We can draw a lot of inspiration from the western world.

(Paper presented by the Writer, Director, Research, Serendib Institute of Research & Development, SIRD –Sri Lanka at Parliamentary Campaign meeting held at British Parliament on 19th Oct.2009 Monday organised by Alliance for Peace and Reconciliation in Sri Lanka (APRSL) on the theme of ‘Post war Sri Lanka: Peace & Reconciliation – A way forward’)

By Riza Yehiya

(October 21, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) First of all, I thank Allah the Beneficent and Merciful for enabling me to participate in this forum and thank the APRSL for inviting me here this evening. We are gathered here today as a Sri Lankan Diaspora to find a way forward to Peace and Reconciliation in our country after three decades of war.

We all consider that peace and reconciliation is the need of the hour in our society.

Before going further into my presentation, I wish to quote Mansoob Murshed, a Scholar of Peace & Social Studies in the Hague, he says in his book titled “Conflict, Civil War and Underdevelopment:

“Conflict has been a feature of human society since time immemorial. Disputes that arise may be organized around social class, ethnicity, religion, region, or combination of factors. The struggle can be over economic opportunities, as well as political and civil rights, among other contestable factors. In peaceful societies, conflict is channelled into nonviolent means and institutions for both its expression and resolution. Civil war is not necessarily irrational, but a product of certain objectives, therefore amenable to rational-choice analysis. Many contemporary civil wars have an ethnic dimension, as ethnicity is a strong uniting force. Grievances, therefore, play a major part in contemporary conflict, but greed – the desire to control resources and capture rents – also enters into the calculus of conflict. Ultimately, open warfare cannot emerge inside a society with a functioning social contract, as greed and grievances are managed and conflict is contained in countries with properly operating institutions. Consequently, conflict resolution requires the reconstitution of the social contract.”

Verbatim, I agree with this quotation, as Sri Lanka today is a product of this negative mosaic as phrased by Mansoob Murshed. Greed, Grievances and fragility of Social Contract and absence of channels and institutions to resolve conflicts in non violent means have played havoc in our society.

Conflict resolution in a society is like a cart. Peace and reconciliation is the wagon and it cannot move without the horse. The more we keep the horse out of the equation a tangible reconciliation will never take place.

In the conflict resolution process of South Africa the magic word was not Peace and Reconciliation but Truth and Reconciliation. As recognition of truth and sincerity of acceptance and acting accordingly by all parties to a conflict is the first step in the right direction.

Truth is the much needed horse to pull Sri Lanka through the rigors of time.

Today too we will be failing to bring about peace, if we fail to speak truth honestly and sincerely and take remedial measures to build our country back as one nation with a diverse population.

As you all know, truth is the first victim of every conflict and then we build conflict upon a false base and then justify sanctifying the conflict thus coating it with a flavour of truth. It is sheer arrogance and ignorance to invest so much in falsehood and expect a good return as falsehood by its very nature is bound to perish.

Individually and collectively we must stand by truth and uprightness if we are to bring about peace and reconciliation. It cannot be like our constitutions which have beautiful words and phrases and often mis-implemented hence a cause for all conflicts.

We were one people irrespective of the diversity of race, language and religion and it is the colonial past that laid the foundation for division by favouring one set of people against the other.

Despite this, when the British left Sri Lanka in 1948 it was more than beautiful. It had a robust economy, an exemplary welfare state, an efficient public service and a literate population. We were an example to countries in the region for Singapore and Malaysia to emulate and Sri Lanka appeared in the text books of economics and management as a model state in the third world.

Then what failed us.

I would like to share with you some bitter truth about what happened to us as I see reconciling and recognizing this is vital to pave the way for peace and reconciliation in Sri Lanka.

1. In the 1940s when the countries were decolonized, the first and foremost exercise that the newly independent nations embarked upon was Nation Building. This is because during the colonial era the people were subjected to fragmentation by political machination by the colonial powers. Some of the countries were geographically divided by demarcating boundaries across mono linguistic, mono religious or mono cultural regions. This brought forth the issues of minority –majority complex, need for pluralism and uneven physical developments.

2. The Brown Sahibs who inherited the British perpetuated the divide and rule politics instead of building a cohesive society. Hence we succeeded in producing communal leaders as opposed to national leaders who commanded the respect of all the communities. Communal politics which started six decades ago has percolated down the social fabric and as a result has polarised the society on communal lines.

3. The majority politicians marginalised the minorities using language, race, religion and other differences to garner more votes from their respective voter banks which were also followed suit by the minority politicians and thereby all politicians together successfully divided a once homogeneous people.

4. Poor development strategies gave disproportionate development dividend which affected especially the minorities as most of the major development projects were concentrated outside the North and East during the last 60 years.

5. We also failed to harness the potentials of the minorities for the development of the nation in an inclusive manner like Malaysia and instead we marginalised and deprived them from areas of successful participation in the economy of our nation.

6. The Indian interventions in Sri Lanka due to geopolitical reasons.

7. Failure of social justice and equity. This is a major sticking issue in our society. Even as recent as 8th of October 2009, a Buddhist monk in Deegawapi burns 21 acres of paddy cultivation belonging to Muslim farmers, farming their legitimately own land. This is in spite of the court order restraining him and in the presence of the senior police officials according to news report.

These are some of the bitter facts that set the background for today’s tumult. We are yet to rectify a lot of things in our politics and society to bring about peace and reconciliation.

Our politicians today almost 60 years after independence are talking about Nation Building. This is fine and should be taken as a silver lining in a dark cloud. However Nation Building cannot take place in an environment of distrust, insecurity, alienation and fear. As weak instruments of state administration cannot establish its writ when decision making become selective.

We are not a divided people though it seems to be divided. The Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims have testified unity several times and more conspicuously as seen during 2004 Tsunami. Even in the post war scenario a silent majority of Muslims and Sinhalese were lamenting over the plight of the Tamil brethren in the North. Polarisation and division in our society are caused by the politicians than people.

Since 1940 the majority politicians have advocated the issues of language, race and religion and disfranchisement of estate workers etc to garner more votes and consolidate their position. They have never presented viable development plans, social justice, equity and good governance to benefit all citizens.

This resulted in the people of Sri Lanka bearing the brunt of mismanagement of state by the politicians. Therefore as Sri Lankans it is very important that we respect and reciprocate with each other and contribute towards peace building than expecting the political leadership to contribute to nation building in a big way. We as a society have failed to produce good leaders in the past therefore it is our responsibility to answer to the call of the nation to breed leaders who are nation builders as opposed to community builders.

Today every Sri Lankan is suffering except the political elites of all colours and hues and their henchmen. The myopic leadership of the politicians has brought untold misery to our people and therefore it is time that the civil society and patriotic saner politicians to work together to reconstruct Sri Lanka a better place for everyone to live with dignity and respect.

The bloodletting that took place in Sri Lanka is not confined to any single community and all communities have suffered both actively and passively and therefore every citizen in the country needs to be supported to come up in life as good citizens.

We cannot keep the people in the north and east suffer in hunger, trauma, homelessness & hopelessness and expect peace and reconciliation to come from the sky like manna. We have to work hard to rectify our own misdemeanour and correct that in the society to create an environment conducive to peace.



Today the Tamils in the former theatre of war are in an appalling condition and they need quick fix to some of their issues. As three decades of war have left them traumatised, their youth have seen only blood and guns, their family structure weakened; illiteracy & lack of skills have rendered them unemployable and their social fabric in tatters. All these portend more danger than war to all Sri Lankans.

Similarly, the Muslims evicted by the LTTE from the Northern Province are languishing in refugee camps in Puttalam and other places for the last two decades and need resettlement in their original places of domicile. Their loss of wealth, social fabric, culture and morality are also incalculable.

We can draw a lot of inspiration from the western world. The west has undergone long years of war and has suffered severely to the extent that they gave up their differences of cast, creed, colour and nationality. They established robust rules, regulations and institutions against discrimination and marginalization and created a condition of peace conducive for harmonious living for all.

This is an example for us, sermons and speeches will not bring peace and reconciliation but robust institution and rule of law is what guarantees it.

We have to prioritize our options and mobilize the state and the civil society to act effectively to establish rules, regulations and institutions that guarantee equity and justice to ameliorate the suffering of the people.

Therefore I suggest that we as citizens should initiate a strong civil society action to forge strong bonds across communal barriers and support each other locally and create an environment for peace and reconciliation.

Certainly today in a globalized world Sri Lanka alone cannot solve its problems and they require the support of the friendly countries especially the Asian and the commonwealth including the United Kingdom and India due to the ripple effects of the local conflict felt internationally.

Finally, I appeal to all my fellow citizens here to take both individual and collective efforts to bring positive changes in our society to establish Good Governance, Transparency and Equity & Justice. So that what you are and where you live in Sri Lanka does not matter provided you are a Sri Lankan.

So let us make history by righteousness than boast of the righteousness of history.

-Sri Lanka Guardian