Geethanjana Kudaligamage

ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-They make slaughter and they call it peaceƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ (Tacitus)

Today, I would like to submit the thesis of ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-western ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”peaceƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ debacle in Sri Lanka as a failure of their conceptual blunder of promoting ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”partition as the prerequisite to Sri LankaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s progress.ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ As the result, the west lost their credibility both as redeemer of peace and deliverer of the development. Summarizing the sentiment of dismay and the lost faith of the nation of Sri Lanka toward west, Dr. Dayan Jayathilake said in UNO, ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-I wonƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t buy a used car from these people Mr. President, let along the allegations of war crimesƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚¦ ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-The office of the (HR) high commissioner Mr. president cannot be the new equivalent of an East-India company.ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The road to peace and progress that west presented was a map, a labyrinth with whole lot of contradicting landmarks, in which there was another secret map hidden inside, which was the intended future political landscape of Sri Lanka. When you follow the given roadmap on the surface, eventually you will end-up in partition of the nation. Such blueprints of partitioning the island being presented and enforced upon the nation with a myriad of made-up concepts and its related Eurocentric Developmentalist agenda; but what was in the very core of it was trans nationalization of the region, in which the fragmentation of the entire region was in the bedrock. The nation had limited choices in this given situation; it was either to embrace the progress that was packaged with partition of the country or to oppose and resist it. People of Sri Lanka fulfilled their historical obligation by resisting to it and embracing ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”the unity of the country,ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ knowing the fact that by doing so, eventually they will be denied to the pledged progress. The nation rejected this whole bogus concept and threw it in wholesale, even bundling-up the entire west into it. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ In this particular subject matter, (it may stretch to few parts) this writer will discuss the nature of late capitalism, Trans National Corporations and their policies and politics in the periphery, the continuity of the age-old power relationships in the dichotomy of west and the rest in this age of globalization.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Peace, a ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Batakola AachchiƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢sƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ fairytale

WeƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ve being told, repeatedly over and over again, that if we desired to have progress, the only path to achieve it was to give way to Tamil aspirations. The only way, stressing that part is very essential, ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-the only way.ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ There was no any other alternative route. But this ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Tamil aspirationsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ on the other hand, was evocative to devilƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s hair, in a state of constant change; with a violent growth. When you attempt to understand them today, next day you will find another set of aspirations, then another set. In this process of ever changing growth and endless attempt of recognizing their aspirations provided enough space and time for the LTTE to gradually step toward their actual aspiration of separate state. Now in this particular context, we must realize that the ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”only wayƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ means ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”partition of the nation.ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ Thus our development and growth had been firmly tied-up to the decisions of the callous psycho pathetic in the north. NationƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s future was swinging between the hands of western ambassadors in Colombo and the terror champion in the north, but the only party in this setting that was in passive state without having any substantial authority to decision making was the Sri Lankan government. In such mechanism, the sovereignty of the people of Sri Lanka had been misplaced without a party to take the responsibility of it. That was the power arrangement that Sri Lankan polity was functioning when president Rajapakse came into power.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ For last few decades, the west was enforcing their peace solutions upon us knowing the fact that, in the long run, such solutions certainly will pave the way to partition of the nation. They knew what they were doing, although our lumpen politicians of Colombo ruling class in previous regimes had no clue about what was happening, but actually some of them were even part of this conspiracy. (I will explain how and on what basis these sections of local politicians becoming a part of transnational agenda of weakening periphery later) The prevailing notion on the surface was, that the west was tirelessly pushing the nation of Sri Lanka toward progress despite the fact that stupid Sri Lankans were messing up all genuine efforts of the west. On the other hand, the ignorant and thick headed nation of Sri Lanka does not comprehend that her progress had been disrupted due to her stubborn entanglement into a needless ethnic quarrel rebuffing her miraculous progress that which the west was trying hard to deliver, even by force if needed. Although Sri Lanka was stubbornly resisting, the solution was pretty simple.

Sinhalese are responsible for PrabhakaranƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s criminality. To all justifiable reasoning, what Prabhakaran was asking was Tamil peopleƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s legitimate demands. Without being adamant, what Sri Lanka must have been considered was, to give away what Prabhakaran was asking and embrace the lasting peace and progress that awaiting around the corner. After coming to a compromise with Prabhakaran, people of Sri Lanka can live in a land of peace and prosperity ever after.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Although the political naivety of this notion was laughable today, it was the influential official ideology for last thirty years.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The nation did not want to buy this road map. Meanwhile, west intervened and infiltrated into the heart of decision making circles ignoring and rejecting the sovereign verdict of the people of Sri Lanka for a military defeat of the LTTE after their trying every possible means of achieving peace through appeasement of divisive terror of the LTTE. For last decade or so, people of Sri Lanka were wondering why their governments did the exact opposite of what they desired to see in relation to LTTE issue. The reason was clear; the sovereignty of Sri Lanka had been hijacked, and nullified its natural democratic function by the west through the servile politicians holding power in Sri Lanka who extremely relied on the west to take part in ruling the nation behalf of them embracing other western tools such as the voice of the so-called western sponsored ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”civil society,ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ which comprised voices of NGOs and so-called expertƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s who were under payrolls of western research and study centers those were directly connected to the central agenda of Trans Nationalization of the globe. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ People of Sri Lanka were not aware of the fact that sovereignty of Sari Lanka was under western custody in western embassies and foreign offices in their capitals at the time. From those distant cities, they decided what our government supposed to do for major issues including when and in what scale we must get war and peace and at what cost. Due to undeclared convention of both the west and SL administrations, west was the sole guardian of the development, war and peace in Sri Lanka. This hijacking of sovereignty was normalized and had become a part of our political culture, and no one questioned about it. The people had no voice in the process of decision making and their function had been limited to the symbolic selection of the representatives through elections, so the puppets who were elected had to function in a system already been in place and in function, which was strictly controlled by the west.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ If any government slightly stepped away from this western design, for instance, if the government was planning to strengthen the military to safeguard its own security, the west considered such measures as detrimental to development and peace. Here again, in overall, the peace and development meant the partition; it was the synonym of the word.

So the development was so sensitive issue that the west ideologically and practically was mobilizing it and monopolizing, therefore, SL administration had no authority to shackle it just by taking unilateral decisions. In that sense, western influence was spreaded into every aspect of our political, social and economic life, because, there was no area that can be demarcated out side the orbit of the influence of this peace and economic development, which in turn was in the hands of the west. In such apparatus, behind the curtain, west was in the command of all crucial policy decision making of the nation.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ When there is a war going on in any given country, first priority of any nation will be strengthening their military in order to safeguard the national security. But western advice was different. In the name of safeguarding peace and progress, (although it was not in the headlines of their reasoning) the west advised the Sri Lankan administration to handover the responsibility of national security of Sri Lanka into the safe hands of them. Western thinking was pretty clear. If the military was strong, the partition/development will be nullified; so the west was sensitive to it. We all knew that peace and development is intertwined. But prevailing notion in previous administrations were quite horrendous in relation to their deviation from responsibilities toward the people of Sri Lanka. The ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”safety-netƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ concept of Ranil and Co-ChairƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s is emerging under this condition of deviation of responsibilities of the state. In reality, the state of Sri Lanka handed over her fundamental responsibility of national security to the culprit that was undermining it. Eventually this ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-safety-netƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ became a ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-safety-nestƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ for tigers. This sounds like a fairytale in a childrenƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s book story. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-National security!ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ who is responsible for national security,ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚¦ we question from Ranil and Chandrika. In a democracy, as the representatives of the peopleƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s sovereign right, the mandated authority to exercise peopleƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s power, the state doesnƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t have any legal or moral, if not ethical right to handover this sacred right to an external party. But they did it. Do we need any more reasons to kick all these Colombian nincompoops to Beire Lake?ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Although the outlook of the government was as if they were in control of war, peace and development, in reality they were not in control of even their own lives. In this regard, many critics question how and why LTTE killed all senior UNP leaders, senior to Ranil and ceased their assassination drive when they reached Ranil. Is this a coincidence or a part of the master design? However, the lost symbolic relationship of the peopleƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s sovereignty and its exercise with all its short comings was restored once again to its original state only after president Rajapakse came into power. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The whole process of western interferences were dedicated to a cunning method of building a case according to the international law, in order to justify a cause before the world, just as a scapegoat, a show peace, to get away from the responsibilities and sins of plotting, inaugurating this killing field and partitioning a nation, destroying a democratic system and bringing misery to a population. Just like in a land dispute before the court that requires so much material to support the claim in every aspect of the legal process that employ its scrutiny, west with its other instruments were building a case against Sri Lanka.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The Tragedy

The tragedy of the west in Sri Lanka is a quite an exhilarating mellow-drama; beginning with amazing dramatic effects but ending in total disarray without even leaving any residue or iota of hope. Even though this ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-operation of partitionƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ had been meticulously designed, the failure of the west in Sri Lanka is fundamentally rooted on the malfunction of two of their main instruments. In other words, due to their over dependency on two nincompoops, one in the North and the other in the South; one was a dumb by birth and believed in super-natural heroism like a Tamil movie director, and the other was a birdbrain by cultivation, believed in ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Janaka saha ManjuƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ version of romantic politics, committed suicide in the name of love toward western involvement in national politics, chanting aloud, ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-JanakaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚¦aƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚¦aƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚¦aƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚¦hƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚¦hzzzzz!ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The one in the north was overconfident and swollen headed; therefore, died with a bump in the head trying to display gymnastic circus against the rationale advice of the west, and the other in the south was failed along with the west due to his ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”nutty mentalityƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ of demonstrating his untactful ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”platonic loveƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ toward the west, something that people of the south were allergic of, and botched like the over- affectionate stupid monkey in our folklore or that killed its master in the name of ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-true love.ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚

The other two reasons are the unexpected enthronement of President Rajapakse into power by masses of the south and to the western point of view, his untimely and unanticipated annihilation of the LTTE. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ For any of these happenings, west did not have any alternative plan other than ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”regime change.ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢

Just think, how if both these players of north and south were successfully performing to the original plan of the west? This trinity, the west, Prabhakaran and Ranil might have delivered the golden egg of the partitioning of our nation by now.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Western planers beautifully developed the Sri Lankan political events step by step toward partitioning the nation; even the critics of the west must admit that the planning was meticulous and was beautifully executed. But Prabhakaran was not intelligent enough to grasp the breadth and the width of this design. He never realized that his military invincibility was a myth constructed by the west, a cooked-up story mainly for the consumption of Sri Lankan polity. He was victimized by his own mythical fantasy. But west never fell into any fallacy in terms of LTTEƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s military power. They knew, if the war broke-out, the LTTE will be no more. Western ambassadors warned LTTE of the consequences of going into war. They tried very hard to prevent that happening. One of the influential western ambassadors even said, if LTTE take the path of war, then they will have to face a strong military of Sri Lanka this time. He must have said this after the assessment of military power of both parties.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ If that was Ranil or Chandrika was in power, they might have showed the green light to LTTE. But they knew that, unlike in other occasions, they had no control over the war machine of Rajapakse. Not only that, Rajapakse was exercising his sovereign power without their hand in it, and will definitely deflate this overblown image of the monster Prabhakaran. At least there was no a single Bradman Weerakoon inside the presidential office even to come for a dinner party of a western ambassadorƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s residence to update them about future plans of the government. Exactly at this cut-off point west decided to use other leverages to stop Sri Lanka, such as EUƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s GSP and UN resolutions.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ In order to prevent LTTE getting into the war, they even threatened to proscribe the outfit. The outward appearance of the proscription was like as if the west had finally realized the disastrous effect of the terror of LTTE. But gratitude for this decision must go to Prabhakaran, for being a born stupid. This bonehead, could not see the real picture, and unmoved. From Sri LankaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s point of view, only way to get out of this western trap laid down by Ranil Wickramasinghe, was to pick a fight. But Prabhakaran picked it for them.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ In such backdrop, it is evident that the proscription of LTTE in the EU on the MAY 31^st of 2006 is not a step forward toward anti terrorism in Sri Lanka, but must be considered as a measure of pressurizing LTTE to prevent it going into war with Rajapakse regime. So the true intension of that is exactly a step forward to keep the war running in this island. In that sense, it will not be a surprise if EU decides to reverse the decision.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The reason of the panic of the EU was clear, because they knew, unlike other occasions, during Rajapakse regime they had lost a vital tool; as I said, they had to function without one of the powerful manipulating tool, which was the sovereign power of the state of Sri Lanka that they were having under their custody during other regimes. Sovereignty of Sri Lanka was usually brought under the custody of western embassies in Colombo during other regimes, but unlike in other occasions, this time the sovereign power of the state was not in the hands of the west. It was in the hands of Rajapakse, for that reason he earned the title of ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”the most hated politicoƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ of Sri Lanka, who does not respect the opinion of the so-called international community and the civil society, so he became the ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”hawkishƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ before the eyes of the west. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ (To be continued)