Sri Lanka will celebrate 77 years of our nation’s Independence from British Colonial masters tomorrow, in a modest celebration, which the Government has planned to carry out with less pomp and pageantry. All that is well and good, and while cost-cutting measures such as less extravagant parades and fly passes by our small and declining airpower will be in-line with the current Government’s stated policies, we the citizens should take a long hard look at ourselves in the mirror tomorrow and ask ourselves what we have gained in post -Independence and self-assess where we stand today.

This Government and its supporters have over the last two years, pushed a narrative that the last 76 years has been a ‘curse’. While some, who are likely susceptible to memory loss, may buy into such narratives, many who have studied history will stand by the fact that Sri Lanka has not fared too poorly given the circumstances and geography which has always played a part in defining our nation. However, none can take a victory lap, as our island nation is nowhere near where it should be, in terms of development and citizens’ wellbeing, as we could have been. As such, tomorrow it is more imperative than ever to take stock, be truthful to ourselves and forge a consensus-led path forward. We can ill afford to stumble over and over again like we have in the past. Especially, as geopolitical dynamics around us are rapidly evolving and the coming decades will bring with it, their own unique challenges and ones which we may face in repetition. Looking back at Sri Lanka’s foreign policy achievements of the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s we must strive to regain such clout in the international arena. Sri Lanka must regain our capacity to be an international consensus builder, and trusted partner. Given where our foreign policy lies today, there is much work to be done. Last year, during an interview with The Sunday Morning, the then Japanese Ambassador to Sri Lanka Mizukoshi Hideaki opined that Sri Lanka needs to provide consistency and predictability in national policies and improve ease of business and governance as it moves forward with the reforms agreed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to maintain creditor confidence in relation to the debt restructuring agreement and to attract investment. While much of the debt restructuring has been completed and the IMF programme seems to be on track (at least for now), Ambassador Hideaki’s comments hold true for today and tomorrow. For Sri Lanka to be taken seriously as a nation State, and to attract investors and become less reliant on borrowings, policy consistency and predictability is vital.

For Sri Lanka to have policy consistency and be a predictable member of the international arena, Sri Lanka must move to craft a robust set of national policies which has a healthy degree of bipartisan support and ‘buy-in’ from the public. This needs to be done with wide consultation, transparency and consensus building. It will not be easy, our social fabric has many tiers, and our national identity as ‘Sri Lankans’ remains weak. But that is exactly why this needs to be done, and done without wasting time. Therefore, it is paramount that adequate space is given for a robust policy discussion, and the Government needs to make a consolidated effort to explain new national policies to the public. They need to rise about their ‘campaign’ era rhetoric and ideological stances, and be willing to find common ground with Sri Lankans and political forces which may not see eye-to-eye on some issues. This will ensure policy consensus to an acceptable degree, which will enable policy continuity. Without such, the Sri Lankan population remains with competing identities, a social tinderbox, which is untrustworthy of the Government, and extremely vulnerable. And if that happens, Sri Lanka will eventually find itself back in trouble, sooner than later. Therefore, tomorrow, when you take a hard, long look at yourself and ask what needs to be done to change Sri Lanka for the better, remember we are all in this together. We all need to be a part of the change.