( April 12, 2013, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Michele J. Sison, the United States Ambassador in Sri Lanka, hit the nail on the head once again when she asserted that some of the most important steps in achieving real reconciliation in Sri Lanka have not yet moved ahead.
This includes a dialogue on political devolution with the Tamil National Alliance (TNA). As she said, there is no way the Government of Sri Lanka can understate the criticality of an ongoing dialogue with the people’s representatives of the Tamils in the North and East. “Direct interaction with the main Tamil political party needs to be taken in utmost seriousness and pursued to its most logical end, if the parties are honestly interested in reaching a genuine reconciliation with each other,” she said.
Unfortunately, it is this direct dialogue the government seems to be avoiding, leaving one to surmise the ruling elite of the country are evading this direct approach-process, either because they simply do not have the capacity, skills and knowhow to initiate such a process or because they are simply not committed to such a process.
The contradictory manner in which our policies are being articulated and implemented is a glaring example of this discord in governance. On the one hand, the country’s foreign policy team is in total disarray. The Minister of External Affairs has become a mere puppet; the best diplomats have been sent home and a mediocre set of ‘operators’ have been handed the important assignment of uplifting and preserving the ‘good name’ of Sri Lanka outside our shores.
On the other hand, the so-called ‘local experts,’ the real hard-nut politicians who know how to manipulate the public opinion by way of shrewd and insincere propaganda via the State-controlled media outlets, are having a heyday driving home some unscrupulous untruths and hate-politics, not only generating a mind-boggling process of racial-profiling with regard to the Tamils in the North and the East, but also creating a crisis between the Muslims and the Sinhalese.
The US Ambassador must have seen through this naked attempt by the government to create further divisions among the people of Sri Lanka, in order to keep the ‘patriotism’ sparks raging, so that they, the rulers, could use the passions and emotions so raised to their electoral advantage. The government not only knows, but also lives by the dictum that all politics is local and hence, whatever happens in the international arena must be interpreted and recycled to the political advantage of the powers that be.
Ambassador Sison goes one step further, when she says that while examining the next step, the US will renew its consideration of all mechanisms available, both in the UN Human Rights Council and beyond. What is beyond the Human Rights Council? Your guess in this regard is as good as ours. Her view on the genuineness of the reconciliation attempt on the part of the government is well reflected in her remark that “it is important to emphasize that calls for reconciliation and accountability should not simply be seen as exhortations by the international community but should be viewed as essential to ensuring a peaceful and prosperous future for the country.” Her appeal for ‘genuineness’ is amply emphasized and her assertion that as Sri Lanka moves forward from the last Human Rights Council sessions, the US will look closely at what steps the government chooses to take in response to the resolution, is quite revealing. In addition to being judgmental in her declaration, the US Ambassador is clearly issuing a ‘warning’ that is almost akin to ‘We are watching you’.
We don’t claim the US Ambassador’s assertions are gospel. Indeed, to a certain extent they could be viewed as somewhat condescending, but what she says about reconciliation, “Finding a way for all Sri Lankans to live together in peace, harmony and security in a unified country… a country in which the democratic space exists for all to be able to express their views freely and for all to share in the prosperity of the country in terms of access to land, employment, education...” are concerns we need to take heart. For, dismissing valid concerns about reconciliation, especially the lack of it and playing cowboy politics at home, is the surest way to return to the murky mire of unrest we have pulled ourselves out of.
- Ceylon Today Editorial
 Michele J. Sison, the United States Ambassador in Sri Lanka, hit the nail on the head onc...){kind=link}