School, the best place to create a united nation - MP Namal Rajapaksa

By Manjula Fernando

The youth have an enormous responsibility to ensure that reconciliation becomes a great success in this ‘battered nation’ and the mistakes of yesteryear will never become part of the country’s future, Parliamentarian and Chairman Tharunyata Hetak Movement Namal Rajapaksa said.

Addressing youth participants at the National Conference on the Role of Youth in Reconciliation, as the keynote speaker, he emphasised, “Youth are the lifeblood of a country and the perceptions they carry into their adulthood will determine whether that nation will prosper or not.”

This was the sixth national conference on reconciliation organised by the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute for International Relations and Strategic Studies.

Proposing that there should be multi-ethnic schools in multi-ethnic areas of Sri Lanka, MP Rajapaksa said there can’t be a better place to forge strong bonds among each other. “The school is the best place to bring about the feeling of being a part of a united nation.”

He said children of such schools who grow up learning to respect each other and communicate with each other will never sow hatred against other communities as grown-ups. He said youth are better equipped to lead the reconciliation process as they do not carry any ‘baggage’ of preconceived notions about ethnicity or other divisive parameters.

Citing the field of sports as an example, he said this noble concept is seen at work in sports which is dominated by young people. “Most, if not all sports, are the exclusive preserve of young people. I cannot think of any discrimination, on the lines of ethnicity or such like, in my preferred game rugby, a game mostly played by young people. What matters is whether one is an accomplished player. I strongly believe that sports could be a vehicle to inculcate the spirit of reconciliation among youth,” Rajapaksa said.

Forging links

“A Sinhalese or Tamil youth, or a Muslim youth should not feel constrained whatsoever to forge links with each other. As youth, we have a notion in life and that is to be treated equally on matters of life and society. Whether it is access to education, livelihood or any other matter involved with day-to-day life, no youth should feel that he/she is being discriminated. If, as perceived by certain ethnic communities that they were discriminated, it is time for us to remedy that situation at the earliest.” Continuing, he said “Being nearly 40 percent of the population, youth will have an enormous role to play in fostering reconciliation in this nation. If there are misconceptions that have been sown by separatist elements, such misconceived ideas need to be eliminated, not just by word, but by deed and actions.”

Citing the importance of a common medium to communicate with each other, he said, “Either the Sinhalese must learn to speak in Tamil or vice versa. Or else, both communities must learn English, a world language that brings communities together. The younger generation must lay more emphasis in learning the national languages of our motherland.

“In his vision for this country and its youth, this is the very reason why President Mahinda Rajapaksa declared that by 2021, our nation must be trilingual. I am glad that the Presidential Task Force on the Trilingual Initiative has made much progress, having identified the basics of learning the other national language. Learning a language for young people is very important, not just for career progress, but also as ambassadors of good will. To foster brotherhood, and the feeling of being one strong resilient nation, young people of different ethnic origins must communicate freely without feeling hampered by the lack of knowledge of the language of the other. It is also my wish that young people of different ethnic origins should have the opportunity to mix with each other, while they are in school.”

He spoke about the Government's 3 Rs program - Rebuilding, Rehabilitation and Reconciliation - to win the hearts and minds of people of all ethnic origins living within Sri Lanka. “The 3 Rs approach has enabled us to build bridges among different ethnic groups,” he said.He said the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission recommendations are being vigorously pursued with President Rajapaksa having allocated almost a billion rupees in this regard for 2013. There is much optimism that the bulk of the activities recommended by the LLRC will be completed in 2013.

Singapore's case

Rotary Peace Fellow, Yap Kwong Weng said Singapore too faced communal tensions in its post-independent period. In 1969, there were racial riots between the Chinese and the Malays. “Since then, Singapore realised that it had to create sustainable measures to tackle the threats.”

Singapore has an ethnically diverse population of 74.2 percent Chinese, 13.4 percent Malays, 9.2 percent Indians, and three percent comprising other groups. From the start, Singapore has embraced diversity as a model of development. The people who believe in peaceful existence and a secure environment have upheld this model.

Weng underscored multi-racial peace as the foundation of economic and social development. He observed that in the areas of development, Sri Lanka has shown positive indicators in the past few years including a promising economic growth, decreasing unemployment and poverty rates, and a surge of breakthroughs in the Information Technology sector. At the same time, he said it still faces a different set of challenges in community building and integration.

Executive Director, Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute for International Relations and Strategic Studies, Asanga Abeyagoonasekera, in his welcome address said, “Just imagine how the world will be if we start to believe that what we have in common is far more important than what divides us.” He said reconciliation means to move forward with commonalities while recognising and respecting differences.”

External Affairs Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris, Board Member of the Institute Prof. Rohan Gunaratne and Prime Minister, Sri Lanka Youth Parliament Sihan Dhammika Jayasinghe were among the speakers.