FR J.C. PIERIS Courtesy The Island

A trident is a spear with three prongs (Trishulaya), a weapon of war, and America has a submarine missile aptly named Trident. This is what came to my mind when thinking of the three agreements with America, either already surreptitiously signed or to be signed.

1. The ACSA, Acquisition and Cross-Service Agreement, provides for joint military cooperation between Sri Lanka and the United States and includes logistic support, supplies, services and the use of airports and ports during “unforeseen circumstances”. While the 2007 ACSA permits US military vessels to anchor in Sri Lanka ports on a ‘one-off’ basis, the 2017 ACSA appears to be “open ended”.

2. Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between the two countries. Includes the provision relating to immunity being provided to foreign servicemen on Sri Lankan soil.  These were matters that related to diplomatic immunity, privileges and local laws.

3. US $480-million compact by the US Millennium Challenge Corporation Board requires Congressional approval in the US and Cabinet approval in Sri Lanka. The Compact will be composed of two projects: a Transport Project and a Land Project. The Transport Project aims to increase the relative efficiency and capacity of the road network and bus system in the Colombo Metropolitan Region, and reduce the cost of transporting passengers and goods between the central region of the country and ports and markets in the rest of the country. The goal of the Land Project is to increase the availability of information on private land and underutilized state lands or all land in Sri Lanka to which the Government is lawfully entitled or which may be disposed of by the Government (“State Lands”) in order to increase land market activity. The Land Project would increase tenure security and tradability of land for smallholders, women, and firms through policy and legal reforms.

About these infamous agreements, the Commander of the Army has said they may lead to a people’s uprising and that it is like writing your property to somebody else and committing suicide. The Attorney General has said they clearly abrogate the sovereignty of the people and the supremacy of the law of the country.

I am not an expert who can explain the legal-diplomatic intricacies of these agreements. All I want to say is that we the people are neither aware of these agreements nor are we consulted about them. Therefore we are not bound by them.

We have a government only in name. The primary duty of a government is to protect the people of the country. On the 21st April, Easter Sunday, it was shown to the whole world that the so-called government of Sri Lanka has miserably and absolutely failed in its primary duty. We do not have any more a legislature and an executive that governs the country. We have only an Ali Baba and 225 thieves, whose sole aim is to steal and rob the people’s wealth and sell the resources of the country for commissions and bribes. Therefore, we have a government only in name.

Hence I suggest to the drafting committee of the Autochthonous Constitution (Mr. Nagananda Kodituwakku and his team at the Vinivida Foundation) that the constitution mentions this ‘caveat’. We the people of Sri Lanka declare that we are not bound by international agreements between the present ‘nominal’ government of Yahapalanaya and the previous corrupt government. We declare we shall renegotiate them ‘ab initio’.

The Chinese aggression is non-militaristic but manipulated through corrupt underhand bribes and commissions. The USA aggression, however, is flexing military muscle with aircraft carriers in our territorial waters and Trident like agreements. India wants its share too, as if they didn’t have enough after the IPKF fiasco and the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi.

We the people of this small island nation tell all these countries to keep off our country. We are neither friend nor foe of you. Leave us alone to first put our country in order. Then we shall come back to you, friends of all, but never ever the pawns of anybody.

FR J.C. PIERIS