Congressman Jack Kingston; couldn't agree more

Jack Kingston a US Congressman from the State of Georgia (Republican party) made a very pertinent observation with regard to the latest developments in the country during his recent TV interview with Sri Lankan media. In a well reasoned analysis he observed that the international community, including US and EU, should respond positively to Sri Lanka's post conflict process instead of suggesting punitive measures against the island nation.

He opined that an internal solution with no outside interference could be the best "because if you get the UN, the United States and the EU or whomsoever from outside dictating the terms of reconciliation, all it does is to support the factions making reconciliation that much more elusive".

With such interference and dictation, Mr. Kingston believed that the international community runs the risk of overplaying their hands ending up as a catalyst for separation and further conflict rather than of reconciliation.

Nation building

Congressman Kingston expressed confidence over Sri Lanka's Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission as a positive move, "When you have a name like Lessons Learnt, it shows that it is not necessarily about who is right and who is wrong in the long drawn conflict but about what we learnt from that experience in order to keep away from it. I think it is not only good for Sri Lanka but also a model that the other countries that have had internal strife should follow".

We couldn't agree more with Congressman Kingston because we are aware that the Sri Lankan government barrowed this concept of Lessons Learnt from the Truth Commission in South Africa that was appointed to ensure that the apartheid injustices perpetrated on the South African majority by the minority white settler government in South Africa for centuries would not stand in the way of nation building. Punishment was the least objective of this Commission that sought to seek a way forward for the rainbow nation.

The Commission resorted to punishment only when it is necessary from the reconciliation and harmony point of view while being concerned about cyclical destabilizing effects of such punishments. There were realities such as the power and privileges of the white community on the one hand and the depraved conditions of the black poor on the other that any wise recommendation for the future could not fail to recognize. It is in this context that we find this latest move by the US and other Western countries to bring a motion against Sri Lanka for alleged 'war atrocities' at the current sessions of the UNHCR extremely counterproductive and lacking in empathy.

International Community

Congressman Kingston further observed that "People need to move into the next period of economic growth, development and prosperity and when you do that you have got to let go the past and the best way to do that is domestically.

The International Community cannot understand the internal culture of every community in the world, so you've got to let that country to sort things out in their own way, on their own time table". The unfortunate issue here is that the American government does not appear capable of understanding these ramifications of a conflict and its aftermath that Mr. Kingston seemed so well attuned to.

More than culture, it is the history of this Sri Lankan problem that the US and the West have miserably failed to grasp. There was no record of an 'ethnic conflict' in this country before the European invasion in 1505.

The country was moving at an idyllic pace minding its own business. May be we were not as advanced in technology as the West was but still we had a structure and mechanism to sustain our agro-civilization and prevent bloodshed and disharmony within. But the post colonial period and also the period just before independence marked growing dissension between the majority and privileged sections of the elite minorities that were spawned by the tested and proven colonial policy of 'divide and rule'.

Colonial period

As well admitted by none other than Sir Winston Churchill, it is the fear of a communist takeover of the colonies coupled with the Indian freedom struggle that led the British to fold up their global colonialist policy. But the post independence period of a country would be quite a contrast to the colonial period because independence and nation building means the equal treatment of all with level playing fields in opportunities.

When this happens it becomes difficult to enjoy traditional privileges and with that disenchantment, frustration creeps into those who never had it so good while colonialism was on.

Mr. Kingston and his well intentioned fellow US Congressman will do well to do some research into this aspect of conflicts in post colonial societies.

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