Sunday, 1 May 2011
Of Royal Weddings and War Crimes
Last Friday was the Royal Wedding, that of Prince William and Kate Middleton of Britain. No, this is not another post about the Royal Wedding, I am sure you have had enough of it already.
Anyway, I went to Buckingham Palace with some friends on the day of the Wedding, I was not necessarily interested in the occasion, but I did go for photographic purposes. Does that qualify as having been part of the Wedding proceedings from a 'commoner's point of view ? yes it does, I was about 10 meters away from the balcony that the newly married couple kissed - except that they kissed in the morning and I was there with thousands of others at about six o' clock in the evening. Still, there was a lot of pomp and pageantry, I can only imagine how it would have been in the morning.
As I said, this post is not about the Royal Wedding.
This week has been about the Royal Wedding, the blood bath in Syria, Nato attacks in Libya and the release of the UN SG Panel report on alleged War Crimes in Sri Lanka.
The War crimes allegations in Sri Lanka are serious indeed, very serious. The atrocities allegedly committed by the LTTE and the GoSL are extremely heinous and painful to fathom. Those accused if guilty must be brought to justice and penalised as deemed fit.
This post is not about war crimes in Sri Lanka either, that too has got a lot of attention.
I watched Democracy Now the other day and Johann Hari, a British Journalist who writes to the Independent was hosted on the programme.
He went on to expose such atrocious war crimes committed during the time of the British Imperial empire that it overshadows many of the war crimes that the West peeks into. (Imperial)Britain though not as nosy as the USA and with a better human rights record, has committed a significant amount of War crimes that need to be discussed if a future sans such heinous acts can even be contemplated.
Don't get me wrong, I have lived and studied in Britain for the good part of five years now, I have never had tertiary education outside Britain, and after Sri Lanka I love Britain the most, and after Sri Lankans there are no peoples in the world I love more than the British. Some of my closest friends are British, regular readers may have read this post here. This is not an emotional rant either.
But a spade has to be called a spade.
Of war crimes and atrocities, this is true - the order and instructions for war crimes come from a negligible fraction of a population at the upper end of the political hierarchy and for this, the whole nation should not be held to account.
The British people should not be held directly accountable for the war crimes committed in their name by their leaders. This applies to any people, the people of imperial powers such as America, France, Italy, or people of developing nations such as Sri Lanka or the countries in the Middle East for that matter.
One may argue that an order for a war crime to be carried out cannot come from the top without the connivance of the people that elected them. This is also true, but the instances where a whole populace disapproves of the war crimes committed by their leaders far outnumber the instances where a whole populace approves of the war crimes committed by their leaders.
Again, there is another twist. There are instances where imperial powers committed war crimes, but importantly that has almost always been against peoples of other nations. Not to suggest that this somehow dilutes the crime. But war crimes against one's own people is a far greater crime indeed. We have seen that in history again and again, and I fear we may not have seen the last of that phenomena.
I have posted the video above where Johann Hari very eloquently discusses war crimes committed by the British Imperial empire where millions of people died, including the British instigated famine in India in the late 1800's where more than twenty million people died. Well worth a watch.
On that sombre note, have a great week everyone!
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2 comments:
I don't believe any intellegent person with good reason is angry at a country's people. Rather, at the administration and policies which are aimed at survival. Right now, with economies dipping, uncertancies and the people itself being more connected to what's going on, painting situation in black and white is fit. Anyway :) nice post, but there's no need to justify what you write...but still, with this being a hot topic and all, better to keep it all on the table ne :)
x
I think the overall point Hari is that one needs to complicate the reality that is presented to us as black & white on television. Most people realize the destructive legacy of colonialism, though a lesser number are aware of the remnants that are still wreaking havoc in certain parts of the world. But the real issue is how the average person who knows half this much about their head of state's colonial legacy has a difficult time relating the criminal face of the monarchy of times past to the current benign one. This is where the importance of looking at reality in all it's complexity comes in. The media could not - in it's current environment - meaningfully engage in de-legitimizing the Monarchy by exemplifying its bloody past and by shedding light on their head of state's ghastly heritage.
It all boils down to what most social justice activists want people to have at the least: an active conscience of their nation's past & current dealings in the world. Including the wars waged on other shores, injustices committed with impunity by countries against their own & revolutions that might need the world's attention to succeed. There's a veritable lack of awareness caused by a media culture steeped in manufacturing consent (BAM! that's straight up Chomsky :P) & not steeped in enlightening the masses on the ways in which the strings are pulled. Otherwise, this political consciousness would be at the heart of a truly robust democracy that will never second-guess itself in demanding representative institutions that are transparent & accountable to its people.
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