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Role of Expatriates

Foreign Affairs Minister Tyronne Fernando has to play a special role most ministers of foreign affairs of other countries do not have to play. They merely have to deal with matters 'foreign', leaving the local to their cabinet fellows.

Mr. Fernando, however, along with dealing with matters foreign, also has to deal with the locals who have 'gone foreign' but who insist on holding on to their Sri Lankan identity and want to have their say in matters local. And that may call for a new kind of diplomacy.

The Foreign Minister, so far ably conducting his diplomatic duties since coming to office, last week resorted to that new kind of diplomacy as he took on some Sri Lankan expatriate elements overseas who seem to want to impose their agendas for a country in which they no longer live.

Simply put, Mr. Fernando firmly chastised these extreme expats. In his visit to the United Kingdom, the Minister took the opportunity to strongly criticise these hardline expatriate groups on all sides of the ethnic conflict for their hardline stances and advocacy of long-exhausted, destructive remedies to a problem, which the Minister himself has acknowledged, should never have been subjected to those remedies anyway.

For at least a decade, all those interested in peace and reconciliation, as well as the military authorities engaged in countering secessionist insurgency, have been keenly aware that the 'Foreign Hand' that some people insist on seeing in our ethnic problem was no 'foreign' hand. It was actually the hand of Sri Lankan expatriates who were extending support for the insurgent movement financially and organisationally.

If the 'Tamil Diaspora' thereby came into prominence and notoriety, in more recent years the Sinhala Diaspora has also gained prominence. If the Tamil Diaspora advocated and supported secessionism and insurgency, the Sinhala Diaspora, not to be outdone, has advocated and supported majoritarian ethnic hegemony and military counter-insurgency. Meanwhile, Sri Lankans within the country have tired of insurgency and counter-insurgency or any kind of war-like action.

Belatedly perhaps, they have understood that ultimately matters must be settled politically and by means of legislation and the reform of political and social structures. Encouraged by this change of hearts and minds, successive governments have initiated moves for apolitical settlement and the most recent Ceasefire Agreement has set of a process of genuine reconciliation and dialogue between once-warring entities. Never before in the history of the ethnic war has a peace initiative prompted such a profound change of atmosphere and social and economic activity in all parts of the country.

Naturally, the Foreign Minister may be forgiven if he is impatient with elements overseas who have not realised the pace at which things have changed; who persist in persuing old ideas and old strategies at a time when most people within the country have adopted new strategies and are seeking new ideas for a new, more just society.

It then becomes the Minister to firmly and categorically point out to all concerned that the international solidarity Sri Lanka needs is not for more war but to build the peace.

And any attempts to divert the country from this path must be quickly countered. So the Minister must proceed with this additional task in Foreign Affairs and must do so with the same diplomatic aplomb as he does his other duties. Thus, Mr. Fernando, while criticising expatriate extremism, did not reject any expatriate endeavour, but rather, was quick to call on all Sri Lankans to respond to their homeland's need with a new spirit.

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