When seeking the rainbows
The post victory euphoria over LTTE terror
will soon fade. As our President stated more than once, the realities of
national reconciliation and rebuilding will take priority over all else.
His vision of building a Sri Lankan nation where there are no
minorities, but only Sri Lankans will be on the front-burner.
A long and hard road is ahead of us all.
There is never a doubt that the political process must bring about a
lasting solution as early as possible, to end the uncertainty of what
that solution will be.
We all know that it will need to be a
solution that will ensure that Sri Lanka will be a unified State, where
all her citizens are treated as equals. More importantly they must be
offered equal opportunities and should be able to live in a secure and
safe environment, with honour and dignity.
All must have access to social and economic
opportunities to build a better future for themselves and their
children. It must be a nation where diversity is celebrated and racial
and religious identities are respected.
A lot has been said by the political
leadership on this need. It is now time for all to agree on a common
agenda, with the giving and taking being done with reason and
rationality as key factors and not petty divisive ‘who scores the most
points’ or ‘winner takes it all’ type of agenda.
Interestingly, this is also the wish on top
of the agenda of Sri Lanka’s youth as demonstrated in the findings of an
extensive dialogue-based survey carried out of young village community
leaders by ‘Sri Lanka’s Promise; Village Development Trust’ in the
recent past.
The study undertook to determine what our
youth considered as happiness factors. Contrary to the belief of those
who present light-hearted lumpant type representations of decadent
sub-cultures on our media to attract the attention of our youth, they
have demonstrated that they are above it all.
According to the findings of the study, they
consider preservation of basic values of upholding the rule of law,
security and safety, access to opportunities, national and personal
integrity, bringing back lasting peace, respectful caring for the aged,
children, women and the disabled as important considerations in the
formation of their happiness index.
It is time that initiatives such as ‘Mother
Sri Lanka’ take on strong positions to ensure that these key messages
are communicated effectively to all Sri Lankans regardless of where they
are located.
The peace doves we saw as only a distant
dream in the past, now must be reflected on white flags and must fly
alongside Sri Lanka’s national flag to symbolise the need to take on the
challenge of nation rebuilding.
They can symbolically be carried by our war
heroes, youth and people from all walks of life. Unifiers such as the
Mother Sri Lanka theme song and all others that focus on the
reconciliation and building of national unity must be featured in the
media and all efforts of communicators be they of the public or the
private sector must be in tandem with the central theme of peace,
reconciliation and rebuilding the Sri Lankan nation.
The time when some were excluded or opted to
stay excluded from the process need be over. It is a Motherhood truism
that the long-term success of the process will depend on the buy-in and
participation of all in the solution.
It is time that we stopped looking at issues
with coloured eye-glasses, tinted with affiliations and dogmas of our
self, group or bipartisan interests and place the national interest
above all. It is time we looked at ourselves in the mirror instead of
looking through those tinted glasses at issues around us.
Vision and direction
The title of a presentation made by a Village Leadership Development
Trust group on Sri Lanka’s future development was Puthu venuwen ratak,
rata venuven hetak. In Tamil it reads Oru desham enadu pillai aha, nalai
enadu deshathika aha with its English meaning ‘A nation for my Child, a
tomorrow for the Nation’.
It takes our minds aptly to the aspiration of every Sri Lankan mother
and father regardless of their race, caste or creed. Each wants to
ensure that there is a future that will be bright and sustainable.
A future they can leave behind with confidence for their children.
‘Mother Sri Lanka’, a programme driven by an independent Foundation on
the initiation of the President’s office was set up long before the
defeat of LTTE terrorism was in the horizon.
It demonstrates the vision and direction that was in the offing, not
as an outcome of recent events, but as a means to meet the real need for
reconciliation and rebuilding.
Many ideas have now been placed on the table for consideration based
on a broader agenda to meet this vision and direction. A special peace
song created for the programme is now presented on most electronic media
and can well form the theme song for reconciliation and rebuilding
efforts.
It is presented with a strong focus on the future and how bright and
hopeful it can be for all Sri Lankans, when seeking a unity within the
diversity that should be the future hallmark of our nation.
Ensuring sustainability
Looking beyond the creation of emotive appeal, there are thoughts on
the type of development that must take place in the North and the East.
The determinant of the ideal scale and model of development must
naturally be determined by the elected representatives of the people of
those provinces, within a guided policy framework of national interest.
Given the socio-cultural realities, rushes of gold-digger type
investments from outside, be they from rest of Sri Lanka, from
neighbouring India or other lands, may lead to an overwhelming situation
resulting perhaps in building further mistrust, unless carried out with
direct stakeholder participation in the form of joint ventures.
According to some analysts, this aspect, if mishandled may defeat the
very objectives of why fast-paced development of these and other
backward areas of the country is sought.
Given the global challenges we face today in the climate change
domain and the need for instilling more sustainable and socially and
environmentally responsible lifestyles, a people-based small and medium
sector dominated development is what may be envisaged.
Ensuring the resettlement of the displaced, re-building devastated
infrastructure and facilitation of needed resources will be the
responsibility of the Government supported by the professional and
business communities, donors and other well-wishers. The challenge of
getting it right will fall squarely on the shoulders of strategic
planners, technocrats and the political and civic leadership.
Novel solutions
Some have suggested to the Government that it may be prudent to
appoint a panel of respected and representative Sri Lankan civic leaders
to assist initiatives on the fronts of reconciliation and rebuilding of
trust and in managing the resettlement of the displaced.
There are ideas in place on using info-communications technology to
overcome the difficulties faced by the Tamil and Muslim population in
seeking administrative assistance as a result of the shortage of Tamil
speaking officers and Police and other personnel.
In addition to the call made by the Presidential Task Force for
Redevelopment of the North to Tamil professionals, both in service and
retired from the public and private sectors to assist in these areas
with investment of time, effort and financial investment, there is also
a call to set up ‘Call Centres’ operating round the clock to answer
queries and service needs articulated in Tamil redirecting them via
mobile phone or the Internet to persons qualified and are able to be of
assistance.
Host a family
Immediate relief measures can be set up to support the current
efforts of the Defence Forces and other organisations in looking after
needs of the IDPs housed in camps. What is suggested is to link each
family in camps through web-based virtual ‘Host a Family’ program,
calling out to Sri Lankans living in Sri Lanka with the ability to help
out at least for a year, the Diaspora (of all races) and non-Sri Lankans
with goodwill towards Sri Lanka to “Lend a hand to our brethren to
rebuild their lives”.
Such a program can be driven with the construction of an e-data base,
transparent person to person contact facilities through Skype or similar
networks, set up at the IDP camps and through direct but supervised
money transfer mechanisms between the host and the supported families.
Another idea is to set in place a program of Lending a helping Hand
for the development of agriculture, industry and business in the areas
where resettlement will take place by linking farmers, businessmen and
industrialists and small business operators of the rest of the country
with those in the Northern and Eastern Provinces.
Such a program can be implemented as programs of exchange of visits,
helping with seeking and sourcing finance, sharing of know-how and
establishing ‘family to family bonding’.
The challenges are many. The options and opportunities before us are
also many. The thrust should be to ensure that the most transparent and
trustworthy programs are implemented.
These naturally must be designed to meet the security concerns and
needs as well with a High Tech but High Touch approach. Done well, these
will go a long way in our nation’s quest to seek lasting rainbows for
all our brethren.
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