Presidential Stakes: Is Gota US Proxy & Sirisena China Proxy?
Amrit Muttukumaru
Our leaders lost little time after independence in 1948 to commence the discrimination of minorities for electoral purposes. The country’s first Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake said to be the ‘father’ of the nation sensing that Tamils of recent Indian origin on tea plantations posed an electoral threat to his UNP, gave leadership to their disenfranchisement under the Ceylon Citizenship Act of 1948 and Indian-Pakistani Citizenship Act of 1949.
The Easter Sunday Carnage on April 21 is a defining moment in the wicked and violent segment of the history of this country fueled mainly by the mismanagement since independence of the multi-ethnic and multi-religious character of Sri Lanka. Our starting point is 1948 when we became responsible for our destiny. We cannot blame providence for this, it is entirely man made. Sadly Sri Lanka has not been blessed with a statesman to lead the country who put country before self and electoral prospects. Although particularly in the early years since independence we have had a fair share of knowledgeable gentlemen in politics, for whatever reason they remained just that – gentlemen!
Discrimination of Minorities
Other acts of discrimination and callous disregard for minorities over the years include (i) State sponsored colonization in predominantly minority (mainly Tamil) populated areas in the East of the country (ii) Sinhala Only Act of 1956 which did not give official recognition to Tamil which was the first language of Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamils of recent Indian origin and Moors (iii) Pledge by then Prime Minister S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike to have Sinhala as the only official language ‘in 24 hours’(iv) ‘standardization’ through ‘District Quotas’ of admission to universities (v) “foremost place”to Buddhism given in the 1972 Constitution. How on earth can a country have peace and development when almost 30% of its population are disadvantaged? Don’t are leaders and people get it?
These acts of blatant discrimination and injustice to minorities encouraged periodical grave violence and other indignities to defenseless minorities carried out with political patronage by a small section from the majority Sinhala-Buddhist community. A feature of this was impunity. The refusal by successive administrations to address the grievances of the minorities particularly that of the ethnic Tamils through peaceful negotiations led to a fierce near 30 year armed conflict which came to a controversial and brutal end in 2009 in the absence of credible accountability. Reconciliation issues continue to fester. In more recent times, Muslims have been at the receiving end of hate speech and violence unleashed with impunity. It must be emphasised that under no circumstances is the horrendous violence unleashed on Easter Sunday or for that matter by the LTTE, JVP or any other entity justified. Nevertheless the discrimination and fear psychosis unleashed on minorities which still continue with impunity must be flagged. This is the background leading up to the April 21 Easter Sunday Carnage. The violence and mayhem unleashed by the JVP over the years is mainly due to socio-economic reasons and not minority issues. Nevertheless the socio-economic factors will exacerbate minority issues.
Defining Moment
The raison d’être for characterizing the Easter Sunday carnage as a defining moment in the wicked and violent segment of the history of this country is due to:
1) The Global Context of Islamic terror far outweighs the global context under which the LTTE operated.
2) This has a huge geo-political context which involves the superpowers of the world – US, China and a rapidly growing India with Russia waiting in the wings. This had not matured to current levels during the time the armed conflict with the LTTE held sway.
3) The geo-politics of the Indian Ocean has become crucial to world powers particularly the US, China and a rejuvenated India which is fast becoming a world power particularly in the Indian Ocean.
4) Sri Lanka being at the crossroads of major sea lanes in the Indian Ocean is of huge strategic importance to world powers.
5) China in recognition of this has invested heavily in the economy of Sri Lanka which include – Colombo Port City, Road infrastructure, Hambantota Port and Hambantota Airport.
6) The growing influence of China in the Indian Ocean due to amongst others its ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ and Hambantota Port has led to an unprecedented response from the US which has renamed its crucial ‘United States Pacific Command’ as the ‘United States Indo-Pacific Command’ in recognition of the growing influence of India as a counterbalance to China
7) The ‘Acquisition and Cross Servicing Agreement ‘(ACSA) with the US renewable every 10 years was as per a ‘Sunday Times’ report renewed in 2017 with an 80 page document in comparison to a mere 8 page document in 2007. It is speculated that ACSA will give wide access in the Indian Ocean to US military assets due to Sri Lanka’s strategic location.
8) The ‘Sunday Times’ also reports that another US initiative being promoted in Sri Lanka is the controversial ‘Status of Forces Agreement’ (SOFA) which has implications as to whether Sri Lanka law or US law will apply to US servicemen if operating in Sri Lanka.
9) It is widely perceived that in the aftermath of the Easter Sunday tragedy foreign military advisers and intelligence personnel mainly of US origin are operating in Sri Lanka. Of course the mutual sharing of intelligence is entirely another matter and most welcome – provided we act on it!!
10) All of the above has brought Sri Lanka to the centre of big power rivalry in the Indian Ocean as never before with all its implications to a country which does not treat all its citizens equally.
