'Black July' and our future
OVER the past 22 years in Sri Lanka, July 23rd has acquired
the character of a solemn day of remembrance with the more
socially-conscious sections of the country's media and other progressive
opinion-moulders reactivating in the public mind memories of the horrors
of 'Black July 1983'.
This is as it should be because a people who do not learn the lessons
of the past are condemned to repeat them. Therefore, revisiting 'Black
July 1983' is a healthy exercise from the point of view of national
progress but it wouldn't do to merely ritualistically rekindle these
dark memories annually.
The task that faces the Sri Lankan polity is to translate the lessons
of 'Black July '83' into progressive nation-building principles.
Ethnic peace has been one of Sri Lanka's foremost concerns since
those dark days of 1983 and the State, particularly under the direction
of President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga has grappled strenuously
with this problem over the past ten or more years.
The year 2000 draft constitution which is a prime result of such
exertions outlined some of the constitutional principles which could
contain the conflict and bring a degree of ethnic peace to Sri Lanka.
However, one of the tragic failures of contemporary Sri Lanka is that
not all sections of its public are eager to learn the lessons of
history. Nor are they willing to back well-meaning, State-driven
initiatives towards resolving the conflict peacefully.
This is a dangerous tendency because under such circumstances the
tragic blunders of history could very well be re-enacted. These
dissenting voices have without fail, cried "foul" at all State-initiated
efforts at resolving our conflict.
Even the P-TOMS, which has as its focus the rebuilding and
rehabilitation of the tsunami-ravaged North-East, has run into a storm.
The year 2000 draft constitution was, earlier, burnt by protesting
UNP MPs in Parliament when it was taken up for debate. The ceasefire
agreement which has helped save a multitude of lives and all attempts at
power-devolution have came in for vicious criticism.
Therefore, it could be said that we have made very little progress
from the days of the July 1983 ethnic holocaust. As we see it, there is
no future for Sri Lanka outside the framework of a power-sharing
arrangement.
Unless and until Lanka's ethnic groups learn to accommodate each
other's legitimate demands and interests and evolve a governing
structure which would give expression to this understanding, there is
unlikely to be a degree of peace in Sri Lanka.
If Sri Lanka fails in this endeavour, it would condemn itself into
repeating the tragic blunders of history. May this fate not befall us,
is our hope.
Meanwhile, the State should take on itself the task of educating the
people on these gut issues in the ethnic conflict. The agents of
disinformation who currently cry "foul" need to be defeated. |