Can you shake hands with a clenched fist?

We wanted change but we had to pay a price for change.

by Victor Cherubim

( November 4, 2016, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) Change is the “C” word which is repeated over and over again. “Change is going to come,” is what world leaders broadcast. Perhaps, it is as pleasing to the ear, like a repetition of a chorus. Possibly, it is one thing people have longed for. It is the surest thing which we can expect in the months and years ahead.

To many of us life seems to be like a soap opera and neither you nor your friends know what is going to happen in the next episode. This element of surprise makes it both enchanting, exciting and in some respects challenging.

We long for a sense of experimentation, a desire for freedom, not wanting to be tied down or committed to anything, but eager for constant change, even a tendency to be bored with the same thing all the time. So in a way change is part of human nature,

What we see in Sri Lanka and in the world at large is constant change. Within the past 22 months since the era of President Sirisena or the “yahapalana” government,   there have been so many twists and turns that anyone would hardly think a ride down “kaduganawa” was incomparable. Managing change has been the miracle of existence and we give credit to our ingenuity.

“The criteria of good governance, the concept of cohabitation between the two major political parties, the UNP and the SLFP, getting together to grapple with issues no single party could resolve in the past. It is no easy task when two political parties with different views have to govern a country together.”

New Ways, new challenges 

With all this change, what is special about Sri Lanka? We had a devastating war which lasted nearly thirty years. We needed investment to rebuild our economy. We had many friends who could help us in this development, but there were hardly any immediate offers on the scale we required. Our neighbour, India had helped to manage the transition, the Asian Development Bank and World Bank and friendly Western countries and Japan had come to our aid, but there was a widened gulf which needed to be covered.

Lack of investment on infrastructure after a prolonged war does not alleviate poverty, nor stimulate economic economic activities nor reduce trade costs or improve competitiveness.

Besides, our export market of our basic three commodities also was in the doldrums.

We wanted change but we had to pay a price for change.

As the Chinese Ambassador in Colombo stated recently “Colombo took loans at 5.8 percent interest rate from Europe last year, against the 2 percent rate that Chinese loans came with to fund the port projects.” Let us be thankful for small mercies!

He also went on to comment that “Sri Lanka should have a consistent policy, regulations and laws which do not waver with political upheavals in order to attract foreign investment and spur economic growth.” Let us have a continuing foreign policy

and a  permanent civil service that does not change with every change of government, so that the wide world knows who we are?

The way we respond to change 

We have yet to condition ourselves to the risks of change. We have to get out of the disjointed approach to adjust to change. It is all well and easy to consider ourselves to be “victims” of change.

What about welcoming change instead rather than fighting it. What about acknowledging, change as change will happen no matter what.

In UK, the High Court has today ruled that the Government of Theresa May does not have the authority to trigger Article 50 and take UK out of the European Union without the prior agreement of Parliament. This decision means MP’s will be granted a vote in the Commons on leaving the EU.

The Government argued that it had the authority to use the royal prerogative to trigger Art.50 without a vote. Theresa May maintained this vote would subvert democracy.

We in Sri Lanka too need to move on and it is time to move on. As someone recently commented:

“The majority Sinhalese must refuse to live with a minority mindset. Such a mindset cannot embrace modern concepts of integration and assimilation. So it is true with the Tamils. Generations long memories of subjugation and fabricated accusations of ethnic cleansing by the majority are a great hindrance to an open minded approach.”