Celebrating peace and reconciliation:

Diverse voices in harmony

By Indeewara THILAKARATHNE

Peace is not a relationship of nations. It is a condition of mind brought about by a serenity of soul. Peace is not merely the absence of war. It is also a state of mind. Lasting peace can come only to peaceful people. - Jawaharlal Nehru (1889 - 1964)

“ And so my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” - John F. Kennedy - January 20th 1961

Inter-faith dialogue, perhaps, is a sine qua non for a vibrant multi- ethnic polity particularly at a time when the nation is celebrating its hard-won peace and national reconciliation. If young members of the nation are the heir to its wealth and the hard-won peace, they naturally, are the beneficiaries of the peace dividends. There is no other fitting tribute to peace and to those who laid their lives to win it than to celebrate it wholeheartedly fusing diverse voices, faith in unison.

Peace-loving Sri Lankans would have the chance of witnessing such as a unique event when the first ever Sri Lankan Inter-faith Music Festival takes off the ground on February 25 at 6 p.m. at the Sugathdasa Indoor Stadium.

Celebrating freedom

The Inter-faith Music Festival is aptly themed ‘Celebrating Freedom’ and will make up over 2,000 children representing diverse parts of the country and belonging to many faiths and ethnicities.

The festival is organised by Mother Sri Lanka Trust and the Art of Living Foundation as a part of their programs to instill a sense of patriotism particularly in the younger generation and to celebrate peace and reconciliation. A mass of youth and adults would join the Buddhist, Hindu, Christian and Islam children with the aim of promoting ethnic harmony, tolerance and peaceful co-existence.

A special feature of the festival was the participation of 500 drummers, 100 guitarists and 200 dancers on a single platform. An important fact is that almost all the artistes who take part in the festival are volunteers. In addition to the mass audience, the festival which will be poised to be a first such festival in Asia would expect to attend leading cricketers, singers, film and television personalities to express their solidarity and promote peace and reconciliation in a fitting manner.

Objectives

The cornerstone of such programs is the objectives of rekindling the justifiable pride of being Sri Lankan, engineering faith and confidence in the country, inculcating proactive and positive attitudes to create positive energy in every Sri Lankan resulting in making a lasting contribution to the nation.

Janaki Kuruppu (Chairperson Mother Sri Lanka Trust) said, “Mother Sri Lanka is a non profit charitable trust set up under the President’s Office to instill patriotism among Sri Lankans. The message is to give something to the country not to ask what the country can do for you.

The latest program that we are launching under the theme is Inter-faith Music Festival. The key is inter-faith. It is not just a music festival. It’s about all key religions in the country getting together in a one forum. So, Christian, Islamic and Hindu children will get together and we will be singing Buddhist bhakti Gee, Christian carols, Hindu and Muslim chants. ”

According to Janaki Kuruppu, the uniqueness of the event is the fusion of inter-faith chants and the opportunity that multi-ethnic audience would have in listening to multi-religious chants, appreciating country’s sheer ethnic and religious diversity, celebrating peace and reconciliation. All the participants of the festival will join 1,500 children and performers in singing. The concept behind the festival is to appreciate religious and cultural diversity. The Art of Living Foundation which is the co-organiser of the event is an international organisation promoting peace and reconciliation and it is for the first time that the Art of Living Foundation is launching a major program of this nature in Sri Lanka.

Janaki Kuruppu (Chairperson Mother Sri Lanka Trust)	Sri Ram, teacher (The Art of Living Foundation)	Edward Jayakody, Director Education (Music) Ministry of Education

Artists such as Edward Jayakody, Bhathiya and Santhush, Soundarie David, Arunthathi Sri Ranganathan and Jayantha Rathnayake will join in singing with the children.

Edward Jayakody, Director Education (Music) Ministry of Education, Sri Ram, teacher (The Art of Living Foundation), Jayantha Ratnayake and Sarath Kothalawala, the proprietor of Torana Music Box also spoke on diverse aspects of the festival. The Torana Music Box will video record the event and a DVD containing the recording will be issued as a fundraiser.

Mother Sri Lanka Foundation

Mother Sri Lanka is a collaborative effort of the public, non-governmental and the private sectors in the country leveraging on the strengths in each sector with leadership and direction from the President’s Office. The campaign aims at bringing together diverse perspectives in an inclusive manner with empowerment and development as a goal in the long run. It is hoped that the initiative would demystify the ideas about the past and allow discussions on what can be done for the future to stand up as strong individuals and a nation across disciplinary and practice lines.

The campaign is aimed at an action - oriented change in the behaviour fuelled by a gradual shift in the perceptions and will lead towards positivism and optimism and will act as a wakeup call to look at things differently and actually lead to action.

Charity

The Mother Sri Lanka Foundation was established under the Companies Act of 2007 and is characterised as a company limited by guarantee with charitable status. The donated funds, profits or other income from the Foundation will be re-invested for purposes of promoting the objectives.

The Foundation has a Board of Trustees and will employ an Executive Director, Directors and Project Coordinators as needed. Monitoring and evaluation of activities will be through the Foundation and the Presidential Secretariat.

The broader and long –term objectives of the foundation include conducting activities, programs, communication campaigns to build pride in being Sri Lankan and develop positive thinking about Sri Lanka and initiate activities at grassroot level to contribute towards nation building through the development of professional, physical and spiritual wellbeing of all Sri Lankans and attract international resources towards developing Sri Lanka, through motivating Sri Lankans and Sri Lankan interest groups overseas and act as a facilitator between receiving and donor parties in Sri Lankan by liaising between stakeholders from the private and public sectors, NGOs and INGOs.