Patriotism: An imperative need of the hour

 Each and every one of us, irrespective of ethnicity, religious belief or political affiliations should get together, at least, for the sake of our next generations to support our motherland to come out of current predicaments. Unless we perform our individual roles, we won’t be able to reap the full benefits of progressive initiatives and therefore all should try to deviate from disruptive actions whether they like it or not – Pic by Shehan Gunasekara

Stephen Nathanson defined patriotism as, involving special affection for one’s own country; a sense of personal identification with the country; special concern for the wellbeing of the country and willingness to sacrifice to promote the country’s good. Jürgen Habermas further encompassed that the modern constitutional state must ensure that its political culture does not favour or discriminate against any particular subculture. 

Human nature

Memory weakness or overlooking is a phenomenon of human nature; however, the extent of it could be varied to individual nations. It appears that Sri Lankans are having a prominent place on this ranking when observed in light of some events that have taken place in the past. 

Some may recall that J.R. Jayawardene, after becoming the powerful President, erected a barbed wire fence around Gatabe temple in early 1980s as a retribution to a negative comment made by the then incumbent head monk of the temple against his government. The predicament is not the action that had taken place but how quickly it was forgotten by the people, where Buddhists account for over 70% of the population, by supporting and electing the same Government at subsequent elections. 

Another mind-boggling phenomenon was how easily the populace has forgotten the massive mishandling of the economy and national security, politicising the judiciary and supporting the corrupt elements under the previous Government whose rule ended last year.

The writer wanted to come to the fact that where Tamil diaspora (not the true Tamil compatriots of the nation) using their electoral muscle in Western democracies as well as defrauded funds collected from all over the world and INGO funded local individuals influenced so-called powerful nations to reprimand our motherland through UNHRC session held in Geneva in March as well as in the past. Moderate people were of the honest opinion that the whole country should collectively safeguard the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of the nation when there are visible external threats emanating through misguided international agencies and bogus human right crusaders. 

Such sentiments are justified as these wheeler-dealers used the annihilation of the world’s most ruthless terrorist organisation which brought untold miseries to the nation over a quarter of a century. Just after a few months of the last UNHRC session and accompanied threats to our nation, we can clearly see how individuals with hidden agendas try to hamper the proper and obligatory governance of the country through social media, press releases and media briefings instead of supporting the Government to achieve its development and social agenda as true patriots to overcome the barriers that bared us becoming a prosperous nation. 

Supporting the elected Government by citizenry of the country is a fact in Western democracies and this is how those governments were able to perform superior services to their populace. We also need to be mindful that another UNHRC session is emanating within a month and if we fail to face their unwarranted threats as one nation there will be evil ramifications that will flow to the entire nation. 

Current status

No doubt that everyone would agree that our country is in a bad shape specially in the economic spere and in people’s wellbeing at the moment which is an outcome of mismanagement by successive governments that came to power over the last 70 years after the independence. Any reasonable person can understand that no matter how efficient and effective a charismatic leader is, he or she won’t be able to find solutions within a year or so, for everlasting problems amassed over many decades. 

In the short term if the Government has put the country on the correct path to address economic and social issues, that should be the decisive yardstick and every citizen in the country should support the Government to fulfil its mandated policies as usually any administration will govern the country for the tenure, they were elected for whether the individuals with hidden agendas like it or not.

Progressive administrations

A couple of the nation’s governments could be recognised as progressive administrations based on introducing their development and social policies to suit the nation’s unique characteristics. Sirimavo Bandaranaike’s Government in 1970s introduced progressive policies to suit the country at that time though it created some short-term hardships to the people. Legislative, agricultural and educational reforms introduced by this Government put the country on the right path for economic and social development. 

One major outcome was that the country’s foreign reserves were significantly improved during this tenure and this should be valued in light of our current predicament in foreign reserve woes. Unfortunately, masses were not given the opportunity to reap short-term benefits generated by these initiatives due to the 1971 JVP insurrection and massive oil shocks introduced by rearranging the nature of world petroleum production and sales in 1970s. 

Our country took a protracted period to recover from these shocks and thereby hampering the country’s development initiatives. Apparently, whatever gains realised through farsighted policies were shattered by haphazardly introduced open economic policies of the successive Government. The current Government is also fit to be in the same category of progressive administration based on the policies introduced to progress the country forward.  

Overview of the State

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa came to power with a well-researched economic and political agenda titled ‘Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour’ supported by intellectuals and eminent persons in the country with frank intents. Policymakers used the bottom-up approach, against the top-down approach taken by preceding governments, by reaching to the grassroot level and obtaining the views of masses of basically all the villages in the country after discussing issues relevant to all aspects of their lives. 

It is a fact that almost all the political leaders since independence have somewhat failed to methodically address burning issues of the nation and therefore the need of the hour was the rationally tested, non-politician to contest the presidency so that this person would be able to govern the country without carrying a baggage of political patronage. Such an initiative was swiftly endorsed by the electorate by voting him to power with a huge majority.

After coming to power, the President appointed well-experienced and intellectual personnel to key Government positions thereby immensely eradicating opportunities for rampant corruptions that existed in Government agencies. True that education alone would not make persons effective administrators which was somewhat visible with few of the recent appointments made by the Government and this shortcoming could be addressed easily without delays. Masses overwhelmingly approved the initial work done by the President, and as gratitude, they gave an overwhelming mandate to his party at the parliamentary election that followed.

As an outsider to traditional politics of the country former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s popularity also helped the President to win the Presidential Election. In turn, the President’s vision for the country’s future, initial work done by his administration and the people’s trust on his policies helped his party to achieve a decisive majority at the Parliamentary Election held last year.   

However, contrary to expectations, it appears that the President and his team lack the overall control of the Government machinery to take the country forward as expected by the voters. Sufficient evidence is there to realise that the politicians who failed in the past still playing major roles in the Government affairs and it appears that they demonstrate lethargic approach to advance the progressive initiatives taken by the President. 

Some established politicians saw that the initiative to attract intellectuals by itself was a threat to their survival. There is always room for dissenting ministers to hamper the initiatives taken by the President if such moves challenge the authority they enjoyed and also to progress their contrary personal agendas. It appears that the main reason for this is the lack of hands-on authority by the President to influence the party machinery. Such a state is contrary to the powers held by virtually all the past executive presidents of the country where they were the heads of the governing political party.  

Notable progress

Some praiseworthy features of the President’s administration were the control of the drug menace rampant in the country, somewhat eradicating the underworld activities and the many initiatives taken to put the country on the correct path of development and prosperity. These include educational reforms, initiatives to tackle the country’s depleting external resources and managing the unexpected variants of COVID-19 with some compromises and limitations.

Likewise, there were obvious shortcomings under the current administration such as the imminent failure to place the country’s cricket administration on the correct path through reforming its election mechanism and necessary updates to its Constitution. Masses are closely aligned to this sport as it is the only leading and formidable sport that the nation has demonstrated in the international arena. Other notable failures were so far delaying in progressing the constitutional and electoral reforms that are capable of addressing fundamental and structural shortcomings of the nation.  

The COVID-19 pandemic created massive barriers to run the country effectively during the last two years. Its depleted foreign currency resources put unwarranted pressure on its loan repayment capacity. Main foreign income sources such as tourism and overseas worker remittances that combinedly contributed to almost $ 10 billion a year were lost to the country in the past years due to the pandemic. Foreign Direct Investment also took a nosedive during this period while the present administration inherited an economy devasted by the Easter Sunday bombing as well as doubling of foreign borrowings during the term of the previous Government. 

The country is well managing the issues created by the past failures and the pandemic due to foresight policies of the current administration and we all should realise how bad the situation would be if the previous administration was in power. Tragic local and social media frenzies were evident recently to brand Sri Lanka as a failed State. Media headings such as ‘Could Sri Lanka be next sovereign defaulted nation?’ were common features of the daily press. 

How could any patriotic person use such headings to damage the nation’s reputation in the current predicament without backing the Government to maintain its reputation in honouring its credit commitments? The current administration repaid $ 4 billion in 2020 and another $ 1 billion this year to honour its international credit commitments in an environment where its direct foreign income earnings depleted by $ 10 billion a year and also losing lion share of locally raised Government revenue. 

Observable threats

Nations and individuals try to make this country ungovernable to achieve their hidden agendas as we are blessed to enjoy a strategic geographical position. Needless to go far into the past as we all can remember what happened to Middle East nations behind the ‘Arab uprising’ manipulatively introduced by interested parties to achieve their political and economic objectives. Few Middle East nations were battered to become stone-age nations in few months unjustifiably denying the higher standard of living citizens used to enjoy. 

Armed groups now rule different regions of these countries, natural resources were bought for a mere consideration and thereby sending these fourth world nations to the stone age. We need to understand such threats emanating from different corners of the world and should regularly revisit the slogan ‘united we win and divided we lose’.

Way forward

Structural reforms of economic, constitutional and administrative mechanisms to address inadequacies created by short-sighted policies have already been commenced by the current administration using well-researched advice of expert panels though such initiatives still need to be expedited. We have already reaped some short-term benefits and significant benefits of these reforms will recur within five to 10 years and until then all of us should play our part to enhance such efforts by the Government. 

Each and every one of us, irrespective of ethnicity, religious belief or political affiliations should get together, at least, for the sake of our next generations to support our motherland to come out of current predicaments. Unless we perform our individual roles, we won’t be able to reap the full benefits of progressive initiatives and therefore all should try to deviate from disruptive actions whether they like it or not.

Otherwise, our next generations will have to pay for these meddling activities as we won’t be able to bring our nation to a status where we all can live happily. We should not forego the blessed opportunity we have now with an honest and accomplished leader with literati who are capable to govern the country, deprived of personal gains, for a well-deserved prosperity. 

If the Government truthfully finds that reaching to international agencies such as IMF is not the best option based on the past experience, there is no harm in progressing alternative initiatives to address inherent weaknesses of the economy. Current administration also needs to take meaningful steps towards accomplishing constitutional and electoral reforms while targeting the economy as the priority. A major element of constitutional reform should encompass creating a second chamber and structuring it in such a way that we can do away with the provincial governance system that miserably failed to address intended concerns while draining scarce valuable resources.

The current administration also needs to put its house in order and the governing party also should devise ways to facilitate the President’s hands-on control of the party as its hierarchy mainly comprises of politicians who failed in the past to put the country on the progressive path.

Supporting the Government initiatives doesn’t mean endorsing all steps taken by the Government but providing constructive comments whether they are criticisms or not. Unfortunately, all established and social media comments on any initiative taken by the Government are always displaying a biased nature. It is mandatory that intellectuals and younger generations, irrespective of their political affiliations, should play a pivotal role in this sphere to save their motherland. 

Patriotism also encompasses supporting and loving your country even when it’s going through rough or difficult times. That means you still love your country, even when things are not as you desire, or you would like. 

(The writer is a graduate from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, as well as Sri Lanka Law College, and completed his postgraduate studies in Canada and Australia. He is a visiting lecturer of the MBA program at the Sydney Business School and currently working for the Australian Government. He can be reached via email: [email protected].)