Sunday Times 2
Diplomacy and India-Sri Lanka relations
View(s):By Dr. Sarala Fernando
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s visit to India this week and the expected visit of Prime Minister Narenda Modi to Sri Lanka in May signal a fresh burst of activity in India- Sri Lanka relations. Since previous projects for joint cooperation like the “bridge” and Economic Trade and Cooperation Agreement (ETCA) have failed to get traction, new projects appear to have come on stream such as the joint development of the Trincomalee oil tank farm and the Colombo Port extension. However whatever the economic viability of the new projects, they are meeting with confrontation from the trade unions due to a singular lack of public diplomacy on the part of the Sri Lanka government officials who seem not to understand the growing public scepticism over this government’s ability to manage foreign investment especially in strategic assets like ports.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (R) arrives with Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe for a meeting in New Delhi on April 26, 2017. The Sri Lanka Prime Minister is on five-day official visit to India. AFP
- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (R) arrives with Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe for a meeting in New Delhi on April 26, 2017. The Sri Lanka Prime Minister is on five-day official visit to India. AFP
It is a mistake to try to take important foreign policy decisions without advising and building consensus with the broader Opposition in Parliament. Here there is a huge difference with India. Thus, Shashi Tharoor’s speech at the inauguration of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s biography in Colombo illustrates the strong bipartisan support for India’s foreign policy, an admirable tribute to the national pride and solidarity of Indians, which sadly we in Sri Lanka seem unable to build even after so many years of independence. Here was a minister from the former Congress Government extolling the virtues of Prime Minister Modi’s “neighbourhood first” foreign policy, something that could not happen in Sri Lanka judging by the tactics of the Joint Opposition. Any Indian dignitary or expert giving speeches in a foreign country is expected to come by their embassy and learn what are the “points” to make for the local audience so that generally there is a continuity in the opinions expressed. Thus on the Indian side there now appears to be a greater emphasis on common cultural links through Buddhism. Yet the question remains whether these bonds are sufficient to overlook less happy events in modern history.
It is also a puzzle why so little publicity was given to the launching of the Wickremesinghe biography in the Sri Lanka press. It may be that our Prime Minister’s modesty may have played a part like when he was awarded an honorary doctorate in New Zealand with absolutely no coverage of the event at home. In that case perhaps family circumstances may have also come into play since his wife Professor Maithree has earned a well deserved doctorate in the academic path.
It would be easy to be carried away by the eloquence of the Tharoor speech and that thrust against China accusing it of hegemonic ambitions even dating back to the Cheng Ho period. It is however a misreading of history, at least from the Sri Lanka perspective, where the Chinese expeditions are considered as being more of a scientific and commercial interest. Indeed the famous episode of the capture of the Sri Lanka king and him being taken back to China is interpreted by Vernon Mendis, diplomatic historian, as resulting from a default of diplomatic protocol by the Sri Lanka king who mistreated the emissary of the Chinese Admiral and invoked a military reprisal. It should also be noted that back in China the Sri Lanka king and his retinue were treated with all courtesies and later asked to freely choose the next king to be returned with honour back to the country. Although some Indian experts criticise the Chinese expeditions as demands for obeisance to the emperor, infact the ships came laden with gifts for the local rulers judging by the list provided on the stone tablet to which Tharoor draws reference.
At the same time, can one ignore entirely the checkered history of Indian intervention in Sri Lanka in the 1980’s from the LTTE training camps in India to the arrival of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF), which have left the general public in the island cautious about its dealings with the neighbourhood giant. There is also a gap in the traditional diplomacy practised by India which many have characterised as “arrogant” as opposed to China which in the past has been much more ready to “listen” to the smaller party. This may be changing with the advent of public diplomacy and the couching of Indian diplomatic communications in more gracious terms. Yet the truth is that Sri Lanka is strategically vital for India’s security interests and defence cooperation is growing by leaps and bounds since the end of the armed conflict in the country. On the economic side more and more Indian companies are setting up in Sri Lanka or taking over the management of large industries. No study has yet been done of this creeping integration of the two economies but Sri Lankan business people complain loudly of unfair treatment and non tariff barriers (NTBs) still clogging their efforts to trade with India.
And as for complaints of unfair environmental standards, well, the truth of the matter is that some Indian companies have been exporting their “dirty” industries to Sri Lanka hence the call for much more stringent environmental standards especially with rising concerns on air pollution and water contamination. The large Chinese projects are not immune from the rising public concern with many lobby groups calling for the protection of Sri Lanka’s natural resources which are being exploited without any supervision in the name of development since the ending of the armed conflict. Commitments entered into by Sri Lanka under the Climate Change Agreements necessitate for instance an end to coal fired power generation as well as the increase in forest cover. Sri Lanka is fortunate in this respect given President Sirisena’s personal commitment to these international goals compared to what is happening in the US under President Trump where climate change commitments are being set aside in favour of big business.
Both in India and Sri Lanka, environmental NGOs are well organized with strong grass root constituencies and there should be much more networking across the Palk Strait on issues such as stopping the large scale raids by Indian fishing trawlers. Public Diplomacy case studies underline the example of Canada when seeking to curtail the acid rain coming from the US successfully drawing on the support of the American NGOs to push their cause through the US Congress. Trawler fishing has been banned in Tamil Nadu and there are many Indian NGOs and Tamil Nadu fishing experts who sympathise with Sri Lanka’s plight over the excesses of Indian trawling in Sri Lanka waters. We should draw on all these resources to stimulate a public campaign in India to put pressure on the trawler owners in Tamil Nadu to curtail what they well know are illegal activities in Sri Lankan waters. The Indian side is also playing for time as they anticipate the resources within the Palk Strait will be depleted beyond replacement in a few years…
Interestingly, the environmental cause is now being upheld by foreign courts in unprecedented areas. Do rivers have legal rights to protection from illegal dumping and perhaps even waterfalls from having their flow cut off by mini-hydro systems which are destructive to the aquatic system downstream? In New Zealand, after 140 years of negotiation, the Maori tribe recently won recognition for the Whanganui river to be treated as a living entity. So, sorry Mr. Tharoor, we are all for more strict environmental controls and protection of natural resources. This is why Sri Lankans applaud Mr. Modi’s initiative to clean up the Ganges and wish such leadership could be mirrored here to protect our major rivers. That is the good example to follow from India.
(The writer is a retired Foreign Service Ambassador.)