{"id":56817,"date":"2012-10-17T15:13:04","date_gmt":"2012-10-17T15:13:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=56817"},"modified":"2012-10-28T12:10:18","modified_gmt":"2012-10-28T12:10:18","slug":"playgrounds-and-players-in-asia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/playgrounds-and-players-in-asia\/","title":{"rendered":"Playgrounds And Players In Asia"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Malinda Seneviratne<\/a> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Malinda Seneviratne<\/p><\/div>\n

President Mahinda Rajapaksa<\/a><\/span>, addressing the first Asia Cooperation Dialogue Summit in Kuwait, outlined his vision for the region in the following terms:<\/p>\n

\u2018This continent of Asia cannot be the playground of other forces, who seek our wealth, our assets of nature and human resources. Our progress must draw from the best of our own cultures and while learning from the best of others who come with genuine friendship. We are seeing the dawn of the Age of Asia. We must together see it bring new light to a troubled world dominated by the grave errors of other continents.\u2019<\/p>\n

Asia has been playground for many, across the centuries. The British, French, the Danes, Portuguese and Americans of the United States have put their dirty paws all over Asia, massacred thousands of people, ravaged cultures and communities and plundered resources.\u00a0 The \u2018West\u2019 is rich and it\u2019s no secret where the wealth came from.\u00a0 It was not Asia, true, but the Plunder of Asia did not end with \u2018independencies\u2019 or troop withdrawal.\u00a0 Plunder was replaced by Smart-Plunder.\u00a0 If memory fails, then think \u2018Afghanistan\u2019.<\/p>\n

So the President is correct.\u00a0 \u00a0Asia should not be anyone\u2019s playground, or dumping ground for that matter.<\/p>\n

Even as the Long American Century (to use a term coined by Giovanni Arrighi almost twenty years ago to \u2018periodize\u2019 the play and control of power and money) draws to a close the USA\u2019s more than finger-poking presence all over the globe is too in-one\u2019s-face to ignore or pooh-pooh away.\u00a0 There are fairly naked guns-in-booty-out examples (Afghanistan, Iraq and the elegantly executed \u2018Arab Spring\u2019) and there are UN resolutions, arm-twisting in international forums, aid-for-policy buy-outs, open and surreptitious bribing of officials and politicians.\u00a0 Getting dirty fingers out of regional-pie is thus easier said than done.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s another part to this \u2018playground\u2019 business though.\u00a0 There is an implicit notion that it\u2019s an outsider that is messing things up.\u00a0 True, history has shown that when we draw deep from history, heritage and culture, the outcomes tend to be more benign than when we uncritically purchase foreign blueprint, but even in some happy in-between of such choices we need to keep in mind that territories are not and never were islands. \u00a0There is engagement and therefore terms of engagement.\u00a0 Resources and manpower alone won\u2019t ensure a good bargain.\u00a0 It\u2019s about what we buy and what we sell, what we need and don\u2019t, and the wisdom to make correct choices.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a third part to this story.\u00a0 Locals also play.\u00a0 There are playgrounds and playgrounds, players and players, winners and losers. Not all of them are \u2018foreign\u2019.\u00a0 For centuries the poor and dispossessed have been played. For centuries their access to resources has been tampered with.\u00a0 They\u2019ve been robbed outright and by law and lawsuit, threat and execution of threat, promise and contract breach.\u00a0 There are structures that enable this kind of playing which, although may have been constructed by invader for invader-purpose but which survive invader-quit simply because they are convenient appendages for resource extraction and labor exploitation by people who look local, act locally but do what foreigner did (and does).<\/p>\n

Regional solidarity is good.\u00a0 If we had, for example, a SAARC Security Force, the problems in Afghanistan and Pakistan may have been resolved a long time ago.\u00a0 It is good for Asia to come together. No, Asia will not win the Nobel Prize, but that piece of humbuggery won\u2019t matter.\u00a0 However, at the end of the day, thumbing a collective nose at the West and having European leaders eat humble pie won\u2019t mean much if Asians starve in their millions.<\/p>\n

President Rajapaksa has opened a debate.\u00a0 That\u2019s good.\u00a0 It\u2019s not the end of the story.\u00a0 That\u2019s good too.\u00a0 For what we have is a double-whammy: playgrounded by the invader and playgrounded by people who look like us, our fellow citizens, our fellow Asians.\u00a0 That\u2019s not good.<\/p>\n

*Malinda Seneviratne is the Chief Editor of \u2018The Nation<\/a>\u00a0and his articles can be found at\u00a0www.malindawords.blogspot.com<\/a>\u00a0.Courtesy \u00a0www.nation.lk<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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