Asada M Erpini

The Sri Lankan media report on 27 November that a Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP, during the debate on the 2013 budget, has called on the international community, mainly India and the US, to stop giving aid to Sri Lanka. The demand and the attitude of the individual, to say the least, are nauseating.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Before going into the issue of aid from India and the US, one should look at the treasonous and ungrateful nature of the TNA MP, evident through the views he has expressed. All Members of Parliament take an oath of allegiance to the sovereign nation of Sri Lanka at the time of swearing in. Once sworn in, they enjoy attractive salaries, enviable perks, official transport, government-financed security, subsidised accommodation in the best localities of the capital, and five-star meals for which they pay a pittance. It is the average Sri Lankan tax payer ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” the majority of whom happens to be from the 75% Sinhala ethnic group – that foots the bill for all these luxuries.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ It is the bounden duty of all nationals of any sovereign country to do their best to uphold its dignity, to contribute in whatever manner possible for its development, and – failing to do either for whatever reason – not to attempt to undermine it. Calling on other countries to stop helping Sri Lanka ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” while the caller himself travels the world holding a Sri Lankan passport – is disgusting.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Should India give aid to Sri Lanka? Yes, in hundreds of thousands of crores of Indian Rupees. It is India, from the time of Indira Gandhi, through Rajiv; to those who came later on, that did everything possible to undermine Si Lanka. A rag tag bunch of street fighters were picked from the Northern sands of Sri Lanka and were given military training by the Indian armed forces under the blessings of its political leadership. The training offered by India at military training camps in Tamil Nadu and Dehra Dun transformed these unruly mobs to a fighting machine that had the audacity to challenge the armed forces of Sri Lanka.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The LTTE leader Pirabaharan would have been captured in the Vadamarachchi Operation in 1987, and Sri Lankans would have had the fortune to sample the taste of peace at that time, instead of having to wait for over twenty years until May 2009. Yet, India wanted the LTTE killers to live another day, and helped the LTTE leader and his key deputies to escape to India. This was followed by the violation of Sri LankaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s airspace by Indian military cargo planes and fighter planes, and Sri Lanka got saddled with an illegitimate 13A, which even the TNA now says it never supported. If India did not poke its finger in Sri LankaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s affairs, many thousands of lives of the innocents of all ethnic groups would have been saved, and the vast sums of money that had to be spent on military hardware would have been available instead for infrastructure development. Not only is that India morally obliged to provide aid to Sri Lanka to bring back what its ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”darlingsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ destroyed, Sri Lanka even has a legal case to demand compensation from India for the lives lost and the infrastructure blown to smithereens by the LTTE.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ How much aid does the US give Sri Lanka today? USAID webpage mentions that the organisation gave 40 million dollars for resettling the war-affected since the ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-disasterƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ occurred in 2006. There may be other sums of money spent in the North and the East ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…”incidentally, Sri Lanka has a total of nine provinces ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” but the writer could not find the financial figures of aid easily. In contrast, the world superpower spends 3.7 trillion dollars to keep its forces in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan, in its attempt to force their people to ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”accept democracyƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢. Furthermore, according to a former Pentagon official, the cost of air conditioning for its citizens operating in Iraq and Afghanistan alone is reported to amount to an annual 20.2 billion US dollars.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ There are other interesting examples of US aid to Sri Lanka! The former US ambassador to Sri Lanka was a key figure in arranging a group of selected individuals from the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka to go to East Timor so that they could learn national level administrative matters from a nation that had been carved out of Indonesia in 2002. The sinister connotations of such moves by the US are obvious to the discerning reader. Sri Lanka could well afford to live without aid of this calibre from the US.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The aid that Sri Lanka really needed was avenues for purchasing military hardware and opportunities for training in intelligence gathering, when it took the LTTE terrorists head on after the latterƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s affront to the legally constituted government through the blocking of the Mavil Aru anicut in July 2006. Instead of helping to get rid of the terrorist curse, the USƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s Secretary of State, with the active involvement of a few political bigwigs of three European nations tried everything possible to throw a spanner in the works when the Sri Lanka armed forces were on the verge of decimating the Sri Lanka-based armed wing of the LTTE. If not for the support given mainly by China and Pakistan, Sri LankaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s land area today would have shrunk to a mere two thirds and the coastal belt to only a third of what the country possessed prior to the infamous ceasefire of 1987.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Instead of dishing out peanuts to countries such as Sri Lanka, it would be much better for the US to wash its hands off completely from the island nation. Sri Lanka then would not have to put up with foreign ambassadors whose forte was interfering in the affairs of sovereign Sri Lanka, whether they were based in Sri Lanka or were operating from abroad.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The TNA MP should not only get the US to stop giving ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”aidƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ to Sri Lanka, but more importantly, get it to let the island nation manage its own affairs without poking an unwelcome finger. India, on the other hand, cannot be allowed to escape so easily: it should bear the lionƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s share of the cost of reparation and rebuilding. In the meantime, the Sri Lanka government should put in place rules and regulations to punish its citizens who endeavour to undermine the country either through actions or pronouncements.