GETTING THE TALENT BACK TO RE-BUILD SRI LANKA

Sri Lanka Appeals to Citizens Living Abroad to Return, Help Rebuild
Reports Raymond Thibodeaux from Colombo

..With Asia's longest-running war drawing to a close, analysts say the next big hurdle is convincing Sri Lankans who fled abroad that it is time to come home. But that is exactly what Sri Lanka's government is setting out to do..

The government at times seems almost serious about it. In fact the President himself made an impassioned plea for Sri Lankans who migrated abroad to return home and become a part of the reconstruction effort. Going by such periodical and intermittant pleas that we've heard over the past few years, it seems that the importance of getting back the lost talent has been realized at the very highest levels of government and has remained a fairly top level priority.

Yet, besides the invitations and pleas, the government hasn't got its act together to lure back the lost talent. Perhaps the government too realizes that with the war in an unfinished state, the probabilities of success in such an effort are marginal at best. And the government would be correct in assuming so, since the large numbers of Sri Lankans abroad would risk returning for good only in a situation of relatively improved security, and economic stability.

Nevertheless, there are many who would voluntrarily assist in anything on a short term, if the government made the effort only to ask them. I personally know of doctors and other professionals who have returned to Sri Lanka at their own individual cost periodically to attend to the needs of our security forces and other affected people in the so called 'border villages' affected by tamil tiger terrorism. Sri Lanka needs to identify such individuals, recognize their deeds and attempt to retain their enthusiasm in the long term.

If Sri Lanka is envisaging a situation where her sons and daughters now domiciled abroad are to return voluntrarily to serve the mother land, she needs to understand the basic necessities that have to be fulfilled before the idea can become a serious proposition to the majority of such people.

-The anti-terrorism operations need to be prosecuted to a successful conclusion. Irrespective of what anyone may say, the large numbers of Sri Lankans abroad view the present anti-terror operations with satisfaction and consider them to be a measure of the present govt's seriousness towards eliminating this particular and persistant problem.

-Law enforcement also must be cleaned up, and the government must be able to guarantee a satisfactory level of individual security to all citizens. A nation which managed to bring absolute descipline to its fighting forces should be able to bring similar or better descipline to its police force.

-Sri Lanka should consider offering free or even honorary dual-citizenship to the people she wants to bring back to the country. A large number of those who are willing to consider returning are discouraged by the prospect of having to navigate typically convoluted Sri Lankan governmental bureaucracy. Assurances of streamlining processes will not do. Just give it freely to the deserving, if they are needed badly enough.

-Identify the most productive group to attract. There is a large population of young to middle aged professionals who would return to Sri Lanka if suitable schools could be found for their children. These are the people in the most productive years of their lives, possess higher education, valuable skills and experiences and hence should be considered the prime target group to be attracted.

The numbers of Sri Lankan professionals who would willingly return if these requirements can be fulfilled are significant, and can easily be the game changer for the future of our nation. A good starting point would be for the Sri Lankan ambassadors abroad to start asking the expatriate Sri Lankans the obvious questions such as what it would take to get them to return home.

All that it takes is serious action in place of serious sounding speeches. Speeches sans action will make the Sri Lnkan diaspora doubt the seriousness of the government and the credibility of its future plans to attract the overseas talent will suffer as a result.