The Notion of Citizenship and Political Stability
(By: Thrishantha Nanayakkara)
Hopefully the third bloody battle between the
Government of Sri Lanka and armed groups of Sri Lankans we have gone
through ever since independence will come to an end very soon. Now it is
time to contemplate on how we should make sure a fourth one will never
shatter Sri Lanka again. Buddhism says every experience is an effect of
a set of causes and conditions. For sure there are many complex,
intertwined causes and conditions that pop up armed struggles in Sri
Lanka intermittently. The duty of our generation is to identify and
manage them in the name of the generations of Sri Lankans who are yet to
be born to our country.
This week is the spring break for Boston public
schools. I made that an opportunity to take my daughter to show her the
capital of the United States. Walking through the Vietnam War memorial,
Korean War memorial, Lincoln memorial, Washington memorial, Roosevelt
memorial, etc, I stopped to read some of the statements that caught my
eyes. In them, I wanted to find answers to some questions I had about my
own experience about America. I read some of them to my daughter. One at
the Roosevelt memorial said "they (who) seek to establish systems of
Government based on the regimentation of all human beings by a handful
of individual rulers call this a new order. It is not new and it is not
order" another statement made by President Roosevelt on an adjacent wall
read "we must scrupulously guard the civil rights and civil liberties of
all citizens, whatever their background. We must remember that any
oppression, any injustice, any hatred, is a wedge designed to attack our
civilization".
Then I overheard a tour guide speaking to a group of
visitors "in those times, not only America, but also other countries in
other parts of the world also went through severe hardships. But they
tried to answer their economic and social problems in a different
way....". I missed the rest, but it made me wonder if I am getting some
answers to a strange question I have not been able to answer myself so
far. That is why I am feeling this affection to this foreign land? I
have lived and visited several other countries; they sometimes looked
more methodical, safer, and scenic. But why didn't I get this feeling of
affection for those lands? I moved on. In the basement of the Lincoln
memorial there was a scribbling on a stone slab. President Abraham
Lincoln had once said, "Let us discard all this quibbling about this man
or the other man, this race and that race, and the other race being
inferior and therefore they must be placed in an inferior position. Let
us discard all these things and unite as one people throughout this
land...."
I am sure there must have been great statements made
by Sri Lankan post colonial leaders that our history books didn't teach
us. But the question is whether the track we took after colonial rule
lead to make all Sri Lankans love mother Lanka unconditionally with a
bond that can never be broken by divisive forces from inside or outside?
If so how could Prabhakaran mislead Tamils, or Rohana Wijeweera convince
Southern Youth to take up arms against the Government? If those who took
arms had some problem in their brains, then there is a huge problem with
our education system or in our early childhood healthcare system. If
that is not the case, the systems we have made have toxic elements that
keep irritating different social groups making them vulnerable to
political vultures.
Central to all these issues is the notion of a
citizen. It is not the definition of the rights of a citizen stipulated
in the constitution that matters. What matters is how a citizen feels
about his/her rights compared to different other groups in the society,
or whether they feel that their aspirations can be met by staying within
one constitution. Perhaps this is one reason why I felt some inner
affection for America that I didn't feel that much for other countries I
lived in so far. To strive for ideal standards of the notion of a
citizen should therefore be the oath and the dream of all political
leaders.
On our way back to Boston, we crossed several States.
Being a traveler, I could feel the differences of the laws of these
states. While I was in Maryland, I could turn right on Red Light. But
not in New York State. Again in Massachusetts I could turn right on Red.
While in New Jersey, I was not allowed to pump gas to my car myself. The
law required an attendant to do that. In Delaware, I noticed that there
was no sales TAX. Apart from these apparent differences, each State had
the right to pass their own laws even on marriage, education, and
housing. This allowed people living in different climates, geographical
locations, and cultures to decide their own lifestyle to meet their
aspirations by making the best use of their strategic advantages. Though
Sri Lanka is a very small country, our natural resource distribution,
vegetation, climate, and even culture is very diverse. Therefore, we can
benefit from power devolution to geographically different areas. For
instance, why should the central Government in Colombo decide how many
schools we should have in the South, what models of Universities we
should promote, or whether Galle harbor should be developed to be
competitive with that of Colombo or not. Why should people in Jaffna
depend on the university admission policy decided by the Colombo central
Government? Why can not they develop new models for university
education?
However, there are few things we should be extremely
mindful. We should be mindful that separatists will continue to make use
of the slightest weakness in the constitution to divide the country.
Therefore, power devolution should be made with guarantees that no
regional administration has an option for cessation. On the other hand
the power devolution should be meaningful so that divisive forces will
find it extremely hard to find fault with the system to the extent of
convincing the youth to choose terrorist tactics to achieve their
aspirations.
Last but not least, I underscore the importance of
strengthening our military power, strengthening Global military
partnerships, and continuing to invest in cutting edge defense research.
This is not to kill anybody or to harm anybody's rights, but to defend
the civil rights of the peace loving Sri Lankans, make sure our enemies
find that negotiation is the only option to deal with us, and make sure
we never ever become a colony again.
(The
author is a Radcliffe fellow at Harvard University, USA. He can be
contacted at thrish@seas.harvard.edu )
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