By Dayan Jayatilleka –
Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka
The title of the news story which broke in the Japanese media last week was entitled “FM: Sri Lanka to dilute dependence on China.” Any credible, substantive contradiction of the content of this report (and not just its title) by our Foreign Ministry must not take the form of remarks to the local press but a formal contradiction/correction seeking publicity in the (respected) Japanese media giant, the NHK, which carried the original story. The story says:
“Sri Lanka’s foreign minister says the country will review its China-dependent foreign policy and boost ties with other nations. Mangala Samaraweera held an interview with NHK on Thursday. He is visiting Japan for the first time since the current government was launched under the new president, Maithripala Sirisena.
Sirisena won a presidential election in January by defeating the incumbent, Mahinda Rajapaksa. Rajapaksa promoted a foreign policy that relies on China. Foreign Minister Samaraweera referred to Sri Lanka’s relations with China. China overtook Japan as Sri Lanka’s biggest source of assistance in 2009.
He indicated that Chinese aid led to rampant corruption under the previous government. He said the Sri Lankan government has suspended a project to improve port facilities in the nation’s largest city, Colombo, and is now reviewing it. He added the project may not have followed appropriate procedures…”
Going by their pronouncements during the election campaign and in office, Messrs. Wickremesinghe and Samaraweera are clearly unaware of or incapable of understanding, among other things, the difference between “dependent” and “reliant” i.e. between a satellite and an ally. If Sri Lanka tilted to China rather than the US or India, Mr. Samaraweera must know why that was, when it took place or began, and who the architect of that policy was. He must realize that such a reliance or ‘tilt’ was consonant with Sri Lanka’s vital national interests. He obviously does not know any of this.
While the villain of Mr. Samaraweera’s tale, Mahinda Rajapaksa of Medamulana, was still an Opposition MP, Sri Lanka under a UNP administration of a President who was so pro-US that his nickname was Yankee Dicky, was to learn a harsh lesson in the limits of US and Western support in our hour of greatest need. While the US was waging a proxy war of cross-border terrorism against the elected Nicaraguan government, and was helping in the counter-insurgency campaign of the blood soaked Salvadorian military, it had strict limitations on the military support it would extend the pro-western UNP government of JR Jayewardene.
Part of the reason was of course India, but that isn’t the whole story or even the most fundamental part of it. The proof is that even when Sri Lanka had a government that was exceedingly friendly with India, such as the Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga administration, neither the West nor the Indians gave us anything remotely like the military assistance that we as a democratic state, deserved and imperatively needed, to defend ourselves from the globally networked and heavily armed Tamil Tiger terrorist militia.
The deeper, abiding reasons were and are (I) the social, cultural, psychological and geostrategic weight of 80 million Tamils (factors which must not be reduced to mere voting strength) (II) the ambiguity of US-UK commitment to the concept of national sovereignty (apart from its own) and (III) the importance of the global human rights constituency in Western society and human rights discourse in Western ideology.
Thus it was that Sri Lanka’s finest foreign minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar decided on a policy reorientation that would combine continuity, engagement and change. The ‘continuity’ aspect was to build upon Sri Lanka’s traditionally excellent relations with China. The ‘engagement’ aspect was the continuing friendly dialogue with the West, especially the USA. The ‘change’ was that while being close friends of both, Sri Lanka would not be strictly equidistant between India and China, but would balance off India and the West by relying increasingly upon the East; relying upon and imperceptibly tilting towards China.
The Kadirgamar doctrine was part of a broader shift which (a) opposed President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s attempt to induct Maarti Ahtissari as a peace facilitator in Sri Lanka’s conflict (b) dissented from Chandrika’s PTOMS and (c) reached out to the (Weerawansa-ist) JVP as a pressure group (he arranged for the JVP to visit China annually). Interestingly the two individuals who were knee-deep in the Ahtissari and PTOMS moves respectively, are currently serving in sensitive posts in the Yahapalana regime, while Mangala Samaraweera who repeatedly urged a reluctant Kadirgamar to enter into a low-key dialogue with the TRO (Tamil Rehabilitation Organization)—a ‘conversation’ that strangely coincided with the last few months of his life — is now Foreign Minister, in dialogue with the “international inquiry/accountability” boys of the Global Tamil Forum.
In the last year of his life, not only was Kadirgamar deeply alienated from Chandrika’s policy perspective but had rebuilt relations with someone he considered a rival for the Prime Ministership, namely Mahinda Rajapaksa. The symbolism was obvious when Kadirgamar’s choice as guest of honor at the opening of the new building of the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies (the BCIS was originally established on a project report written by my father to Madam Sirimavo Bandaranaike in 1975) was not President Kumaratunga but precisely Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.
The building was declared open by the Prime Minister of China, Wen Jiabao. As a member of the Council of Management of the BCIS, I was present, and recall the occasion vividly. The day’s highlight was the unveiling of a sculpture of that “great internationalist, statesman and visionary, Chou En Lai” (as Lakshman Kadirgamar so rightly put it).
Kadirgamar’s speech on that occasion was the clearest expression of his China policy, which remains the finest exposition of a China policy issuing from an enlightened comprehension of Sri Lanka’s core national interests and its historical experience. It is superb example of the Realist/neo-Realist paradigm in foreign policy thinking. It indicates why Sri Lanka cannot be more reliant on India than on China or even be strictly neutral or equidistant between them.
This Kadirgamar line on relations with China, India and the methodology that Sri Lanka should use when charting its foreign relations, is the very perspective that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in his Japan Times article, and foreign Minister Samaraweera in his various pronouncements and actions, have effected a rupture with, and turned their backs, on in their West-centrism.
In a speech which was officially distributed with a quote from the text which read ‘China, a benign and sincere friend of Sri Lanka’, here then is what Lakshman Kadirgamar had to say at the unveiling of the bust of the late Premier Chou En Lai at the BMICH on 9 April 2005:
“…When a relationship is based on mutual respect and affection, the size, importance and power of one of the two countries in that relationship does not have a disproportionate influence on the other. China has never sought to influence the domestic politics of Sri Lanka. Over the years China has proved to be benign and sincere with no ulterior motives for befriending Sri Lanka. She has never tried to dominate, undermine or destabilize Sri Lanka. She has come to our rescue with timely assistance on several occasions when there were threats to Sri Lanka’s national security and territorial integrity…There have been no strings attached to Chinese aid. When a relationship between two countries is not based on dependence, it is strengthened by the fact that it is based on the mutual recognition of equality.”
This was the crux of ‘Kadirgamar Chinthana’ on China and by clear contrast and implication, India and the West. It signaled a well-reasoned preferential option for China.
In his speech Kadirgamar went on to say that with regard to Human Rights, Sri Lanka has been a “steadfast ally” of China.
“…Sri Lanka in its own way has been helpful to China. The rubber-rice pact of 1951 has been referred to. In more recent times Sri Lanka has in a modest way been of assistance to China in international fora especially in the field of human rights where Sri Lanka, taking the view that China was being unfairly treated in certain quarters, has been her steadfast ally. It is good for a relationship when both countries are able to contribute something towards sustaining and enhancing it. Sri Lanka has remained steadfast and unequivocal in respect of its One China Policy.”
This stands in contradistinction to the Ranil-Mangala perspective that China’s political values are authoritarian and alien to Sri Lanka, which is much closer to the values of the West. Kadirgamar’s stand is also at variance with our current stances in the UN, where Sri Lanka under Mangala Samaraweera actually voted with the USA against a resolution sponsored by Russia, China and India and supported by the whole of the South Asian region, with Sri Lanka as the sole outlier.
Kadirgamar’s speech indicates another basic value based view that Sri Lanka shares with China, which the West does not, as proved by its policy and practice on Kosovo, South Sudan and Iraqi Kurdistan (triggering retaliatory imitation on the part of Russia, in Georgia and Ukraine). I refer to the fundamental issue of anti-secession.
“We believe that Taiwan is an inalienable part of the People’s Republic of China – something which the United Nations has reaffirmed each year. We support China’s policy of peaceful reunification and China’s efforts to promote cross-straits links for the benefit of the Chinese people and their social and economic development. Sri Lanka has expressed its support for China’s recent anti-secessionist law…” (Ibid)
Perhaps most pertinently, the 2005 speech shows how utterly enthusiastically Kadirgamar viewed the economic rise of China, its impact on the world order and its implicit potential for Sri Lanka.
“It is in the light of these considerations that Sri Lanka observes with admiration China’s steady, peaceful ascent to the summit of economic power. Long may the People’s Republic of China flourish and prosper. Long may the friendship between China and Sri Lanka grow in strength and vigour.” (Ibid)
For their part, Ranil and Mangala are non-committal or tepid about the “ascent” of China to the world’s economic summit and have actually frozen the role and function of the mighty Chinese powerhouse as an economic motor force for Sri Lanka.
For decades Sri Lanka’s most respected analyst of world affairs, Mervyn de Silva argued that in the 1950s, Ceylon was on the verge of being incorporated by the UNP government into the US alliance system which was being built up against the Asian and Eurasian powers China and Russia. He asserted that it was Mr. Bandaranaike’s victory in 1956 that aborted this impending “disaster” and totally reversed direction:
“…Mr. Bandaranaike’s foreign policy, as evident in his adoption of nonalignment, his total identification with the Afro-Asian resurgence, the closing of the British bases in Trincomalee and Katunayake and the opening of embassies in Soviet Union, China and other Socialist countries. This contrasted sharply with the last phase of UNP rule. True to his publicly declared faith in the British, “our trusted friends”, DS Senanayake made Ceylon’s ‘foreign policy’, such as it was, an extension of Whitehall thinking. His son Dudley Senanayake did not effect any substantial changes…
Ceylon was represented at Bandung by Sir John Kotelawela, a brash anti-communist crusader perfectly attuned to the spirit of the Dullesian era. Ceylon was on the doorstep of CENTO when 1956 rescued our foreign policy from what would have been a disaster…
The cosmopolitan exhibitionism and vulgarity of the pre-’56 phase of the UNP made it an ideal target for the resurgent nationalism which fuelled the ‘cultural revolution’ of 1956. An equally sharp confrontation was seen in the field of foreign policy when SWRD Bandaranaike’s ‘Afro-Asianism” and ‘Non-Alignment’ offered a striking contrast to Sir John’s pro-American lurch at Bandung…” (‘April Anniversaries’, lecture by Mervyn de Silva at the Teilhard de Chardin seminar in April 1981, republished in ‘Crisis Commentaries: Selected Political Writings of Mervyn de Silva’ ICES, 2001, pp. 36-52)
Ranil Wickremesinghe’s announcement in the Japan Times that Sri Lanka would re-set its strategic position in the world; his and Mangala’s invocation of “trusted traditional friends” while turning away from China; their “pro-American lurch”, are not deviant behavior but a throw-back to the most disastrous phases of UNP foreign policy.
Britlankan / June 22, 2015
I was worried by your silence??
Sri Lanka (ex Ceylon) used to be a ‘non aligned’ country and a leading member of the association of non aligned nations. What happened to that policy.
Rajapakse family tried to make us a satellite of China and anti India.
Why?
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Amarasiri / June 22, 2015
Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka
Shilling for Mahinda Rajapaksa still?
When will you MaRa contact , paid for buy stolen public funds, run out?
Mara MaRa Chatu Mara Amana Mara
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Samuel Jayaweera / June 23, 2015
This Dayan [Edited out]
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Native Vedda / June 23, 2015
Samuel Jayaweera
“This Dayan [Edited out]”
Its true he is a war monger and a war crime denier.
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Supun Jayawardhane / June 24, 2015
It seems DJ has got few days off from his current job – which is the control of overflowing toilet pits of Mara. DJ speed of brining his verbal diarrehea had its stop over the few weeks, many thought the man would have sensed it to turn his filthy mind up for the betterment of the nation rather than working on revengeful agendas. Since the Medemulana people are now on the track of learning what damage the Raja has done – even to get their coconut plucked, Mr Medamulana seems to have no people around him today. Shows can bring though some sort of made views, but people have to realize there is no other way than go without MR if we need to build up a society without crime and corruptions. Mervin Silva should have to open it at least to this date.
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Samuel Jayaweera / June 24, 2015
I salute you sir ! You are the best among the few I appreciate on the forum.
Alles Gute aus Deutschland.
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Samuel Jayaweera / June 23, 2015
What is Dayan Silva JAYAthilaka `s problem of the day ?
Why cant he tick right even at his late 50 years ?
Why the bugger feel to stand by Raja ?
Does genetics prove that one another shot of Raja ?
Why Kelaniya Mervin was not silent by Maha Raja then ?
Why WHY WHY ?
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Samuel Jayaweera / June 24, 2015
Can anybody please bring any kind of views why DJ sit on the wrong side today ?
Why he is that against RW but not real cronies of the nation ?
Why let DJ s energy give a kick to breed idiots rather than the educated gentle sort of people ?
Why the man is compelled to be in this mode? Is that because he has nothing but malious mind inherited by him ?
What is his current day occupation btw ?
Is his the most powerful poli analayst ?
Why Colombo or other Uni dons stay as if clay eaten crocodiles without adding their valuable notes on whatever the man DJ adds to the press ?
On one side – Ghanasara the Barbaric son of bitch spreading the hatreds, while DJ is continung his malious attacks towards current rulers ?
Why DJ was silent at the time, MR et all looted the nation as every 10 year old would grasp it ?
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Amarasiri / June 22, 2015
This comment was removed by a moderator because it didn’t abide by our Comment policy.For more detail see our Comment policy https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/comments-policy-2/
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Metteyya_Brahmana / June 22, 2015
You asked: “Rajapakse family tried to make us a satellite of China and anti India. Why?” The short answer is “China is where the money is” (e.g., 46 BILLION USD China just dropped in Pakistan), the long answer is China is re-writing the rules around the world concerning economic development, in which unlike the US and EU, they do NOT condition their economic aid on “internal meddling” or attempt to control your government as a ‘colony’ of theirs. China’s aid is usually just a straightforward business deal like: “you give us military access to our trading routes off your coast and we will help you become the next Singapore of Asia”.
Rajapaksa was positioning Sri Lanka to become an offshore manufacturing center of China, as China’s factory wages have risen so that they are now twice what they are here in Sri Lanka. But to become an offshore manufacturing center – at least an efficient one – requires enormous infrastructure development: roads, bridges, dams, airports, and ports to efficiently move goods around the country from the places where the goods are manufactured to ports and airports where they can be shipped to their destination. On a recent state visit to China, the Chinese Premier reiterated that he wants to make Sri Lanka one of their offshore manufacturing centers, so he was obviously puzzled why this new government would STOP and question the Chinese funded infrastructure development that is necessary to make this a reality. China therefore concluded that Sri Lanka was not reliable in helping them defend their trading routes, and has therefore sought to re-route this trade through ports in Pakistan and then by rail to China, completely bypassing Sri Lanka in the process. This “Sri Lanka Bypass” option makes Sri Lanka’s strategic location advantage practically worthless, as most of the ships that pass Sri Lanka each day have Chinese goods on board, not American goods.
The United States, on the other hand, was looking for an opportunity to preserve their interest in preventing China from protecting their trading routes off the coast of Sri Lanka (AKA: “China Containment”), but they are unable and unwilling to put up the 50 billion USD that Sri Lanka would lose by abandoning China. The US also is not defending Sri Lanka at the UN – they are PROSECUTING SRI LANKA – whereas China has publicly indicated that they would veto any action the US brings against Sri Lanka concerning the phony war crimes accusations. The US is also undermining REAL reconciliation in the North and East, and calling for a “political solution”, which is the same separatist political solution they were pushing on behalf of the LTTE. Separate governed territory by race or religion makes Sri Lanka a very weak country, regardless of whether its unitary character is preserved on the surface. It also rewards the LTTE terrorists for wiping out the Sinhala and Muslim populations from the North and part of the East, which only encourages more terrorism.
Taking all of this together, re-aligning with the US is an extraordinarily stupid proposition that Rajapaksa’s team understood, whereas this new government is completely clueless. The new government is shooting Sri Lanka in the foot (or heart), a self-inflicted wound that may actually kill the country.
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Gage / June 25, 2015
Hi Brahmana,
China investment policies are exploitation to the maximum devoid of any moral sensibilities. You should read how China has invested billions in poverty stricken African Countries. Eventually China will extract all their mineral deposits, turn them into a toxic waste dump, pollute the air to the point people have to wear masks and work for slave wages just to survive.
The corrupt leaders of these African countries who are of the same caliber of MR have negotiated bribes and pawned the country.
Luckily we were saved by the polls
We can do much better without China. The first step is to establish good governance. Punish MaRa and the cronies, recover the loot and bring back proper law and order.
you are in par with DJ to portray west as evil, that no war crimes have been committed and spread the paranoia that LTTE terrorists are waiting in the wings helped by US. incite hatred.
I guess you are another MaRa appointed Shill wanting back doom.
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sama / June 23, 2015
Only way out for ruling parties to disclose all the truth about the high abuses of Rajapakshe. Just because the damage could be happened on SLFP – to avoid this happening will have all worst consequences for the future. Now Maharaja goes on to Temples and making every effort to twist the minds of poor people that are his targets for decades. Telling that and doing the other way around had been his way from the day one. UNP should bring all the abusive records of Maharaja declaring that the gravity of corruption that the Mahara Administration made to the nation. Then people will finally grasp it. Today, he is talking about devleoping projects, he behaves as if he is the leader to Dakuna. Can you imagine ?
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InconvenientTruth / June 23, 2015
Soon it will be 6 months since the Yahapalanaya began, has anyone found a nickel, a dime, a cent, a penny that MR and company supposed to have stolen from the country…US, India, UK etc etc and the Interpol experts were reported to be looking, everywhere from US, to Dubai to Seychelles to Nigeria and even in Vietnam..,any good news? Any news at all?
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Supun Jayawardhane / June 23, 2015
Wait and see, it will be leike the way, MY3 came to power… days ahead, they will reveal all…. we can sense the degree of corrption of MR.. dont we ? Balligeputha will have to face it today or tomorrow..
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Native Vedda / June 23, 2015
Dayan Jayatilleka, all those stupid followers, sach, Ramuuuuuuuuuuu, and others
Here is some news on war crime inquiry into Israel/Palestinian conflict you have been demanding for the past 10 years or so:
U.N. Report on Gaza Finds Evidence of War Crimes by Israel and by Palestinian Militants
By JODI RUDOREN and SOMINI SENGUPTAJUNE 22, 2015
ERUSALEM — A United Nations Commission of Inquiry on last summer’s war in the Gaza Strip — taking pains to be evenhanded — found that both Israel and Palestinian militants were responsible for violations of international law that could amount to war crimes. But each side interpreted the commission’s long-awaited report according to its own version of the Middle East conflict.
In the 217-page report, submitted on Monday to the United Nations Human Rights Council, the two commissioners said the militants clearly wanted to sow terror among Israeli civilians, just as they said they could not find clear evidence of why Israel targeted residential buildings in Gaza late at night, risking mass civilian casualties.
The Commission of Inquiry’s chairwoman, the American jurist Mary McGowan Davis, said at a Geneva news conference that the investigation had gathered testimony “in a scrupulously objective fashion.”
Still, each side in the long-running conflict saw what it wanted in any such report: Israelis condemned it as further evidence of bias against them in the United Nations writ large, while Palestinians embraced it as further ballast in their bid to punish Israelis in the International Criminal Court — and the court of international public opinion.
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/
reference/timestopics/organizations/i/
international_criminal_court/
index.html?inline=nyt-org
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Supun Jayawardhane / June 23, 2015
[Edited out]
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Jim softy / June 23, 2015
Rajapakse family tried to make us a satellite of China and anti India. Why?
Mahinda Rajapakse also said that India was our relative and China was our friend.
What do you think about that ?
Don’t talk stupid.
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Maghribi / June 22, 2015
The Greeks will vouch that being a slave to the Chinese is better than to the IMF / WB
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Native Vedda / June 22, 2015
Maghribi
“The Greeks will vouch that being a slave to the Chinese is better than to the IMF / WB”
Peaceful rise of China means that the Chinese rulers believe as they did for many centuries that China is the Middle Kingdom. A piece loving country, a piece from Pakistan, a piece from Russia, pieces from all other neighbours, entire Tibet, a large piece from India and a small piece from this island.
Read this piece of news, as it gives you a glimpse of things that could happen if you chose to be a slave to Chinese state:
China bans Ramadan: Fasting and ‘taking part in religious activities’ forbidden in controversial crackdown on minority Uighur Muslims
ADAM WITHNALL Thursday 03 July 2014
Chinese authorities across the country’s restive northwest region of Xinjiang have banned Muslim students and civil servants from taking part in all “religious activities” during the holy month of Ramadan.
In a region where around 45 per cent of the population is Muslim, a series of notices issued by schools and government departments have “strictly forbidden” anyone from taking part in fasting, and some have even been banned from performing their daily prayers in mosques.
Notices said the bans were designed to prevent the use of schools and government offices to “promote religion”, while local political organisations have been reminded of the ruling party’s officially atheist stance.
But the decision to ban Ramadan is particularly controversial for Xinjiang, coming amid an extensive security crackdown on the minority Uighur Muslim population.
Authorities have blamed separatist Uighurs for a string of recent terror attacks on civilian crowds and government institutions, but the group denies involvement and activists have accused Beijing of exaggerating the threat as an excuse to impose restrictions.
On Tuesday, authorities in some communities in Xinjiang held celebrations of the anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party and provided free food as a test of whether Muslim guests were fasting, according to Dilxat Raxit, a Germany-based spokesman for the rights group World Uyghur Congress.
Raxit said: “This will lead to more conflicts if China uses coercive measures to rule and to challenge Uighur beliefs.”
Similar bans have been imposed in the past on fasting for Ramadan, which began at sundown Saturday, but never with the backdrop of such a fragile security situation.
“No teacher can participate in religious activities, instil religious thoughts in students or coerce students into religious activities,” said one statement on the website of the No. 3 Grade School in Ruoqiang County in Xinjiang.
It went on: “Students shall not participate in religious activities; they shall not study scripts or read poems at script and choir classes; they shall not wear any religious emblems; and no parent or others can force students to have religious beliefs or partake in religious activities.”
Government-run news organisations have also been involved, with a Yili-based news site running articles saying fasting is detrimental to the physical wellbeing of young students, who should eat regularly.
In the city of Bole, retired teachers from the Wutubulage Middle School were called in to stand guard at mosques and prevent students from entering, according to a statement on the municipal party committee website.
The commercial bureau for Turpan, an oasis town in the Taklamakan Desert, said in a statement that civil servants are “strictly forbidden” to fast or perform the Salat prayer ritual in a mosque.
The ruling party is wary of religious activities it worries might serve as a rallying point for opposition to one-party rule. Controls on worship are especially sensitive in Xinjiang and in neighboring Tibet, where religious faith plays a large role in local cultures.
The ruling party says religion and education should be kept separate and students should not be subject to religious influences. That rule is rarely enforced for children of Han Chinese, who, if they have a religion, are mostly Buddhist, Daoist or Christian.
http://www.independent.co.uk
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Maghribi / June 22, 2015
Native Vedda – June 22, 2015 at 12:18
My point was financial slavery. Historically, Islam grows when it was challenged.
The Mongols slaughtered millions of Muslims, but ended up converting to Islam. Genghis Khan’s own grandchildren converted and established the Golden Horde, in modern day Russia, one of the greatest Muslim empires in history.The Knights Templar sought to wipe out Islam from the Bible lands, but they liked the Muslims so much that one of the charges against them when the Vatican was executing them was that they had converted to Islam.
Geert Wilders, whose Party for Freedom is one of the strongest forces against Islam in Europe, had said, “I view Islam not as a religion, but as a dangerous, totalitarian ideology equal to communism and fascism.”
His right hand man, having converted to Islam and left the Party for Freedom, helps sew the shroud of Kaaba in Makkah.
“Do not despond and do not despair, for you will gain the upper hand if you truly believe.” (The Noble Quran 3:139)
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Ahmed Reza / June 22, 2015
[Edited out]
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Native Vedda / June 22, 2015
Ahmed Reza
“[Edited out]”
Fantabulous.
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Amarasiri / June 23, 2015
Maghribi
“His right hand man, having converted to Islam and left the Party for Freedom, helps sew the shroud of Kaaba in Makkah.”
Can you do that Ganasara Thero of BBS. You can turn him into a Mullah. and ask him to marry 4 wives.
There will be peace in the Land of native Veddah Aethho.
PS. No Need to circumcise. Circumcision is NOT a requirement in Islam. It is a tradition picked up by the Jews from the Egyptians, and in turn picked up by the Muslims.
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Afzal / June 23, 2015
Amare,
I strongly object to your suggestion. Although he maybe already having 4 or more wives. Pls let him be. I did not watch his part of the interview purely because I just did not want to see his face or hear his voice.
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Ponkoh Sivakumaran / June 23, 2015
They don’t have wives, only mistresses. They don’t eat meat, only if given. They don’t tell lies, unless convenient. They don’t have cars, only Benzes. They don’t have leaders, only Mahinda, the money man. They are perfect Buddhists.
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Native Vedda / June 23, 2015
Ponkoh Sivakumaran
“They are perfect Buddhists.”
Pardom me, they are Sinhala/Buddhists.
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Amarasiri / June 23, 2015
Afzal
“You can turn him into a Mullah. and ask him to marry 4 wives”
Nobody seems to be able to civilize and control his undemocratic and irresponsible actions. No Mahanayakas, and no President and the police. The current Law and Order let’s him go free with all those crimes on the books…Looks like the Norwegians, the Israelis and The Christian Fundamentalist west have created a Devil, a Mara, a Satan, an Iblis.
May be, the job needs to be handed over to 1 or more women. Hopefully he will be exhausted…
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Navin / June 24, 2015
You mean he’s oversexed?
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Leelagemalli / June 24, 2015
Amarasiri, you are cool.
I think best way to get rid of Ghanasara is to motivate him for self immolation.
If an opnion poll would be conducted, how many of the population would agree with the hate monger… i ll be you over 70% would agree with that the man is over aggressive person, with the genetic configuration of a Guantanmbe XYY prisoner. Dont you think so Amare ?
This man has done sofar all harm not to only to sinhalaya but also miniority folks. Who would ever agree with him for a chat. I hat off to Afzal to have such a patience sitting before the bugger wihtout vomiting.. while constanttly focusing on his mimiks. I wonder.. how he mannaged to give that interview with a bugger of this aggression. I beg all buddhists and others regligous to protest against this man – PEOPLE made virus of the srilanken soil… this man is worst than a deadly virus found in AFRICA for sure.
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Hinnibanda / June 24, 2015
Yes, if we could learn seeing it as once family than making every effort to devide one another, no doubt under the current umbrella we can achieve permament peace.
What a disgusting situation, monks of this kind to call former President ” Thamuse” … I think minister of cultural affairs has to given basic schooling to the most aggressive monk – that is the basic they can offer for the man. Asking the very same monk to derobe and join laypeople either naked of with cloth can save him and nation more than the way he has been now today.
All gods should see it this kind of crminial energies cant bring forward. A country that was then named as Bandaranayakes – Or Senanayakae to be disrespected this way..is beyond all respect and morals.
If i were the IGP of the police, I would have worked everything within my power, to arrest the Ghanasara and set in Prison with heavy work assigned to him.
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Vanguard / June 22, 2015
“Sri Lanka eyes strong economic dealings with China”
-China Daily 2015-04-22
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Vanguard / June 22, 2015
Welcome back Dr. Dayan!
Whatever one’s politics, we know this for sure: China came to our aid during our time of crisis. The United States had always been reluctant to assist our fight against terrorism, for reasons best known to themselves. Even India, when the need arose, sent their troops.
China has never interfered in out domestic affairs. Niether has the USA. However let the reader is left to judge if it is likely that the US will invest vast sums of money in Sri Lanka in the future, or China.
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Native Vedda / June 22, 2015
Vanguard
“Whatever one’s politics, we know this for sure: China came to our aid during our time of crisis”
What sort of aid did you receive during your time of crisis?
“China has never interfered in out domestic affairs.”
China never bothered about war crimes, despots, …. committed in other countries as US did and does, for it would be the most simpler and uncomplicated way of doing strategic business with smaller countries. It means “our interest in your country” as if the country and its people do not have any interest in their own country.
Dayan is proposing to shift focus from Hindian market to China. Prostitution is prostitution whether the punter is Hiandian or Chinaman.
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K.A Sumanasekera / June 22, 2015
Dayan,
How do you reckon the F17 Red Dragons will go with Uncle Dicky’s nephew and his Diaspora backers?..
You reckon Uncle Sam will get their stooge in Australia to hand over the ageing F!8 to us, and make room for the new Fighter which the Aussies are struggling to pay for?…
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AVB / June 22, 2015
Sumanasekara,
There are more serious problems for you to concentrate.. Pakistan complained sharp drop in trade with SL after the gov change. Have you heard that SL luxury sports car importer requested permit to reexport 3 Lamboghinis. No sales… Do you see the connection? Obvious reason is new international drug route established via Colombo with blessing of MR family has problems now, perhaps temporarily. You have to fix this problem… If you help with couple of good trades, you can buy (another?) Lamborghini, they are going cheap now…
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K.A Sumanasekera / June 23, 2015
[Edited out]
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Native Vedda / June 23, 2015
K.A Sumanasekera
“[Edited out]”
Ran out of words or saving your energy, even if you managed to write a few words it wouldn’t mean anything to anyone anyway.
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Non PhD / June 22, 2015
DJ , Any sensible person will infer how you are trying to make MaRa stronger within SLFP than MS & CBK.
DJ also implies that under the executive Presidency of CBK, LK was acting independently and grooming MaRa as a future President and forced CBK to choose MaRa as the presidential candidate instead of him. Also LK knows as a non Sinhala Buddhist, the majority in the South will not vote for him.. So he gave the idea to MaRa to buy over the LTTE, even though it was widely accepted that CBK was a victim of LTTE assasin.
So DJ is using LK to glorify MaRa and making CBK and MS look as minions within the SLFP.
It is sad that Mervin’s son has chosen gunpowder politics to bring back Mahinda. So DJ is putting MaRa ‘ so self interest first before the SWRD founded SLFP and the country. Any DNA similarities between DJ and South Carolina 21 years old kid. ?
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jenn / June 22, 2015
He is not worth commenting on.
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Amarasiri / June 23, 2015
jenn
“He is not worth commenting on.” However, everybody should have an option.
Is he worth shitting on?
Or, is it better to shit in a shit hole?
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Felix Sumanaweera / June 22, 2015
I am pretty sure Mangala shot his mouth off without
knowing the implications. No media is going to invent
those remarks attributed to him about China.
His mouth travels faster than his brains. After the
presidential elections, he walked into the CID headquarters
to complain of a coup. Rajapaksa and company had planned
on the night of January 8 from Temple Trees.
He has dropped an atom bomb by talking to the Global Tamil
Forum in London. He also spoke with Erik Solhaim. Ranil
evidently has not learnt his lessons and is using Mangala
this time to bait the Tamil diaspora. Can Mangala S explain
why he did not meet the Sinhala or Muslim diaspora when
in London? Is it not fanciful enough.
This isssue is not between fried rice (China) and Hamburgers
(United States). It concerns the well being of Sri lanka and
the country’s sovereignty. Leaving it in the hands of one
Samaraweera and one Maheshi Colonne with RW behind can be
the most dangerous thing.
Even the GL Peiris era as Foreign Minister did not see such
conundrums. Very soon Samaraweera will surpass late A.C.S. Hameed
as his initials go – All Countries Seen. To Mangala it is a
case of Moon Shine or just vain glory travelling first class to
world capitals when our envoys could have done the job.
Unless he is reigned in, the volcano will erupt.
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Native Vedda / June 22, 2015
Felix Sumanaweera
“I am pretty sure Mangala shot his mouth off without knowing the implications.”
What sort of implications do you envisage?
“Unless he is reigned in, the volcano will erupt.”
In Dayan’s head or his bum.
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justice / June 22, 2015
China is an almost fully corrupted country.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_in_China
This is why the MR regime allied itself with China, so as to facilitate kickbacks from projects undertaken by China.
Now all these corrupt deals are being bared.
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Chandra / June 22, 2015
All countries small and big are clamoring to woo China. We can only hope that China will show her magnanimity to ignore the morons in ‘yahapalanaya’, for they do not know what they do.
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Crazyoldmansl / June 22, 2015
So finally it is clear. A Chinese paid agent. I do not want to depend on China or on India or on the USA or anyone else to get me out of the problems that I create. I depend on myself to avoid creating problems for myself and I trust my own intelligence to be able to do so.
You are a weak, cowardly spineless worm like creature which is why you have to hide behind nations that think that their power is what makes the world.
The majoritarianism that you worship is as invalid as the laws of science or any other principle that humans are able to perceive and assume to be eternal and absolute. It is this majoritarianism that has got you into trouble and will get you into more trouble shortly.
You have lost the General. Your king stands exposed as the madman that he has always been. The threat of genocide that you held out before all the world has been seized and turned against your strategy. Everything down to the the supply lines and landing bays have been substituted. Your Chinese support has been exposed as the global aggressor and sponsor of majoritarianism which is nothing more than the rule of the strong based on the oppression of the weak.
I look forward to watching you being stamped into the ground in exactly the same way that you have devoted the last three decades of your life to stamping out those whose lives highlighted the unreal nature of your majoritarian view of the world and the paranoia that it generates.
The last years of your life will be sent in familiar quarters where the “intellectuals” quaff corex D mixed with Thambili and spin their demented dreams of grandiose paranoid national security in defiance of the world.
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Navin / June 24, 2015
Very interesting! And not so crazy.
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dcn / June 22, 2015
The so called political analyst, DJ de Silva is back again with his usual story to criticise present government and its foreign policy and keep praising MR’s foreign relationships.until the 8th January, we were not given due recognition by most of the developed nations. This position has been reversed and now most of the countries give their best face mainly due to the good work done by Mangala S, our Foreign minister. All these are going to benefit the country with more aid and investments. Further, the visits made by our President to some of the countries has enhanced our importancein the region.
DJ cannot digest the realities and are jealous and therefore he has to turn and twist and mislead the reading public which he fails most miserably when you read the comments by various readers.
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Piranha / June 23, 2015
Rajapaksa mortgaged Sri Lanka to the Chinese and Dayan sees no problems with it. His main gripe is that a right wing government led by Ranil getting closer to the West. Dayan doesn’t care about democracy, human rights, good governance and a non corrupt political system. He is a dyed in the wool Rajapaksa worshipper.
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kali / June 23, 2015
Dayan:
Sri Lanka’s China Policy: Contrast & Continuities:
Reding your Article I am begining to wonder how you managed to Obtain a Doctorate.
Before I pick holes in your argument I want to remind you that ” Sri Lankas Sovereignty is limited to Indias Security. India has the luxury of forcing Sri Lanka to do anything ( I mean anything) if India feels that her Security is threatened as happened recently. There are no if and buts. Indias Straglehold of Sri Lanka is absolute.
1)Sri Lanka to dilute dependence on China.
*** My friend it is already diluted by sheer Proximity.
2) Going by their pronouncements during the election campaign and in office, Messrs. Wickremesinghe and Samaraweera are clearly unaware of or incapable of understanding, among other things, the difference between “dependent” and “reliant” i.e. between a satellite and an ally.
*** What rubbish are you talking about. For your information ” Dependent ” and ” Reliant” both mean the samething.
Where as Satellite and an Ally mean different things. It is you who have got everthing wrong.
3) If Sri Lanka tilted to China rather than the US or India, Mr. Samaraweera must know why that was, when it took place or began, and who the architect of that policy was. He must realize that such a reliance or ‘tilt’ was consonant with Sri Lanka’s vital national interests. He obviously does not know any of this.
*** Sri Lanka under The THUG tilted towards China thinking that he can play the Chinese Card against India and paid the ultimate price.
4) While the villain of Mr. Samaraweera’s tale, Mahinda Rajapaksa of Medamulana, was still an Opposition MP, Sri Lanka under a UNP administration of a President who was so pro-US that his nickname was Yankee Dicky, was to learn a harsh lesson in the limits of US and Western support in our hour of greatest need. While the US was waging a proxy war of cross-border terrorism against the elected Nicaraguan government, and was helping in the counter-insurgency campaign of the blood soaked Salvadorian military, it had strict limitations on the military support it would extend the pro-western UNP government of JR Jayewardene.
*** The reason for the above impasse was India, as India wouldnt allow anyone to meddle in Sri Lankan affairs.
5) Part of the reason was of course India, but that isn’t the whole story or even the most fundamental part of it. The proof is that even when Sri Lanka had a government that was exceedingly friendly with India, such as the Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga administration, neither the West nor the Indians gave us anything remotely like the military assistance that we as a democratic state, deserved and imperatively needed, to defend ourselves from the globally networked and heavily armed Tamil Tiger terrorist militia.
*** India was always sensitive to the number of Tamil casualities but everthing changed after Rajivs Murder and the Italian witch took over the reigns.
6) Thus it was that Sri Lanka’s finest foreign minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar decided on a policy reorientation that would combine continuity, engagement and change. The ‘continuity’ aspect was to build upon Sri Lanka’s traditionally excellent relations with China. The ‘engagement’ aspect was the continuing friendly dialogue with the West, especially the USA. The ‘change’ was that while being close friends of both, Sri Lanka would not be strictly equidistant between India and China, but would balance off India and the West by relying increasingly upon the East; relying upon and imperceptibly tilting towards China.
*** Stop talking rubbish. Kathirgamar was an ass hole and if what you are saying is true look where the Architect of that Policy MR has ended up. In the Hambathotta slumps and who put him there. India the new colonial master.
7)The symbolism was obvious when Kadirgamar’s choice as guest of honor at the opening of the new building of the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies (the BCIS was originally established on a project report written by my father to Madam Sirimavo Bandaranaike in 1975) was not President Kumaratunga but precisely Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.
*** He was looking for favours. Another Tamil stooge who was trapped in a tamil body with a Sinhalese Pakaya.
8) Kadirgamar’s speech on that occasion was the clearest expression of his China policy, which remains the finest exposition of a China policy issuing from an enlightened comprehension of Sri Lanka’s core national interests and its historical experience. It is superb example of the Realist/neo-Realist paradigm in foreign policy thinking. It indicates why Sri Lanka cannot be more reliant on India than on China or even be strictly neutral or equidistant between them.
*** If the stooge was still alive I am sure he will be shitting in his pants.
9) In a speech which was officially distributed with a quote from the text which read ‘China, a benign and sincere friend of Sri Lanka’, here then is what Lakshman Kadirgamar had to say at the unveiling of the bust of the late Premier Chou En Lai at the BMICH on 9 April 200.
*** After the new Colinal Master put his boot in and declared China out of bounds the new Speech will be “NEVER SLEEP AROUND WHEN YOU ARE MARRIED ”
10) When a relationship is based on mutual respect and affection, the size, importance and power of one of the two countries in that relationship does not have a disproportionate influence on the other.
*** I thought for a minute you were going to say the following.
” When the relationship is based on lust and the size of the Pakaya” you are asking for trouble.
11) China has never sought to influence the domestic politics of Sri Lanka. Over the years China has proved to be benign and sincere with no ulterior motives for befriending Sri Lanka.
*** You are right. China doesnt care about what happens to you lot and the only thing on her mind is how to destroy India.
12) In his speech Kadirgamar went on to say that with regard to Human Rights, Sri Lanka has been a “steadfast ally” of China.
*** No doubt Kathirgarmar had Tiananman Square on his mind.
13) This stands in contradistinction to the Ranil-Mangala perspective that China’s political values are authoritarian and alien to Sri Lanka, which is much closer to the values of the West.
*** Correction . Closer to Mugabe.
14) Perhaps most pertinently, the 2005 speech shows how utterly enthusiastically Kadirgamar viewed the economic rise of China, its impact on the world order and its implicit potential for Sri Lanka.
*** Stop talking like an Idiot. The Econimc Power of US and EU put together is THREE times the size of China. The reason why these countries allow Chinese Substandard Merchandise a Market is to have control over China.
Do you know if US and EU were to limit Chinese Imports China will collapse.
15) For their part, Ranil and Mangala are non-committal or tepid about the “ascent” of China to the world’s economic summit and have actually frozen the role and function of the mighty Chinese powerhouse as an economic motor force for Sri Lanka.
*** The Comparison you are making is like this
Pidurutalagala – China and Sinhala Lanka
Himalays US and EU
16) Ranil Wickremesinghe’s announcement in the Japan Times that Sri Lanka would re-set its strategic position in the world; his and Mangala’s invocation of “trusted traditional friends” while turning away from China; their “pro-American lurch”, are not deviant behavior but a throw-back to the most disastrous phases of UNP foreign policy.
*** This is what happens when you lose your Sovereignty.
DO AS YOU ARE TOLD.
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Vanguard / June 23, 2015
Lets get closer to the West, maybe they will take over again and develop us. Civlize I think the word is.
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Sriyani mangalika / June 23, 2015
You are a professional served our country. Really I am not in a position to understand 100% of your articles. I was a professional. Today I am expelled from this whole society. Any way as a citizen of SriLanka who love the people of this country though almostall do not love me today they do not want to utter a word to console my grievances I intend to get my thinking cleared. Why do you consider Tamils as always an infere set of people . I infered it from your articles. I treat human as human. I follow Buddhism according to my understanding. Second question is we all know Hambantota airport and Harbour are not at all sucessful. As an Engineer i have an understanding our Engineers are are not responsible for that. We all know how professionals were treted under last regime. They all work under fear. It is my first hand experienc Norochchole too had problems . How these major projects went wrong. Thereafter Port City were given without Environmental approvals. I heard we have no legal provisions to fill the sea.All these were done by China . If they are implementing the project they have the responsibility to see whether all the apprvals are in order. I notice you always try to say we cannot live without China Surele if PortCity starts they would give money. AS many in the country do you think money is evey thing . We all know they have money. It must be very difficut for such a capable group to construct an airport where one plane comes a day. I cannot imagine whether I am mad asalmostall around me say or whether you all are mad ?
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Alvar / June 23, 2015
Dayan has realised that he cannot sell MR & Co’s failed domestic policy & politics (white van rule, family & friends rule, corruptions, political interference in judiciary etc. etc.), He now links MR & Co to international front. It is obvious that Sri Lanka had only China on its side and the whole world (US, EU and most other nations against Sri Lanka) during MR & Co reign. He failed to understand that even Cuba, the last country in the Russia-China axis has turned to US and the west for their betterment. This so called political pundit failed to understand the reality or hide the reality to promote his agenda. A fool trying to fool the nation?
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Bandu de Silva / June 23, 2015
Dayan has said nothing new about the evolution of Sri Lanka’s China policy. I have said it for the Nth time in my numerous articles over two decades and my tweets with the Foreign Ministry under the new govt. He has however, brought up valuable background information on Kadiragamar’s contribution to keeping the old link with China alive and building on it. This aspect is generally unknown/undiscussed. For that Dayan deserves appreciation. He had a purpose, however. That is to move one’s mind away from the belief that MR is the architect of the pro-China policy. To that extent he is defending MR. However, he has not gone to discuss in detail how things got closer during MR’s time. The simple dismissive reason he provides seems is that MR had to find a source for supply of arms to put an end to the war against terrorism. This is a valid point. JR looked for arms from Israel when he found US was not responding. JR was a friend of Israel for a long time, even from the days he was the Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs under Dudley Senanayake. A memo I wrote for Perm Secy. JVP Samarasinghe as Desk officer helped him to block JR’s attempt to up-grade the Israeli mission in Colombo to Embassy status. As President, JR negotitated an arms deal with Shimon Perez in 1986 in his Paris Hotel behind my back while I was Ambassador in France.
President Premadasa sought weapons from Iran, Iraq and Libya as I know. My appointment as first Ambassador to Iran had something to do with that. That attempt did not succeeded since Iraq was soon embroiled in a war and Ranjan Wijeratne, Mansoor and I could not proceed to Iraq. Nothing came out of talks with Libya. These were attempts made without much preparation like examining the quality of weapons obtainable from these sources. It was only in Iran that we went on to a detailed study and found Iran had no heavy weapons to supply except war-weary items and small arms which also raised problems over replacement and ammunition. Chandrika re-examined prospects by sending military delegations again to Iran but I do not know if anything followed from it. I was out of the scene by then. Consequently, the alternative was China which was ready to supply both heavy arms, aircraft and naval boats. That is excepting Pakistan and Czechoslovakia to which countries Chandrika looked to during the LTTE siege of Jaffna for multi-barrel guns. It was Chandrika , if I remember right, who looked to China first as a source of supply, first, of aircrafts. If anyone blames MR for that, that should be coming from quarters which did not wish to see the war ended.
It is not simply looking to China for arms by MR that needs to be examined but other developments like inviting China to participate in post-war infrastructural development projects. Whether or not some of these projects were a priority, or established in right places like the controversial Mattala International Airport, is debatable. It was the Colombo Port City project and permitting Chinese submarines to dock and refuel in Colombo which ignited the debate on MR’s policy on China, first raised by India followed by US, both of which counties want to continue to dominate the Indian Ocean. There again, as the Colombo City project is concerned, like with other infrastructural projects, it was a pre-MR project, first proposed by a Singapore firm, and where China stepped in because other bidders were slow and less enthusiastic. As pointed out, Indian entrepreneurs were very slow and China gained on ‘lost-time’ factor owing to quick decision making.
As the last surviving diplomat from Sri Lanka’s first diplomatic mission to China under the late Wilmot Perera, and a witness to the second China-Ceylon Trade Agreement, I have been emphasizing the historic role which was brought about by that Agreement of 1952 entered into under Dudley Senanayake govt. That was brought about by circumstances arising out of a world shortage in rice and US engineered embargo on China which prevented China’s access to strategic goods including rubber. Nonetheless, that made an indubitable impact on China’s mind by laying the foundation for a lasting friendship. China appreciated the fact that our small country entered into the trade pact in the face of US pressures and at the risk of Battle Act provision being applied against Sri Lanka. The acknowledgement of this fact by China has stood which also saw China paying a premium on Sri Lankan rubber, as a pillar in building up a permanent positive response on the part of China towards SL, just as much as Sri Lanka’s role at the San Francisco Peace Conference has done in the case of relations with Japan, despite US sponsorship of Sri Lanka’s positive approach to Japan.
The role played by Mrs.Bandaranake a played in the Sino-Indian border dispute by trying to bring about and amicable settlement through the intervention of the non-aligned countries, had its own impact. India was not pleased over Mrs Bandaranaike’s role as she expected her small neighbour to put her wait on India’s side. China, however, appreciated Sri Lanka’s the role and China ceased hostilities soon after Mrs B’s visit to Bejing as a peace maker. India later accepted Mrs. B’s role particularly when Nehru found that US was not ready to back her with airpower. The crux of the matter is that China has appreciated Sri Lanka’s role from the sale of rubber from 1952.
DJ has provided useful information on further development of Sino-Sri Lankan relations under Kadiragamar as Foreign Minister. He has not discussed how the paradigm shifted under MR to make China a closest partner of Sri Lanka to the exclusion of her neighbour India.
I agree that under the present govt, China equation has entered turbulent times. China may not change her stand on Sri Lanka over the Human Rights issue in Geneva but nothing is sure in international politics. China can wait. And she will, like the old poker-faced Chinamen at his newly opened restaurant in Kandy during our times at Peradeniya, waiting for clients year after year and one day to find his place is full to capacity. An election is in the offing in Sri Lanka. So China might see an opportunity there. Dayan is right that the new govt, and particularly, the Minister of External Affairs, and the Prime Minister who have expressed some views, have indicated the pro-US direction in Sri Lankan foreign policy these days. My recent article on ‘China Policy’ published in Colombotelegraph posted on 20/4 2015 brings up some of these concerns. If MR played ‘hide and seek’ over India policy, the present government seems to be doing the same with China policy. The fall-out is yet to be seen. The forthcoming elections and Geneva sessions could be important land marks. One thing for sure: Sri Lanka could be seen wooing China in Geneva this year.
Bandu de Silva
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Ponkoh Sivakumaran / June 23, 2015
We are told that the back room boy of WIPO has now left behind a Kadirgamar doctrine. How people get elevated. The Bandaranaike’s were Indian stooges. They tilted Ceylon’s foreign policy towards India. The joke then was Nehru saying “Lankava mage athey” and Sirimavo saying “Indiyava mage ….”. Crude as it is, it indicated the foreign policy of Sri Lanka. It has already been extensively written on to need any revision by the man with a PhD from banana land, no less.
Sri Lanka is not geographically equidistance from India to keep an equidistance from China and India. India is just a hop across. Culturally, the people of Sri Lanka have no affinity with China, not even in Buddhism which was taken there by a Tamil and is distant from Sinhala Buddhism. Not even the Sinhalese chauvinists would send their children for education to China. Nothing but the best British or banana-land (for failures) education for them while duping the local youth with Sinhala only. Foreign policy cannot be made without taking the natural inclination of the people and they do not lean towards China.
China is rich and will be powerful but its hegemony in the Indian Ocean cannot be achieved when both India and US and UK (in Diego Garcia) have such a hold on it. India has the Andaman and Nicobar islands guarding the ocean from the other side. Sri Lanka is a little gnat caught up in the game.
Aid money, whether given by US or China, goes into the pockets of politicians. Chinese money went into Rajapakses pockets and some of it may have had a trickle down effect into his sycophants who need to keep writing to the CT.
It is good that the aberration in foreign policy has been corrected much to the relief of the majority of the people of Sri Lanka.
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Alvar / June 23, 2015
Dayan,
If you love the Chinese, stop with hugging and kissing. Don’t go to sleep with them. Don’t under estimate the Indians – your close neighbour. If Indians sense any danger, they will act with vigour certainly. Remember the recent past IPKF intervention in Sri Lanaka against the wishes of fox JR. JR even played the ‘Ariyan’ card at that time in the parliament to please the North Indians, even that didn’t work. India has a developed foreign policy which does not change with change of their government. What we do is that counts not what we say. There is nothing wrong to have a better relationship with China but know your limits! If Indians jump in again, don’t expect the Chinese will come to your rescue. That is foolish thinking. Your anti-Indian and anti-West stand will take the country nowhere except to China. Chinese have no similarities with Sri Lankans – Culture, Religion, Democracy not even physical appearance. It is only the money they have that they gave to MR much more than LIBOR interest rate or IMF/WB rate. Do you know why? If you know, can you explain?
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Samuel Jayaweera / June 25, 2015
Dayan [Edited out]
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curtis hellfire / June 23, 2015
Dr DJ (Doctorate from the Acme University of one dimensional strategic studies.
The old saying comes to mind -” be very very careful what you wish for”.
If Mr & Gota are implicated in crimes against humanity & SL refuses to hand him over to ICC sanctions are inevitable.
How is SL gonna pay its loans to the inscrutable China man if you have lost one or both of your major trading partners. Your sovereignty or what is left of it will be non existent. SL will have to beg the China man for assistance and your new Colonial master ( wonderfully benevolent as we all know they are ) will exact a heavy, heavy price.
Shouldn’t think India will be too pleased having a Chinese colony on its southern doorstep!
But I think Uncle Sam will be very very pleased
Sri Lanka is on a strategic knife-edge at the moment and it has almost no room to maneuver
Just wondering out loud of course!
Cheers.
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Jim softy / June 23, 2015
If Mr & Gota are implicated in crimes against humanity & SL refuses to hand him over to ICC sanctions are inevitable.
Gota is implicated in Tamil-Ellam courts.
Ha…ha..ha..
Sanctions are good for Sri lanka, a blessing in disguise.
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ivan / June 23, 2015
[Edited out]
Please write instead of posting web links – CT
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Jim softy / June 23, 2015
Western Capitalism is lost.
Examples are Japan, Europe, and north America.
So, do not hang onto that old model of capitalism.
Instead get familiar with the new capitalist model.
That is China.
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curtis hellfire / June 24, 2015
Dr Dayan says
The proof is that even when Sri Lanka had a government that was exceedingly friendly with India, such as the Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga administration, neither the West nor the Indians gave us anything remotely like the military assistance that we as a democratic state, deserved and imperatively needed, to defend ourselves from the globally networked and heavily armed Tamil Tiger terrorist militia.
You seem to have a selective memory here. It is true that the West and India did not give you the armaments that you needed at the time. Instead you had to go to countries with equally abysmal human rights records as Sri Lanka, mainly China & Pakistan.
What the US and India did give SL however was pure military gold. Through US spy satellites the US provided Sri Lanka with the location of the LTTE floating arms caches located off the coast of Sumatra. Then India `lent` Sri Lanka a deep water Navel vessel to destroy them, because SL had no blue water vessels capable of the mission at the time.
Most Military analysts acknowledge that without the destruction of these floating armouries. The civil war would have continued for years as a stalemate.
Surprising that there is very little acknowledgement of this important fact in the SL media. And even DJ the SL firewall at the UN fails to acknowledge this. There again, it serves DJs agenda not to give credit the vile US and India, because it would totally undermine the whole core of his illogical argument.
The power of Military Intelligence can be seen, through the British cracking the Nazi Germany’s enigma code, the second world war was shortened by at least 2 years most analysts agree.
Reply to Jim soft in head!
If Mr & Gota are implicated in crimes against humanity & SL refuses to hand him over to ICC sanctions are inevitable.
Gota is implicated in Tamil-Ellam courts. Ha…ha..ha..
Comparing the power of Tamil courts to the International Criminal Court, is like comparing a fish to a killer whale.
Sanctions are good for Sri lanka, a blessing in disguise.
Do tell how Sri Lanka will benefit from sanctions?
Sanctions don’t’ appear to be doing the Russia or Iranian economies much good at the mo, they are both on their knees.
There again who are these economic minnows compared to mighty Sri Lanka, huh ?
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Keynes! / July 14, 2015
Dayan,
What do you think of analyst Shehara De Silva’s take on the China policy.
Here’s the link to the article on which she comments:
http://lmd.lk/diaspora-flair/
Let me reproduce an excerpt:
She feels that our FDI strategy and market development should be based on “leveraging competitiveness, and not with the pro-China geopolitical tryst that will compromise our sovereignty”. But if China is the only global superpower with resources that is willing to stand by us, we mustn’t dismiss its support either, she adds.
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