{"id":94128,"date":"2019-10-20T13:39:02","date_gmt":"2019-10-20T20:39:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=94128"},"modified":"2019-10-23T16:45:00","modified_gmt":"2019-10-23T23:45:00","slug":"yahapalana-and-the-united-states-of-america-part-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/10\/20\/yahapalana-and-the-united-states-of-america-part-18\/","title":{"rendered":"YAHAPALANA AND THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Part 18"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

USA had\nplanned to entrench itself comfortably in Sri Lanka immediately after the\nregime change of 2015. \u2018What we offer Sri Lanka is a true and transparent\npartnership, particularly in terms of development and infrastructure, avoiding\nunsustainable debts,\u2019 said USA to Sri Lanka. \u2018Your country stands to gain\nsubstantially from these opportunities.\u2019 \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately,\nUSA is not that admired and welcomed in Sri Lanka. Critics seem to outnumber\nadmirers. Loyal supporters of the USA are\nridiculed. Mangala\nSamaraweera is America\u2019s poodle and the West\u2019s darling, said Rajeewa Jayaweera.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even the USA\nembassy in Colombo is criticized.  USA is\nat present completing a huge embassy on Galle Road, amalgamating the old\nBritish embassy site. The new complex appears to extend from the Kollupitiya\njunction to the old Colombo Swimming Club area, covering the entire length of\nthe front wall of the Temple Trees, said critics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current\ngovernment appears to be highly dependent on the West for its political\nsurvival, said analysts. This link will not benefit the country.  Over\na thousand so-called independent “Think Tanks” have been established\nboth in the USA and in other countries to influence governments towards USA\nprojects. Institute\nof Policy Studies and Advocata are playing that role in Sri Lanka, said Tissa\nVitarana. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

USA wants to wean\nSri Lanka away from China. Sri Lanka should avoid the vulnerability associated\nwith excess indebtedness to a single lender, USA advised, meaning China. Hambantota\nport is a Lankan operation, said Yahapalana soothingly. Not a single ship can\nenter Hambantota unless it is guided by the harbour guards who come under Sri\nLankan Navy. No Chinese submarines can dock here. Just because we take loans\nfrom China, it does not mean we will subscribe to their strategic interests,”\nsaid Yahapalana. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

China   responded. China\u2019s development can be seen\nall around the world in ports, roads, railway while American bombings can also\nbe felt all around the world, replied China. US and British\nimperialists secretly create difficult situations in sovereign countries\nin order to pave the way to interfere openly, warned China. One method is to\ncreate spurious narrative about regimes they want to target.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is now\nsuspected that the USA was probably behind all the political killings in Sri\nLanka. The assassination of SWRD Bandaranaike, the two attempted assassinations\nof Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the two JVP killing sprees of 1971 and 1989 and the\nEelam wars. These are all externally induced. None of them are local. Easter Sunday\nBomb blasts are also blamed on the USA. The bombings were carefully planned and\nexecuted, showing an external influence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US seems\nto be funding all types of clandestine operations in Sri Lanka during the present\nperiod of Yahapalana rule, observed analysts.  The Commission to Investigate Allegations of\nBribery or Corruption (CIABOC) received substantial US funding.  USAID and DAI which are operating in Sri Lanka\nare used by CIA for clandestine operations. Contracts and funds are issued\nthrough them, said Tamara Kunanayagam. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is well\nknown that the US meddled in the elections of 2010 and 2015.The US funding of\nSirisena campaign in 2014\/2015 is not a secret though identities of recipients\nremained confidential, said Shamindra Ferdinando.  US Secretary of State John Kerry said a\nmassive USD 585 million was spent in Nigeria, Myanmar and Sri Lanka to \u2018restore\ndemocracy\u2019. This was in addition to USD 3.4 million made available to the Yahapalana\ngovernment between the January 2015 Presidential and the August 2015 Parliamentary\npolls. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The forthcoming\n2019 presidential poll will not be an exception,   said analysts.    USA is clearly going to play a role in that\ntoo. For instance, US embassy officials met Arumugam Thondaman, head of the\nCeylon Workers Congress to discuss the election. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are at\nleast three Presidential candidates who are considered pro-USA. Apart from the\nUNP candidate, who will definitely get the support of the USA, there is also\nthe CIA funded JVP. There is speculation to why JVP has presented a candidate\nthis time. JVP last contested the presidency in 1999. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The former\nArmy Commander, Mahesh Senanayake is also a Presidential candidate. Mahesh Senanayake\nleft the country after 2010 election. He  \nreturned in 2015. Many do not know where he went, said Former\nArmy Major Ajit\nPrasanna, now an Attorney<\/em> at <\/em>Law.<\/em> Senanayake had gone to USA where he worked on\nintelligence in Afghanistan and Libya, then held a senior position in the American\nembassy in Dubai.  He served USA for five\nyears, said Ajit\nPrasanna<\/em> on television news. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We know that\nthe present government is not coming to power the next time, said USA. Therefore,\nUSA is now courting the new political power in Sri Lanka, the Pohottu. USA\nhopes that   having links with both sides\nwill allow the US to further its interests after the next Presidential election,\nobserved analysts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 In May 2019, former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya\nRajapaksa attended a dinner given for Robert . O. Blake  former \nUS ambassador in Sri Lanka . At this dinner, Blake praised the three\nRajapaksas, Mahinda, Gotabhaya and Basil. He  paid a glowing compliment to Basil for being\nthe brains behind the new opposition SLPP. Blake had praised Gotabhaya earlier\nat a Pathfinder seminar. Blake also met Mahinda Rajapaksa, in private\ndiscussion, on invitation from Mahinda Rajapaksa, reported the media. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka is\nmistaken if Sri Lanka thinks it can get rid of USA as easily as Sri Lanka invited\nUSA in. The USA has no intention of getting out of Sri Lanka now that it has\ngot in. Sri Lanka is too important. The attraction is not Trincomalee ,  as it is popularly supposed. It is Sri Lanka\n\u2018s  strategic  position in the Bay of Bengal, with\nTrincomalee thrown in as an added bonus. \nThe unique geographic position of Sri Lanka makes it a natural aircraft\ncarrier. It is also ideal for a major communications center and it has\nTrincomalee, said analysts.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

USA\u2019s military interest in Sri Lanka has been\nexpressed in a roundabout way, to avoid alarming the public. Sri Lanka occupies\na strategic point in the Indian Ocean, said USA. She sits in the middle of one\nof the busiest  and most strategically\nimportant  sea lanes in the world .  The sea lanes in the Indian Ocean are\nconsidered among the most strategically important in the world, announced USA. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than 80 % of the worlds seaborne trade in\noil transits through Indian Ocean choke points, with 40 % passing though\nstraits of Hormuz, 35% through the Strait of Malacca and 8 % through Ban el\nMandab strait. These sea lanes are the gateway to the control of resources and\nmarket in the near east, Middle East, Africa and Asia, said USA.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This \nsea route has been  in operation\nfor a long time, centuries in fact.  It\nis nothing new.  But it  is presented as a new  discovery by the USA. Suddenly Sri Lanka  is not \nIndia\u2019s heel.  it is at the cross\nroad of the emerging energy, trade and air route linking Africa, the Middle East,\nSouth Asia, Southeast Asian and Australia, commented critics, sarcastically.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What the US did not say is that the Bay of Bengal\nis now  becoming a theatre of war. Indian\nOcean is a heavily militarized ocean and a military battle is possible,\nsaid analysts. There is \ncompetition in the Indian Ocean   between India and China, and between China and\nUSA.\nThere is competition for military bases as\nwell. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lankans fear\nthat the US in planning to drag Sri Lanka into a global war against China. On\naccount of its strategic location, Sri Lanka is \nnow in the crosshairs of dangerous power games among the big powers,\nsaid Lasanda Kurukulasuriya. Sri Lanka will be dragged into wars and conflicts\nover which it has no  control. They\nwill use our army elsewhere in the world, said Tamara Kunanayagam.,  In place of our traditional non-aligned\nforeign policy of equal friendship with all nations ,Sri Lanka has become a\npart of the USA\u2019s military machine,  they\nsaid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The alarmed intelligentsia have now started to\nlook for ways of getting out of  this\nawful possibility. They\ncalled for the restoration of the country\u2019s independence, sovereignty and\nnon-aligned foreign policy. Leaders, both present and future, should align\nthe country with the nations which do not interfere with internal affairs of\nthe country, they declared. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Stop the use of our military bases and\nports by foreign powers. Repudiate all military agreements. Have friendly\nrelations with all nations on the basis of equality. Reverse the harmful\nNeoliberal changes designed to make Sri Lanka a semi-colony of the USA”,  said LSSP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka must\npursue an independent foreign policy. This must stress the protection of the\nterritorial integrity,  sovereignty  , independence and economic advancement of\nSri Lanka,  said Palitha Kohona. Sri\nLanka should not permit its territory to be used to create a strategic imbalance\nor threat to any country. Sri Lanka   should follow a non aligned position. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We need to have a foreign policy which is effective,\nwhich ensures our security, safeguards our territorial integrity and\nsovereignty and ensures prosperity of all our people. [We must have ] healthy\nrelations with India. We cannot at the same time antagonize the west. But we\nneed  not be intimidated by them, said\nSudarshan Seneviratne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The intelligentsia brushed aside Yahapalana\nclaims that relations with the  West\u201d\nwere badly damaged by the Rajapaksa regime and that  Yahapalana had changed this. The west did\ntheir utmost to prevent us from winning the war said the intelligentsia.  If Rajapaksa government  saved the county at the cost of good\nrelations with the west, the present \nYahapalana  government mended those\nrelations at the cost of independence of the country,  they  said angrily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A group of\nconcerned citizens offered a solution. Sri Lanka  should establish good relations with countries\nother than the USA, they said. There are other\ncountries to turn to, notably China and Russia. We were able to end the Eelam war because China threw\nits weight behind us and sent us the required arms. It was China that supplied much needed weapons, at a time when\nWestern countries refused to do so citing human rights concerns, they said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russia and\nChina supported us in Security Council. Russia gave military assistance as\nwell.  Iran has also been helpful, not\nonly with military supplies but also with interest free loans. Iran supplied us\nwith our crude oil requirements. So we are not without real friends, said K\nGodage. Sri Lanka also realized during\nEelam war IV, that India\u2019s support   is not essential for Sri Lanka, concluded\nanalysts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But a better\nsolution for getting out of this dilemma would be to return to Non-Alignment, said\nthe intelligentsia. The Non-Aligned\nMovement (NAM)\nestablished in 1961 is, as its name indicates, a forum of 120 states that are\nnot formally aligned with any major power bloc<\/a>. NAM is  \nsecond only to the United Nations<\/a> in size. It represents two\nthirds of the world population and could be a formidable force in the\ninternational arena. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka enjoyed\nstatus way above its size in the NAM in the 1970s. Under the Chairpersonship of\nPrime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Sri Lanka helped this movement reach its\nzenith in the mid 1970s.  Sri Lanka held\na very successful Non-Aligned Summit in Colombo in 1976.  After that, Sri Lanka occupied a respected\nposition in international relations. Sri Lanka was regularly consulted at the\nUnited Nations. Sri Lanka\u2019s opinion was sought at the UN when issues came up.\nThis is the highest recognition Sri Lanka has ever achieved in an international\narena. Taking into account our small\nsize this was an extraordinary achievement, said analysts proudly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 When J.R.Jayewardene became President, in 1977\n  he did not continue to support NAM. Instead\nhe took Sri Lanka away from Non Alignment to alignment with USA. NAM is still\nin existence, though in low profile. It is called on when necessary. NAM recently supported Venezuela at the UN Human Rights\nCouncil. Before that, Sri Lanka had received support of the NAM at the Council\nwhen resolutions were brought against it after the Eelam War. We should recover\nour earlier position in the NAM, said Palitha Kohona.  Some senior NAM diplomats still have\nsympathetic feelings towards Sri Lanka, he said. (CONCLUDED) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS USA had planned to entrench itself comfortably in Sri Lanka immediately after the regime change of 2015. \u2018What we offer Sri Lanka is a true and transparent partnership, particularly in terms of development and infrastructure, avoiding unsustainable debts,\u2019 said USA to Sri Lanka. \u2018Your country stands to gain substantially from these opportunities.\u2019  Unfortunately, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94128","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=94128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94128\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}