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Businesses make a beeline to Sri Lanka despite boycott
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's decision to boycott Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka next month over its human rights record is not deterring local businesses from making a beeline to the island nation.
CEO of the Commonwealth Business Council, Dr. Mohan Kaul has said that Canada has confirmed its participation at the Commonwealth Business Forum.
He observed that the decision of the Canadian government to boycott CHOGM would not deter Canadian business leaders' participation in the business forum.
According to Dr. Kaul, investors of several countries have made around US$2 billion worth of expressions of interest even before the business forum.
He has added that the conference will be a great opportunity for Sri Lanka to enlighten the world about the investment potential of the country.
Dr. Kaul said delegates from 65 countries had already confirmed their participation in the Business Forum and the largest delegation is from the United Kingdom.
"We have delegates from Commonwealth as well as non- Commonwealth countries," he said. "We expect a very successful event where we hope a very good participation from some of the top business leaders".
Sri Lanka meanwhile continued to criticize Harper's decision to boycott the Commonwealth summit over the island nation's human rights record.
Government spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said Harper is "in a lone battle" and had failed to persuade other Commonwealth members to boycott the summit
Harper has accused Sri Lanka of failing to uphold the Commonwealth's core values. He said Canada is disturbed by ongoing reports of intimidation and incarceration of political leaders and journalists, harassment of minorities, reported disappearances and allegations of extra-judicial killings.
“I do this with somewhat of a heavy heart….This is a great disappointment,” said Harper.
Canada is the largest home of expatriate Tamils, an ethnic minority in Sri Lanka who complain of widespread discrimination in their native country.
Rambukwella rejected Harper's criticisms, saying "he has his own political obligations."
There are 54 members of the Commonwealth, a loose association of former British colonies.
Western nations have been pressing Sri Lanka to account for thousands of civilians who are suspected to have died in the final months of a quarter-century civil war that ended in 2009 when government forces crushed Tamil rebels who were fighting for an ethnic homeland.
While Sri Lanka has enjoyed peace in the past four years, rights groups have accused the government of squelching dissent and suppressing the judiciary.
Australia and Britain have pushed for engagement with Sri Lanka rather than isolating it, and have encouraged countries to participate in the Commonwealth leaders' meeting in Sri Lanka. Several human rights groups have urged a boycott.
Harper said Canada will also examine its financing of the Commonwealth. He said if the Commonwealth is to remain relevant it must stand in defense of basic principles of freedom and respect for human dignity.
Canada contributes about $20 million annually to various Commonwealth initiatives.
Canada's special envoy to the Commonwealth, Hugh Segal, has also accused Commonwealth secretary general Kamalesh Sharma of acting as a stooge of the Sri Lankan regime by "defending their every mistake", a leading British daily reported.
Sharma has been "acting as a shill (a stooge) for the Sri Lankan leadership, defending their every mistake," Segal said, the Guardian reported.
The Canadian official's remarks have intensified the row between the two countries.
Here in Canada, the opposition NDP and Liberal critics claim Harper’s boycott of the Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka politically motivated by Canadian electoral strategy
“I’m sure there was a political calculus,” said Liberal MP John McKay, whose Scarborough-Guildwood, Ont., electoral district is among the six Scarborough ridings at stake and includes 6,695 residents who designated Tamil as their mother tongue language, according to Hilltimes.com
Liberal MP, Jim Karygiannis (Scarborough-Agincourt, Ont.) said domestic electoral strategy is likely behind Mr. Harper’s surprising lone-wolf stand on Oct. 7 at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Nusa Dua, Indonesia, with no other Commonwealth leaders joining him in his decision to stay away from the Nov. 10-17 summit in Sri Lanka.
Karygiannis, whose riding includes 5,420 residents who declared Tamil as their mother tongue language, accused the Conservatives of playing politics over the divisions in Sri Lanka.
Karygiannis, who wants Canada to take tougher action against the Sri Lankan government, noted that despite Mr. Harper’s statement that Canada might also withdraw about $20-million a year in annual funding to the Commonwealth Association to pressure the Sri Lankan government over human rights abuses, Mr. Harper is sending Conservative MP Deepak Obhrai (Calgary East, Alta.), Parliamentary Secretary to Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird (Ottawa West-Nepean, Ont.), to the summit in his place.
NDP MP Paul Dewar (Ottawa Centre, Ont.), his party’s foreign affairs critic, said that considering past Conservative positions on the civil war in Sri Lanka, Harper’s current policy must be based on political motives.
“There are questions about his [Mr. Harper’s] genuine beliefs in defending Sri Lankan Tamils,” Dewar said.
While Tamil Canadians hailed Harper’s stand, Sri Lanka’s media slammed Harper, claiming “he is the worst violator of the Human Rights of his people.”
He is neglecting the rights of the diminishing population of Canadian First People the original people of Canada confined to their reserves under a most inhuman law of 1857. Much has been written on the Canadian indifference to the suffering of this group of its own people whose land was invaded by the ancestors of Stephen Harper.
Stephen Harper has therefore no lesson to give Sri Lanka which treats all its Communities equally, A Sri Lankan newspaper said.
“Further more what is nauseating about Stephen Harper’s constant harping of boycotting CHOGM in Sri Lanka is , that he has no first hand information of what is going on in Sri Lanka and every bit of information on which he places Sri Lanka on the dock of accusation for violation of human rights , is dependent on what he hears from the increasing population of his Tamil Canadian Vote bank, which has taken over the rightful place of the Canadian First People.”
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