NGOs Supported By The West Do Not Help Agitations By The Left

By Vickramabahu Karunaratne -

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Dr. Vickramabahu Karunaratne

Pro government media claims that conspiracies are launched by imperialists of the West to destabilize the regime. This seems funny when one considers the loyalty of the government to IMF rulings and to their advice in relation to the whole programme of development. The Mahinda regime is one of the most loyal among the developing countries to the imperial global system. In the present context, the word ‘imperialism’ is not adequate to classify the global capitalist mechanism. Today, military actions have taken second place to the domination executed through financial agreements. In Lanka, the Western pressure is to stabilize the capitalist rule of Mahinda by compromising with minority bourgeoisie parties. They are interested in outwitting communists who would thrive on democratic issues in society.

NGOs supported by the West do not help agitations by the left; on the contrary they concentrate on giving a liberal way out to consolidate the capitalist regime. In that sense, such NGOs are the biggest headache for the revolutionary socialist currently in society. One pro government media pundit said that agitations taking place in Russia, demanding human rights and democracy, are conspiracies supported by the West against the progressive regime of Putin! Russia today is one of the most authoritarian capitalist states in the world. Wikipedia says ‘The political system under Putin was primarily characterized by some elements of economic liberalism, a lack of transparency in governance, cronyism and pervasive corruption, which assumed in Putin’s Russia “a systemic and institutionalized form,” according to a report by Boris Nemtsov as well as others. Simon Tisdall of The Guardian pointed out that “just as Russia once exported Marxist revolution, it may now be creating an international market for Putinism,” as “more often than not, instinctively undemocratic, oligarchic and corrupt national elites find that an appearance of democracy, with parliamentary trappings and a pretense of pluralism, is much more attractive, and manageable, than the real thing.”

The problem with these media elements is that they are not aware that Russia today is a part of the global capitalist system and a partner in the G8. Before the First World War, as Lenin indicated, there were several imperialist powers fighting among themselves to become the world leader. Lenin also said that peace among them is temporary and bogus while a war of domination was inevitable. What he said came true and today, after two world wars and many local wars, the imperialist system has become an integrated global complex managed by the IMF/WB and the WTO. The big powers are united in this economic system and others are roped in to complete the global capitalist system.

Sri Lanka is also bonded into this system and under Mahinda this bondage has risen to the level of slavery. We can witness it now. Blake has arrived like an imperial viceroy in the days of Queen Victoria. Mahinda has knelt down and promised to be a good servant. Blake shouts. “Speak to the TNA leaders!” Mahinda promptly does so. Blake orders election for NPC. Mahinda says “yes of course.” Blake shouts “where is the LLRC?” Mahinda cries out “we are at it, please give us more time.”

Never in the recent history of Lanka was a ruler of this country pushed around in this manner by a foreign official. We have to watch this drama grudgingly where democracy is forced in, from the top.
While leaders who have become bonded agents of the global capital are openly intimidated, new imperialism has not completely abandoned the military method of intimidation and control. It developed in many directions even though open invasion is almost completely abandoned. If we search carefully we see that since the end of World War II, the Anglo-Saxon “Empire” has covertly supported the deployment of foreign and domestic “foot soldiers” including terrorists and paramilitary brigades to bring about regime change and further its agenda of world domination. American citizens were not exempt from such scheming. The string of still unresolved US political assassinations throughout the 1960s suggests how such practices were not restricted to foreign countries. Nor were they solely the terrain of intelligence agencies. The recruitment of paramilitary armies and death squads has played a key role in the conduct of US foreign policy. With the Soviet-Afghan war, these “secret soldiers” were turned into highly visible “freedom fighters,” waging the Empire’s war at the forefront and in plain sight: Afghan Mujahideen, Nicaraguan Contras, etc. As recent history has proven, Western powers are still using this virtuous terminology to describe their foot soldiers, their terrorists in the Middle-East, and elsewhere. These methods were used in Lanka as well, in anti terrorist operations, both in the South as well as in the North.