The greatest cause

THE dust had barely settled on the Government’s proposal to hold a “diaspora festival” before it was grabbed by nationalist parties as a vehicle to disseminate divisive views. The Government’s efforts to decriminalise the “diaspora” tag through progressive engagement with all communities of Sri Lankans living around the world should be seen for its long-term goals and not petty political agendas.    

Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera debriefed Parliament at length on the diaspora’s potential to work in cooperation with the Sri Lankan Government in rebuilding physical and social infrastructure in post-conflict communities while emphasising the need to tap the talent of approximately 1.5 million people of Sri Lankan origin to spur post-war development. This is especially important given the grave need to attract investment and promote exports to move away from loan-dependent growth.

Interestingly, the very idea of a diaspora festival sprung from the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) report crafted during former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s time in power. Samaraweera told Parliament it is imperative to heed the LLRC’s warning that a failure to urgently engage with the diaspora could create a hostile environment in the country, creating space for interested groups to polarise the diaspora community and “significantly impair the genuine efforts of others who espouse reconciliation back home in Sri Lanka”.

Samaraweera rightly added such lessons had been largely ignored by the previous regime. It is well understood that Sri Lanka’s economy requires skilled, innovative individuals and visionary leadership in order to advance. While Sri Lankans already residing in the country  have all played a crucial part in building and sustaining the country along its current trajectory crucial assistance is necessary from the diaspora for global powers to buy into planned reconciliation measures, including the domestic inquiry into allegations of war crimes.

In that context, renewed and sincere engagement with diaspora communities holds immense potential for investment and more importantly, improvement of skills through knowledge transfer, both of which represent invaluable prerequisites for a competitive, export-led economy.  Meanwhile, the case for diaspora engagement from a political standpoint is of equal importance. Unfortunately, the term ‘diaspora’ itself has, particularly over the last 12 years, acquired extremely negative connotations given the role that certain Tamil diaspora groups played in funding the LTTE.

Nevertheless, pre-emptively demonising entire groups of people who share a connection to this small island based on the untested assumption that their political aspirations are different from our own is an immature and ignorant approach to adopt, particularly given the immeasurable benefit that such individuals could bring to the country. The Spanish-born and American-educated philosopher, poet and author George Santayana once defined fanaticism as the act of “redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim” warning that, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Critics of this Government’s policy of diaspora engagement – including former President Rajapaksa’s with his bigoted allegations of “Eelamic foreign policy” and latest entrant the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) – enjoy the luxury of not even being expected to articulate any viable alternative.

The mandate given to President Maithripala Sirisena on 8 January was twofold. One was to wipe out corruption and the second, more importantly, was to foster reconciliation. Any party or person who attempts to derail this without just cause or reason will have the entire future generation of Sri Lanka to answer to.