Gotabaya's “non-alignment” talk temporary, tactically aimed at consolidating genocidal state

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 January 2020, 22:12 GMT]
The Sino-Russian global alliance wants New Delhi to subscribe to the Nehruvian tradition of non-alignment of the Atlanticist Cold War period, which in effect meant alignment with the USSR in the past. However, if New Delhi were to continue the non-alignment policy in the modern-day, especially after the start of the Indo-Pacific Cold War, the choice would block any “in-depth techno-security partnership” with the US. Therefore, pursuing “non-alignment” in practice means choosing Sino-Russian side, wrote M.D. Nalapat, the editor of The Sunday Guardian in a piece titled “Time to choose sides in Indo-Pacific Cold War” on Saturday. Similarly, Colombo would also be under pressure to make the choices as determined by the New Delhi (by extension the US) establishment, commented Tamil political observers in Jaffna.

The pro-BJP geopolitics pundit from Kerala must know very well that New Delhi had already made it a military choice of joining the US-led Quad. Therefore, his column was a warning to the BJP establishment not to make any ‘blunder’ like the UK, which has agreed to use Chinese ICT provider Huawei to build its 5G networks despite repeated warnings issued by the US.

Technology and military choices are intertwined, and the BJP-led India must make the right choice, was the message of Nalapat.

“India will need to choose between two rival universes of tech systems rather than be reliant on products from both sides,” he wrote.

SL President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has been talking about “non-alignment,” while letting his military to continue its engagement with the US Air Force.

However, US citizen Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who was closely working with the US military establishment in the genocidal war against the Eezham Tamils, is now avoiding even to mention the term “Indo-Pacific” in his statements.

Meanwhile, a media outlet with a history of working closely with the Rajapaksa establishment in the past was canvassing for new terminology for the sea around the island as “Sea of Lanka” or “Sri Lankan Sea” arguing the current extent of the Economic Zone comprised nine times the territory of the landmass of the island.

The talk of “non-alignment” in a marine context seems like a temporary choice Mr Rajapaksa has made for trading off the so-called human rights concerns of the international community. It is a tactical move aimed at nullifying the direct and indirect global spaces of the struggle of the Eezham Tamils.

One should remember that it was Mr Gotabaya who launched the “Galle Dialogue” conference, inviting his friend, former US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, Professor James Clad, who was in charge of military affairs for the Asia Pacific at the Pentagon, between 2007 to 2009.

Professor Clad gave the keynote address at the inaugural Galle Dialogue in 2010, during the times former US Ambassador Robert O Blake Jr., serving the as the US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs during the Obama Administration.

It was Mr Blake who signed a defence pact with Mr Gotabaya back in 2007. The pact lasted until 2017 and was replaced by a lengthy secret agreement by the so-called good-governance regime of Maithiripala and Wickramasinghe.

However, much has changed after China stepping up its ambitious One Belt One Road (OBOR), also known as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013.

New Delhi, emerging as a Major Strategic Partner of the US, has now picked up the trend of staging big-scale naval, and maritime conferences, including the one, witnessed earlier this month, the Raisina Dialogue.

In the meantime, the US engagement in Trincomalee, where it grooms a marine force for the genocidal SL military, is yet to see new port visits by the US Navy after Gotabaya becoming the SL President.

At the backdrop of the Raisina Dialogue, The Maldives has openly announced embracing the US military doctrine of the “Indo-Pacific Strategy”.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa knows that the prevailing conditions have already determined his military and tech-systems related choices.

The “former” US citizen seems to be advised by his US friends, who are opposed to Trump Administration, to trade-off international human rights obligations using the US-China power rivalry, which is intensifying in the “Indo-Pacific”.

Mr Gotabaya would also be under pressure not to choose crucial technology from China that goes against military ambitions of the US and India.

Gotabaya’s pep-talk to his voters of pursuing “non-alignment” seems to be a tactical posture aimed at consolidating the unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka.

The nation of Eezham Tamils must be aware of the geopolitical gambling dodging genocide justice and political solution to their national question in the island.

Tamils must be advancing international accountability and justice for genocide and political solution without being moved by the unfolding geopolitical gamblings, and it should pursue a discourse challenging the state-centric paradigm of geopolitics, the observers in Jaffna said.

External Links:

The Sunday Guardian:

Time to choose sides in Indo-Pacific Cold War

Chronology: