Sri Lanka: to be or note to be!

A Reflection

By Ashley de Vos

Tourism, as we have observed on many occasions, is a fickle industry. It is easy to disrupt the industry, all one needs is a bomb or even a bomb scare. So, while tourism is an illusion, culture is not. A rich cultural matrix has sustained this country for centuries and saved it from invasions. It was the sworn role of the Sri Lankan Kings to take on the responsibility and safe guard the country from harm. The Presidents followed suit.

Today, Sri Lanka is at a crossroads, and it may be asked whether we sustain this rich cultural matrix for the purpose of handing it over intact to the future generations as our forefathers did for us or do we scuttle this irreplaceable rich cultural wealth for the sake of imprudent personal aggrandisement and cupidity.

Throughout history Sri Lanka has been non-aligned. The country’s very existence in this important central location in the great ocean confirms this fervent tenacity. Even through the Portuguese and the Dutch adventurism passed through and treaties were signed only to be observed in the breach, the Kings who were faithful to Sri Lanka, wherever their original roots stemmed from remained proud Sri Lankans to the end and used every subterfuge even to the extent of setting up one colonial against to get rid the other, to free the country from the colonial menace and the country remained inviolate and invulnerable.

The British, who were to follow the Dutch, were handed a section of coastal belt of Sri Lanka that was occupied by the Dutch, on a platter, all in keeping with a deal based on results that took place in Europe. The innocuous colonial countries which had no say were cast-off as pawns on the colonial chessboard. This time there were superior numbers, and using intrigue and exceptional cunningness, they enticed a small ambitious group, and annexed the whole country in 1815. The aim of the British was development for profit maximisation, whatever the price to the local population.

With the introduction of the British plantation enterprise, all expansion, be it roads, railways, the decimation of the forests, and the culling of the herds of elephants never even had a say in what was happening, and all the abuse that followed was interconnected to further facilitate exploitation and fill the coffers of the colonial power. Sri Lanka was stripped of all its resources. All taxes and revenue benefitted the colonial crown.

In addition, they were successful in breeding, a small rootless, but ambitious caste based group of black men within the country, imitative and docile enough to do their colonial bidding. After Independence, they continued the exploitative trajectory while encouraging all to join in.

Today, the electorate is somewhat intelligent but still gullible. People expect their leaders to be honest Sri Lankans, not deal makers, and be passionate about this island nation. They want to see an end to this inordinate dependence on the exploitative foreign powers for whom democracy and human rights mean something totally different when they themselves indulge in violating them.

While much is said of the Chinese investments, the rhetoric that follows, ably documented by David Wine, disregards the three thousand odd confirmed military bases forced on gullible countries around the world, usually far from the perpetrators home turf. Countries which are expected and even forced to endlessly invest in weapons of mass destruction if only to enhance the economies in the manufacturing countries.

The Sri Lankan electorate expects their leaders to stand tall and take decisions that shall always remain beneficial to Sri Lanka and play the role of the kings who fought for the protection and the preservation of this country, Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan sea shall be declared a nuclear free zone. The equal respect Sri Lanka has for all Nations, shall be enriched in its firm declaration of being nonaligned.

In the case for dual citizenship, there is a need to be truthful and swear loyalty and allegiance to Sri Lanka, first. One cannot serve two masters, unless one is an insurance policy, a promise of ethereal exoneration. The citizens of Sri Lanka, value the fact that the President has revoked, his American citizenship. We thank him for his example, which is worthy of emulation. However, as a history unfolds in the most unpredictable fashion, the future will disclose, what is closest to her heart.