The present government must keep in focus that it was elected primarily for its agenda to promote good governance practices of which national reconciliation was and is an important component. Sri Lanka having emerged from a 30 year war is compelled to take effective steps to resolve the issues that brought about the conflict, the non -resolution of which led to the protracted war between the State and the minority communities.

To avoid the recurrence of hostilities, processes must be put in place that will cement ‘security, identity and social bonding’ amongst the people in all parts of the country. Hence the urgency to craft a methodology to bring about greater understanding and tolerance for the concepts of pluralism and cohabitation cannot be underestimated.

In the initial stages in peace making the first step to be taken may be to remove tensions resulting from racial and religious prejudices even as priority is given for greater economic and social equality. To anchor these strategies, it will be prudent to have effective legal systems in place that will strengthen the law and order profile of the country.

There is no doubt that too often the best laid plans for peace negotiations have gone astray because leaders, representing various power centers have over the years become alienated from the mindset of the people whom they represent. In the South there is a tendency amongst the southern politicians to evoke the ghost of the past relating to the security fears (the LTTE) of the Southern people.

On the other hand the politicians representing the minorities appear to pursue their personal agendas through the exploitation of the emotive issues –right to self-determination, homelands, Tamil national identity and Tamil culture, threat of genocide – far removed from the immediate concerns and aspirations of the war affected, war weary people.

Keep it Within the Perimeters of What is Good and Moral

There are claims that many programs for the development of the war affected regions have been and/or are undertaken presently by the government, private investments and NGOs. The public are aware that lands wherever possible were and are in the process of being released to the former owners, that houses are being built, that garment and hotels industry have entered the development scene, that efforts to restore defunct corporations to resume operations are in the pipeline, and that perhaps much more had been completed or are in the process of being undertaken.

Sadly, much of the program details reach the public piecemeal or not at all.  Being unaware of the extent of the work done an attempt is made in this paper to highlight possible areas crying for swift action, many of them not beyond the capacity of the authorities to implement them swiftly.  This will help to ease tensions in the North and East and help restore faith in the genuineness of the peace efforts by the government.

To utilize to the maximum the available peace space, leaders who can command the respect and the imagination of the people must be brought to the forefront. The credo for the program has to be packaged within the perimeters of what is good and moral. Leaders must aspire to win the confidence of at least a majority of the people within all the camps and the evidence of their success will be demonstrated by the enthusiasm with which people support selected policies/strategies.

Areas for Intervention

There is nothing new or innovative in the areas listed belong for intervention. It is a mere highlighting of known processes.

In the book (Why Nations Fail) the authors conclude that a nation’s progress does not depend on the geography, climate, religion or culture of the state but that it is merely co-related to the choice its leaders make between inclusive politics – people focused – and extractive politics – focused to benefit individual leaders.  Inclusive politics it would seem is the only option for any nation.

Empathy Favoured Environment

Before any policy decisions are taken it is essential that an environment for reconciliation, trust and compassion is established to create confidence in the minds of all the people in the country. There must be confidence that:

  • Democratic practices will be upheld.
  • Constitution will be sacrosanct and will not be tampered with to accommodate temporary, intermittent demands of the moment.
  • Legal system gives equality of status to all with no exceptions to the rule.

Anti-corruption strategies must be patently dominant. The corollary to this is that power and wealth too must bow down before the law.  The prevalent culture of violence and partners in crime between the powerful and the underworld can find no niche within the community.

Ethnic tensions should be a thing of the past and cohabitation within the country  to remain the key slogan for the people.

Policy announcements should be made only if the background for the implementation is made. A credibility gap between the announcement of policy and its implementation must be avoided.

Once these features are convincingly established the societal pillars of   justice and fairness will get entrenched; the time to build for a stable future will not be far; the confidence of the people in the process of reconciliation and reconstruction can be restored.

Areas for Intervention Employment

In a cash strapped context, for a start, avenues for skill training matched with available employment have to be pursued.  Many who were engaged in combat are without jobs, a number of them were enlisted to fight when they were very young. These individuals are neither young nor do they have education or any other noteworthy skill training. They have to be viewed as a category that calls for speedy remedial attention so that frustration will not make them to take to the gun for easy escape routes.

War widows, women who have become head of their households when their men folk were either killed in the war or had migrated to other countries- all require to be targeted and policies and strategies sought to provide employment.

A more serious social problem related to lack of livelihood appears to have pushed some women into commercial sexual activities.  This has to be clearly verified and quick action taken to prevent already ‘hurt’ women from being further ostracized by society for anti-social behavior, true or imaginary. This trend, if it is true is bad news from both the ethical point of view and the cultural pedestal on which women have been placed within Tamil culture.

Young girls who are school leavers require further training in selected areas to fit into the employment opportunities available in the prevailing job market. Most of them do not have hopes of securing tertiary education while many are not interested having been left helpless after the war:

Under these circumstances it is imperative that short term courses are introduced so that young girls can be trained and/or the courses be used as a stepping stone to follow further studies. Investments that will create more jobs must be brought in.

 Education

Education has also been the backbone of aspirations of the Tamil ethnic minority.  In the resource dry area of the North, Tamils put their total energies into educating their children and with this perspective in mind the Jaffna education authorities included Sinhala into the Jaffna school curriculum. Sinhala was taught in all schools in Jaffna by choice. But when the Official Language bill was passed it was considered an act of discrimination against the Tamils. Consequently, Sinhala was removed from the curriculum and Sinhala as the official language under pressure was rejected. The Muslim minority on the other hand had no problems with learning Sinhala and it has today paid dividends to them as many of the young men and women are holding lucrative positions in the country. Being trilingual has not in any way shrunk their ethnic identity.

 To upgrade the standard of schools it may be necessary to –

Document and list the status of schools in terms of spread, teacher/pupil ratio, facilities available vis a vis science-teaching and laboratory facilities, computer technology, sports grounds and equipment, desks/chairs, toilet facilities.

  1. For a start one school per village can be selected and upgraded. This cycle to follow every year with additional schools brought into the loop. The target is to have all schools upgraded uniformly within a specified time bind.
  2. Teaching of English as a link language should be treated as a special category. Amalgamate a group of schools within an area and concentrate on teaching English conducted by proficient teachers. This would look after the problem of shortage of English teachers as well.
  3. Upgrade libraries with books in popular literary works, computer literacy, science and maths books with the latest teaching methods.
  4. Set up computer centres with access for students to familiarize themselves with computer usage.
  5. Coaching for cricket, tennis, football, swimming etc., to participate in national tournaments and inter regional friendly matches. This will help in the bonding process.
  6. Teach Sinhalese to access public service and be attuned with national aspirations. Knowledge of Sinhalese will facilitate the concept of equal opportunities and facilitate merit based recruitment strengthening faith in meritocracy.

 Health Outreach Programs

  1. To reach out to those who are in areas where medical facilities are inadequate or are not within easy access monthly or half yearly outreach clinics to gauge the health standards of the community should be encouraged.
  2. Clinics to counsel trauma cases following the war. Health field-workers have to be used to locate persons in need of counseling.

 Social problems

There are problems  arising from the availability of easy money transferred to the kith and kin of the diaspora which include the disinclination of youth to engage in productive economic activity,  increased drug use  among the young and alcoholism.

The diaspora must be persuaded to utilize monies on well thought out projects beneficial to the community or to selected individuals.

 Impact of Diaspora – the Negative Aspects.

Apart from the above mentioned problems diaspora has had a negative impact on the people of the country.  Living in the comfort and security of the country of domicile they tend to draw their identity from linking to the country of origin and speaking for the people from a narrow position shrouded in a time warp.  Having moved away for economic reasons and/or due to the war the time lag has put them out of sync with conditions within the country.

Encourage irresponsible emotive appeal to Tamil ‘superiority’ derived from claims to the language and culture of Tamil ‘ancient regimes’.

Actively promote concepts of Tamil Eelam, LTTE heroism, possibility of a return to violence to secure rights of Tamils.

Siphoning monies to individuals without planning for constructive projects assessing needs and wants of the people.

Providing strength to some leaders who have direct links to the diaspora to question and threaten the sovereignty of the State. The sources of their strength are their financial potential and their links to international political power centres.

The Diaspora has become a destabilizing rather than a stabilizing force.  The Diaspora ideally, should be able to use its monies and technical know-how to strengthen the development fabric of the North and the East, which would be a positive contribution. At its worst, their empathy cord detracts from integration and cohesive living within a united conflict free nation.

 Agriculture, Industry and Youth

Agriculture has to be integral to policy for development of the people in the post conflict area. Choice cattle for breeding and for milk production must form a part of the agricultural policy for the area as well as for the country as a whole. Some of these will help in integrating the communities through trade in agricultural and milk products.

The GDP growth of the region should be increased through investments in industries, small and medium enterprises. Internal and external trade channels can then be opened up.

There should be well thought out criteria to empower youth for leadership roles in politics, social and economic matters relevant to the area. Encourage people to think in the context of an interconnected world and of the need to infuse thinking in terms of nation and unity, reconciliation and integration within a plural society. Abort thoughts leading to divisiveness and the generation of hate. Positive thinking on identity that do not bring the communities into collusion with the rest of the people but create environment and thought processes for cohesiveness within the nation while encouraging other identities of race and religion.

What the country needs is to put in process what is called the “interactive conflict reduction”; that is to facilitate genuine dialogue and conflict analysis of a ‘mutual interactive nature’. The country is left with very few options – we follow them or disintegrate.