Palitha Senanayake

Recently there has been  considerable criticism, in printed as well as in the social media, of Sri Lanka’s increase ‘dependence’ on the Chinese state, and this criticism identifies this dependence with the current Rajapakse regime.  The criticism, moreover, appears to suggest that there is some danger in this dependence vis a vis the country’s sovereignty and independence. 

In this respect it is important to ponder whether Sri Lanka, as a country, has been truly independent for the past 73 years of its existence since it was granted ‘independence’ by its colonizers’, the British, after 145 year imperial subjection.  By the time the British left after all those years, this country had an elite ring of people who were English educated/ trained and hence always acted in the way the empire would approve. The world order at that time, being the post- World War 11 scenario, was inclined in that direction as the WW11 victors appointed themselves to be the arbiters of world way-forward.  The deleterious effect of all that was not just the emulation of the West, but the servile mentality our rulers inherited. As a result they were subliminally accustomed to a state where they just could not see beyond ‘what the Englishman would show you’.   

Hence we continued with the same economic and social values and the changes that took place since then were more in the form of ‘inevitables’ than in the form of pre- planed. To start with, the democratic system of governance that was thrust upon us would not have been the most appropriate governing system given the fact that the country’s literacy rate at the point of independence was a mere 6 % and its standard of living was hardly at the barest of necessities.  Under the democratic form of governance the people are the rulers and you could just imagine the wisdom and providence of a ruler who is only 6 % literate and whose basics needs of life were hardly fulfilled.

 The fact is that the new nation bequeathed a human stock that had been neglected for centuries with a life expectancy of only 45 years, per capita income of  1.5 $ and a literacy rate of  a mere 6 % . Thus the post independent democratic governments had little choice but to give in to the nation’s democratic dictate to raise the level of the human stock by investing heavily on health and education.  We changed governments, one after the other, expecting more from the government that succeeded. Lee Kwan Yew the architect of Singapore’s resurgence  has maintained many a times that, ‘I meet my commonwealth colleagues every other year at the Commonwealth convention and they complain of their woes in nation building; democracy has only brought regression and not progression to them’ . He further maintains that when a country’s people are not educated and when their basic needs of life are not met, democracy is the last form of government they should have. The Governor of a country, be it a Sheik or a King should carry on for at least for 20 years and instead when you have governments elected for a limited period it is inevitable that such governments will turn out to be ‘time servers”.

We complain of corruption by politicians but corruption is a part and parcel of democratic politics. Today an MP needs Rs. 20 million to do an election and how do we expect him to make that Rs. 20 million every 5 years? Central bank heist was not for a personal aggrandizement and the funds were needed to do the 2015 UNP election campaign. In America the presidential campaigns run on corporate finance and as a result today every US government is elected by the country’s 2 % rich.  Agendas of these corporations does not stop there as the most profitable businesses to day are the arms manufacture and the manufacture of pharmaceuticals.  The first make money by planting wars and the second by planting decease.

John Perkings is an Economic Hit Man (EHM) who worked for the World Bank. He has authored a book titled the ‘Confessions of an Economic Hit man’ and the US government prevented his book from publishing it for 20 years. It is an interesting episode of how WB consultants defraud developing countries for billions of dollars in the guise of ‘development finance’ and the final benefactors of such activity are the US corporations. ‘Confessions of an Economic Hit man’ details how these operations against smaller nations are carried out with the sanctions of the Central intelligence Agency of the US. Economic hit men (EHMs) are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other foreign “aid” organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet’s natural resources. Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, pay offs, extortion, sex, and murder.

Apart from this confessions, evidence is omnipresent all over the world with ‘liberation wars’, alleged ‘human rights violations’, ‘Arab springs,’ ‘export of democracy’ etc. that are disguised to enable the World Super powers to maintaining the post WW11 status quo. These are modus operands to ensure that they will always rule the world. The solutions they advocate to world issues are carefully crafted to ensure that the problems remain permanent so that their corporations could thrive.  Palestine is only a single case in point and today thousands of women and children are dying and the perpetrator of that war is backed by US and Britain.  Britain’s economy today is behind that of its colonial subject India, but thanks to the war in Yemen, British economy leaped frogged this year. Current state of the world, with so many man made wars, deceases and hunger is not a state that will reflect well on its super powers. The Super powers, while they govern their countries with humane and equitable laws, advocate the ‘laws of the jungle’ for world issues. That is the reason that why Bill Clinton was almost impeached for having an illicit affair with a white- house intern, while George Bush who killed millions in Iraq, on triumphed up WMD charges, was not even considered as impeachable material.   

Take the case of what Sri Lanka is made to face for vanquishing terrorism that haunted it for 35 years. On March 23^rd in 2021, the UNHRC adopted Resolution, A/HRC/46/L.1 on Sri Lanka at its 46th session. The resolution was presented by the United Kingdom sponsored by a core group of Western countries. The real motive of this resolution is to prevent Sri Lanka from clearing the shackles of the previous resolution 30/A brought against Sri Lanka in 2015 by the United States for alleged ‘Human rights violations’, by the SL forces at the last stages of its war against the LTTE. Lord Naseby has produced very clear evidence to prove that these allegations are not consistent with the ground reports of US and British military attaches who were in the thick of these happenings and also contrary to the census surveys carried out, post war. The most cynical nature of these allegations is that these two super powers who express so much concern about the HR violations in Sri Lanka today had no heart to express their concern in anyway while Sri Lankan people suffered at the hands of this most ruthless and organized terror outfit in the world causing the deaths of 80,000 civilians over a period of 35 years. Whenever they were confronted with this problem they advocated ‘talks’ as the only way out and finally all the talks successive SL Governments held elevated the LTTE to a diplomatic status as liberations fighters in the eyes of the west. The irony however was that the parties who called LTTE, the ‘liberation fighters’ are the same parties that called Nelson Mandela  a ‘terrorist’ for 40 years.

It should be clear to all, except of course to those who are naïve and so servile to the west, that these resolutions on HR violations are now being brought with the sinister idea of rekindling a problem that has been finally brought to an end. This is because the western propaganda industry and the west’s arms manufacturing corporations thrive at the misery of third world countries.

On the other hand china and Russia helped us to overcome terrorism in this country. Apart from the physical support they rendered, the position of Sri Lanka in international forums, if not for China and Russia, could well be imagined. Terrorism is not just about people being killed and maimed, but it is the uncertainty of life and the stagnation in development that terrorism accompanies that has plagued this country. And 35 years is just half the life time of the Sri Lankan nation.  

Sri Lanka is a small country, and in a world scenario where imperial powers are at each other’s throat for world hegemony, it is difficult to envisage a situation where small countries could remain 100 % independent. Things in this world continue to change and according to Buddhism that is the only universal phenomenon that is permanent.  Thus, things will continue to change and in that this country’s language, culture and even religion will not be an exception. Thus, in this changing scenario, wise people will change things for the better while stupid will remain bigoted and servile.

In the modern world scenario, imperialist, in their quest for hegemony use propaganda as the forerunner in their invasions. Thus, those who control the news control the world opinion. This is how they prevent people from having independent thoughts, based on truth and facts.  Therefore today if you do not read the news; you are uninformed, but if you read the news; you are misinformed. If you are uninformed you have no opinion, but if you are misinformed you have the wrong opinion. In the final analysis, it is better to have no opinion than to have the wrong opinion.

Servile mentality not only prevents you from seeing beyond your master but also perceives even those who try to liberate you, as your enemies.