Thursday, November 8, 2012

An expert in Human Rights and Foreign Policy in the US – Samantha Power will call the shots – Sri Lanka, You ain’t seen nothing yet!!


OBAMA WINS AND SO THIS WAS HIS LAST ELECTION 

His Administration is determined to stamp its mark on history and he does not have to pander to anyone anymore, not even special interests. Israel is probably in his sights and Netanyahu will just have to watch it. 

As it relates to Sri Lanka, the President’s special assistant, and senior director for multilateral affairs and human rights at the National Security Council, Ms Samantha Power, a Harvard Law School Graduate, just like Obama, will determine the fate of Sri Lanka. 



She is Obama’s point man on HR, and Sri Lanka is in her sights, as they act like a thorn in the backside of the US, being cocky, something the US does not like countries to be! After all on the UPR day in Geneva, the Impeachment motion on trumped up charges, against the CJ were handed to the Speaker. How cocky can you get, and showing the two fingers up at all those who wanted some restitution?

We in Sri Lanka spend our time, more like waste our time telling the US to mind their own business, as they have no right to tell us what to do, when their abuses are ongoing and continuous and Sri Lanka’s alleged violations pale in comparison. We just don’t appear to understand Global geopolitics. If we are not dependent on the West for exports, IMF bailouts and continuous aid, then I will say, we are within our rights, when we take from one hand and then try to cut the other hand at the same time. Who would want to extend the hand, they will surely want to annihilate the aggressor especially if it is fly? just “SWAT” it! Sri Lanka is of strategic benefit due to its location and the increasing importance of South Asia.

So we will watch and see how the US administration handles this irritant called the Government of Sri Lanka. Of course the Rajapakses are afraid of “Regime Change”. We only have an army to defend us against our own people, in short attack our citizens who misbehave, because we have PATENTLY failed to non-violently deal with minor issues, before letting them get out of hand. Other people have armies to go attack other countries using boats, planes and ICBMs. (India too)

In other countries they call it The National Guard. I remember working on the espionage and communication system of the Saudi Arabian National Guard.(SANG) They keep track of the Saudis, so that SANG has a tight control over the people, preventing their independent thinking and taking a stance against the despotic rule there. The US administration, CIA is in cahoots with them, as they make a lot of money, (read enlightened US self interest there) and human rights violations on a daily basis will not raise the ire of Samantha Power.

In Sri Lanka it is a different case. Powerful countries have their own self interest to protect and spread throughout the world so that they can gain access to the raw materials at cheap prices to ensure their citizens can have a higher quality of life.

We in Sri Lanka must learn the ropes, and the art of diplomacy to gain the best for our people, by making friends with the right people, and capitalize on our location.

It is no secret that the US is a pariah of SL and China is a darling. If we stop for a moment to understand why, we will realize that the Chinese administration is giving what Sri Lanka wants, plenty of money at very high interest rates. We will be in debt to them forever and may have to give them back what they have built, as we are unable to pay the loans! IS that what we are so jingoistic about?

Sri Lankans, we must first protect ourselves from the threats inside and outside. We have done a very bad job of it and continue to do a bad job. We do not understand quiet diplomacy and neither do we know how to manage the Country’s finances carefully, not getting into usurious debt, wasting much of the borrowing on corruption and keeping the nation happy by spreading jingoistic propaganda.

It is easy, just like in Venezuela’s case to gain popularity by finding a common enemy such as the US, it allows the leaders to blame the country’s travails and poor management of fiscal, foreign, and domestic policy on the US!! This is a farcical stance, but easily propagated even amongst the educated, as US atrocities are not hidden, including the mass killings of US drones. However if we use the same arrow at the US we must use it against China too as they are no darlings.  The regime is reputed to receive commissions in excess of US$1B in kickbacks or commissions from Chinese contracts, so they have NO intention of so doing.

We are therefore at the mercy of how Samantha Power feels, and if she wakes up one morning and decides it is Mahinda Rajapakse who needs a little bit of TLC of US style, she has the power, (no pun intended) and authority from the President to do so. Let us see. As someone who believes in this Country, and its future to see this country being divided to create a ruling class, only bent on personal aggrandizement and using the US as a jonah to fool the masses, will soon see its comeuppance. As the phrase “you ain’t seen nothing yet” implies, the future is where the good overcome evil, and the evil will be burnt at the stake, figuratively speaking, and we can eventually achieve the prosperity we deserve and has been long denied. I am sorry that the route has to be this, but it is inevitable. When power becomes so corrupt there are no second chances. 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

your blog entry doesn't make clear why Samantha Power would want to focus on Sri Lanka in the future. Is the the new Ambassador? Is she a special envoy?

it is easy to see the excesses of the U.S. on human rights and it is so interesting how similar they are to the ones that they are trying to condemn Sri Lanka for. How was the invasion of a private residence by military forces and the killing in cold blood of an unarmed man (bin Laden) any different than the Prabhakaran killing on the battlefield? I argue that the Prabhakaran killing is MORE justified than the bin Laden one because it was done on an actual battlefield and was not a home invasion by elite military assasins, who were sent there to kill the man rather than accept any surrender. Drones are firing off on wedding parties, traveling caravans, innocent gatherings of people, houses, schools, hospitals, etc. Under fear of the drones, any group of more than 4 people standing together should fear for their lives!! What hypocrisy!

that said, if Sri Lanka plays its cards right, they can be like any other country in Asia with regards to human rights. They just need to learn to stay under the radar in that regard rather than making so much noise about things.

Also, with regard to the blog author, I think the author needs to set out a vision for Sri Lanka, as we have in Mahinda Chinthana. Without such, your criticisms seem to be without merit as it seems you're just criticizing to replace one group of politicians led by a people-friendly President with another less people-friendly group of politicians led by a man that seems to love ?????

Anonymous said...

"People friendly President???"

Maybe when the TV cameras are turned on.

No more than a village thug in reality.

Obama and Samantha Power? Cut from a very different cloth.

The arguments comparing US to SL human rights abuses are like comparing apples to oranges. Human rights abuses happen in all governments. The thing with SL is that they are sanctioned, perpetrated and protected from the very top.

Samantha Power is now the very top. And I am willing to bet her HR calculus is a little purer than MR&CO.

Thanks for the article and the link.

Looking for Obama to get much more aggressive on states on the border of being rogue like SL.

Watch out MR, GR, BR - Samantha Power probably doesn't like you too much, and in the second term her power will increase significantly.