By Dayan Jayatilleka –
Strategic misconceptions and foreign policy misperceptions
As an island, Sri Lanka’s history has been shaped by the dialectic of the internal and external, with the latter playing a decisive role for prolonged periods. These external forces and factors have primarily been the neighbouring powers and the colonial ones.
Today, no three states have greater importance for Sri Lanka’s future than India, China and the USA, though not in any inevitable order. What is alarming is that the Sri Lankan policy makers seem to understand none of these powers.
China
Let’s start with the seemingly easiest and most unproblematic, China. The Ministry of External Affairs no longer has ‘China hands’ as it once did in the persons of Jayantha Dhanapala and Charlie Mahendran. Even if the Ministry had such human resources they are likely be ignored just as the US State Department and even the CIA’s professionals were by the blinkered, hawkish Cheney-Rumsfeld duo.
The ruling elite seems to have no understanding of the foreign policy-making process in China, and that civilian political authority is absolute, in line with the principle that “the party commands the gun and not the gun, the party”. Any Sri Lankan policy based on signals, accurately read or more likely misread, from any single component of the Chinese power-structure, however influential, ignoring the collegiate character of policy-making and strategic calculation, is doomed to fail disastrously.
Sri Lankan policy makers, who brandish the China card, possibly to the embarrassment of the Chinese, do not seem to have an accurate estimation of the actual value of that vital card. It is far from unlimited. With the best will in the world, China can protect Sri Lanka only so far. Unlike in the case of Pakistan, there is no contiguous overland route. China does not have and will not have for many more years, perhaps decades, the naval and aerial capacity to project power into the Indian Ocean in anything like the manner needed to offset the naval assets of India or the USA, let alone any combination of the two. The Indian navy on the other hand, is already moving in the waters of South East Asia and the Far East.
It is, in any case, highly improbable that China would bruise its relations with India over anything but its own core interests within its own sphere of influence. The rules that the competing and co operating Asian Big Powers play by is that neither China nor India will step on each other’s toes within their respective spheres of influence. Sri Lanka just isn’t important enough for China to do so.
Within the worldview of Sri Lanka’s movers and shakers, the geostrategic location of the island gives it enormous value and virtually open-ended bargaining and balancing power. They regard it as being a permanent seller’s market. This is a dangerous delusion.
A crucial geostrategic location is what attracted the colonial powers and their oppression. Occupying a critical location can mean that you have a target painted on your back. In the grand contest between the USA and China in Asia and obviously the Indian Ocean, a contention in which India will play its part not as a puppet of the USA but as a quasi-ally or autonomous strategic partner, it would be well to bear this in mind.
It is truly a pity that the Melian dialogue – that between the Athenians and the people of the strategic island of Melos — as reconstructed by Thucydides, would mean nothing to any Sri Lankan decision-maker.
India
The Sri Lankan power-elite fails to understand its gargantuan neighbour, India. If it did, it would have known that the best chance we had of securing India’s strategic support was while the Congress was securely in office and before the dawning of the prospect of a coalition at the centre influenced by a Tamil Nadu hostile to Sri Lanka.
Colombo also fails to comprehend that India is an open, dynamic democracy in which public opinion about events in Sri Lanka — public opinion in Delhi and not just Chennai — can impact negatively on India’s stance.
The most glaring evidence of the Sri Lankan power-elite’s misperception of India is the entire discourse about the 13th Amendment. From a purely domestic or internal perspective the 13th Amendment may be good or bad, but that is an entirely secondary matter from a Realist standpoint.
What is most germane is that it is the Indo-Lanka Accord and the 13th Amendment that swung India from a patron and supporter of the armed Tamil Eelam movement to an opponent of it. If that is removed, dismantled or diluted to the point of meaninglessness, how will Delhi balance off pressures from Tamil Nadu?
Surely, the high-level advocacy in Colombo of dismantling the 13th Amendment, weakens Delhi in its equation with Tamil Nadu over Sri Lanka, reduces the prospects of support for Sri Lanka from an increasingly influential India in the world arena, and could reverse India’s attitude to the Tamil nationalist movement in Sri Lanka, leading perhaps to a re-opening of the ‘pin thalam’ — the ‘rear base’ — in Tamil Nadu, not for armed terrorism but for political secessionism and irredentism.
United States
Sri Lanka’s ruling collective utterly fails to understand the United States as well. Take the current discourse about Secretary of State John Kerry. Of course the Kerry-Lugar report was an excellent one but that deal was on the table in late 2009 and Sri Lanka failed to pick it up (despite my urging in print and in private that we do so).
Since then the Government of Sri Lanka has behaved in such an illiberal manner that has weakened the hand of those in the US system who were willing to give Sri Lanka the time, space and the benefit of the doubt. Given US public opinion and opinion among the Democrats on the Hill, it will be rather difficult for the new Secretary of State to automatically press a re-set button.
John Kerry is a Democratic politician, with a razor-sharp mind, a fine military record and strong ethical views (which is why he joined the anti-Vietnam war movement). While he has been quick to recognise the historic military achievement on the Sri Lankan armed forces, he will be revolted by Sri Lankan invocations of the Bush-era War on Terror doctrine that in such a war, anything goes.
The ruling coalition in Colombo has learnt nothing from the experience of Madam Sirimavo Bandaranaike. While the Cold War was still raging Washington under the Nixon administration viewed her centre-left coalition with suspicion. This was drastically reversed and Mrs. Bandaranaike was a State guest by 1972.
Two men were responsible: the brilliant intellectual Cold warrior Prof Robert Strauss-Hupe who was US Ambassador in Colombo, and Neville Kanakaratne, Mrs. Bandaranaike’s superb choice of Ambassador to Washington. The highly literate and articulate Ambassador Kanakaratne opened doors in Washington by his off-the cuff lectures at the most prestigious venues such as the Woodrow Wilson centre and by his personal friendship with the heads of such institutions.
Today, Sri Lanka is flying blind in Washington, to the degree that in 2008 and in 2012, Colombo was one of the few capitals on the planet that was not only expecting but actually hoping for a defeat for Barack Obama and operating on that assumption. Relying on AIPAC assessments and reports from Sri Lankan expatriates does not make for intelligent evaluation.
Three large blind-spots
Thus Sri Lanka’s foreign and strategic policymaking has three large blind-spots: India, China and the USA. When these blind spots converge, the state which is now blinkered will be as if blindfolded, while our enemies within the Tamil Diaspora and in Tamil Nadu will be taking aim at us. Instead of intelligently combating them, we shall lash out blindly.
Why is Sri Lankan policy and policymaking in the lamentable state it is; a state that enhances our strategic vulnerability and risks the hard won gains of the war? To my mind the reasons are two-fold, and two fold rather than two distinct reasons because the two factors are interconnected.
Firstly, our rulers have forgotten Sun Tzu’s injunction ‘know yourself, know your enemy’. When they look in the mirror they do not see themselves or us as we are, they see Israel. This dangerous delusion confuses this small island which is vulnerable to a naval cordon sanitaire and whose significant military assets can be neutralised in a single strike by its giant neighbour, with the most powerful military entity in the Middle East. It confuses a state which has a powerful ethnic lobby in the world’s sole superpower with Sri Lanka which has and can have nothing of the sort.
President Obama warned Israel that time and demography were not in its favour. Without the image of being a durable oasis of western style democracy in a tyrannical Middle East, the commonality of cultural heritage (‘Judeo-Christian’) with the West, the Jewish lobby in the US, the indelible global memory of the Holocaust, the open commitment of the US to Israel (which includes top-of-the-line weapons systems) and the Israeli nuclear weapons stockpile, Israel’s position would shift from isolation to strategic untenability.
Sri Lanka has not a single of Israel’s advantages. It cannot be any kind of model or inspiration for our conduct towards our Tamil citizens in the former conflict areas, the region or the world.
Colombo’s current delusions of being an Israeli type garrison state, seem to regard China as being to Sri Lanka what the US is to Israel as security patron and diplomatic guarantor, though their respective strategic capacities and global reach are vastly different.
Secondly, our policy-makers neither understand the concept and value of ‘soft power’ nor the limits of their own ‘hard power’. They do not know that even the USA, the state which posses more hard power or kinetic power than everyone else on the planet, has an acute awareness of soft power, and that the key to American leadership is the combination of the two.
Our leaders also do not understand that ‘soft power’ is the power of voluntary attraction and emulation, not of coercive compliance, and thus it resides in the eye of the beholder, in the eyes of others, of the world’s public, not in one’s own eyes when one gazes narcissistically in the mirror.
Worse still, the Sri Lankan leaders do not understand the limits of their State’s own hard power, in relation to both the soft power of other communities (Tamils, Muslims, Christians) and the hard power of other states (India, the USA). In short, they do not understand the balance of power outside their shores. They do not grasp the larger reality in its tangible and intangible dimensions.
Mango / February 5, 2013
The rulers were aware of these geopolitical facts during the war. How did they forget them so soon after victory? Were they so drunk on victory that they convinced themselves that they could behave like Israel?
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Dr Dayan Jayatilleka / February 6, 2013
Yes, I’m afraid so. Hubris.
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Mango / February 6, 2013
Dear Dr DJ,
What are Sri Lanka’s allies (who rallied to its defence in the UNHRC victory in 2009) saying about this turn of events? Is ‘despair’ accurate?
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Native Vedda / February 6, 2013
Mango
Good to hear from you.
Please read CT report on rendition and pass this to Dayan:
“Page number 109 in the report says; “Sri Lanka permitted use of its airspace and airports for flights associated with CIA extraordinary rendition operations.Court documents indicate that at least one flight operated by Richmor Aviation (a company that operated flights for the CIA’s extraordinary rendition program)landed in Sri Lanka in 2003.The documents show that between August 12 and 15, 2003, a Richmor flight registered as N85VM took off from Washington, D.C., and stopped in Bangkok before making another stop at Sri Lanka’s Bandaranaike international airport in Colombo, and then flying on to Kabul, Dubai, and Shannon airport in Ireland.That flight coincided in time with the capture of Riduan Isamuddin (Hambali) in Bangkok in 2003.Isamuddin spent the next three years in secret CIA prisonsbefore ultimately being transferred as a “high value detainee” to Guantánamo Bay in September 2006, where he remains detained.See the detainee list in Section IV.There have been no known judicial cases or investigations in Sri Lanka relating to its participation in CIA secret detention and extraordinary rendition operations.”
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Mango / February 6, 2013
Hi NV,
It’s easier to compile a list of countries that didn’t participate in the US rendition program. Even Canada, a byword for bleeding hearted human rights campaigners, colluded in one of their own (Muslim) citizens being white vanned (or should I say ‘white jetted’) by the US. Credit to the Canadians however, for apologising and compensating him :)
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Panabokke / February 6, 2013
SriLanka wasn’t alone – half the world was with Sri Lanka in annihilatingthe LTTE believing MR’s promise he would go for devolution of power (not just 13, but 13 plus !)
Then people knew that he was lying through his teeth.
Then:
“If I make any devolutionary concessions to the Tamils, 13A Plus, Minus, Divided or Subtracted, it will be curtains for me.” The government’s parliamentary group met the evening before the esteemed visitors arrived and decided; ‘Let’s tell them the truth straight from the shoulder and upfront; let’s tell them, if we do it we are dead meat.’ – . – Sri Lanka: Indian Delegates go Home Empty Handed, Kumar David, Southasiaanlysis, 15 June 2011
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Native Vedda / February 8, 2013
Panabokke
By any chance you are related to the Irrigation expert and author Panabokke?
Say hello to him in case you are.
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Ben Hurling / February 6, 2013
Forget the rulers. A large portion of Sri Lankan population believe we have the best military in the world. Because we are the only nation in the world to eradicate terrorism. Other nations are now really jealous of our success. In their view.
We have a long way to go in educating our citizens about these realities DJ talks about.
Does anybody in the Sri Lankan press care to translate in-depth analysis such as this one to Sinhalese and Tamil? Language the main street of SL understands.
It is critical the Sri Lankan public, not just politicians improve their narrow worldview. If we are to combat our enemies in the LTTE rump overseas and Tamil Nadu.
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Native Vedda / February 6, 2013
Ben Hurling
“A large portion of Sri Lankan population believe we have the best military in the world.”
What is the evidence for your sweeping conclusion?
They are best in the world for reasons other than that you mentioned above.
The war was fought and won beacuse
30 Countries supported Sri Lanka
The LTTE leader was a psychopathic megalomaniac.
A war without witness
Geopolitics and Geoeconomics determined the outcome.
Hindians continue to protect the other psychopathic megalomaniac
Sri Lankan armed forces won the war when the enemy they chose to win was LTTE not IPKF.
Sri Lankan armed forces would not fight Indians but gloriously killed their own innocent people in 1971, between 1987 and 1991 and from 1983 to 2009.
Now can you give us the human cost of your war against innocent from 1971?
I am won’t be surprised if unofficial spokesman David Blacker helped you to count the victims.
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Ben Hurling / February 7, 2013
Native
I don’t believe in this statement of course, but many in SL do:
“A large portion of Sri Lankan population believe we have the best military in the world.”
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Native Vedda / February 7, 2013
Ben Hurling
“A large portion of Sri Lankan population believe we have the best military in the world.”
I too am beginning to believe it since I saw skeletons popping out of ditches in Matale. Well it has been a great achievement.
All these skeletons belonged to the people who died of indigestion during the second world war. A great story which might interest those who enjoy making and watching second world war movies.
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Agnos / February 5, 2013
DJ,
Despite my fundamental disagreements with you about GoSL war crimes your sycophantic support for Premadasa and MR, your just war theory, your embrace of Sinhala chauvinism when convenient, and your claim to be simultaneously Catholic and Marxist, I must say your realist view in this piece is well-argued.
By the way, in addition to the factors you mentioned, staunch pro-Israel policies in the US are also driven by a huge population of evangelical and right-wing Christians who irrationally argue, as Pat Robertson did, “…the continuation of Jewish sovereignty over the Holy Land is a further bulwark to us that the God of the Bible exists and that His Word is true.”
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Native Vedda / February 6, 2013
Agnos says:
“Despite my fundamental disagreements with you about GoSL war crimes your sycophantic support for Premadasa and MR,”
Could I remind you that you failed to mention his support for EPRLF and his ministerial portfolio in the North East provincial council during IPKF’s occupation of my ancestral land when many Tamils were killed, raped and tortured.
He supported IPKF.
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srilal / February 8, 2013
NV ,
Hope , you know the real identity of this so called “Mango ” geezer ! if not let me give you a clue , he is none other than the mango friend of our great spin doctor , DJ !
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Native Vedda / February 8, 2013
srilal
Nopes I don’t.
He is more of a fun doctor than a spin doctor.
Indians use him as the front man to come up with what they exactly want to achieve at UNHRC in Geneva and then pass the glory on to Dayan.
Who said Indian establishment is not grateful to people who serve them and serve them well. This is one way of paying back what was due to him for the services he rendered to Indian foreign policy enforcers during IPKF’s invasion and subsequent occupation of North East.
It is like puppet show.
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srilal / February 8, 2013
NV ,
pl go through all “mangos” comments and the other unofficial spokesperson’s comments , you will find the similarity .
PS . there is one technical method to find out the source of the comment , for obvious reasons i can’t reveal it here , NV.
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Mango / February 8, 2013
@ Srilal & NV,
As Wilde said “there is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.” So, I hate to spoil your rich inner fantasy life, but I’m not now nor have I ever been an undercover Indian agent of influence, a journalist, a professor, a doctor or unofficial spokesman for anyone – not even Dr DJ, who is more than capable of speaking for himself. :)
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srilal / February 8, 2013
Nice try !!!!!!!!
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Katmai / February 7, 2013
Agnos, this is exactly my beef with the guy. Yeah, I’ll admit the article puts all ducks in a row and is well written; but there are no revelations or new ideas.
It is the attitude of guys like these that bugs me the most. He comes out in various costumes from time to time and does he expect us to believe that he is the character he plays at the moment? Sorry, but I can’t help but notice the man inside the costume and various other roles he had played in this drama that is the history of Sri Lanka.
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Piyadasa Yalagala / February 6, 2013
Dayan J,present article is good approch of Foreign policy of Globle trend to be understand.Sri Lankan STATE and after end of war 2009,and change of Globle Blance of Economy power must take account by Policy makers before come into Stageartic decision of Natioanl and Internatioanl policies.. Dayan has enlightment certin imporant factors for Ruling Class in power.
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Watcher / February 6, 2013
Iam afraid, DJ does not understand American foreign policy from collective stand point.. President in USA have limited powers due to constitutional limitation and real power lies some where else.. In term of crises those hidden powers are at work and DJ seems to be blind to this fact or he has blinkers due to his marxist BS.
If DJ remove his marxist blinkers he may be able to see the world as it is but not from bankrupt political ideology that no one cares about.
There are so many links that SL got with US and they are separate from politics.
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PresiDunce Bean / February 6, 2013
For once I agree wholeheartedly with Dr.The Yarn. Hope this article could be translated and given to RogerProxy and his stooges because I doubt they will understand what the good doctor has written in the queens lingo.
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srilal / February 9, 2013
i wanted to say the same thing , DJ hats off man ,brilliant, keep up the good work !
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m c spencer / February 6, 2013
“The Garrison State Delusion” & ‘We Don’t Need You, We Got China’ Gota To US
The path taken by our Neo-Hitler and clan without a viable opposition in RW is apparently heading for a major violent conflagration that may prove Mark Twain after all was right for the wrong reasons where the East and West may meet in SL to settle their long overdue catch-up scores.
m c spencer – January 25, 2013
8:28 am
Reply
Dear Dr Dian,
Whilst I am very appreciative of your giving flesh, blood, bones, nerves and sinews to my above concern in this body of yours entitled “The Garrison State Delusion”. It was beyond my abilities to have been able to spread it out so well like this and thanks once again.
It’s almost impossible that the present ruling elite with its sycophants and dim-wits has the capacity to understand what you have so ably stated and there is no hope at all for them to comprehend and/or realise your insight and foresight that they will not give you what you truly deserve as you had performed in your UN capacity in the early days, as you have compromised much with them and undermined your credibility.
I’ve heard it said that there’s a Greek saying that states to the effect that “Whom the gods have chosen to strike dead, they first drive them mad”.
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Don Quixote / February 6, 2013
Does this mean Dayan Jayatilleke has finally come out of the closet and is declaring his opposition to the Rajapaksa dictatorship ?
If so please don’t try to jump on the bandwagon of others (there are no shortcuts) in the future. Get together with your good friend Rajiva and ressurect the liberal party (liberalism covers a touch of marxism) and get into parliment and try to raise the standards of our parliment at least for the next generation to benefit.
It is a long hard to road to bring our Country in to the first world, you and I will never se the job completed but at least be remmembered as one who TRIED !
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SRINATH FERNANDO / February 6, 2013
Special Presidential Commission of Inquiry needed to overhaul Foreign Ministry
(Published : 12:01 am May 18, 2012 | http://www.ft.lk)
There have been press reports lately giving a very messy picture of the state of affairs at the Ministry of External Affairs. The Deputy Leader of the UNP is calling for the resignation of Prof. G.L. Peiris in view of the ever-growing political chicanery at the Ministry.
The UNP Deputy Leader is mistaken in his assessment of Prof. Peiris. It would be better if the UNP Deputy Leader thinks critically about his actions that have had a very detrimental impact on the UNP and morale of the UNPers. If he wants to wrestle the leadership, he must first garner support from the old guard. Without wider support it would be a mistake even to attempt a leadership contest.
The UNP consists of various interests and interest groups. There are powerful pole-vaulters and what would be situation if he becomes the leader, only to create another powerful faction that would undermine his position? Just the same way of conducting separate May Day rallies in contravention of party decisions. He would realise the importance of party discipline when he becomes the leader of UNP in the future.
As far as his personal goals are concerned, his actions only undermine his long-term objectives as by that time UNP will have been weakened even further. It is high time he set aside his factional politics and stood behind the UNP Leader.
Prof. GLP: a man with many credentials
It is not the Minister but the policies of the Government that have bedevilled the External Affairs Ministry. He is an academic of international repute and one of the scholars of rare type with unparallel credentials. It would be a mistake to replace Prof. Peiris at this hour of need. He has excellent contacts with various governments and he is the ideal mouthpiece to retrieve our lost friendship with the West.
Some of our academics who had been appointed as ambassadors and who had been defending Sri Lanka on human rights issues seem to be writing strange stories to newspapers about the dynamics of decision-making at highest levels of Government.
Prof. Peiris’ approach is markedly different from these academics who have been a little aggressive in their choice of words when diplomacy was the need of the hour whereas Prof. Peiris is more into using proper niceties of diplomacy and not interested in verbosity.
However, the internal dynamics that have come to light through media seem to indicate that a drastic overhaul is needed. This is a prelude to a wider discussion that is necessary in order to revamp the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Some press reports indicated that the previous Minister had the gumption to appoint some of his close confidants to key positions and there have been widespread revulsion among career diplomats over such appointments.
We had a similar situation when the July ’83 riots broke out in Sri Lanka and the international media had field days reporting on the worst atrocities against Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka. Most of the Heads of Diplomatic Missions were from the Tamil community and none had the courage to defend the Sri Lankan Government at that time, it was purely because families, properties and friends of ambassadors themselves had come under fire from the marauders who had taken the law unto themselves.
Strategic influence might be needed
The mechanism of overhauling the Foreign Ministry must be through a Special Presidential Commission of Inquiry so a that wider cross section of experts could be appointed to look into our foreign policy options and the internal set-up that is needed to accomplish the policy objectives.
The need for reforms is pressing in view of the rapidly changing situation in Tamil Nadu. One aspect Sri Lanka might have to look into is the strategic influence. There seems to be a hate campaign against Sri Lanka especially in Tamil Nadu targeting individuals, organisations and properties of Sri Lanka.
It is high time Sri Lanka entered the war of ideas, of hearts and minds – a war of ideologies as potent and dangerous as it is manifested in the overseas media. The war for the minds of men should include our friends, allies and neutral audiences as well as hostile ones.
Strategic influence is primarily defined as the deliberate, conscious coordination or integration of all Government informational activities designed to influence opinions, attitudes and behaviour of foreign groups in such a way that it would promote the agendas of Sri Lanka and to achieve maximum psychological effect.
Moderation in dealing with hostile powers
We must not lose sight of the fact that ours is a small country and no world power is going cow down to dictates of Sri Lanka. We need to live with all issues of the global power game, especially between India and Unites States.
There are regular consultations between India and Unites States over the internal affairs of Sri Lanka. There is a strategic partnership between India and United States. This newly-formed partnership is keeping close tabs over ever-growing Chinese influence in Sri Lanka. It is the Government that must balance the scales of power politics in the region.
India would not allow China to exploit our oil and mineral resources. China may have such grand intentions but at the end of the day we will have to go with India. We must never overlook or underestimate India’s will to dilute the Chinese influence in Sri Lanka.
Never should we expect a Congress government to be in power all the time and there is potential for a coalition partnership in Delhi with Tamil parties with written agreements and accords to intervene in Sri Lankan domestic affairs.
(The writer is a freelance journalist and a political lobbying and government relations consultant.)
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Wambotta / February 6, 2013
Great wisdom comes when you don’t kiss MR’s ass doesn’t it?? At least try and redeem some dignity. You show that you have the intelligence to understand what this regime stands for. Don’t once again sell your soul for a few dollars and fancy postings. Get back some respect man. The least you could do.
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Aney Apochchi! / February 6, 2013
D.J epitomizes the difference between being clever and being wise, with his cleverness tempered with a monumental lack of principle.
He refuses to acknowledge the fleas he carries after years of lying with the dogs of the Premadasa and Rajapaksa eras.
His conscience only awakens when he is out of favour with his fascist buddies or in between assignments to carry out their dictates.
However, having outgrown Aesop, it’s good to have Dayan Jayatilleke to go to though the wisdom that the older fairy tales carried is missing from this political weathervane’s endless drivel.
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anaperera / February 6, 2013
Anyone who has read Ravaya’s wimalege kolama by Wimalanath Weeraratne just after our great leader mahinda’s visit to vietnam a few years ( was it in late ’10) ago can very well visualise:
while this self anointed revolutionary, foreign policy wonk, master strategist, 13A champion, all sliced and “Kottu rottied” into one mash, is endlessly talking these things ( in that column in scene in a vietcong era tunnel while DJ preaches in front of a portrait of a communist general rajapakse thinks of only removing sarath F portraits back in SL) rajapakses and their acolytes think of only of the next deal be it weapons, a road a bridge or a land and next romp in bed or any other place and who is the next person to be the “condom” in their use and discard gutter politics.
But knowing how to spot weaknesses of all their acolytes, rajapakses proverbial nose tells what a hypocrite this guy DJ is, as they read his mind like we read this passage
“Sri Lanka has not a single of Israel’s advantages. It cannot be any kind of model or inspiration for our conduct towards our Tamil citizens in the former conflict areas, the region or the world.”
Even if SL were to have these advantages, is that a line of thinking any sensible independent should think of as within israel itself they are questioning this stand as evidenced through last election ?
Finally, Rajapakses’ current course of action is not at all to make a garrison state, it is plain, clumsy repression a la Zim, Bangla et al. Whatever writings try to portray that line, has no foundation as the prime ingredient required for Israel like situation – the threat of immediate neighboring countries and population groups – can’t be made up by any stretch of imagination. And, in this article’s clumsy mix – the three blind spots (while they are weak spots in SL current foreign policy admittedly) don’t sit together with garrison theory, and therefore the sounds that emanate are empty while being loud, like an empty discarded vessel, literally.
Rajapakses know very well how utterly bankrupt in thinking these acolytes are, as mush as they know how utterly bankrupt Ranil, Hakeem, Sampanthan, Fonseka severally and together.
Please note we, the citizenry, know, too. One nice thing is, there are not many quotes, as was noted in Groundview earlier, from gramsci etc etc;, as before, and thanks for that.
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Mahanama / February 6, 2013
Dayan, You sound very clever and realistic in the analysis of the status quo of our foreign relations. You seem to infer the idea that leadership has been weakened or rather blindfolded by some uncouth and abrasive management of those responsible in such matters. I hold the reverse opinion in that the problem has been created by the very center of power that does not brook the idea of a flexible,coherent and a thoroughly researched approach not only in foreign relations but in most matters of governance.When the apparatus of a government is being kept in a servile state as you may well know,it is almost difficult for fresh winds to blow and flowers to bloom.
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Katmai / February 6, 2013
The guy spent years at the controls and didn’t have the time to tell “rulers” any of this sh*t. Now that he is out here, he spends his time telling us what the “the ruling elite” should be doing; forgetting that he was part of that “Sri Lankan policy makers” clique. While he was with them he must have had his mouth full, sucking up, because we never heard any of this BS from him back then.
The rest of us don’t have access to the special phone-lines to “the ruling elite” so we air our thoughts on here. This guy, along with Rajiva W., Malinda S., et al., when they no longer can abuse state media, come here to tell us how the country must be run. WHY TELL US? This seems to be what the guy is reduced to these days; just making noise and staying visible until a chairmanship at a NGO comes along; or an ambassador position if he is lucky. I for one despise a-holes like this who spend their life looking for ways to get themselves perks on people’s account; and Sri Lanka is full of them. It is not like he’s going to be building anything useful for mankind with his background in Political Science, anyway.
Ask yourself this question, if the “policy makers” like this douchebag, for some of whom we even have statues for, are so brilliant, why is the country in the crapper? I don’t know why anyone bothers with people like these, anymore.
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N .Wimaladasa / February 6, 2013
The genealogy of Hegemony of Imperialism is in this sense of Europen-origin,but however,in present contex power of hegemony are not limited to any reagion.By the logic of Rule that in some common sense and peculiar of originated in Europe.Then that pratice of domination enlarge to United State, now invest and pratices throughout the Globe.
End of second world war present Goble Order passage from Modernity to Post-modernity since 1945 of last 68 years.
De-colonilzation of Colonial countries and nations last several decades since 1960, power of hegemony, become weak of soft power had been rapidly decline of hegemonism of US and EU counties. Independence, Sovergenity, Terroitorial Intergerity has come to central quesation of that democracy of Free Nations.Dozens of Indepedence nation right of economic development and safeguard of soverginity had been denied and intefer -headed by US and EU nations.All perspecetive of such diplomatic mission aimning is West achive on Globle role of hegemony and maintain their hard power by US and its allies.
The realm of expolation and plundering of producation is where nation-social inequalities are clearly revealed and more effective resistance and altaernative to the power of Hegemony arise.
That is who BRICS and Non-Alined groups came into being out of hegemony vicious cycle had been created and that intitiate new World Order in last several decades.More visible on BRICS being to exist,that context they have to turn lessons of the 2008 Great Depression.
Which showed that tendencies of this kind creat failures of Diplomantic enviroment of US soft power. It is not just for microeconomic failures of US headed instituation, incuding IMF and World Bank, unable recover economy of Hegemony of Hard power since 2008.( Militry and Finicial and Economy)
As noted such trend have not been reined, in but have strengthened BRICS after the 2008 crisis in order to attract capital from weak developned nation finicial Capital.In essance of Economic terms US and EU no efforts to RESTORE elements of the REGULATORY FRAME WROK disimantled since 1980s, when the shifted from structural to MARKET-MEDIATED regulation occurred of unblance develop of capitalism.
Is obvoice MSN finiance capital in Rich nation has not been REINED in after the 2008 crisis and EMERGING COUNTRIES,then the surge of emerging capital of BRICS nations.
The Diplomatice venus has change Asian Region, specially South Asian region become ,end of 30 years War in Sri Lankan 2009 May.
2010 Obama visit to India had been change to India-US make stratergy partnership effect on diplomatic relatioship has been change towards agianst anti-China stand.
Indeed in reality China and India trading become boom closed to Us $ 100 Billion dollars.Vice verse both nation of china,India and Many Asian nation were not affect by US and EU ,Japan financial crsis and EVEN REMAINED THE FAST-GROWING POLES IN A RECESSION HIT,multi-speed Golbal economy are expected to be SLOW DOWN. Their central problem could be that shift of unprecedent crisis in the Geogeraphic shifting of our south Asian region; as well as hence crisis in alround way(diplomacy) from US and EU ,futher they could be the extent to next our regionl crisis of South Asia.
Undoubtly it is true weak,backward and underdevelop Capitailsm having enough room to be expanded diversification of producation of Industries, Agriculture and manufacturing with capital-finance playing an important role is inevitable economic growth of India.
And China denied so-called ” China Threat” by version of west ,China said sustainable Developement ensure of new innvoation of human civilization of modernity of NEW Golbal Order.
We have to take into account China, as a major rival and competitor of globally because, china is the ONLY nation that can compete agianst it in all sphere after collaps of Soviet Uinon.
In my view Dayan J has made certain contriubtion for Foreign policy.
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punchinilame / February 6, 2013
SL does not need any Foreign Policy ideals if it can settle its internal
ethnic issue once and for all. This is not possible as long as the Sinh-
ala Politician is greedy for Votes only. Who created the growing Diaspora and internationalized the “tamil” problem?
DJ as usual puts up an Intellectual Front for recruitment. No way,
as Gota decides where the next Army training is to take place and Naval
Exercies with China with another boot-licker Rohan G`s guide! The
floating armoury is probably his brain-wave?
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bitemytail / February 6, 2013
who let the dog out!……. who let the dog out……… who let the dog out…..
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bitemytail / February 6, 2013
dayan jayathileka ..
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Bedrock Barney / February 6, 2013
“At the stroke of the Geneva hour, while GL sleeps, Dayan will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a intellectual, long suppressed, finds utterance”
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Native Vedda / February 8, 2013
Mango
I was commenting about Dayan’s very close relationship with EPRLF during Indian occupation, it is not about you.
Mango man wake up.
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Mango / February 8, 2013
Apologies, NV; I’ll try to wake up next time :)
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Native Vedda / February 9, 2013
Mango man
I don’t sleep so I don’t have such problems.
When my ancestral land is occupied by Tamils in the North East and Sinhalese in the South West and my people are sandwiched between these two people how can I sleep?
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G&T / February 9, 2013
Srilal,
I thought I knew who this Mango Bugger was. But after reading Native Vedda’s and your comments above I’m confused.
The technical method you mentioned above, are you still investigating or do you have a definite result?
Will you have an answer before the next Geneva meeting in April?
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srilal / February 10, 2013
Since you seem to know the real identity of Mango, let’s leave it that way , why bother ?That comment was meant to NV ! CT will not allow me to go in to great Technical details, so i guess it is up to you for that little research and to find out. All I can say is , in advanced digital communication systems, it is a futile effort to conceal the source of the message.
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Shan / March 26, 2013
In his book, Professor John Garver writes , in 1986, Jayawardene asked Deng Tsiao Ping, the Chinese PM to attack India to relieve Indian pressure on Sri Lanka. Deng refused outright and asked Jayawardene to grant some autonomy and solve the tamil problem. In 1986, the China card was played by Jayawardene and lost.
The next factor that must be considered is that in the next election, Congress and UPA are lost cause and an NDA coalition will come to power. To many of BJP allies, Narendra Modi is unacceptable. In this scenario, if Jayalalitha has 30 MPs she can become Indian Prime Minister. In 1996, Deve Gowda became PM with 10 MPs. Sri Lanka leaders need to ponder the prospect of Jayalalitha as Indian PM. Jayalalitha has called for naval blockade of Sri Lanka
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