Letting the world see at first hand

In a moment of immense prestige and gladness for Sri Lanka, the 58th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference gets off the ground today in Colombo with President Mahinda Rajapaksa doing the honours of flagging-off the momentous event in the history of the Commonwealth of Nations.

It is most appropriate that this vital Meeting of Minds is happening in this country because it provides Sri Lanka with an invaluable opportunity to let the world know that she is very much a country on the mend and that national rejuvenation is very much on the minds of her leaders and those of her people.

The Commonwealth of Nations could be said to be possessing ‘unfinished business’ from the middle of the last century when the decolonization process occurred at an accelerated pace. Many of the countries of the Commonwealth are continuing to grapple with issues such as development and nation-building and it could be argued that some of the most vital intellectual needs of developing countries are being met by fora, such as, the CP Conference.

As should be known, the Conference is essentially a deliberative body and we hope the resultant sharing of knowledge and expertise among the countries concerned would be of invaluable benefit to the developing world. As for Sri Lanka, besides expanding and enhancing our expertise in development and connected areas of knowledge, we could use the meet as a means of showcasing to the world, the vast strides we have made in the field of post-conflict development.

Indeed, it is an opportunity to put the record straight about this country to the international community. Fortunately for Sri Lanka, there are enough and more countries in both the Western and Eastern hemispheres, which are of an open mind and are impartial in outlook. The very fact that there is a multitude of distinguished visitors from the Commonwealth in our midst today, is proof that we are not short of sections who are eager to learn about Sri Lanka at first hand and are resistant to unfair, destructive criticism about Sri Lanka.

Accordingly, the local authorities should lose no time in facilitating the movement of our visitors from the Commonwealth all over Sri Lanka. They should move around freely and see for themselves that Sri Lanka is really a country on the move. For instance, they must have the evidence of their eyes that IDPs are no longer a lingering presence in the North and that they are well fended for by the state. Such signs of normalcy would prove as absolutely false the adverse propaganda being circulated in some sections of the West about the condition of our Northern citizens.

It should be the intention of the state to make our visitors see that there are no man-made divisions in this country any more. A canard that has been doing the rounds in the West in particular is that there are ‘second class’ citizens in this country.

This myth must be exploded once and for all, by presenting our visitors with the realities of the North-East where development is getting into top gear and the legitimate needs of the people are being met.

Sri Lanka has done well in the developmental sphere and is currently registering stepped-up growth in the Jaffna district in particular, but our visitors should also possess concrete evidence that the people are being empowered in every conceivable respect.

As we have time and again pointed out, material advancement as such is not directly synonymous with empowerment, although it does have a bearing on empowerment. It is when our people are equipped with the capability to meet their essential and legitimate needs with a degree of independence, that empowerment could be said to be occurring.

But, like most other things, empowerment too is a process and it must be proved to the world that this is indeed occurring in Sri Lanka. A new provincial administration would soon come into being in the East and our hope is that the people of the province would be unprecedentedly enabled to meet their needs through this mechanism. Likewise, the arrangements need to be in place to ensure that our Northern citizenry is increasingly empowered.