CHOGM-What does it matter Manmohan Singh comes or not or Stephen Harper boycotts it ?

CHOGM is a bi-annual meeting of Commonwealth Heads of Governments.  It is like an association of  past Students  of a school.  Being a meeting of politicians they talk about politics as it affects them and each other.  Governing a country is no easy matter.  There are those who are critical, and those who are supportive. There are those who are rational and those who are irrational.

Each country has different problems that require different solutions .  Therefore, there is no effort on the part of those attending the CHOGM to evolve a unitary method of solving problems or keeping the antagonist forces together.

It is an opportunity for the Heads of Governments of the Commonwealth to understand the cultural difference of participants and understand that each country has  to adopt different methods to solve problems they have, be they economic, social or human rights , in keeping with each others cultural, social, and economic back ground.

CHOGM  is not  an occasion for them to advise each other as to how they should govern and solves their problems , but to understand why the same problems in the 53 different member countries of the Commonwealth  have different solutions  according to cultural, social and economic back ground of  each country.

It is this difference, and the understanding of that difference, that brings together the Countries of the Commonwealth not to face accusations but to understand that in politics what is sauce for the goose, is not the sauce for the gander.  Therefore, the Heads of Governments attending CHOGM should not have  individual agendas to respect. 

They are not participating or not in the CHOGM for the wants of the electors back home, but as governments of the Commonwealth, governed by different people of different backgrounds to understand better and share  the solution each one of them has for their political problems.

Sri Lanka’s main problem comes from the Tamil minority Community which refuses to accept the hand of fraternity extended  to them by the Sinhala majority Community seeking a solution separated from the Sinhala Community.  However much the Government seeks reconciliation with the Tamils, they  refuse to cooperate and have   friendly ties to build a Nation together with the rest of the of the Communities. 

The solution to this should be found by Sri Lanka alone, and not by other governments who have their own problems which are not the same as that of Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka could use legal, cultural, social and religious incentives to bring the Tamils in to the fold.  It is for Sri Lanka Government to experiment with, and not on the advice of the other member States of the Commonwealth who  are unable to understand the problem in the given context. More over  doing so would  be an interference into the internal affairs of the country which is not a gesture expected at a CHOGM.

The Leaders of the Governments of the Commonwealth do not attend the CHOGM for the want of the people of the respective countries, because it  has become now a custom for the these heads of  States  to meet bi-annually in different member Countries of the Commonwealth as venue.  They may discuss political matters affecting each other and make a report of the outcome and  discussions to their people.

It is the duty of the UK Prime Minster David Cameron to attend the CHOGM as the Commonwealth is a British brain child.  Nevertheless, he comes as an equal member of the Commonwealth of Nations.  It would be wrong for him to attend the CHOGM to fulfil the demands of the Tamils in Great Britain.  

David Cameron need not go to the North of Sri Lanka because the Tamil Community wants him to do so, because that would be an interference into the internal affairs of Sri Lanka.

David Cameron should have the courage to tell the Tamils living in UK with British Passports that they are British Tamils.  Their allegiance is to UK and the affairs of UK. They have no right as British subjects to contribute in any way  for the separation of Communities in Sri Lanka which is a Member of the Commonwealth with its own rights and privileges as a Sovereign State.  Cameron should emphasise that their continued activities against a Member Nation of the Commonwealth will result in the suspension of their citizenship as such activity would cause a diplomatic crisis.

In India David Cameron said about Indians in UK, "We want to see British Hindus, British Indians in the top of our judiciary, we want to see them at the top of our armed forces and we also want to see them at the top of our politics,"   

For that to be so the British Indians should have unflagging allegiance to Britain, without interfering in the affairs of India in a manner detrimental to India. Similarly, the British Tamils too should  show their allegiance to  Britain  and stop interfering into the internal affairs of Sri Lanka in a manner detrimental to it.

In Sri Lanka too, the Government  would like the Tamils to shed their separatist cloak, and engage wholely and completely in the development process holding the hands of  unity with all those who people Sri Lanka.

It is also the duty of Manmohan Singh the Prime Minster of India to attend the CHOGM, being the head of an important Government of the Commonwealth and a neighbour, if not a friend of Sri Lanka.  His inability to make up his mind to do his duty through fear of antagonising the TamilNadu is his weakness as a political leader.  A good leader should be able stop irrational politicians from interfering into matters on which he has to take  a political decision.  TamilNadu which harboured Sri Lanka terrorists and  helped  them in the assassination of  Rajiv Gandhi a promising young political leader of India and a Prime Minister, has no right what-so-ever to dictate terms to the Prime Minister of India as to what he should do and should not do.

Manmohan Singh should be able to tell the TamilNadu politicians that they as Indians should  think and act as Indians and their interest in the Tamils in Sri Lanka is misplaced.  It is the Central Government of India that has to take a decision with regard to Foreign Affairs,  therefore to decide to attend or not to attend  the CHOGM in Sri Lanka cannot be decided on the whim and fancy of TamilNadu.

The undue interest of the Tamil Nadu politicians in the affairs of Sri Lanka is mainly due to the fact that India has failed to develop Inter State social, and  cultural relations.  No attempts seem to have been made to bring together the people of different  Indian States through the  organisation of Cultural  and Social events. 

On the other hand Sri Lanka Government has done more than what is necessary to bring the Communities together, though it had been hindered and made impossible by the egoist political leaders of the TNA.  In Sri Lanka the only way to bring about even a semblance of a Communal unity would be by removing TNA, like it was by eliminating the terrorists that the call for  separatism by the terrorists was ended.

Stephen Harper the Prime Minister of Canada is a foolish man to say the least.  He has to gain nothing except perhaps the votes of the Canadian Tamils, by boycotting CHOGM.  It was an opportunity for him to have  seen Sri Lanka and understand the situation first hand, and report back to the Canadian Tamils what he has come to understand of the situation in Sri Lanka. 

The Canadian Tamils should be more interested in the affairs of  Canada, being Canadian Citizens and perhaps build a closer relationship with the Canadian First Nation and help them improve their condition of living which has been neglected by Stephen Harper and his government.  It will help their  future existence as an important Canadian Tamil Community.

If the Prime Ministers of India and Canada are led by  certain groups holding before them,  like a carrot before a donkey  their voting rights, it is their business if they were to  lead their nation into a political precipice.  The CHOGM in Sri Lanka will nevertheless  be held. 

However, Sri Lanka will in its own way,  at its own phase settle the ethnic problem and march forward with its development process unhindered who attended and who did not attend the CHOGM.

 

Mahinda Rajapakse President of Sri Lanka and Li Keqiang Prime Minister of China