Uniting a scattered people

Responding last week to critical lines of questioning within Parliament and overt accusations of treachery without in relation to recent discussions with the Global Tamil Forum (GTF), Foreign Affairs Minister Mangala Samaraweera delivered a formidable argument in favour of greater engagement with Sri Lanka’s collective diaspora. 

Displaying a refreshing dose of political acumen, Samaraweera commenced his speech by citing recommendations made by the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission appointed by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa in May 2010.

Noting that the LLRC itself found the people of Sri Lanka to be “ready and willing to support consensual approaches to advancing national interest, national reconciliation, justice and equality for all citizens”, Samaraweera proceeded to establish a case for renewed engagement with Sri Lankan expatriates based on their ability to provide unparalleled support to the nation on two crucial fronts: politics and economics.  

He spoke at length about 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 estimated to live and work overseas and create incentives to encourage them to become stakeholders in the island’s development story moving forward. Significantly from a political standpoint, he also took heed of 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 that these 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, it is equally evident that ‘more of the same’ will not suffice when it comes to escaping current and future economic challenges.  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” - enjoy the luxury of not even being expected to articulate any viable alternative; something they excelled at for the last five years. With opportunistic politicians already fanning chauvinistic sentiment among their hardliners, the issue of how Sri Lanka deals with its diaspora is likely to be another hot-button issue and it can only be hoped that the end result of the coming cycle of elections does not compromise the valuable efforts expended in bringing together a scattered people.