MARGINALIA:

Emotionalism should take a back seat

K S SIVAKUMARAN

One of the stumbling blocks for congenial development in all spheres in this country is over enthusiasm in bowing down to extreme emotionalism by some agitators, genuine though their intentions are supposed to be.

It is surprising indeed that some of our intellectuals in different communities that constitute in the blessed country of ours are easily provoked on some social or political issue thus losing their rationality to analyze things in a cool manner. This is tragic indeed.

True, dissent is part of the mechanism in the democratic process and everyone is entitled to air his or her views in a civilized and logical manner to have productive effects. But invariably this fact is forgotten in most cases and the knotty problems remain unsolved due to emotion oriented pronouncements or aspersions.

What happens then is misunderstanding and preconceived prejudices follow. Whether we accept or not some centuries old prejudices among us remain hidden. As Jung the psychologist in one of his essays said racism comes to the fore in times of extreme pressure.

Now this is not an uncommon factor in many parts of the world as we can see in the world news pages and view international spotlights on the TV screen. So this negative factor is not peculiar to our island nation alone. So we have had several periodical unrests in the country culminating in insurrections and militant movements triggering to terrorism.

Knowingly or unknowingly terrorism was unleashed on all fronts and from all quarters. But by now we must have learned bitter lessons. But we don’t seem to have realized our follies as mutual trust seems to be the missing link among us. Yet, hope is not all lost. As we know hard line attitudes seem to be dropping encountering contemporary reality.

That’s a sure sign of enlightenment. And marching towards progress in unison is anticipated. However what’s delaying the process is lack of communication, if not total ignorance of the particular areas of sore relationship.

What’s wrong with the communication? Everything beginning with language. Majority of the Lankan populace know only the language the majority speaks which is Sinhala. Some speak Tamil. And less than five percent speak English. Among them are many who are not rooted either in Sinhala or Tamil cultural roots. And each group speaks particular dialects and accents in their own mother tongues or acquired tongue.

For instance majority of the Sinhalese and Muslims living in the Southern half of Lanka is familiar with the Tamil spoken with an Indian accent and not so much the Tamil accent spoken the North. And the Tamil spoken in the East is understood well by the people in the Uva because of proximity of the provinces than by people in the North that includes Vanni region. In the Vanni, there are many people from the hill country inhabiting the region during the frequent ethnic riots previously.

What this writer implies here is that there is no smooth flow of communication among people even if they try to understand each other in their own terms.

However the written language is the same for all whatever communities they belong to. But again the print media in particular and electronic media to a lesser degree is parochial in establishing each community’s ideology and ignoring the ‘other’ or in its coverage of news and views of the other. There might have been exceptions in some instances and that too is limited to politics or politicians. I need not elaborate on this as it is obvious.

The Sinhala media concentrates on Sinhala culture and the Tamil media theirs. Sparingly there might have been exceptions. And the English press as natural right spotlight on Sinhala culture. Occasionally space is allocated for reporting and commenting on Tamil cultural activities.

But it maybe argued that few numbers of contributors competent in more than one language are available to do this job. It’s true, but why cannot we rectify this shortcoming by trying to familiarize and understand each other’s culture without taking a mono stance? This needs an attitudinal change. Of course it cannot come by overnight. It can come through sooner if political leadership takes the initiative in a consistent manner.

That’s why President Mahinda Rajapaksa is liked by many for his statesman’s demeanour and pronouncements treating everybody as not majority and minority but as Lankans in true spirit. One wishes he hastens his ideals in double quick time before possible chaos invades us over again. But again everything depends on everybody concerned to support him to achieve the ideals.

Unity in diversity is strength no doubt. All religions teach us that LOVE is the key factor in understanding the Almighty.

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