Udaya Gammanpila – He wants Sri Lanka to be like the Pope!

The Erudite scholar of the Hela Urumaya, Udaya Gammanpila a provincial councilor of the Western Provincial Council made some very interesting remarks at the just concluded Sri Lanka Economic Summit held at the Cinnamon Grand a few hours ago. In a panel discussion held under the Moderator, Mano Tittawella, he likened Sri Lanka to the Pope.

He said that in the 15 century the two world powers were neighbors. They were Portugal and Spain, and both Catholic Countries. Being superpowers in their day, there inevitably comes a time when they have disputes which need resolution. In steps the Pope to mediate between the two countries to amicably settle their problems without having to resort to war.

In the same vein, Sri Lanka must stake its historic strategic advantage of location, namely the hub of the East, currently grabbed by Singapore and Dubai and like the Pope take the leadership in being the honest broker in disputes between India and China. He maintained that in the not too distant past when disputes arose within the Asian giants, we intervened to help when India and China went to war and resolved their differences and similarly did the same when India and Pakistan engaged in hostilities.

It is an important observation which had passed my conscience. If we are able to have good relations with India and China, where we have their trust, we will be able to reestablish our place in the world by being able to broker any disputes between the two as long as the world has the confidence that we have resolved our current standoff dispute with India.

This is a great opportunity to take back the space available for this role. First we MUST resolve our Northern dilemma and come to an amicable settlement of the grievances that our northern brothers have. The govt. has shown no sign of being really serious about this resolution, and so the pressure must be put hard on the govt. to stop dithering and start acting like statesmen to resolve the problem.

Thanks to Udaya, he is now the Pope of Sri Lanka, ideally suitable to join in this brokerage business, having coined the phrase, where POPE and Sri Lanka will be synonymous as an honest broker of Super Power rivalries, now that the manufacturing super power China meets the Service super power India and Sri Lanka determines who does what, when and how!!!