Building on international support

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has won significant international backing for Sri Lanka’s post-conflict economic and social development at the recently held St. Petersburg International Economic Forum and our hope is that this support would be steadily built on. As could be seen, some very vital states, such as, Russia, China, Spain and Kazakhstan have pledged to stand by Sri Lanka and this backing should be considered very important pluses on the foreign policy front.

These pledges of backing could not be considered as mere adherence to form, because states like Russia and China have made common cause with Sri Lanka over the years on account of their numerous commonalities in the foreign policy sphere.

Since the ending of the conflict in May 2009, these pronouncements of support have only intensified and an international consensus seems to be forming, although not at the desired pace, that Sri Lanka is being made the target of needless hostility by some sections of the international community.

Russia and China have, with some consistency, made common cause with the developing countries in the latter’s efforts to further their legitimate interests over the decades and the present support for Sri Lanka, in the latter’s post-conflict national rejuvenation effort, should be seen as an extension of this traditional policy line. In other words, Sri Lanka is being viewed by these progressive-minded states as a victim of efforts by the bigger powers of the West to subject it to a form of neo-colonial control. That is, Sri Lanka is considered as being unjustly treated and this is a moral victory Sri Lanka could take considerable satisfaction in. Credit is due to the administration under President Mahinda Rajapaksa for having preserved these support bases and for having consolidated them.

But much remains to be done if the present hostile international currents against Sri Lanka are to be resoundingly nullified. Russia and China have spoken-up strongly for Sri Lanka’s inalienable right to protect and strengthen its sovereignty and this is very understandable given these states’ commonality of perception with Sri Lanka on issues pertaining to Non-alignment and other matters growing out of the developing world’s need to manage its internal affairs independently. Besides, they have been through the traumas of political terrorism. They know only too well the overwhelming human and material costs of terrorism. They also know only too well that too much tolerance could not be extended to extremists who believe in only the effectiveness of bombs and bullets.

It is not that those powers of the West who are currently trying to brow-beat Sri Lanka over the controversial Darusman Report and Channel 4, for instance, do not realize these things. They very well do. However, what they want to see is a Sri Lanka which is supinely subservient to them. A Sri Lanka which would with utmost servility say ‘yes’ to their international agendas and who would take lessons from them on how to defeat terror rather than upstage them in the expertise of subduing terror.

There is a need, therefore, for the developing countries of the world to unite. This is a very long overdue enterprise which the Third World has, unfortunately, thrust into the ‘backburner’ and seemingly forgotten. Apparently, the developing world has too obligingly accepted the development paradigms and other prescriptions for the elimination of a country’s ills, from the West and its so-called development institutions. The result is a steady losing of political clout on the world stage. This is a 30-year-long sad story from which we need to draw some lessons.

If economics drive politics, then, the facilitatory factors are now all in place for, perhaps, an unprecedented coming together of the Third World to acquire and own what is rightly its. The next global economic recession, the experts say, would originate in East Asia and not in the West. This is because the economic power balance has shifted from the West to the East. In other words, East Asia would call the shots in a very big way in all matters concerning the world political order.

These conditions should be exploited by the Third World to bolster its power on the world stage. It needs to get together once again, under the flag of groupings, such as the Non-aligned Movement, to achieve its legitimate aims, and the power to act independently but justly is one of these inalienable rights. This is the opportunity for the less powerful of the world to work towards a more fair global economic and political order and we hope the chance would not be missed.