Contributions of diaspora communities to the process of nation building in Sri Lanka

-By Dr RIFAI. UK-

           Tamil Diaspora community can play a great role in the process of nation building in Sri Lanka today. Most of Tamil people I have spoken agree Tamil community should work with new government to develop Sri Lanka. They are willing to rebuild North and East region. Yet, it is up to new government to formulate some working mechanisms with Tamil diaspora so that they could happily come back to Sri Lanka and invest in Northern & Eastern part of Sri Lanka. 

          I think that new president should take some bold step to reconcile with Tamil community.  Tamil political leadership should take some steps to reconcile with Sri Lankan governments. I think that 60 years of distrust and cynicism between Tamil, Muslim and Sinhalese community should be wiped out from surface of Sri Lanka forever. I think that TNA and some other political parties should be integrated into national politics. This could be done by offering Tamil MPs some powerful ministerial posts in the cabinet. 

        It was reported that TNA would not accept any ministerial posts from this government. They argue that accepting any ministerial post will be detrimental for them to win over Tamil political rights. For that reason they are not willing to integrate into national politics. They feel that once they have accepted any ministerial post they have be politically enslaved or forced to bow down to Sinhalese political leadership. This type of negative thinking would not take this nation anywhere. I think rather than thinking negatively Tamil political should engage in nation building process. They should feel that they an integral part of Sri Lanka.  We should work to develop all regions of Sri Lanka nationally.  We should work to enrich all communities of Sri Lanka. We need to create this gracious mind set ups in our political leadership.

            Tamil politicians think they are elected to work for Tamils alone, Sinhalese politician think that they are elected to work for Sinhalese community alone, Muslim politicians think they are elected to serve to Muslim community alone. We need to break this regressive mind set up. . Communal mind set up is not constructive thinking. This mind set up begun since we got independence from Britain. This communal thinking is a curse on all Sri Lankan communities. We should come out from this narrow thinking and build a national identity with differences in our cultural identities. 

             His Excellency   President Maithripala Serisena is the president for all communities.  He is the president for the entire nation. Yet, unfortunately, there is no such national feeling among Tamil community. Tamil population should not be marginalised in nation building process. A Tamil friend of mine told me that if Sri Lankan government has taken any meaningful development programmes of reconciliation in North and East people will forget all what happened in the past. Lesson learned and reconciliation report is an eye wash and it did not bring any meaningful reconciliation.  Confrontational politics of Tamil political leadership would not bring any benefit for Tamils. In the same way, marginalization of Tamils by Singhalese   leadership would not bring any good for Sri Lanka. It is timely needed to have some sort of communal reconciliation in Sri Lanka. Otherwise, future generations will suffer a lot. 

1) Tamil diaspora’s contribution to the development of North and East: 

 Tamils of Today are not Tamils of the past decades. Today, Tamil people have a lot to offer for the development of Sri Lanka. Take for instance, Tamil diaspora community in Europe they could do a lot financially to develop North and East. Why does not Sri Lankan government create some mechanism so that Tamil people could invest in North and East? Why should Tamil community in North and East deprive of this golden opportunity to develop their region through their investment?  New Government should give dual citizenship to all Sri Lankan citizens who live in abroad. In this way, Sri Lanka could bring a lot of investments from Tamils who live in Europe. Countries like Pakistan, India and Bangladesh encourage their citizens who live abroad to invest in their countries, yet, Sri Lanka government have some unnecessary fear from its citizens who live abroad. Government should open the country for foreign investment. What would be better investment than that of its own citizen’s investment in their native places? I have spoken to many Tamil people they are  ready to invest in North and East yet, Sri Lankan government is not facilitating realistic ways to do that. In the same way, there is no harm in giving administrative powers such as local government, health, and education. Giving such power wound not pose any national threat. Such a broader minded thinking is needed to make any meaningful reconciliation.  

2) Contributions of Tamil academics and professionals to the post conflict Sri Lanka. 

   

It is estimated that nearly one million Sri Lankans live in European countries today (This is approximate estimate it may be less or little more). Out of this totally, many people are professionally qualified people like doctors, engineers, accountants, judges, lawyers, teachers, academics and other professionals. Most of these Sri Lankan expatriates came from Sri Lankan universities and institutes. It is reported that thousands of Sri Lankan doctors are working in the UK alone likewise, thousands of Sri Lankan professionals work in European countries. These people have moral duty to support nation building process in Sri Lanka. Most of these professionals have already benefited from Sri Lankan government’s free education in schools and universities. Now they should pay back. In return new Sri Lankan government should encourage and facilitate to get back these professionals into Sri Lanka. There is no system or mechanism to do this right now. This begs the question of dual nationality in Sri Lanka as well. 

3) The debate for and against dual nationality in Sri Lanka.

Previous government did not have any desire or will power to offer dual citizenship for Sri Lankans who live in European countries for fear of Tamil Eelam diaspora. The previous government assumed that a large number of Tamils will come back and re-start Tamil struggle once again. This is a baseless fear. Today, dual citizenship could bring a lot of economic benefits to Sri Lanka. Professional and business people will make some investments in Sri Lanka. To expedite this, new Sri Lankan government should facilitate dual citizenship. 

This could create thousands of jobs for the local people in Sri Lanka. This would boost the profit of Sri Lankan Airline as well. Former president on his visit to London in 2006 invited all Sri Lankan professionals back home yet, unfortunately, due to the stupidity of some officers in previous government Sri Lanka that did not materialise. Dual citizenship card was used for some political gains. To get maximum economic benefits from its expatriate communities in Europe Sri Lankan government should issue dual citizenship all Sri Lankans living in Europe. It is in the national of Sri Lanka to expedite this process. We hope that there are some cleaver people in Sri Lankan government today to do this.