Ultimate Insults To Public Conscience; Knighthood To Blair and Padma Vibhushana To Gotabhaya Rajapaksa
It was dubbed as the eventual, shameful insults to public conscience when two shady ‘leadership’ characters were unworthily and bestowed with the highest merit awards in their countries, as the New Year dawned. The Social media went berserk, when former British PM Tony Blair was made a Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, and Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was bestowed with the ‘Sri Lankadheeshwara Padma Vibhushana’ Award by the Sri Kalyani Samagridharma Maha Sangha Sabha of the Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte Maha Viharaya, to the utter fury of the people. Both of them received these awards when they have done irreparable damage to their country’s constitutions and to the very fabric of their society.
It was indeed a knighthood for a war criminal. Tony Blair was the least deserving person of any public honour, particularly anything awarded by Her Majesty the Queen. The Royal decision to make Blair a knight, was met with furious backlash with social media users branding him a war criminal and military mothers threatening to return Elizabeth Crosses, given to bereaved families, in disgust. More than 350,000 have signed demanding Tony Blair’s knighthood be removed as campaigners say it’s a ‘kick in the teeth’ to victims of Iraq war. One tweet read ‘The contempt in which Britain’s elite holds the public has never been more eloquently expressed than in the decision to award Tony Blair the highest order of knighthood. One million Iraqis dead, three million dispossessed, a trail of blood to 7/7. Rise Sir Tony!’ Another read, ‘’The man should be in the dock of The Hague. What a shameful day.’ Yet another read, He was personally responsible for causing the death of countless innocent, civilian lives and servicemen in various conflicts. For this alone he should be held accountable for war crimes.’