The call to the diaspora

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa during his address to the nation at the 74th Independence Day ceremony reached out to the diaspora to invest in their homeland. This, he said, will enable them to continue to actively contribute to building the future of Sri Lanka.

The call to the diaspora is welcome and indeed the Sri Lankan expatriate community can make a significant contribution to the socio-economic development of the country. The issue however has been the lack of a genuine and concerted effort to win the trust and confidence of the diaspora by successive governments. A more open approach has been elusive unfortunately due to the suspicion of the term “diaspora” especially those of the minority communities.

This overarching fear-psychosis has effectively discouraged hundreds and thousands to shun their homeland in terms of making a more meaningful contribution as requested by the President.

Yes, the Government can be wary of politically motivated diaspora who on their own right could also justify their agitations for greater accountability and rule of law in their homeland. However, the Government cannot deny the need for a more focused and pragmatic overture to those who are apolitical, and genuinely want to give back. For this the Government has to look within and improve its own credibility and sincerity of purpose.

Ever since the conflict in the north and east ended after a brutal war over 12 years ago, Sri Lanka had a golden opportunity to make the diaspora a partner in development. Sri Lankan diaspora is rich with resources, experience and expertise and more importantly they are sons and daughters of the soil irrespective of ethnicity or religion. There had been in the past, few initiatives to woo the diaspora but those failed due to trust and confidence issues as well as lack of clear rules of engagement if the latter was a key concern especially to those in the intelligence.

How Non Resident Indians (NRIs) made and continue to make a positive difference to their homeland is a great example that Sri Lanka could have followed soon after the conflict ended. It is still not too late for Sri Lanka to learn from the NRI success and implement what is beneficial than simply calling out to the 

diaspora.

The need is for a wholehearted initiative focusing on livelihood and community development, linkage programs with SMEs and diaspora-exclusive commercial or investment projects. The country has seen some degree of diaspora involvement but the potential and the benefits are far greater than being obsessed to find out any ulterior motives of such engagement from Lankan expatriates in their homeland.

President Rajapaksa was right on 74th Independence Day when he said, “The freedom of a country is most meaningful when it is strong in social, political and economic spheres. As much as a government, the people too have the right to actively contribute towards this.” 

Likewise, the diaspora indeed, must be given the freedom to give back to their homeland in a more meaningful way than mere cash transfers as at present. If this is ensured, it will be the diaspora who can help Sri Lanka on a sustainable basis and not so much by non-national investors, companies or foreign countries no matter how friendly they are. The diaspora has roots in Sri Lanka, and more importantly relatives, whose prosperity must be treated as Sri Lanka’s success as well rather than mistakenly or for petty-politics singling them out or viewing them as not patriotic nationals.