A Sri Lankan identity - the enduring challenge

'A political solution, signifying a common Sri Lankan identity' - this is and was the seemingly insurmountable challenge. Over the past 25 years and more, no other issue, perhaps, has invited more feverish and exhausting hair-splitting locally, than this question of evolving a common Sri Lankan identity. The seminar hours spent over it have been painfully interminable. The 'papers', documents and publications brought out over the issue have reached mind-boggling proportions. Yet, agreement over what should constitute a Sri Lankan identity or a definition of the concept seems to be deftly eluding the grasp of the local public.

The multifarious 'schools of thought' and shades of opinion which the conflict in this country spawned profligately over the decades are more than adequate proof of the divisions the concept of a Lankan identity has engendered in local society. This in turn is a pointer to the highly complex and knotty nature of the conflict. Generally, it could be said that many Lankans have been guided more by emotion and less by reason on this subject. Hence, its explosive and contentious character.

These realizations should come as a surprise in a country where, theoretically at least, a spirit of humanity should reign. We possess a rich spiritual heritage which should guide us in these deliberations but on this score too success has been eluding us. Ideally, the idea that all Lankans, irrespective of ethnicity, religion, language etc, are equal members of one polity or nation, should be the basis of our common national identity. In other words, this is the essence of being Sri Lankan.

This is so simple a notion but, yet, not all Lankans are agreed on this defining essence. Some would prefer to exclude others from partaking of this common identity. In other words, these dissenters would prefer to identify Sri Lankanness exclusively with this or that group and exclude the rest of Sri Lankan citizens from this common fold. These differences in perception played a considerable part in our conflict and the challenge now is to bridge these differences in perception.

Some time back President Mahinda Rajapaksa made a starkly simple and non-divisive definition of being Sri Lankan. That is, there are no 'majority' or 'minority' communities in Sri Lanka. There are only those who are loyal to Sri Lanka and those who are not. This is the principal division and none other.

In other words, provided a person is loyal to the country, he or she is a Sri Lankan. Other differences do not matter at all. Underlying this definition is the intuition that humanity is one and are naturally and indivisibly linked to each other. Needless to say, such a concept accords perfectly with the truths contained in our religions.

This is a sound conceptual basis to build on in the search for a political solution and we hope the parties to the current talks on a negotiated solution, the state and the TNA, would ground their talks on these insights. It is a new and novel foundation for the establishment of a political solution and is one which will render the 'discourses' and debates which have been dominant so far, useless, dated and superfluous.

Accordingly, we need to begin with these new conceptual tools. Since the oneness of Lankans is being recognized by the state, there are unlikely to be any difficulties in working out and conceptualizing the institutions and mechanisms that would promote caring and sharing among Lankans. In this new dispensation, a community of this country is one among equals and the question of a particular community being 'more equal than others', just would not arise.

This is an extremely pragmatic conceptual basis to build on. If it is accepted that all are equal in this country by virtue of being human, it naturally follows that the dignity of everyone in this land should be respected, upheld and promoted by all. Accordingly, there would be no needless haggling over granting every human what is due to him or her. Coming to think of it, this is a uniquely home-grown mode of perception which smacks of the true spirituality of us Sri Lankans.

Accordingly, we are obliged to abandon the perceptual blinkers of the past and affirm each other as being part of the same citizenry and family. This does not mean that 'diversity' would disappear, but 'diversity' would be seen as enriching our common national identity as Sri Lankans. In other words, we would be having 'unity in diversity.'