From: nalin@athena.mit.edu (Palitha Nalin Wikramanayake)
Subject: None so blind .... Re: Miracle ?
Followup-To: soc.culture.sri-lanka
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 12:54:09 GMT


	Here is the article that the letters below refer to. When I saw this
	post on SLNET I was so outraged that I saved it to comment on it when I
	had the time. Since Vicumpriya's post mentioned the article I thought I'd 
	post it without comments (no time yet :-() except to say that the article
	shows an indifference to reality that is amazing even by SL standards!

	Nalin

	PS Who is Mr. Moragoda anyway? I have not seen any other articles by this
	"miracle worker".



   FS JLW GD WP   09/15       MIRACLE IN SRI LANKA

   By Milinda Moragoda

      The name Sri Lanka has recently become synonymous in the
   lexicon of the 1992 campaign with economic decline, as both Bill
   Clinton and George Bush have made disparaging references to us.
   When our name was Ceylon we were never so treated. We wonder if we
   too have become a victim of the sound bite.
       When my country first changed its name from Ceylon to Sri
   Lanka, all was peaceful, and so many world leaders went along for
   awhile not even knowing who we were. We started a Western-style
   economic revolution, but it merited only the inside pages of
   business newspapers. A few years ago, however, one of our "states"
   tried to secede from the "union," and in the ensuing civil strife,
   all hell broke loose. Then we got noticed.
       As violence, terrorism and economic tragedy befell my country,
   the American public finally became aware that there was a country
   called Sri Lanka, and it was in trouble. All but ignored was its
   2,500 years of recorded history, a population as ethnically
   diverse as New York City's and a strong modern record of democracy
   and devotion to free enterprise.
      Thus it comes as no surprise that the staffs of Messrs. Clinton
   and Bush would use Sri Lanka as an example of an economic
   shambles. But it's still a shame they did so. For if the
   candidates could visit us today, they might find we deserve to be
   the subjects of a new and very different sound bite. The fact is
   that Sri Lanka is on the way back to resuming its place as the
   next Asian economic miracle.
       Since 1931 every citizen of my country has enjoyed the right
   to vote, and all of our governments have been popularly elected.
   We have a literacy rate of nearly 90 percent - higher than a
   number of countries in the Western world - and our overall
   quality-of-life rating has won the praise of international
   development organizations.
       Long before Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union realized the
   error of their systems, we threw off the yoke of central economic
   planning and dedicated ourselves to a free market. That popular
   decision by our electorate 15 years ago led to a difficult period
   of sacrifice and belt-tightening. We could not have imagined then
   that one day this noble effort by our people to emulate the
   success of the Western democracies would be misused in an American
   presidential campaign as an example of a poorly performing
   economy.
        Nine years ago our miracle was brought up short. Civil strife
   broke out in my country when one of our minority ethnic groups
   sought autonomy. Violence and terrorism were widespread for a
   time. Sri Lanka was not well prepared for civil war. For decades
   our economy had concentrated its "peace dividend" on economic
   development. Our military infrastructure was not able to cope with
   the terrorism. Thus, we sought the help of our neighbor India to
   quell the violence. But the violence grew worse, and the Indian
   peace-keeping force itself became another subject of controversy.
       As Sri Lanka began to be noticed in the foreign press for its
   violence and perceived instability, foreign investors and tourists
   started avoiding the country. Tourism, a major source of foreign
   exchange, fell by 75 percent. Growth rates slipped dramatically to
   the 1.6-2.2 percent range. Prices spiraled. It was inevitable that
   voices would be heard condemning our flirtation with the free
   market.
       But in their wisdom, the people of Sri Lanka once again
   rejected central economic planning, and returned to power the
   United National Party under President Ranasinghe Premadasa. The
   new president acted quickly to stabilize the nation's security and
   resolve the conflicts through consultation and consensus. He
   succeeded in obtaining withdrawal of the Indian peace-keepers.
       However, his efforts at conciliation with rebel groups were
   not rewarded. Only after the government took determined measures
   to achieve internal security did the armed strife begin to abate.
   Today, life is back to normal almost everywhere in Sri Lanka, with
   hostilities being confined to two small areas in the north and
   east.
       So to Messrs. Clinton and Bush we say: "All is forgiven.
   Welcome to Sri Lanka - the next economic miracle."

         THE WRITER IS SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
   SRI LANKA.




------------------------------------------------------------------------
THESE NEWS ITEMS WERE OBTAINED AND POSTED BY LANKA ACADEMIC NETWORK(LACNET)
In article <Bw4qqr.JyB@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu>, vperera@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (vicumpriya perera) writes:
|> 
|>  The following article is posted here without permission, as appeared in
|>  Washington Post. If any of you haven't seen the original article
|>  " Miracle in Sri Lanka  WASHINGTON POST: EDITORIAL, 09/15/92  " 
|>  referred to here, I am more than happy to post a copy of it.
|> 
|> Vicum.
|> 
|> LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
|> Horror in Sri Lanka
|> 
|> WASHINGTON POST: EDITORIAL, 09/26/92
|> Copyright (c) 1992 The Washington Post Co.
|> 
|>    It is not surprising that the Sept. 15 op-ed article "Miracle in
|> Sri Lanka" was written by a special representative of the government of
|> Sri Lanka. It contains many distortions of fact that no one else would
|> relate with impunity.
|>     For example, to claim that Sri Lanka with its majority Sinhalese and
|> minority Tamil and Moor races only is as ethnically diverse as New York
|> City is ridiculous. Similarly, any economic prosperity in Sri Lanka is
|> limited to the ruling elite, while most of the citizens languish in
|> poverty. Also the genocide being committed against the minority Tamils
|> in the north and the east continues unabated. Why else would human
|> rights activists still be monitoring the situation in Sri Lanka? What
|> conflicts has the president resolved through consensus and consultation?
|>     Our thanks are due to President Bush and Gov. Clinton for drawing
|> attention to the dismal situation that prevails in Sri Lanka.
|>    CHARLES DAVID
|> Bethesda
|> 
|>     Sri Lanka, Milinda Moragoda's ''economic miracle,'' is a human
|> rights tragedy. Mr. Moragoda's whirlwind tour of Sri Lanka's troubled
|> past conveniently omits the ugly truths of President Premadasa's brutal
|> anti-insurgency efforts. The Post's readers deserve to know the real
|> reason the country's donors have been moved to condition aid on human
|> rights improvements.
|>    For the past decade, Sri Lanka has been engulfed in civil war.
|> Militant insurgents have killed thousands. But Mr. Moragoda's
|> euphemistic reference to the ''determined measures'' taken by the Sri
|> Lankan government to maintain security ignores widespread state-
|> sponsored violence. Successive governments in Sri Lanka deliberately
|> adopted the tactics of their armed opponents, engaging in disappearances
|> and extrajudicial executions of suspected militant sympathizers on a
|> massive scale. Their victims are estimated in the tens of thousands.
|>    Sri Lankan civilians have been massacred by soldiers in retaliation
|> for killings of members of the security forces. They have been abducted
|> and murdered by government-linked death squads. They have been tortured
|> in police stations and army camps and killed, injured and displaced by
|> indiscriminate aerial attacks on civilian areas.
|>    Journalists, human rights lawyers and political opposition members
|> continue to receive death threats, have been physically assaulted and
|> even killed for voicing dissent.
|>     For whom is ''life is back to normal. . . in Sri Lanka''? Not for
|> the families of the dead and missing, not for the millions whose lives
|> were disrupted by the war in those ''two small areas of the north and
|> east'' and not for some 200,000 refugees who still do not dare to return
|> to Sri Lanka.
|>     Donor pressure has brought some much-needed reforms over the past
|> two years, but continued pressure is essential to ensure that these
|> reforms take root. Only when Sri Lankan citizens can rest assured that
|> violations by state forces will be punished will, perhaps, something
|> like normal life finally return to Sri Lanka.
|>    JEANNINE GUTHRIE
|> Researcher, Asia Watch
|> New York 
|> 
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