HONESTY IS THE ROADWAY TO RECONCILIATION AND HEALING
HONESTY IS THE ROADWAY TO RECONCILIATION AND HEALING
How many symposiums and conferences have been held on reconciliation and healing with no results produced? How many religious services have been conducted, sermons preached on reconciliation and healing without any positive improvements and changes for the better being found? Did any of us who have been involved in such exercises have had the guts to re-examine, raise self-searching questions with honesty to find the reasons for the failures? The trend is developing to look for the scapegoat on whom the blame could be laid so that I will not have to take responsibility. No wonder, that the world is not experiencing reconciliation and healing as the very fabric of honesty has gone missing in the very places that are meant to bring reconciliation and healing.
Recently, the
President of our Country H.E Gotabaya Rajapakshe said at a state function “We
have made mistakes….” referring to his regime’s failures during the last 2
years. One might ask "Can the President's statement made be taken seriously
and positively?". It is a known fact that the election platforms during
the last two elections, which brought the present regime into power were
submerged with racism and religious extremism. If the President has made an
honest statement about mistakes in his government, then it should be agreed
upon by every right-thinking citizen that our nation is very badly inflicted
with racism and religious extremism. “Those who are healthy have no need of a
physician, but only those who are sick” – the famous words of Jesus emphasizes the
need, to be honest about our requirement for healing. Unless one honestly admits
that wrong has taken place, he cannot work to find healing, peace and
reconciliation. It will be a herculean task for President Gotabaya and his
government to demonstrate their honesty in searching and correcting so many
acts of the past, which are wounds that have been inflicted upon the Sri Lankan
society spanning over several decades.
Is our nation sick or wounded?
An honest examination of our nation will tell us that this
country’s situation is far beyond a mere state of sickness. If it is a sickness
that has been wreaking our nation, by now we would have moved towards the goal
of healing and reconciliation. When the 30-year war was ended with military
power, President Mahinda Rajapaksha had all the ingredients in his hands to
usher in an honest process of healing and reconciliation. With the
recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission in hand, steps
could have been taken to make honest efforts for peacebuilding. Instead, the
pathway of nurturing ethnic and religious extremists camps have added insult to
the injury. Very sadly we have missed a golden opportunity. Our nation is been
plunged into a more and more ethnic and religious conflict. The International
Community persistently exposes the unattended past wounds of Sri Lanka. There
is an unprecedented call upon Sri Lanka to make an honest admission of our
nation’s wounds which are far more serious than we could ever think of. We are
a wounded nation that continues to find no healing despite the tenets of the
four major world religions being well-grounded here.
Why call it
a state of woundedness rather than a sickness? There’s a huge difference
between being sick and being wounded. For a sick person, remedial therapies can be followed to find healing either by finding the cause of
the ailment or by treating the symptoms. But when a wound has been inflicted
there is an essential process to be followed. While attempting to bring
reconciliation between an estranged couple, the counsellor called upon the
wounded wife to consent for reconciliation. The wounded wife responded saying –
“Don’t talk to me about ‘reconciling’ with my husband who’s stuck a knife in my
guts and is still twisting it.” How true and relevant are these words for a
wounded nation like ours?
While
honesty demands a major role to be played by all of us to identify the areas in
which wounds have been inflicted in our nation, and intensified honesty is also
demanded to identify the actions that are reinflicting
the wounds or the actions which “keep twisting the knife in the gut”.
Very sadly
the “twisting of the knife in the gut” is being repeatedly carried out even at
the present hour while the President of our country has informed the United
Nations and the international community that he is holding out an olive branch
to many fractions with whom there had been no previous state consultations for
the rebuilding of our nation. The following are a few calamitous acts which are
“twisting the knife in the gut” :
- The non-representation of all segments
in the society when appointing persons to state responsibilities;
- Erecting of commemorative plaques without
equal status being given to the two official languages of our country;
- the reintroduced singing of the
National Anthem in Tamil being stopped again;
- the appointment of a monk - a hate speech
maker promoting and instigating racial and religious conflicts, to head
a commission on “One country, one Law”
These have
raised alarms both nationally and internationally to question the bonafide and
honesty of the Government in the extending of an olive branch inviting the
Civil Society actors, Non-Governmental Organizations and Religious leaders to
help and advise the government in finding peace and reconciliation for the
country.
Sri Lankan Collective for Consensus
During the last four months, I have journeyed together with the SRI LANKAN COLLECTIVE FOR CONSENSUS - a group of key individuals from religious, Civil activists and Non-Governmental Organizations who are involved in Peace and Reconciliation work. An invitation was extended to us for direct talks with key persons of the Government including H. E. the President Gotabaya Rajapakse, which is an ongoing process. Civil activists and NGOs who work for peace and reconciliation have been averse to some governments, especially during the post-war period. Therefore well-meaning persons outside our collective have questioned the bonafide of this. Predictions have been made by some that we will be taken for a ride by the Government. However, we need to keep in mind that the president and his government have a democratic mandate and three more years. We need them to govern in the national interest and it is our duty to help them see the way. I have understood that just as we expect the government to be honest we too need to be honest. Our collective persistently seeks to be honest of its intention and commitment for peace and reconciliation work and whenever the government would open doors for us to share our experience and knowledge we have readily moved in.
We have
always strived to be honest in our feedback to the government on its actions
since we started our conversations. The lack of positive signs including “walk
the talk” have always been highlighted by us at our meetings. But very
surprisingly such moments have not led us to the point of terminating our conversations
but have led both parties in the pathway of further trust-building. At a
recently held meeting with the Minister of Foreign affairs such trust-building
was visibly seen from the side of the government when our collective received
input on the work that various offices like the Office for National
Reconciliation and Unity, Office of Reparation etc. were doing for
peacebuilding work and see how we could provide assistance for peace and
reconciliation work. The willingness of the government to receive what our
collective could offer has enabled me and my colleagues to see a glimpse of the
potential on the part of the government.
Change can
come in many ways. "Be
noble, and the nobleness that lies in other men, sleeping but never dead, will
rise in majesty to meet thine own." James Russell Lowell
November 12, 2021
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