THE MADNESS OF HUBRIS
Regime change mania is alive and well apparently, and from Ukraine to Thailand to Venezuela, and then perhaps Sri Lanka, the regime change fanatics seem hell bent on getting rid of elected regimes, just because they think they can.
More than once it has been suggested in local media that the desire for regime change is behind all of the current diplomatic manoeuvres against the Sri Lankan state. According to a local Sunday newspaper the President said this too, to members of his parliamentary group this week, though we cannot independently corroborate that information.
Whichever way one looks at what is happening in Venezuela today, events suggest that regime change or the desire for it does not arise in the minds of citizens and conscientious objectors, but rather in the minds of the rapacious and the sabotage-minded.
The news broadcasts are full of it -- they say that there are spontaneous demonstrations in the country staged by students in the main.
However, the Western media has always been 'over the top' in their coverage of the developments in Venezuela, and the reasons for that are not entirely obscure.
The British Guardian this week carried an article about a 21 year old American girl of Venezuelan descent who is said to have made a movie about developments in Caracas and throughout the country, and uploaded it onto youtube.
This amateur film is now being touted as almost the definitive work on the Venezuelan situation, and the Guardian writer is ecstatic about it as well.
However a quick perusal of the movie shows that the voiceover by the movie's 21 year old producer contains some rather bizarre claims such as the one about millions dying every day in Venezuela as a result of lawlessness and crackdowns!
At that rate there will be no Venezuelans left that are able to tell the tale in a matter of weeks, but this fact no doubt eludes the Guardian commentator who is ecstatic about the amateur film 'hit' that he says conveys the story of the Venezuelan student uprising!
Much of the narrative about Venezuela has been trumped up in this way, and the person who has spoken about it most eloquently has been the eminent film maker Oliver Stone.
Said Stone in a recent interview when he was asked whether he approves of the progressive government in Venezuela being destabilized, that being progressive or otherwise is not a criterion, when the important matter is that the government has been elected.
Said Stone that he would support an elected government in the US if it does good work; the point is that elected governments cannot be 'regime changed' because some powerful corporate lobbyists and multi nationals think it might be a good idea.
About Ukraine, a powerful US diplomat was heard to say recently in a conversation with one of her State Department colleagues that was snooped in by the Russians -- "(expletive deleted) the EU!".
That just about encapsulates the attitude towards elected regimes on the part of some major powers.
Be it Venezuela or Ukraine, regime change that is engineered by vested interests is not acceptable, and in the context of the sporadic discourse about regime change in Sri Lanka, it is best that the dynamics of this issue are properly understood.
Regime change does not come into the equation at all vis-a-vis Sri Lanka, the British High Commissioner has said recently in an interview given to a local weekly.
This is curious. The fact that he has to state this in this way is of itself an indication with all due respect to the gentleman, that he should consider a thing or two about the etiquette (or is it the protocol?) of talking about other countries.
It is not for any country's representative to talk about the issue of regime change in any other country -- in any way at all -- even to say that regime change is not on the cards.
Voters change regimes and foreign governments however noteworthy or benevolent they may be, have no say in such matters whatsoever!
The big problem seems to be that this elementary global verity is observed in the breach, be it with regard to Venezuela, Ukraine or Thailand. Sri Lankans for several reasons may as well keep that fact in mind, particularly in these days when certainly in so many quarters they would like to see regime change in this country irrespective of the fact that it is the good people of Sri Lanka that have the final and only say in that matter.
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