{"id":201471,"date":"2019-05-13T07:00:29","date_gmt":"2019-05-13T01:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=201471"},"modified":"2019-05-16T12:55:03","modified_gmt":"2019-05-16T07:25:03","slug":"male-fragility-the-sri-lankan-crisis-a-queer-feminist-reading-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/male-fragility-the-sri-lankan-crisis-a-queer-feminist-reading-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Male Fragility & The Sri Lankan Crisis: A Queer Feminist Reading\u00a0– II"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Chamindra Weerawardhana<\/a>\u00a0\u2013<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Dr. Chamindra Weerawardhana<\/p><\/div>\n

In the first article of this series<\/a><\/strong>, this writer highlighted how the frontline male leadership has been complicit in allowing major national security lapses, letting an unprecedent tragedy happen under their watch. The first article also dwelled upon Gotabaya Rajapaksa<\/strong><\/a>, due to his position as a presidential hopeful, his 2010-2015 role as the holder of full oversight over national security, and his public proclamations in the aftermath of the devastating Easter Sunday tragedy<\/strong><\/a>. As people were mourning their loved ones, as little children who dressed up to go to mass on Easter Sunday lay dead and brutally dismembered in three churches, as the lives of many innocent citizens who had done nothing wrong were shattered, Gotabaya was quick to talk to Reuters and reiterate his preparedness to enter the forthcoming presidential race. Hence the importance of devoting attention to his claims and aspects of his work in the first article. What follows below is very much an essential \u2018prelude\u2019 to a queer feminist reading of the foreign policy and national security intersections of the current crisis.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Understanding the problem<\/b><\/p>\n

First and foremost, what happened in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday 2019 cannot be understood as a domestic problem. <\/b>When something of this nature happens in a strategically vital place in the global South, the initial, if not most popular tendency among many is to frame this as a \u2018local\u2019 problem. This is what Western media did from the 21st<\/sup> April 2019 onwards. This \u2018local framing\u2019 is also the preferred mantra of many in Colombo\u2019s NGO lobby. The current situation is highly beneficial to them, as they now have the prospect of obtaining increased funding for their \u2018projects\u2019 and careerist agendas. The same goes for the so-called \u2018Sri Lanka experts\u2019 in the West – white people clueless about Sinhala and\/or Tamil, who, having spent short periods \u2018researching\u2019 in Sri Lanka, getting their \u2018field\u2019 research translated with the help of someone, and subsequently getting published in English. They often assume that they are absolute experts on all things Sri Lankan. The worst reality is that the work produced by these individuals is widely considered in Western and supranational lobbies as credible knowledge. These \u2018experts\u2019 are highly reluctant to acknowledge the limits of their work, and the tremendous racial, socio-political and financial privileges they have. They perceive Sri Lankan scholars and academics only as their auxiliaries. Given these exploitative racial politics and power dynamics, a necessary national security mechanism is to enforce strict monitoring on the work of these self-serving \u2018Sri Lanka experts\u2019 in the West, as well as their local counterparts, mostly in the NGO sector and to a lesser yet non-negligible extent in the academy. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In sum, if we are to make sense of what happened on Easter Sunday 2019 and what is currently going on in Sri Lanka, we need to look beyond the desperate efforts by many people to frame these attacks as a result of a \u2018local\u2019 problem \u2013 of ethnonationalism, ethno-religious nationalism\/antagonism or ethno-religious outbidding.\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

The key to the truth lies outside our shores.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is a matter of Sri Lanka becoming a highly strategic pawn in an international, if not global power struggle between the united states of america, a white-settler colony on the unceded sovereign Indigenous territories of Turtle Island, and the rise of China as a key player in world affairs. Some call this the rise of \u2018Eastphalia\u2019 with special reference to the rise of India and China as world powers. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In what follows, I will focus on some aspects of the intersections of national security and foreign policy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Why President Rajapaksa Lost<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

A robust national security strategy cannot be put in place without an equally robust foreign policy focus. Lapses in foreign policy were a key reason behind the international challenges faced by the Rajapaksa administration. Or, to correct that sentence along a queer feminist-political perspective, the absence of a national security strategy that clearly identified foreign policy priorities and deployed the best resources and talent to manage foreign policy, happened to be a key reason behind the majority of the problems the Rajapaksa administration [especially in the second mandate] confronted on the world stage. During the war effort, strategically useful decisions, such as the rapprochement with China, reinforcement of relations with Iran, engaging in a balancing act with Congress-led Delhi, and arms-length collaborations with US defence structures in the war effort, were all in motion.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, the post-war scenario required a higher plane of expertise and innovation. A war that the West assumed to be unwinnable was won, something that the West considered [and still considers] to be an undue if not un-endorsed aggression by a South Asian government. Hence the continued USA-led emphasis on pushing Sri Lanka against the wall, not to mention their strong resolve to orchestrate the regime change operation of 2015.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sino-Lanka Dynamics: a [very] brief recap<\/b><\/p>\n

What happened in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday has a great deal to do with Sri Lanka\u2019s position and role in China\u2019s \u201cOne Belt-One Road\u201d strategy. To us in Sri Lanka, this kind of global cooperation is nothing new. Sri Lanka has long-standing diplomatic, trade and cultural ties with China, and ties of kinship run very deep. Suffice to look, for instance, at the legacy of Chinese engagements in the Kingdom of Kotte. The fact that China was a key partner to us on the world stage centuries prior to that is proven by documented evidence that dates back at least to around AD 410, when Faxian [\u6cd5\u986f] visited Lanka.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Lanka has to be, is, and must be a player in the \u2018One Belt One Road\u2019 strategy and there must be no question of that. These are ties that run deep. That exploitative practices come into play in big power-small power relations is a given. However, what is commendable about Chinese policy is that China does not have the reputation of committing brutal mass murder and national tragedies to orchestrate regime changes in order to sustain their corporate, strategic and diplomatic interests.<\/b> The exception could perhaps be what came to be known as the Ming-Kotte War, in which the Chinese forces were steered by Admiral Zheng He [\u912d\u548c]. However, the scars of that confrontation were soon healed, with HM Parakramabahu the\u00a0 <\/span>VIth, \u2013 a close ally of the Ming dynasty \u2013 strengthening economic and diplomatic ties with China. His close ties with China were such that one of his sons who went to China on a diplomatic mission married a Chinese princess and settled down there. Direct descendants<\/a> of the Kotte royal lineage still live in China.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Debunking a myth<\/b><\/p>\n

Many people tend to buy into the fiction that under the joint government,\u00a0 <\/span>foreign policy witnessed an improvement. This argument is mostly justified on the grounds that Sri Lanka earned \u2018the respect of the world\u2019 under the Joint Government. This statement is often followed by the point that under the Samaraweera\/ Karunanayake\/ Marapana\/ Wickremesinghe purview, Colombo \u2018mended\u2019 her relations with the \u2018West\u2019 [not to mention a President rejoicing that the Queen of England shook hands with him with her \u0d85\u0dad\u0dda \u0db8\u0dda\u0dc3\u0dca \u0d9c\u0dbd\u0dc0\u0dbd\u0dcf!]. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

All of the above positions are deeply flawed. Under the joint government, Sri Lankan foreign policy became a sheepish agenda with zero regard for Sri Lankan interests and the national sovereignty of the state. Here again, the failure was that of men in power, on the frontline as well as behind the scenes. Every high-level delegation to the UN HRC was highly representative of the of phallocentric politics of fragile, insecure and geriatric masculinities this writer mentioned in the first article of this series. In full and unconditional deference to the big powers that put them in office, the joint government and its delegations to Geneva carried themselves in the most despicable manner, agreeing to resolutions and covert strategies to push the Sri Lankan state against the wall. Colombo should NEVER have agreed to Resolution 31\/1, and its highly coercive nature and excessive focus on sensitive matters pertaining to national security.\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

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The phallocentric frontline: Root cause of the current mess [\u00a9Daily FT]<\/p><\/div>We can therefore conclude that foreign policy under the joint government has been, unfortunately, a lot worse than under the Rajapaksa administration. When the Hambantota port was leased to China on a 99-year lease, the self-serving and incompetent bigots in power in Colombo did not work well enough to contain, if not constructively address, the concerns of Delhi and Washington DC. What happened on Easter Sunday 2019 was the ultimate result of such policy nightmares.\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

The Keyword: USA\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Today, USS John C. Stennis is docked off Sri Lankan waters, in close proximity to one of our most strategic sea ports, the port of Trincomalee. Many observers, including MPs, have highlighted that supplies to USS John C. Stennis go via Katunayake, with zero checks of the merchandise being flown in on a U.S. Navy C-40A Clipper logistics aircraft\u00a0and then re-loaded on to a C-2A Greyhound\u00a0 aircraft to be flown on board USS John C. Stennis.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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USS John C. Stennis [\u00a9Commander, US Pacific Fleet]<\/p><\/div>All of this has been facilitated by the Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement [ACSA]. Originally signed in 2007, it expired in 2017, and when a question was raised in Parliament in June 2017, Ranil, aka \u2018Yankee Dickie\u2019s nephew\u2019 Wickremesinghe answered\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cextending the agreement with the U.S. will be utmost importance given the global situation today.\u201d<\/a> To date, the draft text extension agreement has not been tabled in Parliament, or been the object of a proper parliamentary debate. Sri Lankan citizens have the right to know if it was the 2007 agreement that was extended, or if the post-2017 ACSA differs in any way from its earlier version, favouring the USA. It would also be of interest to know who signed it off on behalf of the joint government, and if the Defence Secretary did so, there is no denial that not only Wickremesinghe, but also Sirisena knew all about it. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That provisioning for USS John C. Stennis takes place under ACSA provisions is a fair explanation. However, how come our Air Force and security services have no access to thoroughly check the contents being passed through Katunayake? The US authorities have publicly stated that<\/a> \u201cNo cargo, military equipment, or personnel associated with this initiative will remain in Sri Lanka after completion of the cargo transfers\u201d. However, given the undeniable US underhand in causing an unprecedented WSD terror attack, Sri Lanka allowing unchecked US merchandise to pass through her territory can only be read as a threat to national security.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Herein lies a key cue to understanding the current \u2018goings-on\u2019 in Sri Lanka. And let\u2019s not forget, the hotbed of Wahhabi\/Salafi\/Deobandi [WSD] activity on the east coast is Kattankudy<\/a>, a strip of land with shores on left and right [and not too far from USS Stennis and increased US naval activity on Lankan territorial waters]. The arrival of the USA to a highly strategic global South location such as Sri Lanka in this manner can only spell disaster, manipulations of internal politics, political manoeuvring, destabilisation of governments, conspiracies to create chaos and situations of unrest. Our political class needs to be very cautious when dealing with US interests in the Indian Ocean region.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When the USA wants to make a grande entr\u00e9e<\/i> into a country, an initial step is creating chaos, murder and a climate of desperateness, often using a WSD terror threat narrative. This is precisely what happened on Easter Sunday 2019. The only way to avoid such destruction in future is to have far-sighted and strategically-minded leaders who can productively \u2018contain\u2019 US interests, in a way in which Sri Lankan interests are least affected, while ensuring that cordial relations prevail between Colombo and Washington DC.\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Without a US underhand [which was actively endorsed by\u00a0 <\/span>the power-wielding menfolk in Colombo based on calculations pertaining to their political interests], attacks of this magnitude would never have been possible. The USA is currently engaged \u2013 with the collusion of Sri Lankan leaders \u2013 in a mission to making the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka correspond well and truly to Donald Trump\u2019s very uncreative image of \u2018s**thole countries<\/a>\u2019. The collusion of local men in power is the most plausible explanation of their lack of empathy, surprise, shock or any feeling of grief in the face of this national tragedy [pace<\/i> occasional gimmicks to score political points].\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A US aggression in the making over a long time?\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Over the last couple of years, several Sri Lankan [pseudo]journos have been working with their counterparts in US broadsheets such as the New York Times<\/i>, to publish<\/a> one article after another spewing negativity about Chinese-run development projects in Sri Lanka. This was part of a broader fearmongering effort to discredit \u2018One Belt One Road\u2019 strategy, focusing especially on many sovereign states of the African continent. In relation to Sri Lanka, these [pseudo]journos were hell-bent on highlighting the \u2018futility\u2019 of Chinese investments, negatively portraying Chinese economic activity, coming up with terms such as \u2018debt diplomacy<\/a>\u2019. These ideas propagated in the media were in fact meant at echoing the Trump administration\u2019s formal stance on its aggressive \u201cIndo-Pacific\u201d policy. The tragedy of\u00a0 <\/span>Easter Sunday 2019 was caused by this \u201cIndo-Pacific\u201d policy of claiming ownership to other people\u2019s land and waters (<\/b>nothing to be surprised, as the USA, in truth, is a settler-colonialist state built on other people\u2019s land, where the rightful owners of that land, especially women<\/a>, continue to be subjected to high levels of violence, murder and suppression).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That the same [pseudo]journos\u00a0 <\/span>were going around covering the Easter Sunday bloodbath and expressing great shock and sadness on social media was an extremely nauseating reality.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Writing on Colombo Telegraph<\/i> on 21st<\/sup> October 2018<\/a>, Rajeewa Jayaweera referred to a speech made by Mick Pence, accusing China of debt diplomacy. Pence, as Jayaweera rightly noted, is privy to the highest levels of decision-making on defence and strategic priorities in the US federal government. Pence, who a commentator once described as \u201ca man who has built his career on homophobia and misogyny<\/a>\u201d, has been trying to frame China\u2019s international development and cooperation work as a set of \u201cunfair trade practices to enhance its [China\u2019s] influence\u201d at every possible opportunity he comes before a microphone and an audience. In relation to Sri Lanka, the highly strategic nature of Sri Lanka has been highlighted in State Department circles over many years. Today, their Sri Lanka policy is garnished in an anti-China sauce. This is where the root cause of the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks lie.\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

This anti-China discourse is central to the way in which the mediocre white males in the Trump administration perceive their place in the world. At a global US chiefs of mission conference held at the Foggy Bottom headquarters of the State Department on 16 January 2019, Pence noted<\/a>:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“The truth is, too often in recent years China has chosen a path of disregard of the laws and norms that have kept the world safe and prosperous for more than half a century and the days of the United States looking the other way are over. Perhaps most importantly, we’ve put China on notice,”<\/p>\n

It is no surprise if this sheer arrogance, coercive and downright undiplomatic nature of the Trump administration would make one ask if the white blokes who run it are also adherents of a hue of Wahhabism! In fact they are, as the kind of Christian fundamentalist cis-heteronormative and white supremacist world they believe in is a [non]discourse that is very much a twin sister to Wahhabi inanities. This does not, however, mean that Democratic administrations, with their emphasis on LGBT+ rights and concern for minorities around the world, are better. They are at the very top of the hypocrisy spectrum.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The script so far<\/b><\/p>\n

When people document the developments leading to the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks, the general tendency is to focus exclusively on the development of local ethnonational and especially ethnoreligious tensions. While this may be useful in understanding the local dynamics, the real \u2018bottom line\u2019 of what happened on Easter Sunday 2019 is best understood in how things took shape on the foreign affairs and geostrategic fronts.\u00a0 <\/span>The list below is incomplete, but would help put things in perspective:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

1. 2014-15: Regime change drive, succeeds with the help of many stakeholders including a former Sri Lankan president, public figures and very possibly, powerful figures within the Rajapaksa administration and the Rajapaksa family who happened to be US citizens and had vested interests on US soil as well as power-political projects on Sri Lankan soil.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

2. Jan 2015-present: a debilitated joint government in power \u2013 with a president who is not versed in foreign languages, foreign affairs and international diplomacy [and a bunch of advisors of the same ilk], and a Prime Minister who is extremely pro-US, un-strategic, weak and unpatriotic. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

3. 2017: ACSA is extended in the form of\u00a0 <\/span>a shady deal, with the revised clauses not being tabled in Parliament.<\/p>\n

4. Mid-2017: Sri Lanka signs lease of Hambantota Port, to China Merchant Port Holdings, on a 99-year debt-for-equity swap. A great deal of Western media obsession over this decision, followed by displeasure in Washington DC.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

5. 2017-present: Increased US presence on Sri Lankan territorial waters, especially on the East Coast, in close proximity to the highly strategic Trinco port.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

2018: some Sri Lankan analysts continue to uphold the view that a US Republican administration would be more favourable to Sri Lanka than a Democratic administration. Here\u2019s a fine example<\/a>. The developments over the last two years have shown that this is a major miscalculation. The US prioritises its interests irrespective of what administration is in power, and the only way for Sri Lanka to work around that is to have leaders who understand complex geopolitics and prioritise Sri Lankan interests.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

6. Early 2019-present: Supplies to USS John C. Stennis passing via Katunayake with zero checks by Lankan authorities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

7. [In tandem with all of the above] Proliferation of large quantities of arms and ammunition to the hands of WSD extremist terrorists on Sri Lankan soil.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

8. 2018: US-led media campaign negatively portraying Chinese development and economic cooperation initiatives in Sri Lanka [with the active participation of Sri Lankan pseudo-journalists]<\/p>\n

9. 2019 Easter Sunday Attacks + plot to make it look like an ISIS-led attack. From attacks on churches and luxury hotels to the unusual expressions of solidarity in Tel-Aviv, these attacks clearly carry the standard footprint of aggressive US-led state destabilisation efforts.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

10. [post Easter Sunday attacks] \u2013 Terrain created to justify increased FBI and CIA presence in Sri Lanka<\/p>\n

11. The US Ambassador in Colombo tells Reuters that<\/a> \u201cWe certainly have reason to believe that the active attack group has not been fully rendered inactive. We do believe that there is active planning underway.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>[How can the top diplomat of a third country make such comments? The one and only way to make sense of these words is that Teplitz \u2013 calling her an ambassador is an insult to the noble profession of diplomacy \u2013 is acutely aware of, and is on top of, what\u2019s currently going on in Sri Lanka<\/b> [her awareness seems to be a lot better than that of the two primary school boys MS and RW].\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

12. Retired US diplomat Robert O Blake lands in Colombo, and delivers a speech supportive of fellow US Citizen and Sri Lankan presidential hopeful Gotabaya Rajapaksa, noting that Sri Lanka needs \u201cstrong and unified political leadership\u201d. The majority of Gotabaya the Yank\u2019s supporters sheepishly assume that he is the only leader who can face up to coercive US involvement in Sri Lanka\u2019s internal politics! Blake\u2019s speech<\/a> carries evidence that the Easter Sunday bombings were, first and foremost, a US-led strategy to enhance its influence over Sri Lanka, if not to make sure that Sri Lanka is kept under its control. Blake repeatedly dwells upon what he terms \u2018increased military cooperation\u2019, also referring to how difficult it was when he was ambassador in Colombo to develop such initiatives [poor Blake!]. He then calls for an increased World Bank stake in economic management. He categorically pins the Easter Sunday bombings on isis [yet another US-creation<\/a>], thereby creating an initial basis for increased US military activity at all levels. Sri Lanka needs to be very wary of Blake\u2019s advice about increased US investments in the country, which can only benefit US corporate capital interests. The US, for the record, is the primary perpetrator of global terrorism. <\/b>It is crucial for all of Colombo\u2019s NGO darlings desperate for US \u201caid\u201d to be conscious of this reality. If Colombo is truly committed to national security, a first step to take is reduce US-aided NGO work to a strict minimum, while simultaneously imposing a blanket ban on Islamic banking and Saudi funding to WSD individuals and groups.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This script has been tried elsewhere \u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Sri Lanka is faced with the worst and most challenging national security crisis that our ancient land has ever faced in over twenty centuries of her documented history. <\/b>Our island risks being completely lost to us if a firm and genuinely patriotic leadership does not take over, and steer Sri Lanka in the right direction. What happened on Easter Sunday follows a pattern. In late 2016, President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines ordered US troops to leave his country, in an effort to break a 65-year-old US military stronghold. Duterte was blunt in affirming that he will not tolerate Washington treating his country \u201clike a doormat<\/a>\u201d and himself a \u201cdog on a leash<\/a>\u201d. By May 2017, Wahhabi ISIS terrorists appeared in the Philippines, and destroyed the city of Marawi. This gave the USA a reason to affirm the necessity of the presence of its forces in the Philippines. US forces soon started \u2018assisting\u2019<\/a> their Filipino counterparts!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Colombo tomorrow??? Marawi after the US-orchestrated terror [\u00a9Deutsche Welle]<\/p><\/div>Similar US-backed, Wahhabi threat has been imposed on Myanmar\u2019s Rakhine state<\/a>, a key strategic point in China\u2019s One Belt-One Road strategy. Identical efforts to spew ethno-religious and ethnonational tensions have been in motion in Thailand<\/a>, another ally of China and an important partner for One Belt-One Road. The USA is directly behind the ethnoreligious antagonisms currently brewing in Thailand. In China, the USA has been trying to accuse the Chinese authorities of islamophobia, by mushrooming a WSD-focused ISIS threat in Xinjiang<\/a>. Easter Sunday 2019 saw this same approach being applied to Sri Lanka. <\/b>The narrative now is very similar to what is happening in the Philippines, with the USA pledging all forms of \u2018support\u2019.\u00a0 <\/span>As one commentator notes<\/a>:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Destabilizing Sri Lanka \u2013 a critical South Asian partner of Beijing and its OBOR initiative \u2013 with terrorism and ethnoreligious conflict, serves only the interests of China\u2019s overt global opponent \u2013 Washington \u2013 as well as elements within India\u2019s ruling elite and intelligence agencies.<\/p>\n

The US is both arsonist and self-appointed fireman. <\/b>And until this racket is fully and repeatedly exposed \u2013 until after each terrorist attack the US is put forth as the primary suspect and made to pay a high political price for its use of global terrorism \u2013 this game of arson-firefighting will continue at the cost of innocent lives, national development, and global peace and stability. <\/b>[emphasis mine]<\/p>\n

Reversing this situation would mean Sri Lanka standing on a firm footing of prizing her national sovereignty and a foreign policy that focuses on containing big power interests and prioritising Sri Lankan interests.<\/b> We need a foreign policy approach that simultaneously \u2018contains\u2019 US aggression while maintaining and strengthening our links with China and Russia, while striving to further strengthen our friendships and partnerships with Delhi. Countering US aggression and strengthening ties with Iran would be a strategy in containing WSD extremism locally. As far as China is concerned, the white settlers of the US of A need to come to terms with the fact that Sri Lanka and China \u2018existed\u2019 and had diplomatic ties long before their settler-colony came to being. Sri Lanka cannot and should not in any way hinder or downgrade our relations with China because of US pressure, US aggression and US-incited terror.\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Our Tragedy: Lack of Leadership\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

At the present time, Sri Lanka has absolutely no credible political leadership. This enhances the risk, as some analysts have thoughtfully highlighted, of a NATO base in Trinco<\/a>. Delhi\u2019s concerns on this prospect are clear in the repeated notifications made to Sri Lankan authorities about the Easter Sunday attacks, with the most likely objective of avoiding and\/or subverting them. In order to face these unprecedented and extremely dangerous challenges, we need a powerful, highly patriotic, knowledgeable and diligent political leadership. Ideally, they<\/a> must be complemented by an equally patriotic new political class aged below 55 with full gender parity. The word \u2018patriotism\u2019, in this context, needs to be reclaimed from all hues of bigotry. This patriotism has to be genuine [thereby totally different from the hardline, misogynist, homophobic, self-serving, biopolitics-centric and egoist pseudo-patriotism \u00e0 la<\/i> Gotabaya, Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe et al]. This patriotism and unconditional love for one\u2019s country and one\u2019s people need to be complemented with high levels of expertise in politics and international affairs, economics, governance, foreign languages, management and more. However, such expertise simply cannot afford to be verging on the uprooted, failed and shameless politics of Lankan neoliberalism, dominated by cliques of \u2018manchildren\u2019 visibly going through varying forms of what has come to be known as the \u2018boarding school syndrome<\/a>\u2019 [BSS], or, to go with a more local analogy, the posh schoolboy syndrome. To our collective misfortune, this is where there is a deeply disheartening void.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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