4 October, 2024

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Gota Back In The USA & A Chilling Killing: Welcome To 2023 A (Virtual) Realty In A Post-Truth World

By Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake

Dr. Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake

While the press was distracted with the chilling killing of Mr. Dinesh Shaffter, scion of a respected and powerful business family; ultra-nationalist ex-President of Sri Lanka and erstwhile US citizen, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, slunk back into the United States via Dubai on an Emirates Airlines Flight from Colombo in the third week of December 2022.  

Gotabaya Rajapaksa had done his time and could now return home to the US: During the Aragalaya protests that hit global headlines earlier that year, President Gotabaya was an embarrassment and not welcome in his second homeland the US, or in many other countries. Thus the once powerful President and former war-winning Secretary to the Ministry of Defence became a homeless gypsy for a couple of months in the Empire at large and a sad spectacle. He was taught a lesson for past arrogance and henceforth would abide by Uncle Sam, and go quietly into the night. 

President Gota is on record stating that he always meant to retire in the US where his son works for the government. What he did for the Empire during his second coming as Sri Lanka’s Head Honcho, was for the most part on track but not quite fast enough, perhaps due to some of those consultations with Gnanakka in Anuradhapura framed by the Ruwanveli Seya!

Thus, Gotabaya was out-maneuvered by another US ‘Force’ backed hybrid project — the Aragalaya or so-called “peoples protest’ that enabled sufficient distraction for the Sri Lanka’s first ever Debt Default in April 2022.  This was followed by the unseating of the President and installation of ‘Force’ favourite, Ranil Wickremesinghe, a.k.a Ranil Rajapaksa, who had authorized the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL), Bond scam in 2015. The New Force backed President whose ascent was enabled through and despite the protests was appointed in a constitutional coup in order to carry out debt restructuring with the IMF and Colonial Club de Paris following Sri Lanka’s first ever sovereign debt default in April 2022. 

Gotabaya had initially delayed going to the Washington twins, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and World Bank (WB) for ‘help’ to pay mounting International Sovereign Bond Debt, but was eventually guided by his brother and fellow US citizen, then Finance Minister of Sri Lanka, Basil Rajapaksa, to deliver the desperately needed Staged Default for Washington’s progress into the strategic island as Cold War hotted up in the Indian Ocean. The Third brother, Prime Minister and Sinophile, Mahinda Rajapaksa was trumped by his Diasporic siblings and their American ambitions. 

The Timeline for Full Spectrum Dominance in 2022: Virtual Reality in the Post/Colony

By now all sides of the equation are remote controlled to greater or lesser extent: This is termed Full Spectrum Dominance (FSD), Over the Horizon operations. The CIA/ NED/ USAID stage managed and funded sequence of events and dramatic timeline of 2022 with the Aragalaya chaos strategy, enabled the Washington Consensus and Colonial Club de Paris to enter and tighten their grip on Strategic Sri Lanka’s Economic, trade and National security policy and maritime zone, including Submarine Undersea Data Cables (UDC), despite the best intentions of many good citizens, genuinely fed up of the political corruption who hit the roads protesting in those heady days of Sri Lanka’s ‘Arab Spring’.

All this was done to target China whose alternative STATE-LED Capitalist development model and Belt and Road (BRI), project for global connectivity and trade are seen as an existential threat to Western hegemony and the nuclear sub War Machine (NATO-AUKUS). Meanwhile, India moving to assert itself as a ‘global power’ in this long predicted ‘Asian 21st Century”, remains the Wild Card, juggling China, Russia and the US.

The US has signaled it would confront China in the maritime domain and hence invented the “Indo-Pacific” and AUKUS for nuclear Submarines some years ago. Enter, Sri Lanka at the center of the Indian Ocean as a key player, where there was a copious plastic spill by a mysterious ship MV Pearl from Dubai to Singapore that sank outside the Colombo port in 2021. Thus, USAID this week lunched a 5 year Deep Dive, Plastic cleanup operation of the Seas of Sri Lanka!

The million-rupee question at this time is: will the two Asian Giants who are not members of the Colonial Club de Paris that represent the bond traders responsible for Sri Lanka’s Default, and significant bi-lateral creditors of Sri Lanka, work together to ensure that the county does not become an Economic Proxy War site, like Ukraine is in the US-led NATO proxy war against Russia? Or even Afghanistan or Haiti.

Its geopolitical ‘wheels within wheels” and ‘turtles all the way down’ in the virtual reality of the post/colony where Full Spectrum Dominance (FSD) and Over the Horizon (OTH), operations are the name of the cyber-war game!  Advantage US, as English is the dominant language of the Internet and social media where Psy Ops take center stage. FSD includes massive Psychological Operations through datafication, Artificial Intelligence (AI) generated shades of virtual reality and Disinformation, with contradictory Big Data, models, algorithms and indices, designed to cause Cognitive Dissonance, anxiety and fear by gaming the corporate and social media narrative in a Post-Truth Risk Society permanently wired to small screens– from cell-phones to laptops.

Meanwhile the real data and evidence, like the forensic audit reports of the 2015 Bond scam remain beyond the reach of citizens, just like certain key chapters in the investigation into the Islamic State (IS) claimed Easter Sunday 2019 attacks that were redacted and embargoed.

Exogenous Economic Shocks and Gotabaya’s Policy Train wreck:

How does South Asia’s richest and only upper Middle Income Country with the best human development and social indicators (HDI), in the region, become a debt-trapped train wreck in just four years? Was it pumped and dumped, and if so, by whom? 

A series of cascading. staged hybrid war-style Exogenous Economic Shocks (EES), and the Gotabaya Rajapaksa regime’s policy mistakes are legendary. These include two years of militarized economically devastating and unnecessary Covid-19 lockdowns albeit on the instructions and advice of the World Health Organization, which consolidated the path to Debt trap and the ISB Debt Default. 

The Covid lockdown saw the Greatest transfer of wealth in Human History, with many countries in the Global South go into near debt Default. Sri Lanka is by no means an outlier when it comes to induced sovereign bond debt traps. The Covid-19 lockdowns and mass militarized injection/vaccination campaign of the population, in line with the Great Reset Global Governance agenda of the Global 1 percent, debilitated institutions, advanced Digital Colonialism, and enabled a pandemic of corruption and Disaster Capitalism. 

Covid lockdowns were more egregious than the tax cut that followed the previous Exogenous Economic Shock—the mysterious ISIS-claimed Easter Sunday hybrid-war style attacks of 2019 on the tourist economy—whose masterminds are yet unknown. Those tax cuts were to boost a slumping economy at a time when the World Bank had upgraded Sri Lanka to MIC thus preventing access to concessionary borrowings, and forcing recourse to private market borrowing at predatory interest rates in the wake of an Exogenous Economic Shock, or IS terrorism. Subsequently, the CIA had notified Minster Harin Fernando that the mastermind of the IS claimed attacks was an internet bot called “Sonic-Sonic” or was it “moronic-moronic”? This was duly announced in Parliament after the CIA had removed materials evidence from the crime scene- the Suicide Bombers phones.

The other policy blunder was the Organic Fertilizer fiasco due to UN Climate Catastrophe narratives and Green Transition advice. In a midnight deal, Gota sold the Yugadanavi Power Plant to a US outfit, New Fortress company, for a clean green and ultra-expensive LNG transition, also jeopardizing Sri Lanka’s Energy security.

Various UN agencies did their part to assist the policy train-wreck towards Debt bondage, with Covid and Climate catastrophe stories. So too Blue-Green bonds have been promoted by the UNDP in IMF PC debt restructuring talks, alongside purchase of expensive green tech. vehicles, solar panels and wind energy projects etc. for which land and marine areas are being appropriated. This would kill two birds with one stone- increase the profit margins at both ends for BlackRock, the holder of the largest chunk of Sri Lanka’s ISBs, via partner Adani– to be gifted key coastal areas for green energy projects in Mannar and Poonerryn, while indigenous communities, fishers and farmers are denied access to their traditional lands, fishing grounds in the name of corporate funded environmental conservation.

The UNDP Green Transition chorus has compelled small countries with incompetent leaders to bear the costs of ‘Loss and Damage’ caused by the Industrialized West although islands like Lanka have not caused climate change and need not rush to get expensive green technology especially after the Covid-19 Lockdowns. This has given rise to concerns about climate colonialism and climate hypocrisy.

President Gota’s Green Masterplan for policy train wreck was also crafted with the advice of his Viyathmaga SB Diaspora buddies. The organic fertilizer debacle enabled various corporate-funded UN agencies all in the Humanitarian Disaster Capitalism industry to claim that Sri Lanka, a fertile and lush tropic country on major trade routes would soon face a Famine! Thus UNICEF, FAO, WFP and other agencies could raise funds for various humanitarian activities in the island, where people were primed with handouts for the IMF’s magnanimous Digital Cash Transfer project for the Global Reset. But protesting Sri Lankan citizens do not want to be subjects of IMF handouts. Rather they seek Debt Justice and Climate Justice and a flat playing field to do their own thing!  There was massive local currency depreciation after the ex-ante and ex-poste the Staged Default, instantly beggaring the county and triggering a spiral of inflation.

Epilogue: Semiotics of a Crime: It’s the Bonds, Stupid!  

The Semiotics of the guillotine style killing of Mr. Shaffter left in his own car in broad daylight at the Colombo General Cemetery (Kannatte), after driving down roads packed with CCTV cameras, indicates a crime staged by perpetrators assured of immunity and impunity. It was a crime designed to send a chilling message to those who may seek the truth about various local and global bond trades and financial crimes that led to Debt Default, or dare speak truth to power.

Dinesh Schaffter was a primary material witness at the Presidential Commission that investigated the 2015 Central Bank bond scams, alleged to have been authorized by then Prime Minister and current President Ranil Wickremesinghe a.k.a Ranil Rajapaksa, also to fund his party’s election campaign. The court case is on-going at this time. Mr. Shaffter whose company had placed bids at the time had inside knowledge.

At this time there are calls for transparency and information disclosure on local and international bond trades, Forensic Audit Reports, national asset valuations, and the identities of the bond holders. The IMF and Colonial Club de Paris which represents private creditors and bond holders, principle among them BlackRock, are pushing for a quick Debt restructuring deal for the Creditors at this time along with, a Firesale of strategic assets (lands, marine areas, energy, transport and telecom infrastructure), along with  USD 1 billion worth of blu-green Bonds or DFNS. Protestors have called for a moratorium and ban on borrowing from private capital markets give the Odious nature of the Debt.

Sri Lanka is losing its energy, economic and trade policy sovereignty and independence on the eve of 75th year also amid increasingly, totalizing climate and pandemic) disaster narratives, promoted by various UN agencies. So too, the Right to Self-Determination of Peoples, National Policy autonomy and State Sovereignty — Founding Principles of the United Nations System have been turned on their head as various UN agencies funded by big corporations (big Pharma and Green tech), promote their products, Neocolonialism and SuperImperialism. 

Finally, the not insignificant good news is that strategic Sri Lanka may well benefit from the current cycle of climate change, given the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Many climate change models and empirical reality (rather than Virtual Realty) indicate that the island blessed with two annual monsoons will get more rain and hence have more arable land and clean, green hydro-electric energy in years to come although sea level rise may be cause for concern.

Welcome to 2023 and (virtual) reality in the Post-truth age! 

Latest comments

  • 13
    2

    The whole analysis is based on the thesis that the elephant is for some reason sexually obsessed with the mosquito and is therefore forever devising new ways to keep screwing it.

    • 5
      3

      Seems that Sri Lanka and so many other countries are addicted to Euro-American Sovereign BOND Debt Bondage! Western Fake Human Rights Discourse ignores ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RIGHTS, because the West has been looting and beggaring these Global South Countries with neocolonialism while promoting IS terror and Ethnic conflicts to divide and rule and distract and loot…
      Now the Identity politics chickens are coming home to roost as the Rest of the world wakes up to the fact that the Western HR hogwash is a Mask for Economic Exploitation although Human Rights are Indivisible.
      Civil and Political Rights cannot be seperated from Civil and Political Right although the funded NGOs and Human Rights Whores have forgotten this!

      • 3
        1

        Economic and Social Rights cannot be separated from Civil and political rights…

    • 3
      0

      ASD “…..therefore forever devising new ways to keep screwing it…”
      I suppose there is something to be said for a Princeton education.

    • 0
      0

      ASD
      One can trivialize anything with a sarcastic analogy.
      But can one honestly reject the overall case presented?
      There are matters where I differ. But I find the theme itself to be worth serious discussion.

  • 2
    0

    [How does South Asia’s richest and only upper Middle Income Country ]

    sri lanka was a lower middle income country,not upper middle income,Also maldivians have a better income and lifestle than the average sri lankans.We have had unsustainable population growth over the decades but now it is tapering down and slowly we will improve our standard of living.

  • 1
    0

    let gota go and happily retire for the rest of his life in the US.he never wanted to be in srilanka.his tastes are all western not eastern.He wears the tie and coat when his siblings wear the kurrakan shawl.he never wears that.he came because mahinda called him to deal with the LTTE and he must have felt that it was his duty to do so for the military and for his brother,but he had no interest in srilanka but was obsessed with IT and communications technology in the US.After finishing his duty with LTTE he may have thought as a afterthought to do something for the country but he did not have the political experience to be succesfull and was listening to some technocrats all the time.Now his use by date is over and he must have realised that and wants to spend time with his family in the US.

  • 9
    0

    There is much speculation and innuendo in the article. The Aragalaya was, at the grassroots level, a desperate cry of the people, against the immense and unbearable level of hardships they underwent at the hands of a corrupt and incompetent parasitic mob that fattened themselves in the parliament and CEO offices of industry. Even if the CIA or other such body wanted instability and major players to fail, the Aragalaya was still basically a grieving lament that none of the shitty ultra-rich heard or cared about. It is only an Aragalaya which can unseat the rotten system that has destroyed Mother Lanka and the future of its generations to come. No elections will enable that paradigm change the country desperately needs.

    • 5
      1

      Today as leftist as former President Lula De SIlva became president of Brazil again, ex President Bolsanaro fled to the US – just like our Gota!
      It seems that the US collects dictators who do their dirty work?!

    • 0
      0

      Couldn’t agree more!

      • 1
        0

        Lasantha Pethiyagoda,

        Couldn’t agree more!

    • 1
      2

      LP
      I agree that the Aragalaya was not solely a CIA brainchild or any such.
      Nor was it “a desperate cry of the people”. It was a middle class phenomenon in which money channeled through NGOs had a role.
      Let us not confuse the sincerity of the participants with the schemes behind the scenes.
      The concern of the broad masses was slow to emerge– a little too slow to arrest the adventurism of mischievous elements.

  • 5
    2

    I have seen some SL journalists claiming on Twitter that GR didn’t get a US visa and is simply vacationing in Dubai.

    • 4
      0

      “I have seen some SL journalists claiming on Twitter that GR didn’t get a US visa and is simply vacationing in Dubai.”

      Why the Sri Lankan and International media and US envoy in silence about Gota?

      • 4
        0

        Ajith,

        The media doesn’t pay much attention to “has-beens.”
        But let me tell you that after Russia committed many atrocious war crimes in Ukraine, the US has amended laws to make it easier to prosecute war crimes in US courts. If GR were to arrive in the US, he will almost surely face war crimes charges in courts from many victims and their advocates. He has no diplomatic standing and can be arrested. Also, I would think it is usually very hard for someone who renounces US citizenship to reapply for it, especially someone against whom there are many allegations or crimes.

        • 3
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          “…will almost surely face war crimes charges.”

          “would” not “will.”

    • 0
      1

      “I have seen some SL journalists claiming on Twitter…”
      Twitter, the ultimate source of reliable news?

      • 3
        0

        “Twitter, the ultimate source of reliable news?”

        Surely not.

        China Global Television Network (CGTN), CCTV-4, …… are the ultimate source of reliable information.

  • 1
    0

    Why everyone don’t like US but like US

    Final decision in life, it often happens that you start seeing little signs of inspiration in own land not going to stay where you are and leaders migrate change the ending and direct the people people to follow

  • 6
    0

    I can’t believe how this mass murdering thief is allowed to live and travel without any hindrance!!!!

    • 0
      3

      Not too tough if one has the right connections.
      Just think how the two George Bushes and Obama managed?
      What was Churchill if not a racist mass murderer?

  • 2
    1

    the author is talking BS.I feel that gota can’t go back to te USA.If he could he would have done it when he got chased out and had to be in thailand.Getting back his citzenship is a long process and the US is not going to just give back citizenship after people renounce it.If so everyone will do that.he is just vacationing in dubai at the moment and will not be able to overstay his welcome there.

    • 0
      4

      Do not be too sure.
      He fulfilled a mission for the US for which he may be duly rewarded.
      What has he done to hurt US imperialism?

  • 0
    0

    Some commentators seems to be targetting the USA and EU for sri lanka’s own baked ills and lauding china.

    Methinks that at least in the West there is ome transparency unlike china which claims 2 deaths from Covid a day when crematariams and hospitals are overflowing and and social media posts from china indicate deaths at the level of approximately at least 5000 persons a day.

    In addition news reports from sinhala land say that the rice gifted by china is unfir for even dogs to eat. May be China considers sinhala land persons lower than dogs!

    A person from a country which has a significant chinese traders community said that when buying rice from chinese traders the rice is soaked in water so that any “plastic rice” floats to the surface as it is common for palstic rice to be mixed with real rice by these china traders in that country.

    The human faeces organic fertilizer scam IMPOSED (by being paid for it) by china is relevant!

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