Historical dynamics of Sri Lanka and challenges in a post conflict scenario

M M Jayawardena

Sri Lanka with over 2500 years of written history is a beautiful country with a vivid biodiversity, situated near the Southern tip of India with geopolitical advantages within the Asia as well as the globe. Despite the invasions by Indian power groups, especially in the South Indian region, on few occasions, until the colonial period, it was able to transform within its socio-economic, political and cultural identities in a sustainable manner without major erosions in the indigenous systems.

The General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University. File photo

However, after the colonial interventions, the natural transformation of the indigenous system was seriously eroded and the indigenous political, cultural and economic systems were drastically changed with structural effects on the flow of sustainable and smooth transition which had been compatible for the country within its own identical natural environment and other socio-economic dynamics.

In the post colonial era, Sri Lanka as a whole was affected in its natural transformation despite the benefits from the integration with the global dynamics along with the colonial intervention. In this situation, firstly, Sri Lanka became a victim of socio-economic and political factors due to the vulnerability, marginalization and encroachment of its identities by colonialism during and after the colonial era. Under these circumstances, the society was bundled with myths and socio-economic and cultural syndromes under marginalization and ‘divide and rule policy’ of colonial governments.

Socio-economic progress

These myths and syndromes have been at individual level as well as at collective levels in the society. They have also been transformed but yet, observed even in the present society as constraints on socio-economic development. Because of them, in which the society is trapped, people cannot perform with their full potential due to distorted perceptional habits. These kinds of ‘ill developments’ observed in various segments of the society have been barriers of socio-economic progress of the country and in certain cases such conditions are exploited by the third parties and become chronic and cost the society enormously; yet the impact is not assessed.

The ethnic issue in Sri Lanka is one such issue that had developed to a conventional war within a half of the period from independence, and has drawn back the whole economy and the people of all races especially the Tamils in the war zone areas. Under these circumstances, in spite of the independence for over 60 years, with all prospective socio-economic, geopolitical advantages, Sri Lanka has not yet been able to reach the level of expectations of economic development.

The ethnic issue had been exploited by the colonial rulers prior to independence and then after the independence by many political leaders of ethnic groups and political parties, including Tamil political parties, for their survival and advantage. This has led the ethnic issue to be developed up to a chronic stage in the socio-economic and cultural ambience of Sri Lanka. It has affected Sri Lanka negatively in reaching its developmental expectations.

Ethnic issue

Terrorism with separatism as the major objective based on the exploited ethnic issue tied up with other socio-economic and political issues in society and the regional (the Indian factor) and the global (Tamil diaspora) dynamics, has became a serious threat to the socio-economic progress of this country. This particular socio-economic and politically chronic situation has been observed clearly until the defeat of Tamil terrorism in Sri Lanka and even after 2009 in the post conflict scenario in various forms both directly and indirectly with the indications of future threats.

Because of the critical level that the ethnic issue had reached, Sri Lanka’s state mechanism could not give much attention to the other issues that had accumulated in the society during and post colonial era and therefore the ethnic issue has incurred a direct and indirect cost to society whilst other issues that interrupt economic development were aggravated and extended in their scope with a huge impact on the country’s development efforts.

After the defeat of terrorism Sri Lanka needs to concentrate on the prevention of a recurrence of Tamil terrorism and also to maintain a peaceful environment within one country while securing the country’s national interest, sovereignty and integrity, a prime condition for economic development. Thereafter, there is an urgent need to address the chronic socio-economic issues of society along with historical dynamics under different episodes. In focusing on the recent past, and to make necessary conditions for the development of the country to recover its setback owing to the disastrous war against Tamil terrorism, that was linked with world terrorism and was benefitted from the exploitation by the regional and global elements to their advantage.

To recover from the setbacks in the post colonial and post conflict eras and to create necessary conditions to achieve economic development, restructuring of society to make it free from myths and socio-economic and political syndromes that had plagued the society and to push the society towards a high standard of economic development with a higher degree of welfare is indispensable in the present juncture of Sri Lanka. In this context there is a need of researching the issues that have been observed in the society both retrospectively and prospectively and a need to reshape and reinterpret the socio-economic, political and technological dynamics of the society in a revolutionary manner to understand the real causes and consequences of historical dynamics of socio-economic and political paradigms of Sri Lanka. Scrutinizing such dynamics will enable finding answers for what went wrong on various aspects of socio-economic development efforts in Sri Lanka in different time periods and clear the path for development of the country in a futuristic manner.

Global competition

In this effort there is a need for a new research culture where researchers focus on new knowledge that will strengthen the technology and enhance the existing conditions of socio-economic, political dimensions and attitudes of the people whilst minimizing the effects of chronic conditions as a developing country with less privileged conditions in the global competition. These kinds of futuristic mechanisms will focus on the stakeholders - the political authority, academics, professionals of different disciplines, business community and finally the general public, to be involved in socio-economic development activities that will eventually enhance the living standards of the people irrespective of their race, caste, class or other geographical differences.

The new research culture should be able to grab the existing high technology in the present context at both regional level and global level and to find ways and means of exploiting potential for development of Sri Lanka in a futuristic manner in consonance with regional and global harmony. Hence, both empirical and theoretical research with vertical and horizontal consistency is important. As a developing country Sri Lanka needs to focus more on existing knowledge at national, regional and global levels on various disciplines that could initially make deliveries to increase the factor productivity and finally production. However, the existing knowledge and created new knowledge should go hand in hand; therefore both studies to enhance the access to existing knowledge and research for new knowledge need to go ahead simultaneously.

Further, there is a need for awareness of the people on the vision and the mission of various programmes and the research efforts that are connected with the national development. The real picture of all efforts that are in discussion needs to proceed with consistent understanding with appropriate changes. Such understanding among stakeholders complementarily support in achieving the missions of programmes as such mechanisms to integrate the wish of the people of the country and to strengthen mechanisms of development.

It also enables to maintain transparency that will minimize problems whilst enhancing the accountability of the stakeholders. Without such understanding and maintenance of such momentum, there is a possibility of disintegration of the people that could hamper the targets of socio-economic progress. Therefore, in the new research culture both science and non-science (under so-called conventional classification) should perform together and seek mutual benefits to contribute to the final goal which is development through effectiveness and efficiency.

Under such circumstance value addition to national production and improvement of the welfare of the people will be enhanced both quantitatively and qualitatively. If so, the goal of achieving per-capita income of US $ 4000/5000 in 2015 will not be an illusion. Further, Sri Lanka will go up in the ladder of higher income level at Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) and could reach to upper middle level because of the emphasis by the government on equity, reduction of poverty and regional disparity and enhancing educational standards.

The symposium 2011 of General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University focuses on this need of the society and intends to bring the academics, professionals, policy makers, private sector and finally the political authority together under one umbrella and interact with each other to move forward a new research culture that will help Sri Lanka to recover from the effects of the costly conflict era of over thirty years and to prepare conditions essential for the country's development in a futuristic manner. In this symposium, five different disciplines- Defence, Engineering and Technical Sciences, Law, Humanities and Education, Medical Science and Social Sciences, have been identified as the major areas to be focused on the retrospective and prospective analysis that will help recovering the setbacks in the conflict era and stream line the futuristic targets whilst giving consideration to the post-conflict challenges of Sri Lanka.

The writer is the Head of the Department of Social Sciences, General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University/The KDU Symposium Chair 2011

This article is written by the author as a forward for the Annual KDU Symposium 2011 under the theme, 'Challenges of post conflict Sri Lanka', to be held today and tomorrow at the General Sir John Kotelawala University, Ratmalana, Sri Lanka. The symposium proceedings will be on the KDU website - www.kdu.ac.lk