'Dignity' and 'confidence' as key words

Commenting on the current wave of lawlessness in Britain, an educationist told a BBC interviewer a couple of days back that the dark events had a lot to do with a lack of dignity among sections of the young. Her lament, essentially, was that the British primary and secondary school systems did not focus strongly on personal dignity any more and this accounted for the wild behaviour among some youngsters of the land. She argued that if the young were instructed and guided consistently into acting with a sense of responsibility, which is central to personal dignity, Britain would not have been compelled to witness the present revolting and shaming happenings.

This is a highly insightful way, we believe, of looking at Britain's current torments. It is very rarely that troubled publics admit responsibility for the afflictions that visit them. Most often than not polities point accusing fingers at anybody or anything located outside themselves for incidents of a particularly disturbing nature. It is encouraging that the British educationist in question is an exception to this rule and a very exemplary one at that.

It is essential that societies learn to turn the searchlight of discernment inward, to their hearts and minds, to find out where they are going wrong instead of locating the source of their troubles and miseries in some external sphere, which approach has the effect of absolving themselves of the blame for the ills that befall them. Such attitudes, in fact, smack strongly of emotional immaturity. 'Character is destiny' and this holds for collectivities too. Values are responsible for character-building and this is lost sight of by most societies. Britain, however, is searching its soul, and this is the right way to go.

Another value-laden and striking word, that was brought into public discourse recently, thanks to Professor Rajiva Wijesinha MP, was 'confidence.' Participating in the Emergency debate some days back, Prof. Wijesinha, among other things, pointed to the importance of the government and the TNA cultivating and sustaining confidence in each other in the course of deliberating their way to an understanding on ending the conflict peacefully. Rather than highlight the negatives, the local polity should focus on and build on the positives that are coming out of these bilateral talks, Prof. Wijesinha pointed out.

We are glad that a few voices among us are recalling the minds of the public to the need to base their thinking and actions on core values, such as dignity, trust and confidence, which would ultimately determine the state of our nations. It would not do for the older Sri Lankans, in particular, to constantly and nostalgically dwell on times past when public discourse was based on civilized restraint and social graces. Public discourse in Sri Lanka has progressively lost this moral flavour and this no-one could question but the task before polities, such as ours, is to bring moral values right back to the heart of public life and discourse and this has to be done collectively and unitedly.

It could not be emphasized enough that local politics have suffered steady degeneration as a result of this moral dimension having been lost sight of by our political and public actors. While public discussion and deliberations have to be value-based to prove meaningful, political action and policy making should be guided by a profound sense of values too.

As we see it, our political community has to choose between Machiavelli and Plato. This is particularly true on the issue of bringing about a fair and durable settlement to our conflict. Unfortunately, Machiavelli more than Plato, seems to have been the model for many a local political actor. It is the spirit of Machiavelli that ensured the undermining of peace deliberations in the past and which brought about the undoing of peace accords which had been almost wrapped up between the main parties. It was Machiavellian cunning, for instance, that underlay the political opportunism which precipitated the collapse of the Bandaranaike-Chelvanayagam pact and the Dudley-Chalvanayagam pact of the fifties and sixties, for instance.

The dire result of such value-neutral or amoral politics, to say the least, was the wasting 30-year war which claimed nearly 100,000 lives. At this juncture, all relevant parties need to remember that we need to hold on tight to the lessons of history, lest the costly blunders of the past are committed all over again. In contrast to Machiavelli, Plato advocated value-based political and public action which brings harmony rather than divisions to societies. The Parliamentary Select Committee process gives Sri Lanka an invaluable opportunity to put right all that has gone wrong within it over the decades. Hopefully, ideals rather crass opportunism would determine this country's future.