The Milliband Show – a Comical Relic of a Lost Cause

David Milliband, the foreign secretary of Britain, is young, energetic and according to his former boss, Tony Blair, the brainiest in the cabinet. Hillary Clinton found him ‘dashing’ and of course ‘handsome’.

However, his portrayal in the imagination of the members of the governments in the developing nations – or the Third World, as often referred to them in private conversations - unfortunately, is of someone who is neither cute nor pleasant.

They see him as an arrogant politician who is fond of dictating terms to them. So, understandably, Mr Milliband’s involvement in any political manoeuvre does trigger off anxiety, distress, mistrust and above all controversy, even if his motives are fair and thought-provoking.

The participation of David Milliband at the Global Tamil Forum – GTF - at the House of Commons in London did just that in the corridors of power in Sri Lanka this week. It is reported that the British High Commissioner in Colombo had been summoned to the foreign ministry to echo the sentiments of the Sri Lankan government with regard to the issue and as a way of preventing the participation of Gordon Brown, the British Prime Minister, but to no avail.

Mr Milliband addressed the inaugural meeting of the GTF and urged the Sri Lankan government to embark on ‘genuinely inclusive politics’, perhaps, implying that the politics carried out by the present administration is neither genuine nor inclusive. He went on to condemn both the government and Tamil Tigers for human rights violations, especially, during the last phase of the war and called for an investigation into the atrocities. And who doesn’t?

Since the Big Guns of the Tamil Tigers do not exit any more to answer the allegations in the event of an international investigation being launched, the government of Sri Lanka must find a way to address that issue too, if Mr Milliband gets his way!

The Global Tamil Forum scored a diplomatic coup by getting both the British Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary on the platform while achieving their secondary goal at the same time– embarrassing Colombo. However, whether it can achieve anything beyond these relatively convenient goals where it really matters – in the lands where Tamils have grievances - is another question. The diplomatic events in the past year, when the war was nearing an end, clearly show that reading riot act by Mr Milliband or Prime Minister Brown to their counterparts in Sri Lanka, cuts very little ice with the government of Sri Lanka. All it does is making them more stubborn to resist even the advice based on good motives.

The government of Sri Lanka views the GTF as a front for the LTTE. It has justifiable reasons to believe so: first of all, they simply wonder what happened to all those hyperactive Tamil Tiger activists who ran every form of riots to keep the brand ‘Tigers’ alive in Europe and elsewhere; secondly, the modus operandi of the GTF is little different from that adopted by the Tigers – getting western politicians involved at the first available opportunity to bring pressure upon the Sri Lankan government; and finally, the tentacles of propaganda ranging from imprisoning the Tamils in refugee camps against their will to malnourishment of children and adults, do ring the same old tune of manipulative falsehood.

Fr S J Emmanuel, the head of the GTF, who happens to be a Catholic priest, says that his organisation is committed to non-violence and democracy in line with the ideals of the likes of Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Nelson. It is very noble of him, indeed.

However, the reverend Father has shown little enthusiasm to include his most supreme spiritual mentor, the Christ, in the short list of role models - whose offer of the ‘other cheek’ to the enemy has been legendary in the folklore of piety. His insistence on the investigations of the crimes committed just against the Tamils sheds light on where he is planning to take GTF during the post-war period.

Fr Emmanuel is either not ready for sowing the seeds of reconciliation, compassion and love in line with the teachings of the gospels or going to write his own ‘gospel’ in the psyche of the remnants of the Tigers and their ardent followers, now that he got the audience he needs in the form of GTF.

Mr Milliband had been demonized in Sri Lanka even before his participation at the event. In fairness to him, what he merely said was the need for reconciliation – not the stuff that Fr Emmanuel wants to hear. The usual suspects – Keith Vaas, Virendra Sharma and Simon Hughes – were much more ambitious than him.

However, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that they are all politicians that include Fr Emmanuel who wears a cloak – on the basis of talking politics based on race instead of interpreting the Holy Bible. In a few months time, Mr Milliband may not be the foreign secretary of Britain any more. Mr Milliband has to please an audience consisting of a significant minority, especially when the crucial British general election is around the corner. So, he accepted the invitation and his boss, the prime minister, had a private meeting with the representatives of GTF. They do it all the time – 24/07/365! - Simply because, they have to. They are elected representatives of a vibrant democracy.

Mr Milliband, the son of a Jewish immigrant, has been on a steep learning curve since he was appointed as the foreign secretary. His first brush with the unwritten code of diplomacy took place when he addressed an octogenarian called Pranab Mukherjee by his first name at a press conference, while on an official visit to India. Then he had a row with his Russian counterpart over the war with Georgia. He had an unpleasant encounter with president Rajapakse too during the last phase of war when he flew out on a private jet to Sri Lanka in order to get the war stopped.

He may have realized that the diplomacy is a hard nut to crack even for a foreign secretary of a powerful nation despite having an aggressive streak at his disposal.

Mr Milliband has mellowed since then. The fact that he is back in Russia’s good books reflects the new development. He may improve further as he gathers more experience on the new frontier.

In the meantime, the GTF and the likes who sacrifice the western politicians on the altar of cheap publicity can learn a lesson from two men who thought that the propaganda was the best tool to fool the mankind for ever.

Both Joseph Goebbels and Anton Balasingham thought that stuffing the human mind with misinformation on regular basis do the trick in achieving the macabre goals. History clearly shows how the ruthless manipulations backfired on the organizations they represented and beyond, quite spectacularly.

It looks like Fr Emmanuel still believes in the popular theories of late Balasingham. However, he needs more than the divine intervention to elevate a term like ‘genocide’ to the rank of Lord’s Prayer, even if he collectively recites it million times with the disciples of the GTF.

Fr Emmanuel is hell bent on provoking a fierce diplomatic row between Great Britain and Sri Lanka. The government of Sri Lanka should not play into his hands by taking those moves seriously, as and when he does it.

The GTF has chosen a ‘holy man’ to sell the brand ‘Tiger’; it is an organization that sits on a fiscal mountain, collected from the Tamils worldwide – by force or as voluntary contributions. Unfortunately, what its chief preaches is not the Sermon on the Mount yet – far from it.

The head of the GTF seems to be acutely aware of the vacuum that exits inside it. His ambitious exercise to fill it in with the likes of Mr Milliband does make the organization more transparent in the eyes of a politically-and- morally mature global audience which flatly refuses to be fooled around.

- Asian Tribune -