Dear Pompeo… don’t bully a small nation

Welcome to Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka welcomes you with its warm smiles and hearts, the hallmark of our people. The respect, welcome and hospitality Sri Lanka has shown to all nations for 1000s of years is extended to you, too. It is the same open and generous welcome that legends from distant history, like Fa Hein, Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta, enjoyed and gushed about on this island of plenty.

We hope and pray your visit will be one of genuine efforts by the US to normalize and strengthen relations with a strong, democratically elected government, and a President with an unprecedented mandate. You are truly dealing with the most powerful government Sri Lanka has ever seen. It’s no secret that our relations had been soured by lies, mistrust, accusations, deceptions and perjury by parties hostile to Sri Lanka. These interested parties have sullied Sri Lanka’s name, muddied the waters, and our relations have suffered. We have enjoyed friendly, cordial relations with mutual respect for years, before the mischief-makers have almost broken it down. We fervently hope your visit is a sign of the strengths of our relationship surfacing again, against the forces that try to divide us; and with your visit, we will be able to reset our relations once again to what it was, and what it should be.

The goverment is the representative of the people, and as such please deal with the government accordingly. With respect and honesty. With no preconceived biases. Do not be distracted by the side actors, like NGOs, LTTE reps, Media, etc. Even some official organizations, like the UN, CNN, BBC and some US organization/foreign offices, have been infiltrated by LTTE supporters who are detrimental to Sri Lanka and its sovereignty. They have become their mouthpieces, churning out untruth after untruth. They are loud and noisy on the world stage. But they are small and insignificant, and have NO representation here. Though their malicious campaign has sullied our name, we stand strong and tall as a people of a peace loving and democratic nation. That is our history and heritage, long before these lofty words were coined. Please do not hold over Sri Lanka, these unsubstantiated malicious blatant lies to man-handle or force us.

It is said you are coming here to force us to choose between you and another country. Please don’t give us choices. Choices we don’t want, nor have we to make. All countries are important to us. The quarrels and feuds between other countries are not our concern. We wish to stay as far away from them as possible. As such, please do not force them on us. Respect our desire to remain neutral and friends with both the US and China. These feuds are short-lived and transient in global politics. Soviet leaning India, which fiercely opposed our close friendship with America in the seventies and eighties, is your best mate now. But back then, India went to the extent of making and supporting the world’s most ruthless terror group, LTTE, to browbeat and decimate Sri Lanka, because they did not condone our capitalist path different to theirs! But today India has come full circle to join us.

Today, Sri Lanka recognizes its regional importance. New geopolitical forces are active in the region. New economic trends are blowing. We will manage and navigate these. With no harm to any, and benevolence to all. The true Hela, or Sri Lankan way. The 2500 years or more of history will tell you, that’s how we have been in the past, and we will continue to be so.

You come as a representative of the American people. Who they are represented by, Trump or Biden, we do not care. Either will have our support, because they represent the people of America. I’m sure theirs is not the wish to bully a small nation to their own selfish benefit. Hope your people’s lofty ideals of freedom, democracy and fair play will transcend beyond their shores with your visit.

CITIZEN S