Reflections on Independence Day

Sri Lankans will celebrate the 78th anniversary of the country’s independence from colonial rule today. The day will be marked with the national level celebrations held at the Independence Square in Colombo with President Anura Kumara Dissanayake presiding as the chief guest. While the focus will be on the President’s speech, there will be usual excitement if the National Anthem is sung in the Tamil language, there will be those unfurling black flags in protests, there will be the strikes continuing and it will mostly be business as usual.

Many Sri Lankans will ask ‘What is there to celebrate?’, while there will be the sceptics who will say,” It would have been  better if the white man continued to rule us.”

When Sri Lanka gained independence on 4 February 1948, there was little to indicate the many challenges its citizens would face in  the decades ahead. “The transfer of power in Sri Lanka (then  Ceylon) was smooth and peaceful,” wrote Sri Lanka’s eminent historian Professor K.M. De Silva in his book,” A History of Sri Lanka.”  This was in contrast to the  division and bitterness which were tearing at the recent independent new nations in South Asia. Sri Lanka at the time, he wrote, was an “oasis of stability., peace and order.” But that was the brief respite the country had before the problems began to pile up and which list citizens continue to  grapple with till this day.

For a country with little over 20 million people, the island nation seems to have had a disproportionate amount of bad luck , for which the majority of the people will blame its politicians. D.S. Senanayake was the country’s first Prime Minister and many in the present  generations may not know who he is  or what his contribution was to the country during the freedom struggle and challenges of self-rule.  It would be the same of many other freedom fighters, some of whom ended up in the gallows for resisting the might of the British rulers.

It has become a common practice to blame politicians for all the country’s ills and it’s not without justification. Over the decades, the calibre of men and  women in public life has dwindled steadily and there is not one to be called a statesman. Public expectations of politicians are  also at an all-time low and citizens. Having been duped by politicians many times over they have rock bottom expectations with their faith in democracy limited to enthusiastically exercising  their vote on election days.

The ruling National People’s Party (NPP) came to  power a little over a year ago. It is the first party without links to the country’s political elites that managed to win power. In 1956, S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike turned the country’s electoral map upside down by booting the formidable United National Party (UNP) out of power and ushering in the “age of the common man.” However, the NPP is far more qualified to don the cap of the ‘common man’s party.”  Those who are in Government today are the  products of Bandaranaike’s disastrous “Sinhala Only” language policy. They have inherited the burden of being ‘outsiders’ from among the fast-disappearing political elites of this country. They have been beneficiaries of the free education and health care system which are two of the biggest achievements of the rulers of post independent Sri Lanka. But along with these positive legacies, they are also burdened with communal frictions, deeply embedded corruption, social inequality, poverty, unemployment and many other ills.

The President in his address to the nation will predictably talk of his Government’s commitment to crackdown on corruption, say the law will apply equally to all, vow to put an end to communal politics for good, usher in a  prosperous nation etc. Millions voted for the NPP with sky-high expectations but one year into office, it’s becoming clear that the Government is still grappling to get its act in order. Before the first term of the President and his Government ends in 2029, the country would be celebrating its 80th year of independence. We can only hope that there would be some progress by them  toward achieving a better life for all its people.