The type of diplomacy Sri
Lanka needs at this hour of crisis is neither barking Rottweiler nor
liking Pomeranian!
Our quest for a foreign policy, matching
21st century world order.Part II
Keerthi Godayaya
"The interval between the decay of the
old and the formation and establishment of the new, constitutes a period
of transition, which must always necessarily be one of uncertainty,
confusion, error, and wild and fierce fanaticism." John
Calboun
Sri Lanka, a victim of the transformation of 21st century capitalism;
why they take our freedom as their defeat?
As this writer has mentioned in other occasions, we like it or not,
the ground realities of Sri Lankan politics has been changed. The domain
of Lankan politics has been shifted from national to international,
local to global. The magnitude of this transition of globalizing our
space, our national political realm, can better witnessed just in the
way those NGOs together with so called 'European' (International) Community
and other international agencies influencing and manipulating our collective
political consciousness and even micro level political activities in
our society. Judging by the influence of the west in our internal affairs,
it must be clear by now that Sri Lankan political sphere has become
an international playground to a point where we cannot even claim that
Pradesiya Sabhas or municipal council elections in Sri Lanka are national
issues anymore. The bitter fact that we have to swallow is that they
"the neo colonial empire of the west" have just infiltrated
our space; the sad fact is that there is no space on this planet that
we can clime as ours anymore.
But this condition is not just a Sri Lankan phenomenon; it is a global
situation, set in motion during last thirty odd years by the 21st century
neo-liberal global agenda of restructuring and reorganizing new regimes
and systems of capital accumulation world over encompassing latest technological
achievements of man kind in this third phase of capitalism. The motto
of this project is weakening the periphery through fragmentation by
means of management and manipulation of regional conflicts.
The orthodox diplomacy of the old days has been out matched to handle
this different kind of phenomena that has been surfaced in the late
20th and beginning of the 21st century. The very fundamental ideals
of mid 20th century world politics do not exist anymore in the 21 century
and ironically, the ideals that have been threatened in the 21st century
are the ones that had been cherished in the 20th century. For instance,
the main challenge before the west in post WW2 era was to ensure the
prevalence of democracy (in oppose to the threat of communism at that
time) in newly independent countries in the peripheral world and to
ensure that smooth function of world economy under the open market principle
is maintained there. Therefore, democracy was essential, freedom of
press was essential, multi party system was essential, liberal civil
society was essential, as far as the open world market principle goes
unchallenged; the concepts such as nation state, democracy, universal
franchise, sovereignty were highly cherished at the time. But now in
21st century, the situation is different. There is no threat of Communism
anymore. The ideals, concepts and institutions of 20th century politics
have become barricades limiting the advancement and growth of global
capital of the new century. The nation state, national borders, economic
boundaries, cultural differences, different systems of justice, has
become obstacles for the expansion of trans national capital, which
is naturally seeking for new grounds for its escalation of standardized
mass production and mass consumption.
All the activities in the management of regional conflicts apparently
anticipated to accomplish a smooth transition of existing world toward
a new reality termed as 'globalization' in transforming distant lands
their people, their cultures and their social relations to accommodate
the accumulative cultures of the capital of the west. Uninterrupted
flow of raw materials and energy will be fundamental conditions for
the smooth function of such enterprise. Above all, re-strengthening
the western metropolitan centers, in oppose to the emerging regional
power centers such as China and India, destabilizing peripheries (the
global south) for the sustainable stability of its control over the
globe bringing whole planet under the umbrella of this single logic
of Trans national capital.
No matter how it has being sugar coated, it is an open secret that
the word 'globalization' means only globalizing resources and markets
of periphery not the capital of the center. In reality, when we were
asked to open our national boundaries, the west is tightening their
own ones limiting access to others.
The intended method of achieving this objective has never been innocent
at all. What would be the ideal setting if you want to plunder your
neighbors? Ideologically, politically, ethnically, geographically divided
neighbors are the ideal targets that can be exploited without any resistance.
That is the reason why those western funded NGOs in the third world
targeting and undermining mass movement and collective political consciousness
and political mobility in those regions. Some NGOs do valuable service
to countries no doubt about it. But there are so many other NGOs do
the opposite. Giving the impression that they are filling the vacuum
created by retreating state, they rob state sovereignty of poor nations
from indirect means and reduce third world states to a level of mere
observers. In short, western administrations have taken over the regimes
of developing world through these intermediate instruments called NGOs.
In the case of Sri Lanka, they have constantly undermined our resolve
to stand for our unity and territorial integrity.
NGOs operate essentially under the market economy principles of demand
and supply. The thugery they use in societies like ours makes us to
wonder if they are a latest version of mafia involved in intellectual
terrorism. NGOs have become virtually a different community among world
nations. Like ethnic Kurds have spread thinly among Middle Eastern countries
but bound together by ethic relations, NGOs also are spread around the
globe but bound together by their venture; under the commanding centers
in the west, have undertaken a business of eroding sovereignty of nations
, softening their resistance and fragmenting the globe.
This is the process which has slowly but steadily been deployed in
the developing world and which then transforming into such a conflict
prone hostile crisis between the civilizations of global south with
the global north. Sri Lankan terrorist problem has to be taken within
this context to realize how it has been used as a discordant political
device in the management of the regional conflicts in the mineral rich
'south Asian circuits.
It is very important that we locate Sri Lankan crisis within this big
picture if we need to overcome this crisis.
Decoding and Deconstructing the West.
"West is no longer an arbitrator, but a part of the problem,"
"Suddenly, there is a curve in the road,
a turning point. Somewhere, the real scene has been lost, the scene
where you had rules for the game and some solid stakes that everybody
could rely on."
--Jean Baudrillard
Understanding the behavioral pattern of the west is the key to win
the game of the west. But the game has been changed even without our
consent. Giving an interview to the Asian Tribune correspondent in USA
Mr. Daya Gamage, during HE's tour in the US last year; President Mahinda
Rajapakse asked an interesting question. Questioning the inconceivable
absurdity in the behavior of the west in their negative reactions towards
Sri Lankan resolve to fight terrorism, he asked "what does the
west really want?" So, Mr. President already has opened up the
discourse of decoding the west. Then, our foreign policy pundits must
fulfill this task of deconstructing it.
Let us find what west is really expecting to achieve by imposing sanctions
at a moment when one of their fellow democracies pleading for merciful
assistance to survive in the fighting against terrorism. Why western
countries want to destroy an already weakened economy of SL knowing
the fact that the end result will only serve the terrorists? Is that
a mistake of the west or is this due to the failure of their diplomacy?
Are they miss guided… or all these events are a part of the grandiose
design?
On one hand west perform the role of prosecutor by leveling charges
against Sri Lanka through their own institutions, and then on the other
hand they prepare evidence to prove their case by their own witnesses
of western funded NGOs, and their media statements, their human right
organizations etc. The west performs all other roles in this case against
Sri Lanka accept the role of the accused, the west want us to play that.
They play the role of the arbitrator, the prosecutor, the witness, the
jury and the judge. But actually, in the genuine case of crimes against
humanity, we all know that west becomes the accused; this is the most
disturbing fact regarding the west, the criminal and the accused of
the world history has taken the role of the judge.
Can somebody explain why our foreign policy must disregard these fundamental
facts when we deal with the west? Why they want us to treat west as
an honest arbitrator while all evidence prove us otherwise, that the
west is the real perpetrator of our problem? As far as this playing
field of deception of fooling each other exists, the west can maintain
its Janus face. Is there any reason why must we play this game with
the west, instead of exposing the whole design of the game before the
real international community?
Let us make our diplomacy as simple as possible. If a well known criminal
accuses us for a crime we've never committed in our day today life what
we do? Definitely we deal with it in a les complicated manner, with
open and direct engagement. That is the way our diplomacy should be.
That is the way Dr. Jayathilaka works, that is the way Prof. Wijesinghe
works. What's wrong with it? The good news is that Prof. Rajeewa Wijesinghe
and Dr. Dayan Jayathilake, by their own way and initiative, have been
occupied in the project of deconstructing the west in resent past under
so many odds, especially coming from the bourgeoisie compradors of our
society for not paying enough homage to the west. But as a matter of
fact, to the scale of the ambivalence that prevails in the western diplomacy
proves again and again that the proposed substitute brand, the "silent
diplomacy" can never handle the complexities of our time.
Summing up our foreign policy priorities Dr. Dayan Jayathilake says
that our priorities should be,
"The defense of independence and national
sovereignty and the restoration of territorial integrity and unity,
which in concrete and contemporary terms translates itself into the
eradication of the LTTE as a military enemy, and the obtaining of maximum
external support for as well as the blocking of external intervention
and interference against, that objective…"
Facts are written on the wall, it is clear that the decline of LTTE
threat on the one hand and the rise of a new threat emerging from the
international community through pressure, threats, intimidations and
interference on the other. In such scenario, at present a greater threat
to our national security is not coming from the LTTE but coming from
the so-called international community or the west. In the past, IC was
behind the scene undermining our sovereignty and national security as
far as LTTE was doing what they desired in the forefront limiting their
direct intervention only to the background diplomatic maneuverings.
But now when the LTTE is getting weakened as a military tool or political
leverage, west seem to be left without options other than taking the
rains into their own hands openly.
What the west eventually achieve through their diplomacy and sanctions
will curiously be similar to what LTTE was desired to achieve militarily;
LTTE's desire was to paralyze the state economically disabling to make
any military move. Therefore, it is pretty clear that the motive of
the west in their economic sanctions is nothing but to achieve the failed
military objective of the LTTE, through their campaign of destroying
economic targets such as Central bank or the Colombo world trade center
weakening the economy of the island, through a mere diplomatic gimmick
and blunder.In these shifting realities, our safety can never be ensured
even after the defeat of separatism which symbolically represented by
LTTE right now, but generates in the western metropolitan centers.
Why the west needs LTTE so badly? Given the fact that LTTE's increasing
role in the south Asian region accomplishing the western neo liberal
global agenda, according to which destabilizing Indian subcontinent,
primarily through prevailing regional tendencies of separatism of the
region, seem to be pivotal and central. The most capable force which
can be useful in accomplishing this most brutal desire of neo liberals
of the west is none but the LTTE.However, in such venture it is understandable
the reason behind the anxieties of the west about the fate of the LTTE
in this on going military operations in the north. Now let us be realistic.
The million dollar question is "what is the source of the greatest
threat to our national security is coming from, LTTE or the west? Ever
since LTTE's separatist campaign was born in Sri Lanka, the LTTE has
become an 'artifact' in the hands of policy makers of the foreign offices
in western administrations. Although we know this reality, no body
dares to raise this issue straight in diplomatic level. Such statement
could be immediately condemned as a taboo in existing diplomatic traditions
of paying homage to the west. In addition, it might be branded as a
type of diplomacy as 'Rottweiler' or like "waving a club violently
from a cave." We need to recognize that west is a 'part of our
problem' or to put more precisely, west itself is the problem.
When it has become a public secret that west is not an honest arbitrator
to handle our national issue even though they try to pretend themselves
as one, what would be the reason not to use more direct diplomacy? Why
can't we openly discuss and expose the western hypocritical agenda in
our affairs in forums such as NAM or Group of 77? Why can't we share
our experience with the rest of the nations in the global south? Why
can't we establish a new school of international relations in parallel
to Bandaranayake Institute of International Relations, to train and
equip the future diplomats of the global south with the knowledge of
this new phenomena of the 21st century trans national capital and our
expertise in handling its neo colonial attack? How they use regional
conflicts and terrorism as a tool? Is this move for the best interest
of us all in the south? The nations in the global south can survive
only if they work collectively.
Because the threat for our sovereignty will never disappear in post
LTTE politics since epicenter of the real threat is originating somewhere
else.
To be continued…
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