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