Whatever the ills, she's our country still

It's that time of year when most people are customarily given to reflecting on the passing year, and pondering, perhaps with some degree of trepidation, what the coming one holds.

It may be appropriate for us to do the same. January 1 was a Sunday and so is today, the last day of the calendar year.

And so, when one reads what we wrote 365 days ago, and assesses it today, one could rightly say that the one sentiment we take to the New Year that we will usher in tonight, is simply what we brought to the old year -- Hope.

Hope -- that the New Year will see the end to this nagging problem of the Northern insurgency which dominates the lives of all the people of this country in some way or the other, with its seemingly unending cycle of violence and tit-for-tat encounters that have turned this once tranquil paradise isle into one of the modern world's hell-holes.

In this space on January 1 this year we said;

"As yet another New Year dawns, we wish our readers and the country at large -- a Happy, Peaceful and Prosperous New Year while all too aware that the prospects of such wishes coming true are not that good.....the ominous signs of a resumption of hostilities loom very much on the horizon. "This cannot be the wish of the majority of peace-loving Sri Lankans -- from whatever community or religious faith".

We pointed out that the LTTE had just begun a Palestine intifada-style student/civilian agitation campaign to destabilise the northern citadel of Jaffna as a prelude to launching a military offensive to wrest Jaffna from the Government's writ. It happened in just that manner although the Government's security forces were able to resist that guerrilla putsch.

We warned of the spill-over factor in neighbouring Tamil Nadu state in southern India which was then gearing up for an election to the state assembly. A veteran Chief Minister was brought back to power in that election, one who had competed with others in that state in the 1980s to curry favour with the LTTE, only to give up the cause when former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on Tamil Nadu soil by the LTTE.

But in this past year the Government of Sri Lanka has done little or nothing to argue its case in that state, opting to woo New Delhi instead, failing to realise that the New Delhi coalition government had to rely on Tamil Nadu support for its current existence rather than think of good neighbourliness, combating terrorism and hunting the group that killed its former PM.

The Sri Lankan Government was also too slow in reacting to the humanitarian crisis in northern Sri Lanka that has aggravated the spill-over factor in Tamil Nadu. This has now triggered a significant level of sympathy for the LTTE once again in that state, which should even at this stage, be taken more seriously and handled more competently by the Sri Lankan Government.

At the beginning of 2006, Sri Lanka was slipping into an abyss.

"Corresponding with this menace (terrorism) are wasted years in stagnant economic activity not even remotely connected with the insurgency. The Central Bank reports a growth of 5.5 per cent for 2005 with a staggering inflation rate of 11.6 per cent. Sheer inefficient governance; economic mismanagement by political square-pegs, corruption and waste at the highest levels of government -- in fact, a whole gamut of wrongdoings have seen Sri Lanka sink deeper and deeper into the mire," we wrote.

The anticipated growth rate for 2006 is 7 per cent, but the inflation rate has shot up to 13.7 for 2006 -- so we can see for ourselves how well, or badly, we have done in the past year.

The question now is whether the sheer inefficiency in governance we saw in previous years under former President Chandrika Kumaratunga; the economic mismanagement by political square-pegs, corruption and waste at the highest levels of government, has under a new dispensation changed things for Sri Lanka.

Or is it simply, more of the same?

We also said then, and we can say this today as well;

"But each New Year brings with it new hope. And hope is something we must all have. So, though not much has changed, and while nature seems to be wanting us to slow down -- with warnings of tsunamis, hurricanes and earthquakes suddenly becoming commonplace, we must count our blessings for what we have -- and respect nature as our ancient and wise forefathers did.

"We must relish the sunrise and the sunset each day, hope that the rains come down on time, and that our rulers rule justly and that we too contribute our mite so that this country may still emerge stronger in the New Year. "For despite all the gloomy predictions, Sri Lanka whatever she will; she's our country still".

These were the sentiments we expressed then, and that we reiterate today, in fact, with greater fervour.