlighting only those areas that would bring in some personal and political benefits to the Western “Democrats.”
Sri Lanka waged a just war against terrorism, and Canada and the West do not allow Sri Lanka to forget that past and go on with the development of the nation shattered after 30 years of that ruthless terror.
The Tamil Diaspora and the ambitious Tamil politicians keep alive the memory of terrorism to dupe the Western countries such as Canada , America et al, to enable them to carve out a separate Tamil Eelam State in Sri Lanka-for a mere 13 percent of the entire population of Sri Lanka.
Stephen Harper should stand outside his personal political ambition and look at the situation in Sri Lanka objectively to see that the reality is different from what his informants have painted for him. In order to have that objective perception of real Sri Lanka, he should come to Sri Lanka without talking nonsense to please his Tamil voters.
Sri Lanka will not certainly miss Stephen Harper if he does not attend the CHOGM. In which case we, however, ask him as a people who suffered under colonialism for nearly 500 years, and 30 years under terrorism, to stop further violation of the human rights of the First People of Canada, who were there long before the Tamil Community and even before the White Community now in control of it.
Stephen Harper, those original people of Canada has a right to be looked after better, giving them a rightful place in the Canadian Society and a place in its Government. Their living conditions should be ameliorated and the Canadian government should have separate budgetary allocations to provide them with houses, pipe water, education, health and sanitary facilities.
It is only after that Canada and its Prime Minister Stephen Harper will have the right to stand up in world forums to condemn other countries like Sri Lanka for violation of human rights.
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