For making Sri Lanka great again
Posted on October 12th, 2018
By Rohana R. Wasala
The USA, which tabled Resolution 30/1 against Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in October 2015, has by now left that body in disgust. Sri Lanka co-sponsored this resolution against itself to its eternal shame. President Donald Trump, addressing the 73rd Session of the UN General Assembly in New York in an upbeat hour long speech charged that the UNHRC had become a massive source of embarrassment to the United Nations…”. He described it as a cesspool of political bias”. All the world know which superpower has brought the Geneva-based body down to that level. Of course, Trump was not indulging in self-blame. He was pointing accusing fingers at others, such as Cuba and China.
He expressed some smug self-satisfaction about the American economy booming under his stewardship. He vowed that the US would not return to the UNHRC unless it was reformed and that they would provide neither support nor recognition” to the International Criminal Court on similar grounds. He further said, “We will never surrender America’s sovereignty to an unelected, unaccountable, global bureaucracy.” Sri Lanka did just that by unnecessarily succumbing to pressure exerted by vested interests inimical to the country.
During the last presidential elections which he won, his campaign slogan was Make America Great Again”. Making an unmistakable allusion to that evocative phrase, Trump, a patriotic politician who puts the American national interest at the top of his priorities, observed that the global migration crisis (which negatively affects his country) can be resolved by encouraging every country to be great again”. (Never mind that hardly any country in the world including ours exploited by Western imperialism was ever so great” in the last half a millennium as to be talking about becoming great again” without an acute sense of embarrassment!). However, ‘making the country great again’ slogan is not entirely without relevance when it is applied to post-2014 Sri Lanka, considering the greatness it steadily achieved in the previous five years since the defeat of separatist terrorism in 2009.
America was not going to sign onto a global migration pact. His stand was that individual nations should set their own policies to achieve this status. He declared: Only by upholding national borders, destroying criminal gangs, can we break this cycle”. (This is what the Rajapaksa government accomplished to a considerable degree.) Trump said that the US will recognize (the) right of every nation in this room to set own policy.” The only way to stop people from leaving their countries in search of greener pastures elsewhere was to make their countries great again”. How can we be great again” by doing (as the current regime is doing) the exact opposite of what Donald Trump is advocating here? His Sri Lankan counterpart urged a an end to external interference in our domestic affairs at the UN General Assembly in Sinhala, but his swinish foreign affairs panjandrums were content to wallow in the UNHRC cesspool in Geneva.
While the UN General Assembly was meeting in New York, the delegates of the non-governmental organization known as the World Patriotic Lankan Forum (WPLF) was attending parallel events at the Geneva UNHRC sessions in a heroic attempt to defend the country unofficially as best they could in the absence of anyone from the Sri Lankan government to do so. They claimed that the Sri Lankan embassy entertained some leading pro-separatist Tamils, who were protesting against Sri Lanka that very day in thousands, with a dinner, whereas those patriots themselves were not given even a cup of tea as a sign of welcome at least. The embassy officials had told the WPLF delegates that they were following instructions from Colombo. (The hosting to dinner of leading anti-Sri Lanka demonstrators from the so-called Tamil Diaspora was denied by the ambassador later. But such denial could have been no more than a formality.) A Tamil woman, who had gone there to help urge war crimes allegations against the Sri Lankan army, charged that just ten days previously some Sri Lankan army soldiers had raped eleven young Tamil women in the north! This was a monstrous lie. Though she was making this false allegation in the presence of a female officer from the Sri Lankan embassy in Geneva, that woman didn’t lift a finger in defence of the country. She kept silent. The WPLF member, a lady, was almost in tears when she revealed this and made an emotional appeal to the Sri Lankan president, prime minister and the minister of foreign affairs to look into this treacherous conduct of the embassy staff in Geneva. She also referred to the Tamil racists’ attempt to introduce a false history in order to justify their separatist claims, and urged Sri Lankan parents and educational authorities to resuscitate the teaching of history in our schools as in the past.
October 13th, 2018 at 4:03 am
Rohana,
“However, ‘making the country great again’ slogan is not entirely without relevance when it is applied to post-2014 Sri Lanka, considering the greatness it steadily achieved in the previous five years since the defeat of separatist terrorism in 2009.”
This is not entirely true. Yes, there were some infrastructure developments such as Southern Expressway up to Matara, the Airport expressway and the limping Norochchalai Power Plant. But except Southern Expressway that was planned before that regime came to power all others to my mind are byproducts. Most of the things spent in Hambanthotha have become useless and even tying us for generations. I do not think any of the politicos in Diyawanna is capable of making SL great again let alone save us from the economic abyss that is staring at us. If we look back it is one man in each country who has made the those countries great. In the case of Singapore it was LKY. In the case of US, Trump is not only doing it in style but also showing how: cutting down on imports and relying on his people.
Portugal at present has a population of about ten million people which is even less than half of our population. But that country went on to conquer many countries around the world in the 16th century. Brazil, Cuba and several other countries speak their language and more than half of our cricket team have their names. How did they do it?. It was one visionary but supposed to be an eccentric prince named Henry who started a naval school and taught their sailors the astronavigation that started the whole process. Before that their navies had gone as far as to the nearest country in the West Africa only. Soon the other countries in the region followed suit and they went on to conquer countries as far as China. Navigation, firepower and subterfuge were the things that were responsible for their dominance of the world until today.
So, how can our leaders make our country great again?. And were we ever great?. I believe that it was Parakramabahu who made SL great to a certain extent by uniting the country first and then developing the irrigation systems to sustain a large population. When challenged by some foreign powers he took them head on without fear, unlike today’s leaders who wet their pants.
We always talk about ancient irrigation systems. This will not take us anywhere in present day world. It is the computer technology that will help any nation to make both defence systems and offensive weapons. And it is this technology that has helped US and UK to bring in vast amount of wealth to their countries. When a company like Apple put out a new version of an iPhone, it will bring in more than 60 to 70 billions of dollars in one quarter. The chip in each of these smart phones costs something like $400 to $600 and are made by either AMD (of US) or ARM (of UK in their chip making foundries). These companies spend billions in developing these technologies. Why not our country spend a little bit of the GDP and give a knowledge about these technologies to our A’level and uni students even at these late stage?. I understand the relevant ministry is getting ready with the syllabus in Sinhala for electronics etc, but they should hurry up as the silicon era is supposed to be ending in a way.
The GPU (Graphical Processing Unit) technology that involves heavy mathematical calculations is some thing our scientists can get involved. Even the boss of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, the world’s current richest man praised a Sri lankan who was way above him in maths when he was at Princeton. This technology involves processing colors of pixels. Incidentally that is how the former boss of Apple, Steve Jobs made his first billions by rendering of pictures, in Disney company. Now they do real time rendering in modern GPUs.
I give below some links to videos which are relevant to this technology:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlO9F-gl9e4&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PZw75K9ydY&feature=youtu.be
October 13th, 2018 at 6:10 am
I thought Sri Lanka was going to be great again in 2009. We did have the sign of that greatness achieving under Mahinda’s leadership and I really believed it.
My hopes faded when I visited in 2010. There were bad signs appearing. I wouldn’t say “Most of the things spent in Hambanthotha have become useless” but it was unnecessarily rushed because of personal desires and spent too much on it. Whats’ the point having it alone without necessary infra structure ? What the point having expressways if Colombo to Kottawa takes 1-1.5 hours ? Whats the point having spent on roads if the old private bus crooks operate same way than a modern bus fleet providing top class service to people to travel in comfort ? What the point having nice roads , for them to be flooded by 3 wheelers , killing people ? No one seems to be interested changing these due to political corruptness personal wealth collection.
October 13th, 2018 at 7:41 am
Our country has two groups of people. The Sinhalese who have lived here for more than 100,000 years.
Then the Indian Colonists who have arrived in large numbers under the cover of the British fire power,
Now our country is a Colony of India where our economy and politics are dominated by Indian colonists and overseen by India.
If we are to be great we have to stand up to India and Indian Colonists.
To do that we have to unite.
October 13th, 2018 at 3:48 pm
We can RECTIFY the CRIMES AGAINST THE NATION listed by Rohana only by BOOTING OUT the PARA-GATHI DESHADROHI Yamapalanaya at the earliest possible opportunity.
That is why I have been supporting the IMMEDIATE REPLACEMENT of the Yamapalana Govt by a CARETAKER GOVT formed by the JO and the Sirisena-Wing of the SLFP, as a PRELUDE to the ELECTION of a PATRIOTIC PERMANENTLY GOVT in 2020.
INSTALL a CARETAKER GOVT ….. DO IT FAST & DO IT NOW before the UNPatriotic Party and it’s SEPARATIST TNA/LTTE allies drive the LASRT NAILS into Mother Lanka’s COFFIN!
October 13th, 2018 at 7:53 pm
I agree that it is imperative to get rid of this regime (and Sirisena) to fix the mess. But we must not relay on similar failures and rejects to do so. We need a fresh set of patriotic leaders with sufficient knowledge of the economy. Having advisors won’t work. They are always disregarded.
October 13th, 2018 at 8:39 pm
@Dilrook,
Most of these figures are mentally sick people, Sirisena and Ranil are easily recognizable sickies. But there are others.
October 13th, 2018 at 9:57 pm
I wish to reiterate that it is through education and setting up industries in the technical field that we can think of a better future let alone becoming great country again and not by handing over power from one rogue to another proven one. That is how South Korea did it after the Korean war. When the US leader at that time asked the Korean leader what they wanted the Korean supposed to have requested for help on education. They gave that help as well as technology. Today Korean cars that were laughed at even in Sri Lanka are preferred over Japanese cars in South East Asian counties. Samsung technological products such as SSDs ( solid state drives that are replacing the hard disc drives) are preferred over the US products in US itself.
Our leaders have a golden opportunity to take advantage of the current situation. They should ask Donald Trump to link up our universities with top universities like Berkley, Stanford and Princeton by sending some of their lecturers to work in our unis. Instead of wasting their money on NGOs on Human Right nonsense they should use that money to pay their lectures to work here. I think they did that sort of thing for Thailand also.
October 13th, 2018 at 11:18 pm
Lankacnews (Sinhala) today (October 14, 2018) reported that medical professor Channa Jayasumana revealed at an ‘Eliya’ seminar held at Homagama that Ranil Wickremasinghe was the source of the canard that 40,000 civilian casualties were caused in the last stages of the civil war in 2009.
2008 ජනවාරි 11 දින නැගෙනහිර කොටි පරාජය කර උතුරේ සටන ඇරඹීමට පෙර ඇමරිකානු, යුරෝපීය සංගම්, ජපාන සහ නොර්වේ තානාපතිවරු හමුවේ රනිල් වික්රමසිංහ මහතා, උතුරේ සටන නිසා සිවිල්වැසියන් 40,000 මිය යා හැකි බවට අනාවැකියක් පළ කර ඇත. ඒ බව ඇමරිකානු තානාපති කාර්යාලය 2008 ජනවාරි 14 දින උදෑසන 11.30 ට වොෂින්ටනයට යැවූ 08COLOMBO62_a දරන කේබල් පණිවිඩයේ සටහන්ව ඇත. විකිලීක්ස් වෙබ් අඩවිය මේ කේබල් පණිවිඩය ප්රසිද්ධ කර ඇත.
In English translation, this goes as follows:
Before launching the northern offensive in the wake of the defeat of the eastern Tigers, at a meeting with ambassadors from America, the European Union, Japan and Norway on January 11, 2008, Ranil Wickremasinghe predicted that 40,000 civilian citizens could die because of the northern fighting. This is recorded in the cable marked 08COLOMBO62_a. The WIKI Leaks website has published this cable message.
Lankacnews reproduces two pages of the said cable message.
Sri Lanka is at a sorry pass for which RW can be largely blamed. However, whether we like it or not, the political reality in Sri Lanka today is that we are left with only two political leaders who can make a credible bid for the post of executive head of state at a future election. Internally, it is only Mahinda or a nominee of his. But when external influences are factored in, Ranil cannot be ignored.The nNext time Ranil Sirisena will not be able get hooked to somebody’s back, and win by proxy. Anura D, Champaka, and corruption crusaders like Nagananda will not stand a chance except as spoilers against Mahinda as much as for Ranil. The choice between Ranil and Mahinda/his nominee is not a difficult one, provided the electorate are sane enough to see the difference between them. This does not mean MR will prove a perfect choice. But for the time, he will prove the sheet anchor available to depend on in tiding over the present crisis. It will be easier for the new generation of politicians to take over from Mahinda than from his rapacious opponent.
October 13th, 2018 at 11:25 pm
Oops! Correction:
……. The next time Ranil Sirisena will not be able get hooked to somebody’s back, and win by proxy. Anura D, Champaka, and corruption crusaders like Nagananda will not stand a chance except as spoilers against Mahinda as much as against Ranil. The choice between Ranil and Mahinda/his nominee is not a difficult one, provided the electorate are sane enough to see the difference between them. This does not mean MR will prove a perfect choice. But for the time being, he will prove the sheet anchor available to depend on in tiding over the present crisis. It will be easier for the new generation of politicians to take over from Mahinda than from his rapacious opponent.
October 14th, 2018 at 1:14 am
Strange Ranil’s 40,000 number matched LTTE’s number. But that was in 2008. On 2008 January 14. So it is wrong to say Ranil manufactured the last stages of the war’s 40,000 number. It is a fluke. Ranil is a known traitor anyway but not on this count.
October 14th, 2018 at 4:38 am
“Make our country great again” Yes we can do it. We have the knowledge, capable people and a rich land called paradise island of Sri Lanka but how and when is the problem. Yes we know once Colombo city became the number one cleanest city in the world. Thanks to those Sons and daughters of Motherlanka who were able to make that happen. ( now maybe the dirtiest city in the world) thanks to yamapalanaya. To make our country great again this party politics should be stopped in my view. This is killing and corrupting our society. We need leaders who has sincere vision and good leadership qualities with good education background. After 2005 we saw a very good progress around the country in development and at the same time having a dangerous war with LTTE terrorists progressing well towards victory. We write and discuss and argue in peace and freedom today because of our war heroes who vanquished the terror leaders and terrorists from our blessed land completely. ( Thanks to yamapalanaya they are back again raising their ugly heads slowly and cunningly with the help of our Sinhala Sanhindiyawa traitors to Mother Lanka. We need a straight forward no nonsense leadership to take our country forward without saying “yes Sir,No Sir” to any power in the world. We need a leader who loves this nation and solve our problems not a spineless bank robber or a corrupt uneducated inexperienced person who says one thing here and do another thing when outside the country. The whole set up must change if we needs to make our country great again. All 225 must resign from the current parliament and allow the Sri Lankans to chose from the beginning under the supervision of uncorrupted, educated, knowledgeable free from party politics to supervise the election and start new to make our country great again.
October 14th, 2018 at 6:18 am
“For making Sri Lanka great again”.
For whom?
October 14th, 2018 at 6:19 am
“For making Sri Lanka great again”
For whom?
October 25th, 2018 at 9:10 am
Get the British back to run our country as we are beyond repair.