A Maha Sanga-led reconciliation initiative in Sri Lanka

By Harim Peiris

The last couple of weeks witnessed a flurry of activities which brought to light a quiet initiative which had been progressing during the past year in terms of the post-war reconciliation process in the country. For close upon a decade and a half, after the end of the fighting in 2009, neither the effects nor the causes of the conflict have been adequately dealt with and/or addressed. Regarding the effects of the war, we still have detainees under the PTA who continue to be detained, and private and communal land occupied by the military which has yet to be released.

Further no effective remedies have been provided for the multiple vulnerabilities of the large number of widows and women headed households in the Vanni. The political issues underlying our long-drawn-out civil war and associated bouts of politically motivated communal violence was best described by former MP and suicide bomb victim Dr. Neelan Tiruchelvam, when he termed it “the anomaly of imposing a mono-ethnic state on a multiethnic society”.

Now the Ranil Wickremesinghe Administration in Sri Lanka has also accepted that the process of national reconciliation needs to be moved forward and towards this end, during its brief one year in office, has been talking about both the full implementation of the 13th amendment to the Constitution and the establishment of a truth and reconciliation commission.

Further as part of addressing our bankrupt national finances, the Wickremesinghe Administration also committed itself to the process of demilitarisation, demobilization and reintegration (DDR), a normal process of right sizing a post war military, to its peace keeping rather than war fighting strength. The DDR process has also not occurred in Sri Lanka. With 1.5% of the population in active military service, Sri Lanka is South Asia’s most militarized society with a defence budget that is greater now, than it was any time during our war and much more than either our education or health budgets.

In this context, a group of Maha Sanga, from various Nikayas, styled as the Sanga for Better Sri Lanka (SBSL) had come together and quietly resolved to take the initiative and seek to be a catalyst and move forward a process of national reconciliation. Towards this end they had discretely commenced a dialogue process with the influential Tamil Disapora groups, coming under the umbrella of the Global Tamil Forum (GTF), the largest and the most influential and visible of the Tamil Diaspora organizations around the world.

The structured dialogue included intense discussions in Nargakot (Nepal) and culminated in the Himalayan Declaration, a statement of principals to be used in a national conversation within Sri Lanka. The intent of the national conversation is to explore the ways and means whereby we can better create a Sri Lanka, where every citizen can live peacefully with dignity, trust and no fear or suspicion, enjoying equal rights.

Their structured dialogue itself produced the understanding and their common statement that “lack of understanding and the fear of the other” were fundamental factors in undermining the ethnic and religious harmony in the country. The dialogue revealed that “the Sinhala Buddhist community feared about preserving their historic and unique identity and pride of place in the (only) country they inhabit from the many forces they view as antagonistic, which include minority communities and the Tamil Diaspora.

On the other hand, the emotions and politics of the Tamil people were always driven by a mirroring fear – losing their defining identity and viable existence in areas they have been inhabiting for long periods of history through calculated state measures”. The Himalayan declaration flowing from this dialogue and understandings reached, provide a set of guiding principles which seeks to ensure equality and equal citizenship for all peoples, promotes the pluralistic character of Sri Lanka and calls for respecting the different ethnic, religious and cultural identities while strengthening trust and promoting responsive and accountable public governance.

In pursuit of these above noble ideals and goals, the Sanga for a better Sri Lanka (SBSL) and the Global Tamil Forum (GTF) combined and as twin delegations, cris crossed Sri Lanka in the recent past, meeting all religious dignitaries and political leaders, presenting the “Himalayan Declaration” and explaining the thinking behind it.

They were accorded meetings and received the blessings of the most venerable Maha Nayakas of the Malwatta and Asgiriya Chapters, the Chairman of the Catholic Bishops Conference, as well as Cardinal Malcom Ranjith, the All Ceylon Jammiyathul Ulama (ACJU) as well as the Mosques Federation and the Maikundal Swami Kurukkal of the Nallur Temple Jaffna, among other Hindu priests and leaders. The twin delegations also met and engaged Sri Lanka’s political leadership in President Ranil Wickramasinghe, former Presidents Mahinda Rajapakse, Maithripala Sirisena and Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga as well as the Speaker of Parliament, the Leader of the Opposition and other political party leaders.

The initiative by the Maha Sanga of the SBSL in cooperation with the Tamil Diaspora structured in the Global Tamil Forum (GTF) and their joint Himalayan Declaration and the commencement of the national conversation was well received by all the religious and political leaders of Sri Lanka. It was noteworthy that none of the spiritual (religious) nor temporal (political) leaders the delegations met, were negative about the initiative and, on the contrary, all wished it well.

The task before the SBSL and the GTF is huge. They require a national conversation or dialogue process, like the Sudu Nelum” movement of President Kumaratunga thirty years ago. But CBK launched Sudu Nelum as president and with the full backing of the state. The SBSL and the GTF would have to do a near similar exercise with the just the hope, goodwill and aspirations of a nation to guide and enable them.