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, February 28, 2017
State reforms as a domestic policy imperative
Featured image courtesy Sri Lanka Brief/@UthayaShalin
Earlier this week, Parliament debated, on an adjournment motion by the
TNA, the unresolved issues of the North and East, namely dealing with
the effects and the causes of the war. The former requiring specific
reconciliation measures, and the latter reforms of the Sri Lankan state
which enables the state to accommodate the full diversity of society.
The attention of the Sri Lankan polity will also be focused
internationally at the UNHRC in Geneva, where at its general sessions
the resolution on Sri Lanka, dealing with our reconciliation and
democratisation processes, would be on the agenda. Various reports in
the popular press have a range of views on the reconciliation process
and the current state of play, which broadly divide into two camps. In
the south, opposition forces are agitating that the proposed reforms are
a sell out and have consequently largely resigned from the steering
committee of the Constitutional Assembly, but after having served on the
sub committees during deliberations and the submission of their
reports. In the North, opposition to the TNA leadership, paradoxically,
largely from within its own ranks would claim that little or no progress
on reconciliation has occurred.
The context for the current state of play, is the momentous elections of
2015, which abruptly ended what had seemed an invincible Rajapakse
Administration and its policy direction of creeping authoritarianism and
an entrenching of social divisions and ethnic polarizations. The
elections of President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil
Wickremesinghe, opened a new chapter, in post war Sri Lanka, a
government committed to the three pillars of democratization,
reconciliation and sustainable economic development. The one hundred
(100) day program of the new government succeeded in achieving the early
wins and the easy tasks and the 19thamendment to the
constitution, was the landmark achievement of that first flush of
victory. The current tasks and challenges are now the harder tasks of
state reform and it is important to bear in mind, why we should reform.
Earlier in this month of February, we celebrated our 69thanniversary
of Independence and casting our minds back to 1948, Ceylon as we were
then called was a land of rich promise. Looking back nearly seven
decades later, we realize that our inability to deal with our diversity
led us spending about three decades fighting a ruinous civil war, which
eroded our democracy, polarised our society, stunted our economic growth
and warped our social progress. It is not in the interest of any
section of Sri Lankan society, that we live our next three decades, like
we did in the last three.
The end of the war and the destruction of the armed capability of the
LTTE in 2009, provided a unique second chance for us to recreate a
united and tolerant Sri Lanka, accommodative of diversity and fulfilling
the aspirations of all her peoples. Unfortunately, the Rajapakse
Administration, which had provided the political oversight for the
military’s defeat of the LTTE, seemed both unwilling and unable to chart
a new course to provide either a peace dividend or a sustainable peace.
It was amazing that in a short span of four to five years, it moved
from an overwhelming victory to an ignominious defeat. The broad rainbow
coalition of the “Yahapaalanaya” Administration was elected on
a good governance and reform agenda, which would seek to utilise the
window of opportunity we have for real and needed state reform.
The most important aspect of reform required by the general public is
economic reform, for a dynamic and growing economy which fulfills the
economic aspirations of all our peoples, including both urban and rural,
young and old, professionals and entrepreneurs, the educated and the
less well educated. The economic management leadership of the current
administration would clearly articulate that they inherited an economy
hobbled with excessive foreign debt spent on projects of dubious value
at exorbitant and inflated costs, which in an unfavorable external
environment has been a near insurmountable challenge to overcome. Well
knowing though that the next election would all be about how economic
benefits were delivered to the people.
The other aspect of needed reform is in the area of reconciliation and
the government is moving in the right direction, though arguably at a
pace slower than that wished by the people of the North and East and
their elected representatives. However, the important fact is that the
Government is on the right path, even if it has not progressed down that
path, at quite the pace wishes by some. Even government leaders may
well be frustrated by the pace of reform, but politics and policy reform
is also the art of the possible, exploiting existing spaces
complemented with comprehensive dialogue among stakeholders and such
democratic processes take time and as the old adage goes, Rome was not
built in a day and societies being complex, change slowly and
incrementally.
Sri Lanka actually achieved a quiet people revolution through the ballot
box in 2015 and started off on a new journey, which has perhaps passed
its one third mark, but not yet reached even the half way stage. It must
be provided the time, space and support, both locally and
internationally to proceed down the path of reforms in democracy,
reconciliation and sustainable economic development, to fulfill the
clear mandates of the sovereign people of Sri Lanka given in January and
August 2015.
Those who enjoyed this article might find “Geneva and coming colours: A lesson for Colombo” and “Sellamma and her struggle to reclaim her house and land in Puthukudiyiruppu,” enlightening reads.