Akashi’s advice

Sri Lanka is just emerging from the ashes of war and it needs all the support it can muster from the international community in rebuilding a battered nation. But this should not be extended to telling Sri Lanka how it should go about reconciling with who are after all a section of our own people.

The Government is in a better position to decide the best course that is appropriate. Besides reconciliation has to come from within and involves certain dynamics which no outsider can comprehend.

It has been Sri Lanka’s lot over the years to be lectured and hectored to by the West on what is the best solution to what was termed the ethnic problem. We have had too many busybodies descending on us with plentiful advice even on how the war should be conducted.

One recalls how the US offered to accept the surrender of the Prabhakaran and other LTTE leaders during the tail end of the war. Similarly there were many mediators in the past who were trying to bring about reconciliation. Had their prognosis being adhered to, the war would still be on and Prabhakaran very much alive.

It is common knowledge that since the beginning of the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka many countries tried their utmost to interfere in its affairs. Most of them wanted us try out various solutions all of which however stopped short of a military solution. These countries wanted a negotiated settlement to what was a basically a terrorist problem.

Some even wanted to us try out political systems operating in their own countries as a means to an end. One recalls how our Parliamentarians were taken on tours to Western countries to study systems of Government which firebrand MP Wimal Weerawansa derisively called Federal Vandanawa.

So called peace talks too were held in several world capitals to work out a devolution package. There were also demands for an Interim administration to be granted to the LTTE by some countries.

Had these countries succeeded, Sri Lanka would today have been a fragmented nation. It is to the eternal credit of President Mahinda Rajapaksa that he correctly identified the problem for what it was and applied the correct remedy that saw a hitherto invincible terrorist outfit completely vanquished.

Now that the war is ended and the long awaited peace restored one would have imagined that Sri Lanka would be left alone. But it seems the cacophony of voices has risen to a new level with some wanting the country to be hauled over the coals for alleged war crimes.

For all intents and purposes those countries which were meddling in our affairs had not stopped their badgering. Even after the elimination of terrorism and the country returning to peace some countries keep on harping on their old mantras of devolution while other have shifted gear and have started attacking us on a different flank. This at a time the country is emerging out of the ashes and striving to heal old wounds on the road to reconciliation.

That is why the observation made by Japanese Peace Envoy Yashushi Akashi assumes relevance. Addressing the media on his 20th visit to Sri Lanka he hit out at the so called international community enjoining it not to dictate terms to Sri Lanka.

“It is not for other governments or international organizations to dictate to Sri Lanka as to what it should be doing in the highly complicated and sensitive area of post war reconciliation.”

All patriotic Sri Lankans will no doubt rise to toast to Akashi who over the years had been close friend of Sri Lanka and is well familiar with the dynamics involved in any reconciliation process.

Naturally such a process should evolve from within. It is through introspection and understanding that reconciliation could come about between the long estranged communities. This cannot happen with by an artificially imposed solution from outside.

Akashi said Sri Lanka has to design its own reconciliation program. This is exactly the same sentiments expressed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa in his victory day speech in Parliament last year. He said he was willing to grant devolution but it should be a devolution based on home grown solution.

No country can impose a reconciliation model on a sovereign state. Beside the problems of a country is unique to itself. The sooner the international community realizes this, the greater the service it would be doing for Sri Lanka.