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Island of Opportunity? a Historical Study on the Recent Change in Sri Lanka’S Foreign Policy

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Island of Opportunity? a Historical Study on the Recent Change in Sri Lanka’S Foreign Policy Island of Opportunity? A historical study on the recent change in Sri Lanka’s foreign policy Master Thesis Robert Oudraad Student Number: 3603490 International Relations in Historical Perspective Thesis Supervisor: Laurien Crump Number of words: 24769 Master Thesis Robert Oudraad The image on the first page shows former President Mahinda Rajapaksa congratulating President Sirisena with his victory at the Sri Lankan Presidential Elections of January 2015. The image originated from the Sangai Express and can be found at the following link: http://e-pao.net/GP.asp?src=7..100115.jan15 2 j Island of Opportunity ? Master Thesis Robert Oudraad Table of Contents LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 4 INTRODUCTION 6 CHAPTER 1 11 1.1 FOREIGN POLICY OF THE EARLY UNP GOVERNMENTS 11 1.2 FOREIGN POLICY UNDER THE BANDARANAIKES UNTIL 1965 14 1.3 SRI LANKAN FOREIGN POLICY IN THE SEVENTIES AND EIGHTIES 16 1.4 SRI LANKA’S POST-COLD WAR FOREIGN POLICY UNTIL 2005 22 1.5 AN OVERVIEW OF THE SRI LANKA’S FOREIGN POLICY DURING THE FIRST 60 YEARS 25 CHAPTER 2 28 2.1 RAJAPAKSA AS A WARTIME PRESIDENT 28 2.1.1 EXCLUDING THE WEST AND ENDING THE PEACE PROCESS 29 2.1.2 PLAYING INDIA AND CHINA OFF FOR HELP AGAINST THE LTTE 32 2.2 POST-WAR INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 35 2.2.1 INDIAN IRRITATIONS AND SINHALA NATIONALISM 36 2.2.2 CONSOLIDATING RELATIONS WITH THE CHINESE 40 2.3 RAJAPAKSA’S FOREIGN POLICY 44 CHAPTER 3 47 3.1 THE MAITHRI FACTOR 47 3.2 SIRISENA’S BACKGROUND 49 3.3 RAPPROCHEMENT WITH THE WEST 50 3.4 REVIVING OLD INDIAN TIES 53 3.5 TAMING THE CHINESE DRAGON 56 3.6 SIRISENA’S FOREIGN POLICY 60 CONCLUSION 62 BIBLIOGRAPHY 67 PRIMARY SOURCES 67 SECONDARY SOURCES 72 3 Island of Opportunity? 3 Master Thesis Robert Oudraad List of abbreviations ASEAN: Association of Southeast Asian Nations CEPA: Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement ETCA: Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement. FTA: Free Trade Agreement GSP+: Generalized Scheme of Preferences Plus IPKF: Indian Peace Keeping Force LLRC: Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission LTTE: Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam MoU: Memorandum of Understanding SAARC: South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation SIPRI: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute SLFP: Sri Lanka Freedom Party UNHRC: United Nations Human Rights Committee UNP: United National Party 4 j Island of Opportunity ? Master Thesis Robert Oudraad 5 Island of Opportunity? 5 Master Thesis Robert Oudraad Introduction On 4 February 2016, President Sirisena conducted a speech at the 68th Independence Parade in Colombo, stating that Sri Lanka has made considerable steps in reconciliation and that the new national government would promote economic growth.1 However, during the past year there have been doubts among the international community about the commitment of the Sri Lankan government to reconciliation. For decades, Sri Lanka had been a place of much turmoil. Until 2009, the successive Sri Lankan governments fought a bloody war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). These insurgents fought for an independent nation in the north and east of Sri Lanka, where most of the biggest minority group, the Tamil, live. Many of the Tamil population felt (partially) excluded from the Sri Lankan nation. Originally, the Tamil minority in Sri Lanka came from the southern part of the Indian subcontinent, where today still a large Tamil-speaking population lives. Because of this, the interests of India in Sri Lanka have always been high since the independence of the two nations. India’s interference in Sri Lanka’s protracted civil war has greatly influenced the course of the struggle.2 While India sees Sri Lanka has an important part of its backyard, any interference by other major powers in Sri Lankan affairs is met with suspicious eyes from New Delhi. The last few decades, China has tried to expand its influence in the Indian Ocean. With its strategic location, Sri Lanka is a country which the Chinese have much interest in.3 The island nation itself, however, has always claimed to follow a foreign policy of non-alignment and has, in this way, tried to stay neutral in the geopolitical battle that is taking place in Southern Asia.4 However, Sri Lanka seemed with each succeeding presidency to have a different preference for interacting with one of the major powers. For example, former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, seemed to have developed a preference for Chinese investments after India’s government became increasingly more 1 Maithripala Sirisena, ‘Full Speech : President Sirisena's address at 68th Independence parade’, Sunday Times (4 February 2016), http://www.sundaytimes.lk/94765/full-speech-president-sirisenas-address-at- 68th-independence-parade. (2 March 2016) 2 Sandra Destradi,‘India and Civil War in Sri Lanka’ War: The Failure of Regional Conflict Management in South Asia’, Asian Survey 52 (3) (2012), 598. 3 Thilini Kahandawaarachchi, Politics of ports: China’s investments in Pakistan, Sri Lanka & Bangladesh. Master Thesis. University of Washington (2005), 32. 4 Ambika Satkunanathan, "The Executive and the Shadow State in Sri Lanka." in Reforming Sri Lankan Presidentialism: Provenance, Problems and Prospects, A. Welikala (ed.). (2015) Colombo: Centre for Policy Alternative, 12. 6 j Island of Opportunity ? Master Thesis Robert Oudraad anti-Colombo.5 During Rajapaksa’s presidency, China became Sri Lanka’s biggest investor, with China being responsible for 24% of all investments in the country in 2013.6 China has mainly invested in the development of infrastructure, with the port of Hambantota, the first Sri Lankan highways and the proposed harbour city, Colombo Port City, being the biggest investment projects. With the victory of the other presidential candidate, Maitripala Sirisena, in the last Presidential Elections of January 2015, the foreign policy of Sri Lanka seems to have been directed into another lane. After his inauguration, President Sirisena promised great change and to tackle corruption and improve reconciliation after the civil war.7 There seems also have been a change in the interaction with the major regional and world powers. Sirisena has changed Sri Lanka’s focus on China and claims to really follow the policy of non-alignment. After January 2015, the Sri Lankan government has revised the Colombo Port City contract and started investigation into financial corruption and Chinese influence that came with the deal.8 It seems that the tone of the government has changed and that it is willing to open up to other major powers, like India and the West, more than the previous government did. However, it has to be seen to what extent Sirisena’s foreign policy is different from the previous governments. It is argued that the foreign policy of a country is a reflection of the dominant identity of that country.9 Foreign policy is merely a reflection of domestic polices, directed outwards onto the international stage. The change of government and foreign policy in January 2015, seem to reflect a change of opinion within Sri Lankan society. What that change is and how to place it in a historical context, are two questions that still need more examination. By historically comparing the factors that influenced and the motives that drove the different governments of Sri Lanka to conduct a certain foreign policy, this thesis tries to identify which factors were the most important forming the foreign policy of the current government of Sri Lanka. From this a research question can be derived: What distinguishes the foreign policy laid out by the government of Maithripala Sirisena after the presidential elections of January 2015 from previous Sri Lankan governments and why is it different? This thesis is going to try to put this change 5 Asit Biswas and Cecilia Tortajada, ‘Sri Lanka, China and India - A Tangled tale’. Business Times, 19 March 2015, 2. 6 Kahandawaarachchi, Politics of ports, 3. 7 Daily Mirror Sri Lanka, ‘Lanka anticipating new governing system : PM’ (14 March 2015) 8 Daily Mirror Sri Lanka, ‘Port City project work carried out unlawfully – ‘Public Tribunal’, (10 April 2015) 9 L. Hansen, Security as Practice: Discourse Analysis and the Bosnian War. (New York 2006), 23. 7 Island of Opportunity? 7 Master Thesis Robert Oudraad in a historical perspective, by tracing the foreign policy of Sri Lanka from the country’s independence and onwards. With foreign policy, I mean the relations with the major powers of the world and the preference of the Sri Lankan governments for one of these powers. Sri Lanka has changed its focus within its foreign relations frequently since its independence. While claiming to follow a policy of non-alignment for years, in different periods, different preferences for the major powers can be detected. For example, right after independence there was a preference for the West, Sri Lanka’s foreign policy during the first eight years of her independence was marked by close collaboration with the West.10. This historical examination will give a deeper explanation of the change of government and foreign policy of January 2015. This thesis tries to accomplish this by a textual examination of the available literature on Sri Lanka’s foreign policy throughout the years and by the use of primary sources in the form of journalistic articles, speeches made by Sri Lankan leaders and personal memoranda. The historical examination of the change of government and foreign policy of late January is relevant because it is a very recent development, which is still on-going and has not been examined much yet. Also, to date, this has not really been done in relation to Sri Lanka’s foreign policy in the post-Cold War era. There have been some recent analyses of Sri Lanka’s regime change in January 2015, but these have mainly been done in relation to internal developments.
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