The Strengths and Weaknesses of Madam Radhika Coomaraswamy

by Sachi Sri Kantha

Madam Radhika Coomaraswamy has been very much in the news lately. A month ago, an announcement was made by Kofi Annan, the High Pope of the UN, that he has appointed "Radhika Coomaraswamy of Sri Lanka as his Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict." Before I annotate the strengths and weaknesses of Madam Coomaraswamy, first I reproduce the media news release dated Feb.7th 2006, and distributed by the UN's Department of Public Information, News and Media Division, New York, under the imprimatur of the Secretary General [SG/A/979; BIO/3738; HR/4884]. I would like to peg my comments to the biographical details presented in this media release:

"UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan today announced the appointment of Radhika Coomaraswamy of Sri Lanka as his Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict.

Ms.Coomaraswamy, a lawyer by training and currently Chairperson of the Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission, is an internationally known human rights advocate who has done outstanding work as Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women (1994-2003). In her reports to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, she has written on violence in the family, violence in the community, violence against women during armed conflict and the problem of international trafficking. A strong advocate on women's rights, she has intervened on behalf of countless women throughout the world seeking clarification from Governments in cases involving violence against women.

Ms.Coomaraswamy was appointed Chairperson of the Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission in May 2003. She is also the Director of the International Centre for Ethnic Studies in Colombo. She is a member of the Global Faculty of the New York University School of Law and teaches a summer course at New College Oxford University every July. She has published widely, including two books on constitutional law and numerous articles on ethnic studies and the status of women.

Ms.Coomaraswamy has won many awards. These include: The International Law Award of the American Bar Association, the Human Rights Award of the International Human Rights Law Group, the Bruno Kreisky Award of 2000, the Leo Ettinger Human Rights Prize of the University of Oslo, Cesar Romero Award of the University of Dayton, the William J.Butler Award from the University of Cincinnati, and the Robert S.Litvack Award from McGill University. In November 2005, in recognition of her service to the country and the world, the President of Sri Lanka conferred on her the title of 'Deshamanya'. She is the only woman to have received such a title.

Ms.Coomaraswamy is a graduate of the United Nations International School in New York. She received her B.A. from Yale University, her J.D. from Columbia University, an LLM from Harvard University and honorary PhDs from Amherst College, the University of Edinburgh and the University of Essex."

Huh! there is a specific mention about Madam Coomaraswamy receiving the 'Deshamanya' recognition from the then President of Sri Lanka for her "service to the country and the world" - a first among Sri Lankan women. What has been her "service to the country and the world"? According the High Pope of the UN, Madam Coomaraswamy, "in her reports to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights," has "written on violence in the family, violence in the community, violence against women."

These issues are as old as the Holy Bible and other holy religious texts. So, Madam Coomaraswamy cannot claim undue credit for raising awareness of issues which have been with human kind for millenia, other than in the rarified strata of the UN. Arguably, her "reports to the UN Commission on Human Rights" on these issues should come a distant tenth in raising awareness on these issues, when considering the fact that millions of pious Christians read the Holy Bible daily, and are constantly reminded of violence in the family, violence in the community and violence against women. Herein lie the strengths of Radhika Coomaraswamy.

The Strengths

Ms.Coomaraswamy has demonstrated four skills which I consider her strengths; the charm of a Hollywood starlet in the now vanished studio-era; the polish of a Harvard-educated academic; the self-promotion skills of a politician, and the guile of a Beverly Hills ambulance chaser. As a fellow Tamil, one can tolerate the first two skills of Ms.Coomaraswamy. But, it is her demonstration of the next two skills [that of a politician and an ambulance chaser] which pinches on my nerves.

Weaknesses

Ms.Coomaraswamy also has a few real or apparent weaknesses. One is her weakness for numbers. Just read her profile, presented by the High Pope of the UN. No mention is made about her birth year or age. This is what I call the coquetish charm of a Hollywood starlet. But, why is no mention made about the years in which she received her B.A, J.D. and LLM degrees from the American universities? There is another sentence in this profile which attracted my attention. "A strong advocate on women's rights, she has intervened on behalf of countless women throughout the world.". Countless?? - Is this some hyperbole? Or is that the UN bureaucracy has emaciated its accounting section?

Yet another sentence in Ms.Coomaraswamy's profile mentions that she has done "outstanding work as Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women (1994-2003)." Splendid. What percent of her time between 1994 and 2003 did Ms. Coomaraswamy use to travel, investigate and report on the human rights concerns of Tamil women living in the NorthEastern regions of Sri Lanka, who faced the brunt of state-sponsored terrorism (aerial bombing included) of the Sri Lankan armed forces? After all, as per the citation for her Deshamanya award presented by former President Chandrika, Ms Coomaraswamy should have served Sri Lankans of all shades.

The second real or apparent weakness of Madam Coomaraswamy is in her historical knowledge, or lack thereof. Arguably, she is one of the most literate Tamil women in Sri Lanka. But, intelligence is not in her veins. As her profile shows, Radhika never earned a university degree from Sri Lanka. This shows up in her deficiencies in comprehending the origin and growth of the Tamil militant movement in the second half of the 1970s. Madam Coomarawamy's earned university degrees were from top-notch American universities - Yale, Columbia and Harvard. One cannot feel jealous about this, since she was born with a silver spoon in her mouth, with her father Raju Coomarawamy serving in high diplomatic posts as a Ceylon representative in the 1950s and 1960s.

Fine, if this is so, then Radhika should have studied American revolutionary history and the role of American Patriots in the 1770s. Has Madam Coomaraswamy bothered to mention in any of her prolific writings or in her numerous visits to the lecture podiums, how independence was achieved by Washington and his gang from the oppression of King George III? And has she bothered to think how the LTTE's deeds compare favorably with what Washington's rag-tag army achieved in the New England territories of colonial America? If Ms.Coomaraswamy has indeed studied American revolutionary history and intentionally ignores comparison of the deeds of the American militia to the LTTE, it merely highlights her social-climbing skills to curry favor among the Sinhalese ruling elite.

What is the unmentioned goal of Radhika?

Simply said, the unmentioned goal of Radhika is nothing but a future invitation from Oslo for a Nobel Peace Prize. This explains her continued self-serving hosanna to non-violence and simultaneous bad mouthing of the LTTE's deeds from podiums and to the media. Cartoonist Bill Watterson has caricatured this 'Nobel prize' mania among elitists via his alter ego, the lovable rascal Calvin, in eight panels. I'll let Bill Watterson say the last word, from the episode where Calvin delights himself in bone-hunting with his pet, Hobbes the Tiger.

• Publication date: