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Wednesday 19 November 2014

Solheim as the common candidate of the banana intellectuals


Sri Lanka is not an Arab country and the west finds it difficult to impose its will in this country. The western policy with respect to Asia, Africa and South America can be partially summarized in one sentence knowing very well that summaries do not often convey the meaning of the original. The west wants weak governments in these countries and the moment they come across a strong government that does not listen to them, they want to destabilize the relevant country by hook or crook. The countries where there are strong leaders are called banana republics only to create a unhealthy impression among western educated “intellectuals” and other henchmen and henchwomen of the west. 

The west breaks up countries where there are strong leaders not liked by them and sometimes kills the leaders as well. Some Arab leaders were given adverse publicity as dictators before they were killed. The west wants a world that obeys them and to maintain the hegemony over politics, culture and economics. It is the educational system in the Asian and other countries that is used by the west together with media to maintain the western hegemony.

The banana republics are those countries, which are manipulated by the west but the western “intellectuals” as usual having hegemony as far as knowledge is concerned propagates the opposite view altogether. The so called intellectuals in this country most of whom are maintained by the universities and the western governmental organisations can only repeat the western concepts as they themselves cannot think originally. In fact these “intellectuals” can be called   banana intellectuals.

They may say that the so called banana republics have dictators and weak economies but what is not realised by the banana intellectuals is that the yardsticks on politics, economy and culture are created by the western intellectuals. The banana intellectuals will rally round western slogans of so called democracy and good governance etc., without realizing that there is no democracy or transparency as such in the western countries. How many Norwegians know that Norway supplied arms and funds to the LTTE terrorists? How many English people know that Norway was only a pawn in this exercise and England was the real culprit?

It is good that the President Mahinda Rajapaksa has come out openly with the involvement of Solheim and Norway in the LTTE activities. The west led by England used Tamil separatism to divide the country into pieces in the name of peace even before Mahinda Rajapaksa became the President. They continue to do the same using the dispersed Tamils in their countries. The west has been against Sinhala Buddhists of the country and during the time of the English governors used English speaking Tamil elite against the Sinhala people in general and Sinhala Buddhists in particular. The so called nineteenth century Buddhist revival was against mainly the cultural policy of the English and the colonialists know very well that the struggle against them continues to date.

The Sinhala people have had two leaders after 1948, who stood against western hegemony. One was Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike and the other is Mahinda Rajapaksa. There was a coup against Mrs Bandaranaike steered by non Sinhala Buddhist high ranking officers in the armed forces but it failed as the conspiracy was leaked out thanks to some Sinhala Buddhists.

It is not easy to plan a coup against Mahinda Rajapaksa using armed forces as the composition of the forces have been changed since the coup of 1962. The composition was changed mainly due to the untiring efforts by L H Mettananda and N Q Dias. The west has to resort to other means to oust Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Presidential elections are being used for that purpose.
                                                       
It has to be realised that Sinhala Buddhists protected the sovereignty of the people from 1506 to 1815 and none of the European nations was able to capture the country through war. It was the crafty diplomacy of the English led by Doyle that finally annexed the country as a whole but even after 1815 Sinhala people have given the English tough time though the products of English Christian education took the side of the colonial master. The latter continue to do so even today.

Though the situation has changed during the past it is the banana intellectuals with their tin pot hegemony that dominate the media and the universities. They are not creative at all but they have been projected as intellectuals by themselves. It is nothing but back scratching and the banana intellectuals who may have read a few books here and there without pondering over them could quote from Kalama Sutta to Post Modernism, General Relativity and Quantum Physics without understanding them. However ordinary people cannot be fooled by them though the banana intellectuals would praise each other without an end.  

It was the banana intellectuals who started the campaign for good governance. Ven. Sobhitha Thera began his campaign and some academic trade unionists supported him. How many ordinary Sinhala people are interested in western concepts such as good governance and transparency? How many banana intellectuals with their little “empires” in the intellectual world wanted transparency from Solheim? The banana intellectuals are maintained by the west through the western governmental organizations (so called NGOs) but the ordinary people are not. They cannot be fooled by the banana intellectuals and they knew by intuition what Solheim was up to in the country. In spite of banana intellectuals and Solheim and their campaign that the LTTE cannot be defeated the ordinary people knew that the LTTE can be defeated provided we had a strong political leadership.

It was the political leadership of Mahinda Rajapaksa and the strategically planning of the Defense Secretary and of course the heroic sacrifices made by the “Ranavirvans” that defeated the LTTE. It is this victory that prevented the country being not bifurcated but trifurcated and the west is all out to take revenge. The talk on abolition of executive presidency is mainly because it was that post that enabled Mahinda Rajapaksa to give a strong political leadership. The west thought that Ven. Sobhitha Thera has support among the Sinhala Buddhists but did not know that Sobhitha Thera of the twenty first century is not the same as the Thera who became a household name among the ordinary people during the “Buddhism Betrayed” days. The Thera may be a household name among the banana intellectuals but his effectiveness ends there. The academic trade unionists and the left out leftists who gather in Naga Vihara, Kotte have no say beyond press conferences they hold and their hunt for the common candidate to defeat Mahinda Rajapaksa has ended up in disarray. It may not be a bad idea to find out whether it is possible to have Solheim as the common candidate even by giving him citizenship as early as possible. After all he has been involved with politics of the country for so long and has the “credentials” to be the common candidate.  


The west cannot try their tactics in Sri Lanka and their Arab springs with the support of the JVP are bound to fail. Whether the banana intellectuals, Solheim and Sobhitha Thera like it or not Mahinda Rajapaksa would poll more than 55% of the valid vote making the west to eat the humble pie.



Nalin De Silva

19-11-2014