Now the Tamil National Alliance has also joined force with some other international and local actors who have opposed staging the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka (CHOGM). Quite understandably, TNA has got its own political reasons for this decision, though it expects greater synergy with the government in other issues such as devolution.

Among the members of the Commonwealth, Canada has vehemently opposed the CHOGM taking place in Sri Lanka, and it will not send its Head of Government for the conference. In the meantime, Sri Lanka’s Foreign Ministry has left no stone unturned in its laborious efforts to bring all the Heads to the island for the meeting. Yet, despite much of the propaganda against Sri Lanka, most of the countries, out of 53 nations, have shown much lenience, and will be participating in the conference. Most importantly, David Cameron, the UK Premier, had to justify his position as to why he is going to attend the CHOGM in Sri Lanka amidst the objections raised by some members of the House of Commons. Meanwhile, India’s participation by Premier Dr Manmohan Singh is highly expected by Sri Lanka.

As has always happened, in many instances in the post-war context, the CHOGM also has become a greater challenge for Sri Lanka. The decision to host the CHOGM in Sri Lanka has not been viewed as a realistic decision by some analysts, since it can attract more criticism than praise from the circles that raise the issue of accountability for alleged violations of human rights and war crimes. Despite these concerns the Government has continued to organise the conference; we hear that it has imported horses, motor vehicles etc. from countries such as the UK for the conference.

In this scenario, the opposition parties, and particularly the JVP, have alleged that the Government has used economic or trade incentives to woo the State leaders to attend the meeting. Some have coined the term ‘Rolls-Royce Diplomacy’ to describe Sri Lanka’s strategy and it seems to be gaining attention as an interesting term to describe the nature of diplomacy in an era of economic recession in the west and increasing structural and political pressures on the small states in the international system. However, we cannot say the State leaders are compelled to attend the meeting purely out of economic compulsions. Yet, one thing that is certain is that since the Commonwealth is an international conference of nearly one fourth of the world’s states, and it has survived much of the twentieth century and provided the states with a forum to create a different identity for them or to keep their memories of colonialism intact, the venue of the Commonwealth Conference has become an issue of least concern for many.

However, the issue of Commonwealth values is often discussed in relation to Sri Lanka, and hence, Sri Lanka needs more attention in that area. Rather than wasting its energy on countering allegations, false or true, in an era of advanced technology of the Internet and cyberspace, which has certainly empowered the individuals and broadened the space of democracy, Sri Lanka should take care of its democratic sphere. Therefore, Sri Lanka’s problem should not be the concerns of halting protests or banning social media. Sri Lanka’s long history of democracy and adherence to Commonwealth values should be the base of its approach to solving the local conflicts and facing the international scenario.

The objections which have been raised by many actors,  allege that Sri Lanka has failed to adhere to the Commonwealth values, the normative practices and principles that the states which practise the system of democratic governance should adhere to within the Commonwealth; here, we need to re-think them at this stage as a state with a national interest. Universally, for the rulers, values are not the most immediate concern, but they exploit values as cover-ups and pretexts for maintaining their power relations with the people. However, universally, the end goal of any nation or the national dream of any nation should be to achieve the highest possible progress of civilisation. And it should be the national interest of the nation, if nation wants to come out of the perpetual syndrome of struggle for power locally and internationally.
Democracy as a greater value for achieving higher civilisation goals is practised by the majority of the world states. This has also led to challenging the notion of power politics by establishing the theory that the liberal democracies do not go to war with each other. By accepting Sri Lanka’s invitation to participate in the CHOGM, most of the nations have adhered to the basic idea of democracy that democratic negotiations can be used to solve matters, rather than applying coercive pressure at all the instances. That is why David Cameron has told his Parliament that he would use the opportunity to negotiate the issue of human rights with the Sri Lankan leadership face to face. And Sri Lanka’s leaders should in turn use the opportunity to provide concrete answers rather than going to protect the perpetrators of violence, which would harm the national interest greatly as a repercussion.


"However, the issue of Commonwealth values is often discussed in relation to Sri Lanka, and hence, Sri Lanka needs more attention in that area"

Today, after getting tired of fighting a brutal ethnic war for three decades, Sri Lankans have gained some breathing space to think over these issues. But ‘this moment is not for rejoice’, as Venerable Galkande Dhammananda Thero, a highly respected university academic and an activist of peace and human rights in Sri Lanka, has told in a public forum recently. This moment is for re-thinking and reflecting on the values we have really valued as a nation, whether Commonwealth or any other traditional values; and to share our views on them we need to protect our democratic space and public sphere. In this case we have to re-think of how free our press, our cyberspace, intellectual freedom, civil society etc. are and how far democracy is valued in the context of devolution and creating ethnic harmony. Internationally, we become vulnerable only when our democracy is getting locally damaged and tangible remedial measures are not designed locally.  

To counter rising anti-Lankan movements world over, in cyberspace or elsewhere, we need to strengthen our local democracy immediately; and the opposition, the rulers and civil society should wage a joint effort in that direction. Our national capability should be armoured with weapons of non-violence and peace, and not with militarisation, which has hindered public life, particularly in the North.

The more we become parochial, the more the strong powers will use our weakness to exploit us; let’s understand and discuss this reality.
If democracy flourishes in academia, press, politics, work place etc. our country will be the wonder of Asia; and if not for that, there is no wonder about its bleak tomorrow.