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| Sunday, 26 October 2003 |
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Endorsing PM's UN speech Statement issued by the World Constitution and Parliament Assoc. of Sri Lanka through its President Dr. T.P. Amerasinghe Bar-at-Law The controversy over Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's speech at the U.N. General Assembly October 2003 only reveals how dangerous it is for world leaders to take an unequivocal stand in the chaotic world situation we are in. Should they say that the U.S./U.K./ Spain Combine's attack on Iraq was unjustified, the wrath of the single super power would be upon their heads. On the other hand were they to approve the action of the U.S. led Combine, they would be unmistakeably condemned by the peoples of the developing world. To steer clear between the Scylla of George Bush and the Charybdis of the mass protests now encompassing the developing world is what the Hon. Ranil Wickremesinghe attempted. His speech "taken out of context" or for whatever other reason, fell between the proverbial two stools. Was it wrong for him to say that the U.S. had no choice but to intervene? Can it be taken as a statement of fact, when Bush's smoking gun was not found in the debris that was Iraq after the U.S. attack? Was he right when he said that the U.N. had failed to deliver a solution to the Iraq crisis? In view of the innumerable failures of the U.N. during its 55 year existence, one cannot but endorse the Sri Lankan Prime Minister's statement. Did he draw the right conclusion when he said that the failure of the U.N. called for a World Policeman and George Bush was compelled to fill that role? Contrast these statements with Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir's address to the UNO. He was forthright in his condemnation of the U.N. and its Secretary General Kofi Anan. In fact in an earlier speech he had demanded Anan's resignation. In no uncertain terms he weighed against the selective use of veto power in the Security Council. He said in medical language so familiar to him that the U.N. organs had been "cut-out, dissected and re-shaped so they may perform the way the puppet masters want." Mahathir continued: "this august institution, the United Nations, in which we had pinned so much hope, despite the safeguards supposed to be provided by the Permanent Five, this organisation is today collapsing on its clay feet, helpless to protect the week and the poor ...... the Uni-polar world dominated by a democratic nation is leading the world to economic chaos, political anarchy, uncertainty and fear." One U.N. reporter, Thalif Deen, has already described this speech as "vibrant" and that "every other speech sounded as dull as a laundry list for super market shopping". Ranil Wickremesinghe would have dearly wished to follow this with a coup de grace on the U.N. A lesser statesman would have seized the opportunity, Mahathir could talk the way he wanted. He did not have "the Peace Talks" dangling perilously, an LTTE watching the antics of the J.V.P. in the deep south, an economy just picking up after years of stagnation and a President ready to pounce on any kind of false step to scuttle his government. So he preferred to live another day. Ranil Wickremesinghe, however, made it clear that the U.N. if it could ever be the organisation the victors at San Francisco falsely said it would be, when it foisted this nerveless organisation on suspecting humanity, the world would not have needed an U.S. Policeman. Its failure necessitated the Policeman. Let us face facts. Neither U.N. riven with division, doubts and leaderless could stop the U.S. acting as the world policeman, nor at the moment, could any single national government stop the US juggernaut. Every nation is looking for its own interest. Even powerful national governments like France, Germany and Russia caved in after the defeat of Iraq. The security council gave a near unanimous vote to a resolution lifting the UN sanctions against Iraq. It was done ostensibly to help the long suffering Iraqis but really to legitimise the US conquest of Iraq. A share of Iraqi Oil was the magic wand that made it possible. Only to her eternal credit Syria voted against the resolution despite US threats and blandishments. In this hornet's nest of an UN what could the Sri Lankan Prime Minister do but "be an ineffectual angel beating in the void his luminous wings in vain". There is a gigantic impasse in the world today. How stop the US Legions marching inexorably towards world conquest, as did Alexander's army and later the Roman Cohorts? Resurrecting a dead UNO is not the answer when even its Secretary General is singing its obsequies! Replace this ineffectual body which its framers while pretending to exalt "the People" enthroned national sovereignty - the biggest stumbling block-to an ordered world governed by the rule of law under a Federation of Earth. There are increasing mass protests throughout the world denouncing American hegemony. Mighty speeches resound in the corridors of the UN. If they could kill the UN it would have vanished before now! Tons of rhetoric! No Practical proposals. The World Constitution and Parliament Association has through the years pointed out that the salvaging of Planet Earth and its transformation from the present insanity to a world of peace and prosperity is to replace the UN with a democratic federal world government under a constitution for the federation of Earth. The Constitution has been repeatedly offered for Ratification since it was unanimously adopted by the Peoples of Earth and national governments at Kongresshaus, Innsbruck, Austria in 1977. At nearly six Provisional World Parliaments called under the Constitution, the last being at Bangkok, Thailand in March this year, the Constitution for the Federation of Earth has been offered as the only answer for the repeated failures of the UN. Even at this juncture when the UN stands naked and ashamed, the US for its own ends, talks of UN reforms. In no way can this organisation be reformed. The question of national sovereignty, the Veto which is embedded in the charter, the treaty system which can be abrogated at anytime by nations, stand in the way. At Chennai, India, this December 26th to 30th, a Call has been issued to Heads of State, National Governments and the Peoples of the Earth to do away with the festering sore of the UN and replace it with the only feasible alternative - a Democratic Federal World Government. |
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