{"id":112126,"date":"2021-02-27T16:59:45","date_gmt":"2021-02-27T23:59:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=112126"},"modified":"2021-02-27T16:59:45","modified_gmt":"2021-02-27T23:59:45","slug":"looking-forward-to-a-hopeful-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/02\/27\/looking-forward-to-a-hopeful-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking forward to a hopeful future"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Rohana R. Wasala<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

All sensible adult citizens of Sri Lanka confidently hope that\ntoday\u2019s youthful politicians will realise the importance of working together\nwith their rivals in the national interest while maintaining their separate\npolitical identities, because, in the final analysis, all politicians of\nwhatever party or faction they are affiliated to have no reason for their\nexistence except their commitment to serve our motherland Sri Lanka . It is\ntime they understood that any ethnic or religious or cultural community struggling\nto promote its own welfare disregarding the interests of other communities is\nnot going to achieve permanent success. This has been demonstrated by the\nfailure of older generations which pursued such divisive strategies in the\npast, regretfully slowing down the country\u2019s forward march. Though they may be\ncommitted to different political ideologies they should be able to resolve\ntheir differences democratically in a cultured manner. Only when an atmosphere\nof value-based politics becomes the norm will politicians, whether in the\ngovernment or the opposition ranks, be able to make their fullest contribution\nto the survival of the nation as an independent sovereign entity and its future\nwellbeing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friendly personal relations among politicians who fiercely clash\nin public are nothing new. This has been always the case. But today such\ninteraction between political opponents must be seen in a new light in view of\nthe more widely shared socio-cultural  and political sophistication of the\nSri Lankan populace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It can\u2019t be denied that Sri Lanka has achieved some tangibly\npositive results at least in terms of a much larger proportion of the\npopulation being afforded a chance to dream of a better future. This is a\ndirect result of a high rate of literacy achieved through free education.\nEconomically, she may have lost the stability she used to enjoy at\nindependence, as so often pointed out by those interested in the subject, and\nslipped a few notches down in the scale of overall development in comparison with\nsome neighbouring countries. However, the generally growth-oriented policies of\nthe successive post-independence regimes led in turn by the two main parties\nhave brought about considerable human development, and a corresponding\nimprovement of the lot of the common people, and that too in the face of\nunprecedented problems posed by a steadily increasing population, overt and\ncovert foreign interference in our affairs, politicization of issues and\ninstitutions, terrorism, economic and political upheavals elsewhere, and other\ncrises that threw a spanner in the works most of the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within a generation our society has undergone tremendous change.\nThe nation has emerged  victorious after one of the most trying periods of\nits history, which, though it slowed down the rate of growth, failed to arrest\nit altogether. Today our literacy rate is among the highest in the region. We\nenjoy fairly satisfactory healthcare services, both public and private, in\nspite of occasional lapses. More people own houses and cars than before, and\nmore young people take part in cultural activities such as singing, dancing,\nand drama than their parents used to in the past. Increasingly accessible\nmodern technology is revolutionizing every aspect of their life. People living\nin the remotest districts are aware that they too have a democratic right to a\ndecent living standard like those placed in better circumstances in urban\nareas. Amidst all this, today\u2019s young, particularly those in their thirties and\nforties, have known no life other than the one they have had to live under\nterrorism (which is now fortunately out of the way; the under-twenties \nwere spared any adult experience of it). They expect more from life, are less\nprepared to put up with privations, and are more aggressive in meeting\nchallenges than earlier generations. Their expectations are high. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These social, economic, and political realities influence the\nthinking of the youngest section of the population, particularly those below\nthirty. They are almost completely insulated from any meaningful memory of the\nconditions that prevailed thirty to fifty years ago in which their parents grew\nup, and that helped form the latter\u2019s values and attitudes, which may not be in\ntune with the existing state of affairs today. Youth are usually more\nresponsive to change than the old. The former love the excitement of change,\nwhile the latter prefer the sedateness offered by a settled order.  The\ntraditional clash between the old and the young in any age in opinions, values,\nand attitudes known as the generation gap applies to those involved in\nparliamentary politics too, though it is often obscured by an ostensible\nunanimity of opinion among members of the same party. In this context, the\nyoung are in a better position to decide what is in the best interest of the\ncountry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By this, however, I don\u2019t mean to say that every young politician\nis invariably forward looking and progressive in outlook, and that every old\none is incorrigibly retrograde. There are enough examples of senior politicians\nadopting fresh viewpoints in keeping with the changed circumstances in\nprincipled ways; there are also young novices who squander their youth and\nenergy by aligning themselves with old fossilized elements of yesteryear with\nno future. In other words, a certain fossilization of ideas and attitudes is\ncharacteristic of an older generation; but there can be exceptions; some older\npoliticians prove themselves more progressive, and more adaptable than their\nyounger colleagues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When politicians decide to accept the membership of a particular\nparty, they do so after committing themselves to the ideology and the policies\nof that party. It is important to adhere to these. But since situations may\narise in which a particular party line is not the best position to adopt in\nregard to a critical issue, it becomes necessary in such instances to be\nflexible in order, for example, to avoid betraying the whole country through\nblind adherence to a particular policy such as some conservative politicians\u2019\nunrealistic commitment to a negotiated settlement of the separatist crisis in\nthe face of the intransigence of the separatist terror outfit, which is now no\nmore. A critical turn of events may demand that established beliefs and ways of\nbehaviour be given up in favour of new modes of thought and action to serve the\nnational interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some time ago an MP from a prominent party, then in the\nopposition, said that the main role of the opposition is to bring down the\ngovernment at any cost. If what he said was true, then no government would have\nan opportunity to rule or to implement any development plan without being\nbaulked at every turn, irrespective of the soundness or otherwise of the\npolicies pursued. The irrational way some opposition politicians criticise\nevery move of the government suggests that this in fact is the principle that\nguides their conduct even today. Probably the same principle was at work when\nit was clear that not even the December 2004 tsunami nor the raging separatist\nterror led the opposition to join forces with the government to rescue the\ncountry from those disasters. However, in the critical last stages of the then\nMR government\u2019s campaign against terrorism, it was thanks to the support\nextended by seventeen opposition MPs acting on their own in defiance of the\nparty hierarchy that made it possible for the government to put an end to that\nscourge. Now that there are more young MPs who are capable of thinking  in\nterms of promoting the national interest rather than their own self-interest,\nwe may be hopeful that the constitution making project embarked upon by the\npresent administration will go ahead without a hitch.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In terms of the ordinary people\u2019s understanding of parliamentary\ndemocracy, the role of the opposition is to ensure that the ruling party\ngoverns the country well by monitoring its conduct and by criticizing its\nactions when they believe that it is not  performing its duty, and to be a\npotential alternative to the government. The broadest interface for positive\ngovernment-opposition interaction includes the three interrelated areas\nof  the rule of law, human rights, and good governance. The opposition\u2019s\nresponsibility is to maximize the chances of these three things being realized\nfor the good of the country through constructive criticism of the government\u2019s\nperformance. When faced with external challenges and threats, the opposition\nand the government must act as a single solid group in defence of the nation,\nbased on the commonsense realisation that in geopolitics a country is obliged to\ninteract with both friendly and hostile countries who sometimes happen to be\none another\u2019s rivals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such a political culture will evolve only when young broadminded\npoliticians take the centre stage. If there is any obstacle to the unhindered\ndevelopment of such an environment, steps must be taken by the concerned\npoliticians and ordinary citizens to remove it. Of course, politicians can\u2019t\nact by themselves unless they have a similarly educated and inspired following.\nAn enlightened electorate that will promote cultured politicians is already\nthere, to show their mind when the old fossils,  among the present-day\nleaders, either ensconced in positions of power or already kicked out into\nirrelevance, finally bow out or are successfully convinced to do so gracefully.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rohana R. Wasala All sensible adult citizens of Sri Lanka confidently hope that today\u2019s youthful politicians will realise the importance of working together with their rivals in the national interest while maintaining their separate political identities, because, in the final analysis, all politicians of whatever party or faction they are affiliated to have no […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rohana-r-wasala"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112126\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}