{"id":90596,"date":"2019-06-20T17:13:30","date_gmt":"2019-06-21T00:13:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=90596"},"modified":"2019-06-20T17:13:30","modified_gmt":"2019-06-21T00:13:30","slug":"an-appeal-to-the-visiting-us-secretary-of-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/06\/20\/an-appeal-to-the-visiting-us-secretary-of-state\/","title":{"rendered":"An Appeal to the Visiting US Secretary of State"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr D. Chandraratna<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Dear Mr Secretary of State. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a peace-loving citizen of Sri Lanka I would like to place before\nyou the following facts as a precursor to the dialogue that you intend to\nconduct with the powers that be in my country. International cooperation loses\nits legitimacy if the transactions between states are not executed transparently.\nWe welcome you as our nation’s guest.  Coming\nfrom US, the fiercest exponent of democracy as well as the leader in the second\nmodernity of the capitalist world, we are confident of your honest intentions\nabout our well being. The following facts should be uppermost in making social\ncompacts and contracts between modem nations not only from the angle of the\nforeign partner but also from the point of view of Sri Lankan national\npolitics. In dealing with the United states I am always an incorrigible\noptimist in the conviction that you will not lose sight of the interests of our\nnational polity as well as the legality and legitimacy of the compact that you\nsign.  Your good name should not be\nassociated with the political agendas proposed by our incompetent leaders for\nulterior motives of staying in power. We like to treat US as our friend forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the proposed compacts with the MCC, the organization headed by\nyou, to develop the infrastructural facilities, namely under-used land and under\ndeveloped transport we earnestly beg of you to give your utmost consideration\nto the nation’s history, culture, literature and frontier controls alongside\nthe economic and other material advantages that you intend  to deliver. Please note that this architecture\nof thinking and acting within our Sri Lankan space and identity comes foremost\nto a civilization that is more than tenfold your history and while we are aware\nthat it has to accommodate the course of political, cultural and biographical\nglobalization modernity, the former is also of equal if not greater value in\nour lives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We appreciate your solidarity with our people on the eve of the attacks\nby ISIS, a power not openly identifiable, but please do not make it the primary\nfocus in advancing your military objectives of supremacy in the INDOPACIFIC\nregion. As we do not aspire to join in the power plays in the Indo Pacific we determinedly\nare committed to remain non-aligned. Our inclusive nation’s Buddhist philosophy\ndictates our foreign relations, ‘to be friends of all and enemies to none’.  Please do not forget our nation’s contribution\nto the world dialogue at the end of the Second World War, which is the essence\nof our pacifist non-alignment. You can be assured that in the unlikely event of\na confrontation between you and the other world power, we will be steadfastly\nno one’s pawn and if our incompetent leaders have told you otherwise our people\nare of a different view. Sri Lanka would not like to be part of any Empire,\nwestern or eastern.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today our democracy is a failure, not due to the ignorance of our\nmasses but more due to the corruption of the leaders, who cannot be easily\nthrown out owing to the traditional loyalties to the grand old parties, -he\npillars of our democracy. We still believe that when our PM remarked (21\/01\/19)\nin relation to a question by the opposition that he was against establishing a\nUS military logistics hub in Sri Lanka, he was truthfully stating the will of\nthe people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You might wish to refer to the 1987 Indo Lankan Accord of 29, July\n1987, wherein both countries emphatically signed off, and I quote, ‘ Conscious\nof the friendship between our two countries stretching over two millennia and\nmore, and recognizing the importance of nurturing this traditional friendship,\nit is imperative that both Sri Lanka and India reaffirm the decision not to allow\nour respective territories to be used for activities prejudicial to each others\nunity, territorial integrity and security'(end quote). United States being the\ncountry that wishes to promote pristine democracy in the world I am sure that\nyou will respect the sovereignty enshrined in those words until any change is acceded\nto by the will of our people. Just as much as you respect the constitution of\nthe US, with hand to your heart, we expect you to respect those core values\nenshrined in our constitution regarding the inalienable rights of our people.\nThey cannot be over ridden by our leaders however ignorant they may be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In your battle with China we have no wish to be a logistics hub for\neither party. You are assured that Sri Lanka will remain totally neutral leaving\nthese struggles to major powers. Your envoy in Colombo said (23\/01\/19) that Sri\nLankan leaders have outlined their vision for the country that reflects its geo\nstrategic position but please be aware that the Sri Lankan people have never\nbeen given the opportunity to express what their stance on these matters are. It\nmay be of value to our ailing economy to earn dividends through a military logistics\nhub but the possible loss to our nation will be manifold, even to outweigh the\nassault on the Mauritians by the Colonialists, from which they still suffer.\nThe human costs are another matter that colonialists refuse even to debate and\nhence the value of the recent ICJ judgement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Honourable Sir. We would like to state our concerns briefly with\nregard to the MCC compact on economic corridors and the attempt to open up land\nfor the open market. Majority of our people are engaged in agriculture and the proposed\nland reforms will only turn them into a landless peasantry similar to what\nhappened to the emancipated slaves in your country. They will sell off the land\nat the earliest whim and migrate to the urban towns to form ghettoes and end up\nin utter destituteness, drug use and criminality. It will be the death knell of\nthe rural majority. What happened in the rust belt towns of America, after\nemancipation, will be their plight. Our leaders have not even read or heard of the,\n’40 acre and the mule’ metaphor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

None of the amendments to the Physical Plan have gone through the\ndue process and therefore we appeal to you, being the champion of the voice of people\nfor which you have assisted many a rainbow revolution, to honour that strong\ncommitment and hear our voice. Your noble intention to eradicate poverty should\nbe directed to where poverty exists and definitely not where the 2.1 hectares\nare likely to be offered to you. We do not like parts of our country being ruled\nby laws of the US, just like you will not allow your marines be subject to our\nlaws, for it will create international conflicts as in the case of the Okinawan\nrape incident in 1995. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were taken aback in seeing the Physical plan in Sri Lanka in the\nyear 2050. Who would like to experience a situation as in the Demilitarized\nZone in the 38 th parallel. Our precious metals in that ‘tradable’ land will be\nlost for the future generations and since the people have not volunteered the\nlands, metaphorically you have been offered stolen goods.  Please do not accept because they are\nillegally sold to you (caveat emptor). The money that you offered to us will be\nnothing different from black money laundered and offered by illegal arms\ndealers and drug lords. Mr Secretary of State. Please discuss these and other\nissues with all parties including the opposition. Our precious friendship for over\nmany decades is more valuable than this divisive and devious offer.  Let our historic friendship not be maligned\nby the corrupt leaders that lead our nation today. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr D. Chandraratna Dear Mr Secretary of State. As a peace-loving citizen of Sri Lanka I would like to place before you the following facts as a precursor to the dialogue that you intend to conduct with the powers that be in my country. International cooperation loses its legitimacy if the transactions between states are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dr-donald-chandraratna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90596","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=90596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90596\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}