A New Partnership

As I browsed through the news items on Sri Lanka these last weeks, looking at familiar headlines around the victory of the army in the east versus the chilling warnings of reprisals by the LTTE. I could not help but think that peace as a whole seems a distant reality.  Having just got back from the UK where I spent the last couple of weeks, it is evident that now globally, no one is immune from the threat of terrorism and no one can be spared from the lessons of mother nature.

As the Sri Lankan army juggernaut push forward with the inevitable reprisals promised by the LTTE, one thing is for certain.  It is the innocent civilian that will be caught in the middle. And it is not just limited to the Tamils but the Muslims and Sinhalese will also get affected in a dramatic manner.

In these very desperate times, it is easy to lose all sense of reason and to think emotionally.  It is easy to see these times as a clash between cultures and religions and it is easy to play the blame game or the victims card.   It is easy to blame the Tamil people for what the LTTE has done and it is easy to blame the Sinhalese for the actions of the Government and the army.  Whilst it is true that there are people from either side who have their support for the various actions, there are equally if not more people who genuinely are striving for peace and justice and equality.  In this light, the heart’s relation to truth should never be allowed to turn into emotional, passionate blindness: reason must always be called upon to analyse the situation, temper one’s reaction and help establish an attentive coherent relation to the other’s truth.

Hence my recent visit to London was quite symbolic it was to witness a significant occurrence which has deep reverberations for  a country like Sri Lanka.  On the 26^th of June, a historical partnership was signed between UMCOR (United Methodist Committee on Relief) and Muslim Aid to come together to work on the sole aim to build peace and help relieve poverty jointly.  Critics may ask why is this partnership  so unique?  After all many agencies have come together before....

It is about a  unique partnership between faith based organisations from two different faiths, going beyond the rhetoric and doing work on the ground having started this partnership in Sri Lanka during a time when it is indeed such differences that had caused the displacement of civilians mainly Muslims from the north eastern town of Mutur in the Trincomalee District.

 “We want to create a model for other religious and non-religious organisations to follow, to demonstrate that people of very different, and sometimes conflicting, backgrounds, faiths, and cultures can work together to help humanity,” says the Rev. R. Randy Day, General Secretary of Global Ministries, the parent organisation of UMCOR
“Our partnership with UMCOR reaches out beyond our own religious communities to benefit people in need, no matter what their religious faith,” says Farooq Murad, chairman of Muslim Aid. “Muslim Aid and UMCOR have already proven that we can work together and will continue to work to establish healthy, open communities where trust can flourish.”   
.  “The world desperately needs that kind of hope and this is a chance to create a new peace building paradigm.” 
None needs that chance more than Sri Lanka.  Because what this partnership is about is not just sharing of resources or funding each other to do work, but it is about a very genuine joint effort to combine strengths and relationships to work on a since common issue: serving the humanity in need.  Having this partnership grow out of Sri Lanka is not only symbolic but it shows the opportunity for people from different faiths and cultures and ethnicities driven by their own interpretations of spiritual obligation can work together for the common good.
This is the real crux of what can be one solution for Sri Lanka.  Whilst analysts talk about a political or military solution, real progress can only be made when people on the ground talk about it and more importantly push for it driven by one common agenda.  That agenda is the right to live in peace with one’s neighbor in a just  environment where one’s kids can grow up free from hate and violence.

This is the ultimate utopian dream but it can be achieved by the small steps of man.  There are and will be problems in emerging economies like Sri Lanka.  However out of every problem lies an opportunity and it is the responsibility of all those to see those opportunities and to exploit them.
It is high time now that partnerships develop and are maintained for as a wise man said

Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.”

Reflections

I had originally sat down to write this blog to complement my fellow blogger, Glenda Cooper, who had submitted her piece on Alertnet last month on the perceptions of NGOs in Sri Lanka as fat cats. 

Whilst largely agreeing with that particular blog, I felt that I had to also contribute some of the positives of the NGO work whilst highlighting something of the challenges faced in an attempt to give the ‘other side’ of the picture.

The incidents of this week highlight in no uncertain terms the challenges that are faced by NGO workers in Sri Lanka, particularly national staff.  As I write this, I have mixed feelings. 

I feel a sense of disbelief at the mere fact that such an incident happened not on the ‘field’ so to speak but in Colombo, the capital and possibly by supposed policemen.  Whether or not this turns out to be true is another case, but what this reinforces is the sense of dread that set into the NGO community last August when 17 of our colleagues were murdered in Mutur. 

Have we become the next targets?

Has our sense of ‘neutrality’ now been compromised? 

These are questions that will undoubtedly haunt our work and may even affect our response.

I am angry because these incidents serve to illustrate the dangers that people in our line of work face, yet all people can do is criticise us for wasteful spending (which I agree does exist like in any other industry) without taking heed of the challenges and pitfalls of development and humanitarian work. 

The lay man does not realise the amount of challenges facing aid workers and at the top of the list is looking after their families.  Most people are in this ignorant bliss that aid workers or NGO workers are charity workers, who must by default work for free and not charge anything and so by default are ‘fat cats’ when they do.   

These observers who are comfortable in their cushy jobs can not even fathom an iota of what it means to be working out on the field, often in very unbearable circumstances (ask those who work in Darfur).  For these apathetic armchair ‘development experts’,  their compassion and commitment stretches as far as their air conditioned cars will take them on the smooth roads of Sri Lanka. Doing ‘their bit’ for charity is to give out a sewing machine or the most laying a foundation stone for some building.  Ask them to do anything else and the usual response is ‘Batticaloa?  Isn’t that dangerous?  Isn’t there a war there?’  or my personal favourite ‘do they have electricity there?’.

I am disgusted because there is possibly an element of truth that is in some of the rumours doing the rounds in Colombo.  These victims were not targeted because they were Red Cross volunteers but that they were targeted because they were Tamil.  If this is the case, then there are some serious issues arising out of such a scenario.

The abductions of civilians in Colombo from mainly the Muslim and Tamil (but also Sinhalese) community have intensified over the last couple of months with many being held for large amounts of ransom or being killed.

I feel sad because the abduction and death of these two volunteers is another tragic chapter to a sad story of abductions in Sri Lanka as security and human rights conditions deteriorate.  Had it not been for the fact that these two also worked for the Red Cross, their fate would have been confined to the middle pages of the newspapers and an item in the news headlines. However, as is usual in these instances, their fate has allowed the international community to understand what hundreds of nameless civilians are facing on a daily basis in Sri Lanka.  With this tragedy comes opportunity.

I grieve because I know that this is another nail in the coffin of peace in Sri Lanka and those that will suffer are the innocent civilians.  From the perspective of the humanitarian agencies, the reaction I know will be to rethink security procedures and programs to ensure safety of workers.  An unfortunate but necessary response perhaps in the light of the last 10 months where we as well have also been at the receiving end.

One can remain positive and live in the hope that this does not happen as the suffering civilians will be the ultimate losers.  From my perspective, such tragic incidents have only reinforced ones commitment to meet all the challenges that we will face and to redouble one efforts for those in need.

Dedicated to the  memory of our colleagues  from ACF and Red Cross who died in the line of fire.  May we all work to ensure that your sacrifice to serve the needy was not in vain.