by Suresh Rajasingham; published December 4, 2003
To all Commonwealth heads of state,
There is lots of talk and news attention being paid to Mr. Kadirgamar’s challenge to Mr. Don McKinnon’s post of the Commonwealth secretary general. This is mostly due to Mr. McKinnon’s and the so-called white countries’ opposition to human rights abuses by Mr. Mugabe’s regime in Zimbabwe.
One of the duties of the Commonwealth is to uphold human rights in member countries. How can we as citizens of the Commonwealth castigate Mr. McKinnon for his condemnation of human rights violations? First of all, challenging Mr. McKinnon’s leadership based on his opposition to Mr. Mugabe can only send the wrong message, not only to the regime in Zimbabwe, but to all member countries. We will be openly telling all commonwealth citizens that human rights do not matter. We will be telling them that racial politics within the commonwealth take precedence over actual human right violations in member countries.
Furthermore, Mr. Kadirgamar’s challenge is dubious. This is the man who did not care that his army was committing human rights violations on Sri Lankan citizens in Jaffna, Sri Lanka. He once criticized the United Nations for condemning the killing of civilians by both sides in the continuing war and he went on to say that the UN should be concerned with malaria and mosquitos and should not try to expand its mandate.
We can love or hate the Tamil Tigers, but we should never condone a person who – being a foreign minister and being in a position of power – refused to condemn human rights violations.
By electing Mr. Kadirgamar, all of you will be collectively failing not only Zimbabweans but all commonwealth citizens. Personally, I would always care for human rights over having a person of my own race being head of any organization. It is time to end racial politics. My support goes to Mr. McKinnon.
Suresh Rajasingham