Depending on Independence

Sri Lanka just commemorated the 62nd year of its independence from colonial rule, and it is a period long enough to bring forth a whole new generation of citizens in this country who knew nothing of how life would have been under colonial rule. The 443-year colonial domination of 'Sinhaley', Europeanized to call 'Ceylon', is now part of our history but commemoration is a time where we should pause to evaluate and examine the path we have since treaded towards national renaissance in building a sovereign and sustainable nation.

Tea/Rubber republic

The time British left our shores, our country's economy was heavily dependent on the production of tea rubber and coconut. It was the export of those three raw materials that enabled us to import all the wearwithal required in to this country including our staple food, rice. Local production of our staple food was so abysmal hence it is the timely arrival of ships that saved our nation from starvation. Even the hair pin and the rubber slippers were imported into this country. Although we were not referred to as a 'banana republic' in the British sense we were a Tea/Rubber republic of a sort.

There was so much poverty around at that time that the Government had to give rice at subsidized rate of 25cts to ward off hunger and possible death of the masses. There were more loitering urchins than those who attended school and even those who attended school did so dressed in rag tag clothes minus even a pair of slippers. Statistics were not available to gauge the per capita income at the time. Of the statistics that were maintained the literacy was 43 percent on vernacular language and 6.4 percent in the official language. The life expectancy was 46 years for men and 41 years for women.

Tangible progress

Tea has been pushed to the third position in foreign exchange earnings and the Western countries can not drive us to starvation today by boycotting to buy our tea. Around 50 percent our rubber reaches the foreign markets as finished products and we even make a considerable earning from the export of our industrial goods. People in this country are not dependent on the agency houses and the Government sector for jobs and our service sector and the self employment schemes have made tangible progress during these years in providing employment.

However, despite this sanguine picture of our performance since gaining independence, certain sections in our own country appear to be always waiting to cast aspersions on our ability to take this nation forward. True there is much to be desired, yet when we take the larger picture there is no reason to be despondent and pessimistic. However what is unfortunate is that still there is a school of thought that comes out with sayings such as 'See, the British (suddha) built us our railway lines, but here we are, after so many years of independence, cannot even maintain those!' Also as we mentioned last week about this story of Lee Quan Yew's statement in the 1950's about wanting to make a 'Ceylon' out of the then fishing village, that was Singapore at that time. Further it was just the other day that the defeated common (or uncommon) presidential candidate, Sarath Fonseka often reiterated sentiments to this effect during his campaign that "we have come down as country since independence: like a plane that is crashing in stages".

It is not that Fonseka's many statements should cause concerns among the intelligent and knowledgeable voters in this country but nevertheless it is a fact that this idea of 'everything going to the pot after independence', is believed by a good many of our people in this country. There are so many such myths that the people in this country are made to believe 'in good faith' even after 62 years of independence and the origin of all such myths is the anglicized vested interest who lost their privileges after independence. Popular singer Sunil Perera, of 'Gypsies' fame, makes musical parodies of these myths drawing an analogy between the 'principled' colonial administration and the 'corrupt' post colonial administration and we keep clapping to his tunes without realizing that we are clapping away our own independence.

A myth

Even Ranil Wickremesinghe, being the leader of the alternative government, habitually comes out with similar statements and that goes to show how powerful this line of thinking is. In a way such beliefs may hold good for the people of Ranil's class because they never had it so good since the colonial masters left this country but in the case of Fonseka he ought to know that it as the coup d'etat of 1962, by class conscious senior officers in the Security Services that made the Government of the day decide to recruit the likes of Fonseka from non missionary schools like Ananda and Nalanda.

Another myth that is so well ingrained in the psyche of our people is that, that most of the problems we experience today in this country is the result of our dethroning English as our official language and as our medium of education in 1956. Well, there are a good many of us who hold on to this myths as if it is the 'truth sacrosanct' about our country and all I would do to challenge that position is to pose the simple question; 'did we not have English as the official language of this country for 144 years (from 1812 to 1956) and where did that take us as a nation?'

The sad truth is that by 1956 only 6.4 percent pf the population (including Eurasians) in this country could converse in the official language and as a result 93.6 percent of the population of Ceylon was governed by a language they did not understand. All their basic documents, including their birth certificates were issued to them in that language and even the justice was administered and dispensed in English making it a mockery of justice. Even telegrams, when received by an ordinary man, made him go from pillar to post in search of a person who could explain the contents.

This is, without mentioning much about the system of education that existed in this country at the time, but the fact that only 6.4 percent knew the official language, which was the medium of instruction in education, is some indication of the injustice the system of education perpetrated on the greater population.

It is the change over from this system to the more progressive and inclusive language policy that is being considered as the 'biggest mistake made by the rulers of this country since independence' by the Anglicized minority.

The social dichotomy

English no doubt is an international language; but how successful have we been in converting English to the servant that it should be as a language in the post independent era, from the position of being our colonial master? Is our servility to English in today's society, 62 years after independence, borne out of national necessity or out of a petty need to maintain the social dichotomy the British imposed on us to divide and rule?

Former President Chandrika Bandaranaike invited Prince Charles for Sri Lanka's 50th independence day celebrations and addressed the country in English. Prince Charles no doubt, may have gone back to England impressed by the diction and the versatility of our President in the use of his language but the vast majority of the people in this country (90 percent) to whom independence is said to have been granted in 1948, did not understand what was said by their leader on the golden jubilee anniversary of their independence. This is no less a tragic irony of our dependence than our dependence on those who granted us the 'independence'.

Over the past 62 years, we experienced 'brain drain', a loss due to the flight of our educated, mainly to England. Then we have had these innumerable problems with pro LTTE Tamil expatriates, again a result of English education, who funded terrorism in this country. Even Prabhakaran himself was a product of Tamil grievances as we mythically believed or a result of some sections of the vested interests trying to re-impose the colonial status quo? What are the forces in this country that made Prabhakaran the demagogue and the criminal he was in to the freedom fighter he reigned to be?

Therefore as independent Sri Lanka stands as a nation of 62 years, many questions still remains unanswered as to its true status of the country's independence.

This is because even though we feel the physical pulse of our independence, we are still far away from shaking free of that dependent mental shackle of 'depending on those who granted us independence'.