{"id":41290,"date":"2015-02-06T19:53:16","date_gmt":"2015-02-07T01:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=41290"},"modified":"2015-02-06T12:02:21","modified_gmt":"2015-02-06T19:02:21","slug":"sicilian-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2015\/02\/06\/sicilian-defense\/","title":{"rendered":"Sicilian Defense"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rudra Gamini de Zoysa<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

In a game of chess the Sicilian Defense typically leads to a convoluted and daring m\u00eal\u00e9e where both sides can play for a win<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Your Excellency Mr President Maithripala Sirisena, and Mr Ranil Wickremasinghe, Prime Minister.<\/p>\n

I am writing to both of you because I do not know who has the real executive power in Sri Lanka at present. It really does not matter but I want to ask you to invite the USA for a game of chess. Chess is a fantastic game because there is only one strategy. That strategy is to win (success) the game. When I sang my college song for the first time (School of Our Fathers. Disce aut Discede<\/em> et cetera) in 1951 I was already a reasonable chess player. Playing chess has taught me that the important thing is how to<\/em> think rather than what to <\/em>think!<\/p>\n

Your Excellency and Mr Prime Minister I want you to play a game of chess with the USA (the leader of the Free World\u201d). The prize for the winner is a sizable sum of US $ annually for Sri Lanka.\u00a0 Your opponent in this game is the combination of the State Department in Washington and Whitehall in London.<\/p>\n

After 9 January 2015 Sri Lanka\u2019s external relations with the US and Britain have suddenly warmed up. President Obama has already praised our voting public for exercising their democratic rights. Mr Cameron (the most discourteous man on this planet) thought that a regime change in Sri Lanka is a jolly good thing\u201d. Nisha Biswal (a Neocon) dropped everything in her office in-basket in the State Department to visit this small island of ours to set up the framework for something really big. Our External Affair\u2019s Minister Mr Mangala Samaraweera rolled out the red carpet for Ms Biswal and announced that he will meet with the US Secretary of State John Kerry on February 12. Ms Biswal whose main focus is the security, stability, and prosperity of South and Central Asia. Under Biswal\u2019s guidance the United States has supported economic development and encouraged increased regional connectivity within South and Central Asia as part of the U.S. re-balance to Asia\u201d.\u00a0Mr President and Mr Prime Minister here is the crux of the matter- Sri Lanka cannot have security without economic development. Then again we cannot have economic development without security. The strategy for us in this game is to have both security and economic development for all of Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

The US rebalance to Asia is another way of saying that China\u2019s influence in Asia has to be trimmed down and China\u2019s String of Pearls\u201d has to be metaphorically and conceptually shattered. This is part of the US neoconservative philosophy.<\/p>\n

What can a small country like Sri Lanka offer to the Free World\u201d? No, we do not have oil. No, we do not have gold, copper or cobalt. Today we can offer the Free World with a large chunk of land that is of immense geopolitical and strategic importance. Our commanding position in the Indian Ocean (73,440,000 square km) from the very tip of South India to the continent of\u00a0Antarctica<\/a> and from Australia to Africa is of enormous importance to the Free World. The US and Britain want to establish a large military base in Sri Lanka and Nisha Biswal would have already hinted this to\u00a0 Mr Samaraweera \u2013 that is their strategic goal in this game of chess. John Kerry will set his seal of approval on this concept when he meets up with Mr Samaraweera. We now know why Sri Lanka is so desirable but then what is the hurry? The answer to this question lies in the British Indian Ocean Territories \u2013 the Chagos Islands or specifically Diego Garcia (32.5 km\u00b2)! Residents of Diego Garcia\u2019s population was secretly and brutally expelled by British Governments in the 1960s (when the islands were leased out for 50 years to the US) to make way for a key US Air Force base on the largest island in the archipelago, Diego Garcia. The lease expires in 2015<\/strong>. David Miliband (that arrogant man who visited Sri Lanka to lecture our President about the defeat of the LTTE) ignored the advice of diplomats in his final weeks as Foreign Secretary to rush through the establishment of a controversial marine park around the British-controlled Chagos Islands.<\/p>\n

Diego Garcia, per se, is not related to Sri Lanka\u2019s game of chess but by 2016<\/strong> Britain may not have a legal right to control its destiny. If Britain loses control of the Chagos Islands and with it Diego Garcia the US will have to negotiate with a new owner. This means that by the end of this year<\/strong> the US will need to establish a new military base. One look at the world map will show why Sri Lanka is so enviably placed to host a military base for the US and Britain. All this is the middle game.<\/p>\n

Not necessarily check mate but now for the end game: –<\/p>\n