{"id":58411,"date":"2016-09-05T15:49:43","date_gmt":"2016-09-05T22:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=58411"},"modified":"2016-09-05T15:49:43","modified_gmt":"2016-09-05T22:49:43","slug":"has-govt-mended-relations-with-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/09\/05\/has-govt-mended-relations-with-west\/","title":{"rendered":"Has govt. mended relations with west?"},"content":{"rendered":"

HERMES\u00a0Courtesy The Island<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

According to several analysts and columnists, the Yahapalana government has mended relations with the West, which had been badly damaged by the previous government. This point of view is simply not correct. The truth of the matter is that when the previous government wanted to conduct the war against the LTTE to a conclusion and rid the country of terrorism to save the people, the Western powers did their utmost to stop the war. The Rajapaksa government did not obey the orders of the West because it had the interest of the country at heart. Whereas, the present government has bent backwards to obey the dictates of the West, and co-sponsor a treacherous UNHRC Resolution that is inimical to the sovereignty and independence of the country.<\/p>\n

The previous government saved the country at the cost of good relations with the West, while the present government mended those relations at the cost of independence of the country. This is the truth that everybody knows, whatever may be said to the contrary. If the previous government had listened to the West, bombs would still have been going off all over the country. It is now very easy for people to talk about foreign relations because they have a land to live in and talk without few. Now it is very easy for people to say that if Mahinda Rajapaksa had won the election, there would not have been any reconciliation between communities. If Prabhakaran had been alive, there would not have been a country for them to live in and make these utterances. How quickly have we forgotten everything!<\/p>\n

We must understand why the West which was leading the campaign against terrorism in the world wanted the war against the worst terrorist group to be stopped. And when they failed to stop the war, they were frantically trying to rescue Prabhakaran! The previous government thwarted all those manoeuvers and succeeded in taking the war to its conclusion. Obviously, the West did not want the annihilation of the LTTE. They wanted it to remain a viable fighting unit in Sri Lanka and keep the country in a destabilized state, so that the West could retain a foothold here and pursue their geopolitical agenda in the region. LTTE was their tool.<\/p>\n

Mahinda Rajapaksa, who did not obey their orders, had shown clearly that he was anti-imperialist and would not hesitate to get assistance from friendly countries like China and Russia, who unlike the West had no intention of intruding into our affairs. The West did not like what was happening, particularly the involvement of their rival powers in Sri Lanka. China\u2019s assistance went a long way in developing this country; only those who refuse to see would deny that. These are the reasons for the West to fall out with Rajapaksa and help his enemies to defeat him. Rajapaksa did not make any special effort or blunders to spoil the relations with the West. He knew who our friends were and who the enemy. LTTE was our prime enemy and friends of our enemy were our enemies too.<\/p>\n

As mentioned earlier, has the present government made any brilliant diplomatic manoeuvering to mend the relations with the West? All it has done was to unashamedly co-sponsor a UNHRC Resolution, which helped the West to get a grip on the affairs of the country. One could see how this move has helped the West to interfere in all crucial matters like national security, economy, constitution making, enactment of new laws like the Office for Missing Persons, and also promote divisive tendencies by frequently meeting and holding discussions with separatists. This is what the West has wanted all along and this is what Rajapaksa did not allow to happen. The present government has, for political expedience and personal vendetta, capitulated disregarding the country\u2019s independence, whereas the previous government vehemently resisted all the imperialist forces in the interest of the country. All this shows the weakness of this government and the strength of the previous government with regard to foreign relations, not the opposite.<\/p>\n

N. A. de S. AmaratungaA way out of ethnic imbroglio<\/p>\n

I thought of writing this short note to commend Izeth Hussain, on the excellent article he wrote under the above title, published in The Island of the 27th ultimo. As readers of The Island may know, Izeth H, who is a regular contributor to The Island, is a retired Senior Foreign Service officer, who writes perceptively on a wide range of subjects of topical interest.<\/p>\n

I find his contributions to be of immense value as IH, with his knowledge and wide experience distances himself from the prejudices and the biases that tend to creep in, even unwittingly, particularly when one analyses emotive issues of high sensitivity. In addressing the topic at hand, IH has shown remarkable perspicacity, in the candid manner he has handled contentious issues relating to a topic which affects minority ethnic groups, including the one to which he himself belongs. He has identified correctly the Western interlopers and spoilers (America and its Western allies) who, with their destructive, unwarranted meddling, have exacerbated problems here in SL. He has, further, unequivocally stated that these so called good Samaritans were pathologically prejudiced against SL whilst being very much supportive of the LTTE terrorists pursuing their separatist cause. They take it for granted that they have the prerogative right to intimidate small nations into submitting to their diktats, by constantly breathing down their necks. Strangely enough, IH has been somewhat charitable towards the Norwegian mediators and the \u2018well intentioned efforts\u2019 made by them to broker a negotiated peace settlement, all of which had according to him, gone awry due to the intransigence of the LTTE. I am sure the majority of the readers will not subscribe to this view, as it became abundantly clear by the partiality shown by the Norwegians towards the LTTE, particularly by their importunate insistence that the terrorists could never be defeated! The West, as well as the Norwegians, had their clandestine networks working in concert all the time, to bolster the LTTE in every conceivable way, while concurrently, enervating the Security Services, both materially and morally.<\/p>\n

Now that the LTTE is no more, IH proffers sagely counsel to the Tamil minority to desist from pursuing their wild \u2018ignis fatuus\u2019 dream, of a separate homeland for themselves, and to resolve even at this late stage, to live in amity and harmony with the other communities within a democratically administered unified country, with due emphasis being laid on the fundamental principles of Equity and Justice. IH however, eschews a devolutionary arrangement based on ethnicity as this would only lead to the perpetuation of racial tensions and the resultant conflicts.<\/p>\n

IH\u2019s proposal would certainly be the ideal basis for a durable democratic settlement of the problem, if the Tamil leaders could convince themselves and the Tamil people, of its eminent desirability and feasibility. If however, the option is to have a devolution package as a viable alternative arrangement, the one likely to appeal to all concerned may be to have the District as the basic unit of devolution (whilst retaining police and land powers with the Centre), along with suitable power sharing arrangements at Cabinet level, to be made at the Centre.<\/p>\n

HERMES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HERMES\u00a0Courtesy The Island According to several analysts and columnists, the Yahapalana government has mended relations with the West, which had been badly damaged by the previous government. This point of view is simply not correct. The truth of the matter is that when the previous government wanted to conduct the war against the LTTE to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-106"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58411","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=58411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58411\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}