CELEBRATING SUCCESSES AND FAILURES ON A 75-YEAR JOURNEY

Today Sri Lankans celebrate the 75th year of Independence, after almost 375 years of subjugation to Portuguese, Dutch and British Imperialists.

While many among us celebrate the exit of the European invaders, some citizens question the value of political Independence in light of the country’s ongoing crises. They point to the economic and financial crisis and growing malnutrition among children. They compare the healthy bank reserves at Independence to the country’s present parlous and bankrupt state.

Short-sighted members of society tend to ponder whether Sri Lanka under colonial masters would be a better option. What short memories we Lankans have. We have forgotten that in the preindependence era, education was the privilege of the elite in society. A total of only 3,000 schools existed in those days. Illiteracy was prevalent.

Today the 10,000 or more schools spread throughout the country, ensure all Sri Lankan children receive an education. Within years of Independence, this country has come near to eliminating illiteracy -long before any other South Asian nations did so. In the era prior to Independence, an average of only 200 undergraduates entered the only two State Universities in the country. The language of higher education then was only in English.

Today for better or for worse, according to UGC statistics 41,641 students entered the 17 State Universities in 2019. After Independence, education at State Universities remains free. Residential facilities too are provided. The recently released Aragalaya leader celebrating a near decade in a particular State University would never have entered the portals of higher education but for policies formulated after Independence in 1948.

In 2022 one of the immediate causes of protests against former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s regime were the rolling eight to nine-hour daily power cuts in the aftermath of the country’s financial crisis. Yet, in pre-independence days, only a little over one per cent of the population enjoyed the luxury of continuously supplied electricity.

By 2018, ‘over 90% of homes had access to electricity’, while the Sri Lanka Demographic Health Survey (DHS), shows 90% of households have access to safe drinking water and sanitation coverage.

No mean accomplishment in a developing country after 375 years of Imperial rule. Under British rule, local agriculture was ruined as the British destroyed irrigation tanks and irrigation waterways. From being a food exporting nation prior to British rule, Lanka became a net importer of its food requirements.

However, in the post-independence era, the country reached near self-sufficiency in food production. The recent fall in agri produce and shortages (Caused by a shortsighted Presidential administrative decision), will undoubtedly bounce back. At Independence, the country’s exports were mainly-tea, coconut and rubber. Today the economy has grown to include all manner of products besides tea, rubber and coconut

Another milestone since Independence has been the eradication of the dreaded diseases -Polio and Malaria. The road and rail system which originally served purely British administrative and plantation economy needs, today penetrates all areas of the country. Sri Lanka broke the gender bias long before it became a fad in the west, electing the world’s first female Prime Minister -Ms Sirimavo Bandarnaike- who went on to be a leader of an international stature

But along with these achievements came one of the country’s worst failures. -the imposition of The Official Language Act (No. 33 of 1956). With less than ten per cent of the population able to converse or understand English, the need to change the official language was necessary. But the imposition of the Sinhala only with the exclusion of the Tamil language left the Tamil community disempowered and angry.

In the ultimate, the Language Act led to a nearly two-decade war which nearly split the country. The wounds caused by that single act of majoritarianism still haunt the populace. Let us remember, it was the misdeeds of corrupt political leaders and a particular President, which led to the financial meltdown and growing malnutrition among children. But that does not take away from what we as a country have achieved since Independence.

Independence Day is a good occasion to celebrate these achievements. Perhaps, we do not need to spend Rs. 200 million to do this. But, we in fact owe it to the memory of those who enabled good things to happen, in our now struggling country.