A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Tuesday, May 9, 2017
The battle for the minds of people can be won
By Jehan Perera-May 8, 2017, 8:37 pm
The
Joint Opposition was successful in political and psychological terms
when it succeeded in ensuring large scale participation of its
supporters at its May Day event. Galle Face Green, which covers 18 acres
of land, is perhaps the largest open air venue for public events in the
country. In the past this has been the venue allocated to the Pope to
conduct religious services as was last done in 2015. Members of the
Joint Opposition claimed that the crowd at the May Day rally of the
Joint Opposition was even larger than those who came to attend the
Pope’s event. But there was also a difference. The vast majority of
those who came to see the Pope did so at their own expense. They were
neither bused nor provided with meals and drinks by the Church.
At the last presidential elections held in 2015, nearly 5.8 million
people voted for former president Mahinda Rajapaksa. It is likely that
most of them continue to repose their trust and confidence in the former
president. The crowds that thronged Galle Face Green would account for a
small fraction of that political base. Joint Opposition members claimed
that public participation at their event was more than those of all
other May Day rallies combined. What was needed was organizational skill
and determination to bring them down to one location, and of course,
the financial resources to pay for their travel. It appears that the
Joint Opposition considered more to be at stake for their futures, and
so outdid the others in money and effort to gain the psychological edge.
From the time of its unexpected victory at the presidential elections of
January 2015, the government has been steadily losing the political and
psychological advantage that it had. This is mainly on account of its
inability to show the general public that it is a dynamic and can-do
government that has a plan and is implementing its plan. This is only
partly on account of the government being a coalition of two equal
parties, each of which has taken turns in governing the country in the
past. This time around for the first time they are working together with
a lot of give and take and giving a lot of space to each other and to
the polity in general. The problem is that they are not communicating a
coherent message about their vision and plans to the people.
OPPOSITION ALLIANCES
The most positive feature of the present government is the space it has
given to everyone in the polity to discuss and debate on public issues.
But this freedom is being used mainly by those in the opposition who
criticise whatever the government does and use the political space to
mobilize protests against the government. The government fails to use
the space for discussion and debate to take its own message to the
people. Instead the government is limiting its discussion and debate to
within itself, and to small groups within it, whether it is on economic
policy or constitutional reform or transitional justice. The government
needs to find ways to take leadership of the debate and discussion and
take it to the masses of the people.
By way of contrast, the Joint Opposition strategy is one of going to key
groups, such as religious clergy and professionals, and making their
case in a nationalistic manner. They conjure up fears of external
interventions and erosion of national security and are forging alliances
with important trade unions such as the GMOA to oppose the government.
In some instances they are opposing the very processes that they
launched during their tenure in government. They are now criticizing the
very things they set up. This is not based on policy but on partisan
politics. These include the strike by doctors of the GMOA over the issue
of the private medical school (SAITM) and against the Hambantota port
development project both of which were set up and set on course during
the period of the previous government.
In this context the government needs to go back to the vision of good
governance and inter-ethnic justice that it presented to the people at
the 2015 elections and which won for it the majority of votes of the
electorate. The government also made commitments to the international
community especially regarding the resolution of the UN Human Rights
Council in Geneva and the GSP Plus of the EU which need to be delivered
on. The government needs to spell out is vision to the people and
explain why it made those commitments and why they are in the best
interests of the country, and not a betrayal as asserted by the Joint
Opposition.
RESPONSIVE PEOPLE
Last week at educational workshops were organized by the National Peace
Council for students of Kelaniya and Peradeniya universities on the
issues of the UNHRC resolution. The main issues discussed was what is
required to be done in terms of ascertaining the truth about the past,
ensuring accountability for human rights violations and compensation for
victims, and changing the constitution to facilitate a political
solution. The students were given the opportunity to express their own
opinions in small groups of 8-12 students. Three of the four groups said
that their priorities were truth first, and accountability and
compensation second. One of the four groups reported that their
priorities were compensation first and accountability second.
It was significant that the students did not reject the notion of
transitional justicein the manner of nationalists who say that war
heroes are being persecuted. This was after they had been educated about
what accountability in international law really means, without the
false propaganda of the opposition. Political education was done on a
mass scale during the war by former president Chandrika Kumaratunga with
support from Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera. They led the Sudu
Nelum movement to explain to the people the need for a political
solution based on the devolution and sharing of power between the ethnic
communities. The rest of the government leaders at that time also went
to the people with the message that the President was taking with
determination.
The government was able to secure a victory in the EU parliament a
fortnight ago when an attempt was made to deny Sri Lanka the benefits of
the GSP Plus tariff concession. However, obtaining the tariff
concession remains contingent upon the government’s delivery of a number
of commitments in terms of international human rights and labour
covenants for which the government has to reform some of the laws of the
land. It also needs to implement the provisions of the UNHRC resolution
for which it has obtained a further two years. The problem, however, is
that the government is not taking up the implementation of its
commitments wholeheartedly, although it agreed to them on the basis that
they were for the good of the country. Instead of being deterred by the
size of the Joint Opposition event at Galle Face Green the government
needs to take the fight to the people why its way is better.