Japan is a US Colony, How About Sri Lanka?
Posted on February 4th, 2024
e-Con e-News
blog: eesrilanka.wordpress.com
‘Before you study the economics, study the economists!’
e-Con e-News 28 January – 03 February 2024
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Unlike in India, the national anthem in Sri Lanka is not associated with a freedom struggle.
Independence battles in this country were fought by Keppetipola, Puran Appu,
Gongalegoda Banda, Dharmapala & others, but there was no such battle fought
by Jayewardene, Senanayake, Wijewardene, Wickremesinghe, Arunachalam, or Ramanathan.
– Nalin de Silva, see ee Economists, We need to build a national manufacturing economy
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There was no fight for freedom, which involved a fight
for principles, policies, and programs… No. It just came overnight.
We just woke up one day and we were told, ‘You are a dominion now’.
– SWRD Bandaranaike, Ceylon Prime Minister (1956-59)
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‘During the agitation for constitutional reforms a secret memorandum was sent
by those who were opposed to the reform, to the Colonial Office in Whitehall.
In the Legislative Council, the Colonial Secretary refused to table a copy. He was fully
confident that none of the signatories would give it. Alwis was able to obtain a copy
surreptitiously from a member of the household of Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan.
Sir Ponnambalam was one of the instigators of the memorandum.’
– ee Media, RE de Alwis was friendly with Wilfrid Woods, Colonial Treasurer
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The Soulbury Constitution of 1946 was an ‘agreement between
the English-educated elites of all the island’s principal groups.’
The Ceylonese judiciary struggled to assert itself
as a counter-majoritarian check on Parliament.
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‘The locus of uncertainty was Section 29 of the Soulbury Constitution,
which prohibited Parliament from enacting discriminatory legislation
and set forth constitutional amendment rules.
Ceylon Parliament did not enjoy supremacy in the Westminster sense.
& because it lacked the unfettered powers of its English counterpart, its sovereignty
– & Ceylonese sovereignty – was questioned throughout the Dominion period.’
– ee Sovereignty, Uncertain sovereignty: Ceylon as a Dominion 1948-72
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‘Yet another secret military deal with the USA was approved
following agreement by both parties on April 6, 2022.
It is not surprising that Sri Lankan media failed to report this as they were silent
on the 1st ACSA secret deal signed between US & SL on March 11, 2007.
This was extended 10 years later as the original 2007 ACSA created an inescapable military trap.
The new military engagement with US (2022 April 6) is far more dangerous, intrusive & invasive.’
– ee Sovereignty, Sri Lanka a US Military Vassal State
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The USA has military bases & troops throughout West Asia, from occupied Palestine to Turkiye to Saudi Arabia to Qatar (home of BBC camel Al Jazeera), UAE, Oman, Bahrain, etc. They also have 10,000s of troops in East Asia: Japan (which with 16 white countries, suspended aid to Palestine after the ICJ ruling), occupied Korea, Taiwan etc; the Pacific (Guam, Hawaii, Marshall Islands, etc), & Indian Ocean (Diego Garcia etc) Then there are US military bases & troops in Africa (at least 29!) and in Europe (England, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Greece, Norway, etc). Does this not make them US colonies? The media never modifies those countries with the adjective US-occupied? And yet, all attacks on US & English machines in West Asia are called ‘Iran-backed’?
US envoy & Korean collaborator Julie Chung, with blood on her hands (not just from Palestine but Colombia, Iraq, Haiti too, see below) was allowed into the so-called ‘1st Arts Festival’ in Matara this week. It shows the slimy sewers, our ‘intellectuals’ & ‘artists’ will slather in. Indeed, the depths & the lengths imperialism goes to prevent the independence of Sri Lanka, has ranged from economic sabotage (starting with the very 1st US designer & governor of SL’s Central Bank) to assassination (1959) to coups (attempted 1962 & those unnamed 2022), to massmurder (1971, 1983-2009), and secret military agreements.
The more subtle variations obstructing Sri Lanka’s release from colonial thrall include the US- & EU-funded constitutional & judicial wrangling to undermine state power. Also, the steady diversion by the media and the education system, away from vital issues such as modern industrialization that can truly unshackle us (see ee Focus, Promoting High-quality Development through New Industrialization). This ee Focus (D’Oylys Ghouls – English Department & its National Erasures) also looks at how the so-called English-educated erase our real history in the name of countering erasure, by downplaying the hideous role plantations have played in destroying the economy.
And while the Sri Lanka Institute of Architecture puts on the ritz this month (they can build a private house, but cannot blueprint a nation), ee reproduces the Communist Party’s alternate program on Housing & Urban Planning. These effete aesthetes would be well-advised to read it:
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Sri Lanka faces a catastrophic situation regarding shelter, with a
chronic shortage of housing: of 6 million families, some 800,000 have no homes at all…
Sri Lanka’s urban planners have robbed the urban environments steadily of green public open space.
(see ee Focus, Housing & Urban Planning)
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• Instead of focusing on such brick&mortar matters, there’s instead incessant jabber about constitutionalism – a splurging pig’s trough for ageing lawyers & retiring professors, with a former ’71 JVPer-turned-NGO professor calling for the return of an unelected Senate! The purpose of these endless ruminations has been indeed to prevent a strong state backed by ‘majoritarian’ rule. But who is this ‘majority’ they are so butt-scared of, given that democracy is usually promoted as majority rule? They of course mean, the ‘Sinhala people’. But who specifically makes up this ‘Sinhala people’? Agriculturists? What do these Sinhala do during their waking hours, that so frightens them?
Last week ee noted how Sri Lanka’s agriculture is being slowly taken over by US multinationals with their elder English siblings (Unilver, CIC/ICI, CTC) in tow, with major inputs for paddy cultivation being made unaffordable under IMF dictat. This week saw Swiss multinational Nestle advance its grab of Milco & the local milk industry which they pretty much monopolize. Though the corporate media will not divulge such, and why should they?
Milco workers are in court to prevent its sale, lock & stock & milk barrel to India. This will surely ruin a local much-loved brand, which we’ve been drinking all our post-breast-feeding-life. Yet, we were wondering about the connection between the sale & Nestle, who curiously delisted recently from the Colombo Stock Exchange.
We found that link in the recent appointment (see ee 6 Jan 2023) to the Cargills (Ceylon) board of Dushni Weerakoon & Ganesan Ampalavanar. Cargills, which has old and close ties to the USA (from the Hollywood Chittampalams to the latest setup of EV car charging centres at Cargills outlets) is listed as the local front for the sale of Milco to India.
Former USAID employee Weerakoon is still an Appointed Member of the Monetary Policy Board of the Central Bank & a Director of the Board of Investment (BOI). Ampalavanar, a Malaysian citizen, has the served Nestle Group 3 times as CEO (Nestle Indonesia, Nestle Vietnam, Nestle SL). He was trained at the IMD, the International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, created by Nestlé (see Random Notes).
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‘This was not a decision that could be taken by the Finance Ministry
and as a result they had held a meeting with the IMF concerning this situation.’
– see ee Economy,IMF likely to lift VAT conditions on Tourism
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• This week celebrating ‘Independence’ also saw the Finance Ministry tell the Inbound Tour Operators (SLAITO) to speak to the IMF to obtain redress. At least they’re honest. But why do we even have a Finance Ministry, if Washington is de boss? Indeed, a perhaps frustrated CIA professor and advisor to the Sri Lankan government argues we have not had a proper Finance Minister in 35 years. He should know why… Meanwhile, the tax-avoiding Bill Gates Foundation, famed for their ‘Agribusiness’ & ‘Big Pharma’ initiatives, has set up ship right in the President’s Office – an office, one minister claimed, he would be afraid to accept a drink of water from!
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• The removal of popularly elected President Gotabaya Rajapakse came soon after Pakistan’s Imran Khan in April 2022 was toppled and before Peru’s Pedro Castillo was jailed in December 2022. Haiti’s President Jovenel Moise was assassinated in July 2021. The murder took place while Julie Chung – now-US Envoy to SL – was Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, 2021 Jan20 –Aug3. She had met Haiti’s President Moise on June 26, setting the groundwork for his murder 3 weeks later. The US-led Core Group (Sri Lanka is given one too), of which Canada is a member, appointed Moise’s successor by tweet, which was dutifully echoed by BINUH, the UN office in Haiti. Very soon after, Chung was nominated to become US envoy in SL, a seeming demotion, meant to remove her from one crime scene, but actually to set up another murder which she has failed to accomplish so far?
Last year also saw the fixing of elections to install pro-US leaders in Malaysia & Thailand, as well as escalation of war on Myanmar, whose war against England during WW2 was a major reason to ‘grant’ Sri Lanka a fake independence.
Meanwhile, US Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, who set Chung & gang rolling in Sri Lanka, was in Kiev this week, her plans staring at utter defeat, yet bravely promises some nasty little (nuclear?) ‘nice surprises’ for Russia. Welcome to the free world…