SL’s progress on reconciliation

Professor Rohan Gunratna’s address ‘Reconciliation through Education’ at the National Conference on ‘The role of education in reconciliation’, held in Colombo, on March 13

The course of Sri Lanka’s history changed on May 19, 2009. Since then, there has been significant progress in the area of reconciliation. Sri Lanka witnessed progress in three different areas. First, humanitarian assistance, second, socio-economic development and third, political engagement.

The first step in the national reconciliation process is the rehabilitation of the ex-LTTE cadres, particularly those under 18 years of age. About 12,000 former members of the LTTE underwent rehabilitation. Initially, it was not very clear as to direction Sri Lanka will move, whether it would be retributive justice, whether those LTTE Tigers would be prosecuted or if there would be restorative justice, where they will be rehabilitated and released. I want to share with you that neither the Sri Lankan government nor the Sri Lankan people wanted to prosecute the LTTE Tigers. To ensure future stability and peace in Sri Lanka, the Sri Lankan government decided to rehabilitate and reintegrate 11, 500 LTTE Tigers.

Of the 12,000 LTTE Tigers, about 500 members of the organization were children below 18 years of age. The Sri Lankan government decided to give them opportunities in education. They were almost all educated at the Hindu College in Ratmalana. Today I’m very proud to say that a few hundred of those LTTE Tiger members who underwent rehabilitation have entered university. Some of them have even entered the medical school. This demonstrated the spirit of the Sri Lankan people. Even though they were former combatants, some of them did killings in the North and East and even outside that area, the response of the Sri Lankan public and the government was to rehabilitate and reintegrate them.

Business community

Rehabilitation is the first step in reconciliation. To move beyond this point, Sri Lankan launched a multifaceted reconciliation enterprise. To build harmony, the Kadirgamar Institute created12 different clusters in reconciliation. Reconciliation by engaging the leaders in (1)business, (2) education, (3)information technology, (4) media, (5) religion, (6) community, (7) security, (8) youth, (9) diaspora, (10) women (11) sports and (12) art and culture.

On November 24, 2011, the Kadirgamar Institute convened its inaugural National Conference on Reconciliation. On February 26, the Institute hosted the National Conference on the Role of the Business Community in Reconciliation, a highly successful conference. Many of the key business leaders either invested or decided to invest in the North and the East. A very important Sri Lankan business leader by the name of Eassuwaren helped 52 ex-cadres to get married. He provided the women with sarees, the men with their traditional garments, and cash gifts. A wonderful celebration was held to mark this event.

Eassuwarene has now started a series of enterprises to support the beneficiaries to fully reintegrate into society. They have embarked on certain enterprises that would bring them a livelihood. For example, the making of ‘handunkuru’ or incense sticks. Although they were former members of the LTTE, we don’t refer to them as terrorists. The rejected violence and embraced peace. We call them beneficiaries because they benefited from the reconciliation programme. The rehabilitation programme had six key modes of rehabilitation (1) religious and spiritual rehabilitation (2) educational rehabilitation (3) vocational rehabilitation (4) social and family rehabilitation (5) recreational rehabilitation and (6) psychological rehabilitation.

Learning institutions

Under religious and spiritual rehabilitation, the beneficiaries reflected. They listened to sermons, read religious books and meditated. Under educational rehabilitation, teachers came and taught the beneficiaries. Only about 60 percent of them had only studied up to Ordinary Level. Many were illiterate. The end of the conflict provided these misguided men and women of Sri Lanka a golden opportunities for them to study and transform into productive citizens. In many ways, these rehabilitation centres became learning institutions. Under vocational training programme, the beneficiaries were given opportunities to start a second life. The private sector played a crucial role in building a new set of skills in the beneficiaries. Under social and family rehabilitation, the contact with the family members, including visits became frequent. Under recreational rehabilitation, the beneficiaries played and learnt sport. They didn’t play against any ethnic group, but in mixed teams where they played together and made new friends. Under psychological rehabilitation, the beneficiaries engaged in the creative arts and in mentorship programme. Many important personalities, be they from the government, the private sector, the recreational sector, or media personalities, came and addressed the beneficiaries. These role role models from their own ethnic and religious communities gave them hope.

I personally believe that none of those 11, 500 LTTE Tigers rehabilitated and reintegrated will not go back to violence. They committed and saw what conflict was and they experienced it personally. In my personal opinion, they would lead mainstream lives. Overseas, there is a very small segment of the Tamil community who live in a bubble. I say that they live in a parallel universe. They didn’t experience the reality of what happened in Sri Lanka. Unlike those living in Sri Lanka, a segment of those who live overseas want to Sri Lanka to return to conflict. The way the private sector, community organizations and the government came together in the rehabilitation and the resettlement of the 11, 500 LTTE detainees will create greater stability in the country in the coming months and years.

Exchange programmes

With rehabilitation of the LTTE Tiger members, their thinking was mainstreamed. Similarly, it is very important to make an even greater investment in the general population of the North and East. The 30 year conflict generated tremendous suspicion and mistrust. Due to the bombings and attacks by the LTTE in the South and the military operations in the North, the thinking of the people in the North and South polarized. There was a fragmentation of society and the people started to misunderstand each other.

To build harmony and to bridge this divide, reconciliation is the tool. So reconciliation can be through the business community, university and school teachers and other media. We have also planned a series of events to engage the diverse sectors of society. With the National Conference on the Role of the Youth in Reconciliation, we will engage the youth. With the National Conference on the Role of the Diaspora in Reconciliation, we will engage the diaspora and migrant communities. With the National Conference on the Role of the Arts and Culture in Reconciliation, we will engage the public through song, dance, puppetry and music to build a harmonious living. The arts have mesmerized people across ethnic and religious divides. After years of conflict, these platforms can be harnessed to bring people of diverse communities together.

In the education field, there has been some progress. However, the progress made so far must be consolidated and the efforts must be sustained. For instance, today we have the visionary principals of a number of schools participating in the National Conference on the Role of Education in Reconciliation.

The former Principal of Holy Family Convent, Sister Canice, Javed Yusuf, the former Principal of Zahira College and Nirmalee Wickremasinghe, the Principal of Ladies College played a very important role in bringing people of diverse ethnic and religious communities together. I must say that all these schools have invited children from the North to come and spend time with their brothers and sisters in the South, and similarly the children from these schools have visited the North. To spur reconciliation, the Ladies College can be a model for other schools that do not have exchange programmes. Even before the conflict ended, a number of schools with visionary educators developed models that are worthy of emulation.

Political leaders

Today, the most challenging issue Sri Lanka is facing is to restructure its education system to produce Sri Lankans, and not Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims. As an educator himself, the Monitoring MP for Education, Mohan Lal Grero, will understand the educational challenges Sri Lanka is facing. I grew up at Ananda College but I want to tell you that all my friends were Sinhalese and almost all of them were Buddhists. So we grew up as Sinhalese, we did not grow up as Sri Lankans. Similarly, in Tamil schools, the children grew up as Tamils and not as Sri Lankans. The same is with some Muslim schools. So we need to create an education system where the children will grow up as Sri Lankans. They will benefit by coming to know the richness of growing up with brothers and sisters of different Sri Lankan ethnic and religious groups. When they start to learn Tamil or Sinhalese, they will not have mutual mistrust or suspicion of what another ethnic or religious group represent.

A few years before she passed away, together with Prof. Bruce Hofman, one of the leading counter terrorism specialists in the US, I met with Mrs. Bandaranaike. I asked her, “Madam, what caused the ethnic conflict?” She was very clear when she said: “it was the Sinhala-only Act. Then I said, “Madam, it was your husband the late SWRD Banadaranaike who introduced the Act?” She said, “yes, that is true but that divided our country in many ways.”

Key issues

Politicians will always be politicians, whether it is politicians from the current government, Opposition or the TNA. They will always play the ethnic card, the religious card especially close to the elections to get votes. They will suddenly become un-Sri Lankan. It is very important to develop a norm and an ethic in Sri Lankan society against the exploitation of ethnic and the religious differences in our rich society. We must not permit politicians to play the racial and religious card and damage the social fabric of Sri Lanka.

The greatest heritage, every Sri Lankan inherited is harmony. Unfortunately, the political leaders in the North and South exploited the ethnicities and the religiosities of the people for their personal and political advantage.

The politicians made our people racist. As a result, for 30 years the Sri Lankan people could not enjoy and benefit from this great heritage of harmony. Our education system can recreate the ideal Sri Lankan of the future. It is my fervent hope that this conference will spur debate especially among the elite of our vision to build that ideal Sri Lankan. When I travel to the North or to the South or to the East I do not see racism, but I see so much of racism among the elite in Colombo. There has been a significant amount of propaganda in circulation in the capital. In contrast, the people in the rural areas want to live in peace.

When I ask the people in the Vanni, what is it that you need? They will tell me, I need security, I need a job, I need a house to live in and I need to send my children to school.

Addressing such issues should be the focus not dividing Sri Lanka by ethnicity and religion. I think that there should be reflection and discussion about these key issues confronting the ordinary people by the elite and the intellectuals in Colombo.

There are many mistakes that we have made in the last 25 -30 years that created and sustained the Sri Lankan conflict. It is time we take a hard look at what we have done well and the mistakes we need to undo and make progress, so that there will be no relapse or return to conflict.