|
|
 |
 |
| Sunday, 21 September 2003 |
 |
|
 |
Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
(Continued from last Sunday) (A Look-to-the-Future Appeal to the Peace Talk Delegates, Political Leaders and Religious Dignitaries) by Fr. Mervyn Fernando The Future Rather Than the Past To be more specific with regard to our ethnic malaise, the call of the LTTE for a geographic homeland and the corresponding counter claims of Sinhala groups are plainly a throwback to the past, an attempt to stop the flow of history or turn the clock back - an attempt doomed to failure in the long run. It is as if the early hominids just come down from the trees and walking upright, faced with a problem, say food scarcity on the ground, decided to solve it by going back to their "homeland" trees! Both the Govt, and the LTTE are looking back to the past going even beyond colonial times to ancient Sri Lanka to tackle a very contemporary problem in which so many new factors, undreamt of earlier, are at play; and that too with fiercely defensive attitudes in piece-meal fashion. There is little evidence at all of fresh thinking which takes into account all the complexities of modern Sri Lankan society in its unique mix of social, cultural and religious elements, in various proportions, impacted strongly by influences from the West and currents of contemporary socio-political evolution, in a population geography which defies clear demarcations. Still less, of an imaginative leap into the future in an attempt to discern the lineaments of a modern and post-modern Sri Lanka of the 21st century, against the larger canvas of the globe - in a polity of unity in diversity, in which all the races and religions feel equally at home; a Sri Lanka anchored in democracy, human rights and the fundamental freedoms, all of which are at the forefront of modern social consciousness, a Sri Lanka which has taken with discernment the best of the West in the Arts, Science and Technology, configuring them into her own special cultural shape of form. Win-Win Games and Devolution Sri Lanka as a single polity cannot obviously be managed effectively, along the ideas proposed above, without arrangements for devolution and decentralisation, for the purpose of development, administration etc. But common sense and plain logic indicate that they should be of a win-win sort specifically geared to addressing the central aspirations and/or fears of the main contending parties. On the part of the Tamils, not only the removal of discriminations, but also positive promotion of their language and culture, on the part of the Sinhalese, fears of breakup of the country and of the rise of Tamil dominance with the implicit or explicit backing of Tamilnadu. These fears/complaints/aspirations are grounded in the recent political history of the country. Maintaining the polity of Sri Lanka as a single entity will, not only address the fears of the Sinhalese but also, according to the thrust of this paper, be very conducive to holistic and expansive national development, embracing all three races & other tiny minorities, along modern and post-modern parameters. The real and perceived grievances of the Tamil people, whose militancy precipitated the ethnic crisis, have to be addressed in substance, without prejudice to the rights of the others, both in principle and in practice. (In earlier arrangements, the practice failed badly). Different options seem available or a combination of them. I propose that some very useful ideas could be taken from the Swiss system of Govt, which allows great scope for socio-culture and linguistic autonomy within a single polity. Most of the action that matters takes place at the lower, "grassroots" level of the canton, with the central Govt. keeping a small and low (therefore, non-threatening) profile. The Swiss have proved that it is possible for diverse linguistic-cultural groups to live harmoniously in a unitary political system, without prejudice to the specific interests of each, and achieve high levels of economic prosperity. Even economic (common) sense strongly indicates that the Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims put together for the advancement of one and all. Whither the Religions? It is very regrettable that the religions which profess love/maithri at their very core have explicitly, with few exceptions, given support to the old war game, failing to grasp the fundamental religious/spiritual dimension of the contemporary human situation, when they should have been in the forefront. Speaking from a Christian point of view the stark truth of the saying of Jesus, "unless you die you shall not live" stares us in the face. Unless and until we die to narrow, by-gone definitions of nation/state, racial identity etc, we will never rise to a wider experience of them in the context of a universal humanity. But this same truth is embedded in Buddhism and the other religions. If the acclaimed role of Buddhism is to make Sri Lanka a Dhammadvipa (a consummation devoutly to be wished by all) it will have to address the consciousness of contemporary society in its complex, multi-faceted and universalist character, very different from that of the speech of our ancient Kings, who in their day and age seem to have been surprisingly progressive. Unfortunately the religions themselves, in their organised structures, are hamstrung by the inertia of history and tradition, preventing their inner spiritual energy from keeping up with, and animating, emergent realities, in the accelerating evolutionary dynamic of our times. Because it is painful to die, to transit from atta to anatta, we prefer to live in the petty satisfactions and securities of our parochial, racial and religious egos, when that transition will take us to the deeper joys of the universal human which will, paradoxically, enhance the specificities of race, language, religion, culture etc. which we are fighting so passionately to preserve. Unity and union in the human/spiritual order, unlike in the material, enhances differences. Deep love between husband and wife, for example, will make each more of what he/she is, as different persons. Lassana Ratak Sri Lanka has all the ingredients to be a lassana ratak (a beautiful country) - with a good mix of racial, religious and culture diversities in a population which is above the critical mass required for productive socio-cultural reactions and interactions, but not to (unmanageably) mass-ive. The challenge to its people is to answer the call of its destiny, to become a commonwealth of freely interacting races, cultures and religion, in our shared island-space of unbelievable beauty and variety, in such wise that all are enriched by the wealth of each, and vice versa. We might remind ourselves that even historically over two millennia, the two races (and later the Muslims) have had a shared, generally harmonious, occasionally turbulent, existence on this piece of planet Earth, called Lanka; we have only to change into a new key, or bring about a phase-change to accommodate the new circumstances of today. But the political leadership of the Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim peoples seem to be, as indicated above, hopelessly imprisoned in old and petty mindsets, pitifully tilting at archaic windmills of separation and demarcation, geographic and psychic, entailing so much destruction and diminishment. The danger still remains that in the days ahead we will try to go along the same way of defensive bargaining and reluctant concessions, grudging trade-offs etc. hoping that with such tinkering some kind of consensus will be achieved. Even, at this moment, it is obvious that such a consensus will be a minimalist one, with which no party will be happy wholeheartedly and in depth; and in the process we will be squandering a golden opportunity for a creative leap in to a new, heart-and-soul-satisfying configurations of "being Sri Lanka", along the lines indicated above. Another serious problem is the abysmally low levels to which our politics has fallen. One cannot help but pray, in near despair, "God save us from our politicians". The crucial make-or-break question is, whether we the people (civil society) can give birth without delay to truly patriotic, that is, dedicated to the patria (fatherland,) clean-of-heart, intelligent and visionary leaders, who can with courage, wisdom and imagination, grasp the bud of the present in its complex totality and let bloom the beautiful flower of the new Sri Lanka within it. Concluded Fr. Dr. Mervyn Fernando is Founder-Director of SUBODHI, Institute of Integral Education, Wewala, Piliyandala, Sri Lanka. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
