If post-war we are going to allow our nation to be fleeced like the colonial powers did and more than just been fleeced to have a nation large as India to just walk in and take over all our natural resources, open up investments that enable them to just sweep away smaller Sri Lankan investors into oblivion and to top it all allow free flow of Indians into Sri Lanka – what is going to be the future for the Sinhalese, the Tamils, the Muslims and the Burghers? This is not how any of us envisage the future to be.
l by Shenali Waduge
(March 07, 2012, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) For a country that continues to withstand global pressures in an united effort to say Sri Lanka cannot be punished for eliminating a terrorist movement, for rehabilitating former LTTE cadres, for being magnanimous not to charge LTTE child cadres, for resettling Tamil civilians held by LTTE as hostages & human shields and for taking massive loans to develop areas that had been neglected by the LTTE for 30 years seems to be totally unaware that it is been subtly engulfed by India leading to Sri Lanka becoming another Indian colony before long.
What reasons does Sri Lanka have to be so indebted to India to be walking away with our liberty….Is it because India helped train the LTTE and armed & financed them even allowing Tamil Nadu to be used as a transit point for weapons & other logistical requirements as well as for medical assistance? Is it because we owe gratitude to India for allowing Prabakaran to be released in 1987 when he was cornered by our valiant troops which allowed Sri Lanka to suffer decades more of LTTE terror?
Are we to be indebted to India because it came up with the Indo-Lanka Peace Accord forcing Sri Lanka to amend its constitution & introduce the 13amendment & the Provincial Council system as well as merging the North & East into 1 province? Are we to be grateful to India for sending its Peace Keeping force which went about killing our own Tamil brothers & sisters and leaving behind its weapons for the LTTE to use thereafter on the Sri Lankan army?
Are we to buy India’s version that it went against the LTTE after Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination? He was killed in 1991 but LTTE still were freely using Tamil Nadu and moreover those accused of Rajiv Gandhi’s killing are yet to receive their due sentence delayed because of Tamil Nadu antics!
Do we have to be grateful to India for pretending to be Sri Lanka’s friend but stabbing our country in the back? Was not the infamous ceasefire agreement of 2001 first endorsed by India before it was sent for signature to Sri Lanka?
Do we owe gratitude to India for allowing one of its State’s (Tamil Nadu) to humiliate our country day in & day out? When we are well aware that these Tamil Nadu politicians are on LTTE payroll pocketing massive amounts of money for attacking Sri Lanka?
On what grounds do we really have to be indebted to India? All the trade agreements signed over the years have all been beneficial primarily to India & Indian investor’s interest with perhaps miniscule benefit to single Sri Lankan investors which should hardly count. There is no significant gain for the country. The blame for these goes squarely towards Sri Lankan’s signatory to these agreements for never having the interest of Sri Lanka at heart.
If Indian officials always put India’s interest first why cant Sri Lanka’s officials do the same? These roles are more than just doing one’s job.
For what do we owe gratitude to India – is it because our leaders had to make trips every week to apprise an angry India since it was annoyed that the cancer it created was days away from a solution. Interest in Tamil civilians was just an excuse – it is because India did not sell weapons to us because it was more interested in Tamil Nadu votes but wanted our leaders to come worshipping to them? – is it because India was doing its best behind the scenes to see the possibility of LTTE’s continued existence through another ceasefire?
India’s quick incursion into Sri Lanka’s economic interests did not come the day following the LTTE defeat. Like all countries, India has contingency plans and these plans are what have been rolled out now.
Do we have to be indebted to India because India helped LTTE prevail for decades and we have to open our doors for India to start ventures in oil, ports, telecommunications, rubber, banking, petroleum….every area of our polity and now they are expecting Sri Lanka to open its doors for Indian labor and each Ministry is signing away agreements enabling these wishlists of India to take shape….where are we really heading?
The question here is why did we fight for 30 years if not to make sure our nation remains unitary, sovereign & most of all maintains its Sri Lankan identity?
If post-war we are going to allow our nation to be fleeced like the colonial powers did and more than just been fleeced to have a nation large as India to just walk in and take over all our natural resources, open up investments that enable them to just sweep away smaller Sri Lankan investors into oblivion and to top it all allow free flow of Indians into Sri Lanka – what is going to be the future for the Sinhalese, the Tamils, the Muslims and the Burghers? This is not how any of us envisage the future to be.
Certainly, Sri Lanka must maintain cordial relations. It is unfortunate that undue, unnessary pressures from the West which have been totally unwarranted & uncalled for has made Sri Lanka’s citizens loose faith in the West’s “democratic” theories as they can see for themselves how hypocritical their actions are. In saying one thing and doing another it only demeans these nations in the eyes of our citizenry who have been watching global incidents with interest and foresight to weigh the truth over fiction.
There is no requirement to be indebted to any nation – for we have given in return more than we have taken. While leaders need to concentrate on the manipulations being thrown our way from the West – a more alert team must counter every move India is making.
It is now time for Sri Lanka’s leaders to seriously get their act together!
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