{"id":114667,"date":"2021-05-28T14:46:29","date_gmt":"2021-05-28T21:46:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=114667"},"modified":"2021-05-28T14:46:29","modified_gmt":"2021-05-28T21:46:29","slug":"after-73-years-sri-lankans-need-an-independent-perspective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/05\/28\/after-73-years-sri-lankans-need-an-independent-perspective\/","title":{"rendered":"After 73 years Sri Lankans need an Independent Perspective"},"content":{"rendered":"

Palitha Senanayake<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Recently there has been  considerable criticism, in printed as well as\nin the social media, of Sri Lanka\u2019s increase \u2018dependence\u2019 on the Chinese state,\nand this criticism identifies this dependence with the current Rajapakse\nregime.  The criticism, moreover, appears\nto suggest that there is some danger in this dependence vis a vis the country\u2019s\nsovereignty and independence.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this respect it is important to ponder whether\nSri Lanka, as a country, has been truly independent for the past 73 years of\nits existence since it was granted \u2018independence\u2019 by its colonizers\u2019, the\nBritish, after 145 year imperial subjection. \nBy the time the British left after all those years, this country had an\nelite ring of people who were English educated\/ trained and hence always acted\nin the way the empire would approve. The world order at that time, being the\npost- World War 11 scenario, was inclined in that direction as the WW11 victors\nappointed themselves to be the arbiters of world way-forward.  The deleterious effect of all that was not just\nthe emulation of the West, but the servile mentality our rulers inherited. As a\nresult they were subliminally accustomed to a state where they just could not\nsee beyond \u2018what the Englishman would show you\u2019.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hence we continued with the same economic\nand social values and the changes that took place since then were more in the\nform of \u2018inevitables\u2019 than in the form of pre- planed. To start with, the\ndemocratic system of governance that was thrust upon us would not have been the\nmost appropriate governing system given the fact that the country\u2019s literacy\nrate at the point of independence was a mere 6 % and its standard of living was\nhardly at the barest of necessities.  Under the democratic form of governance the\npeople are the rulers and you could just imagine the wisdom and providence of a\nruler who is only 6 % literate and whose basics needs of life were hardly\nfulfilled. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The\nfact is that the new nation bequeathed a human stock that had been neglected\nfor centuries with a life expectancy of only 45 years, per capita income\nof  1.5 $ and a literacy rate of  a mere 6 % . Thus the post independent democratic\ngovernments had little choice but to give in to the nation\u2019s democratic dictate\nto raise the level of the human stock by investing heavily on health and\neducation.  We changed governments, one\nafter the other, expecting more from the government that succeeded. Lee Kwan\nYew the architect of Singapore\u2019s resurgence \nhas maintained many a times that, \u2018I meet my commonwealth colleagues\nevery other year at the Commonwealth convention and they complain of their woes\nin nation building; democracy has only brought regression and not progression\nto them\u2019 . He further maintains that when a country\u2019s people are not educated\nand when their basic needs of life are not met, democracy is the last form of\ngovernment they should have. The Governor of a country, be it a Sheik or a\nKing should carry on for at least for 20 years and instead when you have governments\nelected for a limited period it is inevitable that such governments will turn\nout to be \u2018time servers\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We complain of corruption by politicians\nbut corruption is a part and parcel of democratic politics. Today an MP needs\nRs. 20 million to do an election and how do we expect him to make that Rs. 20\nmillion every 5 years? Central bank heist was not for a personal aggrandizement\nand the funds were needed to do the 2015 UNP election campaign. In America the\npresidential campaigns run on corporate finance and as a result today every US\ngovernment is elected by the country\u2019s 2 % rich.  Agendas of these corporations does not stop\nthere as the most profitable businesses to day are the arms manufacture and the\nmanufacture of pharmaceuticals.  The\nfirst make money by planting wars and the second by planting decease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Perkings is an Economic Hit Man (EHM)\nwho worked for the World Bank. He has authored a book titled the \u2018Confessions\nof an Economic Hit man\u2019 and the US government prevented his book from\npublishing it for 20 years. It is an interesting episode of how WB consultants\ndefraud developing countries for billions of dollars in the guise of\n\u2018development finance\u2019 and the final benefactors of such activity are the US\ncorporations. \u2018Confessions of an Economic Hit\nman\u2019 details how these operations against smaller nations are carried out with\nthe sanctions of the Central intelligence Agency of the US. Economic hit men (EHMs)\nare highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of\ntrillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, the U.S. Agency\nfor International Development (USAID), and other foreign “aid”\norganizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few\nwealthy families who control the planet’s natural resources. Their tools include\nfraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, pay offs, extortion, sex, and\nmurder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apart from this confessions, evidence is omnipresent\nall over the world with \u2018liberation wars\u2019, alleged \u2018human rights violations\u2019, \u2018Arab\nsprings,\u2019 \u2018export of democracy\u2019 etc. that are disguised to enable the World\nSuper powers to maintaining the post WW11 status quo. These are modus operands\nto ensure that they will always rule the world. The solutions they advocate to\nworld issues are carefully crafted to ensure that the problems remain permanent\nso that their corporations could thrive. \nPalestine is only a single case in point and today thousands of women\nand children are dying and the perpetrator of that war is backed by US and\nBritain.  Britain\u2019s economy today is\nbehind that of its colonial subject India, but thanks to the war in Yemen,\nBritish economy leaped frogged this year. Current state of the world, with so\nmany man made wars, deceases and hunger is not a state that will reflect well\non its super powers. The Super powers, while they govern their countries with\nhumane and equitable laws, advocate the \u2018laws of the jungle\u2019 for world issues.\nThat is the reason that why Bill Clinton was almost impeached for having an\nillicit affair with a white- house intern, while George Bush who killed\nmillions in Iraq, on triumphed up WMD charges, was not even considered as\nimpeachable material.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take\nthe case of what Sri Lanka is made to face for vanquishing terrorism that\nhaunted it for 35 years. On March 23rd<\/sup> in 2021, the UNHRC adopted\nResolution, A\/HRC\/46\/L.1 on Sri Lanka at its 46th session. The resolution was\npresented by the United Kingdom sponsored by a core group of Western countries.\nThe real motive of this resolution is to prevent Sri Lanka from clearing the\nshackles of the previous resolution 30\/A brought against Sri Lanka in 2015 by\nthe United States for alleged \u2018Human rights violations\u2019, by the SL forces at\nthe last stages of its war against the LTTE. Lord Naseby has produced very\nclear evidence to prove that these allegations are not consistent with the\nground reports of US and British military attaches who were in the thick of\nthese happenings and also contrary to the census surveys carried out, post war.\nThe most cynical nature of these allegations is that these two super powers who\nexpress so much concern about the HR violations in Sri Lanka today had no heart\nto express their concern in anyway while Sri Lankan people suffered at the\nhands of this most ruthless and organized terror outfit in the world causing\nthe deaths of 80,000 civilians over a period of 35 years. Whenever they were\nconfronted with this problem they advocated \u2018talks\u2019 as the only way out and\nfinally all the talks successive SL Governments held elevated the LTTE to a\ndiplomatic status as liberations fighters in the eyes of the west. The irony\nhowever was that the parties who called LTTE, the \u2018liberation fighters\u2019 are the\nsame parties that called Nelson Mandela \na \u2018terrorist\u2019 for 40 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\nshould be clear to all, except of course to those who are na\u00efve and so servile\nto the west, that these resolutions on HR violations are now being brought with\nthe sinister idea of rekindling a problem that has been finally brought to an\nend. This is because the western propaganda industry and the west\u2019s arms\nmanufacturing corporations thrive at the misery of third world countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Sri\nLanka is a small country, and in a world scenario where imperial powers are at\neach other\u2019s throat for world hegemony, it is difficult to envisage a situation\nwhere small countries could remain 100 % independent. Things in this world continue\nto change and according to Buddhism that is the only universal phenomenon that\nis permanent.  Thus, things will continue\nto change and in that this country\u2019s language, culture and even religion will\nnot be an exception. Thus, in this changing scenario, wise people will change\nthings for the better while stupid will remain bigoted and servile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nthe modern world scenario, imperialist, in their quest for hegemony use propaganda\nas the forerunner in their invasions. Thus, those who control the news control\nthe world opinion. This is how they prevent people from having independent\nthoughts, based on truth and facts. \nTherefore today if you do not read the news; you are uninformed, but if\nyou read the news; you are misinformed. If you are uninformed you have no\nopinion, but if you are misinformed you have the wrong opinion. In the final\nanalysis, it is better to have no opinion than to have the wrong opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Servile\nmentality not only prevents you from seeing beyond your master but also\nperceives even those who try to liberate you, as your enemies. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Palitha Senanayake Recently there has been  considerable criticism, in printed as well as in the social media, of Sri Lanka\u2019s increase \u2018dependence\u2019 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114667\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}