Features
British Treaties
By Rajitha Ratwatte
fromoutsidethepearl@gmail.com
We have just finished “celebrating” what in politically correct terms is called the Birth of our nation – Aotearoa New Zealand! It resulted from a long and bloody war with the then occupiers of the Country the Maori and the British. As we have seen so many times in history, the British gathered members of powerful tribes from among their enemies, sat them around a table, and got their signatures on a document. In this case, a document which seems to have been translated rather loosely into the Maori language by a missionary. There are a few key phrases that are still disputed by the Maori. It really is just a technicality as the British Raj violated the treaty at will and brought a whole new dimension of fast thinking read as foresight, trickery, and in some cases outright thievery into the lives of a hunter-gatherer race that had just got into agriculture. All the “volunteers” (read as press-ganged troops) who fought the war were given farms in Maori land and some of their descendants continue to work that land to date. It took four months to collect over 500 signatures. Hobson (a British appointee) declared British sovereignty over Aotearoa-New Zealand on 21 May 1840. The ceremony is held on the 6th of February annually. A dawn flag hoisting ceremony at the picturesque site of the place where most of the Maori chiefs signed. All are welcome and there is a free breakfast given to members of the public and the Prime Minister and other dignitaries actually serve the guests at a buffet table.
A far cry from the National Day celebrations of our beloved – pearl of the Indian Ocean. A dais full of very important people (mainly very important in their own estimation!) and a display of military might with some long-suffering school children roped in to spend many hours sweltering in the sun during rehearsals and of course the actual parade and few even more long-suffering animals who fulfil their duties as regimental mascots! This also stemmed from a treaty signed by a few chiefs, in 1815 instigated by the British, with more than a little dissension involved. Some chiefs even signed their names in languages other than their native language, probably hoping to dispute their compliance with the terms of the treaty they signed.
However, we had a great ancient documented history and we produced scholars who went to the great universities of the world and came back with confidence and enough self-belief to think that they could do a better job than the Colonial masters. They demanded and got “Independence” without much of a fight from the British and proceeded to take the country, in 73 years, back beyond most of the documented history, into economic hardship that had never been experienced even 2000 years ago!
We transformed ourselves from the Granary of the East into a country where people had to stand in queues to buy bread and get their weekly rations that were doled out by the Government. We destroyed a bludgeoning tea, rubber, and coconut industry by arbitrarily nationalizing most of the privately-run commercial plantations. We destroyed a mostly self-sufficient production in our staple rice by only allowing individuals to own 50 acres of land. We managed to reduce our currency which once was worth 15 to one US Dollar to what it is now 200:1. We allowed our politicians to rob the country blind and become billionaires and build dynasties to cover generations of their descendants. We thought we had made a mistake and tried to re-privatize the commercial plantations in an extremely clumsy and badly thought out scheme, perpetrated by Ivy league scholars who had absolutely no local knowledge of how things had been done when things worked profitably and well.
We fought a 30+ year civil war, largely due to our own arrogance and the need for the majority vote to continue what we thought was a democracy. The tourist industry was decimated and Sri Lankan paradise became the equivalent of Lebanon or Palestine.
Hong Kong however is a British treaty that seems to have left the Colonial Master at a loss. Another ancient culture the Chinese seem to have out-thought the colonials when they signed for 99 years. They held their own against every attempt made to extend the treaty and now from a position of economic strength and power things are getting hot and nasty in this financial capital. We should stop and think about how the Chinese are in a position of strength and what has happened to us Lankans. Despite the best efforts of the Colonial powers to undermine Hong Kong, New Zealand and Australia gave Hong Kong citizens special dispensation to come over, buy land and property and invest, when the treaty expired. Obviously, a blatant attempt to reduce the wealth of that country. What happened they came and so did the mainland Chinese and now most of the real estate in the main cities are owned by our dear Chinese immigrants. We have a housing shortage…nay a crisis with people sleeping in cars and the Government having to hire motel rooms to accommodate Aotearoa’s homeless. They bought at give-away prices and now see their properties worth many times more than what they paid for them. Houses bought for $250,000/- 20 years ago are now worth over 2 million NZ dollars! The latest attempt to de-stabilize Hong Kong seems to give preferred residence to Hong Kong citizens in the UK. Watch out Pommies, here they come!
I hear the Indians are now into treaties with the Pearl and reneging seems to be the name of the game. Let’s see how that goes and what the consequences are. The treaties signed with the Chinese will not be renegable (another new word), despite the total lack of moral turpitude of those who signed from our end. The consequences of any attempts to do so, cannot even bear thinking about.