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by Jehan Perera

With the take-off of Sri Lanka's peace process, the prospects of receiving special allocations of foreign aid for economic reconstruction and development have become bright. At the Oslo peace support meeting in November last year, foreign governments and donor agencies showed considerable interest in helping Sri Lanka to economically recover and launch it on a fast development track.

World Bank representatives in Sri Lanka have estimated that the sums involved could be double the amount Sri Lanka is presently receiving. The interest taken by the Japanese government to host the formal pledging meeting in Tokyo in June this year has been seen as a positive sign of a special Japanese interest in supporting Sri Lanka.

For better or worse, Sri Lanka is a foreign-dependent country, whether in terms of its economic markets, migrant labour or economic assistance. Some years ago, a research study revealed that Sri Lanka was one of the world's highest per capita recipients of foreign aid. Even today, although it has graduated to the level of a middle income country, Sri Lanka is more fortunate than any of its South Asian regional neigbours in terms of the receipt of foreign aid. Numerous roads, bridges, dams, hospitals, factories and charitable institutions bear witness to the lasting impact of foreign generosity on the country's economic and social well-being.

One of the most positive developments of recent times has been the Japanese decision to get more involved in purposefully nurturing the Sri Lankan peace process rather than only funding the country's development efforts. From a Sri Lankan perspective, the greater involvement of the Japanese Government in the peace process is to be welcomed. Sri Lanka's foremost need is to resolve its ethnic conflict without any more violence. Japan is by far the country's largest aid donor and it can easily contribute even more should it be properly motivated to do so.

For many years Japan has been Sri Lanka's main foreign aid donor. It gives more than all other foreign governments put together, and about 45 percent of total aid received by Sri Lanka including that received from multilateral aid agencies such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank. Unlike many other foreign governments, Japan has given its assistance without demanding publicity or public appreciation. Japan has also not sought to achieve changes in Sri Lankan government policy by using the leverage that its economic aid makes possible.

Policy shift

During the war years, when the Sri Lankan Government's human rights record was poor, Japan did not pressurise the Government to improve its practices in the manner of many Western governments. Japan's policy of unconditional aid to Sri Lanka when it was engaged in war against the forces of Tamil separatism created an impression that Japan had taken sides with the Sinhalese majority in the ethnic conflict. This impression was strengthened by the belief that Japan was a Buddhist country with an affinity for Sri Lanka on account of its Buddhist majority character.

However, Japan is in fact a highly secular country, and its government is more secular than that of most Western countries. Its support to Sri Lanka was to support a democratic government struggling with the task of nation-building rather than to support one ethnic community over another. But during the war years, very little of Japanese aid went to the North and East. The unstable conditions prevailing in the war-torn North and East may have been a factor in the neglect of those very needy parts of the country. Numerous roads, bridges and dams, not to mention the parliamentary complex and 1001 bed hospital in Sri Jayewardenepura bear testimony to Japanese generosity that has improved the quality of life in the southern parts of the country.

The restoration of conditions of peace following the signing of the ceasefire agreement between the government and LTTE has opened up new possibilities for the reconstruction and development of the North and East. From the statement made by Japanese governmental spokespersons to the studies being done by Japanese aid agencies and technical consultancy companies it is evident that Japan is prepared to give assistance to Sri Lanka on a very large scale.

But unlike in the past this aid is not going to be only for economic and technical purposes. It will also be provided with the political motivation of directly supporting the peace process to ensure that it is successful.

The Japanese decision to support the joint Government-LTTE secretariat that is being established in the LTTE's administrative centre of Kilinochchi for the purpose of attending to immediate humanitarian needs and rehabilitation is a sign of this change in direction. In turn, when the government and LTTE made their decision to seek Japanese financial assistance to equip the joint secretariat for immediate humanitarian needs and rehabilitation located in Kilinochchi, they would have done so with the full knowledge that they were taking a decision that they cannot lightly reverse.

A country of Japan's peaceful and democratic standing cannot explain to its taxpayers that it gave money to a country that went back to war. In accepting the funding, both the government and the LTTE made yet another international commitment to the peace process.

Government's responsibility

However, Japan's preliminary effort to assist in the consolidation of the peace process has been strongly criticised by sections of the political opposition and media. They find Japan's shift from giving purely development-oriented aid to giving aid with a political motivation difficult to accept. But in their expressions of anger they are ignoring the fact that the Sri Lankan government has publicly stated that the LTTE will be its partner in the peace process. And further that the government has given its consent to such Japanese assistance to the setting up of the joint government-LTTE secretariat in Kilinochchi.

The harsh criticism against Norwegian facilitation and more recently against Japanese economic assistance being made in the context of the peace process cannot be lightly disregarded. It is the voice of a minority, as repeatedly manifested in parliamentary elections, but it is a loud one. If it is the loudest voice that is heard there is the danger it will be perceived to be the voice of the mainstream majority, when in fact it is not. This voice of criticism needs to be countered.

The Japanese Government's decision to support the Sri Lankan peace process both politically and by providing economic assistance needs to be publicly appreciated both by the Sri Lankan Government and civil society. There is a danger that the Japanese Government might feel frustrated and disappointed that its efforts to assist Sri Lanka's peace process are only being criticised and not being appreciated. While the Government's peace secretariat has already issued a statement explaining the purpose of the Japanese aid to the joint secretariat in the Vanni and the Government's role in it, this is not enough. The top political leadership of the government also needs to make its stance clear to the public at large.

In addition, the government needs to show the Japanese and other international aid donors, as well as all Sri Lankans, that it is taking full responsibility for the betterment of life in the North and East.

In general, no one wants to feel that someone else is transferring their burdens onto them. Likewise the international donors would not like to feel that the Sri Lankan government is transferring its responsibilities for the North and East onto them. The Government needs to forthrightly confront critics of the peace process and take on its responsibilities in the North and East.

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