This brings to mind a story a great advertising man (Udaya Tennakoon) told me once when I was a pup in the industry. He compared this countries moral direction to the way our public transport has transformed over the years. In Her hay day the country had the Ceylon Transport Board (CTB) which had clean buses, uniformed drivers and conductors which the commuters used.  When passengers got in the conductor rang the bell for the bus to pull out of the station once they were seated and he would come up to them and take the money and give a ticket. Separate seats were marked for clergy, a pregnant lady or senior citizen would never be standing and yes it was the best transport service in Asia during that time.

Then in the late 70’s came the private coach (now the famed private bus). People are worth as little as the money they spend for a ticket or less. All of them race from bus halt to bus halt, people are flung in and out similar to chicken taken to a slaughter and mutual respect is not a thing which you experience in these chariots from hell.  Yes it sums up what our country is at the present. They have the upper hand with the law as many of them are owned by politicians or someone connected to the police. They don’t respect any other vehicle or human being. You frequently witness people hanging for dear life on the foot board and the isles which can accommodate 10 people packed with 100! And let’s not even fathom the plight of a young girl standing in the midst of the crowded bus.

So what is next? All who hoped for a country without corruption and nepotism got a 57.88% slap in their faces. As I mentioned in my previous post of the obvious result to which some accused of me being bias, this is the sad truth about our country. We middle class citizens who hope for a fair life in this country are a minority whose vote cannot influence an election. The only way we will have a say in this country is when we all realize that we are a minority who needs representation in parliament. We need to pick a leader who will represent our needs like the Muslims have done with Muslim Congress, the estate workers with Ceylon Workers Congress and the Tamil people in the North and the East with the TNA.

This party will demand rights before pledging support to any party who wants the support of the middle working class. Only then will we be able to make a change in this country as politicians will need our support to be elected. This party will have educated people heading it which will ask for parliamentary seats that will impact the members. This party will be able to set policies for the betterment of middle class citizens such as tax, education etc. This will also be the party which will cut across races and religions. It is time that we all realized that the hope of a Messiah to free the country will never be a reality and work towards a true dream of controlling the  nation that all of us help to fund from our hard earned money which is taxed. We have six years to do so and we can truly hope for a change from the private bus!

Let’s see the negatives of the President
He is accused of corruption, does it really matter to the masses?
The Colomboites complain that people are starving. But are people actually starving? Is there death due to starvation in this country which as is prevalent in the US, Europe and India.

Positives
He stopped the war which resulted in an immediate stop to our youth being maimed or killed. The majority of whom belongs to the 70% who will vote for him.
He is building the south (ironically Hambantota is his district) which is the region that started the first insurgency in 1971 way before the LTTE was formed and again in 1987 due to the frustration faced by the youth.
Rapid development is taking place in the East but I feel he will lose in that region due to the lack of support from the Muslim parties
At the last election the president did not get the 900,000 voter base in the North and East. But this year he is sure to get some of it which would be gratitude votes.
UNP has a voter base of 4.5 million of which all will not vote for the Genearl as the President gave them national pride and some view Ranil as a weak leader.
JVP has a voter base of nearly half a million which is now broken and has an alliance to Wimal Weerawansa. For many he is the JVP. Also the hard core would have got disgruntled with the party for joining the UNP! Even the University Student Councils are backing the government for the first time. JVP also lost badly in the South at the recent provincial elections.

Why the general will lose
There are many who view the present alliance as a stop gap which will never last, hence the country will be at a stalemate.
In his statement made to the Sunday Leader Editor Fredrica about the killing of LTTE leaders made the General lose respect with many as he broke the oath as a military man.
His wanting state benefits upon retirement which consist of 600 personnel, 12 vehicles and the right to occupy the army commander’s house which is a blatant misuse of public funds might make one wonder about what he will demand as executive president.
His taking the full credit for the victory will not sit well with the other forces. Agreed, the army faced the brunt of the attack but they were well supported by the other forces who were managed well as one team by the Defence Secretary, Gotabaya who is also a decorated military officer.
His reason for coming forth as a common candidate was purely for personal gain of getting back at those who pushed him out once the deed was done.
UNP is still accused of being traitors for having a secret pact with the LTTE and the recent media burst with regards to The General and the UNP signing a secret deal with the TNA is being exploited by the challenger’s camp.

My estimate would be that President Mahinda Rajapakse will win by a greater margin than he did the last time he was elected president.

Image credits : Wikipedia

It is indeed nice to see our country being featured in the top spot of the 30 places recommended to visit in 2010 by the New York times.

For a quarter century, Sri Lanka seems to have been plagued by misfortune, including a brutal civil war between the Sinhalese majority and Tamil minority. But the conflict finally ended last May, ushering in a more peaceful era for this teardrop-shaped island off India’s coast, rich in natural beauty and cultural splendors.

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Keith Bedford for The New York Times
Guests by the pool at the Galle Fort Hotel in Galle, Sri Lanka.
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The island, with a population of just 20 million, feels like one big tropical zoo: elephants roam freely, water buffaloes idle in paddy fields and monkeys swing from trees. And then there’s the pristine coastline. The miles of sugary white sand flanked by bamboo groves that were off-limits to most visitors until recently are a happy, if unintended byproduct of the war.

Among the most scenic, if difficult stretches to reach, is Nilaveli Beach in the Tamil north. While a few military checkpoints remain, vacationers can lounge on poolside hammocks under palm trees or snorkel in its crystal-clear waters. Or they can order cocktails at the Nilaveli Beach Hotel (www.tangerinehotels.com/nilavelibeach), a collection of recently renovated bungalows with private terraces.

An international airport in Matara, on the island’s southern shore, is under construction, which will make the gorgeous beaches near the seaside village of Galle easier to get to. Decimated by the tsunami in 2004, the surrounding coastline is now teeming with stylish guesthouses and boutique hotels.

Unawatuna, a crescent-shaped beach a few miles south of Galle, may be furthest along. Higher-end hotels there include Thambapanni Retreat (www.thambapanni.biz), which features four-poster beds, yoga and an ayurvedic spa. The Sun House (www.thesunhouse.com), in Galle, looks like a place where the Queen of England might stay, with its mango courtyard and colonial décor. One stylish place tucked within Galle’s city walls is the Galle Fort Hotel (www.galleforthotel.com), a refurbished gem merchant’s house run by a couple of Aussies. — Lionel Beehner

It was Thursday December 10, the road leading to the Majestic City car park was congested and I thought that the global recession was over, they were fighting to get into Majestic City to spend their notes with Mahinda mama and the copy of the Iwo Jima monument, another original “apema ekak”. As I fought my way and reached within kissing distance of the turning to the car park, I realized that I was wrong. The congestion was due to a black Mercedes with police escort parked where the board states “No Parking”.

I asked the duty policeman why he was allowing these vehicles to break the law and park at a designated “No Parking” roadside. He was apologetic, “What can I do, Sir, this is a minister’s vehicle”. I called over the driver and politely informed him breaking the law and causing traffic congestion by parking at a “No Parking” spot. He said it was a minister’s vehicle, and this seems justification enough to break the law. I explained that citizens, Gods, Brahma’s and even recently proclaimed god kings have to abide by the same laws of the Republic and that he was committing an offence by parking at a No Parking space. Another holding a walkie-talkie arrived, presumably an “officer of the law” of the pink panther fame. He stated that they cannot communicate with me in English and that I should speak in Sinhalese.
I explained that English, Sinhalese and Tamil have equal status in the constitution of the republic and as a government official he had to communicate with me in my language of preference. Another walkie-talkie holding “pink panther” arrived. He was fairer in complexion than the others and his language was an example to the Sri Lankan law enforcement establishment. He said “palayan pakayo yanna”. I explained that I couldn’t understand his lingo. He seems constipated and agitated at the gathering crowd. The policeman in uniform meanwhile looked on with a grin on his face.
As I stood my ground and demanded that the Mercedes be removed, the “constipated pink panther” dismissed me by saying “meka Indian hari Pakistani ekek”. It seemed that according to this pink panther, who lives off the taxpayer, a complainant against a breach of the law could be dismissed if he is an Indian or a Pakistani national. God forbid if I was a “whitie” or, worse an NGO. I regret not talking to them in Tamil. The driver of the Mercedes said, since they had broken the law and parked the car in a No Parking zone, I could also park there and do my shopping. I was impressed, as even a judge could have applauded his reasoning. The driver seemed to be championing the principles of fundamental rights of citizens. If maama’s golayas park on a No Parking zone, causing a traffic jam, we mortals can also do so, if they speed push others into ditches, we mortals can also do so; if these golayas cross the dreaded white line, we mortals can also do so. I parked and walked away.

On my return, the policeman shook my hand and thanked me. He said that he couldn’t do what I did because he would lose his job. He said the occupant of the vehicle was Mervyn Silva’s son. I wondered if he was still into pistol-whipping as a pastime and why the Sri Lankan state was providing him security and vehicles at the taxpayer’s expense. Perhaps that’s what they mean by “Api Venuven Api”, keeping it in the family and the hangers on and conning the peasants. As maama goes to the polls, he had better keep an eye on his golayas as the rural constituency he depends on for his bacon is increasingly talking about the clan, living it up at the taxpayers expense.

The above is another story which makes one feel sick to the bone. Since of late many people tell me that it is our duty to change this. But how the hell can we change this. Democracy is controlled by 72% of rural population who in any case wouldn’t have got effected by the above.

The country is ruled by Ministers who would not pass the first interview in any government organisation and will be called for an interview in the Private sector.

Where does that leave us?

One Sri Lanka

NEW DELHI — A report on Sri Lanka to be released next week by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee urges a less confrontational approach to that nation, citing strategic American interests in the region.

The report says that while the Sri Lankan government has been widely criticized for its handling of the war against the Tamil Tigers, who were fighting for a separate state for the ethnic Tamil minority in northern Sri Lanka, the government has also achieved a measure of progress in resettling the conflict’s displaced and rebuilding the war-shattered east of the country.

“With the end of the war, the United States needs to re-evaluate its relationship with Sri Lanka to reflect new political and economic realities,” says the report, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times. “While humanitarian concerns remain important, U.S. policy toward Sri Lanka cannot be dominated by a single agenda. It is not effective at delivering real reform, and it shortchanges U.S. geostrategic interests in the region.”

The bipartisan report, which was endorsed by Senator John Kerry, the Democratic chairman of the committee, as well as Senator Richard Lugar, the ranking Republican, is being released as the Obama administration is preparing to announce its new policy on Sri Lanka. It also comes as questions persist about what Western countries can do to influence the government there.

Concerns about human rights and humanitarian aid for the people affected by the conflict have dominated the relationship between the United States and Sri Lanka over the past few years as the hard-line government in the capital, Colombo, pressed its military offensive against the Tigers.

The tough strategy of Mahinda Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka’s president, and his two brothers, Gotabaya and Basil, helped defeat the insurgency in May after more than two decades of war. The rebel group used brutal tactics like the use of child soldiers and female suicide bombers. It was also responsible for the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, a former prime minister of India who was hoping to return to power, in 1991.

Government troops overran a narrow strip of beach where the leaders of the rebel group were pinned down, along with about 300,000 Tamil civilians. Human rights groups have pointed to evidence of an indiscriminate use of heavy weapons by government troops in areas crowded with civilians in the last weeks of fighting. The United Nations documented at least 7,000 civilian deaths in a tally that does not include the last, and probably bloodiest, weeks of fighting.

The government also faced pressure to release nearly 300,000 Tamils it had held in closed camps since the end of the war. Officials said the displaced people needed to be screened to weed out fighters, but conditions in the crowded camps deteriorated as the monsoon rains arrived. On Tuesday , the government said the displaced were free to leave, with some limitations.

Sri Lanka has resisted calls for an international investigation of its conduct of the war, and has dismissed the demands of the Western countries that have bankrolled much of its humanitarian aid effort as imperialism.

Sri Lankan government officials have repeatedly pointed to growing ties between their country and China as a sign that the West’s influence there is on the wane. Mr. Rajapaksa, who is running for re-election in January — and is staking his campaign on the war victory — has accused foreign aid organizations and Western countries of meddling in Sri Lanka’s affairs.

More broadly, government officials have expressed dismay at the barrage of criticism they received abroad after the defeat of the Tamil Tigers. Mr. Rajapaksa portrayed the conflict as part of a global fight against terrorism, and the victory over the Tigers as a model for anti-insurgency military campaigns elsewhere. Sri Lankan officials deny that large numbers of civilians were killed by government troops.

The United States and other Western countries abstained from a vote at the International Monetary Fund in July to lend $2.6 billion to Sri Lanka. The United States has also curbed military aid because of concerns about human rights abuses in the war against the Tamil Tigers.

But Sri Lanka is too important a country to be isolated from the West, the report argues.

“Sri Lanka is located at the nexus of crucial maritime trading routes in the Indian Ocean connecting Europe and the Middle East to China and the rest of Asia,” the report says. “The United States, India, and China all share an interest in deterring terrorist activity and curbing piracy that could disrupt maritime trade.”

Click to read original article

I am sure General Foneska would have thought hard why he and his men risked their lives for these people whilst he was driving away.

To hell with long term policy and development I want my parippu and paang now and I want it cheap!

Yes, Sri Lanka is recovering from a 30 year war and developing the north and east will ensure that we don’t screw the end game like the US does and keep doing. The south had the JVP and the north had the LTTE. Both preying on the hungry minds of the forgotten people whilst the western province enjoyed the fruits of their labour. The south is in the process of being developed with the building of the port which will bring livelihood to the people in the region and hopefully negate the need travel to Colombo in search of greener pastures. Though I haven’t visited the north and the east many say that developments in these areas are progressing and people can finally look to a brighter future and changes from being the land with draw wells, date palms and red onions.
The country rejoiced when the LTTE was defeated and a king ruled Sri Lanka for a few months! Yes it’s been only six months and the political landscape is changing at a rapid pace. Trade Unions are planning on work to rule campaigns again, surprisingly not taking note of the President’s promise of salary increments next year. The king is no more and there are whispers of Sarath Fonseka being the person responsible of winning the war! The Defence Secretary, a decorated military officer who was a hero suddenly is stuck in a stalemate of being accused of war crimes. If the party loses, he will not be able to go back to the US for the fear of being arrested as he is a green card holder. The morning (sinhala radio) show on the SLBC with Hudson Samarasinghe is trying desperately to change the views of the people by saying the valiant commander who stood next to the King during battle will not sell himself and join the LTTE supporting opposition party. Do the rulers fear being overthrown in the next elections? Have the tables turned so fast on them? Well, the pulse of the country is confusing for sure!

But what did they do wrong?

Well, in my opinion His Excellency made two mistakes which he has little time to correct. He let his party members run out of control and did nothing to stop it. I don’t think the people of Sri Lanka will ever want to see a tire burning and green Pajero culture emerging in this country. But now every peace-loving citizen has similar things to worry about. It is no longer the green Pajero, but the ministers, their families and even their friends who enjoy unlimited power to manipulate and exploit the ordinary citizens of this country. We heard stories of a son and wife of a senior police officer beating a schoolmate. I was shocked to see the same lady walking out of the court complex waiving to onlookers as a heroine when she was refused bail and was about to get into the prison bus. The police officer is still on active duty! The culture in this country is turning to be one in which power rules without considering the consequences. Herding in these forces before they ruin the President will be his priority as he is ultimately responsible for his parties actions.

The next is forgetting the affluent in Colombo…….though small in numbers the Colombo elite manage and help this country run. Easy as it seems we cannot run this country with taxi drivers as mentioned by one of our late executive presidents who also concentrated on the rural community. The elite are everywhere – they head banks, they own the garment factories, large conglomerates and most of all they own the media!! If one thinks they can survive without the private media backing they live in a bubble. Even Lee Kuan Yew didn’t allow freedom of press during the time he led Singapore to where it is now. Singapore even now (2009) ranks 133rd from 175 countries in the press freedom rankings (we are much worse in case you wonder – #14 from the bottom). Putin too brought the press under his thumb and was widely criticised for killing the famous Anna Politkovskaya who was critical of him. No, my idea is not to start a killing spree of independent journalists but to feed their masters well with respect.

It will be truly sad if His Excellency screws up his end game when he has achieved the impossible in so little time.

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favour freedom, and deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without ploughing the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning.” Frederick Douglass, American statesman

Five months on who would expect the gullible Americans to swallow this propaganda hook, line and sinker. Fein the fiend was already accusing Sri Lanka’s Defence Secretary and Army Commander of war crimes supposedly long before LTTE was militarily defeated. It was all part of the U.S. backup plan in case the Tigers lost the war. Today we find the American government stands exposed in their disgraceful effort to press charges of against Sri Lanka’s Secretary of Defence.

It is no different to the Bush Administration’s big lie about former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, possessing weapons of mass destruction which became an excuse for imposing sanctions on that country and finally invading it.

This background to this is treacherous behind-scene activities of certain opposition MP’s during their visits to the US at the height of Sri Lanka’s military operations against the Tiger terrorists.

The futility of their efforts, like so many other American-led efforts to destabilise and humiliate Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council vote, IMF funds, EU (GSP plus) vote etc., will hopefully be exposed public with advent of the forthcoming elections. This is a classic Western response to a country that has had the courage to stand up to western manipulations as in the case of Cuba and Iran among other countries.

Clearly the current moves for regime change are external. The Opposition’s campaign theme to abolish the powerful Executive Presidency falls very much in line with the overall scheme of things to remove the only constitutional protection for Sri Lanka’s unity and territorial integrity.

Today, just six months after the conflict, they are making impossible demands from the GOSL like quick resettling of IDPs, investigating war crimes, guaranteeing so called media freedom and drawing international attention to the issues. They have managed to get the trade unions to cripple essential services such as petroleum, water, electricity with the hope of generating sufficient pressure to topple the current regime and install a pro-Western government in its place.

In this context, the possibility of the Opposition trying to make General Sarath Fonseka their candidate at the next Presidential Election being part of a wider Washington.-engineered conspiracy cannot be entirely ruled out. Such a plot is no difficult task for a country (USA) which used Cuban Leader Fidel Castro’s own sister against him – though unsuccessfully.

It serves absolutely no purpose in Sri Lankan politicians becoming emotional and reminding Hillary Clinton about Monica Lewinsky, or talking about how the American troops have repeatedly raped and used other forms of sexual violence from Vietnam to Iraq through Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay to Abu Ghraib. Such a response is unnecessary because the whole world knows that it is the American troops who in fact have used “rape and other forms of violence as a tactical weapon of fear on civilians into submission” in all the theatres of conflict in which they have operated up until now.

Sri Lankans need to realise that they in turn can present sufficient evidence of “Crimes against humanity” and “war crimes” committed by US troops in recent times all over the world with the support of other nations at the correct time at proper international forums.

Thus Sri Lankans need not respond to the blatant lies or malicious slander that Hillary Clinton dumped on the UN Security Council in such a high handed arrogant manner or these reports emanating from the State Dept that have come out without any basis or substance.

US army chief in Afghanistan David Kilcullen has gone so far as to say “We need to call off the drones.” (in Afghanistan) since air strikes are creating more enemies than they eliminate. This is the country that is supposedly patronising Sri Lanka when its own troops are killing civilians not only in Afghanistan, Iraq but also in the country that it is strongly aligned to them – Pakistan.

We ought to remember that the Obama Administration has accelerated the move to shift the procurement of America’s natural resource requirements including oil from the Middle East to Africa. The U.S. has acknowledged its loss of influence in the Persian Gulf resulting from its blunders and debacles in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, antagonising and radicalising Muslim populations in the Middle East and elsewhere.

Yet Afghanistan and Pakistan continue to be priorities for the Obama administration. Even though the US has helped to rig Afghanistan’s Presidential Election, the situation remains hopeless and desperate – which is why Washington needs Pakistan’s strategic help to further its strategic objectives in the Indian Ocean region. The hard fact is that the militarization of American Foreign Policy under Obama is no less than under George Bush. It is therefore a small wonder the U.S.-led western alliance needs a firm foothold now more than ever on India’s Southern tip. This is where Sri Lanka needs to be vigilant in the context of her strategic and commercial interests.

The Americans and the West will always want see the break-up of India even before seeing China dismantled; a stronger, independent India will always be the greater threat to Western interest’s commerce and involvement in the region. The US believes that China with its increasing addiction to consumerism will be a lesser threat than a “rural Hindu nationalist India”.

(China’s economy is also tied to America’s as China bankrolls America’s burgeoning debt. We sink or swim together dictum). The changing power relations between them are apparent in that President Obama is the first Democrat who refused to meet the Dalai Lama officially. On the other hand, both China and India have been adopting bullying tactics in bilateral relations with each other have also forged closer bilateral and commercial ties (their trade which stood at US$ 38 bill in 2007, is expected to grow to US$ 60 bill in 2010), together with Russia and the rest of Asia power houses. Beijing maybe wary of India’s look east policy, US-India joint missile defense programme,…etc., but reality is fast dawning on these Asian giants.

The stage is thus set for the next round of nuclear tests by India in spite of Washington’s objections, as India has resolutely decided to fight its own internal and external battle against terrorism. The arms race in the region will no doubt spiral out of control, with India’s ambitious militarization, such as the launch of their nuclear submarines or the testing of Prithvi II missiles and Pakistan’s military leadership will most surely be responding in kind.

To illustrate one example of the dangers that could befall on Sri Lanka……,
Sri Lanka is the only country in the Indian Ocean between the Asian landmass and Antarctica, and thus the closest (around 800-900 miles) South Asian nation to the British-American Naval base of Diego Garcia, which is one of the five most valuable military assets outside the USA.

Should any rival power decide for example to station some long range ICBM missiles like the Dong Hai, Dong Feng missiles in Sri Lanka within striking distance of this massive Sino-American base and Obama new star-wars type missile defence systems would not take the US forces very far in their defence of Diego Garcia.

A scenario like this can easily develop with due to the greed of some errant corrupt Chief Minister of some province or regional council.

In such scenario Sri Lanka could easily have a another North Korea type diplomatic fallout in South Asia which will affect the stability of the entire region.
The Americans know this very well.

It is therefore in the interests of Washington to keep Sri Lanka in a permanent state of weakness and instability (if possible by using the Opposition – now in the political wilderness – for this purpose).

If Asia becomes economically strong and militarily secure, regional forces such as China, India, Russia and Iran can use Sri Lanka to control the Indian Ocean and keep the United States and the Western powers in check. Conversely, if Sri Lanka is weak and unstable such instability will affect all of South Asia allowing Western hegemony in the Indian Ocean to remain unchallenged.

It is therefore not in the interest of the West to see Asian powers such as Japan, China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Iran, or Vietnam pursue strategic objectives independent of the USA and other western nations.

Thorny regional security concerns such as the way India has begun to pose a direct threat to Sri Lanka’s future security in its attempt to encircle the country by controlling the maritime waters of the Maldives and Trincomalee should be multilaterally resolved as soon as possible.

However it would be unwise for Sri Lanka to pursue a policy of direct confrontation with the U.S.-led Western alliance in the way Iran, Venezuela, or North Korea are doing.

To illustrate an interesting quote from Global Research of October 23rd 2009 from an article titled “Great Power Confrontation in the Indian Ocean: The Geo-Politics of the Sri Lankan Civil War” by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya says ….

“The position of the governments of India and a group of states that can collectively be called the Periphery such as the US and Australia were in support of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) or Tamil Tigers, either overtly or covertly. Many of these governments also provided support tacitly, so as not to close any future opportunity of co-opting after the fighting was over.

In contrast the governments of of a group of states that can be jointly called Eurasia as a collective entity such as Iran and Russia supported the Sri Lanka government.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a security body with real military dimensions that has been called “the NATO of the East” within some foreign policy circles is a symbol of this geo-political dynamic. In 2009, the last chapter of the Sri Lankan Civil War was very much a theatre within this process.”

Sri Lanka’s post-independence era dealings with the Western powers have been quite different and we must be consistent in our policy of supporting any government in its war against terrorism. At the same time we need to take into cognizance the huge disparity between the aid that countries like China, Russia, Iran and Pakistan gave to Sri Lanka and meagre assistance that UK, USA and other Western governments gave during the war years.

For example in 2008 China gave to Sri Lanka aid worth more than US$ 1 billion, where as the quantum of aid by USA was only a pittance of US$ 7.4 million. Sri Lanka needs support not only for accelerated economic growth, but various strategic areas like naval expansion to satellite communication to nuclear power generation. For these strategic sectors western assistance will never be forthcoming under any circumstances.

In view of the damning report by the US, the GSP plus report, UNHCR resolutions against Sri Lanka, ..etc., it may also be prudent and timely for Sri Lanka to start reviewing the existing clauses in bilateral agreements such as the VOA agreement and other strategic agreements with the USA, given the US Government’s continuous moves against this country’s national interests. Our relationships with the West therefore need radical rethinking.

Before the destruction of the LTTE, every Western-funded INGO and NGO in Colombo said in one voice – that the only solution to the Sri Lankan problem was “A negotiated settlement with the LTTE”.

Some of the funding nations such as Norway, United Kingdom and USA have today deliberately turned a blind eye to pro-Tiger Tamil Diaspora running amok in the West, attacking Sri Lankan diplomatic missions, temples and other property and physically attacking Sri Lankan expatriates who are opposed to Tamil separatism. They feed the media blatant lies about the Sri Lankan state and supply doctored video films and interviews which are used as so-called evidence of war crimes against GOSL by these foreign governments.

They are also targeting and physically attacking Sri Lankan interests and nationals worldwide. The terrorist supporters overseas commit acts of violence with impunity since they are confident that they will never be held accountable for this criminal behaviour.

They have begun a new dimension, the vessel “Ocean Lady” was known as “Princess Iswari” before was one of the LTTE ships on the hit list of the SL Navy which was plying the Pacific Ocean during the war, therefore the Sri Lankan Navy was unable to destroy it. This ship changed its name to sailed off from “Mundra Port” in India and the people who embarked were not refugees or IDP’s from the Wanni as the world has been made to believe but those LTTE operatives from Colombo suburbs fearing arrest.

These people travelled through the “Sundra Straits” while being the movements were monitored by Naval Intelligence sources of various countries such as US, UK, Canada and perhaps even India, though none of them informed the GOSL, fearing that the Sri Lanka Navy would seek out and destroy this target . Even before they arrived in Canada their LTTE Diaspora had prepared a contingent of lawyers. They were ready to take up their cases – passengers on arrival. The same fate happened to the other refugee ship “Viking” off Indonesia where the people in that boat had taken flight to Singapore, then to Malaysia which eventually got caught off Indonesia on their way Christmas Island in Australia…these are no ordinary members of the LTTE but hardcore operative members of the LTTE assembling at specifically designated points in the West …for what we may wonder! Obviously it is to legitimatize a transnational Government of the LTTE. In the process of course they also succeed to give maximum negative media exposure for Sri Lanka.

The time has now come to act and protect Sri Lanka’s interests and those of its citizens aboard. There is only one language the LTTE always understood. It is the ‘language’ of the gun. The arrest of Kumaran Pathmanathan (KP) and charges filed against Raj Rajarathnam or Karunakaran Kandasamy now should give enough confidence to the Sri Lankans as to the various options available to them, to strike far away from the shores of their land. Israel is a good example of a government that strikes the enemy far away from their native lands.

The duty of Sri Lanka’s intelligence services and patriotic expatriates is to devise the best possible means of making life is extremely unpleasant for the pro-Tiger Tamil Diaspora in the West. The battle will have to be fought at the doorstep of the terrorists with or without the permission of their landlords.

In this campaign the first line of Sri Lanka’s defence is her diplomatic corps. GOSL needs to reorient the diplomatic corps to meet challenges posed by the West following the LTTE’s military defeat.

In the immediate post-independence era Sri Lanka depended on hand-outs from rich western countries by being non-confrontational and agreeing to most of the conditions laid down by these former colonial powers for their own strategic interests.

It was the first phase which is now long past.

The second phase required a complete political commitment to achieving victory over hostile Western forces, which was rare in the Foreign Service. This is partly due to the fact that their training had been geared towards making them non-confrontational and accepting a subordinate role vis-à-vis the former colonial powers. However in that era (Phase II) of Non-Alignment – particularly under the two Sirimavo Bandaranaike regimes – we had had some committed career diplomats like Vernon Mendis and Neville Kanakaratne who walked a fine line between the Soviet Bloc and the Western powers. Under both the Bandaranaike and Dudley Senanayake Governments Sri Lanka opposed U.S. policies in Vietnam, but was nevertheless able to maintain good relations with Washington.

The third phase was when the country was at war: essentially with the former colonial powers through their proxies such as the LTTE.

A country that has achieved an unqualified military victory over the proxies of its former colonial masters.

The third phase required a complete political commitment to achieving victory over hostile Western forces, which was rare in the Foreign Service. This is partly due to the fact that their training had been geared towards making them non-confrontational and accepting a subordinate role vis a vis the former colonial powers. For the limited duration of the high intensity conflict in its last stages, ad hoc political appointees who did not conform to convention were better suited for the mission at hand in some respects.

We are now in phase four.

Sri Lanka in order to achieve her real potential as an “economically powerful and militarily secure island state” which can withstand any kind of bullying we need to co-opt resources such as capital and technology but control their use within Sri Lanka. Thus we require professional diplomats possessing the necessary technical skills who are personally committed to the tasks ahead.

This requires an independent specialised professional cadre who will survive any political change that will bring about a pro-Western regime in Colombo any time in the future.

In such a service there should and will be no room for officers who seek advancement by conducting themselves as political sycophants. Such persons will blindly do the will of their political masters. They will change their allegiances to any new regime including any pro-western puppet regime which could be established in Colombo. Officers who are now trying to cling on to powers that be from conies around to sibling should never be tolerated in such a service.

To this end the foreign ministry must be re-created as an independent professional institution grounded solely in the ethos and outlook that bought Sri Lanka victory against the Western proxies of “The LTTE terrorists”.

Finally President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s whose popularity is at the zenith should at least to late stage should seriously take note of the damage being done to his image and his government by the cronies around him. They do more harm to the regime and country more than outside forces that only waiting for those in the ruling circles to make blunders.

We have to build many bridges and heal many wounds……..

Sri Lanka demographic window will close in about 2035 (this is the period when Sri Lanka will have the largest cohort of working age people in absolute terms). Even so the growth of the working age population has slowed considerably, while share of elderly people are growing rapidly. This will close off the opportunities for labour force led economic growth in about ten to fifteen years from now. That means we need enough to generate sufficient savings to support the rapidly aging population or in other terms we have to do all our economic growth within these ten to fifteen years.

Therefore we do not have the time to be manipulated by the machinations of a weakening western world driven by its own greed. Sri Lanka must get its act together rapidly. The transfer of technology and capital is more than enough from those so called “Friends of Sri Lanka” who represent the future of the world economic might and military power.

The age old dogma that pervades this English speaking “Colombo’s elite upper and middle classes” that any government that has the courage to stand up on its own two feet to the western prescriptions of keeping a nation weak, unstable and poor is a bad, inefficient.

The “Colombo elitist” or “Colombians” as they are now referred to should get out of their fundamentally flawed thought processes of idealising everything that is comes from the west and join hands in the effort of a new nation building with the help of allies from Asia and Russia.

One needs radical rethinking regarding western “supremacist” using economic tools such as GSP plus diplomatic weapons. Sri Lanka have no time to waste with these westerners, or their agents ….. in its journey to becoming an economically powerful, independent and military secure island state within the next 15 to 20 years……together with the rest of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) growth centres of the world in Eurasia.