Column

How tense is the situation in Sri Lanka,” I asked my friend in Colombo on the phone.

Before making a trip, I wanted to be sure that it was not dangerous to travel to the country. “At the moment the only tension is about our chances against Pakistan in the Colombo test match. Looks like we may lose,” he replied. The match eventually ended in a draw, but on landing in Sri Lanka it became that his droll humour was a bit of an understatement.

The war may have ended two months ago and the world’s most dreaded terrorist organisation, the LTTE may have been neutralised, but in Colombo there are enough signs that the country is still in a high security mode, wary of potential attacks from insurgents who may be plotting revenge. The drive from the airport to the downtown hotel passes through at least three checkpoints, much like our own “nakabandi” where soldiers in fatigues check each passing vehicle, look at the driver’s papers and ask a few questions from the occupants.

Being a tourist helps — saying you are from India even elicits a smile. The locals deal with all this with resignation, if not equanimity — they have been used to this routine for years. It does not help that the hotel is on Colombo’s Galle face, a mini Marine Drive promenade, where the parliament building, the President’s residence and several other prominent buildings stand. The car enters the hotel from the back entrance; not a very encouraging or auspicious start to a holiday.

During the worst days of the war, tourism in Sri Lanka, one of the mainstays of the economy had dwindled. The years of peace after the 2002 accord between the government and the LTTE saw the tourists rushing back but once hostilities restarted after the former annulled that agreement in 2008, inbound tourism dropped drastically, by over 10 percent during the year. Not surprisingly, good deals are on offer and holidamakers (including a lot of Indians) are rushing there for the sun, sand and shopping. But ask any tuktuk (auto) driver and he will confirm that it is not like old times.

Tourism, however important is just one facet of the Sri Lanka story. The country has other bigger issues to tackle and President Mahinda Rajpaksa’s biggest challenge is now to manage the peace and rebuild — literally and metaphorically — his nation. The war has taken a heavy toll on the economy and after much huffing and puffing and amidst resistance from many western nations, which made the Sri Lankans bristle the government managed to get an IMF loan of $2.6 billion for infrastructure development in the north and the east.

Behind the bristling in the government is the fear that the world is holding it to account on how the country will rehabilitated its IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons), as the refugees are called. Almost half a million IDPs are living in camps and while the government says it is doing its best to look after them — while also weeding out potential LTTE people among them —NGOs have called it a “humanitarian crisis.”

The papers are full of stories and pictures of high officials visiting these camps, of child soldiers being helped, of endorsements from international agencies that conditions are improving, but it’s a tough propaganda battle to win.

Probably the biggest challenge is to avoid the total alienation of the minorities, especially the Tamils, from the mainstream. The president has proclaimed his intention to unite the country but will the entire social superstructure —Sinhala hardliners, political parties and most of all, the Buddhist clergy — allow him a free hand? The country is replete with posters extolling the virtues of the armed forces, showing a united Sri Lanka without the north and east (the so-called Eelam areas) scrubbed out while in the foreground the smiling president looms large as the man who led the country to victory. Given their earlier experience with hardline Sinhala chauvinism, it is not surprising there are fears among Tamils about how this triumphalist mood will play out.

It’s a very delicate situation for the country. After 20-odd years of intense civil war, during which an entire generation has grown up, the country has entered a period of relative calm. The LTTE is for all practical purposes finished. The government is planning large scale investments in the former war zones — that should bring in money and jobs and speed up rehabilitation. But if national reconciliation is not handled sensitively, if the “victors” do not fully meet the aspiration of the “defeated” and if the critical issues — language, culture and devolution — are not tackled with foresight and statesmanship, the country could head for one more bout of instability.