Editorial

Next week, the free citizens of Sri Lanka mark their 77th year since regaining independence from over 450 years of foreign rule, though tied in knots to external factors that question the very foundation of freedom.

From an international lending agency in Washington overseeing the country’s budget to the demands of sovereign creditors at the Paris Club and elsewhere to private bondholders, to its domestic processes on the rule of law, accountability, and human rights needing endorsement in Geneva, to relying on foreign remittances from labour abroad to donor countries to provide school uniforms and housing in the plantations, to the World Bank donating flood relief aid, and political leaders accepting these ‘gifts’ with misplaced pride, the country’s sovereignty and independence have become porous.

The country continues to be confronted with the challenge of modern nation-statehood in all its ethnic, political and economic complexity. However, Sri Lanka is not alone; internal and external factors afflict even the so-called advanced nations. Despite the head start gained by several centuries of sovereign statehood and resources plundered from their former colonies, fault lines and cracks are appearing in national identity and cohesion in those countries as well. In relations between states, geopolitical rivalries among them continue.

February 4 is an occasion to commemorate the people’s forebears who came together to fight for freedom—from the Uva rebellion to the Donoughmore Constitution, when for the first time outside the Dominions of the then mighty British Empire, a nation was given universal adult franchise; one man/woman, one vote. It is a mistaken practice to whinge—and this has been a theme song of those in the current disposition, that ‘nothing has happened for the 75-plus years since Independence’. However catchy the slogan may appear to be, the country has made vast strides over the years, starting from the Gal Oya development project in the 1950s to the Mahaweli multi-purpose project in the 1980s. Schools and universities have sprung up from the free education system that has benefitted the multitude, some currently holding high posts in government. The people enjoy free healthcare, which even advanced countries do not have; this, too, is to a population that has increased fourfold since 1948.

Yet the problems are many despite the advances. The fault lines and setbacks are clearly apparent. Divisive forces undermined national unity from the pre-Independence era of self-government. Political opportunism was overwhelming, spreading distrust often exploited by external elements. There was mega-corruption in more recent years on the pretext of economic growth that plunged the country into bankruptcy.

Winds of change are nevertheless sweeping across the island nation, or are they really? The old order of communalism was set aside at the recent elections, giving the new administration in Colombo a chance to bring about reconciliation among communities, the pledge for a ‘Clean Sri Lanka’.

On Tuesday, Sri Lanka will showcase to all the world how an armed revolutionary entity transformed into a social-democratic party and now occupies the seat of power through the democratic process and the will of the majority. And what is more, the President of the Republic and Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces will take the salute from the tri-forces and the Police that some 50 years ago—and more recently, hounded his party’s cadres who tried to overthrow the democratically elected governments of the time by force of arms.

Sri Lanka can indeed be proud that it has not gone the way of military dictatorships and bloody revolutions as did several other newly independent nations in Asia, Africa and Latin America and has retained its loyalty to democracy with its ‘warts and all’.

Independence Day will be a remembrance and recognition that honours the country’s national leaders of yesteryear from all communities and religions and an occasion to pay homage to those who gave their all to remove the shackles of colonialism so that future generations of this land could live as free men and women.

It’s a day to reflect on what they gave their life and soul for—it was for the free people of Sri Lanka and their future leaders to determine their own destiny, to preserve their freedom, and to deliver peace and prosperity with justice and equity for all.

Return of colonial loot

As the newly independent nations of the post-World War II period, now banded as the ‘Global South,’ begin to make demands for reparation from the industrialised West (many former colonisers) for damage caused by climate change, another initiative has been gaining traction: the demand for the return of stolen artefacts from the former colonies happily on display in major museums in the West or hidden in royal and private collections of the colonisers.

This week, the Ethiopian Heritage Authority has launched a diplomatic push for its looted artefacts, especially those taken as far back as in 1868 when the British invaded the fortress capital of Magdala in Abyssinia (now Ethiopia). Fifteen elephants and 200 mules were needed to cart the Ethiopian Emperor’s belongings away to Queen Victoria’s Royal Collection and British military and regimental museums. For more than 150 years, the Ethiopian Tabots (sacred Ethiopian altar tablets) have been hidden from view at the British Museum—that, in the museum’s words, “cares for them”. The museum does note that erstwhile British Prime Minister William Gladstone had criticised the looting of Magdala as a reprehensible and lamentable episode. The Ethiopians believe the UK government that sermonises about human rights to the rest of the world, including Sri Lanka, would be amenable to demands for the return of its stolen artefacts.

India, too, suffered at the hands of the East India Company—company officials plundered at will—and it is well documented how later the British removed many priceless artefacts to their museums and private collections.

While legislation in Britain prevents the repatriation of imperial plunder, some Western countries such as the Netherlands, France, and Germany have been more open to returning stolen artefacts. The Netherlands in 2023 returned to Sri Lanka a cannon, a gun and a sword in a move “to redress historical wrongs”.

The moral argument for the repatriation of looted artefacts is indisputable, and the demands from affected countries are mounting.

How and how well the Global South can change the neo-colonial world order is yet to be seen—another chapter in this murky tale of colonialism, still to be written.