At the District Secretariat, Putlam , Pluralism workshop was held on 25th June 2009 with 45 participants in attendance. The participants were from diverse groups representing all communities and religions.
Ven. Buddhiyagama Chandraratne Thero, G C member of National Peace Council coordinated the workshop with the objective of introducing the concept of Pluralism for the mixed communities living in Putlam.
The following resource persons made the presentations as indicated below.
Dr Jehan Perera Executive Director : The role of NPC in promoting Pluralism National Peace Council (NPC).
Ms.Rejina Ramalingam, Chief : The objectives of conducting the
Operations Executive of NPC Workshop
Dr. Sasanka Perera, Senior Lecturer :Understanding diversity
Department of Sociology,
University of Colombo
Dr S.H.S. Hasbullah :Energetic engagement with diversity
Assistant General Secretary, NPC
& Senior Lecturer, Department of
Geography, University, Peradeniya
Mr. Saman Seneviratne, Team Leader :Conduct of the Work shop
Peace mobilization NPC.
No. of participants : 44 participants of Track 2 level
Welcome Address : Ven. Buddhiyagama Chandraratne Thero
At the opening address the Thero, as the local coordinator of the Program welcomed all religious leaders, state officials, the representatives of various organizations, NGO representatives, the participants representing all communities, the resource persons and NPC staff and briefed the participants on the objectives of conducting the workshop.
Rational
Ven monk said his main objective of requesting a workshop on pluralism was to bring about a close friendly understanding among different ethnic communities in Putlam .
His 2nd objective of the workshop was that since the war is over to seek through participatory discussion what future action could be taken to assist the IDPS who are living under trying circumstances.
The 3rd objective was the language issue and said that all should be together united under present conditions.
Fourthly to promote equality which is necessary for ethnic harmony..
Ven monk continuing said the judiciary should have the powers to implement laws. In United States they have the Parliament, Judiciary and Senate. Therefore in US the judiciary has same powers as the President. But in our Country the Inspector General of Police is selected by the Government. According to the 17th Amendment selection needs the approval of both the President (40%)and the Committee (60%) . Then only a balance of power could be observed and the Judiciary under the 17th Amendment can prevent any laws not suitable to the well being of the Country.
Ven monk also said that we are getting a knowledge about Pluralism which is accepting diversity through this workshop. All who came to seek assistance to Lord Buddha had a solution. Today in this auditorium also there is pluralism because all communities and religions are well represented. If this diversity had been followed we would not have cost thousands of lives and ven. monk appealed to the Director of Education who was present, and other participants to make this concept a success.
The next presentation was made by Dr Jehan Perera and he was introduced to the participants as the Executive Director of NPC who is also a prominent lecturer, and a leader of the civil society who often releases articles to the press on peace.
Dr. Jehan Perera: Role of National Peace Council in promoting Pluralism.
Dr. Jehan Perera in his address said that two months after ending the war we are at a critical moment of our history. He said that there is an observed development after the conclusion of the war. Continuing he said that in the East the coastal fishing has been allowed without a restriction and also A9 has been opened for commercial purposes. Hence the majority of the people believe that time has come for us to develop like the other Asian Countries such as Malaysia and Singapore he said.
Our failure to develop in the past was due to prolonged fighting between the 2 parties and since one party is out at present he said that there is a great opportunity for us to go ahead with the development work. He referred to the present predicament of 3 lakhs of IDPS who were living in 5 districts and are now encamped into a small area and living under trying conditions. People of 2 Districts have been completely evacuated. Though we would like to go there to assist these displaced people opportunities are not given to us for the purpose. However we get information from other NGOs such as Sarvodaya regarding the situation prevailing in the IDP camps. Many small children had died during the war and the Tamil minority at present is in suspicion because they have no leader to represent them. Many leaders were assassinated by the LTTE itself and the rest were killed during the war with the Government. The Tamil people are uncertain about their future and under this scenario, government is trying to hold elections and a new leader might emerge he said.
Continuing there are other views such as though with the defeat of LTTE the terrorist scare and all other problems have ended the triumph of the war with a lot of commitment should not be undermined are being held he said.
Further continuing he said that yet others argue that the Tamils/LTTE fought, to bring North and East under their domain and since they have failed these areas should not be given to them now. Army has taken control of the areas and the forces are building army camps in the area. Majority of the Sinhalese justify the presence of the forces to prevent occurrences of disturbances in future and justify its presence there. Hence the IDPs believe that they may have to languish in the camps for over 6 months and their land as a result will be taken over by the army for defense purposes.
Dr Perera said that similar events had occurred in other countries where people had been settled at the cost of thousands of lives. Therefore under present circumstances NPC believes discussion and dialogue through peaceful means should be undertaken.
Continuing he said there is a communal problem in our country. In Colombo there are more Tamil speaking people than Sinhalese. He said that he believes personally, as individuals there are no problems, but if the country is taken as a whole there is a problem. That is why the Sinhalese Tamils and Mulims vote on a racial basis at the elections thus creating divisions he said.
NPC’s Objective and its Role.
Under these circumstances he reiterated that NPC that came into operation in 1995, fervently advocates a political solution to achieve peace through dialogue and discussion. This cannot be achieved by a single party in isolation and any solution should be adopted by all concerned if it is to be sustainable he said.
At present 51% of the wealth is concentrated in the Western District of the Country and only 21% of the people enjoy these benefits. Since power is positioned at the centre in Colombo, wealth also builds up around this District he said. Therefore NPC’s stand is that to have an equitable distribution of wealth there should be a reasonable devolution of power and it should be devolved to Putlam, Kurunegala, to the North, East and Central etc.
Though provincial councils have been established, development in these areas is sluggish due to lack of income. The income availability is limited and is only sufficient to put in place the administrative mechanism. More over under the present system the Central Government has the power to withdraw any powers given to the provincial councils thus delimiting their progress. Therefore its only through devolution resources will flow into these areas that will bring development he said.
At this seminar we are highlighting the importance of values of pluralism. Under pluralism we accept diversity. If diversity is not accepted the society will be isolated and will survive like frogs in the well he said.
He said that this workshop is a great opportunity for NPC to feed the relevant officials with the views expressed by the participants and thanked the Ven. Buddhiyagama Chandraratne Thero, Director, National Peace Council who unlike others is working tirelessly to bring unity among all communities.
He briefed the participants on the outcome of the conference held in Colombo on Pluralism, with representatives of 6 Asian countries and Canada, where all elite groups participated in 2008. At this Conference these representatives showed how their countries progressed, with diversity.
At this stage copies of the book “the Powers and Limits of pluralism in South Asia” which was an outcome of the Conference were issued to the workshop participants.
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