Securing a nation and its communities is a round the clock affair and a thankless one. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. National security is a broad and evolving concept, and one which is often misunderstood by many.
Nevertheless, for the practitioners of security, their work is tireless and never-ending. They need to be alert around the clock, have foresight, intuition and tact to deal with what's developing before them, and act swiftly when necessary. Practitioners need to get it right each time, the disruptors to national security; be it criminals, terrorists, extremists, anarchists, foreign actors, or guns for hire, only need to get it right once. Today, security threats emerge and proliferate quickly across physical and digital domains, where boundaries of nation states and jurisdiction melt away to a grey area. As such, eternal vigilance – cross domain is necessary.
Sri Lanka has a long and sketchy history with what is perceived to be and what is practised as national security. Often, this is due to politicians misusing the term ‘national security’, politicising it for their benefit. As such, many in Sri Lanka have often disregarded national security concerns as a fluke or a narrative constructed by some entity for political gain. Sri Lanka would be unwise to trivialise national security based on past experiences. The notion that, as a small island, Sri Lanka is somehow compartmentalised and insulated from security concerns which plague the rest of the world, is one rooted in naivety. Irrespective of how Sri Lankans view what national security means to them, we are all collectively impacted by the enforcement or lack of enforcement of it. As such, it is imperative that a future government moves to build awareness on the subject, and rebuild the trust deficit which exists between citizenry and state regarding security. It is vital that Sri Lanka address such issues so that the national security apparatus can function effectively. Sri Lanka’s stability, the wellbeing of our people, and the stability of the region depends on having a robust, synergised security apparatus which the public have faith in.
Last month, Sri Lanka was again gripped with fear and speculation following a security alert issued by the US Embassy regarding credible information of a potential attack targeting the popular east coast tourist hot-spot; Arugam Bay. Within hours of the announcement, multiple countries flagged concerns regarding a possibility of an attack. The focus of the threat was on a small but visible population of Israeli tourists’ epi-centred around the Arugam Bay area. While Israeli tourists and US citizens may have been the focus of the threat, an attack, if one manifested, would have likely had collateral damage, and would impact Sri Lanka and the region significantly. However, unbeknown to the masses, the Sri Lankan law enforcement and security establishment has been concerned about tourist safety, ever since travellers began to return in numbers last year. With the onset of the Israel-Hamas conflict in October 2023 and subsequently Israel-Iran conflict, security for tourist hotspots, especially those where there were Israeli citizens, were beefed up. According to the Police, with information of a possible threat received on 7 October, additional security measures were put in place, first discreetly.
Sri Lanka had also moved quickly to take precautionary action once specific actionable information was received. This was possible because, despite the turbulent relationship between the public and the State security apparatus, the practitioners of security and intelligence remain at their post and do their duty. Since the warning was issued, the manner and timing of it has given rise to much speculation.
On its part, the US has defended its right and duty to warn its citizens. The US Government later stated that an Iranian national, Farhad Shakeri, suspected to be an asset of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was charged by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) in a murder-for-hire plot to assassinate then-candidate Donald Trump, and an American journalist critical of Tehran, and was suspected to have been tasked with targeting Israeli tourists in Sri Lanka. Yesterday (13), the US moved to rescind the specific warning linked to the tourist hotspot of Arugam Bay. This, after the Sri Lankan Government requested the US Mission to walk back the warning, given that the specific threat was no longer a serious concern. “The United States today lifted the security alert on the Arugam Bay area, following close collaboration with the Sri Lankan side and the immediate and extensive security measures put in place by the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Public Security and related agencies. Sri Lanka takes any security alert seriously, and accordingly the Sri Lankan authorities promptly implemented a series of coordinated security measures in the area to safeguard tourists, foreigners and residents against any possible threat,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
As such, it is imperative that Sri Lanka continues to have eternal vigilance, modernising and streamlining its security apparatus to face an ever-evolving threat spectrum. The Government must also improve its messaging, when it comes to security-related matters, and bridge the trust deficit which exists quickly.