A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Tuesday, April 2, 2019
Value of president’s three-track approach to drug problem
By Jehan Perera-April 1, 2019, 9:09 pm
When
President Maithripala Sirisena first took up the challenge of tackling
the country’s drug problem its critics saw it as an idiosyncratic
exercise that would soon fizzle out. The president’s championing of the
death penalty made it seem to be more an individual rather than as a
collective position of the government. Although Sri Lanka has had the
death penalty in its laws, and public opinion surveys show popular
backing for it, the death penalty has not been implemented for over four
decades. The Buddhist ethos that is dominant in the country is one in
which the taking of life is not condoned. In addition, the country has
ratified international agreements in which the spirit is to protect
human life under all circumstances.
Contrary to expectations, the president’s campaign against drugs has
been both expanding and bearing fruit. Every week, if not every day,
there are news flashes about the arrest of yet another drug dealer or
about the apprehension of yet another huge consignment of drugs.
President Sirisena has sought to dispel any doubts about his seriousness
to vanquish the drug lords. He has declared publicly that April 1 being
April Fool’s day nor not, that the public destruction of a vast
quantity of drugs that have been seized, will indeed take place. He has
also promised to ensure that the destruction of other stocks of drugs
that have been seized would take place publicly on a regular basis. This
transparency will lay to rest the doubts in the minds of those who have
a critical orientation towards the government.
The president’s resolute leadership in tackling the drug-related
problems has also had the outcome of bringing other social and political
forces into the anti-drugs campaign. An example would be the recent
protest march and rally organized in Mattakkuliya by the Catholic Church
led by Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith in which the president, prime minister
and senior members of the government participated. The Cardinal issued a
pastoral letter urging all parishes and institutions to stage a
demonstration on key roads in Colombo on March 31 after Sunday Mass
denouncing drug trafficking. President Sirisena’s personal interest in
the issue has given an umbrella of protection to those who might
otherwise not have wished to tackle a dangerous issue in which those who
have a lot to lose could be dangerous enemies.
THREE TRACKS
In addition to the main anti-drug event that took place in Mattakkuliya
on Sunday that was attended by thousands of participants, there were
also small scale events that took place simultaneously in all 130
parishes in the vicinity of Catholic Churches in the Colombo area. One
such event took place under the leadership of Fr Felician Perera, the
parish priest of St Mary’s Church, Bambalapitiya. Over a hundred people
engaged in a march on the main road. They carried banners and placards
calling for an end to drug trafficking and to the havoc it was creating
within families.
As explained by Fr Felician on this occasion there is a need for a three
track approach to dealing with the drug problem. The first track would
be to create awareness about the problem of the drug trade and drug
addiction and the danger that this poses to society including to those
who are not currently being affected by the problem. Very often those
who are not directly affected by a problem prefer not to get involved in
dealing with it. They hope that the problem will not come to them. This
leads to a lack of public spiritedness and to general apathy. There is a
need for a process of confidence building to enable people who have got
traumatized by the human rights violations and governance under a state
of emergency during the long period of war, to lose their fear and
sense of being vulnerable to those who might act against them outside of
the law.
The second track is to strengthen the sense of community by engaging in
joint activities. This spirit was evident in those who participated in
the march and rally at Bambalapitiya. There was a discussion about how
the drug problem was coming closer home and how even children of
families living in the vicinity of the church have fallen victim to the
problem of drug addiction. At the conclusion of the joint activities
there was a request that the joint action should not end with this one,
but should also take on the challenges of other problems such as
corruption.
ADDRESSING ROOTS
The third track that needs to be taken on is to deal with the roots of
the problem. If this problem is not tackled, then all that is being done
is to engage in firefighting, where one fire is extinguished only to
restart elsewhere. So far it appears that many of those being arrested
are more in the middle tier of drug trafficking than at its core.
Getting to the core requires an act of political will and courage, where
the leadership of the government decides to crack down and actively
pursue those who are breaking the law and are behind this
ultra-lucrative trade. At the Mattakkuliya rally, President Sirisena
promised to end the drug problem within three months. With less than a
year to go before he relinquishes the presidency President Sirisena may
be thinking about the legacy he will leave the country.
At the very beginning of his term as president, President Sirisena on
his own volition made the most important change for good governance and
better justice in the country by passing the 19th Amendment to the
constitution that reduced the president’s powers and strengthened the
institutions responsible for law and order and justice, especially the
courts and the police. The 19th Amendment was far reaching because it
also strengthened other independent institutions too, such as the public
service commission and the human rights commission. This has made
governance in Sri Lanka less arbitrary and more law abiding than what it
was. There is today less fear and more freedom for individuals to
protest and to oppose the government than there was in the past.
The parallel to the ethnic conflict that continues to divide and
debilitate the country is worth noting. The three track solution has
applicability to this problem as well. The first track would be to
create awareness about the issues that arise when ethnic majorities and
ethnic minorities coexist in the same polity. They each have their own
historical experiences and fears which are passed down generation by
generation. There is also a need to engage in social cohesion activities
that bring the different ethnic communities together, such as at the
time of traditional festivals. The forthcoming Sinhala and Tamil New
Year would offer such an opportunity. But most of all there is the need
for political leadership to resolve the ethnic conflict, such as what
President Sirisena is giving to put an end to the drug problem.