{"id":112164,"date":"2013-10-29T04:24:21","date_gmt":"2013-10-28T22:54:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=112164"},"modified":"2013-11-04T03:17:22","modified_gmt":"2013-11-03T21:47:22","slug":"a-haunted-nation-the-ccnh-document","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/a-haunted-nation-the-ccnh-document\/","title":{"rendered":"A Haunted Nation: The CCNH Document"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

By\u00a0Rajan Hoole<\/a>\u00a0–<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Rajan Hoole<\/p><\/div>\n

Sri Lanka: A Haunted Nation –\u00a0The Social Underpinnings Of Communal Violence<\/strong>–\u00a0Part 4<\/strong><\/p>\n

Another important contribution towards fudging the issue, whitewashing the Gov- ernment and putting much of the blame\u00a0on the victims themselves, was the document issued by the Citizens\u2019 Committee for National Harmony (CCNH). This group comprised sev- eral of Colombo\u2019s best known intellectuals of the day including Fr. Tissa Balasuriya and Godfrey Goonetilleke (see Some Impressions of 1983, Cen- tre for Society and Religion, Dossier No. 103 of 1st November 1984). Some extracts follow:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe violence no doubt began in reaction to the senseless and brutal killing of 13 soldiers in the North. That act itself inevitably provoked the moral indignation of the people, the Sinhala majority in particular and aroused widespread sympathy for the families who had to bear the cruel loss. But what was more tragic was that this indignation against the cruelty of terrorists had to find expression in far greater and more irrational violence against the innocent and defenceless Tamil community in the South…<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth communities must share the blame for the processes which have inexorably taken them in the direction of violence and counter-violence… The vast majority of the Sinhalese who deplored the savage violence were rendered helpless by the almost total collapse of law and order, which enabled well- organised aggressive groups of attackers to act freely…<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough the Government has acted with com- mendable speed in re-establishing normal conditions after the disruption and loss caused by recent events, there is still a deep sense of insecurity and widespread fear that communal violence can erupt anytime…<\/p>\n

\u201cThe action of the Government in outlawing sepa- ratism has helped to allay the fears of the Sinhalese majority regarding the division of the country…<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important to note that the majority of ac- tive participants in recent acts of violence belonged to a very young age group…[and hence a need for those in authority and the religious leaders to devote more resources in teaching them sound values.]<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was evident that there was some element of organisation and planning behind the violence, that supporters of all political parties participated in the lawless acts and that in many instances the security forces were not prompt in restoring law and order…<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe self-appraisal and reorientation of attitudes and perceptions must go hand-in-hand with a re- sponse of the Tamil community which clearly disso- ciates from the violence in the North and from the politics of separatism. There must be an explicit com- mitment to a united Sri Lanka in which the problems of a multi-racial society can find a just solution…\u201d<\/p>\n

It stated some truths and then blurred them to exonerate the Government. The problem was primarily identified with the violence of Tamil separatism, \u2018which inevitably provoked the moral indignation\u2019 of the Sinhalese, causing some of the young with insufficient moral or religious education to go on the loose. The lack of historical perspective is evident in that the violence seemingly recognised as more brutal, provocative and deserving of strong moral in- dignation was that of Tamil militants. This be- comes apparent in the CCNH\u2019s tacit endorse- ment of Jayewardene\u2019s line on the 6th Amend- ment. It was in effect singling out the Tamils for punishment by making it impossible for their representatives to remain in Parliament. There was little or no recognition of the history of state repression. The Tamils who had been beaten prostrate were being given a sermon to eschew separatism and work for a just solution within a united Sri Lanka, while the CCNH were wishy- washy on the kind of just solution they would support.<\/p>\n

An editorial comment on the belated meet- ing on 19th August 1983 of several NGOs and religious figures, including the CCNH, which played a leading role, to discuss the crisis, ap- peared in the Island of 23rd August:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe leaders of religious organisations and what are called the \u201cNon-Governmental-Organisations\u201d in the current vogue, have finally emerged from their hibernation to express horror and condemn the shame- ful and ugly events which have been sweeping the land from the night of July 24th.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile their words of counsel can have a salu- tary effect on public attitudes and thinking at this time, we cannot however refrain from wondering how much more effective they would have been if they had spoken out earlier when the fires were raging as well as before they actually burst out. Part of the reason for the present national crisis as we have already pointed out in these columns…has been the failure of responsible sections of opinion and the intelligentsia to anticipate and target events which occurred and put forward viable proposals for a resolution of the national question…\u201d<\/p>\n

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On the last, these leaders were generally non- commital, and the delay only because the vio- lence was not initiated from below, but rather by people from their own social circle whom they were comfortable with and went to for favours.<\/p>\n

To be continued..<\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

*<\/strong>From\u00a0Rajan Hoole<\/a><\/span>\u2018s \u201cSri Lanka: Arrogance of Power<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0– Myth, Decadence and Murder\u201d.\u00a0Thanks\u00a0to Rajan for\u00a0giving\u00a0us\u00a0permission to republish. To read\u00a0<\/em>earlier parts click\u00a0here<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":96860,"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-112164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\nA Haunted Nation: The CCNH Document - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/a-haunted-nation-the-ccnh-document\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Haunted Nation: The CCNH Document - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/a-haunted-nation-the-ccnh-document\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-10-28T22:54:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-11-03T21:47:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Rajan.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"94\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"110\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/a-haunted-nation-the-ccnh-document\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/a-haunted-nation-the-ccnh-document\/\",\"name\":\"A Haunted Nation: The CCNH Document - 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