Independent Commissions Have A Role In Reconciliation

By Somapala Gunadheera –October 29, 2016

Somapala Gunadheera

To my mind the most shocking news we have had of late is the death of the two Jaffna undergraduates who died on their way home from a get-together. Two young lives heading towards prosperity and renown, in a rough terrain had been nipped in the bud.

I remember how I traveled the length and breadth of the Peninsula as a Cadet, when I was around their age. One day I had a tyre puncture on my way home and I was standing hopelessly near my car. A passing taxi driver stopped his car on seeing me. He changed my wheel dexterously without allowing me even to fetch the spare. As the Good Samaritan took leave of me, I pulled out my purse to compensate him. The man refused to accept payment, appearing to be hurt by my attempt to commercialize civic values.

Such values and comradeship was damaged by politicians on both sides who made racial differences a weapon to catch votes. Despite such exploitation common people on either side made a valiant effort to maintain racial amity. It is significant that the above incident took place at the peak of the ‘Sri’ crisis with my car bearing a ‘Sri’ number plate.

I did the same rounds forty years later, as the Chairman of the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction of the North, when the LTTE insurrection was on. Even under such stress. I was as safe as houses though I was never covered by security. With that personal experience, I have the highest regard for the goodwill and hospitality of the North.

Strangely, that standard appears to be deteriorating, despite the end of the conflict and that, under a dispensation committed to reconciliation and good governance. May be under the previous regime discipline was maintained under relentless pressure. If Yahapalanaya wants to change that stance, it has to be quick in finding an amicable system of live and let live. That cannot be done with a magic wand or tiresome public declarations.

One does not have to go far to find instances of interracial conflict under the present Government. The alleged assault on some Sinhala students of the Jaffna University, who performed a Kandyan dance to welcome a new batch, is a clear case in point. That was followed in Peradeniya with an assault on a group of devotees returning from a Hindu shrine. The latest is the death of the two University students followed by presumed reprisals against security personnel stationed in the North. The brewing crisis is fraught with dangerous potential.

But the Government appears to be trying to stop the rising storm by merely sweeping things under the carpet. Though it claims to be committed to reconciliation, not much has happened in that direction, after it came to power, except the setting up of prestigious structures to achieve the object. Of course, one has to sympathize with the problem of having to satisfy the demands of two opposite poles among strange bedfellows. The fact that at least parts of the habitual opponents have been able to come together is a historical achievement. But such coalition will make no meaning if the new partners fail to sail the ship of state on even keel.

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