By Feizal Samath
COLOMBO, Feb 16 1999 (IPS)

Sri Lanka may have obtained independence from colonial rulers more than 50 years ago, but daunting problems continue to confront the country with freedom still an elusive dream.

“Freedom? … We are just second class citizens,” declared a Tamil university professor, whose Tamil minority community is the second largest ethnic group in Sri Lanka.

A Sinhalese politician Sarath Amunugama, a member of parliament from the opposition United National Party (UNP), said that if the government cannot assure people the right to vote without fear, “where is the freedom that we talk of?”

Social unrest, political violence and a festering Tamil separatist revolt in which at least 75,000 people have died, have all contributed to turn the clock back in Sri Lanka’s march towards becoming a developed and industrialised nation.

Most people believe that had Sri Lanka not “burst into flames” after the frenzied anti-Tamil riots in July 1983 which triggered the Tamil insurgency, this country would have been another Singapore – given its abundance of resources, high literacy rates and skilled people.

“We had everything going until 1983. Growth rates were on the rise, foreign investment was flowing in and steps were being taken to create a financial centre rivaling Singapore. But we were not prepared to give Tamils their rightful place in society, and now we are in the dumps,” lamented a moderate Sinhalese professor.

The Sinhalese, representing about 74 percent of the country’s population of 18 million people, are the majority community. Tamils are the largest minority (18 percent), followed by Muslims (around six percent) and other smaller groups.

Tamils, demanding equal rights, want a more equitable share of government jobs, land, education and employment. A provincial council’s structure, introduced in the late 1980s to empower the Tamils with more powers in areas that they dominate, has failed to generate results or any excitement.

On Feb. 4, Sri Lanka celebrated its 51st Independence Day but, for the first time, the pomp and show of a military parade was missing. The government could not afford to withdraw tanks and men from the war areas for a parade in Colombo.

The war has bled Sri Lanka for 16 years. A country which prospered with the arrival of Indian Tamil labour to work the plantations during British rule, has watched its people leave.

Bleak prospects at home have forced hundreds of Tamil and Sinhalese professionals to emigrate. More than 750,000 Sri Lankans work mainly as housemaids and construction workers in the Arab Gulf countries and Asian countries.

Politicians are blamed for much of the problems this country is facing. “Most politicians have abused power and forgotten the national interest. It has been more a politics of confrontation,” admitted Dr Karunasena Koddituwakku, member of Parliament and spokesman for the UNP.

Sri Lankan politics hit an all time violent low in last month’s northwestern provincial council poll. Two people were killed, men and women were paraded naked and voting marred by violence – most incidents blamed on the ruling People’s Alliance party.

Yet not one politician from the two biggest political parties expressed anguish. Instead the people witnessed a distasteful trading of blame and accusations by both sides.

Jayadeva Uyangoda, a top political scientist at the University of Colombo, is dismayed by the political state. “We don’t have a strong pluralistic foundation and democracy is facing a lot of challenges,” he said.

Uyangoda, a former revolutionary member of the once-radical Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) who once spent time in jail, said the legitimacy of democratic institutions has been eroded by the political leadership.

The JVP, which twice tried and failed to overthrow the government in 1971 and 1988, has embarked on a peaceful political programme. But the lack of employment opportunities and alienation of youth have triggered concern that Sri Lanka might return to the dark years of another insurgency.

“The level of violence is startling and we need to do something about it,” confessed one moderate government minister, who declined to be named.

The island nation’s biggest obstacle to development is the civil war between Tamil rebels and the government. A political

solution is unlikely however to materialise, at least in the near term, according to political scientist Uyangoda.

Though President Chandrika Kumaratunga has vowed to implement a political peace package later this year despite opposition from the UNP, it is unlikely that she will go ahead with it, he said. “The political reality is that she is facing presidential and parliamentary elections in the next 18 months and it may not be to her advantage …,” he observed.

The silver lining is the economy which is growing at a rate faster than any other country in South Asia, according to a government economist. But Sri Lanka is in the clutches of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), he said.

The IMF wants Sri Lanka to implement far-reaching reforms by cutting spending and staff, including a generous pensions scheme. Already state subsidies for agriculture and industry have been trimmed.

The economy has been doing well and maintained a five per growth rate despite a war that costs 50 billion rupees a year (735 million dollars at present forex rates) and eats into a bulk of the government’s meagre resources.

However, the optimistic predictions for the economy do not hide the grim reality of a country at war with itself.

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