Shenali D Waduge

Sri Lanka is experiencing an unprecedent state of events. Taken as a whole, there is much to analyze. Sri Lanka has seen governance pass from one colored party to another. Opportunistic politics has been the hallmark of governance of every government that has come to power. This has been the case of every government holding power since 1978 – UNP, PA, UNP, UPFA, UNFGG & now SLPP. What the people have asked for & expected from all ruling parties have proven a failure. Little can be said of the role of the Opposition as well. We all agree the politicians have failed us.

But is it only the politicians who have been corrupt? Why do we ignore corporate corruptions & even individual corruptions as well as the internationally influenced corruptions far greater than all. Yet, it is more fashionable & sensational to have campaigns targeting the politicians with colourful & creative slogans to match. Corruptions are a key slogan to topple & attack politicians/political parties by those equally guilty.

One day Sri Lanka will realize how much of this colored revolution & system change protests were pre-planned & well-funded, of course based on genuine grievances. Such change is choreographed by blowing genuine grievances out of proportion & steered towards multiple goals. It’s like killing several birds with one stone.  The stone today is technology & majority of youth protests are being organized & steered by foreign based whatsapp groups & social media portals spreading sensationalized ‘breaking news’ fanning an easily emotive Sri Lankan populace who are ready with the ‘gahuwoth gahanawa’ (attack if attacked) mentality.

The manipulators, everyone needs to understand, controls virtually anyone holding some form of importance, be they in government or opposition. Follow the money trail & find out the manipulators. They have been quick to pick up on the mentality of our people. Majority have stood silent inspite of numerous corrupt deals & treacheries but have stood up when anything affects them personally. This is the sad reality & what if this reality became used to manipulate the people?

What if people’s attention was purposely diverted to the successive issues they had to suffer – petrol, power cuts, gas shortage, food shortage etc while dangerous pacts/MOUs were being signed, leading people to ignore the their dangers as food on their table mattered more than national interest! If people were against India’s incursions & interventions, if people were opposed to IMF due to its structural adjustments, if people were opposed to dangerous trade deals & privatizing of land – all this was put aside & the deals went ahead without much opposition. If this was the strategy, it worked & if it worked it will surely be used again.

What if the 2^nd phase of the plan was to generate people’s protests manipulating its genuineness with planned chaos probably tasked to teams from both government (wanting to pin blame on the Opposition) & opposition (political parties/Western-Indian backed NGOs & LTTE diaspora) wanting to pin blame on the Govt). Multiple outcomes would have been planned.

• Protests would have justified signing a plethora of controversial treacherous deals lured by commissions to all involved.
• Protests going out of hand would enable the state to enforce stricter new law enforcements, invariably aimed to curtail people’s opposition, people’s freedoms & rights & protect future scenarios.
• Protests with intent to take Sri Lanka into further abyss – productivity loss as work being interrupted alongside the daily power cuts & other shortages, law enforcement authorities stretched to the maximum testing their patience as well.
• Protests could thereafter be given a 360 degree turn to attack the very politicians who signed the deals. The foreign imported slogan GoHome” was more of an amnesty deal for successfully completing mission & packing off thereafter. IMF deal was sealed to plan maintaining dollar hegemony over Sri Lanka & IMF officials would take over its roll out. What good is GoHome” calls minus accountability?
• Protests also pave way for Indo-US troop presence as the increasing number of pacts signed to establish Indian/US concerns will cite the need to ‘protect their interests’ & demand their troop presence to do so. The terrain they occupy will become ‘exclusive’ to them & out of bounds to Sri Lankans.
• The most dangerous aspect of the protests is the message being promoted that Sri Lanka is a failed state: – no money – no peace – no law & order & this eventually decides the end objective to station a foreign troop presence either directly by foreign governments or UN troops.

It is also strange that there is only a lukewarm opposition to the current chaos by the so-called international community. When Mahinda Rajapakse was waging war against LTTE – he was diplomatically attacked 24X7 by foreign govts & envoys as well as UN/UNHRC. The scale of that attack is unusually absent presently.

External or Internal manipulations aside, the protests are now spiraling out of control as the protestors are people representing various interests from various social platforms and the manipulators lose control (often intentionally) to create further chaos as the political apparatus (local & global) thrives on chaos & needs chaos to exist.

These realities are often laughed aside as conspiracy theories completely ignoring the manner countries have been brought down to their knees via regime change & covert operations. Take a look at how so many countries have fallen since 1945.

At this juncture it is prudent to refer to Pakistan & the fate that befell PM Imran Khan.  PM Imran Khan has even disclosed the name of the US official that threated him by letter.

South Asian nations are being increasingly under pressure to distance itself from Russia. 22 Western envoys have even released a joint letter to side against Russia’s position on Ukraine. Why did they not do the same in all of the illegal invasions/interventions that have taken place since 2001?

The visit by Under-Secretary Nuland to Pakistan-India-Bangladesh & Sri Lanka is significant in this regard. All 4 countries abstained from voting against Russia. However the ‘sanction czar’ Biden’s economic advisor arrived in India with an open threat of sanctioning India if it were to side with Russia  though India did not bow down to US pressure. No sooner Nuland left trouble began in Sri Lanka.

While Sri Lanka is happy to be hanging on to the dollar for transactions primarily on account of self-interest of politicians & officials, the Ukraine issue has enabled Russia to turn the tables on US hegemony & commence a de-dollarization with increasing calls to dump the dollar & depart from US-influenced global monetary control. With Russia, China, India, Iran all now dealing with their own currencies for trade transactions the fate of the dollar is clear.

Have the manipulators decided it is time to end Rajapakse rule – if so, when & how? Who do they have in mind to replace? We know the demands of the protestors but what are their workable solutions if they get rid of Parliament plus the President? We want answers.

Can a soothsayer predict the future for Sri Lanka!

Shenali D Waduge