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| Sunday, 30 March 2003 |
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Moving away from political astigmatism BY FACTOTUM The fund of goodwill that prevails among the international community to encourage the Sri Lankan polity to get together in their valiant attempts at forgetting and forgiving past misdeeds and mending fences extending up to building a bridge from Talaimannar to Dhanuskodi was manifest at a function at the Indian Cultural Centre the other day. Jaffna's former City Fathers and present day parliamentarians dominated the audience that gathered at a ceremony of presentation of book for the Jaffna Library by the High Commissioner for India who laid emphasis on the need to access a multiplicity of the spoken and written word however divergent that may be,in keeping with the indigenous culture of the people of India and Sri Lanka. The cultural divergence was evident in the words of the Buddha, the Hindu Saints and the Quoranic verses and co-existence was the keynote of that culture. It was in keeping with that spirit that the Indian Government had picked on over a thousand titles covering a wide range of subjects from history and the arts, religion and politics, ethics and science to anti-colonial literature and commentaries on the Indian Constitution mainly in English but a good one-third of the rest in Tamil. It was by reading and giving ear to opposing views that a proper focus on any given subject could be cultivated and the Indian Envoy emphasised that such a climate was a prerequisite for the people to move away from political astigmatism. The function itself evoked great interest in the light of the last minute change of plans to re-open the library that had been horribly burnt down by misguided ill-educated people over two decades ago. The recipient of the gift TULF President and Parliamentarian V. Anandasagari drew attention to the fact that the whole island and its occupants were linked to India some by language and others by religion and appealed to India to forgive and forget past incidents in patching up differences symbolic in the very real possibility of building a bridge as envisaged by the Prime Minister linking the island to mainland India. The parliamentarian who had garnered the most number of votes in Jaffna District at the last General Election felt that that was perhaps why he had been singled out to receive the generous gift of which only a fraction was on display, besides the token presentation. Amidst conflicting reports that the demand to postpone the re-opening of the library as planned by City Fathers of Jaffna was on the grounds that it was really not ready for commissioning was ably argued out by the then Mayor who made out that other than the air-conditioning and intercom system everything else was in place and that in communion with his fellow councillors had resigned enbloc when it was apparent that they could not go ahead with their plans, more so to avoid the shedding of blood which was imminent had they gone through with their arrangements. That sounded very much like a return to sanity and how much more has to be done in peacetime to bring together the fragmented people all over. A question that came up was whether re-opening of the library was a priority when displaced people were unable to get back to their homes and rebuild their habitats and live ordinary peaceful lives. Whatever the pros and cons of that issue the burning of the library is indicative of divisions that prevailed then. And now its restoration and the reparations that are being set in place are within a much larger arena of conflict resolution. That may be why so much fanfare and publicity went into the whole project and the last minute abortion of it. It is apparent that the interest of the international community has done much to down arms this last year and goodwill gestures of this nature are sure going to add to the trend. |
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