By Varatha Shanmuganathan –

Four hundred and forty three years of foreign rule. A yoke that crushed the self esteem of all the people in Sri Lanka. On 4 February 1948, it was declared that Ceylon was a free country. Expectations were high. National Anthems were written and sung in Sinhalese and Tamil. All the people breathed the fresh air of freedom and democracy. This lasted only for a short period. The dream of a united, happy and prosperous future for the people of Sri Lanka came and vanished like a rainbow. The reality revealed itself with a hideous future within a few years. Communal riot after riot consumed the peace of the country. Nationalism and patriotism were convoluted into narrow minded and short sighted selfish tools to achieve nothing. Certain governmental policies and practices hurt and wounded a section of the population in the country very badly. The country became divided. The togetherness and the brotherly and sisterly give and take of affection slowly vanished. The finger pointing of one against the other community finally erupted into violence from 1983 to 2009. Sixty one years of mismanagement and misrule held sway. Enough damage was done to the destiny of this beautiful land by 2009. The so called decadence started setting in. The consequences of the actions of certain political leaders came home to roost. Economic downturn started biting into the core of the country’s survival. Redemption had to intervene quickly. It happened too to a certain extent. Foreign loan upon foreign loan mounted to redeem the situation in the short term and long term mortgaging of the country’s assets. But the perfect redemption is far away in the horizon.

The new President, Anura Kumara Dissanayake has been elected with an overwhelming majority to take the reins of this great country. He has to learn many lessons from the recent- past. Dig deep into the recent-past and come up with solutions that will be long lasting and concrete. He has categorically stated in his initial address to the parliament and to the public of Sri Lanka that the old order should change and the country should see a new vision of inclusiveness, togetherness, unity and an equal treatment of all the religious and linguistic communities of the country. Corruption and hoarding of public wealth in the politicians’ private bank accounts for their enjoyment, comfort and luxurious living should be a thing of the past and those who were involved in such acts of corruption should be punished accordingly. The path towards this end may be tedious and long. The people have spoken with their democratic right, the voting right and have given the parliament to do the right thing at the right time and lift up this “other Eden and demi-Paradise” to a level of excellence and importance that will shine with intergritty and openness. That means the members of parliament would be serving the people and not warming the seats in parliament and lining their own pockets.

To think that Sri Lanka has fallen to some depths of decadence should sadden those who live in the country and those who were forced to flee from here. Those living in the country are the sons and daughters of the soil who face the ups and downs of economy and the political upheavals from time to time. The whole of Sri Lanka irrespective of community differences, religious differences and regional differences should enjoy the fruits of a true democratic system. True democracy according to Abraham Lincoln is, “the government of the people, for the people and by the people.” Nobody expects the President to be a Mahatma Gandhi or a Nelson Mandela. But at least he should follow the dictum, “Be true to thyself.” Also learn and follow the Eight fold Path Buddha preached. The needs of the country as a whole are larger than a partial view that satisfies a fraction of the Sri Lankan society. Distant goals with a clear day to day, month to month and year to year plan should be drawn and executed, Hope Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s government will plan and execute such short term and long term initiatives to help the people to come out of their poverty levels and decadence.

Importantly, to expedite and hasten redemption in Sri Lanka the President should have a  triple vision on developing the country economically, politically and socially. When one thinks about decadence it covers all these three aspects of Sri Lankan life. Redemption too has to happen in all these three arms of Sri Lankan polity. Firstly, the President has to concentrate more on developments that will secure economic growth, sustainability,  increased production and sale of goods that will bring in foreign exchange. Export of food products should be restricted until the local needs are satisfied. If anything is produced over and above the local needs only food items should be exported. To mention a few items that can be exported to get foreign exchange are dairy products, ready made clothes, tea and rubber. This happened earlier too but more incentives could be given by the government and private entrepreneurs to boost the production and sales in these sectors. Since Sri Lanka is surrounded by the ocean and some waterways suitable for salt production salt can be exported to those countries that are land locked and depend on salt import for their existence. These are just a few examples, Experts in this field have to work harder and come up with viable solutions. Also technological advancement could be boosted by establishing Computer Tech.colleges in the rural areas so that the youngsters from these areas could produce more computer science experts and technologists who can bring in foreign exchange. Lot of infrastructure developments like extension of roads and building of bridges have been done after 2009. Some airports, railway stations, railway lines and harbours too have been newly built. So the infrastructure development could be at a slow pace and the other improvements should take the utmost priority.

Secondly, the President in power should give as much importance as possible to political advancement of the country. A multicultural country like Sri Lanka should preserve all the advantages of this set up by keeping the different linguistic, religious and cultural minorities happy and contented. Equal treatment and respect for the different sections of the Sri Lankan population is vital. Otherwise, there will always be tension. Fighting wars and celebrating victories have proved to be meaningless ventures. So other forms of political advancement have to be thought of. It is not easy. It is not something that can be done in a few months but the willingness to move forward honestly and truthfully should be explained to the people and be executed as early as possible. I think that is happening now under the new government. The details of such actions have to come from the people and the government. The political imbalance between the majority and minority communities in the country should be completely wiped off. The only solution the political science experts put forward to solve the impasse between the majority and minority communities in Sri Lanka is a new constitution that promotes an equal distribution of national wealth and empowerment of all the sections of the population by arming them with rights and privileges that a true democratic country ensures. The liberal democracy has many loopholes and flaws in its theoretical set up. Elections may be held at a stipulated time and parliaments may hold the sessions regularly but if there are no checks and balances and an alert voting public to choose the right type of representatives who are honest, transparent and service oriented the system falls apart. Another pitfall in democracy is majoritarianism. Mostly the majority community overlords the minority group and undermines the capacity of the minority community to enjoy the benefits in a democratic society like equality, freedom and social worth. Sri Lanka has seen a decadence in the economic sector, the social sector and the political arena where the Tamils have been treated as second class citizens from the time when Sinhala was introduced as the only official language. That was just the beginning and year by year the Tamils faced a systematic deprivation of their rights and freedoms which the whole world knows and even the Sinhalese mainstream politicians know. This state of affairs led to bring in more and more antagonism between the Sinhalese and the Tamils and a full scale war. The majority community who happened to be Sinhalese complained that Sri Lanka is the only place where their language is spoken whereas the Tamils have their brethren in the nearby subcontinent of India to give them support in times of need. This sort of victim mentality will never help the healthy growth of Sri Lanka. All the citizens of the country whether Sinhalese or Tamil need to enjoy the fruits of freedom equally and work equally towards the prosperity of the country that is a free and a sovereign nation with all the rights and privileges that sovereign nations enjoy.

But what really happened was the country was dragged down towards decadence because the majority party leaders failed to realize that a country cannot survive peacefully by looking after the welfare of a section of the country only. The majority party wielded power not by chance but by the mandate given by the democratic system and a constitution that easily granted the majority community this advantage. So as the new President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has promised there should be a new constitution  drafted and executed as early as possible. Also, at present all the lands occupied by the military, especially the lands belonging to the displaced Tamils should be returned. This is happening now but the earlier this is done it will be out of the way, so that the other important issues could be looked into without further delay. A democratic constitution that guarantees every citizen the rights and freedoms is urgent. This will allow the people to enjoy the fruits of their labour and the benefits that the governments grant without any hindrance. Finally, I wish President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and all the Members of Parliament every success to take the country to a higher level of transparency, respect for rule of law, service to the people together with the love of the country to usher in a new era of real redemption and prosperity.