Peace, Pluralism and Polarization : A Quarterly Reflection
Establishing a role – the need for targeted education
When I was rather surprisingly asked three months ago to take on the post of Secretary General of the Peace Secretariat, I thought I knew the main areas in which I would have to work. These were: a) peace negotiations in terms of the Cease Fire Agreement b) the All Party Representatives Conference, working on constitutional reform c) reconstruction and rehabilitation as part of building confidence in the peace process
Now in all these areas there were others already deeply involved, so clearly, if SCOPP was to play a role, it had to be innovative, to address areas that others might omit. For instance, with regard to the first, where negotiations seemed very far away, there might be room to initiate lower level discussions, perhaps with the LTTE Peace Secretariat, to find out say unofficially views on the proposals for constitutional reform that were being advanced. With regard to the second area, we could work on concrete proposals for actions in areas where there was no controversy, whilst waiting for the politicians who represented the different parties to reach consensus on the more contentious issues.
The third field I took as our main area of action, to target areas that needed particular attention if Tamils in particular were to feel confidence in the peace process. For this empowerment was essential, so that Tamils and all minorities could not only feel an integral part of the Sri Lankan state, but also participate actively in decision making as equal members of society.
Hence our concern with education, with remedying the deprivation that minorities had suffered through the system, not necessarily through discrimination but through the neglect that also left behind so many other of our peripheral provinces. A system that developed those too was of the essence, but our own priority had to be the minority areas, particularly in terms of the opportunity for new initiatives that developments in the East had provided. So we initiated much discussion on the subject, individual scholarships as well as wider programmes for which we needed large scale sponsorship. Though some chambers of commerce were cautious, the Business for Peace Alliance took up the proposal enthusiastically, and have produced a comprehensive project proposal. It remains to be seen however whether aid programmes, which seem to prefer what they term awareness programmes, the impact of which can rarely be measured, will pick up on this concrete attempt to help youngsters who have suffered from conflict.
Connected to the issue of education was the burning necessity of increasing minority recruitment to the public sector, and in particular the security services. I had often been told, when complaining of deficiencies in this regard in the past, that qualified minority candidates did not apply. It seemed to me that stopping at this reason was simply not good enough. There had to be a proactive policy of encouraging minorities to apply, and also of helping unemployed youngsters in this category to the basic qualifications that would facilitate employment.
Whatever the situation in the past, a polity that had permitted what amounted to quotas for university admissions, quotas that reduced minority entry so as to increase entry it was claimed of relatively deprived sections of society, had an obligation to use similar tools to increase minority representation in services where it was woefully low. This was a priority, and it was not an area in which significant efforts were being made.
Other areas of concern were ensuring satisfactory supplies to areas affected by conflict, and promoting livelihood development. Empowerment of females was particularly important in this regard, given the numbers of female headed households in these areas. Whilst much was being done in this regard, there seemed room for particular interventions that would introduce new areas and fresh ideas too.
Ensuring Balance in Reportage
Whilst positive action in these fields was, and continues, our priority, I soon discovered that there was much to do in other areas too. With regard to the CFA for instance, we were in theory responsible for its monitoring, since we were the chief point of reference for the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission. I knew from my research in this area that relations between the government and the SLMM had not been too good, though recently there had not seemed to be many problems, following the departure of the previous Head of Mission.