Sri Lankan Power and Energy Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka has said that Nasheed came into power as someone who gave the green light to Western powers, but was made to resign after a few years because he changed his foreign policy.
In an interview with Sri Lankan paper The Sunday Observer, he talked about the importance of South Asian countries to the U.S. and other Western countries and said that Nasheed came into power as a green light ‘boy’ of the West, but was made to resign when he changed his foreign policy subsequent to not receiving a single cent from the West.
“Look at the Maldives as an example: President Nasheed came into power as a green light boy of the Western Powers, but after a couple of years, he realised that not a cent has been invested in his country by these Western powers. Then he changed his foreign policy and created close political ties with India, China and Sri Lanka. Nasheed was made to resign,” Patali told The Sunday Observer.
Noting that South Asia and especially Sri Lanka will be the hub of all economic activities in the 21st century, he said that the U.S. and other Western countries make efforts to reunite Tamils in Sri Lanka and make them more powerful. He accused several UK Parliament Members of having employed Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) supporters in their staff.
He said that their purpose is to use LTTE to destabilize the region.
All Asian leaders who defied the US have been chased away, according to Patali: “They destroyed Afghanistan, they are destabilising Pakistan and Central Asian countries such as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan up to Russia. They are in Myanmar. They divided Indonesia. “They are tying to form a separate country in Aceh. They overthrew Mahathir Mohammad in Malaysia and chased away Thaksin Shinawatra in Thailand.”
Patali referred to former President Nasheed as an example of a leader who has been chased away for defying the U.S. and other Western powers.