South Asia has to grow together

by Trevor JAYATILEKA

With a successful and flawless 15th SAARC Summit in Colombo behind us we can pride ourselves that Sri Lanka has shown the World at large that we have not only the potential but the courage to undertake changing/shaping the destiny of a regional grouping of 1.5 billion people in South Asia perceived to be the poor relations of simillar groups such as the European Union (475 million people) and APEC (2.66 billion people).

The Thurstan College educated President Rajapaksa takes over the Chairmanship from India for the next two years.

The timing of this Summit is no coincidence and couldn’t be more auspiciously perfect because so many events converged about the same time; even celestial bodies the Sun and Moon decided to eclipse.

The 2nd Cricket Test against India, the 25th Anniversary of Black July, the Neelan Tiruchelvam Memorial Lecture, are some of the events worthy of mention and in particular the Lambeth Conference of the Anglican Church held in the UK.

The opening address of the Lambeth Conference was given by our own Rt.Rev.Duleep Chikera, the Anglican Bishop of Colombo who told the audience that our World is a torn and divided one, and we are all in some way or other wounded as entities or as individuals.His message was essentially that we have to grow together and transform from within by self-scrutiny and live for one another than for ourselves.

His message resonates with all situations that the peoples of this planet face today.

Sanctions

Today we are witnessing a sizable shift in global economic power and the Europeans in particular are unable to understand or accept that SE Asia is the largest economic region in the world and the G7 accounts for less than half of the Global GDP.

We are seeing the rise of regional bodies such as ASEAN that are capable of finding regional solutions to their problems and clearly liberal interventions of the West such as punitive sanctions and embargos are no ready remedy for the 21st century problems.

If we look at the problems of our own 8 members we are unanimously in agreement that terrorism, the scourge of our times has to be eradicated because it is sapping all our energy and scarce resources and standing in the way of our economic progress as a whole or as individual nations.

All our colonial masters could tell us is to negotiate and take lessons from the Nothern Ireland solution, but unfortunately we don’t have the correct levers to negotiate with or a willing partner.

The Nothern Ireland problem took 80 years even to reach the talking stage and the roots go back to 400 years of sectarian hatred. If Britain failed to find North Sea oil and Ireland didn’t join the EEC, the IRA would have never made a unilateral declaration for the cessation of violence on Good Friday and settle for a power sharing arrangement.

The IRA realised EEC rich Ireland was no longer interested in the cause of Irish re-unification and Britain needed all the money they could find for deep sea oil drilling. Bertie Ahern/Tony Blair agreed it’s time to settle their differences.

Sri Lanka though a poor counrty (GDP-30billion US$) is a dynamic entity of the SAARC family and is a mascot not just of South Asia but the SE Asian region as a whole.

The Maldives President Gayoom knows what a good neighbour we are, and Lee Kwan of Singapore knows too well how they got rich from our geographical advantage in maritime shipping.

Last week our President was seen with the Indian PM at SAARC, now we see him with the Chinese President as a special state guest to watch the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.

It’s time the World take us for what we are and all I can tell my countrymen and women of all religions/ethnic or cultural backgrounds and languages is that the challenges facing us in the future are much greater than what we have faced in the past and climate change is divastating us all with ‘Peak Water’ closing-in on us surely.

The time is not for segregation but for integration and to my Tamil Brethren I beg stay with us for the sake of posterity and lets put the past behind us.

Marco Polo

I wish to close with a story of Marco Polo the famous Venetian Explorer who also visited Sri Lanka between 1292-94 with a mission of China’s Kublai Khan to secure the ‘Bowl of the Buddha’ the most reverened and holy relic of the Orient.

Chandrabanu, the King of Lanka who showed him around and also took him up to Adam’s Peak which is said to house the grave of Adam( according to Saracens), as well as the santuary of the Relics which included the green porphyry begging bowl of the Buddha the only item he took with him when he left his princely palace as an ascetic wanderer to seek Truth and Enlighentment which his life’s journey left for us to ponder.

May the Triple Jem Bless Sri Lanka - the most beautiful island of its size according to Marco Polo.

Endeavour Hills, Victoria, Australia