The Struggle For Power; The Real Stakes & Prospects For Freedom In The Land Of Lanka
Ajit Rupasinghe
The Struggle for Power
There is an escalating, on-going struggle for state power between the forces aligned with the Ranil-Sirisena government and the Joint Opposition being forged and led by Mahinda Rajapakse. This will prove to be a decisive and extremely consequential struggle. That is to say, only one side can win and exercise dictatorship and hegemony over society. The space for cohabitation and coexistence within the various fractions and parties of the ruling class is evaporating in the heat of the bitter contest for power. This is because the Land of Lanka is being sliced up, economically, politically and strategically, by various contending foreign predator powers, out to get an economic stranglehold and, thereby, a strategic foothold in the island. The internal struggle between these two fractions of the ruling class is driven and determined by this overarching dynamic of inter-imperialist rivalry and contention. This is the concrete context, and the international content, of the internal power struggle.
High Stakes
The struggle for power is for high stakes. This is with major world imperialist powers and rising regional hegemonic powers, aligned as various blocs and alliances, contending for gaining strategic influence, leverage and advantage over the island. There is intensifying rivalry and contention for global economic dominance and strategic superiority between the US-led Western Bloc as against both China and Russia. This contention feeds into regional rivalries for asserting political-economic dominance and military-strategic superiority. It’s like a chess board of sheer chaos and anarchy as each contending power fires the flames of war to gain its advantage at the expense of the other. Every country is being internally divided and mobilized behind these competing, rival agendas. 