Peace mandate implementation strategy

BY DR. J. T. XAVIER, Faculty of Healthcare Sciences, Eastern University

AT the Presidential election held on 17th November, 2005, both President Mahinda Rajapakse and the UNP Presidential candidate Ranil Wickremasinghe received a clear - no war - peace through negotiations mandate.

The lessons of history teach us that armed revolutions have seldom failed to change systems of social management or governance, usually at the cost of bloodshed, death and destruction.

The current violent activities and counter activities indicate that the danger of an uncontrollable disaster is at our doorstep.

In an article published in the 'Daily News' of December 22, 2005 under the caption - 'Let's seize this opportunity to bring peace', Dr. Jayantha Dhanapala has prescribed an essential preliminary dose of peace medicine, for the eventual restoration of peace, and for the control of peace failure violence and terrorism in Sri Lanka. His advice is quoted below:

"We have to move speedily now to convert the Ceasefire into a permanent peace because once we have a constitutional arrangement which satisfies the aspirations of the Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim and other categories of the Lankan population, guaranteeing their human rights, then we pass from this temporary ceasefire stage with all its imperfections into a permanent state. That is the only solution."

Politicians who are members of political parties in the South or elsewhere, who are exposed to the temptation of exploiting the cultural diversity of the Lankan population to achieve private objectives, cannot solely constitute a competent and trustworthy body, to decide on a constitutional arrangement or reforms envisaged by Dr. Jayantha Dhanapala.

The hitherto impossible task of establishing peace in Sri Lanka through acceptable constitutional reforms and the implementation of confidence building projects can be made possible through following the advice recorded in verse 462 of the Thirukkural, a Tamil poetic composition of the early Christian era.

"For those who work in consultation with well chosen experts, no task is impossible."

The southern consensus could be an agreement to accept constitutional reforms recommended by a competent Constitutional Reforms Advisory Committee comprising well-chosen experts in Political Science, Social Science, History, Constitutional Law, International Law, Conflict Resolution, functions and activities of the United Nations Organisation and other organisations working to achieve the global objectives of peace, good health, educational and socio-economic advancement.

In proportion to the number of seats held in Parliament, political parties could be allowed to nominate their representatives to the Constitutional Reforms Advisory Committee.

This committee should present its recommendations to parliament within a prescribed period of time, for the enactment of reforms legislation.

This is a prerequisite for a successful negotiations with the LTTE. When armed rebels fail or lose hopes of achieving the objectives of their rebellion, they resort to the next step of trying to transform a rebellion into an armed revolution with manipulated mass participation.

Some post presidential election attitudes, developments and utterances appear to have destroyed the trust and confidence in an early, just and fair negotiated settlement of the ethnic conflict.

The crucial decision now, is not where but how early the peace talks with the Tigers should recommence. Delay may result in missing the last bus to peace and unity in Sri Lanka.

Destroyers of peace, who utilise violence and terrorism to achieve and safeguard national, sectarian and personal interests cannot contribute to global or regional peace-building.

Peace-building in Sri Lanka, is the responsibility of all peace loving citizens who should be trained and motivated to be peace makers, through peace education.

To contribute its mite to peace building, the Eastern University Sri Lanka has included a compulsory, core-course learning module on Peace Medicine, Social Harmony and Trilingual Communication Skills (English, Tamil and Sinhala) in the curriculum of the MBBS degree of the Eastern University.

The new Faculty of HealthCare Sciences of the Eastern University, which will admit its first batch of fifty medical undergraduates on January 23, solicits the support of peace secretariat in Sri Lanka, foreign embassies, funding agencies, philanthropists, Lankan expatriates and experts in relevant fields of peace education, to enhance its contribution to peace building, through its mass peace education projects.

The target group for peace education will be all the citizens of Sri Lanka, especially the students in primary, secondary and tertiary educational establishments in Sri Lanka.