The celebration that will mark Sri Lanka's 61st anniversary of Independence will, in many ways, be more meaningful than it has been for quite a while.

Clearly Sri Lanka is not in good shape. But the reason to rejoice is that the country is once again to revert to a period when the whole of it, and not just part of it, comes under the writ of a single Government. It was back in 1971 that Independent Sri Lanka witnessed, for the first time, a definitive land mass secede when the southern town of Bentara-Elpitiya was seized by a group of armed youth revolting against the State. They took over the police station and had court sittings - but were flushed out by the Army within 48 hours.

Several towns were threatened in the 1971 uprising that shook the nation. The under-prepared Armed Services grappled with the problem and overcame it.

The next time there was a severance on a much larger scale, when northern youth took to arms carving out territories which they held under their control from time to time. Much was said about 'Operation Riviresa' and the march into Jaffna in 1996 to evict the LTTE from the peninsula, at a considerable price paid by those now re-named the Armed Forces. This was because the LTTE then jumped into the East and wrested control of that area that had been liberated by the Forces at great sacrifice earlier. Questions arose as to whether it was wise to win the North and lose the East. But there was merit in the argument that it was too dangerous to permit an armed group, particularly one claiming a separate state to hold a given geographical area for too long, paving the way for them to claim a de-facto state.

Quickly establishing instant courts, police stations, a bank, a tax system etc., to fortify its claim to nationhood status, all the LTTE required was one powerful nation, or group of nations to recognise it such as in Kosovo. While it has been fashionable to deride the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement (CFA), and the peace talks, much of it unfairly, the fact that Sri Lanka was divided into 'Government-controlled areas' and 'LTTE-controlled areas' was a prickly point. Certainly, it was too dangerous to maintain that status quo for long.

The aim seems to have been to engage the LTTE in talking rather than in fighting, with an international safety net to guarantee the peace. Now getting whacked in the battlefield they must surely rue the rebels' decision to renege on the CFA. They said the international safety net was a trap, alas, to with no such net for themselves, they seem to have had quite a fall on the hard surface of the Wanni. In hindsight, one could well question the wisdom of the CFA and the peace talks but the LTTE's reneging on it was surely the last straw for the Sri Lankan public — evidence that they were never prepared to negotiate, a view that the international community grudgingly came to accept. Now they remain militarily all but vanquished, and diplomatically isolated.

So it is that after a quarter of a century, Sri Lankans here and abroad, those who have lost their loved ones, their limbs, their homes, and their livelihoods, and seen an economy in tatters, have cause to celebrate. It almost feels as if Independence has been attained once again.Very soon, will come the onerous task of nation-building. It calls for great sacrifices and visionary leadership. The President said this week that he has begun learning Tamil so that he can speak directly to the Tamil citizenry. He hopes his Ministers will follow suit. Likewise, work ethic; honesty and integrity; respect for the Rule of Law; Democracy; and the re-building of crumbling institutions that once were the pillars of a modern nation-state must be renewed by example and with sincerity of purpose. Already, there is talk of what to do with the LTTE leader, if and when captured, the implementation of the 13th Amendment; whether it should be development first or political solution first.
Foreign aid donors are still chanting the mantra - a political solution their magic potion for Sri Lanka to regain its paradise status. Japan dangles a cheque and says if you want it, a political solution first.

True friends of Lanka, must come forward with a programme that will create employment, rebuild infrastructure, energise the economy and support moves for a united Sri Lanka, not a Sri Lanka divided into ethnic enclaves. After 400 years of foreign rule nation-building was not easy, but the hopes of 1948 crumbled in the succeeding years due to dishonesty more than incompetence. The unpalatable truth must be faced. After 61 years of Independence the country's main export is her people, and performance has not met expectations. People are heavily burdened, and it has not been only the war costs or last year's global economic melt-down that has been the cause. There has to be something rotten in a state if a Minister of Nation Building is being questioned about the colossal assets amassed as a people's representative. While there is joy at the victories against a tyrannical force, there is sorrow at where the nation has gone in 61 years. Yet while there is life, there is hope — that the turn-around will come sooner rather than later.