{"id":103491,"date":"2013-09-03T18:59:34","date_gmt":"2013-09-03T13:29:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=103491"},"modified":"2013-09-07T13:36:18","modified_gmt":"2013-09-07T08:06:18","slug":"the-postwar-discourse-the-new-sri-lankan-identity-how-can-we-have-a-just-peace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-postwar-discourse-the-new-sri-lankan-identity-how-can-we-have-a-just-peace\/","title":{"rendered":"The Postwar Discourse &#038; The New Sri Lankan Identity: How Can We Have A Just Peace?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Godfrey+Gunatilleke&amp;x=7&amp;y=7\">Godfrey Gunatilleke<\/a><\/span> &#8211;<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_101746\" style=\"width: 136px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/long-war-cold-peace-revaluation-of-the-past-and-reconciliation\/godfrey-gunatilleke\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-101746\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-101746\" class=\"size-full wp-image-101746\" title=\"Godfrey Gunatilleke\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Godfrey-Gunatilleke.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"126\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-101746\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dr Godfrey Gunatilleke<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The last part of the background note\u00a0 prepared for the first session of the Marga Institute\u2019s panel discussion on \u2018Long War, Cold Peace\u2019 contained\u00a0 the conceptual framework which\u00a0 Dr <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Dayan+Jayatilleka&amp;x=12&amp;y=8\">Jayatilleka<\/a><\/span> uses for his assessment\u00a0 of what he describes as\u00a0 the post war crisis \u2013 \u201c the\u00a0 cold peace\u201d on which he focuses in Chapters 3,\u00a0 4 and 5 of his book.\u00a0 A war which he argues was fundamentally just for the reasons he has given is followed by a peace which is flawed by \u201cthe delay or inability &#8230; to make\u00a0 the transition to a stable and\u00a0 just framework for durable peace and successful nation building.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This formulation of the conditions of peace gives us the point of entry to our discussion. The author closely examines the nature of the post war crisis. He goes on to analyze the manifold character of the crisis, distinguishing five major components of the crisis. He then elicits what we might identify as the<em> five fundamentals of peace and nation \u2013building<\/em>.\u00a0 He does this in the chapters 3, 4, and 5 and distinguishes five major components of the crisis which he highlights in the overview he provides in Chapter 1 \u201cThe Lessons of the Thirty Years War. These components contain the main issues pertaining to a just peace. Let us recapitulate the main elements of this conceptual frame (which we reproduced in the note for the first session).<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>First, \u201cthe crisis of national unification &#8211; reconciling and reunifying the different identities into an overarching macro identity \u2013 that of being Sri Lankan.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Second the inability to make\u201d the transition to a state that is neutral as between the constituent communities and with capacity to mediate between them\u201d.<\/li>\n<li>Third the crisis of public policy arising out of the war \u2013 the depletion of resources to health, education, public transport and infrastructure.<\/li>\n<li>The fourth the party system as a whole and the democratic opposition in particular.<\/li>\n<li>Fifth the crisis of transition and transformation which he argues is at least in part the post war discourse.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These are the strategic issues we need to address. The five facets of the crisis are as it were integral parts of a pentagon.\u00a0 We can use this structure to locate where we are at present and the spaces that have to be covered if we are to achieve a just peace. There is a resonance in the chapter on \u201cLessons of the Thirty Years War\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The book is complementary to the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission and its report.\u00a0 \u00a0It is in this context that the authors book \u201cThe Long War, Cold Peace\u201d comes to us. The\u00a0 <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=LLRC&amp;x=8&amp;y=3\">LLRC<\/a><\/span>\u00a0 calls\u00a0 for a shared vision \u201c of an interdependent, just equitable open and diverse society based\u00a0 on the acknowledgement of loss and suffering\u00a0\u00a0 on the values of empathy and solidarity\u201d The Commission\u00a0 emphasizes that \u201crelationship &#8211; building between communities , addressing issues of lack of trust prejudice and intolerance\u2026\u2026is the essence of reconciliation\u201d .<\/p>\n<p>Dr Jayatilleka\u2019s narrative and analysis tells us\u00a0\u00a0 how difficult it is to develop such a shared vision. He gives us a realistic appraisal of the hard political and institutional barriers that have to be overcome. He calls for unequivocal political and moral judgments and commitments in our adjustment to the past &#8211; a clear recognition the fascist totalitarian terrorist character of the <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=LTTE&amp;x=10&amp;y=5\">LTTE<\/a><\/span> and the essentially just purpose of the war waged to eliminate terrorism. He pleads that the post war discourse must be based on a foundation of political and moral clarity if we are to address the post war crisis and achieve a just peace that is durable.<\/p>\n<p>Let us briefly examine the approach taken by Dr Jayatilleka on each component of the crisis.\u00a0 In Chapter 5 he analyses the central role that ethno- nationalism has played in rupturing the unifying national identity that was emerging at the time of independence. He describes the Ceylon National Congress as a rainbow coalition &#8212; multi ethnic, multi-religious, multi-cultural, multi- caste. Most analysts \u00a0\u00a0have pointed to this fragile formation during the colonial period, a unifying Ceylonese consciousness. The <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Donoughmore&amp;x=4&amp;y=6\">Donoughmore<\/a><\/span> and <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Soulbury&amp;x=11&amp;y=5\">Soulbury<\/a><\/span> Commission saw this Ceylonese identity as the foundation of the new nation state that they were helping to form. For these colonial constitution makers ethnicity was the greatest obstacle to nation-building. The Ceylonese society must rid itself of its \u201ccommunalism\u201d; ethnic identities must be removed from the political arena; a new secular civic identity must take its place. This nation-building exercise which the Colonial rulers attempted was conducted within a paradigm which governed their own thinking and which ordered their own polities and societies \u2013 the liberal secular paradigm that gave birth to the secular state and multi-party democracy. However the recipe that\u00a0\u00a0 Donoughmore and Soulbury provided was indigestible in the Asian and Sri Lankan context. Both ethnicity and religion were central to the paradigm which governed and ordered the Sri Lankan society<strong>.\u00a0 <\/strong>Given these circumstances what the democratic institutions that the British rulers introduced into the country succeeded in doing was to enable the Sinhala identity to assert its political and cultural hegemony and in effect usurp the national identity.\u00a0 The Tamil people, who up to that time had defined their ethnic identity as a minority in a bid to share power at the centre, reacted by assuming a more assertive ethno \u2013national identity with aspirations for greater autonomy in their habitats.\u00a0 From a minority fighting for their rights as equal citizens in a united Sri Lanka as envisaged by the Soulbury Commission they were transformed into a nationality seeking autonomy for a homeland.<\/p>\n<p>Dr Jayatilleka\u2019s places the rise of ethno- nationalism in Sri Lanka in its\u00a0 global context\u00a0 and\u00a0 explains how the ethno- nationalist phenomenon\u00a0 has had a fissiparous impact of a far reaching character on the whole process\u00a0 of nation-building and state formation \u00a0\u2013 the two major facets of the\u00a0 Sri\u00a0 Lankan crisis. Dr Jayatilleka\u2019s analysis however shows that we cannot retrace our steps back to a civic identity, free of ethnicity. We need to construct \u201can inclusive stable successful Sri Lankan identity,\u201d an identity which recognizes our diversity and multi-ethnicity and contains them within an overarching Sri Lankan identity. The question \u201cWhat does it mean to be a Sri Lankan?\u201d has the vitally important corollary \u201cto whom does Sri Lanka belong?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He goes on to state that the idea that\u00a0 Sri Lanka is \u201c a country that belongs and must be\u00a0 ruled by an ethno-religious or ethno-lingual majority, is something that will have to be transcended if we are\u00a0 to heal and progress as a country and a people.\u201d The final pronouncement is clear and unequivocal.\u00a0 Sri Lanka belongs not to the few as in the time of the pre-independence Ceylonese elite, not to the many as in the hegemonic and majoritarian Buddhist and Sinhala model that followed. Sri Lanka belongs to all.<\/p>\n<p>He goes on to state that the \u201cThe idea of the equality of citizenship, that Sri Lanka belongs equally to all of its citizens\u201d is the bedrock on which the national identity has to be structured\u00a0\u00a0 and must rest The author\u2019s analysis shows us how difficult and yet how necessary it is to get to that process of \u201chealing and progress\u201d. The question, then, is how do we construct such an identity? How do we reach to that bedrock? The richness and sensitivity of Dr Jayatilleka\u2019s language reaches with empathy to the innermost fears and distrusts of both parties.\u00a0 He dissects the two \u201c national consciousnesses\u201d- Tamil and Sinhala- and depicts on the one hand the deep rooted sense of alienation in the Tamil community under a democratic dispensation\u00a0 where the Sinhala majority is permanently in power and the Tamils in a permanent minority ; on the other hand he draws our attention to the \u00a0apprehensions and suspicions of the Sinhala people, their intense sense of ownership of the only\u00a0 piece of earth where the Sinhala language is spoken,\u00a0 the\u00a0 oppressive overhang of separation and division\u00a0 of the country, their\u00a0 atavistic dread of the threat from the North\u00a0 both internal and external \u2013 an autonomous North\u00a0 and a belligerent Tamilnadu.\u00a0 The author recreates the two national consciousnesses and the intractable problems they present to any post war effort to forge an overarching inclusive national identity based on the premise that Sri Lanka belongs equally to all of its citizens.<\/p>\n<p>Dr Jayatilleka examines the other parts of the crisis and shows us how difficult it is for us to accomplish these tasks with all the burdens of our past. These other parts of the crisis- the crisis of the state, the crisis of the party system are tightly linked to the issue of national identity. For us to achieve an inclusive Sri Lankan identity, the state has to be a state which holds the scales between the different communities, a state that is neutral and can mediate between them. The Western countries grappled with this problem in the context of religious diversity and solved it with the concept of a secular state. With it came the separation of religion from politics and from political power. While this model may have some relevance for the issues arising from the <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Sinhala+Buddhist&amp;x=6&amp;y=7\">Sinhala Buddhist<\/a><\/span> ethos, our fundamental problem is not religious identities but ethnic identities, and ethnic identities pose a more formidable challenge.<\/p>\n<p>Dr Jayatilleka discusses the solutions that are being offered \u2013 the unitary state, devolution provided in the <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=13th+Amendment&amp;x=7&amp;y=3\">13<sup>th<\/sup> amendment<\/a><\/span>, the Indian quasi- federal linguistic model, the US full federal model. He then considers the various positions that are taken in the prevailing post war discourse on power sharing and focuses on the three major variants.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c The predominant\u00a0 if invisible subterranean perspective in the state and Southern Sinhala society seems to be that Tamil separatism should not only be uprooted but that the soil in which its seeds germinated should be upturned\u2026\u201d This perspective leads to a unitary state with a diluted 13th amendment or no 13<sup>th<\/sup> amendment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c There is a contrary view \u2026 that Tamil separatism can be pre-empted only by a more liberal approach which goes beyond the 13<sup>th<\/sup> amendment to explore federal or quasi- federal alternatives\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The author rejects both these positions and opts for what he describes as a \u201crealist approach\u201d for re -structuring the state. It\u00a0 combines three elements (a)\u00a0 the essential\u00a0 security measures for safeguarding territorial integrity and national sovereignty ( b) the fullest powers of devolution within the unitary state under our present constitution with the\u00a0 13<sup>th<\/sup> amendment\u00a0 undiluted and\u00a0 (c)\u00a0 improvement on the human rights and humanitarian fronts.\u00a0 He argues that given the continuing threat of the separatist agenda, the aspirations that have been articulated by the TNA, and the regional and international pressures, it is this combination that offers the best pathway for moving forward towards a just peace.<\/p>\n<p>The third facet of the crisis is the socio-economic part \u2013 what might be regarded as the development dimension of the crisis. Although this policy dimension does not come within the scope of Dr Jayatilleka\u2019s book he draws attention to the socio-economic crisis resulting from the devastation caused by the war, the enormous loss of physical and human capital. It is important to keep this in mind.\u00a0 Making good the losses that have occurred over a thirty year period and bringing the North and East into the mainstream of human development is vital for peace, reconciliation and national unity. But at the same time the development dimension must not be perceived as a substitute for addressing the other fundamentals of peace and reconciliation.<\/p>\n<p>The \u00a0\u00a0fourth crisis that Dr Jayatilleka identifies is the crisis of the party system. His account of recurrent policy failures of political parties both when they came to power as well as when they were in the opposition is a truly appalling record. While these failures were partly failures of leadership they also derived from deep seated flaws in the system of party politics as it has evolved in our democracy. Dr Jayatilleka\u2019s analysis must be read with the critique of Sri Lanka\u2019s party politics made by the LLRC.\u00a0 The LLRC points to the highly adversarial character of Sri Lankan politics which creates conditions in which consensus on national issues of overriding importance become impossible. Both the analysis in Dr Jayatilleka\u2019s book and the LLRC report\u00a0 demonstrate that there is need for\u00a0 the parties to undertake a radical self appraisal\u00a0\u00a0 and make systemic\u00a0 changes\u00a0 in the present system\u00a0 to ensure\u00a0 political accountability\u00a0 and give substance to the concept of\u00a0 the sovereignty of the people . This has to be an essential condition of the post war political dispensation\u00a0\u00a0 to achieve \u201ca just peace.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The final component in Dr Jayatilleka\u2019s framework is the crisis of transition and transformation. This crisis is, in part, the sum total of the other four crises. The total process of transformation subsumes the transformations that are envisaged in the other four parts. But over and above the substantive elements of the crisis, the overarching crisis lies in the nature of the post war discourse on issues of war and peace.\u00a0 Here, Dr Jayatilleka reverts to the theses with which he commenced. He argues that we need to gain a full understanding of the nature of the thirty year war and emphasizes that the post war discourse must move to a just peace based on the recognition that the war was just.\u00a0 Dr Jayatilleka\u00a0 insists\u00a0 that there has to be agreement on certain\u00a0 fundamentals regarding the\u00a0 war,\u00a0 the character of the LTTE ,the inevitability of the\u00a0 war , the action of the state to protect\u00a0 national sovereignty and territorial integrity,\u00a0 if we are to rewrite the political contract with the Tamil community that would\u00a0 ensure a stable and just peace.<\/p>\n<p>At this point we need to recall some of\u00a0\u00a0 the observations made during the first session of the Marga Institute\u2019s Panel discussion on Dr Jayatilleka\u2019s book. There was agreement in regard to the necessity and inevitability of the war but many participants demurred at the use of the term \u201cjust war\u201d. There was a concern that it might contain an element of insensitivity to the immense suffering of the Tamil people\u00a0\u00a0 particularly those who inhabited the battleground over the long thirty year war.\u00a0 Some participants\u00a0 called for a\u00a0 discourse that\u00a0 conveyed an awareness of\u00a0 that suffering ,of\u00a0 the need for\u00a0 collective\u00a0 atonement\u00a0 and\u00a0 mutual\u00a0 forgiving , thereby drawing\u00a0 on the\u00a0 values\u00a0 that informed the\u00a0 LLRC\u00a0 chapter\u00a0 on reconciliation. Here the participants were introducing a dimension which is not explicit in Dr Jayatilleka\u2019s approach. However his scrutiny of events and actions are always through a sharply focused moral and ethical lens. What we encounter here\u00a0 is the\u00a0 inherent dilemma\u00a0 of reconciling\u00a0 an ethos of compassion which is all inclusive\u00a0 as in the conclusion of the Mahabharatha with\u00a0 the clarity and realism\u00a0 of\u00a0 Krishna in the battlefield.<\/p>\n<p>How then do we purify\u00a0 the language of\u00a0 our\u00a0 post- war discourse\u00a0 to\u00a0 make it fully inclusive , to\u00a0 promote reconciliation and peace\u00a0 and\u00a0 move towards\u00a0 the over arching Sri Lankan identity\u00a0 ?\u00a0 How\u00a0\u00a0 do we move away from the litany of mutual recrimination, the pejorative overtones, and the language of hate the accents of\u00a0\u00a0 anger and distrust that are part of our current discourse?\u00a0 Part of the answer\u00a0 lies\u00a0 in the framework\u00a0 of values\u00a0 and language of\u00a0 the LLRC report &#8211;\u00a0 the\u00a0\u00a0 language of empathy and solidarity , the\u00a0 values of atonement , forgiveness\u00a0 and reconciliation. The LLRC directs us\u00a0 to the core\u00a0 spiritual values , the ethical and moral centre\u00a0\u00a0 shared\u00a0 by the four great religions\u00a0 that\u00a0 have found a home\u00a0\u00a0 in Sri Lanka and\u00a0 identify\u00a0 them as major resource for developing the\u00a0 overarching Sri Lankan identity.<\/p>\n<p>The discussions in the first session also questioned the wisdom of an approach which attempts to seek consensus and write a single story of our past. There is no one single story, no sole angle of vision on the path we have travelled.\u00a0 The post war discourse must provide space for the plurality and diversity of the Sri Lankan situation and the sharing of experiences and recollections within that plurality. To illumine the reality, the spotlight must come from different directions. There can be one text but it has to be a text which reflects a shared understanding of our plurality. Dr Jayatilleka\u2019s approach takes account of this plurality and makes space for it. What he is passionately opposed to is the moral and political equivocation that denies the real character of the actors\u00a0\u00a0 and distorts the perception of what happened.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, the post war discourse which Dr Jayatilleka envisages is one which must address the strategic issues related to the five crises. The discourse that develops around these crises and the related issues is also the process that will help in forming the new Sri Lankan identity.<\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;\">*Godfrey Gunatilleke is founder and Chairman Emeritus of the Marga Institute<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":101746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Postwar Discourse &amp; The New Sri Lankan Identity: How Can We Have A Just Peace? 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