Freedom Day reflections
Today marks the 76th anniversary of Sri Lanka regaining its Independence as a free and sovereign nation from 450 years of foreign rule, an occasion viewed no doubt with mixed emotions among its citizens. By now the country as a whole ought to have identified where the independent nation took the wrong turns. Nationalism was a natural outcome of four and half centuries of colonial rule, but the much acclaimed universal adult franchise that required winning votes unfortunately promoted communal and religious-based politics that emerged from an early stage and still prevails. Then came the welfare populism on the economic front.
While it is the indisputable truth that Sri Lanka's political leadership—all elected by the people, especially those of recent vintage—must take the collective responsibility for the country's present predicament, those that sulk in muttering resignation about the state of affairs clearly have no clue, nor read history, about what life was under colonial rule and how the people of this land were treated.
In the course of the 1818 Uva ‘Aragalaya’, the British Governor issued a Gaza style ‘scorched earth’ policy to destroy man, beast and vegetation. During the 1915 riots that were a watershed in the country's history, the British Attorney General when asked for his opinion on how to deal with the situation had replied that because Britain was at war (World War I), all Ceylonese were "statutory camp followers" of the British Empire and fell within the British Army Act and as such, were subject to Martial Law.
It is, therefore, a pity that this country has sunk to its current plight—2022 arguably its lowest point with many of its free citizens emigrating to other countries in search of a better future from a country that was so well ahead of its time in 1948, the envy of those nations similarly emerging from colonial rule. With a social welfare programme, the likes of which even some advanced economies did not have—free education, free health, free rice—the welfare state eventually collapsed under the burden of its own weight, having to sustain a population that has quadrupled since 1948. With the inability to pay its bills, the ordinary people are asked to pocket out the money to sustain what is left of such welfarism.
Not that it has been all downhill for the past 76 years. From the early years of Independence and the Gal Oya Development project that was built without a dollar of foreign aid or loan, a host of development projects have catered to a growing population and so too, the people's natural expectations of a modern lifestyle.
Unfortunately, some of these more recent initiatives were sucked into 'unsolicited projects' riddled with bribery and were part of the machinations of big powers wanting a toehold in this country as part of their global agendas.
Three quarters of a century after Independence, foreign powers, old and new, are continuing to lecture Sri Lanka on how to run its affairs.
Some advice was forced down the country's throat, as was the case when the ultimate insult was thrust on it by way of having its fundamental law, the Constitution, amended to include Provincial Councils (13th Amendment). Elsewhere, from the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to tweets by ambassadors representing powerful countries in Colombo or high commissioners calling upon local political parties to unite to win their demands from the government, who feel it an entitlement to comment on the internal affairs of their host country, unsolicited advice continues to pour in. It has left independent Sri Lanka with no muscle, no clout, whatsoever, to bargain as an equal partner and save face due to the ignominy of being a bankrupt nation. It is entirely a lopsided balance sheet.
Meanwhile, storm clouds are gathering once again in that part of the island that called for separation not long ago. The election of a leader who has forsaken the new Lanka straining to inch towards reconciliation and has, instead, hitched his political wagon to the communal star calling for Federalism. He should know such a demand will be as good as a kite that flew at a popular festival in Vadamarachchi recently. Are the northern people once again going to miss the bus following such leadership without integrating with the rest of the country? His predecessors rode on the back of Tigers only to be swallowed by them, allowing a fascist terrorist group to lead them not to a promised land but to immense suffering and economic stagnation. The politicians of the north only re-emerged from the ashes of a virtual civil war they were largely responsible for unleashing.
With this being election year, the mindset of all political parties is about grandstanding. In our 75th year, Sri Lanka fell to arguably its lowest point. There is no other choice but to recover and grow. Much of this electoral grandstanding will be back to the basics—communal and religion-based politics, and populist promises sowing the seeds of division, not diversity. They will take a supposedly mature electorate on yet another jolly good ride that elections alone will be the panacea for all ills.
As for today, as we said last year, no doubt the economic situation does not warrant a grand tamasha to celebrate Independence, but marking the occasion cannot be downplayed or forgotten. Sri Lankan citizens are no longer to be treated as 'camp followers" of a foreign power even if some of the northern politicians volunteer to be so.
This is a time to reflect on the 76 years post-Independence; and a time to manage the current configurations of foreign policy realpolitik with India, China and the West at our doorstep. The current link with the IMF will determine the daily lives of the people, and maybe, the outcome of the upcoming elections.
Today is also not about a government in office. It is about a country's history, remembrance and recognition of its past national leaders from all communities who gave their all, who endured and agitated, to remove the shackles of colonialism so that today's generation of Sri Lankans could live as free men and women.
It is the turn of today's citizenry, therefore, to ensure their country's wellbeing for their children and their children's children, as their forebears had wished for them.