INCLUSIVE NATIONALISM: THE ONLY WAY FORWARD
Sri Lankans have to survive within this country as one Nation and prevent outsiders from making us lose The single most important factor which has been able to resist interference is Nationalism
Nationalism is a powerful tool which seems to win every time against any attempt of external intervention or of attempts to impose neoliberalism by force
Liberal Democracy entails in the main, the idea of ever-expanding individual rights, the tolerance of other people’s views and the duty of the State to protect and enhance them. Such expansion might one day lead to the disappearance of National boundaries and UN might become a thing of the past. However, as long as the UN exists the concept of a Nation State would continue to be there. As long as the concept of a Nation State exists looking after the National interests of each country would necessarily take precedence over individual interests.
An essential prerequisite for the promotion of National Interest as against the interests of individuals would be the creation of a citizenry with a strong sense of belonging and identification with the culture of one’s country.
Many Nations in recent history have experienced the ill effects of certain countries trying to export “democracy” of a kind in the form of neo-liberalism to those Nations which had reasonably content and happy people with various systems of governance.
This project of exporting ‘’democracy” of this undefined nature has always been met with resistance based primarily on Nationalism of each of these Nations.
Nationalism is a powerful tool which seems to win every time against any attempt of external intervention or of attempts to impose neo-liberalism by force.
Various examples from the wars of Vietnam to Afghanistan, to Iraq where the resistance had come from elements who value their sovereignty and who have a strong sense of Nationalism are readily available.
Prof. John Mearsheimer the American Political Scientist and international relations scholar, argues therefore, even America’s attempt to export Liberal Democracy to the rest of the world has been a failure.
If America was genuinely interested in promoting Liberal Democracy to the rest of the world, to that extent they may not have been successful. However, this failed attempt has not prevented the disruption and the eventual destruction of stable countries and societies.
The single most important factor which has been able to resist interference is Nationalism according to Mearscheimer. He in fact cites the example of his own country and says the rise of Donald Trump was due to American Nationalism. It is this sense of belonging and identification with one’s country that gives people the ability to resist outside interference and assert their sovereignty.
Though asserting sovereignty is not beneficial for the “neo-liberal” project, as far as the US itself is concerned, they have always insisted that their sovereignty be respected by others.
They have told the UN so,in no uncertain terms and that is obviously why they are so perturbed by the mere possibility of Russia having attempted to influence the outcome of their elections. Unfortunately, the same yardstick cannot be expected to be used regarding sovereignty of all countries as inequality of Nations due to diverse factors is the reality though theoretically sovereign equality is the cornerstone of the UN system.
In such a scenario, is it possible for Sri Lanka to assert and sustain its sovereignty given our present standing in the World? This question seems to depend primarily on three major factors. The first is the level of desire of our rulers to assert sovereignty, the second is our ability to assert economic independence at a level that permits the exercise of sovereignty while the last and certainly the most important factor, is our ability to build inclusive nationalism and prevent our own Nationals from wanting to act against our national interests as a result of feeling marginalized. Economic independence does not necessarily mean the absence of being indebted, in reality it means the ability to avoid the diktats of other countries with regard to our destiny.
For instance, the US is indebted to the tune of around three trillion US$ to China. Yet China is not in a position to dictate terms to America. Whereas, Sri Lanka, whose total Chinese debt amounts to less than 11% of the overall debt, has demonstrated its severe inability to assert sovereignty to the level that is desired even to protect our strategic assets. We have also not been able to resist attempts by many foreign countries to dictate terms with regard to many of our internal affairs.
In all cases where the US tried to impose its will, it was not necessarily as a means to bring neo-liberalism in the guise of democracy. Countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria were attacked or interfered with, under various pretexts though Mearscheimer argues the underlying aim was the export of liberal democracy.
Even if one assumes that the US did have such an aim but failed in their endeavour, yet the resistance has failed to rescue those countries from destruction and the resultant loss of whatever little freedom the people of those countries may have had prior to intervention. The obvious reason for this has to be due to nationalism of those countries having an inherent weakness which prevented national cohesion.
As a result of this the interventionists found collaborators within those countries quite easily which resulted in the resistance only preventing neoliberalism taking root but failing to prevent destruction of those countries.
If Sri Lanka were to avoid such a situation, the only possible way is not to cave in and allow neo-liberalism to take root which will destroy our culture and eventually decimate us with no long term benefit to the collaborators as well as those who refuse to collaborate, but to create nationalism which is of an inclusive nature where nobody feels alienated and the need to collaborate with external forces. No citizen can be allowed to feel alienated from the culture of the country when seeking to build inclusive Nationalism. Achieving such is not easy but seems to be the only way forward if we are genuinely interested in protecting our Nation State.
In moving towards such a goal it would be very important to understand and reject the prescription given to us by the West, namely, the creation of multiple cultures which they themselves do not practise. Instead what we must do is to create a single culture towards which everybody
can contribute. People must feel, irrespective of their current faith that all of them are the repositories of the ancient culture of this country. For them to feel so, those who currently claim a monopoly of the ancient culture of this country must be willing to accept that there cannot be a monopoly of the core culture of a country to a particular linguistic or religious community.
The political leaders of this country must realize any encouragement given to foreign powers to interfere in our internal affairs for temporary political gain of someone or a group of people, in the long run would be detrimental to all. Nobody should be permitted to entertain unrealistic dreams of peaceful coexistence in a bifurcated country brought about by coercion applied externally.
All Sri Lankans have to survive within this country as one Nation and prevent outsiders from making us lose whatever precious little we have secured for ourselves by the collective identity we possess as a Nation.
If we are unable to do so, sooner than later our existence as a sovereign nation, recognized by the UN, would seriously be in question.we must have the maturity to understand that no outside element would genuinely be interested is looking after the interests of any group within our country and that they will only promote their interests at our cost.
The New Liberal idea that one must not have a sense of belonging to a Nation, that everyone is a global citizen, that all must lose National identities to identify with global trends based on individual rights as opposed to social obligations of individuals, have to be re-looked at as the preservation of the nation is essential for the securing of individual rights within our country.
Therefore ideally, to defeat all external interference, the country ought to strive to move towards a single, all encompassing value based culture, contributed to, by all citizens which would give a sense of belonging to all.
For this to be achieved our thought process (Chinthanaya) must change drastically. Such a changed thought process must be converted into a vision. Such a vision with suitable strategies must be implemented effectively. If, in the process of implementation, difficulties are encountered, appropriate measures can be employed to overcome them.
The thought process, vision, strategies and measures must conform to an all-encompassing ideology based on our ancient values; whereby the correctness or otherwise of each of them can be verified in relation to such ideology. This ideology must be the promotion of individual and collective rights of all our citizens based on our traditional values of love, kindness, compassion, vicarious joy and equanimity.
Based on such an ideology when we move towards a single National Culture and Identity it would be possible to accept that all citizens are the repositories of all historical achievements of the country.
The day the entire world genuinely believes in one humanity, the concept of a Nation State, national identities and Nationalism itself can be given up. But until and unless that day arrives, it is not possible for any Nation to survive without Nationalism.
However, the very same Nationalism if not used in a manner to include everybody, might result in a situation where the enemies of the Nation would be able to make use of Nationalism as a divisive tool to separate all of us.thus, the imperative and the urgent need is to build INCLUSIVE NATIONALISM as it is the only plausible way forward.