Stand above parochial loyalties

Prof. Kalinga Tudor Silva on the role of universities in post-war reconciliation in Sri Lanka :

Prof. Kalinga Tudor Silva

Post-war rebuilding in Sri Lanka should serve two related purposes. One is to rebuild infrastructure including houses, hospitals, roads, railways, public buildings and livelihoods destroyed during nearly three decades of armed conflict.The universities and research institutions in the country have a critically important role to play in promoting social harmony among war-torn communities. The social and political marginalization of universities from the ongoing processes will be counter-productive and harmful to widespread aspirations in the country, says Prof. Kalinga Tudor Silva of the University of Peradeniya delivering a speech at the Convocation of the University of Ruhuna recently.

Excerpts of the speech

Six years after the end of war we have not made much progress in terms of achieving post-war reconciliation in Sri Lanka. However, imperfect it may be at present, peace has been finally restored in the country and a rebuilding of physical infrastructure in the conflict-affected regions is currently under way. In the meantime the LLRC recommended some useful steps towards promoting reconciliation among war-weary people who are divided by generations of mistrust, mutual suspicion and hatred.

Even though the universities themselves have been affected by ethnic polarisation in society, it is up to the university system to stand above parochial loyalties of various kinds and muster a future vision of a united Sri Lanka, where ethnic and religious diversity in the country is recognized and respected while also fostering a more inclusive notion of Sri Lankan citizenship, social justice and human rights.

Pic: Courtesy fag.esn.ac.lk

You must master your first language, a second language and a third language as well. The first language will be your mother tongue, the second language will be Tamil for Sinhala speakers and Sinhala for Tamil speakers and third language will be English which will be your passport to universal knowledge and basis for interaction with the world at large.

Ghettoization of universities

Universities are a microcosm of society. Ethnic tension and polarisation in society did not spare the university system. A number of factors, including the JVP uprisings in the 1970s and 1980s and the war in the subsequent era and related economic downturn and insecurity, served to accelerate the processes of brain drain, at the same time, aggravate student indiscipline in university campuses across the country.

The universities themselves became ethnically polarised to some extent at least with the pre-existing ethnic mix of staff and students in the universities declining over the years and the emergence of so-called regional universities with an ethnic concentration in spite of the UGC efforts to diversify student intake in each of the universities. Some observers have referred to a process of ethnic ghettoization of universities in Sri Lanka and described it as something harmful to the very objective of universality of university education (Rajasingham-Senanayake 1999, Wickramasinghe 2009).

This process, however, is not limited to Sri Lanka and the universities becoming centres of cultural renaissance is perhaps unavoidable in this era of identity politics and group rights (Huskanovic 2012).

What is worse is a kind of insular thinking that has invaded our university system side by side with the above institutional developments.

This insular thinking has many signs and symptoms. Lack of open discussion about contemporary issues affecting the country is one manifestation of this insular thinking. Academics and students forming themselves into narrow factions that seek to eliminate each other is another aspect of this syndrome.

Terror and violence, including symbolic violence of the type described by Pierre Bourdieu (1989), are used not only by one group of students against another but also by certain academics in order to attack, demotivate and deprive others of free thinking. Even in the universities where there is considerable ethnic diversity among students as indeed is the case with University of Peradeniya, where I come from, interaction among Sinhala, Jaffna Tamil, Indian Tamil and Muslim students is hampered due to language barriers, medium-wise segregation, ethnic prejudices and mutual mistrust.

The ‘class war’ among the students between so-called raggers (who resort to ragging of new entrants as a necessary means of bringing them to a common platform where there is no room for dissent) and anti-raggers who resist their forcible induction into a herd mentality adds to insular thinking and conflict dynamics so much so that there is avoidance behaviour and segregated spatial utilization on the campuses (Silva 2004, Silva, Wattegama, and Kamalarathna 2009).

Irreversibly affected

Politicisation of decision making and recruitment already well entrenched in the public sector has made inroads into the university system as well.

This indicates the universities themselves have been deeply and perhaps irreversibly affected by the social pathologies that engulfed the country over the past several decades.

In this context, it is perhaps understandable why a high ranking university administrator once identified universities as “the remaining uncleared areas” that implicitly require sustained military intervention following the end of the war (Fonseka 2011).

Narrow ethnonationalisms of various forms and shapes that drive much of the political process and policy dialogue in the country at large is simply insular thinking writ large preventing adoption of successful reconciliation efforts to heal the wounds of war. Apart from war triumphalism of the state, the coming to prominence of a genre of ‘patriotic movies’ and teledramas signifies the reproduction of insular mentalities in popular culture.

The universities themselves perhaps need to go through a process of healing as part and parcel of the post-war transformation in Sri Lanka. While this is indeed needed, it is essential to tap intellectual resources in the universities in order to identify policies, programmes and interventions needed to overcome challenges and maximize opportunities offered by the end of war.

National security concerns are of utmost importance in an environment where global terror networks pose new security challenges. However, winning hearts and minds of people traumatized by war and who have literally become ‘frogs in their wells’ (kupamandika) protected, sheltered and captivated by competing brands of ethno-nationalisms may be equally if not more difficult than winning the war itself (Sen 1999).

A much more enlightened humanitarian approach is necessary to rebuild mutual trust among communities. It is here that insights from humanities and social sciences, including policy dialogues informed by such insights, should be explored to their full potential. On the other hand, the universities need to become awakened to their mandate and indeed national responsibility to contribute towards knowledge production and policy formulation.

Educational processes themselves have multiple challenges from the angles of bringing ex-combatants into the ambit of educational and training programmes including those offered at the university levels.

Education for peace

There is a need to create academic and research collaborations between universities in North, East, Centre and South, which in turn can become effective inter-ethnic bridges or bridging social capital, facilitating the flow of information and the cross fertilization of knowledge and ideas across the ethnic divide (Silva 2004, Wickramasinghe 2009).

As regards student exchanges a semester of study for a student from a Southern university in a university in North or East and vice versa along with favourable living experiences in a host family on the other side of the ethnic divide can certainly serve to broaden their perspectives.

There is an urgent need for curriculum change in social sciences and humanities as well as in so-called hard sciences for preparing students to work in multi-ethnic and multi-religious settings where certain language skills as well as attitudinal changes are necessary for effective functioning.

A number of universities in Sri Lanka, including the University of Ruhuna, have commenced peace and conflict studies programmes at the undergraduate and post-graduate levels and it would be necessary to evaluate and strengthen these study programmes in order to enhance their effectiveness in promoting peace and harmony in the country.

The time after your graduation may be a good period for you to improve and enhance your language competencies in second and third languages in particular.

These language competencies will certainly enhance your employment prospects.In conclusion, the universities in Sri Lanka have a central role to play in facilitating post-war reconciliation in Sri Lanka.

Among other things there is need for curriculum change, academic and student exchanges across various divides, research to identify existing barriers for reconciliation and peace and ways of overcoming them and identification and development of social bridges across social divisions of various kinds.

It is absolutely necessary that the leadership and the staff and students of the universities come forward to overcome the current challenges and realize their full potential as agents of social transformation in this moment of critical social formation and need for healing the wounds of war.

(Earlier versions of this paper were delivered as the Chief Guest of the Annual Research Sessions of the Faculty of Education, Open University of Sri Lanka on February 3, 2010 and at the National Conference on the ‘Role of Higher Education in Peace and Reconciliation’ convened by the University Grants Commission in June, 2013 in Jaffna)