The case for Pan-Asia: A lesson from Sri Lanka

By J Jayasundera

(June 25, New Delhi, Sri Lanka Guardian) Sri Lanka has been subjected to Western duplicity, interference and bankruptcy, utilising the servile remnants of colonialism, which unfortunately were part and parcel of the ruling class. Although the seeds of destabilisation and exploitation were laid during colonialism, the plants grew to trees starting with the treacherous regime of J R Jayewardene. This is the origin of the Tamil rebellion and Indian involvement in the Rebellion.

To understand western behaviour, one needs to understand that western policy has always been western interests, which is economic hegemonism and exploitation. The threat to this hegemonism was India at the time. India was a large country with an educated growing middle class which was an economic threat to the west and destabilisation of India was in its best interest. Division and destabilisation of Sri Lanka would create the necessary environment for a cry for separation of Tamil Nadu under the guise of a greater Tamil kingdom. It was not surprising that Prabhakaran never agreed to the greater autonomy within a unitary state offered by the Peace Pact of 2001.

In recent times, the policy has changed to one of India becoming a barrier to Chinese threat, which started during the Bush presidency. The West now needs a stable India, hence the banning of the LTTE in UK, Canada, etc. in the recent past, after having allowed it a free hand for two decades. It is very interesting to note that the duplicitous western policies towards Sri Lanka have gradually changed to reflect the new geopolitical interest in South Asia. They however, never gave up the possibility of using the Tigers in the event geopolitics changed.

To understand history, one needs to understand the western mindset against an eastern mindset. The western mindset revolves around planning; the eastern mindset reacts to the occasion. Suspicion and conspiracy theories are very alien to the eastern mind. Foreigners are trusted and offered hospitality. This trust has been exploited by the West, more so when post-Macaulay middle classes have a very servile altitude towards it. (Macaulay was the colonial secretary for education in India, who said the purpose of education was to produce an Indian who was Brown in colour but culturally an Englishman, who would be the intermediary between the rulers and the rest of India).

It is said that the greatest achievement of British colonialism is the servile mindset of the middle classes. To understand western plans, one needs to understand western history. Western nations are very united as Europeans and have used the carrot-and-stick and divide-and-rule policies very effectively. When one country uses the carrot-and-stick, the other uses the divide-and-rule policy on the same country. The final aim is the same. The modus operandi is simple:

1] Utilise the post-Macaulay middle classes to completely dominate the economy and be subservient to the IMF and World Bank, as in post-1977 Sri Lanka

2] Create internal conflict
- By encouraging minorities to dissent against majority rule
- Infiltration of Media
- NGOs
- Christianisation

Post 1977 Sri Lanka

The greatest problems of Sri Lanka emanated from the servile mindset of Yankee Dickie, (J R Jayewardene). When he came into power, Sri Lanka was at an advanced state of human development and social upliftment for a third world country. This was achieved with a low GDP, practicing the eastern philosophies of compassion and social responsibility, an example for any third world country. True, Sri Lankans did not enjoy the luxuries of the West and lived with a degree of frugality, with minimal foreign debt. Sri Lankans were blessed with:

1] A system of free education, giving it 98% literacy, second only to Japan
2] Free health care system giving very low infant and maternal mortality
3] Social mobility
4] Progressive women’s rights (first woman PM)
5] Low national debt of around $ 500 million
6] Small military

JRJ’s open economy instituted with help of the IMF had the following effects:

1] Subsidy for Education system reduced: now spend Rs 1000 Billion on foreign education, standards of Public Education sacrificed
2] Subsidy for Health care reduced: rich go abroad for treatment costing millions of dollars
3] Increased malnutrition
4] Currency devaluation
5] Increased corruption and increased violence in society
6] Over 20 billon dollars in debt
7] Large military and excessive military budget

It was the servility of J R Jayewardene for the White races that made him accept anything the now discredited IMF advised. It’s been an economic debacle. Following the White Man’s advice has certainly not benefitted the country. The Sri Lankan economy was until recently under dictates of the IMF.

Foreign Policy

Jayewardene followed a pro-West foreign policy. When every other third world country voted against the Falkland War by the British, Sri Lanka voted with the Brits. So servile was our foreign policy that India felt threatened, and Indira Gandhi ordered RAW to destabilise Sri Lanka.

Jayewardene was encouraged to ignore Indian concerns, instigating India to actively engage in the rebellion in Sri Lanka. That is exactly what the West wanted. This duplicitous foreign policy was later confirmed when their agent Israel trained both the terrorists and the Sri Lankan army at the same time!

This is well documented in the book By The Way Of Deception by Victor Ostrovsky, an Israeli dissident. India was made to do the donkey work for the West by training and arming the Tamil militants. President Rajapakse was not wrong when he said that he fought the Tamil Tiger terrorists on behalf of India in his interview with NDTV.

Create internal conflict: minority-majority conflicts

The financial support for Khalistan militants and LTTE came from the West, from Canada to Australia. LTTE had a budget of $ 200 million from business in the West, by credit card fraud, drug trafficking etc. Although the LTTE broke the law in the West, no action was taken against it for the greater good of the West. More recently, politicians like Keith Vaz promoted and legitimised the activities of the LTTE.

My mind boggles at how so many thousands of Tamils were given refugee status in countries 3000 miles away! Refugees always go to the nearest countries. Those who could afford to go thousands of miles away were not running away from violence when 60% of Tamils live among the Sinhalese in the south. But they were economic refugees. A surrogate war was conducted, using them from the West against Sri Lanka by economically supporting the LTTE.

The complicity of the West was more blatant when the LTTE was cornered by the Army. The foreign ministers of Britain and France arrived in Sri Lanka to demand a ceasefire; when that failed they volunteered to evacuate the LTTE leadership to a third country to fight another day. When that failed a big hue and cry was made for civilian casualties and an immediate ceasefire demanded. When that failed they sent in the UN Secretary General and his assistant to demand a ceasefire. When that failed they tried to scare the Sri Lankan president by alleging genocide and demanding investigation through the United Nations human rights organisation.

Fortunately, the Asian and other third world countries that saw through the Western game helped Sri Lanka to defeat the motion. Interestingly, the great humanists Pillai or Khan of Amnesty International have not taken any country to the International Court in The Hague for human rights violations in Iraq, Afghanistan or even Pakistan. It is a fashion to appoint non- White people into these organisations to do the donkey’s work. Now they are pursuing a mass propaganda campaign against Sri Lanka in the western media.

NGOS and Christianisation

The latest WMD for neo-colonialism are NGOs. These organisations are financially supported by western organisations which are into development, human rights monitoring, humanitarian assistance etc. These foreign organisations are infiltrating Asian societies to undermine the sovereignty of nations. This is neo-colonialism of the 21st century.

The Red Banana, a Norwegian NGO, has been accused of aiding the LTTE and recently a Norwegian was deported from the country. Sri Lanka has learnt her lesson and monitoring the activities of NGOs is proposed.

Interestingly, most locals in these NGOs are Christians serving the White Man, which is what is expected of converts. An economic policy encouraged by the West not only transfers national wealth, legitimately or illegitimately, but creates a dominant middle class which lives a life of luxury at the expense of the poor (Macaulay Remnants).

Sri Lanka has borrowed to a tune of $ 20 billion, majority of which has been fritted away in commissions and extravagant whiskey-drinking lifestyles. The poor pay the price. Their future has been compromised by the borrowing. Their land has been sold to big business for a false form of development, where environmental damage and social disruptions are never part of the accounts. These projects are well supported by the World Bank and the IMF, although blatant overvaluations and poor return of equity is obvious.

Now come the missionaries, Bible in hand. Their purpose is conversion, but the final aim is subjugation. Having pauperised them, the missionaries offer economic assistance and other incentives which the poor cannot refuse. The Buddhist clergy do not have the courage to fight this infiltration as they cannot afford to support their congregation. So churches keep cropping up in every Buddhist / Hindu village.

Unfortunately, this post-Macaulay middle class could care less. What it doesn’t realise is that the world has been conned by the Virtual Dollar, proven by the recent turmoil in the financial markets where also wealth is virtual. It is very sad that the poor people who have been Buddhists or Hindus for thousands of years have been conned and bought into a alien religion not out of desire, but out of need.

It is not surprising that Christian priests have been in the forefront in LTTE activities. It is alleged that priests guided Tamils away from their homes, to be used as human shields by the LTTE. Not only were Christians supporting the LTTE in Sri Lanka, but they also supported them in Tamil Nadu.

Media

Unfortunately, the west has infiltrated the national media. The daylight robbery of the economy goes on, and media completely ignores the situation. The national wealth is sold for a pittance and money pocketed and transferred out; media plays no role in exposing it.

Protestors against corruption are completely ignored by the media; the nation is kept ignorant. The English media is different from the Sinhala media, confirming that it caters to propaganda rather than news.

The most extreme of these organisations are led by Christians. That is why the propaganda that the LTTE cannot be defeated and a political deal was necessary was propagated by the national media. This was a blatant attempt to impose a western solution on the country. This was the solution advocated by Western diplomats, confirming Western infiltration of the media. The purpose was to achieve Western geopolitical interests.

Destabilisation and LTTE

The LTTE, with the help of the church, created the myth of a Tamil homeland where none existed before. Sri Lankan Tamils and Sinhalese have lived in harmony for centuries. Hindu gods are part and parcel of the Buddhist temple. Buddha is the 9th incarnation of Vishnu. Tamils and Sinhalese are part and parcel of the same people adapting themselves to the dominant culture. Some Sinhalese leaders signed their names in Tamil when they signed the agreement to become a British Protectorate in 1815.

It was a Christian, Chelvanayagam, who refused to cooperate with the Sinhalese in governing the country and established a political party advocating separation for 12% of the populace (50% of which were living with the Sinhalese) in 1952, soon after the British left. It is now an open secret how the Christian church supported the LTTE. The notion of a greater Tamil kingdom encompassing Tamil Nadu and finally balkanising India was the final aim. The LTTE was able to establish contact with the Christian church in Tamil Nadu, who also actively supported the movement. LTTE money was allegedly used to buy up politicians who propagated jingoism. The LTTE is suspected of training terrorists in India and killing an Indian Prime Minister.

A case for Pan-Asia

It used to be said that the difference between India and China was that India had an open society and a closed mind, and China had a closed society and an open mind.


The Sri Lankan experience shows that it is this open and free trusting society that has been used to destabilise Asia. It is through this naïve mentality that colonialists were able infiltrate society and impose the policy of Divide and Rule and rule Asia for two hundred years. It is this openness that has been used very subtly to infiltrate Asian societies and destroy the economy, religion, culture, and environment.

It is this openness that has been used to make Asians fight Asians, be it in Sri Lanka, Swat or Kashmir. Asia is a pluralist society: multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-religious, and is susceptible to divide-and-rule. It is time Asia learnt from history and resisted foreigners manipulating the weakness of her society. It needs internal dialogue, not external infiltration, to achieve harmony within society. To achieve that, Asia should ban NGOs and foreign missionaries. All foreign aid must be channelled through the government.

Asian security lies within Asia. The course forward is returning to her own philosophy, geared to the 21st century. India and China, the two largest countries of Asia, should understand that divided they will fall, united they will bring harmony and progress not only to Asia but to the world. It is time Asians stop fighting Asians to satisfy the geopolitical aims of outsiders.

-Sri Lanka Guardian