By Siri Gamage –

Dr. Siri Gamage

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake highlighted the need for “a new value system” in the country while addressing the 75th birth felicitation ceremony for Rev. Omalpe Sobhita. This is a point that he has been reiterating since he assumed duties and even earlier. Another point he mentioned was that the society and its institutions have deteriorated to such an extent that it is not possible to move forward as a nation and country without reforming these.  Consumerist values have encroached the minds of all. However, it is not an easy task to create and inculcate a new value system as such. The government alone cannot introduce a new value system to create a new civilisation.

Identifying a New Value system and Why we Need it?

What we need to understand is that values do not exist in a vacuum. They exist in an economic, political, social and cultural context. They are produced by society and maintained by it too. Powerful forces and institutions in society reproduce them in demarcated areas. This applies to good and bad values equally.

In any effort to create new values, the first task is to identify what the new values are and should be? Also, why we need such a system? As sociologists when we were teaching at the department of sociology, University of Peradeniya in the 80s, this was a subject under discussion with students. As we saw the expanding free market economy and its impact on the behaviour of children, youths and others we realised that the new consumerist values encompassing the society were not in the best interest of the society and human well-being. They were not in line with the traditional cultural values embraced by many.

The inflated value given to money, material wealth and external appearance while setting aside all other values that bind people together as a community or society was not in the best interests of families, communities or society at large. The main reasons for consumerist values and their expansion is the free market economy and globalisation.  With liberalisation of rules and regulations to assist new enterprises – often operated with foreign capital and other resources- has gone too far to the extent that society is corrupted by culturally incompatible and socially destructive values and practices.

The media including new media have a role to play in promoting old values or new values.

Religious and other civil society organisations also have a role to play in maintaining or reforming good, bad and worse values. Political leaders also have a role to play. Even more important, educational leaders need to play a critical role to identify and prepare a framework for new values but also to transmit them through teaching.

Need for a Broader Ethical Framework

For government institutions and corporations there has to be an ethical framework that respects human needs and aspirations on one hand and human well-being on the other. This can involve thoughts on human rights and responsibilities as citizens.

Many organisations in modern societies have Codes of conduct for employees. They need to reflect the new value system once identified.

The government in consultation with civic leaders in particular religious leaders need to come up with a strategy to identify new values suitable for the country and mechanism to promote them to the emerging generations.

The values that are desirable for an organically interlinked society and progress are already there in the society.  Some civil society organisations are involved in promoting them one way or another. Lessons have to be learned from the proponents.

Mechanism for Identifying and Promoting New values

This is very important. It is here that the government has to play a role in identify a set of religious leaders, academics, civil society activists, private sector entities from whom a Commission can be set up to investigate and prepare a values and ethical framework. The total number has to be around 10.

Some guidelines for this task need to be provided including a time frame. People should be encouraged to contact the commission with ideas and suggestions within a reasonable time frame.

The task of this commission should be to examine the suggestions and collate them into a single document along with recommendations. Once draft recommendations ae prepared, the commission can send them for further comment from various civic organisations before finalising.

Once finalised, they ought to be given cabinet approval and resources allocated to print the new values and distribute to schools, pirivenas, government and private sector institutions, media and the society at large with a request to utilise the new values in day to day living and working.

Unfortunately, without such concrete mechanism, it will not be possible to make a new value system a reality.