Solving problems requires informed support of electorate

By Jehan Perera

(0ctober 27, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Present day governance in Sri Lanka may be likened to a magic show, such as the one recently held by a famous South Indian magician in Colombo. The spectators eagerly await the next trick that the magician is to perform. Government leaders claim that the country is engaged in unprecedented development activities, assisted by a range of friendly and like-minded countries, ranging from old friends like China to new ones like Iran, and perhaps even Burma in the days to come. The truth is that the spectators are being shown an illusion, like when the magician levitates himself on stage, lifted up by wires that are invisible to them. The magician makes sure that the spectators do not have access to all the facts so they can be suitably impressed by the astonishing feats they witness. But even a magic show must end sometime.

The disruption in the supply of fuel that suddenly hit the country, like a bolt from the blue, suggests an economic ground situation that is precarious despite governmental claims to the contrary. The media had some sketchy reports of negotiations between trade unions and the government that were in respect of long overdue wage increases. But most of the people were scarcely prepared for the difficulties they were to face when the filling stations closed down with no petrol or diesel to pump into the long lines of vehicles that queued outside. Electricity and water supply personnel are now girding up for trade union action, which could present serious problems to for the government and people.

Suddenly the patience of people who seemed able to bear fearsome increases in the cost of living without protest seems to have snapped and the seriousness of the economic challenge is becoming clearer. Externally too, the country is under economic siege. The European Union is in the final stages of deciding whether or not to extend the GSP Plus tariff concession, which has contributed to making the EU the largest market for Sri Lankan exports. Sri Lankan entrepreneurs and trade unions alike are deeply concerned about the damage the loss of this concession can undermine their exports to the EU, and consequent loss of business, profits and employment.

But the government’s leaders assure the people that the country’s economy can survive quite well even without the GSP Plus concession, and that notions of national sovereignty are more important than permitting the monitoring requirements that obtaining the concession calls for. The looming trade union action suggests that the economic situation is becoming too problematic to people to continue to take the government’s statements at their face value. Governance is also about delivering tangible economic benefits to people. The deliverance of Sri Lanka from the hands of the LTTE and its terrorism cannot supply an indefinite popular support to a government that is failing to deliver on its promises elsewhere.

New Issues

Now two other issues have surfaced that the government needs to come to grips with. One is the US State Department’s report to the US Congress which has given details of a large number of alleged violations of human rights and possible war crimes in the last phases of the war. Much of what has been produced in the report recounts incidents that have a familiar tone to them, implicating both the government forces and LTTE. The report has called on the government to institute investigations itself into those incidents. But so far, the government has responded primarily with a denial of the veracity of the allegations against itself, sticking by its position that it had zero tolerance for civilian casualties as this was a humanitarian offensive to liberate the Tamil people from the grip of the LTTE.

Another issue that has arisen is the sudden increase in the number of Sri Lankan refugees trying to enter other countries. Some of them have undertaken perilous journeys across the oceans in ships that once delivered supplies to the LTTE. A few hundreds of Sri Lankan refugees have been apprehended in countries as far apart as Canada, Malaysia and Australia. Several hundreds of others may have got through to their chosen havens. The majority of them appear to be Tamils, with entire families including small children being amongst them. The plight of these people is getting Sri Lanka more adverse publicity internationally. The international media is covering this issue in depth as it affects foreign countries.

In Sri Lanka itself there is not much debate about any of these issues. On the other hand, there is one-sided commentary on them, with most of it denouncing the Western countries for unjustly seeking to penalize Sri Lanka. The analysis ranges from the presumed jealousy of Western countries for being unable to defeat their own terrorist opponents to theories of conspiracies to keep Sri Lanka divided so that Western imperialists can profit. The state media in particular is full of such comments in which acts of treachery and conspiracy involving foreigners and their local counterparts are highlighted. The independent media is restricted in its own ability to counter such views. The front page news story in the Sunday Leader this weekend of death threats received by its topmost editorial staff is a chilling reminder of the ground situation.

Although it is now six months since the LTTE was defeated in the North, its leadership killed and its military machine destroyed, and despite repeated government-sponsored celebrations of victory, Sri Lanka is still a country in a state of war. It is difficult to travel a few hundred metres without encountering security checkpoints where vehicles are stopped and identity cards scrutinized. Most of the north is still inaccessible to travel even on the main roads without special military permits and entry into the welfare centres in which over two hundred thousand people are continuing to be kept is tightly restricted. These security measures continue to blight the lives of Tamil people who are invariably subjected to stricter surveillance on account of the government’s concern with regard to attacks by possible LTTE remnants.

Informed support

The government and some analysts have stated that the sudden movement of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees at this time is no accident, and is a deliberate attempt by LTTE supporters to send LTTE cadre to safe places out of Sri Lanka and also tarnish the image of the country in the process. It is likely that amongst the refugees will be former LTTE cadres. On the other hand there is bound to be a large number of Tamils who have lost faith that Sri Lanka will ever provide them with the home they want it to be, where they will be safe and be treated as equal citizens and without discrimination.

There have been media reports that some of the displaced persons in the Vavuniya camps who had been permitted to leave their welfare camps where they were confined were merely put into other such camps where they are now being confined. In addition, the government’s long silence on a political solution, and its cohabitation with political parties that are opposed to any political solution that gives to Tamils any measure of rights or autonomy, convinces many Tamils that they have no future in Sri Lanka. Changing this perception is going to be the main challenge that Sri Lanka will face as a country.

For a start, the people of Sri Lanka and the international community could be informed as to the measures taken, and proposed to be taken, by the government to speed up the release of internally displaced persons from the welfare centres to which they have been confined in an expeditious, humane and just fashion, reversing the practices of impunity with regard to violations of human rights, honoring all the clauses of the Sri Lanka constitution without flouting some of them as at present, and reviewing emergency regulations and security measures. These issues that are accumulating adverse international criticism unhelpful to Sri Lanka cannot be reversed simply by verbal assurances or even by sending high powered delegations abroad without evidence of visible results.

The government’s strategy of denying the negative side of what is happening in Sri Lanka, and intimidating the independent media that seeks to report the adverse ground reality, can only work for a limited period. In the longer term, such a strategy is bound to fail. Unlike the magician at the magic show, a democratic government cannot keep on beguiling the gullible onlookers with its sleight of hand and verbal jugglery. The government needs to explain the problems it is facing, the competing interests behind them, and obtain the informed support of the electorate to engage in constructive problem solving. The way out is for the government to actually start to address the problems of the country with a longer term focus rather than try to get by with short term verbal promises.

-Sri Lanka Guardian