Sri Lanka under nationwide curfew after crowds attack mosques

Police impose overnight curfew and temporary social media ban amid communal tensions and anti-Muslim riots.

A mob attacked the Abbraar mosque in Kiniyama, one of a number of violent incidents between Sri Lanka's Christians and Muslims [Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters]

Tuesday, 14 May 2019
Sri Lanka has imposed a nationwide overnight curfew after the worst outbreak of communal violence since the deadly Easter bombings.

A Muslim man was reportedly slashed to death in Sri Lanka on Monday, making him the first fatality in a violent new backlash against the Easter attacks.

The 45-year-old man died shortly after admission to a hospital in Puttalam district during anti-Muslim rioting, police told AFP news agency.      

Police imposed the island-wide curfew from 9pm local time (15:30 GMT) to 4am, a police statement.

Officials told AFP the curfew was aimed at preventing an escalation of violence, after a second day of anti-Muslim riots in the country.

Curfews were previously limited to specific areas where attacks had taken place, including Puttalam, Kurunegala and Gamphala districts near Colombo.

A Facebook post has sparked anti-Muslim riots in Sri Lanka, with Christian and Muslim community leaders calling for calm. pic.twitter.com/joMug4NXyG

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) 13 May 2019

Residents in Muslim areas of North Western Province said crowds attacked mosques and damaged Muslim-owned businesses for a second day on Monday.

"There are hundreds of rioters, police and army are just watching. They have burnt our mosques and smashed many shops owned by Muslims," a resident, who asked not to be identified, told the Reuters news agency. "When we try to come out of our house, police tell us to stay inside."

'Several shops attacked'

Police said there were incidents of mobs pelting stones and torching motorcycles and cars owned by Muslims.

"Several shops have been attacked," a senior police officer told AFP. "When mobs tried to attack mosques, we fired in the air and used tear gas to disperse them."

There were no immediate reports of casualties or arrests.

Al Jazeera's Minelle Fernandez, reporting from Habarana, said the violence was mainly local and sporadic and that authorities wanted to contain the attacks.

"Over the last 24 hours there were localised police curfews to contain tensions between Christians and Muslims in these particular areas," she said. "The authorities are trying very hard to clamp down on this."

Sri Lanka also temporarily banned some social media networks and messaging apps, including Facebook and WhatsApp, after a posting sparked anti-Muslim riots across several towns.

Christian groups threw stones at mosques and Muslim-owned shops in the northwest Christian-majority town of Chilaw on Sunday in anger over a Facebook post by a shopkeeper, police said.

"Don't laugh more, 1 day u will cry," was posted as a comment on Facebook by a Muslim shopkeeper, and local Christians took it to be a warning of an impending attack.

Mobs smashed the man's shop and vandalised a nearby mosque prompting security forces to fire in the air to disperse the crowd.

Authorities said they arrested the author of the post, identified as 38-year-old Abdul Hameed Mohamed Hasmar, as well as a group of men in the nearby Kurunegala district for allegedly attacking Muslim-owned businesses.

Muslims make up around 10 percent of Buddhist-majority Sri Lanka's 21 million population and Christians about 7.6 percent.

'Worrying trend'

Sri Lanka has been on edge since the April 21 attacks by Muslim suicide bombers on three hotels and three churches that killed at least 257 people.

Rights group Amnesty International said there was "a worrying trend of attacks against the Muslim community coming out of Sri Lanka" following the Easter Sunday bombings. 

The country's main body of Islamic scholars, the All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama (ACJU), said there was increased suspicion of Muslims. 

"We call upon the members of the Muslim communities to be more patient and guard your actions and avoid unnecessary postings or hosting on social media," the ACJU said.

Sri Lanka has used temporary bans on social media in a bid to deter misinformation and rumours.

On Twitter, Sri Lanka's leading mobile phone operator Dialog said it had also received instructions to block Viber, IMO, Snapchat, Instagram and Youtube until further notice.

The latest unrest came as Catholic churches resumed their public Sunday masses for the first time since the bombings.

Sri Lanka has been under a state of emergency since the attacks. Security forces and police have been given sweeping powers to arrest and detain suspects for long periods.

ETHNO-NATIONALISM, RELIGION AND POLITICAL POPULISM- SRI LANKA’S POLITICAL NARRATIVE AND ITS IMPLICATIONS – SIRI HETTIGE

13/05/2019

Human societies scattered across the world have evolved over time under diverse circumstances, both material/ecological and ideational. Though archaeologists, historians and philosophers have gone far back in time in tracing the above process, modern social and human scientists have observed human societies in more recent times and uncovered certain patterns in the way they have evolved. So, even at the turn of the 21st Century when the world displays the highest level of integration due to obvious reasons, the picture that emerges is one of division, inequality, competition and conflict, not one of unity, equality, sharing, consensus and cooperation. This is in spite of the fact that scientific evidence is overwhelming on the fact of climate change that threatens the entire humanity inhabiting this planet.

The story is the same at a national level in many countries. When historical and contemporary evidence shows clearly that people living in a particular country need to find the most desirable theme around which society should be organised for collective well-being, what has often happened is entirely different. While some societies have been able to find the appropriate mix of ideas and material circumstances to maximize collative welfare, others have not been as fortunate, as the case of Sri Lanka has clearly shows. I attribute this to the fact that we have been guided by a dominant ideological narrative that has pushed the country into deeper and deeper crisis in recent decades.

Terrorist attacks

Prevailing situation in the country can only be described as precarious. Just prior to the massive terrorist attack, the dominant public discourse in the country was on the precarious nature of the country’s economy as was evident from the mounting public debts, both domestic and foreign, the declining value of the Rupee, increasing cost of living, etc.

There is absolutely no reason to believe that this bleak macro-economic outlook changed for the better over the last few months as the state of the domestic economy reflects long term macro-economic trends. On the other hand, the unprecedented terrorist attack marked a qualitative shift in the political landscape of the country as the group responsible for the attack is linked to an international terrorist organisation that has been closely connected with certain important aspects of global politics involving big players such as the US, Europe, Russia, and the Middle East. Even though the group responsible for the attack in Sri Lanka appears to be small, its members are identified with the larger Muslim community living in all parts of the country, side by side with people belonging to all communities. Since any breach of peace between communities has the potential to result in widespread communal violence, the prevailing situation in the country can also be described as dangerous. Given the country’s past experience with communal violence, this situation can result in a permanent state of ethno-religious tension, leading to intermittent localized violence that often feeds into persisting tension. On the other hand, a major incident can quickly change the situation resulting in widespread violence as it has happened in the recent past.

There are not many countries in the world that have sustained such a dominant yet parochial political narrative guiding its domestic political, cultural, social and economic processes for so long as Sri Lanka has done. So, it is not surprising that, despite the change of economic policies in line with changing global development discourses, the country has not been able to fulfill the growing economic and social aspirations of the wider population over the last half a century or more.

This is because the domestic politics guided by this dominant narrative created social, cultural, economic and political conditions that have only helped reinforce and maintain the same narrative, preventing the country from breaking away from it and embarking upon a process of steady social and economic progress. In other words, we have remained trapped in a vicious cycle for decades after political independence because the conditions that produced and sustained the narrative have also ensured that the vast majority of people uncritically accept the narrative and act accordingly by supporting the social and political forces that do not allow the country to get out of the situation created under the influence of the dominant ethnic-religious ideology.

Key issues

Space does not allow me to go into a detailed elaboration of what is outlined above, so I will only concentrate on a few important areas that can help explore several key issues connected with our problem. The areas that I want to deal with are connected to education, identity formation, citizenship, the State and its role in development and public welfare and the role of religion in politics. Each one of these areas can be a topic for a long essay but naturally what is attempted here is a brief overview.

There is no human society without a history. Every society has evolved over time, under diverse circumstances. Societies share certain characteristics but they also defer from each other in many respects. Some societies have been ethno-linguistically more homogeneous than others but many others are highly diverse with many different linguistic, ethnic and religious communities sharing the land mass of a country. While some of the more homogeneous societies have also become more plural due to the influx of migrants in large numbers in recent years, some highly plural societies in the world have been formed through a process of multiple migratory flows over time. The cases in point are the United States, UK, Canada and Australia. Sri Lanka has been a plural society over many centuries largely due to its geospatial and historical circumstances.

Ethnicity, religion, language, caste, etc. have historically provided strong bases for the formation of group or community identities, but such identities can be either further solidified or weakened by both the lived experience of their members, internal processes of reinforcement such as endogamy or lack of it and external influences like formal education that usually promotes critical thinking and analytical skills and contributes to changing world views or the formation of new identities in a modern society. Since shared identities usually lead to collective behaviours of various kind, communities become visible as separate entities that often exist side by side, often set apart by various forms of social distance. It is against this background that social scientists introduced new ideas regarding basic conditions necessary to promote vertical and horizontal social integration among diverse groups that constitute modern plural societies.

Yet, in Sri Lanka, such knowledge has not guided either the processes of state formation or public policy making after political independence. In fact, many post-independence public policies in such areas as education, human settlement, language and employment strengthened pre-existing primordial relationships among citizens. So, unlike in many ex-colonial societies in the region and elsewhere, competition for power, resources and other opportunities became increasingly defined by language, ethnicity and religion rather than modern forms of solidarity such as social class.

This is clearly evident from the dominant pattern of political party formation after Independence. The class character of political parties which was evident at the time of Independence was soon replaced by the ethno-nationalist character of many of the political parties that came into prominence in later decades. These parties naturally exploited primordial identities of people to build up their support bases, and prevented the rise of an overarching Sri Lankan citizenship that would have transcended sub-national divisions. The consequences of these developments including the three decades of war are too well known to need any elaboration here.

Given the nature of the Sri Lankan polity that emerged at the time of Independence, political regimes that came to power since then tended to be closely identified with the majority Sinhala-Buddhist community, giving the impression to other communities that they were at a disadvantage with regard to their relationship with the State. Some of the public policies adopted after Independence not only reinforced the above impression but also contributed to the strengthening of sub-national identities built around ethnicity, religion and language. Though many social, political and economic changes have taken place over the last several decades, the dominant political narrative of the country built around ethno-nationalism, religion and language has not changed much to this day.

This is in spite of the fact that the people belonging to all communities have suffered immensely in the recent past due to violent conflicts fueled by the above narrative. Now, the massive terrorist attack that has created an unprecedented sense of insecurity and uncertainty in the minds of people belonging to all communities has also become a self-fulfilling prophecy for those who have always subscribed to the above dominant narrative. Now, they can say: we already told you but you never believed us! What they do not say is that they also did their best to reinforce the narrative that served them well in the past and has become as useful today as it has been in the past.

National security

An incredibly fractured incumbent government that has not been very effective in dealing with an imminent terrorist threat not only has lost public confidence but created the space for the return of the national security State that drastically altered national priorities in the country in regard to development and public welfare about three decades back. Though the defense expenditure was not reduced at all despite the so-called peace that prevailed over the last decade, now, there is almost no prospect of bringing back real development and social priorities in the country for the foreseeable future.

With the line up of political and social forces that we have in the country today, in particular, the present media landscape dominated by vested interests, the country is in a more precarious situation today than before the tragic events on April 21. While the need of the hour is to embark upon a sustained programme of social and economic development and prudent management of natural resources, the focus of public discussion today is on the need to strengthen national security. Given the fear psychosis that terrorist violence has engendered, nobody knows for how long the country will have to keep national security as the top most priority. In the same breath, it would be anybody’s guess as to how long the other long standing priorities of development, human security and public welfare will have to be shelved.

Siri Hettige (Emeritus Professor of Sociology University of Colombo)
CDN. 13.05.2019

Random Musings

AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena

THE MONDAY GROUP- 05/13/2019

What does ail thee Sri Lanka? Is it, as Bishop Heber once notoriously stated, that it is a land ‘where every prospect pleases but only man is vile’? We could dismiss his views as those of a 19thcentury Colonial master regarding his subjects. But then, we have done everything we can to prove the veracity of his words since Independence. To recount briefly there was the ‘Sinhala only’ act of ’56, the race riots of ’58, the violent JVP uprising in the early ‘70s, the formation of militant groups in the north of the island in the latter years of the ‘70s posing an armed challenge to the state, the riots of ’83 followed by 30 years of a brutal internecine war, in the midst of which, in the late ‘80s, the second, more brutal and violent uprising of the JVP took place. And now, after the crushing defeat of the LTTE in 2009, we are once again faced with the spectre of violence threatening the lives of people.

When I try to get a handle on what is happening in this country, I am stumped. There is no doubt at all that almost every prospect pleases. I say ‘almost’ because I cannot say the same for Colombo, where unplanned development has led to high rise buildings popping up like inflamed pimples on the face of the city. Certainly, we need more dwelling places in and around the city, where many live, work and study, but surely there should be some control or legislation regulating these constructions? In theory there are regulations, but these are overlooked when money changes hands! I have been in apartments in Wellawatte, where one can reach out and touch the wall of another apartment that has been built alongside it. An English friend of ours who has been a regular visitor to the island for the past 30 years has been bemoaning the fact that Colombo is fast losing its character and becoming just another ‘ugly’ South Asian city. The cities in the island are growing into monstrosities with tall apartments that sit cheek by jowl with garishly decorated shops which blare loud music, deafening the hapless passer- by.

As far as loud sounds go, if one lives in the city or the suburbs, one is constantly subjected to unprecedented levels of noise. Yes there is the noise of blaring horns, racing vehicles and the loud cries of vendors on our crowded roads. But the noise is compounded when loud speakers are used in places of worship or even by vendors peddling their wares down (relatively) quiet and peaceful roads. They denote a lack of respect for the other’s right to privacy and space. Perhaps the concept of privacy and space is a borrowed one as the South Asian ethos is not to recognize the inviolability of another’s space. Anyone who has travelled on a bus or train will know that total strangers will want to know all about your life – where you live, how many children you have, where you are travelling and why. While such inquisitiveness can be annoying and irritating, there is also a kind of fellow feeling involved in it. Total strangers will give you unsolicited advice on medical issues, make room for you to share their seat and, if it is a long journey, share their food with you. The invasion of privacy is a mixed bag, all in all.

But when one travels a little distance out of the major cities, every prospect does please. There is all manner of flora and fauna, wide open spaces with sparse vegetation in the dry zone which have their own charm while the tropical vegetation of the wet zone is a sight for the sore eyes of city dwellers. The tourist brochures that tout Sri Lanka as a paradise don’t lie (at least, not much). But it is a paradise that has been lost, entirely through our own short-sightedness, bigotry and greed.

It is not an over simplification to say that politics and politicians are the root cause of the ills that beset this country. Like the house that Jack built, the ‘Sinhala only’ act of ’56 [engendered by political manoeuvrings] paved the way for Tamil nationalism and the demand for a separate state, leading to a full-blown civil war that took the lives of many; the urban-rural divide where little was done to develop the rural sector led to the radicalization of the youth from this sector followed by the armed insurrection of the ‘70s and late 80s. The militancy of the JVP was subdued by the end of the ‘80s; and the war with the Tamil Tigers ended in 2009. In the aftermath of the war, the Rajapakses were acclaimed as the saviours of the nation for heading the government that fought and defeated the LTTE.  After the ravages of the war, the country desperately needed peace and stability and looked to its leadership to provide it. The Rajapakses however plundered the coffers of the impoverished state in order to line their own pockets, introduced the white van culture to silence critics, played ducks and drakes with the constitution for their own benefit and we let them do it. Why? Was it because they won the war? Did they prevail in war times in order to destroy it during a time of peace?  Such a victory can only be called a pyrrhic one at best; or an unrecognized defeat, at worst. The LTTE could not have done a better job of destroying the nation than the Rajapakses have done. They robbed, pillaged and killed; they raised the levels of corruption to new heights that compete with the high rise apartments that dot the landscape, and they introduced a culture of impunity that remains to this day.

Disenchanted and disgruntled we looked for a way out of this mess. And we chose Maithripala Sirisena as the President of this country who appointed Ranil Wickramasinghe as his Prime Minister. 2015 seemed to herald a new dawn to a jaded public. Aurora however, never showed her face. It was hidden under the dark veil of the so-called bond scam from the very start.  Despite this however, we were hopeful. The 19thAmendment was passed in parliament. We shared stories amongst ourselves of how the President and his Prime Minister allowed themselves to be stuck in traffic like the rest of us who make up the hoipolloi, instead of using their security detail to push us to a side; we were thrilled when we heard that President Sirisena had walked into a shoe shop more or less unprotected and on his own, to buy himself a pair of sneakers. The gloss wore off quickly however. The bad feeling created by the bond scam would not go away; we saw more of ‘the same old same old’ as more ministers were appointed (that is, those who were accused of corruption during the time of the previous government crossed over to the present government and continued their nefarious activities); more perks were given them and more stories of corruption and inefficiency in government ranks emerged. And we became more and more disillusioned. To compound it all, the President attempted to pull off a constitutional coup in October of last year, betraying all who voted for him and joining hands with his previous, sworn enemies. Politics certainly makes strange bed fellows! His singularly undemocratic actions activated a lethargic and apathetic populace to take to the streets. The intervention of the general population and the rule of law defeated his dark designs on Sri Lanka’s democratic institutions. By his actions President Sirisena forfeited the trust and confidence of almost all the citizens of the country. We had hoped, if not believed, that the October ‘revolution’ would prove to be a road to Damascus moment for the Prime Minister, who had after all, been given a second chance. Thus we waited to see what he would do with it. Very little as it turned out, for it was back to business as usual after the furore over the constitutional coup died down.

And now what can we say? The Easter Sunday bomb blasts have clearly demonstrated that the country has no leaders. The President and Prime Minister deny any fore knowledge of the impending attacks; and thereby evade taking responsibility. This despite the fact that Indian intelligence had given specific details regarding the attacks to the forces’ chiefs. As the forces come under the aegis of the President, I wonder how many believe his assertion that he was not kept informed about these warnings. Whether he knew or did not know, he is guilty of criminal negligence. And as many others have asked, why did the Prime Minister not inform the parliament and the public that he was not permitted to attend security- council briefings. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark!

So we have lost faith in the government. But the answer is not to replace one problem with another and bigger one. We need a strong leader, but we don’t need someone who brutally eliminates his detractors and enemies. Cleaner roads and a beautiful environment cannot substitute for the freedom of speech, the freedom from fear of harassment for people holding differing political, religious or other views and the freedom to practice one’s faith, culture and language within the framework of the law. True, we have suffered the consequences of weak leadership. Our leaders have failed to serve or protect us and we find it difficult to forgive them for this. Germany, after World War 1, had to contend with weak leadership. And hence, they voted in a man they believed would give strong leadership to their country – Adolf Hitler!

These lines from Yeats’ ‘The Second coming’ seem peculiarly apt in describing Sri Lanka at the present moment in time:

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.

The country is ready for a second coming – but of what sort? Will he or she be a new messiah or a being with ‘a gaze blank and pitiless as the sun’who will either lift us out of this mess of our creation or drag us even further into a metaphorical and moral void?

By the Monday group: A group of concerned women.

Who is to blame? If it’s all about the Muslims, why have a State?

 

by Rajan Philips-May 11, 2019, 7:12 pm

In the old story of the New Testament, Easter was the end of agony. It marked the glory of resurrection, yet another fable in humankind’s vain attempt to get past death. In Post- Easter Sri Lanka, on the other hand,there is no glory, only agony; endless questions and loads of blame. Who is to blame? That is the question. There are indeed too many to blame, but too few to offer credible answers and even fewer, if any, to put anything right. This is not the fault of any Sri Lankan community, but the failure of the Sri Lankan State. The blame game targeting Muslims is a global pastime and effective political fodder in every country with a minority Muslim population. This is understandable given the global reach of Islamic messianism emanating in the Middle East and encroaching Muslim communities in every country. But there is no global solution to this problem. Each country has to fashion its own solution, but not in an exclusionary way as Donald Trump ham-handedly tried to impose in the US and was stymied by his own legal system. Thanks to Trump, more Muslim Americans have been elected to the US Congress than ever before. The solution in Muslim-minority countries has to be inclusionary of Muslims, and not exclusionary.

In Sri Lanka, as was alluded to editorially and otherwise in the Sunday Island last week, the solution is best advanced through moderate Muslims. But the Muslim community can only provide the best medium; the task of advancing the solution of accommodating Muslims and preventing further acts of terrorism is the responsibility of the State. The Muslim community has a role to play, indeed a vital one, in repairing the damage done on Easter Sunday to the country’s social and political fabric. That role has been made considerably easier by the heroic restraint shown by Sri Lankans of all communities in the wake of perhaps the largest coordinated terrorist attack on civilian targets not only in Sri Lanka but anywhere else since 2001.

This is truly commendable considering the earlier backlashes of historic proportions in less than comparable situations. The State that had orchestrates backlashes on earlier occasions was too ineffective to organise even a backlash, and that after failing miserably to prevent what was a very preventable tragedy. By all accounts, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith rose to the occasion and literally cast a shepherding influence not only on his faithful flock but on all Sri Lankans. Religious and community leaders, civil society activists, and communities at large have roles to play, but not all of them combined can replace the State or substitute for the role that only the State can and must play.

State and civil society

There is a division of labour between the State and civil society and there should not be any confusion about it. If communities can self-manage and self-correct themselves without a State, then why have a State? When the State overplays its hand and abuses its powers, then there is reason for civil society and communities to step in and push back on the excesses of the State, but not to carry out the basic role and function of the State that are the very reason for its (coming into) being. In the present context, confusion over this division of labour leaves the Muslim community on tenterhooks and lets the State and the government and political leaders off the hook.

The confusion manifests in multiple assertions and questions: The Muslim community must take responsibility. Why are rich Muslim youth getting involved in terrorism? Why have Muslim leaders been allowing the Arabization of Sri Lankan Muslims? How did so many madrasas, Mosques and even a university in Batticaolacome to be established without anyone doing anything about it? Who is to blame for the caches of weapons that the police are reportedly discovering on a daily basis? Who is to blame for the alleged failure to apprehend suspects, and the failure to ensure the remanding of those who have been taken in? Is the government’s failure to enforce the law a result of whatever commitments it may or may not have given to the UNHRC in Geneva? And finally, the political coup de grace: as a result of Easter Sunday bombings, no mainstream political party can afford to form a common alliance or appear on common platforms with Muslim political parties.

In these and other questions, it is the Muslim community that becomes the exclusive target of scrutiny, while the State – its leaders, institutions and agents are spared of the stronger strictures they deserve. The questions are also expressions of inter-communal stereotyping. Stereotyping is a fact of Sri Lankan social life, and different communities exchange stereotypes of one another in ways that range from the humorous to the odious. In times of tension, stereotypes can turn nasty and hurtful.

The Muslim community cannot be collectively blamed or held accountable for what happened on Easter Sunday, any more than we can collectively blame - the Sangha for the assassination of Prime Minister SWRD Bandaranaike by a misguided Somarama Thero; the Sinhalese for the JVP insurrection; or, the Tamils for the LTTE war. The perplexity over young rich men turning into suicide bombers is an inadvertent accusation of the poor - predicated on the presumption that only the poor and the deprived must be prone to political violence.

No one can conclusively diagnose what motivates the rich or the poor to take to political violence, let alone suicide bombing. Talal Assad, the American Anthropologist of Euro-Arab origins, in his monograph On Suicide Bombing, debunked the notion that suicide bombing is integral to Islam or Islamic civilization. Sri Lankans know that experientially. In his The Age of Revolution (1789-1848), Eric Hobsbawm recounts how, out of Europe’s small provincial towns, "ardent and ambitious young men came to make revolutions or their first million; or both." After more than two centuries of revolutions and wars, people are generally sick of violence. And ambition nowadays covets only millions and not revolutions. The ISIS and its followers are aberrative hangovers and that Sri Lanka got in its violent crosshairs has more to do with government ineptitude than any laxity on the part of the Muslim community.

The current theocratic domination of Arab world should not blind us to the progressive possibilities that Arabsnot long ago presented for the region and the world. The political forces unleashed by Nasser’s Egyptian Revolution and Ba’ath socialism wanted the Arab world to break free of foreign domination and its traditional ruling houses predicated on religion. Egypt’s Nasser played a founding role with India’s Nehru and the then Yugoslavia’s Tito in the launching of the Non-Aligned Movement. These movements were thwarted by superpower intervention and oil wealth in the hands of traditional ruling houses. It is a very different Arab world now from what seemed to be emerging during the 1950s and 1960s. Even Sri Lanka has changed after those decades. These changes have cumulatively brought about "A calamity of Constitutional Crises", according to veteran journalist Lucien Rajakarunanayake.

State failure, not a failed State

Seemingly taking a break from his hilariously biting genre, Mr. Rajakarunanayake has written a seriously formal article linking Lanka’s Easter calamity to Sri Lanka’s constitutional crisis that has been brewing over the last four decades. Easter Sunday has exposed the many failures of the Sri Lankan State, although Sri Lanka is not a failed State. But post-Easter, no politician wants to talk about the constitution fearing a backlash from an angry people. In that respect, Lucien Rajakarunanayake (LR) has done a great service to the media and the country by drawing attention to the constitutional elephant in the room, namely, the Presidential system and its infighting incumbents, as well as other aspirants to the presidency. He has exposed both the structural rigidities of the system and the incompetence of individual incumbents. He sees no quick fixes to the breakdown of government short of a thorough overhaul.

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe has got into political hot water as usual by asserting that changes to the law are needed if Sri Lanka is to deal effectively with terrorists. The Daily Mirror ‘fact checked’ the Prime Minister and proved him wrong, for apparently the old Penal Code provides for the police to deal with not only domestic but even foreign acts of terrorism. Much has been made of about thirty or forty Muslim youth leaving Sri Lanka to join the ISIS in Syria. In western countries, the numbers of such voluntary conscripts are in their hundreds, and governments there keep a tab on them instead of making speeches in parliament.

It is a red herring to suggest that whatever commitments that Ranil Wickremesinghe and Mangala Samaraweera made to the UNHRC in Geneva may have prevented the police from going after those who plotted the Easter Sunday bombings. How does that explain the police actions after the bombings? Is it the UNHRC that also stymied the police and the prosecutors from arresting and charging those responsible for Sri Lanka’s ‘emblematic’ killings of journalists and a rugger player during the tenure of the previous government? Is it because of the UNHRC that no serious charges have been brought by the present government against those from the former government accused of corruption and abuse of power?

The truth of the matter is that corruption of and political interference in police work and preventing indictment of well-connected perpetrators of crime have been going on for decades. Once law enforcement is compromised, it is impossible for enforcement agencies to pick and choose the beneficiaries of corruption – as to who will be prosecuted and who will be left alone. On the contrary, those who commit crimes now have the option of picking and choosing their ‘contacts’ in the government and administration to stop police work in its tracks. The ‘contacts’ that apparently protected Easter Sunday’s suicide bombers are all reportedly known. What is also known is that the government gave into these ‘contacts’ and ignored the complaints from the larger Muslim community.

Rajakarunananyake offers a potent insight that the collective failure of political leadership began with the elimination of the direct election of MPs (under the much maligned first-past-the post system), and its replacement by the impersonal proportional representation system and, within it, the insidious preferential voting. These changes ended the nurturing of political succession that was seen under the parliamentary system. Now only the President is directly elected by the people, and that system has spawned a coterie of permanent and irremovable political leaders, who want to be perpetual presidential contenders.

The UNP has no alterative candidate other than Ranil Wickremesinghe. The SLFP always picks its incumbent. And for the newly minted SLPP, the permanent Supreme Leader is Mahinda Rajapaksa, and only another Rajapaksa can be a presidential candidate. Sri Lanka apparently has no alternative but to elect its next President from this short list of deadwood people. The three of them, Ranil Wickremesinghe, Maithripala Sirisena and Mahinda Rajapaksa are old enough to apply to themselves the age of retirement that is enforced on Sri Lanka’s public servants, and take a collective bow out of politics. As their last parting act, they would do well to overhaul the constitutional order as they have always undertaken to do. There can never be a more pressing time than now for these three men to keep just one promise and get out.

Fight Against Extremism Should Not Be Confused With Islamophobia

By Lakmal Harischandra –

Lakmal Harischandra

“Hatred is never appeased by hatred in this world. 

By non-hatred alone is hatred appeased. This is an eternal law.” –Dhammapada

What happened on Easter Sunday is unforgivable and our rage and condemnation is beyond imagination. The nation should be complimented for their patience and maturity and the civilized way, they conducted themselves without allowing their baser instincts to take control over their rational thinking. Both Cardinal and Army Commander spoke in a balanced manner looking beyond the terror movement of the barbarians who carried out these dastardly attacks, while the politicians and social media warriors have been as usual in competition, to spread hatred and anti-Muslim venom using this massacre as a pretext. For the hate lobbies, the maturity of the people to observe constraint in the face of provocations was seen as a weakness. We have seen in this massacre, the worst that human beings are capable of doing. But, we’ve seen in the past, what happens when leaders are allowed to abandon common decency in favour of rage and hate. Through the lens of history, we saw how the Holocaust happened and how many genocides happened and even in our backyard how hate led to 1983 anti-Tamil pogrom, Aluthgama/Digana anti-Muslim violence. In this background, when will our people learn the lessons of history that hate cannot be dispelled by hate? 

It is sad to witness that in the aftermath of this tragedy, another tragedy is in the process of becoming a reality. The monster of anti-Muslim hate appears to be rising again from the backwoods. This volatile situation where a group of terrorists bearing Muslim names carried out these monstrous attacks on churches and hotels, became an ideal breeding ground and a playfield for the hate lobbies who inflicted much damage and destruction in the Post-war era in Sri Lanka to re-enact their dramas. While the terrorists attacked physically, the hate groups used social media, ably supported by rogue sections of the Sinhala media like Hiru. Ada Derana, to begin their own brand of ‘war of terror’. They began to attack the Muslims psychologically and mentally, making the entire Muslim community guilty by association. They began once again to brainwash the average moderate Sinhala mind (both Buddhist and Christian) about the inherent danger posed by the entire Muslim community. This included fake news, photo-shops and cherry picking Islamic quotes to show that Muslims are with the terrorists. A parallel anti-Muslim campaign is also happening in the Tamil media as well. This disastrous campaign is already attaining victory when we see Christian and Buddhist people appearing to be consuming this hate propaganda. This is a tragedy worse than the Easter attacks. Perhaps, this is what the Muslim extremist group want to achieve – to divide communities and make Muslims alienated so that their youths will be ready recruits to their radical groups.  As a Sinhalese, I am feeling worried about how our past friendships and comradeship with the Muslim friends have given way to mutual mistrust and suspicion . This is another national tragedy indeed.

Our post-Independence history was full of racism and communalism. Barely we attained Independence with all political leaders of all communities coming together in 1948, when under a decade we had the election of SWRD, who fought his election platform on a racist agenda. This led to Sinhala only bill which divided Sinhala and Tamil communities. Two years later, in 1958, Ceylon (then) witnessed the first ever anti-Tamil riots. An year later, SWRD Bandaranaike fell to a bullet by a Saffron clad Buddhist monk. This did not make the people to suspect every member of the Maha Sangha who wore a Siwura and ask the government to ban the Siwura. (quite rightly). Today, people are different and they are asking many cultural and religious symbols of Muslims to be banned including the Burqa. Burqa of course had a legitimate reason to be banned in this situation; but the hate peddlers are calling for more- even the Abhaya, madrasas etc. Well! the governments allowed this Sinhala Buddhist fever to take hold in the body public, renegading on various pacts signed with the Tamil parties and marginalizing the Tamil people through colonisation in the N& E. What happened in 1983 and how the JR Jayewardene government acted was really unacceptable which led to the internationalization of this ethnic conflict and the subsequent Tiger led period of terror. With the end of war in 2009, sense of triumphalism was witnessed with the Rajapaksa government posing off as the champion of the Sinhala Buddhists. 

The religion I follow – Buddhism is widely accepted as a pacifistic and tolerant religion. Yet political ‘Sinhala Buddhism’ has been linked to ethnic violence in both Sri Lanka’s pre and post-independence history. The end of the war in May 2009 saw the resurgence of Sinhala-Buddhist ethno-nationalism as a prominent force, the most patent instance of its link to violence being manifested in the June 2014 anti-Muslim riots in Aluthgama, in culmination of the well-orchestrated hate campaign by hate groups like BBS, Sihala Ravaya etc with State patronage then. Later, the patent popularity of the ‘Sinha-Le’ campaign and other grassroot level hate movements, which appears to be politically-backed and well-organised, also provided convincing evidence of the power of ethno-nationalism as a tool to mobilise insecure masses. The involvement of Buddhist monks in politics following independence in 1948, in effect, also transformed Buddhism into a highly politicised religion. In Buddhism Betrayed, StanleyJ.Tambiah draws attention to the paradox between Buddhism’s non-violent philosophy and the high degree of political violence in Sri Lanka. In fact, the first ethno-nationalist violence was directed against the Muslims and not the Tamils in 1915. Thus, religious extremism is not limited to Muslim extremism, but both Sinhala Buddhist and Tamil extremism too existed as well, as history in Post-Independence Sri Lanka has clearly proved. 

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ISIS Didn't Choose Sri Lanka, But Sri Lankan Group Chose ISIS – RAND

Jonah Blank, a Principal Investigator and Senior Political Scientist at RAND Corporation

Sri Lanka's previous record on counterterrorism and counterinsurgency isn't good: The government alienated the Tamil population through brutal actions, which served to increase support for the LTTE and strengthen this insurgent/terrorist group. The government should not make the same mistake with its Muslim populations.

 

by Nilantha Ilangamuwa-2019-05-14

 

Sri Lanka is passing through one of most sensitive periods of her history in the aftermath of brutal assault on the nation targeting country’s churches and luxury hotels by a group of terrorists on Easter Sunday. In this exclusive interview, I have communicated with Jonah Blank, a Principal Investigator and Senior Political Scientist for the RAND Corporation to understand his points of view on prevailing situation in the country as well as jihad movements.

 

RAND was established almost 70 years ago to strengthen public policy through research and analysis. According to the available history on RAND, “On May 14, 1948, Project RAND—an organization formed immediately after World War II to connect military planning with research and development decisions—separated from the Douglas Aircraft Company of Santa Monica, California, and became an independent, nonprofit organization.” Significantly, on the same day, the State of Israel was declared by David Ben-Gurion. RAND as one of the top research centres consisted of over 1900 staff and was maintained in locations spreading across 50 countries ‘has continuously demonstrated that rigorous research and analysis can help address some of the world's most challenging problems.’

Graduated from Harvard, he has taught anthropology and politics at Harvard, Georgetown, and George Washington University's Elliot School for International Affairs. Since 2003, he has been a Professorial Lecturer at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Before joining the RAND, Jonah Blank served as Policy Director for South and Southeast Asia on the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the United States of America. At various times, his Senate portfolio also included Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia.

 

In this interview, Jonah has observed two significant issues on the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka. First, the attack was a result of political negligence than its accounting as intelligence failure by many parties. Second, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) didn’t choose Sri Lanka, but the Sri Lankan extremists have chosen ISIS.

 

Meanwhile suggesting how to solve the political crisis in the country, he says, “When the nation's two top officials are locked in open conflict, they can't cooperate to ensure the safety of the citizens.”

 

Following are the excerpts;

 

Question: Jonah, Thank you for joining us. First of all, let our readers know about you; your academic background, present engagements and so on?

 

Answer: I'm a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation, focusing on South & Southeast Asia. I'm an anthropologist by training, currently based in Indonesia. I am the author of two books: "Arrow of the Blue-Skinned God," which retraces the epic Ramayana through India and Sri Lanka, and "Mullahs on the Mainframe," which explores Islam and modernity.

 

Q: Currently, you are based is in Jakarta, Indonesia, a country suffering mainly from two enemies, first, natural disaster and second, jihad extremism. Therefore, Indonesia's long prevailing moderate Islam is slowly but surely crumbling and shattering as the as fundamentalists seizing the popular moments, though movements such as Indonesia's Nahdlatul Ulama opposes Wahhabism. We would like to know your finding?

 

A: I think this overstates the issue: Islam in Indonesia is indeed changing and becoming more globalized-- but that's true for Islam (and all religions) everywhere. Violent Islamist groups were far more active in Indonesia in the half-decade after the fall of Suharto than they are now: the main local terrorist group, Jemaah Islamiyah, has essentially been disbanded (or, at least, it's just a shadow of its former self). This is not to say that extremism is itself gone-- merely that its terrorist fringe is more controlled now than it was fifteen years ago.

 

Q: Let's talk about Sri Lanka. What is your view on recent suicide attacks by so-called local branch of the self-identified Islamic State's (IS/ISIS) in Sri Lanka?

 

A: This set of attacks is unimaginably tragic-- and utterly unexpected. Sri Lanka has endured a horrific civil war, and a huge amount of terrorism associated with it, but it had never before seen this type of action. That is, the terrorism it had experienced in the past was almost entirely based on politics and ethnic identity, not on religion. Christians had never before been targeted for their faith, and global terrorist groups like ISIS had never been active.

 

Q: Why do they choose Sri Lanka?

 

A: It appears that ISIS didn't choose Sri Lanka, but that a group Sri Lankans chose ISIS. It could have happened anywhere, but in this case the terrorists happened to be Sri Lankan, and they got their skill-set and training (apparently) from ISIS.

 

Q: Do you think the ISIS' Lone-Wolf strategy was used in this attack?

 

A: No, this was the opposite of a "lone wolf" attack: A lone wolf attack is typically when an individual (not a group) simply plans and executes an attack with no external support from ISIS apart from ideological inspiration. Usually, this is something very simple: Driving a car into a crowd, or opening fire with firearms. The Sri Lanka attacks were the opposite of this: They were very carefully planned and executed, most likely with external assistance from ISIS.

 

Q: What are the differences between the armed rebellions led by LTTE ended in 2009 and the prevailing threat of jihad extremism in Sri Lanka?

 

A: The two are not linked. The LTTE occasionally targeted Muslims, but it did so for political rather than ideological reasons ( i.e, when Muslim groups refused to advance LTTE aims). In terms of impact, the LTTE was (until 2009) a far greater threat to Sri Lanka than any Islamist group might be. But the Easter Attacks do show just how much damage a small group of dedicated terrorists can cause.

 

Q: Many argued there is gross intelligence failure has led to success in the attack. But if we go back to history, we could see many intelligence agencies’ warnings had gone unheard. What do you think?

 

A: It's always easy to second-guess after the fact. But in this case it does appear as if there was a political failure which led to a poor government response. The warnings from an external intelligence agency (almost certainly India) were reportedly relayed to the office of President Sirisena. It seems as if these warnings were not acted on sufficiently-- and were not relayed to Prime Minister Wickremesinghe. There are two reasons for this: First, the President does not trust the Prime Minister (he tried to have him ousted in October 2018), and there is bad blood between them. Second, the President believes that India favors the Prime Minister over him, so he may have discounted the intelligence on these grounds.

 

Q: There are some reports suggesting that foreign intelligence agencies did not share the important details about Sri Lankan youths who were motivated by radical thoughts during their higher studies abroad. What do you suggest?

 

A: There is so much raw intelligence floating around that it would be foolish to assume any particular pieces of it might have unlocked the puzzle. Yes, there was genuine and important intelligence out there-- but how is one to find it in the mass of incorrect information also floating around?

 

Q: Do you have any suggestion to prevent such attacks in the future?

 

A: A few suggestions, for Sri Lanka:

 

1. End the political stalemate between the President and Prime Minister: When the nation's two top officials are locked in open conflict, they can't cooperate to ensure the safety of the citizens. If necessary, hold new elections-- or just find a way of working together better.

 

2. Cooperate with other nations on intelligence-sharing regarding counterterrorism. India's intelligence was not acted on, this time, and India (with its large Tamil population-- most of Sri Lanka's Muslim citizens are ethnic Tamils) has a lot of information to offer. The US, Britain and other nations do as well.

 

3. Work with the Sri Lankan Muslim communities. Sri Lanka's previous record on counterterrorism and counterinsurgency isn't good: The government alienated the Tamil population through brutal actions, which served to increase support for the LTTE and strengthen this insurgent/terrorist group. The government should not make the same mistake with its Muslim populations.

 

Q: Some of the intelligent and well-read youths are fighting for IS and turning into human bombs by leaving their lavish lifestyles. What is your reading on this social phenomenon as an anthropologist?

 

A: It is now widely accepted within academic and policy circles that economic deprivation is not the primary driver of terrorism: It's quite common for terrorists (including suicide bombers) to be relatively well-educated and at least middle or lower-middle class. It is unusual for them to be wealthy-- but Osama bin Laden was a billionaire.

 

Q: In addition to other countries, the United State too is being blamed for causing the mushrooming of the jihad terror groups. Do you think the US foreign policy and its strategies need to be re-structured?

 

A: I think there are many aspects of US foreign policy that could benefit from considerable reformulation.

 

Q: Thank you for your time and valuable thoughts, Jonah. Hope to talk to you again. One last query here. Please share with us your message to the general public, policymakers, and members of the law enforcement agencies in Sri Lanka on curbing radicalised minds and eliminating jihad terrorism?

 

A: Thank you for asking me. The best way to combat terrorism (in Sri Lanka and elsewhere) is through careful intelligence-sharing/gathering and close cooperation with the communities in which terrorists recruit. The Sri Lanka bombers, after all, had already been shunned by the local Muslim communities they'd come from. If the government had been cooperating better with its own Muslim citizens, it might have known about these individuals before it was too late.

 

Nilantha Ilangamuwa is former editor of Sri Lanka Guardian

Educated youth leaving the shores of Sri Lanka: Is it brain drain or brain gain?

It is time for Sri Lanka to convert its brain drain into brain gain

 Monday, 13 May 2019 

Many have expressed their concern about the rising incidence of educated youth leaving the country for employment in developed countries. This is specifically a relevant issue in a background of Sri Lanka’s labour force falling as observed by the World Bank in its recently released Sri Lanka Development Update 2019.
On top of this, labour force participation in Sri Lanka has historically been low with only about a half of the eligible people between the ages of 15 and above offering their services to the market. While the male participation has been around 72%, the female participation has been low at about 35%. Of them, the youth consisting of those between the ages of 25 and 40 have been the largest segment in the labour force, making up of almost the entirety of the people in that age group. Hence, if they leave the country, it is considered a severe loss to the economy. 

The Central Bank in its Annual Report for 2018 has stressed the need for changing the structure of foreign employment from unskilled and semi-skilled categories to skilled categories to enable the country to maximise the earnings from foreign remittances

People who leave their home country to settle in a foreign land are referred to as the ‘diaspora’ of that home country. In times to come, they become a formidable force representing the home country in the foreign land ready and willing to support the home country whenever that country needs external support. This was amply demonstrated when India issued India Resurgent Bonds in 1990s to build its foreign reserves after the reserve level fell to a very low critical level. The bond issue was oversubscribed by the diaspora

However, the Central Bank in its Annual Report for 2018 has stressed the need for changing the structure of foreign employment from unskilled and semi-skilled categories to skilled categories to enable the country to maximise the earnings from foreign remittances.
At present, of the annual migrant workers, about 55% constitutes unskilled and semi-skilled categories, while about 32% belongs to the skilled categories. Hence, the debate continues and some times, some even suggest that Sri Lanka should ban the foreign employment of its workers altogether. 

The protest against the practice, commonly known as ‘brain drain’, is based on both economic and non-economic reasons.

Economic reasons

The economic reasons adduced against the brain drain take the following form.

The educated youth are the pillars of the country’s wealth creation. When they leave the country’s shores for work in other countries, the home country loses their talents stunting its ability to create further wealth. Hence, instead of the country that took trouble to breed and nourish them, other countries that did nothing about it become beneficiaries. Economists call this phenomenon getting free benefits or ‘free riding’. 



The poor countries are poor because they have not been able to get the benefit out of the talents they have created by spending money on educating the youth. As a result, firms that could have produced an exportable output by using their talents are unable to export.

The government, which could have raised its efficiency by hiring the educated youth, will not be able to serve the people properly. Hospitals, both public and private, are unable to treat the patients because of the shortage of qualified physicians. Engineering firms are unable to build new structures because of the shortage of engineers. Schools are unable to teach students, specifically subjects like mathematics, science and English, because of the shortage of qualified teachers.

In this manner, the brain drain has adversely affected the whole economic life hindering the economy’s ability to grow.
Non-economic arguments

The non-economic arguments against the brain drain have been made on patriotic and social grounds.

The youth have been educated by the nation at great costs under its free education policy. They are, therefore, expected to pay back their debt to the nation by serving the home country. Hence, if they leave for foreign countries, they do not repay their debt to the society. It is, therefore, an unpatriotic act on their part to serve some other country that has done nothing for their uplift. 

Sri Lanka’s history has recorded a plenty of instances where the country had used the foreign skilled workers to construct giant reservoirs, huge pagodas, sophisticated irrigation channels, marvellous monumental buildings and artistically sculptured statues. These skilled engineers and artistes were paid at that time in gold which was an outflow of resources from the country. Yet the payments were made because their services were needed by the country due to a shortage of such skills compared to the requirements. In today’s parlance, it was a reverse brain drain for Sri Lanka and a brain gain for the home countries of those skilled workers and artistes. Sri Lanka should therefore encourage those Sri Lankans working abroad to return with experience, capital and better management techniques. These are woefully lacking in the country at the present state of economic development

Further, the developed countries, having used their talented labour relatively at lower wages, will produce exportable products and export the same to poor countries at artificially fixed high prices. Hence, poor countries are exploited by developed countries twice: first, by robbing the poor countries of the talented labour; second, by selling the goods produced by hiring such talented labour at artificially high prices.
On social grounds, the educated youth who leave their shores for foreign countries are not treated well by their host countries. Many of them have to settle for jobs totally unrelated to their skills and talents. Instances of neurosurgeons working as taxi drivers in the initial phases of their life build-up in the host country are often mentioned. This is a type of discrimination which these educated people would not be subject to in their home country. They have, therefore, become the victims of the ‘double standards’ which the rich countries are practising on the migrant workers from poor countries.

Many have, therefore, suggested that the government should prohibit the educated youth leaving the country for jobs elsewhere.

Is the ‘unpatriotic’ argument valid?

The unpatriotic argument is based on two facets of reasoning related to each other. In one way, it says that one could serve his country only by residing within the territory of his country. It also reasons out that one could serve his country only by serving his government or a firm belonging to a fellow citizen. Any other way of earning livelihood is an unpatriotic act.

This argument is valid only if all the different production processes involved in a product are completed in a single country. But today, production takes place in what is known as ‘global factories’. These factories simply assemble different inputs from different countries into a final product. Hence, a product today does not belong to a single nation. No country today can take pride in calling a product ‘made in that country’ alone, since it is the outcome of contributions made by many.

For instance, a shirt labelled as being ‘Made in Sri Lanka’ does not belong to Sri Lanka alone. Its fabric would have come from China; buttons from India; thread from Malaysia; design from France; sewing machines from Japan; electricity out of oil imported from Iran and so forth. It is only what the economists call the final value addition – that is, salaries paid to workers, remuneration to owners, interest paid to banks and rent paid to land owners – that truly belongs to Sri Lanka.

Does rice produced by Sri Lankan farmers belong to Sri Lanka in its entirety? The popular view suggests ‘yes,’ but the truth is in the negative. What belongs to Sri Lanka is only the labour of the farmers, the value of seed paddy, water and land used and the services such as milling, wholesale and retail trading provided by other participants.

In addition, a lot of other inputs used in rice production come from other countries: fertiliser from Iran, tractors, trucks and paddy mills from Japan and China, fuel from Malaysia and pesticide from Germany. Hence, every grain of rice produced in Sri Lanka is a global product of which only the final form is turned out on Sri Lanka’s soil.

Hence, today’s products are not national, but global products.

It, therefore, does not matter whether a person works in Sri Lanka or elsewhere. As long as he works in the production chain, irrespective of the country and irrespective of the employer, he serves Sri Lanka.

Is allowing the educated Sri Lankan youth to work abroad a sin?

Sri Lankan educated youth working abroad bring many benefits to the country.

First, Sri Lanka, through its well established higher education machinery, turns out a large number of professionals such as accountants, doctors, engineers and managers. The country’s economy does not expand sufficiently to absorb all these people into productive employment. Hence, the unemployment among the educated youth of the country is the highest among all sub-categories. Unless they are provided with job opportunities, it is inevitable that they become socially hostile and economically burdensome. It could lead to social tensions that could tear the otherwise coherent social fabric into pieces. Hence, foreign employment for the educated youth is a ‘safety valve’ to release the social tensions.

Though the country had the goal of elevating its growth rate to above 8% in the medium, as the World Bank has predicted in its Development Update 2019, the expected growth in the next three year period will at best be around 3.5%. This cannot be raised unless the country gains from those who had left its shores previously. If they remit their earnings to Sri Lanka, that should not be subject to taxation. If they return with capital, they should be afforded all incentives to do so, including the tax break presently available to foreigners. This is a matter which the Finance Minister should take into account when prepares his Budget for 2019

Second, foreign employment also serves as a ‘shock absorber’, when the economies are subject to periodical economic downturns. When an economy improves year after year, it provides increased and lucrative job opportunities to people. However, when it is in the reverse, jobs become scarce and less remunerative. In such a temporary shock, some facility should be made available to keep the redundant workers occupied. The opportunities afforded to local labour to work in foreign countries help the economy to absorb the shock.
Third, labour is human capital and like any other capital unit, it is also subject to fast obsolescence. The knowledge base of the world changes rapidly, making the old workers unfit to fulfil modern jobs, unless they have re-educated themselves. Workers in developed countries automatically get exposure to new technology, better work practices and modern management techniques. This, therefore, serves as a university of learning for the educated youth who seek employment in developed countries. Many such workers from India and China have now returned to their home countries, bringing back with them, the new skills they have mastered whilst they were employed abroad. It actually adds value to the home economy by raising the quality of its work force.

Fourth, like the ‘return of the prodigal son’, workers who had held high-tech and high-skilled jobs in developed countries have started to return to their home countries with their savings and a skills base to commence world class businesses in those countries. The experience and exposure they have got have helped them to integrate the local businesses with the global economy, thus reaping the benefits of the rising global trade in goods and services.

Fifth, when the educated youth leave a job market, it reduces the excess supply and raises the salaries of those left behind. It also provides incentives for others to acquire skills and enter the job market. Hence, the exodus of existing workers from one market to another always raises the welfare of those remaining behind.

Brain gain

People who leave their home country to settle in a foreign land are referred to as the ‘diaspora’ of that home country. In times to come, they become a formidable force representing the home country in the foreign land ready and willing to support the home country whenever that country needs external support. This was amply demonstrated when India issued India Resurgent Bonds in 1990s to build its foreign reserves after the reserve level fell to a very low critical level. The bond issue was oversubscribed by the diaspora.

In addition, those who work abroad send regular remittances to maintain their family members at home. Those remittances in hard currency form a significant flow of foreign exchange in the home country to finance its balance of payments deficits, specifically at a time when the country has been hit by an unexpected increase in the prices of essential import goods or a fall in the prices of its export goods. Sri Lanka was one of the beneficiaries on this count in the last two decades. The annual flow of such remittances in 2008 was closer to $ 3 billion. These remittances financed about a three-fourth of the high oil bill in that year.

Remittances by migrant workers have been an important source of foreign exchange for many poor countries. The notable examples are Bangladesh, Pakistan and the Philippines.

Sri Lanka’s history has recorded a plenty of instances where the country had used the foreign skilled workers to construct giant reservoirs, huge pagodas, sophisticated irrigation channels, marvellous monumental buildings and artistically sculptured statues. These skilled engineers and artistes were paid at that time in gold which was an outflow of resources from the country. Yet the payments were made because their services were needed by the country due to a shortage of such skills compared to the requirements. In today’s parlance, it was a reverse brain drain for Sri Lanka and a brain gain for the home countries of those skilled workers and artistes.

Sri Lanka should therefore encourage those Sri Lankans working abroad to return with experience, capital and better management techniques. These are woefully lacking in the country at the present state of economic development.

Though the country had the goal of elevating its growth rate to above 8% in the medium, as the World Bank has predicted in its Development Update 2019, the expected growth in the next three year period will at best be around 3.5%. This cannot be raised unless the country gains from those who had left its shores previously.

If they remit their earnings to Sri Lanka, that should not be subject to taxation. If they return with capital, they should be afforded all incentives to do so, including the tax break presently available to foreigners. This is a matter which the Finance Minister should take into account when prepares his Budget for 2019.

Thus, it is time for Sri Lanka to convert its brain drain into brain gain.
(W.A. Wijewardena, a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, can be reached at waw1949@gmail.com.)