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| Sunday, 5 January 2003 |
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Editor, Sunday Observer. E-mail: [email protected] Snail mail : Sunday Observer, 35, D.R.Wijewardana Mawatha, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Telephone : 94 1 429239 / 331181 Fax : 94 1 429230 Japan The visit to Sri Lanka this week of Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi is yet another significant landmark in a bilateral relationship that itself is one of the most important international linkages for this country. Ms. Kamaguchi, who arrives in Colombo today and will stay until January 7, is herself breaking important new ground being one of the world's very few women Foreign Affairs ministers. Nowadays, to say that Sri Lanka and Japan have close and friendly ties is too much like stating the obvious. The sheer numbers of Japanese brand vehicles on our roads is perhaps the most apparent evidence of the powerful economic linkage between the two countries. Japan is one of our largest trading partners although the balance of trade is in Japan's favour. Far more importantly, Japan is, and has been for a long time, the country's single largest official development aid donor by far. Even more significant is the fact that, in terms of private voluntary aid too, the Japanese people surpass any other foreign nation in their support for the social and cultural development of this country. This wonderful complementality of governmental and people's solidarity with us, Sri Lankans is a living testimony to the power of history: of age-old religious, cultural and political links that the collective memory and mutual awareness of which is the firm foundation for the modern inter-state friendship. The modern phase of this linkage was cemented by the late President J.R. Jayewardene's now famous intervention as this country's foreign minister at the post-World War II conference in San Francisco, USA in which he successfully pleaded for a spirit of clemency and harmony in the post-war reparations after the military victory of the Western alliance over Japan. The Japanese people have never forgotten this country's bold intervention on their behalf at a moment of national downfall, and they consistently demonstrated their appreciation in their support for Sri Lanka through thick and thin. Even today, as Norway hogs the limelight as the principal mediator in the crucial talks between the Government and the LTTE, Japan is playing a vital but quiet role of helping the process along in various ways. Their Centre for Preventive Diplomacy, a semi-governmental institution has been active here, encouraging every step towards peace-making and inter-ethnic harmony. Many have been the delegations that have gone to Japan courtesy of this support for study of models of negotiations and the politics of peace-making, especially the Asian success stories of ethnic harmony. The role of the Japanese people in their private philanthropy towards Buddhist activities in Sri Lanka has been an useful handle in encouraging Buddhist initiatives and Buddhist support for peace-making here, reflecting the spiritual wellsprings of our island civilization. In all, Madame Kawaguchi will receive a warm welcome in both the North and South of this country. VOT 'VOT' is the acronym for the 'Voice of Tigers' radio station of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. For many years, the VOT has operated as a clandestine radio with a limited reach in the northern areas alone. Today, however, in the new spirit of peace-making that is at last spreading throughout the land, the VOT has legitimised itself by obtaining government permission to broadcast and receiving foreign assistance in greatly enhancing its broadcast capability. The new VOT, it is to be hoped, will make its own special contribution to that spread of peace and harmony to every corner of the island. The VOT follows closely on the heels of the LTTE's Sinhala language newspaper, the Dedunna as part of the LTTE's outreach to the country's whole population. We welcome this new media venture and wish it well as social communication for peace, democracy and communal harmony. |
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