{"id":156802,"date":"2026-06-14T14:23:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T21:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=156802"},"modified":"2026-06-14T14:23:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T21:23:14","slug":"war-criminals-rise-from-their-graves-to-confront-sri-lankas-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2026\/06\/14\/war-criminals-rise-from-their-graves-to-confront-sri-lankas-future\/","title":{"rendered":"War Criminals Rise from their Graves to Confront Sri Lanka\u2019s\u00a0Future"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

blog: https:\/\/eesrilanka.wordpress.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

e-Con e-News 07-13 June 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the USA\u2019s & India\u2019s warships (& related NGOs) keep barging into & out of the country\u2019s ports, bearing second-hand gifts and dishing out third-rate sermons about human rights<\/em>, devolution<\/em>, the rule of law<\/em>, free & open oceans<\/em>, etc., Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya was gracing the opening of the new Nippon Office Building, commissioned by the Sasakawa<\/strong> Memorial Trust, on Ward Place, Colombo 7. The trust is in memory of Ry\u014dichi Sasakawa, a convicted Japanese Class A war criminal<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The day before the Sasakawa event, Amarasuriya informed Parliament that 267,138 children had dropped out of the school system between 2018-24 \u2013 many because the school system could not accommodate their needs, or their parents could not afford to keep them there. What perhaps-inadvertent yet subconscious messaging by the PM does this sequencing of events mean to convey? A country that cannot nurture or employ its people, let alone with dignity, must get rid of them somehow. Migration is not a possibility for everyone. Ry\u014dichi Sasakawa\u2019s answer to unemployment was to wage war, becoming part of an imperialist project that killed millions of Asians \u2013 genocidal acts Japan still refuses to apologize for, to Asians at least (see ee<\/em><\/strong> <\/em>23May 2026). Despite Sasakawa\u2019s support for Japan\u2019s attack on the USA\u2019s Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, the USA still pardoned him and recruited him into their post-1949 Anti-China lobby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The siting of the \u2018Nippon Office Building\u2019 on Ward Place is also redolent of history. Ward Place also sites the \u2018Eye Hospital\u2019, that has helped give sight to many an awkward eye. Ward Place also sites \u2018Braemar\u2019, the last residence of President JR Jayawardene. The now-deceased Jayawardene is credited with misusing the Buddha\u2019s words to rehabilitate Japan (as well as forgive England\u2019s reparations to Sri Lanka) at that 1951 San Francisco Conference, that excluded the USSR and the People\u2019s Republic of China (PRC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

     On that same June day last week that PM Amarasuriya met the war criminal Ry\u014dichi\u2019s son \u2013 Nippon Foundation Chairman Yohei Sasakawa \u2013 the Daily Mirror<\/em> published an interview with the Ambassador of Japan to SL Akio Isomata, \u2018warning\u2019 Sri Lanka, \u2018that opportunities for investment & export-led growth cannot be delayed indefinitely.\u2019 Sri Lanka has to \u2018capitalize on a Japanese-backed export-oriented industrialisation initiative designed to integrate<\/em> Sri Lankan manufacturers into regional supply chains linked to India, Japan<\/strong> & wider Asian markets\u2019 (see ee Business<\/em><\/strong>, Walk the Talk: Japan urges\u2026). Indeed, their plan is to install \u2018an economic caste system: Sri Lanka has to only produce \u2018inputs\u2019, India will capture \u2018assembly margins\u2019, and Japan shall capture \u2018technology rents & FDI returns\u2019 (see ee<\/em><\/strong> 23 May 2026).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Two days prior to the Sasakawa launch, Sri Lanka\u2019s cabinet announced a new Japanese program called the \u2018Employment Program for Skill Development\u2019 to send workers to unnamed \u2018key sectors, as [Japan] faces a shortage of local labor force due to declining population, and an increasing ageing population\u2019 (see ee Workers<\/em><\/strong>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Amarasuriya heads the ruling NPP government in parliament, which is unable (or does not wish) to control the merchants and moneylenders that have driven the country\u2019s economy into a dead end. Instead, the government\u2019s judicial tools are actively prosecuting leaders & officials of the previous government who had brought an Indian-sponsored terrorist war to an end, accusing them of numerous crimes, corruption & terrorism. Such acts appear bound to create an endless revolving door of revenge, as one government replaces another, in this expensive game of electoral roulette, where the unregistered Merchant Capitalist Party (MCP) always ends up the winner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Meanwhile, the merchant media keep deploying euphemisms about \u2018conflict<\/em>\u2019 & \u2018oil crisis\u2019<\/em> & \u2018supply-chain disruption<\/em>\u2019, too afraid to name the perpetrators: that it is the USA & its armed poodles (EU+Japan) that are wreaking chaos around the world, and profiting handsomely, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u2018From its creation to modern times, the USA<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

has been defined as a racial project<\/em>\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Europe slaughtered 100 million indigenous Americans, and enslaved 4 million Africans, to brand that continent \u2018The New World.\u2019 Thus, begins ee<\/em><\/strong>\u2019s 5th<\/sup> instalment of the Tricontinental Institute (TI)\u2019s \u2018Hyper-Imperialism: A Dangerous Decadent New Stage\u2019. This excerpt of their monumental essay, details \u2018The Evolution of Imperialism \u2013 the New Stage of Imperialism,\u2019 pointing out that the US ruling class structure can only be understood by recognizing its white supremacist patriarchal character. Defining \u2018Hyper-Imperialism\u2019 by this history of genocide & enslavement, they track the concept\u2019s core to the transition from England to the USA as an \u2018Anglo-American Project\u2019 (see ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     TI traces the modern origins of the term, imperialism<\/em><\/strong>, to the work of Hilferding & Lenin, and its basis in the domination of the economy by monopolies<\/strong> (which were anyway always the basis of \u2018free trade\u2019<\/em>), and the switch from steam to electric power, which led to superprofits. TI describes the reorganization of the financial system after World War 2, with the formation of the World Bank & IMF<\/strong>, to enforce the convertibility of all currencies into the USDollar, and of the dollar into gold. NATO<\/strong>, formed in 1949 to dominate Europe and overthrow socialist countries, using \u2018soft power<\/em>\u2019 at first (nominal independence, & economic subordination). In 1971 the US unilaterally suspended the US$\u2019s convertibility into gold. Since the 1980s they have been moving to the overt genocide again, that they enact before our eyes alongside \u2018neoliberalism<\/em>\u2019, whose features such as privatization, debt bondage, & the rigid enforcement of \u2018<\/strong>intellectual property rights<\/em><\/strong>\u2019<\/em>, TI describes, culminating in the \u2018rise of digital monopoly capital, exemplified by Google seeking to dominate the whole world (except for <\/strong>China, Russia, Iran, DPR Korea, Cuba, & a few others). They also examine the rise of imperialist \u2018cultural, political & foreign policy hegemony\u2019 made possible by the monopoly status of US technologies, including Google<\/em>, Facebook, WhatsApp<\/em>, Instagram<\/em>, X\u2026\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u2018Why don\u2019t the educated have a public consciousness, a national & a social consciousness?\u2019, mused SBD de Silva. \u2018We lack a social & political history of the character of the local bourgeoisie, of the absence of nationalism & of the role of the bourgeois\u2019 \u2013 there is no such account. English colonial governor Henry McCallum (1907-13) \u2018hacked the unprogressive nature of the local bourgeoisie, saying they were not concerned about the rural masses, and only concerned about their private interests\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     England\u2019s Donoughmore Commission (1927-31) reforms were implemented and a State Council was elected under universal suffrage in 1931. This \u2018bourgeoisie\u2019 in Sri Lanka had opposed the recommended grant of the franchise:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018There is no compare to the rise of the Indonesian elite<\/p>\n\n\n\n

who were nationalist, or to Kenya, or the Indian bourgeoisie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our local bourgeoisie had opposed the franchise, played<\/p>\n\n\n\n

politics based on caste<\/strong>, & were collaborationist<\/strong>, despite<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kumari Jayawardena\u2019s claim of their role in the independence<\/p>\n\n\n\n

movement. It was not in the character of these bourgeoisie,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

they were not one bit radical. The Left, the LSSP, was quite<\/p>\n\n\n\n

overconfident about the anti-imperialism of the masses, and<\/p>\n\n\n\n

its leadership. Outside the ranks of the Left, the bourgeoisie<\/p>\n\n\n\n

were rentiers & traders<\/strong>, refusing to make concessions to the<\/p>\n\n\n\n

masses. & they were caste-ridden. The politician Ponnambalam<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramanathan opposed universal franchise as he felt that the caste<\/p>\n\n\n\n

system was an integral part of the Hindu way of life. He informed<\/p>\n\n\n\n

London, that he would change his political allegiance, if he<\/p>\n\n\n\n

& his family were photographed with their queen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Of course, it is curious why the English were so eager to \u2018grant\u2019 the franchise here, long before doing so in their other colonies. Certainly, the mass of workers & peasants remained unorganized after England\u2019s savage repressions of the 19th<\/sup> and early 20th<\/sup> century (1818, 1848, 1915). We are also unclear about whether this fraction of \u2018rentiers and traders\u2019 could be called a \u2018bourgeoisie\u2019, like the \u2018middle class\u2019 that emerged in western Europe between their peasantry and landed gentry, to establish modern (machine-making) industrial capitalism. The ruling merchants and moneylender in Sri Lanka, sought quick profits, and feared industrialization would shape an organized working class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The nature of Sri Lanka\u2019s ruling class (ie, if they really do \u2018rule\u2019<\/em>, and not merely \u2018perform\u2019<\/em>) and the new fraction of \u2018schooled\u2019 wannabes that have emerged since 1948 (& 1956, in particular), is examined in the recently translated excerpt (see ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>) of Sena Thoradeniya\u2019s keynote at the 2013 launch of Gunadasa Amarasekera\u2019s novel Roopantharanaya<\/em>. Thoradeniya, novelist & controversial author of Galle Face Protest; Systems Change or Anarchy?<\/em> exposes the narrow criticisms of his positive reviews of Amarasekera\u2019s literary takes on \u2018the evolution of Sri Lanka\u2019s middle class\u2019. Thoradeniya\u2019s analysis is exceptional for he examines literature & literary criticism through an unabashed Marxist-Leninist sweep of history & society. He criticizes false claims to a \u2018political art\u2019 and exposes the hubris of wannabes in a hurry to abandon their cultural ethos through the eponymous \u2018hero\u2019 of Gunadasa\u2019s novel, who rises via infantile adventurism & NGO patronage to become a professor & diplomatic envoy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The shallowness of Sri Lanka\u2019s intellectual production is unbared by our degreed scholars (who revel in decorating themselves with such appellations as \u2018Doctor<\/em>\u2019 minus the prescriptions & prognoses) who energetically manoeuvre to bask in borrowed feathers by adopting relatively unknown European role models. The more-obscure sophists adopt the fascist Heideggers & opportunistic Arendts & opaque Lacans; the more-shallow adopt the superficial Zizeks, while the old run-of-the-mill quote such anti-communist luminaries as Orwell. Economic analysts stick to limited framings of Adam Smith (minus his appeal to morality) & Maynard Keynes (minus his welfare to military budgets), and the more-untried utopias of Friedrich Hayek. Then there are those who love to repeatedly quote Lee Kwan Yew (minus acknowledging industrial city-state Singapore\u2019s highly statist economic underpinnings) especially to hit out at the depredations of our purportedly Sinhala-Buddhist policies. Still more are those who declare Marxism dead<\/em>, and when confronted with the reality of an insistently Marxist-Leninist People\u2019s Republic of China, seek to divide that country into pre- & post-Mao Zedong, turn 1978 against 1949, the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution vs the Reform & Opening-up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Shiran Illanperuma (see ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>) concludes \u2018only now do we have the data & empirical tools to begin to answer\u2019 such riddles as to whether China\u2019s Reform & Opening-up <\/strong>process in 1978<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Was a capitulation to imperialist capital<\/strong> & neocolonial globalization<\/strong>,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

or part of a long-game to develop China\u2019s productive forces so as to create<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the material conditions for economic sovereignty & common prosperity.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Illanperuma offers China\u2019s story as a \u2018model for Sri Lanka\u2019 to adapt. With intricate statistics, he shows that \u2018China has both integrated into the global cycle of accumulation and \u2018delinked\u2019\u2019. Egyptian Marxist Samir Amin<\/strong> proposed the concept of \u2018delinking<\/em><\/strong>\u2019, stressing that \u2018delinking was not autarky<\/strong>; it was the subordination of external relations to the imperatives of internal accumulation<\/em>.\u2019 Indeed, our media economists must repeatedly parrot the need for \u2018exports\u2019 failing or unable to explain that everything and at all times must be based on the long-term goals of the nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

One of the more popular myths about plantations<\/strong> claim that they use the most advanced<\/em> production techniques, even as the bulk of their workers still use methods (plucking, tapping, etc) 100s of years old. They even claim modern technological & management practices are demanded by their foreign ownership. Examine the repeated whingeing by the EU about food safety, the World Bank about food processing, and the USA about forced labor <\/em>(see ee Sovereignty<\/em><\/strong>, Do-or-Die EU GSP+ bid spurs major reforms, etc). None of their pronouncements point out that the most basic human rights are the \u2018right to develop\u2019 & the \u2018right to enjoy happy lives\u2019, as China recently declared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     This ee Focus <\/em><\/strong>begins Chapter 11 of SBD de Silva\u2019s 1982 classic The<\/em> Political Economy of Underdevelopment, <\/em>a chapter  that focuses on \u2018Plantations & Technological Stagnation\u2019. de Silva compared various plantation crops across Asia, Africa & the Americas. His argument is complex, subtle & intricate. Many of the so-called changes in the growing & processing of plantation products have sought to \u2018raise yields<\/strong> & output per acre<\/strong>, and to improve marketability & prices, rather than to reduce the unit cost of output<\/strong>\u2019. Real productivity upgrades output per worker through use of higher technology & skills. Wages are forcibly kept low, using archaic labor relations, to produce planation crops, whereas these plantations have not been able to dislodge peasant cultivators, \u2018who have continued to supply the world market in their own fashion\u2019. SBD also discussed paddy cultivation, and the exceptions to his thesis, evident in sugar plantations in the Caribbean, where a proletariat arose from the ranks of independent small farmers, and tin mining in Malaysia, though such endevours too end up as having limited possibilities for extensive development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     SBD\u2019s most interesting discussion in this excerpt is how investment in science, physics & chemistry continually transforms the productive process, as opposed to investment in mechanical ingenuity. This led to a multiplication of \u2018development possibilities\u2019, and the diffusion of scientific knowledge & rationality throughout workforces & communities. He provides fascinating descriptions of the widespread effects of the brewing industry on food production, glass & bottling, as well as on agriculture. He also considers the cumulative changes in technology & science brought about by Japan\u2019s small rice farms. SBD cogently argues why none of these changes are possible in plantations, due primarily to the colonial nature of its production, high overheads & low wages, which promote technological stagnation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

_________<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contents:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
War Criminals Rise from their Graves to Confront Sri Lanka\u2019s Future<\/a><\/blockquote>