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Sri Lanka Should Team-up with the Regional Superpower, not with Fifth Ranked India

Dilrook Kannangara

It should not surprise anybody that India has attempted to block Chinese and Pakistani defence involvement in Sri Lanka, abstained from providing useful military equipment to SL and reinstate that India should be our preferred weapons supplier in spite for its lethargy. It is pathetic that India is stuck in an internal political deadlock that whitewashed the killing of one of its prime ministers and that belittle India’s position in the region. What should we do in regard to our apathetic neighbour?

We should team up with China and Pakistan. There are many reasons to do so.
China is the Asian superpower and it is a permanent member of the UN Security Council capable of making decisions (and vetoing decisions) that affect the world. On the other hand India does not have any such influence.
India is ranked fifth among Asian superpowers even though it is a nuclear power. Japan and South Korea are ranked ahead of India in terms of defence expenditure. Although Saudi Arabia is just behind India, a large chunk of India’s defence expenditure is salaries and wages for its huge army. In terms of fighting capability and weapons Saudi Arabia should be ranked ahead of India. There is no way we can disregard the real super powers in the region.
Considering the power balance between China and India, China has proven dominance over India. During the 1962 war, irrespective of Russian backing, India lost its territory to China.
Chinese presence has permeated into our friendly nations in the region especially Pakistan. The importance of Pakistan cannot be underestimated as it is our largest military equipment supplier and it has helped us when we were desperate. China has already built naval co-operation with Pakistan including a base. It also tries hard to dominate the Indian Ocean which is strategically important to its regional dominance. In this context, we cannot disregard the Chinese aspirations over the Indian Ocean region.
India has a stake in the Sri Lankan conflict. Not only it was instrumental in kindling the LTTE, but it has come to the rescue of the LTTE so many times. With the Indian government heavily dependant upon Tamil Nadu politicians who worship the LTTE, it is unlikely that India will support any move against the LTTE. Getting help from India is akin to the old adage: asking for evidence from the thief’s mother.
Warding-off possible unwelcomed Indian interference is another avenue where China can help us, if we harbour a Chinese interest in our country.
We need long term planning for defence equipment and consumables and should have permanent and dependable suppliers, not the kind that changes their minds for petty political reasons. Also there is the possibility that Chinese suppliers may be interested in selling T-56, APMs and other devices to the LTTE; in fact the LTTE do use a lot of T-56s and Chinese manufactured APMs. A defence pact with China would lead to a moratorium of weapons sales to LTTE related parties.

If the conflict remains unsettled for another long period of time, we run the risk of even wider international interference with our affairs. Therefore, it is of paramount importance that the LTTE is exterminated quickly. Given the Indian interest in Tamil affairs in Sri Lanka, we should resist from devolving too much power to regional/provincial areas in any ‘political solution’. We do not want another episode of Vardarajah Perumal’s adventures.

We should also resist Indian architected political ‘solutions’, including Official Languages matters. Island wide spread of the use of the Tamil language has the adverse effect of identifying linguistic resemblance with South India. We do not want to be an Indian colony, neither we want to be part of Dravidistan. Ultimately our aim should be to allow India to handle the issue of the Tamil Nation in Tamil Nadu. It is a fact that almost all Tamil cultural productions still originate from TN and TN is the home to more than 55 million Tamils. It is nothing but fair that TN becomes the much anticipated Tamil Nation.

We should appreciate that India will do anything to keep their conflict away from its domain; if it were so concerned with the Tamil Nation, it ought to have allowed its formation in TN. A land mass the size of just 20,000 square kilometres cannot become the homeland of 60 million Tamils!

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