Opinion:
WYC delegates impressed by country's development
by K.M.H.C.B. Kulatunga

Leaders of the various regiments of the Sri Lanka Army with
the regimental flags in the background at the Nandikadal
lagoon. (File photo) |
The recent World Youth Conference enabled Sri Lanka to showcase its
developments after the dawn of peace, a few months after the successful
staging of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) last
year.
It was heartening to see participants from around 170 countries
making their presence felt at the World Youth Forum which showcased Sri
Lanka to the world.
United Nations General Assembly President Dr. John W. Ashe who
attended the inauguration of the 15th World Youth Conference, met
President Mahinda Rajapaksa at Temple Trees and acknowledged the
progress Sri Lanka had made in the recent past.
“We have seen the development that has taken place”, Dr. Ashe had
told President Rajapaksa and said he appreciated the speech made by the
President at the inauguration of the World Youth Conference in
Hambantota. He has been briefed about the progress that Sri Lanka has
made after suffering from nearly 30 years of terrorism.
Remarkable development
As President Rajapaksa told Dr. Ashe, nearly 12,000 former combatants
had been rehabilitated and reintegrated into society. All child soldiers
were handed over to their parents. A remarkable development has been
achieved in infrastructure facilities such as roads, railways and
irrigation and in areas of health and education.
At present the highest numbers of students who qualify for higher
education come from the Jaffna district. The country's computer literacy
which was only 3% of the population in 2005 has now reached 50%, thus
increasing the living standards of the people.
The visiting foreign delegates had been impressed to find such
details which they had never heard before, apart from the dismal picture
that had been painted by the LTTE rump.
Meanwhile, Australia’s Defence Minister Senator David Johnston had
expressed appreciation of the role played by Sri Lanka in combating
people smuggling and other illegal activities and underlined Australia’s
resolve to work closely with Sri Lanka in this area.
Eye opener
At a meeting with the Australian Defence Minister in Canberra,
Minister of External Affairs Professor G. L. Peiris, had explained the
government’s plans to develop Sri Lanka as a hub for shipping and
aviation, and gave an account of developments in the country after the
establishment of peace and stability.
The commendations by the United Nations General Assembly President
and the Australian Defence Minister last week should be an eye opener to
all those Western politicians who look at Sri Lanka through tinted
glasses.
The leaders of Canada and the UK have always seen one side of the
story to please the expatriate Tamils in their countries. They often
make statements and conduct themselves in a manner to satisfy their
Tamil Diaspora vote base. Especially several British leaders have become
puppets of their Tamil voters, making sweeping statements against Sri
Lanka.
The Britain said last week that it continues to urge the Sri Lanka
Government to co-operate with the UN resolution.
“We will continue to fully support and work with the UNHRC and
international partners to ensure proper implementation of this
resolution. The OHCHR will lead an independent investigation into
alleged violations. We continue to urge the Sri Lankan Government to
co-operate with the UN resolution,” Minister of State, Foreign and
Commonwealth Office Hugo Swire told UK Parliament.

Some of victims of the LTTE attack on the Sri Maha Bodhi,
Anuradhapura on May 14, 1986. (File photo) |
He also said that his officials in Geneva continue to discuss the
March 2014 UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution with the Office of
the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
Illusion
Why should Britain worry about our problems? They British Parliament
discuss matters pertaining to Sri Lanka on a regular basis as if it is
another county of the UK. Perhaps, they must still be under an illusion
that Sri Lanka is still a British colony.
Undue external pressures on Sri Lanka were having adverse effects
that could hurt the country's progress.
As President Mahinda Rajapaksa had pointed out at the World Youth
Forum in Hambantota, the minds of youth are extremely sensitive to
influence and can be easily misguided. This is the attraction for
terrorist groups, to recruit youth combatants to their cadres often
ending as cannon fodder, a traumatized and scarred generation, if they
survived.
Sri Lanka faced this phenomenon when challenged by a terrorist group,
described by the FBI, as the most ruthless in the world. In Sri Lanka,
former youth combatants were treated as victims of terrorism and not
perpetrators, and were all rehabilitated and reintegrated to society,
for a better future.
As the President had quite rightly pointed out, we strongly believe
that it is the society that can rehabilitate and reintegrate these
misguided youth, rather than any State apparatus.
At the end of the menace of terrorism, hopes among our youth for a
secure, better and more progressive Sri Lanka, had been renewed. And, at
the global level, the world has seen the largest generation of youth
ever.
Burden
The increasingly large youth population, who live in the global
South, makes it impossible to discuss any follow-up to Rio+20 and the
Post-2015 development Agenda, without considering their needs and
challenges. The Youth of today face an enhanced burden. They need to
find a living for themselves, as well as, increasingly care for an
ageing population. To ignore this growing trend would entail
unmanageable problems for policy makers, national leaders, and the
global community alike.
The Government is making every effort to provide equal opportunities
to youth both in the South as well as in the North. Nine could dispute
the fact that the youth in the North and the East have got preferential
treatment over their counterparts in other seven provinces in
infrastructure development.
The countries which point an accusing finger on Sri Lanka have gone
that extra mile in the guise of terrorism. Though they now pontificate
us on human rights of the LTTE terrorists killed in action, these
countries have taken maximum possible steps even outside the legal
framework to destroy terrorists not only in their own countries but
outside their territory too. The US drone attacks in Pakistan and
Afghanistan, which had killed hundreds of innocent people, including
children, are classic examples.
US enacted laws to indefinitely detain citizens under military
without trial. The US set a precedent for other nations that face
terrorist threats, internally or externally, letting the government
indefinitely detain people - under military custody - it deems to have
“substantially supported” al Qaeda, the Taliban or “associated forces.”
This provision was declared consistent with the constitution by the
US Supreme Court on 28 April by declining to hear a challenge to the
law. The provision is part of the National Defence Authorization Act,
which the US Congress passes annually to authorize programs of the
Defence Department.
Last December President Barrack Obama signed the National Defence
Authorization Act for 2014 which contained the clause that authorized
the American administration to indefinitely detain citizens with no
trial.
The NDAA provision first signed into law in 2012, which permits the
military to detain individuals indefinitely without trial, remains on
the books for 2014. Efforts to quash or reform the provision -
especially with regard to the indefinite detention of US citizens, have
failed and have been fiercely fought by the Obama administration.
Rich culture
While practicing something totally different from what they preach to
countries such as Sri Lanka, the self same countries try to teach us on
good governance and human rights. Sri Lanka has a rich culture which is
over 2,600 years old and the people in the West need not teach us on
human rights because our society cares for human rights much more than
any of the countries in the West.
The LTTE rump has always come out with concocted stories on the
presence of the Security Forces in the North and the East, which is a
right of the Government to ensure national security and protection to
all its citizens.
But it has now been proved beyond reasonable doubt that the Security
Forces are doing a thankless job to improve the day to day life of the
people living in the two provinces. This is a classic example, contrary
to the stories spread by the Tiger rump.
The educational sector has seen an unprecedented growth since the end
of LTTE terror and public exam statistics reflect this growing trend.
The security forces played a large part in reviving the Northern
education sector during the last few years.
The students in the North were able to record one of the highest
success rates at exams in recent times. There is no truth whatsoever in
the allegations of military interventions hindering educational
activities in Northern schools.
When going through the entrance statistics, most schools show
increased number of children entering schools in the North. For an
example, there were 370 students in Murippu Vidyalayam in 2013 which
increased to 448 this year (2014). This was the same with Akkarayan Maha
Vidyalayam which had 724 students in 2013 and saw an increase up to 792
this year (2014).
In fact, Principal of Puthumurippu Vigneswara Vidyalayam in
Kilinochchi had said that regardless of baseless allegations of
harassment by security forces personnel made by quarters with vested
interests, elucidations by educational authorities in the North have
proven them otherwise.
Denying allegations of a surge in school dropout rates owing to
sexual harassments committed by security forces personnel, T. Kanapiran,
Principal of the school has categorically denied any such harassment
made by security forces on students and goes on to note that the army
does not in any way cause harm to any of the children.
He says that if there is any harassment on them their parents will
not continue to send them to school. Moreover, the children take part in
events organised by the army and since resettlement in the area the army
had been quite helpful to them. The letter also requests others from
spreading rumours that will be detrimental to the school. These are good
eye-openers to countries such as Canada and the UK. |