Even though Sri Lanka was experiencing its greatest economic crisis ever, owing to a lack of dollars to buy gasoline, a debt trap, and a staged default, spirits were high when the home cricket side defeated the visiting Australians on July 11.
Following a remarkable weekend in which the Aragalaya, or peoples’ fight, outperformed all expectations by launching numerous coups to peacefully seize both the Presidential Palace and the Prime Minister’s official house, the cricket victory was followed by a weekend of triumph. Without a single person being killed by gunfire, massive waves of protesters overthrew the island’s president and prime minister. Later, the demonstrators held spontaneous concerts to celebrate what seemed to be a successful regime change effort while cooling down in the presidential pool.
This strategically situated emerald island, constantly in the crosshairs of conflict between major powers, never has a boring moment! Even though the battles in Colombo frequently featured barricade breaches, water cannon blasts, and tear gas sprays. After a few minutes of struggle with the unarmed protestors, the police and military gradually capitulated to the people’s might.
A 100-day protest
There have been fewer fatalities in 100 days of protracted protests in Sri Lanka than there have been in one day of gun violence in the US. However, the island is consistently depicted in the media, professional research, and ethnography as a place of (ethnoreligious) violence. This says a lot about the origins of violence inside the global military-industrial complex.
Despite being taught “inter-operability” by numerous Big powers fishing in the Indian Ocean, the Sri Lankan armed forces had shown little interest in military coups for foreign-backed tyrants. If only the outside parties stoking the issue stopped, there would be more reason for optimism, peace, DEBT JUSTICE, debt elimination, and success in IMF negotiations.
Despite no one being killed during the demonstrations, the new acting president took office on May 12 under a nationwide curfew with the military on the streets. Installing handpicked dictators in key nations is a terrible habit of certain great powers fishing in Sri Lanka’s hazardous seas.
The First Domino to Fall: The Fuel and News Embargo
While the local and international corporate media, which shapes the narrative in the country, were silent about the 120 planes that were reportedly diverted from Sri Lanka to Kochi and Thiruvanathapuram airports to aid the island’s fuel-starved island at the center of the Indian Ocean, Indian media carried the story. The recent lack of paper and newsprint is sometimes blamed for the failure to provide geopolitical analyses!
Is Sri Lanka the first domino in the fictitious “free and open Indo-Pacific” of the United States? Would the Quadrilateral Group (QUAD) approve of a de facto news, fuel, and maritime trade embargo that would deprive the island’s economy of Russian oil, widen the debt trap, and give the International Monetary Fund (IMF) control over its economic and trade policies? This island is located in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Dr. Anis Chowdury recently penned a widely-cited piece in which she asserted that “the United States carries a substantial part of the blame” for the rising weaponization of commerce among most nations.
According to fair analysis and news reports, the unspoken truth behind Sri Lanka’s escalating crisis appears to be the Covid-19-induced “Global Reset” that benefits multinational corporations supported by the NATO-QUAD military-industrial complex.