I’ve come across some interesting posts and reactions to posts recently that really got my wheels clinking on the subject of Sri Lanka as a failed state and how we would be so much better if we were still a colonized country. This theory of course ties into the view that we are a ‘failed’ state. I personally do not buy into either theory. This is not to say that there is a lot and I mean a lot wrong with the country, evidenced by the fact that I am currently not living there (again that has its reasons which I will elaborate on later). 

To me the view that if we were colonized that things would be better is a form of running away. It is the old adage that ‘someone else’ can take care of our problems for us. What these people fail to appreciate is that democracy and a mature country is not something that comes up overnight. The British were very good at producing infrastructure; they left us with a network of roads, railways, national industries that were once amazing. What they unfortunately did not leave us with is institutions, which are the fabric of civil society, of law and order, of political management. Infrastructure at the end of the day is relatively easy to build, some money, raw materials and labourers and you have a road, or a dam.

It is institutionally that the colonial powers that be failed miserably, the vacuum left by the colonial countries leaving have been filled either by the political panderers as in the case of Sri Lanka or rebels who have little idea of mature governance as in the vast majority of African countries that had to fight for their independence. Institutions and mature governance do not spring into being overnight, anyone who thinks America has been the (flawed) democracy it is now for the last couple of hundred years is a fool (just google George Bush). The Constitution may have been signed into being in 1787 but that was not democracy. A true democracy is a country where everyone is equal and has an equal say in the country’s governance. The US wasn’t even close until recently, don’t forget segregation was a reality until only around 40 years ago. The US is still a scarily racist country, just look at what happened in Jenna. 

Similarly the Magna Carta may have been signed in 1215 but England was far from a democracy until recently. What people don’t seem to understand is that democracy is a process, an evolution. Some countries such as England and the US have had a hundred years in which to develop the institutions to uphold law and order and ensure equality for all. And it is still very much in evolution.

After all look at how these countries treat their indigenous peoples. Those ‘bastions of democracy’ such as Canada, Australia and the US are the very countries that refused to sign the Indigenous People’s Rights Bill passed by the UN recently. Their reason – that the bill gave ‘excessive property and legal powers to indigenous peoples’  . These are the same countries that have for hundreds of years exploited and abused the indigenous people. So even in these ‘developed democracies’ the fight for equal rights is very much an ongoing process and indeed a battle.

Where does this leave our sunny isle? Well we’ve had almost 60 years of independence and we started off hobbled. We were handed leaders, the Bandaranayakes, Senananyakes and Jayawardenes who at their best were sycophants. A generation of leaders who knew the ins and outs of sucking up to whoever gave them benefits. Such a mindset was never going to provide us the political maturity and will to drag us forward, witness the infamous 1956 policy. Whatever gave them power they would do. And it is a rot that runs deep and will take time to prize out. A similar situation can be seen in some African countries such where leaders came who were essentially bush fighters and military commanders, ill-suited to the sheer responsibility of being a democratic leader. 

So what is the solution? The easy way out, the way of immaturity is to cry out for someone to take charge, for the colonials to take over again. For one thing this is flawed because the British were ever only interested in what they could take from us. This mindset is still present, aid is tied and nothing will be given to us if it means a real sacrifice on the part of the West. And that is why we must take responsibility; we have to fix the problem. We have to grow up and evolve, it may take a hundred years but it is a fight that we have to fight, not expect someone else to dictate to us. Never forget that in the Western countries that we look up to as ‘shining examples’ of democracy those institutions did not spring into being overnight. People, usually of minorities had to sacrifice had to die for what they have today and are still doing so.

Detractors will say that I sit comfortably in the West and talk about Sri Lanka not being a failed state. True and I will admit to that. But at the end of the day I am not here because I enjoy it, there is knowledge to be learnt and skills to be sharpened that just cannot be done in Sri Lanka. There is however a significant body of people, expatriates who mean to come back, to fight for what is ours with the skills we have to build our country. Yes they may run into the Malakas of Sri Lanka and get the shit kicked out of them but they will keep coming. At the same time every person who speaks up against the stupidity, the corruption and the fools who run our country is striking a blow for democracy as is every person who just comes back and carries out his/her job responsibly. It is literally one small step blogging about the idiots of today but a giant leap for the country (apologies to Neil) that people are willing to do this. Just look at the tremors that the Burmese junta is feeling with the protests and the publicity the bloggers are bringing to them.

Democracy has always and will always be an evolutionary process and Sri Lanka is evolving. Crying for the white man to come and make it better is foolish and will never happen. We alone are responsible for our country.