| by Gam Vaesiya
Views expressed in this article are author own
( February 27, 2013, Toronto, Sri Lanka Guardian) There was a time when world leaders respected India as the leader of the `non-aligned' nations, with `Bandung' reverberating between the military power blocks. The west's answer was to subvert Pakistan's democracy and convert it to a client-state run by military bosses who answered Washington, and watched over India using Kashmir as the painful harpoon.
Western foreign policy since the Regan-Kissinger era functioned by creating disaster in some country, and then profiting from the chaos to set up its own puppets as the strongmen, together with Western companies buying up the local companies at fire-sale prices. This happened in Chile under Pinochet, Argentina and Uruguay etc. They fell into the same formula justified by Chicago economics with removal of subsidies and social support, austerity and enforcement of `structural adjustments' to fit in with IMF facilitation for Western Capital. Poland and the Soviet Union came next. Regime changes in the Middle-East, with Halliburton and Bechtel taking over the oil were the aims of the Bush-Cheney offensive.
 |
Sri Lanka has suddenly become even more important in the Western strategy against China. The western nations had hoped for a disaster situation happening in Sri Lanka, with the country split between the Tamils in the North ethnically cleansed by the Tigers, and the Sinhalese (many Tamils and Muslims) in the South. Such a `devolved' Lanka would be even more unstable, with the Tea country Tamils easily used for a further tectonic uprising.
China under Den-Xio-Ping picked up free-market economics, but under its own terms. Western companies could set up shop in China, but found that they did not even own their factory premises. When technology transfer was completed, the westerners were told to leave or work under China's terms. The prolonged oil wars of the West led to the 2008 economic crisis. Finally China has secured the financial and industrial upper hand.
Washington has known known that India, with its border wars with China is no Sinophile. The Obama administration has begun to withdraw from its wars and return to a long-range policy of encircling China. Bringing India under the heel of Washington is a crucial component of this plan. Hillary Clinton's visit to Tamil Nadu and empowering it was a double whammy hitting at Delhi and Colombo simultaneously. The weak Delhi government could do little but follow the dicta of Washington and the pro-Tiger lobby at the UN review of human rights in Geneva last year. This year the US has pushed this ploy even more strongly, with India already meekly agreeing with the US.
The move against Sri Lanka, led by the US is orchestrated through Banki-Moon and Navi Pillay, a South-African Tamil. Canadian politicians, dependent on the votes of Tamils in hung electorates, follow the strident tone of the pro-Tiger Eelamist (separatist) groups. Western TV channels have dramatized the claims of the Eelam lobby with trumped-up images of horror without revealing their origin. The abuses and shootings could equally well be the work of the Tigers (who rarely wore boots), given some tall-tale signs of slipper-wearing individuals in the images; but they are presented as the exclusive work of the Lankan army.
The review period covers 2008-2013. Clearly, the Human-rights situation in Sri Lanka has improved enormously, with daily suicide attacks in 2008, and thousands of children and civilians used as combatants or human shields by the Tigers (see http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2012/05/04/geneva-gearing-up-for-the-next-round/http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2012/05/04/geneva-gearing-up-for-the-next-round/). However, this enormous improvement is of no interest to Navi Pillay et al.
Sri Lanka has suddenly become even more important in the Western strategy against China. The western nations had hoped for a disaster situation happening in Sri Lanka, with the country split between the Tamils in the North ethnically cleansed by the Tigers, and the Sinhalese (many Tamils and Muslims) in the South. Such a `devolved' Lanka would be even more unstable, with the Tea country Tamils easily used for a further tectonic uprising.
This would have been an ideal disaster situation for Western mineral giants, oil explorers, banana growers, hamburger or Pizza sellers, evangelical zealots, Home Depot and Target to move in, as anticipated by the subservient Chandrika and Ranil governments. But the unexpected rise of Rajapaksa in 2005 foiled this Western grand plan for Sri Lanka, when he adroitly used China and India to his advantage.
But western capital is extremely angry. It wants to create the conditions for using R2P (`right to protect' western interests?) in Lanka.
Tamil Nadu is the Achilles heal of India. Washington, Firmly manipulating Chennai has Delhi completely under its control today. The next Geneva meeting of the UN-review will establish that India has indeed become a compliant client state. If Sri Lanka is clever, it should openly move closer to China and diminish its commercial openness towards India. Lanka would be doing a favour to Delhi if it were to go to the extent of fishing in the troubled political waters of Tamil Nadu, and attempt to diminish Tamil Nadu's political power by the usual methods of setting its many segments against each other, just as Washington is empowering Tamil Nadu
 There was a tim...){kind=link}