A New Concept for Peace

        

There is an old saying in Malay ‘When you grow, grow like rice for as rice grows, it bends forward, do not grow like grass, for as grass grows, it grows straight’.  The essence of this saying is that humility is key to development.    Being part of a reconstruction process of a country devastated by natural and man made disasters can often colour the lens with which you view the situation.  Often the mistake that one makes is that you think that you have all the answers / solutions for all problems faced.  There is often a danger of a sense of arrogance of purpose with which one carries out his duties.

I was recently reminded of this danger when I attended a seminar on bringing peace to the country organized by civil society organisations which had uniquely assembled participants of varying age groups from the grass roots, from different ethnic, religious and territorial backgrounds across the country, including representatives from the Eastern and Northern provinces.

‘The problem that you have Mr Amjad is that you have only one perspective of the peace process’ said Azar, a social activist from Trincomalee, during an initial ice breaking session at the seminar. ‘The problem that  many INGOs like yourselves and the international community have  is that you have a  basic assumption that peace in the country will be restored once the LTTE and the government can place respective signatures on a document under the watching eyes of the international community’

This seminar was certainly different than anything that I had ever attended before.  Apart from the fact that the three commonly used languages in the country were spoken and simultaneously translated for the benefit of all, the discussion seemed to identify that at the grassroots level, there was a lack of consultation with people which meant that there was a lot of apprehension about what was being ‘hatched’ within the political circles as regards current national crises particularly about on-going peace efforts. 

Hence answers to the  current crisis with regards to the peace efforts which were  seemingly confined to the political chambers without any consultation with the common people were not met with much support since it was felt that there was a lack of recognition in the  role that the grass roots play in determining  whether there is peace or not.

What I understood from the discussion was a sense of real frustration at the increasing polarization along ethnic, territorial and religious lines, and  what was very evident from the discussion is that absence of hostility is not peace, with the  prime example being the Ceasefire Agreement that was  signed between the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE in February 2002, which was considered a prelude to a total reduction of militancy in the country, but which in fact did not help in building bridges of trust and understanding between communities. In fact as we see in hindsight now, the deterioration of trust between all communities has become even more stronger and the parties are at loggerheads more than ever what with repeated violations and disrespect for the agreement particularly in the phase of the post-tsunami need for humanitarian assistance.

What I began to understand from the discussions was that  there could not be peace until trust and confidence among the different communities were restored.  You can only have acceptance of one another when you understand each other seemed to be the theme of all deliberations.

The workshop felt that the spirit of belonging to this country should be allowed to take root and the spirit of sharing and caring for each other (as humans) should be allowed to prosper so that no citizen of this country will be alienated on account of religion, ethnicity or territorial affinity. Only by bringing back such values into the lives of the people of this country could there be peace, and this could only happen only if people were encouraged and allowed to “ … as matter of urgency ….take charge of their destiny and control their politico-economic environment”.

I sensed a lot of tiredness amongst the workshop participants.  Tiredness at listening to a lot of rhetoric from all sides with very little positive action.  Tiredness of experiencing on a daily  basis of abuse of power by parliamentarians, their siblings or their cronies with impunity. Tiredness of a lack of freedom of thought and expression as journalists are harassed and organized gangs with the backing of political parties oppress the innocent masses. Tiredness of continuous struggle against the daily grind as the cost of living goes up.  Tiredness of losing loved ones to a fight that has long lost its purpose and reason of being. Tiredness of discrimination.

As the seminar wound to a close, one could sense amongst the people a reawakened enthusiasm to grab the controls of the peace train and drive it towards a new direction, one that would create a new environment ensuring equality and justice towards freedom of thought and expression; upholding and protecting individual and collective rights and dignity, in order for one to pursue life goals and contribute to national development.

If this was the sense of purpose which emerged out of the workshop, then there is a huge timely role for the grass roots to play within the whole peace process of Sri Lanka without repeating lessons of the past.