OLYMPICS FROM BEIJING TO LONDON, AND PROTESTS FROM TIBET TO IRAQ
Those who are old enough to have closely followed the history of the Olympics would appreciate the close parallels between the present politico-media campaign in theWest against the Beijing Olympics, and the US led boycott of the Moscow Olympics in 1980. And for those who are bold enough to imagine, I would argue that the Tibet issue maybe a bad omen for the future of the Olympics, at least for London, in 2012.
PROF. SAROJ JAYASINGHE, FACULTY OF MEDICINE UNIVERSITY OF COLOMBO
As the Olympic torch wound its way towards
Beijing came the protests by several groups
of Tibetan exiles, given prime-time airing by
almost all the large news channels. This was
soon linked to the ‘oppression’ of Tibet by
China. Of course the media had a little help
from the politicians in the US. Nancy Pelosi
of the US House of Representatives used
photo opportunities with the Dalai Lama to
preach how concerned we all should be
about violations of human rights in Tibet.
As the media whipped up the frenzy with
minute-by-minute newscasts, the protestors
became increasingly bold. Despite the gathering
momentum of protests on the screen
and the importance of the event, the police
in these great ‘Western’ democracies became almost impotent. They were quite unable to
control small numbers of persons who would
hurl themselves at the torch-bearers. One
notable feature is that the policing and planning
were particularly poor in the UK, France
and US, though the BBC was more concerned
about who the ‘Chinese guys in blue
were?’. Not a word about who the protesting
people were (for example, who were the
pro-Tibetan Caucasians?) or why the Police
were so wretchedly incompetent particularly
in these three countries.
Thankfully, the so-called less sophisticated (but perhaps more civilized) countries managed to prevent such ugly incidents. If there was one country that should have erupted in protests, it should have been India. The country had repeatedly been at war with China, (the latest being 1962), but did admirably well to allow the true spirit of Olympics to be celebrated with dignity. This is also despite hosting thousands of Tibetan exiles and the Dalai Lama himself. How is it that they could keep the event peaceful, while the western countries with much fewer Tibetan exiles failed somiserably? Luckily for humanity, His Holiness the Dalai Lama himself thwarted any attempts at a boycott of the Olympics and hijacking of the event by the ‘West’.
So, what is the link between Beijing-London on the one hand and Tibet-Iraq on the other? The link maybe tenuous, but I have attempted to fit the jigsaw, piece by piece. Tibet is supposed to have been invaded by China in 1950–1951. Therefore for the ‘selfappointed international’ community and their media sycophants, the current protests are ‘justified’ and reasonable. For a moment let us accept this. If so, the underlying principle can be stated in this manner: It is justifiable for people to protest against a country hosting the Olympics, if this country has invaded another sovereign state.
Now apply this principle to the situation in Iraq, (and to the rest of the globe). Iraq was invaded in 2004 by the ‘coalition of the willing’ led by the US, the UK, and Australia. It was on the pretexts of searching for weapons of mass destruction that are yet to be found. The oppression is worse in Iraq than in Tibet. Unlike the police batons and water hoses used by the Chinese in Tibet, Iraq is being decimated by the invading forces using bombers, helicopter gun ships, tanks, infantry and artillery. Though each and every human life is precious, the number killed in Iraq exceeds any estimates of recent deaths in Tibet by thousand fold. According to scientific researchers, the figure of civilian deaths in Iraq was close to 100,000 by 2003 alone. (See the article, Mortality before and after the 2003 invasion of Iraq: cluster sample survey. The Lancet of 2004, Volume 364, Pages 1857 – 1864).
Therefore, if it is justifiable for Tibetan exiles and supporters to protest about the Beijing Olympics, it is logically justifiable for Iraqis to protest, during London Olympics in 2012. They could protest about the invasion and killings perpetrated by the British in their country. If the Arabs are to remember what the British did to Palestine, they too could rally round with Iraqis to boycott the 2012 Olympics. The torch probably may not be tolerated in any of the former colonial countries where the British Empire plundered, just a few decades prior to ‘invasion’ of Tibet by the Chinese. By extending this logic to history, Malaysians, Africans (Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Egypt etc), Indians (who remember the Amritsar Massacre of 13 April 1919, the horrific suppression of the campaigns for freedomspear-headed by Mahatma Gandhi) and Sri Lankans too could join in the protest against the London 2012 Olympics. It is also ironic that the US led boycott of Moscow Olympics of 1980 was in protest against the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. 28 years later the clock has done a full circle and now there are several thousand British (and American) soldiers in Afghanistan. As Tony Blair said in November 2006, they will stay ‘as long as it takes’. So perhaps the Afghan exiles too could join in the 2012 London Olympic torch protest.
