Pericles, the founder of Greek democracy, was warned by his teacher, Zeno of Elea, that " politicians are not born, they are excreted". He did not want his best and brightest student to enter politics, but Pericles chose to do so.

      Politics is from the Greek "polis" and means a community. Democracy is from the Greek "demos" and "kratos" and means rule of the people. In his Politics, Aristotle, described man as a political animal who reaches his full potential when he co-operates and unites with his fellow man in a political community of laws. "Law", he stated," is reason unaffected by desire". Appetites and desires must be controlled by reason. As such Aristotle felt that the people cannot govern themselves, being driven by appetites and desires. He felt that an enlightened monarchy/kingship, based on laws that will be impartially applied was necessary. " Only a God or a beast can live outside of the polis", he wrote.( Man needs to live in a community with his fellow man. Only those who have property can be citizens, and they make the laws. Those without property and women and slaves were not allowed to participate in government). This idea was to have a great influence in governlng. The British gave the vote to all adult males in 1884. New Zealand was the first to give women voting rights in1892. In the United States, Britain and Canada, women got the right to vote after W.W.1. Switzerland gave women the vote only in 1972 and recently Kuwait gave rights to women. Many countries, like Saudi Arabia continue to deny women this right. African- Americans only got full voting rights after the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965. At the Philadelphia in 1787, it was established in the American Constitution, that "blacks" were to be counted as 3/5 of a "white" man, "for purpose of taxation and representation". Now an African-American Barak Obama, sits as President, and his closest challenger was a woman, Hillary Clinton, now his Sect. of State, one of his most trusted and senior advisers.

      Representative democracy has become the order of the day. People vote their choices in supposedly free, fair and regular elections. These representatives not only make the laws, but must respect and uphold them, and see to it that they are applied impartially, by an independent judiciary. Too often however, this is not the case. The law is not respected, the application is not impartial and the outcome is corruption. Too many have given in to "appetites and desires" and greed and nepotism. The former president of South Korea Roh Moo-hyun, recently committed suicide by jumping off a cliff, over corruption charges. The outgoing Prime Minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert is under investigation for corruption and the present Prime Minister Netanyahu had been subjected to charges of corruption in his previous stint as Prime Minister. The former Prime Minister of Canada, Brian Mulroney is under investigation for receiving payments from an arms dealer. The present Prime Minister of Italy, Silvio Berlusconi is again under investigation and ministers and members of the British Parliament are accused of tax fraud. In India many members of parliament are accused of corruption and the recently elected President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma has been accused of rape (he was found not guilty) and of corruption. The President of Guatemala stands accused of the murder of an opponent and the former president of Peru, Fujimori is convicted of various crimes. These are all   democratically elected officials, in democracies. The non-democracies and the pseudo-democracies have no barriers to corruption, so it is the order of the day and corruption runs rampant down their streets and in the palaces. There are many others in many other governments, national, state/provincial and local that have been accused, investigated and punished, but there are many more who have yet to be subjected to the law. 

 Is it the corrupting influence of power or is it a character flaw? It is a character flaw that allows them to use their power in this sullied way. It is a character flaw that makes them think that they are above the law. It is a character flaw that allows power to seduce them into thinking that they can get away with it. The law may be slow but eventually it catches up with them. Laws, as Hobbes noted, are indeed like hedges, not to keep you out, but to keep you on the right path. When you stray from the path, the law will be waiting. The cynics will say that the law is toothless, that the law favours the rich and powerful, that the law is merely an inconvenience. They are wrong.          

 

     

      India celebrates another successfully concluded election, while Sri Lanka digs out from civil war and Pakistan and Afghanistan continue to battle for survival and Burma/Myanmar languishes under the stranglehold of its repulsive and paranoid generals. India moves forward under the leadership of the Congress Party and its allies, while the others struggle for survival. The Sri Lankan government of Mahinda Rajapakse must now move to  integrate the 1.4 million Tamils fully into the fold. Reconstruction and reconcilation must be speedily begun with real changes that will see the defeated and despairing Tamils become a full partner, with their language, religion and identity protected, their rights respected and the discrimination which they have been subjected to, removed. They can learn from their poly-ethnic, poly-lingual and multi-religious neighbor, India. India's growth and development were achieved by a willingness to incorporate these diverse elements. A Hindu-majority (80%) nation that has as leader of the governing party (Congress) an Italian born woman, a Sikh Prime Minister and (just recently) a Muslim President. Sri Lanka with its Sinhalese, Buddhist majority must accept and respect the Hindu Tamils as well as the other ethnic and religious entities. Only in this way can their be peace and development.

      Pakistan is waging a bloody war against its Pashtun/Taliban minority. The majority Punjabis has to find a way to bring the Sunnis, Shias, Mohajirs and other religious groups into the governing process. The 41 million Pashtuns living in the Paki/Afghani border areas as well as the Baluchis and others must also be incorporated, This has been the failure of Pakistan and it will continue to be so, if recociliation is not achieved. War and military victory will not solve the problem. It is at best a very short term solution. The Pashtuns and others will not be controlled for long. Like Sri Lank and its Tamil minority, if the initiative is not seized, after military victory, it will continue to fester and the result will be chaos and continued violence. If the Tamils in Sri Lanka and the Pashtuns in Pakistan are not brought into the fold with real changes that address their  real demands for protection of their rights, there will be hell to pay. The price will not be merely continued violence, but the break up of the state.

      The weak President Karzai of Afghanistan has to be replaced. He has been ineffective and his givernment is corrupt and incompetent. The Pashtun/ Taliban ( he is a Pashtu) have always dreamed of a state of their own...Pashtunstan, and with their Pakistani brothers, may well establish this state, which will be good neither for Pakistan or Afghanistan. Karzai has not been able and /or willing to bring in the Tajiks or the Uzbecks or the Hazarras into his southern Pashtun majority government. The heightened American military action on the border areas, while necessary to defeat the Taliban/ al Qaeda alliance has resulted in undermining any credibility that Karzai may still have. Military action must be complemented with social programmes, the rebuilding of the country and very importantly the creation of jobs. Many join the insurgency ( as in Iraq), not because of belief in the cause but because they get paid. As the Americans did in Iraq to get the Iraqi Sunnis to leave the insurgency, money/ jobs is the key. The poppy trade flourishes because, people can make money from it. Provide an alternative and many, as in the case of Iraq, will be lured away.

      While weak leadership, discrimination and denial of rights and the lack of opportunities are the main problems in Pakistan and Afghanistan, that is not the case in Burma/ Myanmar. Here it is the ruthless and power-drunk Generals and their iron grip on power that is the problem. There seems to be no letting up. This past week has seen them setting up a mock trial of Aung Sang. The world is stymied in its attempt to place tough sanctions on the Generals, because of China, which is its chief supporter. The people of Burma/ Myanmar live in a virtual prison and little or no change is forseeable.

      India moves on, while Sri Lanka has an opportunity to do so. Pakistan and Afghanistan are on the verge of failing and the people of Burma/ Myanmar are waging a courageous battle for survival.             

 

     

      50,000 civilians are trapped and possibly being used as human shields in an ever shrinking and very bloody battle zone of about 5 square kilometres of beachfront, lagoons and coconut groves. The government forces are accused of using heavy artillery barrages, that have resulted in many casualties. The die-hard remnants Tamil Tigers are running out of time and place and it is only a matter of days berfore they are completely routed. The government has denied using air strikes and heavy bombardment in the crowded war zone, but because independent journalists has been kept out, this cannot be verified. What will be the result of the Tiger's military defeat? Will they resort to suicide bombers and bring the war to populated areas? Their history and manic leadership would seem to indicate that they will not go quietly. The government must step in immediately and try and win over the Tamil population with real changes to address their concerns about their language, religion and culture and the discrimination that they have suffered at the hands of the majority Sinhalese, Buddhist majority. This is no time for victory celebration and/ or gloating. This is the time for reconcilation and healing.

      Meantime in Pakistan, the military has decided to take the fight to the Taliban and its allies in the Swat Valley.This military offensive, 130 kilometres north-west of the capital of Islamabad is a test of the government's committment to face up to the challenge from the growing Taliban insurgency. The government had been accused by the U.S. of " abdication", after it had signed an agreement with the Taliban in the area. The resulting fighting has caused the displacement of hundreds of thousands of civilians. fleeing from the fighting. According to military spohesman Major- General Athar Abbas, "The militants are on the run". This latest offensive was launched during the visit of President Ali Zardari to Washington. The Obama administration has been very nervous about the possible collapse of his government and the threat of their nuclear arsenal falling into wrong hands.

      This is a very serious situation that Pakistan finds itself in. Having helped in the creation of the Taliban, it now finds itself fighting it. The Talioban are entirely Pashtun and the Pakistani military is made up mostly of Punjabis. Over the centuries the Pashtuns living in the mountainous borderlands of Pakistan and Afghanistan have fought to keep out the invading Punjabis from the plains. There are about 40 million Pashtuns in this area and they would dearly like to establish an independent,ethnic Pashtunistan. Thus sending a Punjabi dominated a army into this area can be seen as an invasion by an historic enemy and will exacerbate tensions between these two ethnic groups. The displacement of the Pashtuns from this area, not only create a refugee problem, but a serious instability in the whole of Pakistan and in Afghanistan. A military solution is never going to solve the problems of poverty and resentment or of religious and ethnic tensions. Pakistan is on the brink of dismemberment and the military cannot by itself stop this. Civilian and religious leaderships must come together and resolve the outstanding problems .....poverty, illiteracy, corruption, discrimination and a history of suspicion and enmity.

      The area straddling the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan, have been controlled by the Pashtuns who were pushed out by the British 1847 who drew the boundary line between the two countries. The Durand line as it is cllled has been disputed by Afghanistan and this was more so after Pakistan was created by the British in 1947 and the Punjabi- dominated government of Pakistan was given this area. Of course the Pashtun dominated governments of Afghanistan have challenged the right of Pakistan to rule over these Pashtun areas. The Pashtuns are very independent and are wary of too much control either by Pakistan or Afghanistan. Now with this Pakistani military action, and the change of strategy by the U.S. in Afghanistan, more instability and violence will be follow. This will jeopardise both the government of Pakistan and Afghanistan, which are already severely weakened. They will be seen as the puppets of the United States and will encourage the Pashtuns to unite with their al Qaeda and other allies. You can expect a very bloody and long campaign. 

           

 

   

      Sri Lanka's history created a land with ethnic, religious and linguistic diversity and has led it to its sorry state today. Most of the people migrated to the island over 2,500 years ago from India, in pursuit of trade and economic opportunity. Hinduism was the first religion and remains the faith of its largest minority, the Tamils. Budhism was introduced in the 3rd century B.C.E. and is the religion of the Sinhalese majority. Islam was brought in by the Arab/Moor traders in the 10th century and Christianity came in the 16th century, with the Portugeese and then the Dutch and the British. Budhists constitute 69%, Hindus 15%, Muslims 8% and Christians 8%, of the population.

      The Portugeese came to the island in 1505 and established settlements on the west and south coasts and tried to subjugate the rest of the island, but in 1612, the Dutch formed an alliance with the king of Kandy and defeated and dislodged them ( there were 3 major kingdoms, a Tamil kingdom in the north, a Sinhalese kingdom in the southwest and the kingdom of Kandy in the interior since the 13th century). For the next century and a half, the Dutch held sway, until they were ousted by the British in 1796. The British unified the island in 1815 and they ruled until Sri Lanka won its independence in 1948.

      Education was always a very important part of the island's history. First, it was the Hindu priests, the Brahmims, who controlled the educational system. Kings and other chieftains were educated by them and so education was closely tied to the religious history of the island. It was associated with high caste and priveledge. The Tamils benefitted greatly from this when the British took over and placed education in the hands of Christian missionaries. They established schools and charged fees, but also received grants from the British government. English was promoted and only Sri Lankans who spoke English were eligible to become teachers and to be recruited into the government services. As a result the better educated, high caste Hindu Tamils and those Tamils who converted to Christianity, were the ones who prospered. The Budhist Sinhalese majority were very resentful of this and when the got into power after independence, they were quick to enact legislation making Sinhalese the only official language and to place a quota on the hiring of Tamils and their entry into education, government service and in medicine and the sciences.

      The two major Sinhalese political parties, the UNP ( the United National Party), and the SFLP ( the Sri Lankan Freedom Party), competed for votes of the Sinhalese majority. The UNP governed from 1948-1956 and advocated a mixed economy, private enterprise and a parliamentary system, but in the 1956 election, the SFLP led by S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike encouraged xenophobic fears of the Sinhalese majority, allied themselves with the Marxist parties advocating nationalisation of banks and industries and Sinhalese Budhists extremists who wanted to make Sinhalese the official language. It worked and after their victory, they immediately proceeded to make Sinhalese the only official language and established quotas limiting Tamil entry into government service and higher education, particularly in the fields of medicine and the sceinces ( somewhat like the Afrikaans/ Boers did in South Africa.) Apartheid Sri Lnakan style but by the majority Sinhalese . The number of Tamil students admitted into these areas dropped by over 50%, and the drop was even more for government service and the police and the military.           


      The Tamils organised to protect their interests. Their protest sparked anti-Tamil riots and hundreds were killed in the violence that followed. In 1959, Bandaranaike was assassinated and the violence subsided somewhat. Both the UNP and the SFLP continued to compete for votes from the Sinhales majority in the 60s and the 70s. Tamil interests continued to be ignored. Their concerns grew as the rhetoric for Sinhalese support began to become more and more extreme.. The name of the country was changed to the Republic of Sri Lanka and the the parliamentary system was changed to a presidential republic, dominated by the Budhist Sinhalese majority. The Tamils were excluded from the constitutional process and their fears for their language, religion and customs... indeed, their culture and identity, grew.  
      In 1972, the Tamil New Tigers was formed. It was a militant nationalist group to defend Tamil rights. In 1976, it became the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE) and calls for an independent Tamil state. In 1978,J.R.Jayawardene was elected president and his administration moved towards reconcilation, by attempting to grant autonomy to the Tamils. This would be under Indian supervision.......this was after much violence and India's offer to mediate. However this sparked fears among the Sinhalese about the partition of the country and Indian occupation. It failed. Other attempts at mediation failed also and the Indian government of Rajiv Gandhi tried to help the Sri Lankan government to suppress the Tamil insurrection. Gandhi was assassinated by a Tamil suicide bomber and in 1991 and two years later Sri Lankan President Prenadasa was also killed, allegedly by Sinhalese assassins after he proposed to grant substantuial autonomy to the Tamil areas.

      The madness continues and the violence has escalated with attacks and counter-attacks....suicide bombers used by the LTTE and massive bombardments by government forces. Cease fires and " no- fire zones", intervention by European and others to bring about peace, and even a tsunami, have come and gone. The civilian population continue to bear the brunt of the carnage. In 2004, a LTTE commander, Karuna Amman, split from the Tigers. The tsunami killed upwards of 30,000 and disputes over disaster relief raises tensions again. Mahinda Rajapaska is elected as President but the Tamil areas boycotted the election. In 2006, the worst fighting since 2002 ceasefire erupted and the government began to drive the LTTE from its eastern strongholds. The Tigers responded with an air strike during the World Cup Criket Final and hundreds of Tamils are expelled from the capital Colombo, until a court order halted the expulsions.

      The government troops captured Kilinochchi, de-facto capital of the LTTE, after 10 years and president Rajapaska calls on the Tamil rebels to surrender. In March 2009, former rebel Karuna is sworn in as minister of national integration and reconcilation and a new offensive is launched in the Vanni region. The government declares a 12 kilometre " no-fire zone", in the Mullativu coast and calls on civilians to move there, and thousands of them do so but others are trapped amongst the Tamil fighters, who may be using them as human shields. On April 22, two senior LTTE officials surrendered to government troops, and the government announced that they will no longer use heavy weaponry and aerial raids against the remaining rebels in the no-fire zone.

      There are still many die-hards continuing to resist. Will they surrender or will they continue to fight, using suicide bombers and other forms of terrorism? They are desperate and they are hardened by almost 30 years of constant violence. Perhaps like some of the remnants of the IRA, or FARC, who have also refused to lay down their arms, they will try to take their fight into the civilian population and also target high-ranking officials. Time which is longer on their side, will tell.

      Amnesty may work.