{"id":136494,"date":"2023-08-20T16:00:02","date_gmt":"2023-08-20T23:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=136494"},"modified":"2023-08-20T16:00:02","modified_gmt":"2023-08-20T23:00:02","slug":"us-india-japan-australia-malabari-war-games-to-divide-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2023\/08\/20\/us-india-japan-australia-malabari-war-games-to-divide-us\/","title":{"rendered":"US, India, Japan & Australia: Malabari War Games to Divide\u00a0Us"},"content":{"rendered":"

e-Con e-News<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Before you study the economics, study the economists!<\/em>\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

e-Con e-News August 2023 Part 4<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

India is \u2018inexorably\u2019 enabling the war machinery of the US, Australia & Japan around Sri Lanka<\/strong>, the Indian Ocean<\/strong> and the Asia-Pacific<\/strong> region. India\u2019s Kautilyan capers are \u2018causing a serious change in the balance of forces<\/strong> and generating a spike in regional & global tensions<\/strong>\u2019, astute Indian analysts warn (see ee Sovereignty<\/em><\/strong>, Malabar Exercises). Inexorable?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     On August 18, the navies of the US, India, Japan & Australia<\/strong> kicked off their 2nd<\/sup> annual Malabar war games,<\/strong> southeast of Sri Lanka. The war games downplayed as \u2018exercises\u2019 are \u2018surrounded by much hype that a QUAD<\/strong> collective maritime defence alliance is emerging in the Indo-Pacific\u2019. China & Russia patrolling their own Pacific coasts yet drove English media apoplectic. Anglo-American NATO media (in their saturating style) simply refuse to entertain their citizens to an actual map of the world (see ee Sovereignty<\/em><\/strong>, The New Atlas<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Also on Friday, US President Joe Biden hosted \u2018a trilateral summit at Camp David with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida<\/strong> and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol<\/strong>, to sign \u2018a defence, security and technology cooperation agreement.\u2019 Both neutered Japan & an amputated Korea are already occupied by 10,000s of US troops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     India was England\u2019s largest satrapy<\/strong> with sepoy army to match. Malabar, an English colonial name for India\u2019s southwestern coast, includes the state of Kerala \u2013 ancient land of the Chera<\/strong>. Kerala\u2019s elected Communist government was overthrown by a (barely 10 year old) independent Indian military, ordered there by PM J Nehru in 1957. Two years later, PM SWRD Bandaranaike was killed (not by who we are told) in the ancient land of the Sinhala<\/strong>, and his government destabilized. All \u2018Malabar War Games\u2019 perhaps!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 August is also a month for NATO\u2019s minions<\/strong> to relax, retool and revitalize their engines, physical and mental, before the start of their industrial year<\/strong> in autumnal September. Bookfairs<\/strong> and school openings<\/strong> paper it all over. This is followed by further missile-waving<\/strong> in icing October. Scary Halloween. After which they give thanks for re-inflated war budgets (midst their starvation of the original \u2018Indians\u2019).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     This ee<\/em><\/strong> Focus<\/em> relates a Lakshman<\/strong> Kadirgamar Institute<\/strong> confab conclusion that it\u2019s \u2018ridiculous\u2026 to still talk of non-aligned policy<\/strong>\u2019, after \u2018having signed the ACSA (Access & Cross Servicing Agreement) <\/strong>with the US, in August 2017\u2019.  And what\u2019s with August 2017? In late July 2017 another fragrant agreement was made to legalize multinational corporations (MNCs) haemorrhaging dollars overseas, which led to last year\u2019s engineered default?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     At this Kadirgamar Institute<\/strong> confab, speakers pacific and otherwise praised the human rights record of US-led powers! \u2013 <\/strong>their still-bleeding wars on Iraq, Syria, Libya, Ukraine, notwithstanding.  They also forgot at this LK commemoration that \u2018the much-respected\u2019 Kadirgamar was \u2018killed by an organization established by India\u2019. (see ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>, Quagmire)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Also in this ee<\/em><\/strong>, a former US Foreign Official traces the US plan to impose a \u2018federal\u2019<\/strong> solution on Sri Lanka. To unify an industrializing country, the USA fought their own bloody war to prevent federalism and secession. They\u2019ve forgotten, we\u2019re told, that United States of Amnesia. Of course, as their dearly \u2018free media\u2019 constantly remind us, their power (white-settler impunity, truth be told) is the ability to financially and militarily impose their own reality. On the past\u2026 and the present. Until\u2026 the future catches up (see ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>, Federal).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Friday\u2019s imperialist war games in the ocean came right after the US got Colombo to host \u2018The Indo-Pacific Environmental Security Forum (IPESF) 2023\u2019 <\/strong>from 14-17 August. US Envoy & 2022 Coup funder Julie Chung<\/strong> was joined by the President\u2019s nephew Ruwan Wijewardene<\/strong> \u2013 former State Minister of Defence and now \u2018Senior Adviser to the President on Climate Change<\/strong>\u2019 (ahh!<\/em> now the fog clears), US-sanctioned Chief of Defense Staff<\/strong> General Shavendra Silva, and Commander of the Navy, Vice Admiral Priyantha Perera. They discussed \u2018Climate Change & Security\u2019, Maritime, Ocean & Water Security<\/strong>, Impacts of Urbanization & Land Security<\/strong>, and Building National & Regional Resilience\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The US Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM), hauling the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN), and Sri Lanka Coast Guard (SLCG) in tow, says it invited 140 senior military officers & \u2018top-level environmentalists\u2019<\/strong> from 28 countries in the Indo-Pacific.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Sigh!<\/em> These \u2018environmentalists\u2019 were in deep hibernation when an organic fertilizer policy was being viciously vilified. Some therefore wonder \u2018who of the Climate Crisis Gurus<\/strong> & NGO Gravy Train\u2019 starred at this show? \u2018Saving\u2019 the environment has long been big business for the UN environment experts<\/strong>. They\u2019re now doing opaque carbon credit calculations<\/strong> in order to privatize forests<\/strong> and enable ocean grabbing<\/strong> in the name of conservation, while marketing Debt for Nature Swaps<\/strong>, green & blue bonds & scams!\u2019 (see ee Sovereignty<\/em><\/strong>, From \u2018Donor Darling\u2019 to Pariah & Back) USAID & Cargills also made a deal to plug electric vehicles in at all their supermarkets!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Kautilya Cows for Machiavelli\u2019s Big Mac<\/strong> \u2013 \u2018Contrary to the Modi government\u2019s theatrical public diplomacy upholding India\u2019s strategic autonomy\u2019, India\u2019s foreign policy establishment<\/strong> is generating \u2018an entirely different perception\u2026 at the political and diplomatic level\u2019 helping to plant \u2018the function of confrontation\u2026 in the AUKUS and in QUAD\u2019 enabling \u2018an acceleration of strategic realignments among the big powers\u2019 amidst growing signs of a new cold war globally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     India\u2019s moves come just after the 19th<\/sup> round of India- China Corps Commander-level Meeting held at Chushul-Moldo border<\/strong> meeting point on the Indian side on 13-14 August. A veteran Indian diplomat notes: \u2018India is at risk of being caught in the eye of the storm, as it were, although its issues with China are neither one of geopolitical rivalry nor of being a gatekeeper for Western hegemony.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Indeed critics wonder how the media manipulates Manipur<\/strong> and Kashmir<\/strong> (which we once knew only as expensive imported saris) to produce Bollywood-style India\u2019s magical claim to dividing Sri Lanka to enable the blooming of rights the whites call \u2018human\u2019. India, the US & England are also funding terrorism on Manipur\u2019s border with Myanmar<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     India\u2019s funding and training bloody terrorism in the country and then proceeding to supposedly \u2018ban\u2019 the Tigers, and yet uphold their parliamentary stripes, recalls this week\u2019s \u2018US Sanctions on Syrian \u2018Moderate Rebels\u2019 It Had Previously Armed\u2019: \u2018An auto sales company<\/strong> owned by the leader of one of the armed groups is also being designated\u2019. (see ee Sovereignty<\/em><\/strong>, US Sanctions)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 US Ambassador for Cyberspace & Digital Policy<\/strong> Nathaniel C Fick will visit Sri Lanka from August 20-23, after visiting India, August 17-20. He will lobby the Sri Lankan government, private sector and thinktanks on buying US-vended equipment for cybersecurity, information & communications technologies, and digital freedom. Former marine Fick was CEO of cutely named cybersecurity company Endgame Inc<\/strong>, then worked for Dutch Elastic NV<\/strong>, before being made an \u2018Operating Partner\u2019 at San Francisco\u2019s Bessemer Venture Partners<\/strong>, which operates in India, Israel and England (see ee Random Notes<\/em><\/strong>, SLTelecom\u2019s Bowel Movements).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Blowing in the Wind<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 With all these US officials wasting their carbon footprints on junkets to Sri Lanka, we lose track and yet wonder what happened to \u2018US State Department Coordinator on Global Anti-Corruption\u2019 Richard Nephew<\/strong> and Dylan Aikens<\/strong>, the Anti-Corruption Analyst for the US Department of State who visited Sri Lanka August 8-9? Not a peep. Wonder what silence they have bought? Gone with the Wind!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Sri Lanka\u2019s authorities must consult vehicle importers when making decisions<\/p>\n\n\n\n

on relaxing an ongoing import ban, President of the Vehicle Importers\u2019 Association<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indika Sampath Merinchige said\u2026 Merinchige claimed the government is relaxing<\/p>\n\n\n\n

vehicle imports in accordance with the wishes<\/strong> of the IMF<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

which bailed Sri Lanka out<\/strong> of its worst financial crisis in decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The government is doing this for the IMF. As traders, we also like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But we don\u2019t wish to lose it<\/strong>,\u2019 said Merinchige.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 ee Industry<\/em><\/strong>, SL vehicle import ban: Traders want to be consulted in decision-making<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who must a government, elected by the voters and vote counters of the country, listen to? A Peradeniya Professor of Agriculture, points to the sky (climate, a great variable like sexuality & EU markets, able to attract loanable dollars). The Professor says farmers should listen to\u2026 Agriculture Professors:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the government has the responsibility of <\/em>ensuring the availability<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

of key resources for farming such as <\/em>fertilizer, water, seeds, fuel<\/em><\/strong> etc,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

the farmers, in turn, should have the willingness to adapt and<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

change their age-old cultivation practices & perceptions<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

to follow recommendations that are issued<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

after careful research & field validation.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A paradigm shift is needed on the part of the farmers as well.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Prof WAJM de Costa, Sr Professor & Crop Science Chair,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faculty of Agriculture, Peradeniya University<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(see ee Economists<\/em><\/strong>, Are Farmers Willing to Listen to Agriculture Professors?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Chena Burn Index (CBI)<\/strong> \u2013 Indeed cultivators and poachers are also being blamed for an increase in forests being set on fire. This may be an indication of the tremendous pressure being placed on cultivators, for whom chena (swidden aka slash&burn) has been an \u2018age-old\u2019 and lucrative window to direct cash, as opposed to rice cultivation (as it stands), which gets them into further debt to merchants & moneylenders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     So! Which farmers should the government listen to? Which professors? The last Peradeniya Agriculture Professor, much quoted by the media in opposition to organic fertilizer policy, turned out to be a local director of English MNC and chemical importer CIC (ICI Ltd).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Note that the good Professor Costa allows the government a \u2018Responsibility to Ensure\u2019 (R2E). Who then will provide \u2018fertilizer, water, seeds, fuel\u2019? We do not have to imagine \u2018The Who\u2019 in the \u2018Age of the 17th<\/sup> IMF Review (17 Vaeni JaMuLa Yugaya)\u2019. Which seed, fuel & fertilizer importers should the government listen to? And water?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Civil Servant Raju Coomaraswamy (father of NGO Queen Radhika Coomaraswamy<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and de facto CBSL Governor Indrajit Coomaraswamy) was once sent abroad<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and told to write on the balance of payments. He apparently consulted<\/p>\n\n\n\n

an Indian statistician, who asked him, \u2018What results do you wish to show?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 More particularly, which leaders should we listen to?<\/strong> Here again, foreign state & corporate funding seeks to tell us. Take the recent \u2018poll\u2019 (an exegesis of how \u2018polls\u2019 \u2013 usually corporate-funded surveys \u2013 came to replace \u2018polls\u2019 at physical adults-only voting booths, would be fun on another day).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     EconomyNext <\/em>and other US embassy\u2019s media spigots tell us:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Significant drop in favourability of Sri Lanka\u2019s Anura Kumara Dissanayake<\/em><\/strong>:<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018An opinion survey for July has shown that leftist leader AKD<\/p>\n\n\n\n

has seen a dip in his net favourability rating, with opposition leader Sajith Premadasa<\/p>\n\n\n\n

making a marginal gain while President Ranil Wickremesinghe\u2019s rating stayed static.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Sri Lanka Opinion Tracker Survey (SLOTS<\/em><\/strong>) polling<\/p>\n\n\n\n

by the Institute for Health Policy (IHP).\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We vaguely recall this survey and institute being funded by an Australian state institution. IHP\u2019s website tells us \u2018IHP is very glad<\/strong> to be associated with Health Policy Research Associates (HPRA)\u2019. Access to \u2018Sri Lanka based\u2019 HPRA\u2019s website is limited and requires identification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unauthorized \u2013 This server could not verify that you are authorized<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

to access the document requested. Either you supplied the wrong credentials<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(eg, bad password), or your browser doesn\u2019t understand<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

how to supply the credentials required<\/em> \u2013 hpra.lk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So much for transparency! Instead, IHP tells us HPRA is \u2018an independent consultancy firm<\/strong>, which carries out consulting assignments in the fields of health policy, health economics and planning, social protection and development\u2019. HPRA\u2019s client portfolio includes the World Bank<\/strong>, WHO<\/strong>, ILO<\/strong>, UNHCR<\/strong>, the Government of Kyrgyz Republic, Government of Sri Lanka, and England\u2019s DFID<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Compare the state of surveys in Sri Lanka with China, where it is the government that depends on and yet controls research so that it benefits their own country (see ee Quotes<\/em><\/strong>). We also see this HRPA\u2019s link to the UN (WHO, ILO, UNHCR, etc) which increasingly outvoices Sri Lanka\u2019s government ministries and departments on such vital national issues as malnutrition and education, as well as determines policy direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     And speaking of England\u2019s \u2018aid\u2019 dispenser DFID, ee<\/em><\/strong> has alluded before to the stunting and submission of our economies, much like our working class, to the whims and demands of imperialist economies, especially to allow them to maintain the innovations in their machine industries. This ee<\/em><\/strong> tracks the \u2018evolution\u2019 of the DFID, how \u2018Colonial Office\u2019 came to be renamed \u2018Development Office\u2019 (ee Random Notes<\/em><\/strong>, English Aid for English Machines).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Sri Lanka remittances reach US$541mn in July 2023, we were told this week (see ee Workers<\/em><\/strong>). There\u2019s little information on exactly which categories of workers are responsible for sending our largest sources of foreign exchange. Let alone how it was possible for the flow of such remittances to be turned off, let alone how our import-export mafia are able to park tens of billions of the country\u2019s dollars outside the country. No such surveys here. And even better, detail exactly what are we paying back debt for. How many obsolete and over-expensive technologies, industrial goods & services have we had to pay for?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 In Sri Lanka\u2019s August Business Sections (that palimpsest of erasable good news) a survey by ee<\/em><\/strong> Finance<\/em><\/strong> shows a flurry of \u2018profits\u2019 posting by private banks (even the public banks still serve private purposes) albeit in what they call \u2018challenging\u2019 times:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NDB ups 1H pre-tax profit by 55% to Rs4.2billion<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

amidst continuing external challenges<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And here\u2019s why: \u2018The finalisation of the DDO and the options extended to banks has removed ambiguity <\/strong>and has helped lessen the risk premia<\/strong> added to interest rates.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HNB Group records Rs9.8bn PAT in 1H 2023<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

HNB also adds: \u2018We commend the government\u2019s DDO plan \u2013 which insulated the banking sector<\/strong> from any reprofiling of Treasury Bills or Bonds. This in turn enables banks, inundated with mounting credit impairmen<\/strong>t and higher taxes<\/strong>, to use much needed capacity in supporting the revival of key sectors and the broader economy.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Are these bank profits invested in modern industry? No. Instead workers\u2019 organizations report that current debt restructuring places the burden of debt repayment on working class. <\/strong>\u2018Government has decided to use the funds of the Employee Provident Fund to repay Sri Lanka\u2019s debt.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Hotel workers <\/strong>report that with the IMF\u2019s demands for labor flexibility<\/strong>, \u2018hotel managers are no longer required to pay workers for an 8-hour shift\u2019. Additionally, workers will not be entitled to any overtime pay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     At least private banks are also thrilled by the Central<\/strong> Bank<\/strong> insistence that Aswesuma beneficiaries <\/strong>\u2018must use banks that had the ability to process cheques\u2019, which happen to be commercial banks. Using a private bank that robs money and refuses to invest in workers and the country is a human right!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     It is no coincidence that \u2018private companies<\/strong> are willing to set up factories inside prisons\u2019. <\/strong>And midst all this, Sri Lanka\u2019s Defence Secretary this week addressed a USAID Human Trafficking Workshop<\/strong>!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 AI-Generated News<\/strong> \u2013 US-funded Advocata is keeping its head down midst this their 17th<\/sup> IMF Yugaya. Yet their imported media memes prevail. As comedy. Take this clearly \u2018accidental\u2019 news item, from the US embassy in Colombo\u2019s funded media spigot, EconomyNext<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka to expand bloated state for Cinnamon despite tax woes<\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Sri Lanka\u2019s cabinet of ministers had approved the setting up a separate department<\/p>\n\n\n\n

for the development & promotion of Minister<\/strong> Bandula Gunawardana [sic!]\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(see, ee Agriculture<\/em><\/strong>, Minister of Plantation Industries\u2026)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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US, India, Japan & Australia: Malabari War Games to Divide Us<\/a><\/blockquote>