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Blair born in the wrong country
Saturday, 10 March 2007 - 4:40 AM SL Time
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The cash-for-honours saga in Britain has taken a dramatic turn. Detectives have removed some of Prime Minister Tony Blair`s personal documents from Downing Street, the Daily Telegraph reported yesterday. The documents so seized are said to refer to the Labour Party donors.
Britain may be faulted for anything but there are many things that we could still borrow from her. The unfolding drama bears testimony to a robust democracy at work with no political leader enjoying legal immunity. Mr. Blair may have made his contribution to the hanging of Saddam Hussein through a process of manipulating the Iraqi law but he cannot meddle with the British law. When the British Prime Minister himself is questioned and his personal documents are removed by the police, the message that the lesser ones get is loud and clear: No one is above the law. British politicians are no angels. They, too, are as fallible as their counterparts in the developing world but the fact that they have to be ever mindful of the legal implications of their shenanigans augurs well for the British democracy.
What would happen here, if the police tried to emulate their British counterparts? They wouldn`t be able to remove at least a roll of toilet paper from a politician`s house let alone seize personal documents. Never mind confronting politicians: Can the police even catch a ministerial brat in the act of violating the law? It was only a few years ago that we reported a minister`s son had broken the nose of a policeman who had tried to prevent him from spray-painting raw filth on the wall of a convent in Colombo. Close on the heels of that incident, a police officer received a thundering slap in the face from a politician`s brother-in-law, who, sozzled to the gills, didn`t want to be asked why he had driven up a wayside telephone post in the dead of night! A posse of police drug busters got their jaws shifted at a Colombo night club at the hands of a deputy minister`s son when they conducted a raid. The political brat brandished a revolver and threatened to shoot the police. He got police bail! A lesser mortal`s son would have ended up on a tyre pyre.
Last week our sister paper, the Divaina reported that some notorious underworld characters been driven in a minister`s car after a court case. The city of Colombo has come to be controlled by a collective of powerful underworld czars and their political patrons. It is not just a case of cash-for-honours but cash-for-power or legal immunity. But who cares? One`s gorge rises at the ubiquitous massive cutouts which promise a clean administration in Colombo.
In this country where convicted rapists have been given presidential pardon and appointed JPs?Gonawala Sunil et al?and notorious underworld killers have either served in the Presidential Security Division or operated as storm troopers of government leaders ?Baddegana Sanjeeva, Soththi Upali and others?the cash-for-honours which has shaken Britain may not have made even a ripple. Most of the kudu mudalalis are Justices of the Peace! In a way, why blame only politicians? It was only the other day that the IGP revealed there were several journalists among those arrested in connection with criminal activities. Many of them are allegedly being paid by foreign governments aiding and abetting terrorism in this country?
It is not questionable documents that the police should seize from politicians in this country but illegal weapons. The lawmakers are using firearms without permits. What if an ordinary person keeps a gun for self defence, without a permit? The police will reduce him to mince meat! During the reign of terror (1987-89), the then government issued thousands of weapons including automatic assault rifles to political parties which asked for protection against the southern terrorists. We are yet to hear of any party having returned the arms they got. Even the so-called progressive leftists who are leading anti-war marches from the front and pontificating to the world on the virtues of negotiations as the means of resolving conflicts, have not yet returned their weapons with which vigilante groups like PRRA (People`s Revolutionary Red Army) massacred thousands of southern insurgents and suspects. The police are doing precious little about those missing guns as they are wary of ruffling politicians` feathers.
The impotence of the police to pit themselves against politicians is a manifestation of a systemic failure due to decades of political interference, which has retarded the growth of many vital institutions upon which democracy rests. Unless the downward spiral of the debilitation of democratic institutions is stopped, the day may not be far off when we qualify for the failed state status.
The 17th Amendment, which was expected to be a remedy for the rapid deterioration of state institutions, too, has apparently come a cropper owing to the on-going tussle over the appointments to the Constitutional Council, which appoints the Independent Commissions. The silence of the Opposition and the so-called civil society on the issue of the Constitutional Council being kept in a state of suspended animation is deafening.
The situation being such, our `Blairs` need not worry about the safety of their personal papers and skeletons in their cupboards. At this rate, the police won`t be able to lay their hands on anything in the possession of government politicians this side of umpteen light years!
Mr. Tony Blair has been born in the wrong country. Had he been in politics here, the police wouldn`t have touched at least his waste paper basket.
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whatreallyhap
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 819
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10 Mar 2007 02:55:16 GMT Report for Abuse
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Yeah ! Maybe he should be born in Sri Lanka where he can even get away from murder, corruption, deceiveing the nation,corruption, ethnic cleansing , underworld connections and the list goes on and on.
Maybe BUSH should also think of the same. Applying for citizenship in Sri Lanka.John Haward is also welcomed.
In the name of stoping terrorism he has killed more inocent civilians and the so called terrorist are the byproduct of their actions.
Edited By - whatreallyhap - 10 Mar 2007 02:57:45 |
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