June 1, 2013, 5:16 pm



By Gnana Moonesinghe


Spring is like a perhaps hand


(which comes carefully


out of Nowhere)arranging


a window,into which people look(while


people stare


arranging and changing placing


carefully there a strange


thing and a known thing here)and


changing everything carefully


spring is like a perhaps


Hand in a window


(carefully to


and fro moving New and


Old things,while


people stare carefully


moving a perhaps


fraction of flower here placing


an inch of air there)and


without breaking anything.


``Spring is like a perhaps thing’’ -EE Cummings


To start a fresh chapter to post conflict history, minds must be cleansed of all the vitriolic matter the government and the governed have gathered over the years. Our selective retention of only the ‘poisonous’ events from our past history has contributed to the creation of schisms that divide us and retard the progress of the country on two main areas. One, the progress towards  ethno-religious harmony for unity,  and two, the development of the country for a lead role amongst the comity of nations in the international  arena. If the present trend of sustaining electoral popularity through the creation and fostering of suspicion, distrust, and animosity is to continue with the pre-war mind set, it  is no way of moving aggressively forward to build and energize the establishment of a peace constituency.


The ‘slate’ has to be wiped clean and a fresh chapter opened to create reconciliation sourced from the hearts and minds of concerned players that will result in, sustainable peace, a well-planned program covering all socio- economic aspects that will help to nurture a sense of moral values in human relationships. These are the focal points in a country’s wholesome vision that has to be embedded on the well cleaned slate of community memory - certainly not the bitterness of the past 30 years.


Grateful Nation to


the Armed Forces


The Sri Lankan nation is indeed grateful to the armed forces for having freed the country from the terror of the JVP and the LTTE at two momentous periods in the history of this nascent nation. Having eliminated these two rebel groups, the people in the country be they from the South or from the minority domiciled areas in the North and the East heaved a sigh of relief knowing that when they go to bed at night they can expect with reason to wake up in the morning in one piece, having spent the night without a visit  from the  JVP’s ‘chit’ bearing messengers or their arms toting henchmen  or from LTTE attacks, bombs et all; people who go out to work especially in buses can now expect to return whole and unharmed from stealthily placed bombs or without encountering the death clasp of the unbelievable phenomenon of the LTTE suicide bomber; people in the war torn areas can also hope to be secure from the constant drone of the bomber planes, the strafing from the army and the ever persistent fear of encountering army or Tiger squads by day or by night.  The people in the conflict areas no longer need fear the knock on their doors, and the appearance of gun-toting youngsters demanding that their son or daughter join the Tigers knowing that they would not see their child again. All this is in the past. A grateful nation has demonstrated their indebtedness following the defeat of the Tigers by the spontaneous celebration of the victory in the only way Lankans know. They danced on the streets, set up victory dansalas overnight and celebrated with others by treating them to kiribath and soft drinks.   On that occasion it was not triumphalism, but pure joy and relief that there was an end to the Tiger scourge. What need be erased is the triumphalism and victory celebrations that has turned to be a political tool in the hands of whoever is looking to exploit the situation. The glory of the defeat of the Tiger must be celebrated in the hearts and minds of a grateful people.


The celebrations ended abruptly at the sighting of the Tamil refugees wading knee deep, sometimes neck deep, through the Nandikadal lagoon, escaping certain death at the hands of the Tigers or the army. They entered an uncertain future.  The southerners, moved by the plight of those flooding in, hitherto considered ‘enemies’, put their hands into whatever they could spare from their larders and their frugal savings for contribution towards the refugee fund. The spontaneity of such goodwill repeated at a subsequent event, the walk from Dondra to Jaffna, showed the mettle of the southerners and the humanity of their feelings for the destitute northerners, unsponsored and untutored by political mavericks. It is this quality of the outpouring of emotions of empathy that one must exploit to look to the future having wiped the slate clean.


It matters not which ethnic group came first to this country or which group has greater numbers or to what ethnic or religious grouping one belongs to. The spirit of the people ready to assist, build and have mutual respect and love for one another is what must be tapped to wipe the troubled past, wipe the slate clean.    The less we talk of our glorious past for divisive purposes the better.  All ethnic groups take pride in their culture and their past history but the need of the hour is to look forward and not to the past to build a united nation. Being afraid of electoral representation for the minorities is to deny the relevance of pluralism; one cannot deny the multiple ethnic composition in the demographic spread in this country and the need for electoral representation for each them. Let the country move away from the phobias that create divisiveness and promote destabilization within the country. Let us wipe the slate clean and move towards liberalism based on democratic principles.


Religion and cultural


effervescence


The four great religions in the world are practiced in this country.  No doubt many commonalities exist which can be utilized to bring people together rather compartmentalize them into race and religion and keep them in perpetual combative mode. Religion has longevity and requires no protective patronage from anyone. There has to be no fear of proselytization. If some convert to another faith, even if they be lured by worldly benefits to lift them out of the poverty trap, so be it. It is still their democratic right to make that choice. None need prevail upon them to act otherwise. Religions have an energy and vitality inherent in the respective teachings and we humans, who most of the time fail to live by the precepts of our faith cannot become presumptuous to think we can act as protectors of the faith.  This is not the prerogative of the clergy either. To wipe the slate clean it is necessary, first to remember to adopt the language of accommodation and open mindedness,of equality and ‘complementarity’ in racial and religious relationships. Such an attitude will lead us to our goals faster.


Second, we have to be humble and not think we can prop up religion by misquoting the ‘scriptures’ or by resorting to violence. Finally, let it be impressed upon everyone that the choice of religion and its sustainability rests on the faith of the individual and not the collective.


Devolution for power sharing


In the past, as it is today, policy makers and civil society have hallucinated over and over about appropriate forms of institutions for the active participation by the people at the periphery to become stakeholders in governance. Federalism was once considered an option - but only for a time; sections of the majority ethnic group objected vehemently to federalism. It was taken out of polite political parlance when in a calculated move ‘federalism’ was engineered to take the overtones of something insidious, that which will lead to the division of the country. Following on the heels of the war cry by the minority Tamils, the concept of Eelam came into the foreground which created real fears, this time not without reason, of the division of the country. The decimation of the Tigers in May 2009 has made the Eelam cry lose its potency; it has and will move into the realm of the past despite the attempts of the vested interests on both sides of the divide to keep it open as an option. It will remain there if misguided elements do not upset the situation by making ad hoc objections to the present constitutional provisions. In this the country must move forward and not regress. Wipe the slate clean.


Now the Provincial Councils, already a part of the constitution is the subject of acrimonious dialogue regardless of the fact that they have functioned outside the war zone for several years with the active participation of all the political parties, including those in the vanguard today in opposition to the system.  As with federalism and Eelam, the fear of bifurcation of the country has emerged along with many other illogical reasons adduced by interested players to make it ‘stink’. But it has to be remembered that fear based on suspicion and mistrust nurtured over the years create instability. At last the Tamil political leaders have said quite emphatically that they want to remain within the united Sri Lanka, their only interest in devolution confined to the need to manage their affairs within the present constitutional parameters.   Request for power sharing is an accepted premise; the political scientists and political activists consider it a rational demand by any minority. The argument is based on the principle of ‘subsidiarity’ which emphasizes the notion of allocating governmental functions among hierarchical government institutions in close proximity of the relevant ‘people’ usually downward on the hierarchical scale’. It is hoped that people close to the institutions will be keenly aware of their own needs while the relevant authorities concerned will be compelled to have greater accountability for their actions.


If the fears of the past, particularly the recent past, are removed and all concerned act in good faith and the slate is rubbed clean, it should be possible to bring about reconciliation sans the recriminations of the past. After much dialogue with grassroots participation, this is the conclusion that the LLRC also came up with.  People have suffered during the three decade war and none will be so foolish as to want a repetition of the same course of events. The government must move away from anger and hostility to reconciliation and rehabilitation in the North and East in order to be able to appease the ‘wounded’ people to forget the past and get on with their lives. Judging by the discussions of having former frontline LTTEers stand for elections in the North, it would seem that there is a 180 degree turn around. Whether these moves are prompted by political expediency or a genuine change of heart/tactics for reconciliation one will not know just yet.


The authorities have in another attempt at political prudence accepted Karuna, Pillayan and KP into government’s inner circle. These were all strongmen in the LTTE hierarchy. If trust can be thus built it is just another short step to allow the Provincial Councils to function as is laid out in the constitution and earn the goodwill of the people concerned. If the slate is wiped clean, it will be possible to deal with problems as and when they arise. There is never going to be a time free of contentious issues; the smartness of a government is judged by its ability to act fast and not leave room for a groundswell of problems.


When the government is slow to act various interested individuals try to create a niche for them in the public eye. The recent emergence of hate generating talk and violence against the minority Muslims is one obvious case. Much of the rousing speeches of provocation have been by monks whom the Buddha designated to spread the word of the Dhamma of love, compassion and tolerance.  What was spewed by the messengers of the faith and their cohorts have been totally contrary to the faith they intend to protect and propagate. This statement is based on the video clips available on the public domain on the attacks on Muslim economic interests. It is hoped that such events will not be permitted to happen again especially when the Minister of Justice is a leader of the ethnic Muslim community. Let’s us wipe the slate clean and begin our lives filled with love and clemency.


Let us also wipe the slate clean yet again by taking the decision to keep areas of earlier conflict free of obvious presence of the military so that the people in these areas will begin to think as one with the rest of the country knowing they are equal in status to others, that they are respected citizens as the others are and that they are not viewed as political criminals.  This will give the space and time for reuniting the country.   The same argument goes for establishing a civilian administration similar to the rest of the country. A recent article mentioned that an attempt is being made to model ourselves on Pakistan and Myanmar.  I don’t think anyone will wish us to go through what these countries have faced. Ultimately the turn of events in the countries referred to indicate people’s preference to democracy and an elective electoral process. Let none delude that excessive security arrangements ensures the security of the nation. It is only good faith and democratic practices that will deliver the security of the people and the government. Let us therefore once again wipe the slate clean and start afresh with goodwill towards all and astute judgments on governance.


Rule of law and Independent Media


There are two other pillars of society that needs to be canonized once again to permit fairplay to all the citizens in the country: the effective application of the Rule of Law and the Independence of the Media. As the former Ambassador Nanda Godage referred to in the Daily Mirror of May 16 titled ‘A thought for Judicial Reform’ there has been many instances of poor application of the rule of law for minor offences. His citations were of ‘pathetic’ instances but what he did not mention are instances of the lethal, deliberate miscarriage of justice.  Such instances are many, and are in the public domain and require no elaboration. It is a vital and compelling requirement to insist on the independence of the judiciary and the ‘administrators’ of the rule of law to wipe the slate clean and begin at the beginning with an independent judiciary and effective rule of law to secure the equal rights for the people including human rights of all the people. "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere," Martin Luther King noted.


The right to information can only be made available with an active investigative media, free and fearless to report its findings. "The press is or should be an important part of the governance structure, one of the checks and balances that make our system work."(Joseph Siglitz) Politicization and political interventions have crippled free reportage.  ‘Kept press’ was a derogatory term coming down the line for a long, long time.   This inimical condition to free unbiased reportage has a long history which unless it is rooted out will be a regretful and harmful episode in the democratic tradition in this country. This therefore has to be an important area where the slate has to be wiped clean. "Democracy has to be judged not just by the institutions that formally exist, but by the extent to which different voices from diverse sections of the people can actually be heard," said Amartya Sen. Do we hear a variety of voices?


If we can successfully keep the slate clean in the areas referred to, we should be able to build a society free of prejudice, mistrust and hate. A vibrant society will emerge liberated from petty preoccupations, the envy of other nations. Wiping the slate clean and starting anew may seem an idyllic lotus eaters terrain but it is good to dream of such things than contemplate on the vile events around us.  Dream on, positive vibes do bring positive results.

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