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. 

Samantha Power

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.