President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s one hour address to the nation on Independence Day evoked a sense of national pride. No one can deny that his words were spoken genuinely from his heart. A part of the address was to all Lankan’s living abroad to return home. His emphasis was that terrorism is all but wiped out and it is a new beginning for a united nation. One cannot dispute his sincerity.

The Island and all the major daily’s are available in the web by around 3 a.m. local time, which means that the Far East has access to our media through the web by about 7.a.m. their time. These include China, Japan, Australia, and Malaysia, Singapore et al. These countries have thousands of Lankans living and working in various capacities. Moreover it is also home to thousands of Sri Lankan Tamils. They all read the news from here and also their own media reports, true or false.

Some of these web sites like the TamilNet is not available here but is accessible there. There is no doubt that they would have read all the reports of events daily, long before we have read them. That is the reality.

News from Sri Lanka over the past three years in particular has been sordid. There are reports of disappearances, abductions, murders, and assault and assassination of leading journalists. From the point of view of our people living abroad, Sri Lanka is in very bad shape. The locals report to them that the cost of living is unbearable and request money for this that and the other.

Many Lankans are desperately looking for jobs to get away from their homeland. They are willing to pay exorbitant sums to local job agencies, majority of whom are bogus. Locals stranded or in mid sea must be in their thousands. The news is also telling them that apart from the judiciary every other Govt. institution is politicised to the extent that nothing can be done without influence. They are also aware that blatant assault on editors and journalists in particular are either swept under the carpet or given lukewarm treatment with the flimsiest excuse that there is no evidence to proceed to prosecute the offenders by the police.

That is the perception of those living abroad and one cannot blame them for it. They are also aware through the daily web that from the provincial councils to parliament the ruling party candidates are having a field day making pots and pots of money through illicit timber felling to sand mining and roaming around the highways in luxury vehicles escorted by dozens of goons. They are also aware that the ID card on your person is a must 24 hours a day, including the time you visit the river or well for a bath. Without it you are liable to be taken to the police station by a copper on the beat.. They are also aware that to buy a vehicle would cost half the savings you bring back to SL. And having obtained one - you should be prepared to spend hours on highways on road blocks to be screened at hundreds of barricades across the country.

When I invited my closest friends and relations to come at least for a week or ten days holiday for New Year, they nearly choked. So will the president’s invitation, regardless of his sincerity, bring the desired results?