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by Lionel Wijesiri

Sri Lanka today stands at crossroads. However, the path ahead remains clear for us if we pursue three goals: firstly, a common vision of our future anchored on peace; secondly, the core of shared values that inspire our desires and preferences which is acceptable to all races and communities; and thirdly, the power for united venture that brings people-empowered action for the attainment of a peace vision guided by the values we cherish.

Ultimately, the peace factor must be used to resolve prime issues such as the persistent poverty of people, especially those in under-developed areas, the social injustice that continues to prevail in our society and the often divisive and counter-productive ways of governance. The index to development, therefore, must be human in dimension, content and lifestyle anchored on peace.

Youth involvement

Fortunately in the year 2002, the Government has chosen strategies that are guided by social justice and peaceful initiatives and have accepted the responsibility for making the associated positive changes in the thinking. Consultation rather than confrontation - srking as teams rather than individually - collaboration rather than competition: all dominate the thinking these days.

As the Government is trying to create a meaningful peace program, we have to ask ourselves whether there is anything about peace that we must essentially understand before we can define processes within our environments.

Reminders of genocide and our failure as a nation to care for each other would not sustain a peace culture. It may just reinforce for us a recurrent need for revenge and continuation of hatred and distrust in each other - certainly not peaceful thoughts and actions: neither will continual debate and argument about who is right and who is wrong, even if it is undertaken peacefully.

All sensible politicians would know that our youths hold the key to the success of their projects and enjoy being involved in any activity which support their ideas and activities. If we are to be successful in our peace process, we should be able to provide exceptional role models for them; not only in relation to their commitment, but with the way they go about realizing their dreams.

Strengthening these strategies is the need for the government to adopt a National Peace Development Policy for Youth. This should be on the basis of a review of the country's constraints and achievements of peace development, youth aspirations and the prospects for future action. Its foundation should be the tolerance in every sphere of human activity - religious, moral, ethnic, political, socio-economic, cultural, and political, military, and international.

Tolerance of the highest level will mark a new era in our economic and social development, laying the groundwork for peace in which youth involvement will be the resource base and its most dynamic element. Peace will build the democratic processes and peoples' institutions.

Reduced militarism, freedom from violence and disequilibrium, promotion of the positive and ideal aspects of life, nurturing of spiritual and moral values, sharing and participation in problem-solving and decision-making - these are the desired outputs of peace policy.

Peace will facilitate the concentration of energies and resources to violence-free areas of development, facilitating the setting of priorities by the government, enabling the youth to mobilize properly, and to direct available finances from local and external resources to such strategic options. The channelling of resources to non-military areas will generate a "peace dividend" so urgently needed in our country today.

4th R

In the past two decades, thousands of our young people have suffered the tragic effects of racially inspired warfare waged by adults. Many more are hurt, both physically and psychologically.

What happens when these "hurt" young people grow up? Most follow in the footsteps of the adult role models in their families and communities.

Young people who are raised in the shadow of war and violence are, deliberately or not, conditioned by these adults to fear and hate "the enemy" and to see violence as the only solution to the problems in their lives. When conflicts last for generations, these destructive lessons are strongly reinforced, and children learn to revere the tradition of war.

Our youth policy should help young people understand and solve conflicts - peacefully. It should help liberate the youth from the conditioned, divisive thinking at the root of racism and war. Using thought provoking presentations of ground reality, we should help young people learn practical skills for solving problems without violence.

In a country where, for over two decades, people were surrounded by violence and war, we must address this problem as an integral part of our overall education. Education for Peace needs to be an essential part of our education process. Today we teach them the 3 R's - we can teach them the 4th R - relationship.

Education for the future needs to address human relationship - how to live without conflict and the suffering-conditioned relationships. Educating young people academically, to get the skills to secure a good job, addresses only a part of living. The foundation of education must be grounded in living skills, particularly the skill of resolving conflicts peacefully.

In our classrooms and lecture theatres we must courageously attempt to define peace and establish many peaceful processes that reflect our heartfelt desire for a country that is safe for our children and one in which they will be treated fairly and justly. As we present the truth in relation to the inequities that painfully exist in some parts of the country we also actively search for ways to alleviate these injustices and make the country, especially in relation to our own local communities, better.

The roots

The fundamental intent of any educational program should be to help the youth understand how conditioning creates conflict in relationship. The program needs to address the root of human conflict - which is known as "conditioning". We must remember that our minds are conditioned by origin of birth, education and experience.

Each generation inherits the established conditioned patterns of behaviour from preceding generations, outmoded racial belief systems that have fragmented and separated the nation into divisive warring ethnocentric groups. This age-old conditioned thinking and action continues to create tremendous suffering and conflict. The program should question the conditioned belief that war is a heroic and honourable solution to resolving the problems of human relationship.

We must let our youth discuss questions such as: - What really is this war about -How did it begin - How can we end it at the root inside ourselves and therefore, at the outward level socially - What are the roots of this war - How did we create "The Enemy" - What is the best way to handle violence - How each of us is responsible for preventing peace -How a young person can be made into a "Warrior Robot" - How we can understand the "War Machine" in our heads etc.

In our genuine effort to create 'peace and harmony echoing across the land' we must incite a true commitment amongst our youth throughout the country to develop a peace culture.

We have to explore the notion of difference and teach our youth the meaning of equity and social justice and insist upon it operating at all levels. We should avoid making biased judgements and encourage and support self assessment, openness and independence remaining confident in the knowledge that the road to a peaceful and interdependent nation will be paved by the new generations of independent thinking.

We need to pay serious attention - especially to issues unfolding daily in other countries. Sometimes a great sense of hopelessness can prevail.

We should tread this road carefully as teaching peace ideals to our youth can present many frustrating contradictions to them when the real world is thrust upon them? But we can reassure them that every little step counts along the road to peace and our positive intentions do matter.

Active participation

In the case of a National Peace Development Policy for Youth, we must deviate from tradition and formulate policy with the active participation of the youth. In this case, policy definition and strategy have to be applied flexibly by involving and energizing the youth right from the very start. It should not begin with elders and senior policy-makers and leaders, but take grassroots hold with the youth from day one. The youth must be empowered to find their own niche and roles in the totality of national development, and be the major force for peace development.

All steps in the exercise should be taken in consultation with the different levels of participating youth from the national down to the municipal and village levels. In the area of ethnic development, the youth of different ethnic groups can forge links between cultural minorities and popularize shared communal values, shared religious values, and shared cultures and traditions handed down from generation to generation.

Our nation today is at crossroads for many reasons, but certainly one of the major reasons is the absence of youth participation. The trends of the past cannot be allowed to continue into the future. We must now look to the youth.

The modern print and electronic media have an essential role to play in the preparation of youth in a spirit of peace, justice, freedom, mutual respect and understanding, in order to promote human rights and equality of rights between all races.

Equally, they have an important role to play in making known the views and aspirations of the youth with special focus on peaceful co-existence, good governance, transparency, and democracy.

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
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