A modern day Rip Van Winkle had he gone to sleep as late as 1986 and woken up today would have found the world a very different place. Indeed, the world has changed beyond recognition.
My adolescence and youth were spent amidst the uncertainties of the Cold War world. The world as it was then was sharply, and many of us thought irretrievably divided. On one side were the Western liberal democracies which successfully operated representative institutions, maintained open societies and were devoted to the market economy or what was then called, capitalism. On the other side, lay the Socialist world, religiously devoted to the oneparty totalitarian state and to the command economy.
Between them, often precariously perched and often at different times tilting from one end to another, were many of the developing nations who called themselves Non-Aligned. The Berlin Wall gave concrete expression to Sir Winston Churchill's vivid metaphor of an "Iron Curtain" that had divided Europe. China had witnessed the rigours of the Cultural Revolution and seemed firmly dedicated to an anti-materialist vision of the future. In Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, the forces of what appeared to us then as popular Communism had swept to victory, humiliating the armies of the mighty United States of America.
For the past half century, we have lived in a world dominated by the clash of two super powers inspired by the conflicting ideologies. The Soviet Union and the United States confronted each other across the front lines in Europe and Asia, backed rival clients in the Middle East and South Asia, and shared with each other in civil wars throughout the underdeveloped world, but today, one ideology Communism has been discredited beyond resurrection and one super power, the Soviet Union has a new nonCommunist Government, so preoccupied with its massive problems at home that it can no longer play a dominant role in the world.
We now live in a world in which the United States is the only super power.
Whether we like it or not, this is the reality. When Saddam Hussein unwisely embarked upon the invasion of Kuwait, he would never have imagined that the United States of America was able to galvanize world support and drive him back to Iraq further strengthening its position as the only super power in the world.
If Saddam had anticipated the end result, he would have had second thoughts about invading a free and sovereign state.
The cold war has ended. In 1989 alone, democratic revolutions liberated 122 million people. Today, Communist bastions in East Europe have all fallen. The other remaining Communist nations like Albania and Mongolia have all functioning democracies and have embraced market economies.
Only North Korea and Cuba are still determined to pursue Communism and a closed economy and their people are near starvation and are suffering immeasurably.
The former Soviet Empire has disintegrated and instead of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics many independent states have sprung from it. Communism was dealt a death blow in Russia when Mikhael Gorbachev opened the economy to the world and tried unsuccessfully to keep a stranglehold on the political system.
The winds of change, spoken of first by former British Prime Minister, Sir Harold MacMillan, swept away Gorbachev and firmly installed democracy and the open economy. The recently concluded Presidential Elections saw Boris Yeltsin reelected defeating a hardline Communist candidate. Yet, if Yeltsin fails to deliver the economic benefits to the Russian masses once again, Communism can and will raise its head.
The same goes for the rest of the former Communist nations across the world. Democracy will survive only if the economic systems deliver. Otherwise, the order and the discipline of the socialist system will appear to be their only salvation.
China, on the other hand is a different story altogether. Deng Xio Ping and China has succeeded where Gorbachev and Soviet Russia failed. China has embraced the market economy with a vengeance, opened its doors to massive foreign investment and established free trade zones.
When I last visited Beijing two years ago after fifteen years, some streets of that city looked like Oxford Street, the 5th Avenue or the Champs Elysee.
Yet, the leaders of China have continued to embrace the Communist stranglehold on the political system. The right of choice, freedom of expression and democratic elections are still unknown in China.
As Deng Xio Ping stated: "I will not inquire about the color of the cat as long as it catches mice."
China will reform, but change must come from the Chinese, in their own way, according to their own traditions and at their own pace.
If the economic reforms initiated in China continue for another generation, it will become a major economic power and bring onefifth of mankind out of poverty into the global middle class, inspite of not because of its Communist Government.
The nations of SouthEast Asia, or what some call the nations of the Pacific rim, have emerged as the most powerful engines of economic growth. Though the economies of the United States, Japan and Germany will continue to dominate the world economic order, the nations of the Pacific rim will maintain their steady climb on the world economic stage without interruption.
Though, Sri Lanka does not geographically belong to the Pacific rim, we should make every endeavour to develop and strengthen our economic ties with these nations.
Vietnam, where the United States dropped more bombs than used in both world wars, today has one of the most vibrant economies in the region. Instead of dropping bombs, the United States is pouring billions of dollars in investments.
Burma is run by a psychopathic military junta which refused to accept the verdict of the Burmese people and the fervent appeal of the free world. Hopefully the situations will change.
The nations of South Asia have come together with the formation of SAARC in the late 80's. Though the concept was noble and prudent, economic cooperation has been minimal.
The meetings of heads of SAARC in the past have been mere speechmaking resulting in lengthy documentation and communiqu‚s without much results in the economic front.
Yet, the establishment of democracy in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal have been most encouraging. Pakistan and Bangladesh constantly plagued by brutal military regimes have now governments freely elected by the people.
I had the opportunity of witnessing and monitoring the recentlyheld General Elections in neighbouring Bangladesh, a nation ravaged by two bloody coup d'etat and 17 attempted ones, not to mention the natural disasters and calamities that devastate them ever so often. About 85% of their people voted in a free and fair election and they delivered their verdict in an atmosphere of a carnival. Though Pakistan and Bangladesh do not have the deeprooted traditions of democracy enjoyed by Sri Lanka and India, my personal view is that democracy has come to stay.
Turning next to Non-Alignment, founded on a noble concept, by Jawaharlal Nehru, Kwame Nkruma, Marshal Tito, Sukarno and other leaders of the third world, where Sri Lanka played a vital and important role born under my father and my mother which culminated in the hosting of the 6th Non-Aligned Conference in Colombo in 1976. Non-Alignment was born as a counter to the cold war between the two super powers, a platform and a launching pad for the third world. Today the cold war has ended and super power rivalry hardly exists. The raisor d'etre for Non-Alignment does not exist in the contest of today's world. The slogans of yesteryear are today irrelevant. The Palestinians are on the road to nationhood and apartheid has been dismantled. It is a whole new ball game in this light.... the Non-Aligned world must reassess it's role, it has to move from political posturing to economic cooperation. Let that noble concept that began this movement continue in economic and bilateral trade, cooperation. If it does not, it will die a natural death and become irrelevant and meaningless.
Nepal, once the outpost of an archaic royal dictatorship has become a model constitutional monarchy with a Constitution which is closely studied by scholars in the region for its successful protection of the rights of the citizen.
Turning to another, probably one of the few trouble spots in the globe the Middle East, who would have ever imagined that the leader of the Jewish nation would shake hands with the leader of the Palestinian people, a peace guaranteed by the most powerful nation on earth/and that the Palestinians would commence the establishment of their own nation? However, there is concern that the peace process would be jeopardized by the newlyelected Prime Minister of Israel.
My view is that the peace process cannot be reversed because it has gone too far; and that the United States which has invested not only colossal amounts of money in Israel, Egypt and the Middle East; it has also invested heavily in the process of peace!
In 1994 sixty million people of Israel and Egypt received more than 40% of the 15 billio