Visions of Destruction to Geneva 

 2021/02/20

Just keep thinking of what the Defence Secretary Kamal Guneratne has said about Divisional Secretaries issuing licences for clearing forest land, and the need to stop this practice.  

Much more than a pinch of salt is needed to believe the Defence Secretary’s concern about forests. He is certainly part of the political forces engaged in speedy destruction of nature in Sri Lanka.  

The Soawathiya National Park has hit the headlines. It is not for the spread of nature or the sanctuary for nature within it, but the illegal land grab of 1,000 acres that has now  moved on to 3,000 acres. Will this be the limit? Somawathiya is not alone. There is Sinharaja, Sigiriya and many more reserves threatened by the land grab forces of today.  

When the Defence Secretary of the country, who has a military background, too, has to make such an admission, we are clearly in a new war situation. It is a war being waged against nature – the forests that have been preserved under our laws on Fauna and Flora Protection,  now moving to political destruction on the dictatorial power of the 20th Amendment, and the rise of crooked political forces whose desire for profit is the Hallmark of Rajavasala Governance.

“Vana Vinashaya” – the Destruction of Forests – is the theme of  political forces who have two-thirds power in parliament, and almost no constitutional safeguards to protect nature, which must be the substance of democracy. The rapid destruction of nature, is also the shattering of democracy; needing the protection of much and many more that retired military personnel.

Those who opposed the agreement with India on the East Container Terminal (ECT) of the Port of Colombo, and danced with joy at the government’s move to keep it all with Sri Lanka, are now showing worries about the West Container Terminal (WCT). It is a much larger terminal, extending far beyond the immediate Colombo region, needing much more investment.   

Will those who opposed India having even a 49% hold on the ECT,now agree to give India  a 85% hold on the WCT? Can the Rajapaksa brothers – Gotabhaya, Mahinda, Chamal – and the others in the Rajavasala pack, ensure that this remains with Sri Lanka 100 per cent? 

Will the Wimal Weerawansa team do some slow thinking and join the trade union forces to keep the WCT with Sri Lanka or away from India? 

India is today’s threat to the political powers in Sri Lanka. The display of an Indian threat is the stuff of speedy popularity, with Narendra Modi and the BJP being the emerging menace to Sinhala-Bauddha forces of racist nationalism. There must be great joy among the rising anti-India lobby of the Rajavasala, on the talk by some Indian politicians of a BJP being established here. 

We now hear how the BJP will soon take control of the Up Country plantation workers with Indian origin, and also move to dominate the politics of the Tamils in the North, East,  and Colombo too. Does India need a BJP branch over here to have its influence in the country, when there are continuing issues on the rights and needs of the minorities in this country? 

Will the Hindu deities that have so much influence on ‘Buddhist’ religious practices, coming down through the ages, have even more dominance here if a BJP begins to function? Will the Sinhalese come to speedy accords with  the BJP (SL) on the treatment of the Muslim minority, which is the stuff of the BJP in India?  Will the BJP (SL) ensure a division between the North and East, by keeping the Eastern Muslims away from BJP’s pro-Tamil Only politics?

Looks like the BJP has great promise for the Narendra Modi and Hindutva strategists for the spread of power beyond the Palk Strait; to this island where Vijaya began the migration of the Sinhala people, and soon abandoned Kuveni and the two children, for an Indian queen. 

Will the new agreement signed with the Serum Institute (India) to obtain 10 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, give more strength to India on dominating Sri Lanka? Will the BJP have a special strategy to manipulate Sri Lankan thinking through a Covid-19 vaccine? How much further will India go to please the Sinhala Buddhist nationalists of the Pohottuva?

While the Weerawansa team and the Secretary Defence have their own play in the current crisis, and amidst the new talk of  Sri Lanka controlling the oil tank farm in Trincomalee, together with India; the bigger issue before will be in Geneva. We will certainly not have any co-sponsorship of a  resolution on Sri Lanka. The assurance is one of defeat, just as it happened in 2012, 2013 and 2014 under Mahinda Rajapaksa. It is now the Gotabaya/Mahinda team that will play in Geneva, having to answer much more on the racist and military dominance of today,  than the immediate post-war phase after the defeat of the LTTE.

Will we not be going back to the time when there was talk of Mahinda Rajapaksa being threatened with an electric chair? Or, will that threat now be directed at Gotabaya, in the Rajavasala power equation? We are caught in a trap that has little chance for escape. Even the Prime  Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, will largely remain silent, on Muslim Covid cremations, just as our own PM Mahinda. 

Can we look to any major help from India in Geneva? Not much hope, with US President Biden bringing the US back to the UNHRC. India will certainly move to the US line on Sri Lanka, on War Crimes and Human Rights violations. We are certainly trapped amidst a pandemic and major setbacks in international relations.

This certainly seems the time to keep cutting more nature reserves in our forests, reduce the Alimankada paths for the elephants, ensuring more killing of people and elephants; keep more grabbing of sand from river beds to bring salt water to our rivers, keep talking big on the Gotabaya “Visions of Prosperity and Splendour” and getting more retired military people to manipulate the democratic process. 

We are moving much more to Visions of Destruction from Saubhagya to Dhurbhagya!