{"id":117776,"date":"2021-09-03T16:04:03","date_gmt":"2021-09-03T23:04:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=117776"},"modified":"2021-09-03T16:04:03","modified_gmt":"2021-09-03T23:04:03","slug":"why-sri-lanka-is-not-like-singapore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/09\/03\/why-sri-lanka-is-not-like-singapore\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Sri Lanka is not like Singapore."},"content":{"rendered":"

Sugath Kulatunga<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Among Sri Lankans, there are\ntwo distinct ideologically opposing groups. One group trust in the slogan\nLoken Utum Rata Lankawai\u201d. And the other claim Sudda Hitiyanam wada hondai.\u201d\nYet others pray for a Lee Kwan Yew and argue that Sri Lanka is a failed state\nbecause we have not adopted the development models followed, for example by\nSingapore or South Korea. Every country is subject to unique internal and\nexternal demands and constraints. The geography and history of a country play a\ncrucial role in its destiny and are inescapable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of these dynamics which\nhave influenced the destiny of Sri Lanka are indicated in point forms for\nreasons of brevity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. SL inherited an economy\ndominated by plantations run with imported Indian labor resulting in the\nneglect of non-plantation agriculture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. The presence of a large\nnumber of Indian labor in Ceylon gave a platform for Indian interference in the\ndomestic affairs of the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Indian Interference\ncontinued from the time of Independence with increasing detriment to Sri Lanka\nas given below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

i) On the Citizenship issue,\nIndia did not act in the spirit of Article 8 of their own Constitution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ii) India did not take any\nserious measures to curb illicit emigration to Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

iii) India harbored,\ntrained, and armed separatist groups to fight against Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

iv) India forced an Accord\nand a 13th Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka, which has been grossly\nunfavorable to the unity and peace in Sri Lanka. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

V) In a dubious procedure of\nletters exchanged, India dictated terms on our foreign policy, use of our\nharbors and airports, Trincomalee Oil farm, and broadcasting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vi) India continues to\nimpose unequal trade and investment conditions on Sri Lanka. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Domestic Constraints<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Inability to forge a Sri\nLankan identity due to non-acceptance of the majority status of the Sinhalese\nby the minority community. This was due to Tamils, though a minority of around\n12 percent enjoyed during British rule privileges inconsistent with their\nnumbers and were determined to perpetuate them. The favored status of the Tamil\nminority at Independence is described by former Indian High Commissioner in Sri\nLanka J.N. Dixit (who cannot be considered as a friend of Sri Lanka\u2019) in his\nbook Assignment Colombo. He concedes at page 10 Tamils were disproportionally\ninfluential in the management of Sri Lankan political and economic affairs\nright till the country\u2019s independence despite their being a minority. Tamils\nwere also dominant in the non-agricultural sectors of Lankan society\u201d. Tamils\nconsidered that the Sinhalese were in every aspect inferior to them and were\nresolute in demanding lopsided rights even before Independence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

a) they demanded 50 \u201350\u201d\nrepresentation for a 12 % of the Tamils in the 1930s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

b) they opposed universal\nfranchise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

c) They established a Tamil\nMaha Jana Sabhai on a communal basis which led to the establishment of a\nSinhala Maha Jana Sabha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

d) Federal party proposed\nthe joining of North and Eastern Provinces to Tamil Nadu. (A.J. Wilson\n-Biography of SJV) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

e) At the ‘Throne\nSpeech’debate in the first House of Representatives on the 26th of November\n1947 Chelvanayakam said: – “If Ceylon is fighting to secede from the\nBritish Empire why should not the Tamil people if they feel like it, secede\nfrom the rest of the country?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

f) Launched Illankai (Thamil\nArasu Kachchi (Tamil State Party) on December 18, 1949.urging a separate state.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These were years before\ngrievances on Colonization, Sinala only or Standardization. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

g) After the signing on 26\nJuly 1957 Bandaranayake\/Chelvanayagam Pact-on 28 July, FP repudiated the\nAgreement at the National Convention held in Batticaloa and reiterated the\nunalterable determination to achieve an autonomous Tamil linguistic state.\u201d(\nAppendix D- Reimagining Sri Lanka, Published by International Centre for Ethnic\nStudies 1999)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

h) Rejection of the 1972\nRepublican Constitution by the Tamil representatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

i) Vadukoddai Resolution in\n1976 called the Tamil Nation in general and the Tamil youth, in particular, to\ncome forward to throw themselves fully into the sacred fight for freedom and to\nflinch not till the goal of a sovereign state of TAMIL EELAM is reached.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

j) TULF Election Manifesto\n1977-proposed a constitution for the State of Tamil Eelam and to establish the\nindependence of the Tamil Eelam by bringing that constitution into operation\neither by peaceful means or by direct action or struggle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tamil Eelam will be born\nonly through violent struggle and bloodshed. We are ready for the bloody\nstruggle” – Amirthalingum at TULF victory meeting at the Ramakrishna Hall,\nWellawatte (1977).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

k) In Thimphu proposals\n\u2013demanded the recognition of a Tamil homeland and the right to\nself-determination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

l) 1987 -A.J. Wilson before\nthe Sub Committee on Foreign Affairs submitted that the contiguous Provinces of\nNorthern, Eastern and Uva should be made recognized as a single Tamil Unit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

m) The continuing\nintransigence of the Tamil parties reflected in the speech of Sampanthan at the\n14th Annual ITAK convention (May 2012) describing the development programs of\nthe government as a \u2018death trap\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tamil separatist project\nwas encouraged by the action of the UNP with the –<\/p>\n\n\n\n

a) Violent resistance of the\nlegislation on Sinhala only and Reasonable use of Tamil by every opposition\nparty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

b) Sabotage of the District\nCouncil scheme agreed to by Tamil parties, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

c) With the Black July 1983,\nwhich resulted in the violence against Tamils resulting in expansion of the\ncadres of the LTTE and mass emigration to Western countries and creating\npockets of anti-Sri Lankan agitation abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Indian interference and\nthe domestic constraints resulted in a 30-year bloody war, which according to\nIndia\u2019s former National Security Adviser and Foreign Secretary, Shivshankar\nMenon cost the country around US$ 200 billion. https:\/\/www.newindianexpress.com\/world\/2016\/dec\/13\/sri-lankas-internal-war-cost-us-200-billion-1548433.html<\/a>.\nThis is around two and half times the GDP of Sri Lanka. The war may have\nresulted in the loss of 150,000 lives. The opportunity cost of the war in the\nloss of production and investment was enormous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JVP insurgencies resulted in\n60,000 mainly youth killed and the wanton destruction of buses, trains, rail\ntracks, railway stations, electric transformers, pylons, power lines, power\nstations, electricity substations, tea factories, agricultural extension\ncenters, and telephone lines. JVP insurrection in 1987-89 froze economic\nactivities and brutalized the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition the 2004 Tsunami\nresulted in the destruction of 79,100 houses, damaging about 4,500 industries\nand left more than 45,000 dead and 1.5 million displaced. The economic loss was\nestimated at 1454 million US $.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.iucn.org\/sites\/dev\/files\/import\/downloads\/social_and_economic_impact_of_december_2004_tsunami_apdc.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

and <https:\/\/www.asiafoundation.org\/News\/summit\/tsunamiresponse.html<\/a>>.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All these events placed\nenormous pressure on the government, curtailed production, discouraged\ninvestments, and traumatized society. The attention of the government was\ndiverted away from development and the best talent was wasted in the war. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The impact of these terrible\nepisodes on the economy and society and the psychology of the people are\nimmeasurable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These destructive\nexperiences were not shared by Singapore and most East Asian economies. They\nhad free play in development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We must be thankful that Sri\nLanka has survived the tribulations of the past and yet maintained our human\ndevelopment achievements at a high level. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sugath Kulatunga Among Sri Lankans, there are two distinct ideologically opposing groups. One group trust in the slogan Loken Utum Rata Lankawai\u201d. And the other claim Sudda Hitiyanam wada hondai.\u201d Yet others pray for a Lee Kwan Yew and argue that Sri Lanka is a failed state because we have not adopted the development models […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[102],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117776","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=117776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117776\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}