The singing of the national anthem became a matter of controversy last year at the National Independence Day celebration when it was sung only in Sinhala and not in both the official languages as it had been sung in the previous years in keeping with the national reconciliation process. The singing of the national anthem in both the Sinhala and Tamil languages is in accordance with the recommendation of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission appointed by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa in 2011 when he was president.

Preparing for the forthcoming UN Human Rights Council cannot be easy for a government that was elected on a nationalist platform that was very critical of international intervention. When the government declared its intention to withdraw from Sri Lanka’s co-sponsorship of the October 2015 resolution No. 30/1 last February, it may have been hoping that this would be the end of the matter. However, this is not to be. The UN Human Rights High Commissioner’s report that will be taken up at the forthcoming UNHRC session in March contains a slate of proposals that are severely punitive in nature and will need to be mitigated. These include targeted economic sanctions, travel bans and even the involvement of the International Criminal Court.

The issue of remembering the past has been a source of division within the country. The destruction of a memorial within the premises of the University of Jaffna in early January threatened to escalate to serious conflict. However, immediate remedial action taken by the Vice Chancellor of the university helped to defuse the situation created by this action. He apologized for what had happened and laid a foundation stone for the reconstruction of the monument.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has announced that the government will be entering into an agreement with the Adani Group based in India to offer them 49 percent of the shares in a joint venture company. This joint venture will include Japanese government financing and will manage one of the terminals in Colombo port. The entry of Adani Group into Colombo port has been opposed by a wide coalition of organisations ranging from port workers and left political parties to nationalists and civil society groups. These groups have little in common with each other but on this particular issue they have made common cause and even held joint protests together. The main thrust of their objections is that control over the East Terminal of Colombo port will pass into foreign hands and result in an erosion of Sri Lankan sovereignty.