Eagle’s crocodile tears

Monday, 6th March, 2023

The Rajapaksa-Wickremesinghe regime has been painting itself into a corner on the political front by going all out to scuttle the local government (LG) polls. It succeeded in delaying the elections by manipulating the Treasury to deprive the Election Commission (EC) of funds, but Friday’s Supreme Court (SC) interim order has upended its plans. The apex court has ordered the Secretary to the Finance Ministry and other state officials not to withhold budgetary allocations for the EC. The SC order has gladdened the hearts of those who are resisting the beleaguered regime’s efforts to postpone the LG elections indefinitely. They are also elated that the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations has called upon the government of Sri Lanka to hold free and fair local elections without further delay.

One, however, should not be so naïve as to believe that the US is genuinely concerned about the people’s franchise here and will go all out to ratchet up pressure on the Rajapaksa-Wickremesinghe government to stop delaying elections and violating fundamental rights of the public. There is nothing that Washington does not subjugate to its economic and security interests.

The US Senate Committee’s statement should be viewed against the backdrop of Washington’s efforts to use Colombo to further its geopolitical interests. Sri Lanka has been under pressure from the US to sign SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement), which will allow American troops to be stationed here. A high-level US delegation was in Colombo recently, and their visit was kept a closely-guarded secret. According to information leaked to the media about the secret meeting between the US officials and the Sri Lankan government, their discussions on SOFA ended inconclusively.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa antagonised the US by refusing to sign SOFA, and Washington turned hostile towards him, as evident from the manner in which some US diplomats acted during Aragalaya last year. It was obvious that they were settling scores with Gotabaya by taking up the cudgels for the anti-government protesters on the warpath.

Perhaps, the US Senate Committee’s demand that the Rajapaksa-Wickremesinghe government hold LG elections immediately is part of Washington’s strategy to pressure Colombo to sign SOFA. If the incumbent dispensation agrees to ink SOFA, it will be able to commit human rights violations to its heart’s content with the UN and the UNHRC looking the other way. The US ensures that its strategic partners remain above international law.

The US is known for resorting to the carrot-and-stick method in dealing with even its allies to safeguard its interests. There has been an interesting development in Indo-US relations. India’s studied diplomatic neutrality over the Ukraine war has not found favour with Washington, which views it as a subtle pro-Moscow position. India has disappointed the US-led western powers by refusing to join them in condemning Russia at the UN and the UNHRC despite being a strategic partner of the US on a mission to tame China. Perhaps, the disappointment of the US and its western allies with India is the reason why a section of the international media is digging up old allegations against Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Gujarat riots (2002). In 2005, the US turned down Modi’s request for a visa on the grounds that he had allegedly failed to stop the anti-Muslim pogrom. Washington softened its stand on him after he became the Prime Minister of India.

The de facto credo of the US foreign policy is said to be the following saying generally attributed to President Franklin D. Roosevelt: “He may be an S.O.B., but he’s our S.O.B.” Washington has had no qualms about backing dictators and ignoring their heinous crimes. Some of them were Shah (Iran), Suharto (Indonesia), Rhee (South Korea), Saddam Hussein (Iraq), Marcos (the Philippines), Papa Doc (Haiti), Pinochet (Chile), Zia-ul-Haq (Pakistan), Batista (Cuba), Somoza (Nicaragua), and Seko (Zaire, which is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo).

The US will support any evildoer who is willing to serve its interests. The leaders of the SLPP-UNP regime know which side their bread is buttered and will not scruple to do anything to be in the good books of the western bloc so that they will be able to suppress democratic dissent with impunity to keep their hold on power . Those who have pinned their hopes on the US and its allies to safeguard their rights and freedoms may be in for a disappointment.