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From equal humanity to equal citizenship

by Lynn Ockersz

The sentiment that the tsunami - triggered devastation has not been a respecter of ethnicity, region, language and religion, is a notion which is proving immensely popular among both the rulers and the ruled in this region.

Residents of Ban Namkhem line up to block trucks leaving the Bang Mong temple carrying bodies of tsunami victims in Kao Lak, Thailand. Villagers say removing the bodies from the area to Phuket, more than an hour away, will make the tsunami victim identification process almost impossible. REUTERS

This is particularly true of Sri Lanka. The clichetic corollary of this notion which is also being widely voiced is that the tsunami has taught us that we in Sri Lanka "are one" after all, since suffering has been visited almost evenly on all the inhabitants of Lanka's coastal belt, which is characterized by ethnic, religious and language diversity.

There is no denying that given Sri Lanka's ethnic conflict and its tragic fallout over particularly the last 25 years or more, there is immense value in the "stories" one hears of the spirit of brotherhood, selflessness and love with which some tsunami victims are relating to each other, completely disregarding each other's ethnic, religious and language differences, for instance.

In this moment of suffering, humanity is, indeed, triumphing over differences, which in ordinary times, seem to matter a lot. So, the oft repeated stories of how the "Muslim woman" breast feeds the infant of "Sinhalese" or "Tamil" origin or how the heroic foot soldier or naval rating of the Lankan State saved a child of "Tamil" origin off the Eastern seas are, undoubtedly, elevating in their impact. For the time being at least, some minds have been freed of their "manacles."

However, all this begs the question: If human beings act in complete selflessness and love towards each other during a period of acute suffering why do they differentiate among each other or are compelled to do so in "ordinary times" on the basis of cultural markers, such as, ethnicity, language and religion? Doesn't the crisis establish that left to themselves humans wouldn't pay heed to such "differences" but are goaded on by social forces to do so?

The simple but striking truth is that humans could be expected to relate to each other on the basis of what are considered human values but it is the body-politic or State within which they have their being or grow up which compels them to think in terms of ethnicity, language or religion.

In other words, the numerous identities - be they ethnic, language or religious - which humans label each other with, are socially - induced or societal creations.

This is another dimension of State-society relations which the current devastation is compelling this columnist to focus on. As observed by this columnist over the past two weeks, the crisis has brought into focus, the unprecedentedly positive role the South Asian State could play in "nation re-building" and connected issues, after having been pushed to the background over the past two decades or more by the advocates of State - deregulation and State dismantling, in the wake of globalization.

While the Lankan State in particular has done well to emphasize the oneness of Lankans in this moment of acute suffering, it is now obliged to take this stance to its logical conclusion and end the habitual compartmentalization of Lankans on the basis of ethnicity, language, religion and other social constructs.

Ironically, it is the State in this part of the world itself which has been primarily responsible in perpetuating these social constructs or "man-made social barriers." The State has done this over the years by pandering tamely to the power and other aspirations of majority communities at the expense of the "minorities." As should be expected such policies have aggravated differences among groups and even led to separatist wars in South Asia.

So, the time has arrived for not merely "nation re-building" but for State reconstruction on truly democratic and equalitarian principles. A new concept of citizenship needs to be forged by the State of South Asia which would enable its citizens to identify themselves freely with it.

This would happen when the State ceases to prefer one social group to the other and props it up.

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