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RELIGION, RECONCILIATION AND THE FUTURE
A thought provoking panel discussion on the topic ‘Religion, Reconciliation and the Future’, organised by the Young Journalists’ Movement, was held at the
Sri Lanka Press Institute on April 8. The panel consisted of former Diplomat and Academic Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka, Bishop Duleep De Chickera Leftist Politician Pubudu Jagoda, Newspaper Editor Malinda Seneviratne and Senior lecturer in Political Science Anurudha Pradeep.
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| This country belongs to adherents of all faiths |
.jpg) Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka, former Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the UNHRC, addressed the topic through his personal experience of coming from a family of different faiths. “My parents are from two different religions, but we never had any issues in our family regarding religion. Everybody respected each other.There are families who have members from different religious backgrounds. If a simple family unit can maintain such harmony, I would like to ask why a society cannot do the same,” he said.
He said if society had learnt any lessons from the thirty years of war, the controversies existing today would not have occurred. “Prima facie this seems to be a separatism by Sinhala Buddhists. But I would say that it is a campaign under the name of Sinhala Buddhists. Certain civil forces in society act in a way that creates doubts in the minds of civilians in the North that their livelihood will be disturbed by many social and economical factors. Governance in the North is being done in a different way. True there was a war. But even after three years why is there a different way of governance. The central government itself creates the conception that it is a different government and a different system. Isn’t it separatism? This is the situation with regard to the North.”
Dr. Jayatilleka said Sri Lanka is a Sinhala Buddhist country, but it is not only for Sinhala Buddhists. This country belongs to adherents of all other faiths. When some part or certain organisations of the country try to emphasise that Sri Lanka is only a Sinhala Buddhist country it creates majoritarian separation within people. Great Personalities like D.S. Senanayake identified and dealt well with all the needs, ideas and expectations of all the communities and was successful in gaining independence because of his strategy.
There are few factors which led to the wars and much devastation in the country. One is war created by Prabhakaran through minority extremism and the other is the extremism lead by the Sinhala civil society with the backing of many political forces.
“This year marks 30 years after ‘black July’. And now we are again worried about such a situation. The reason as I believe is after a just war and a great victory we did not follow the strategy which we should have followed. The reason for the existing problem is that we Sri Lankans without learning lessons from war and creating a new national identity, we have given space to the extremists who launch campaigns under the name of the majority of the state. As a result of this we have to face many issues within the state and with neighbouring states. If there is no internal peace we cannot achieve anything within or outside the state. There should be a just forum for everybody,” said the former diplomat.
Furthermore Dr. Jayatilleka said if we let certain forces to upset the setting in the country, the victory we gained would be useless. We should take examples from world history. For example Yugoslavia, a country which defeated Hitler’s army, later became Serbia as a result of extremist forces during the time. We should not let that happen in our country. He emphasised there should be a social, political and democratic solution before the issue becomes far fetched.
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| Sri Lankans need to be realistic on sensitive issues |
.jpg) Mailnda Seneviratne, the Editor and writer said, throughout history minority communities in the country have faced much devastation and it is uncertain how far Sri Lanka can go as a nation.
“What we should keep in mind is that throughout history we have witnessed many wars. Sri Lankans need to be realistic in addressing sensitive issues such as religion,” he said. “Prevention,” he said is “better than cure.”
“Apart from speaking about the differences among people, we should discuss the similarities,” he said.
The editor emphasised that the media should play a major role in addressing sensitive matters.
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| Wrongful statistics through certain media |
.jpg) Anurudha Pradeep, Senior lecturer of political science at the University of Sri Jayawardenapura said there should be an open conversation, where the public when addressing the matter, should deviate from their personal and political views and give a rational unbiassed opinion. The main issue for this problem is the spread of numerous wrongful statistics through certain media.
“If there were no 1983 riots there would not have been LTTE. What lead to riots was a breakdown of peace and non enforcement of law. I believe the authorities and we as citizens should re-think whether to repeat this mistake by supporting certain ongoing groups?”
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| Whole community should be blamed for the sins of extremists |
.jpg) Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian and Constitutional lawyer M. A. Sumanthiran contradicted the stance by Javed Yusuf who said that whole communities could not be blamed for the sins of the extremists, who were a minority. Sumanthiran opposed the idea saying that as a Tamil he believed that Sri Lankan Tamils were responsible as they were silent spectators during the forced eviction of Muslims from the North. He said, when any form of discrimination exists, the choice of remaining a silent spectator or an advocator on behalf of the affected minorities mattered when resolving conflicts. “The 1972 constitution can be identified as the reverse discriminatory constitution which paved way for Sinhala Buddhist domination,” he said. Sumanthiran said it reciprocated the marginalisation of the Sinhalese during the colonial period.
He said all the aspects of discrimination forced on Muslims should be confronted by reciprocating the corresponding aspects through positive approaches by all ethnicities as a symbol of solidarity. Sumathiran quoted Justice Weeramanthry, “Sri Lankan law is embarrassed by its richness, not because of it’s inadequacy,” and questioned the existence of the rule of law in the country.
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| A dire need for religious reconciliation |
.jpg) Pubudu Jagoda from the Frontline Socialist Party said, Sri Lanka is a country which consists of many communities from diverse backgrounds and adherents of various religions. What we have to consider is the root cause for many controversies over religions and different faiths.
He believes reconciliation is an essential factor in Sri Lanka. But unfortunately the country has experienced unsuccessful reconciliation. Indeed there is national reconciliation without a doubt. But there is a dire need for religious reconciliation. We have to understand the actual reason behind the failure of religious reconciliation. The reason behind the failure is not within the scope of people who make efforts to build reconciliation but with certain other persons and organizations and said there is a deep question to address, in this regard.
He said “In Colombo suburbs, there are police guards for certain shops owned by Muslims. There were police even before. But now the circumstances are different. Leftists would name such a situation as ‘new liberal capitalism.’ One feature of this concept is to show differences as rivalry and show rivalry as a difference. Indeed we are different from the religion we believe and language we speak. The existing social system attempts or probably shows these differences as a rivalry. This very conception leads the Sinhala community to think that Tamils are their rivals, or for Tamils, that Muslims are their rivals and so on.”
According to Jagoda in order to overcome this there should be changes in the economic, social and political system and also in societal attitudes. There must be a major transition in the society. But that does not mean we should let things happen and wait. He said we should not let extremists to create problems in the Sri Lankan society any more and religious leaders have a huge responsibility in dealing with the present situation.
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| Reconciliation to be done with foresight of the future |
.jpg) “The whole community shouldn’t suffer for the sins of minority extremists. If minorities want equal rights, they should act as equal share holders,” the former ambassador, Javed Yusuf said.
He said reconciliation has to be done with a foresight of the future and an exemplary present.
Maltreatment and discrimination has been the real cause for minorities to initiate a struggle for their rights. An armed struggle or adopting of terrorism by the LTTE cannot be justified by any means.
He said the passivity of the existing rule of law has paved way for the creation of violence through merging conflicts. “It is vital to ensure the rule of law, as minorities are placed at the receiving end of any form of violence due to the marginalising attitude of the majorities,” he said. Yusuf said reconciliation was still at a discussionary level since the end of the war but there were many aspects that can be accelerated towards a speedy reconciliation.
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| Religions are a number of worlds within a world |
.jpg) Bishop Duleep De Chickera, the former head of the Anglican Church in Sri Lanka said the current anti Muslim propaganda was the result of resentment that has been harboured against Muslims, not only by Sinhalese but also by Hindus themselves. He said a large portion of Muslims and a fringe group of Christians have been victimised by the extremists.
The Bishop said, the implementation of the rule of law and trust building within communities is the solution to decrease the gaps formed between communities. “Sri Lankan history reveals that moderates have failed to sustain the trust and friendships with other communities so far and an existing absence of clear dialogue between the moderates and extremists in an intra religious setting has led to conflicts.” He said, ‘cross border solidarity building’ between communities is the way to resolve the ongoing crisis and could be set as an example to advocate other issues in the country.
Initiating the panel discussion, Bishop Chickera said religion could not be considered as a homogenous identity for the human race. “Religions are a number of worlds within a world that is vast, varied and contradictory in accordance to their philosophies,” he said.
He said religion had always played a contradictory role throughout history. “It is either healing or harming. Healing has been considered the ultimate need for the existence of religion to transform human lives and direct them towards a moral path. History clearly reveals the harming role played by the religions through examples such as crusades, conflicts etc,” he said.
The Bishop said religions, which are proclaimed to be universal and unanimous, should face public discourse and be criticised and interpreted. When a religion tries to dominate others in the region, it gives rise to conflicts. Moderates and extremists in an intra religious setting should discuss and resolve conflicting ideas within a religion.
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