Columns

Shortly after the avaricious and imperious Donald Trump launched his land- and assets-grabbing adventure, he set up a money-sucking organisation called the Board of Peace. He ‘invited’ political leaders and money trees to contribute the very generous one billion dollars for a seat on the board intended to end the conflict in Gaza, not to mention other good deeds also, knowing what a good humanitarian man he is.

If Mark Antony’s words in Julius Caesar come to mind, it cannot be forgiven. As Antony said of Brutus, “He is an honourable man.” If one could or does say the same of Mr Trump, then a visit to a specialist (you know what specialist is required) needs immediate attention.

One does not need to expatiate on the details of his Board of Peace. Not many days have passed since this great altruistic endeavour was announced and dollars collected when the board appears to have disappeared overboard and undersea.

I do not know whether Sri Lanka’s President Dissanayake was invited to join and drop any dollars into the kitty now that Sri Lanka appears to have plenty of cash or so the treasury and bank boys tell us.

But at least Trumpy has left him some souvenirs lest President Dissanayake forget that he and his world-visiting foreign minister returned post-haste from that Geneva confab late last year because he hated wasting people’s money, or so he claimed.

So, in case President AKD has forgotten Mr Trump, busy as he is trying to sort out the good ’coal comfort’ from some South African mix and marauding gunslingers here and there—no, no, not Trump. He belongs to the category of a bigger bore to judge by his stupid rhetoric, say some who have heard him.

Thanks to dear Donald, he sent to our island nation some pieces of an Iranian ‘warship’, as some one-time journalists playing Trump ‘lackeys’ have mentioned.

What is worrying is some of the geopolitical give-and-take in recent years, particularly the eviction of an elected president who packed his bags and took flight.

But the real story dates back 25 years or so to the important days of the Non-aligned Movement (NAM) when Sri Lanka played a significant role in the movement under Prime Minister Sirima Bandaranaike while the pre-eminence of the superpowers of the world determined to carve out the universe for themselves.

What worried small nations like Sri Lanka, then called Ceylon, was the growing domination of the United States and its acolytes and the Soviet Union and its satellites with nuclear weapons in hand.

As mentioned several times in the past, it was this concern and the need to maintain a non-aligned geopolitical posture that suggested what countries Sri Lanka wished to pursue – keep away from big power politics.

One reason why Sri Lanka and others were strongly committed to a peace zone in the Indian Ocean was to prevent a large number of developing littoral states—that need time and resources to develop—from being caught up, as they were, like cleft sticks, between two superpowers.

So Sri Lanka pressed the UN General Assembly to adopt a resolution that banned big powers and armed nations from turning the ocean into a bloodbath, as the ongoing Vietnam War did seem to convey. The resolution was passed with massive support in 1971, a major achievement for the island nation.

At the time Sri Lanka, Tanzania and other nations fought for a peaceful Indian Ocean, there already was a US military base on an island called Diego Garcia, which was under British control, over which there were bilateral tussles, including legal clashes between Mauritius, Britain and the Chagossian people.

When the Soviet Union broke up and its satellite states also went on their own, NAM slowly faded away, and the Indian Ocean seemed to be a more peaceful maritime trading area.

Fast forward to the present day. Naturally, the US being a major Pacific and less of an Indian Ocean power, it concentrated on strengthening its geopolitical pressure in the Pacific. Emerging as a new contender in place of the Soviet Union was the ideologically sharply divergent China, the new challenge to Washington, though way behind right then.

But times have changed inexorably. Now Russia is not the main antagonist of the US, unlike in the post-WW2 era. As the geopolitical clash for power in the vast Indian Ocean rages, several small nations are caught up in this battle where the weapons of war and the art of war could well turn out to be different, though both are nuclear superpowers or near so.

I, however, have another side of the Indo-Pacific confrontation that I hope will be unravelled for the benefit of the people of Sri Lanka who voted overwhelmingly for the NPP/JVP government. It was quite understandable that the Marxist-Leninist alliance of varying shades derived from the past should have leftist political inclinations and thinking.

But a massive neighbour of different hues and international stature would impose its influence in different ways, such as national security and economic support. One can understand that mental trauma, as it were, as they try to sort out their differences.

What does cause concern is where the US fits into this equation. It does raise a couple of matters. We read about the 3 or 4 day visit to Colombo of US Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Steve Koehler.

It is said he commands the biggest fleet in the world. At the time he arrived to pacify the governments’ rather jumpy nerves, what with some fuel shortage in some places and other shortages elsewhere, we had at our presence the very man who controls the seven seas or whatever.

Here is his president bombing and shooting everything in sight because he does not want to see any person from Tehran. And he has virtually said he will eliminate Iran.

Now a few days after the admiral’s soothing words to the president, which was of course an admirable thing to do, he goes shipshape or promises to carry on with their partnership.

With Trump boy promising to take care of Tehran’s military machinery, I suppose our frontiersmen were quite well settled when news broke that an Iranian warship had been torpedoed and scores of people died, disappeared or were wounded.

I dare say it was nice of the top admiral to give us a word of the impending military disaster. I mean, where would we be otherwise? Taking a stroll to Galle so we can see the disaster and the rescue operations.

But I still have some questions about all this, especially what we should do bilaterally. Perhaps he had brought along that MoU signed with the US states last year which the foreign minister has been boasting about, for this was one of the 70 for the year he produced.

You know what? This government has still to table this in parliament, as I heard some time ago. Why the hell do we want an MoU when we can pick up the phone and call Diego Garcia to send an aircraft or submarine to take us to a national day cocktail?

But there is more to ask – but our whizz kids might want to know where Diego Garcia is. Actually it is just a few nautical miles away. You will not have to pump some petrol. They have spare tanks in Diego Garcia.

(Neville de Silva is a veteran Sri Lankan journalist who was Assistant Editor, Diplomatic Editor and Political Columnist of the Hong Kong Standard before moving to London, where he worked for Gemini News Service. Later he was Deputy Chief of Mission in Bangkok and Deputy High Commissioner in London before returning to journalism.)