EXHALE EASTER WEEK HORRORS; INHALE NATION IN UNITY.

Life is full of hope and I am hoping that the worst is over and that we can look forward to resuscitate ourselves from the horrors we went through over the Easter weekend.

We cannot forget, yet, we must forget the death, debilitation and wanton destruction we were compelled to confront, one, for our peace of mind and two, to enable people to move on. It is imperative that we look forward to a more reconciled moment in history in the days to come. We have to unite across the diversity in race, religion, region and over cultural superiority concerns of one culture over the other, if, we are to live in amity, in permanent engagement with each other. Let us work towards the peaceful cohabitation for the wellbeing of all and towards the development of the nation.

We need our leaders to bear a strong sense of morality, their conduct, value based and their goals focused on the welfare of the people, not confined to personal agendas for political power play. Their concentration must be on the transformation of their role to its original intent, that of, service to the people. Overlooking this basic requirement is what contributed to the tragedy of the Easter week. Such lapses must not happen lest it contributes to similar fallout in other circumstances at other times too.

Service to the people is the important call on the leadership; it is indeed the reason why they have been placed where they are.   This includes the public service personnel who have an integral role to play in coordination with their respective Ministries.

A large majority of Sri Lankans live under stringent conditions; they do not have the resources to satisfy even their basic needs.  Their options in life remain limited.  Nevertheless, they too along with their leaders must learn the first lesson in life, that is, to distinguish between right and wrong as best as possible.  To effectively follow up on this, a good moral value system has to be made available to all.

The four main religions of the world are practiced in this country with ‘sound and fury’.  All religions are replete with advice and strictures on what is right and wrong, indeed on what is ethically acceptable. In the practice and the delivery we have missed the message of the proponents.  Religious luminaries, except for a few, have missed the trees for the woods. Much of the irregularities in the practice of religion has been condoned and religious leaders have got away with mayhem as the people remain in fear of their authority- “ours not to reason why; ours but to do and die.” This passive assertion has led to confusion and abuse in religious teachings.

This situation is partly due to the lackadaisical attitude of the clergy and the public. All pronouncements made from the pinnacle of authority remains unopposed, unquestioned. This situation has got worse, much too much with the emergence of the unhealthy mix of religion and politics exploited to serve the politician and the clergy. From the heights of objectivity there has been a nosedive into subjectivity and into the flow of personal interests. Politicians use religious leaders and religion in their interests while the religious leaders exploit the politician by and large to gain indulgence to themselves and to their faith.  Everyone and everything in society is in competition with one another and the patronage system has got entrenched. With patronage comes impunity and impunity is exploited to leverage all kinds of wrongdoing from minor omissions to major ones.  Added to this are the many faceted ‘splendors’ of money power which has in no uncertain terms contributed to corrupt society and individuals. Political power together with money power enables even the impossible to happen and thus society at all segments become corroded. We have had many instances in the past of this and the Easter week is yet another evidence of the combined effect of money and political power.

 It is perchance the arrogance of power and their privileged positions that made a travesty of international intelligence reports. The people, mostly the poor, paid dearly for this ‘oversight’. It becomes vital for the efficacy of good governance as well as an expression of our respect to the dead and the many injured in the terrorist attack, to review the checks and balances available to the democratic systems particularly the use of the tools of direct democracy like that of recall and plebiscite.  People will find it easier to gain greater control over their elected representatives and swiftly too; bribery and corruption will come under greater control and its spread reduced while elitism, privileges and abuse of the laws of the land can come under greater control from the public. 

Is it possible that our politicians are echoing Machiavelli’s wisdom “that the surest way to maintain one’s power over the people is to keep them poor and on a wartime footing”? To a large extent this is true of the Sri Lankan context, a sore point that must be dismantled. Much blood has flown in challenging this concept.  Politicians and political parties have chosen different issues to exploit on their political platform- ethnicity, religion, poverty, national security-that led to polarization. Conflict situations must be resolved at the earliest, not be allowed to fester and reach monumental proportion. People must be empowered with information to counter propaganda so as to understand the first principle that party polarization leads to poor delivery in strategies for development. In the October drama we faced in this country the timely verdict of the judiciary delivered us from chaos and abuse of power. This was democracy in action in its positive role in the interests of the people. Trust and goodwill has to be engineered within civic society cutting across the major divide among ethnic groups, the north south divide and the majoritarian superiority complex. Transparency and accountability need have a visual face through the effective operation of the Right to Information Act and independent agents of mass media.

Nothing can be effective or bring about change if people do not hold out high expectations and high moral standards from men and women who hold the strings of power. (Includes not only the politicians but the officials as well.)  This is the only hope for accommodation and peaceful cohabitation among the people. Each man and woman must stand up and be counted.   In the present context the Muslim community and their well -wishers have made their stand by apologizing to the nation for the actions of their misguided compatriots from the same faith. They too live in fear and pain for the needless loss of life.  Who will console them?  Perhaps the politicians’ commitment to honesty, integrity, accountability and morality may result in allowing this battered country to be truly plural breathing the air of freedom fearlessness and life without fear.