“Fear understandable, but must be overcome” – US Envoy to the UN Samantha Power

By Dharisha Bastians

United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power yesterday urged Sri Lankans to be less fearful of digging into a complicated past and turned introspective as she denounced current divisive political rhetoric in her own country in the wake of the Paris attacks, as “outrageous”.

“Fear is a bad advisor,” Ambassador Power said quoting UN diplomat Sergio Vieira de Mello, who was killed in a suicide attack in Iraq in 2003, as she addressed a town hall style gathering for Sri Lankan youth at the JDA Gallery in Colombo last

“The fear that is we dig too deep to a painful past, the pursuit of a bright future might be lost; the fear that certain liberties come at the expense of security are perfectly understandable and reasonable,” she said, in reference to Sri Lanka’s own struggle with coming to terms with the legacy of a painful civil conflict.

United States Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power (L) shakes hands with Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in Temple Trees -  Pic by Gayan Amarasekara

While remarking that change was “unmistakably underway” in Sri Lanka, she appealed to Government leaders to stop being governed by fear in their thoughts and actions, as they seek to build on the democratic changes wrought through the elections in January and August, to deliver greater liberties and political compromise to the people.

The fear that greater liberties would come at the expense of security was understandable and shared across the world, Ambassador Power acknowledged.

The top US Diplomat and member of President Obama’s cabinet turned self-critical and introspective about the climate of fear that had taken over in her own country in the wake of the terror attacks in Paris.

“Sri Lanka is not the only country susceptible to such fears,” she said adding that calls were intensifying in the US to turn away refugees. “There are calls to place entire populations under surveillance simply based on their religious backgrounds,” Ambassador Power said.

“This is outrageous,” she added, “this is offensive and it smears the legacy of the US and its proud tradition of taking in people who have undergone immense suffering.”

Ambassador Power spoke passionately about increasing the role of women in politics in Sri Lanka, and urged the country’s youth to remain engaged and invested in shaping the country’s future. She said female representation in Parliament when Sri Lanka obtained independence in 1948 was 3% and said it was regrettable that this figure had only risen to 5% in 2015. Responding to a question posed on Facebook about the “true purpose” of her visit to Sri Lanka, Power said she could not think of any other country in the world where so much change had taken place over such a short period of time.

“A lot of bad things are happening in the world, and then there is Sri Lanka, and its story of change. I came here so I have a reason to go skipping to work next week,” Ambassador Power said, smiling.