A two-way street

Engagement between communities is a two-way street that requires empathy, patience, understanding and a genuine commitment to progressive ideals. Unfortunately all of these qualities are in short supply in Sri Lanka at the moment and the situation is made worse by politicians or other community leaders that behave in insensitive ways or make ludacris statements without addressing the main problems at hand.  

It is clearly time for all communities to engage more but unfortunately the Easter Sunday attacks have heightened tensions as never before and even the slightest slip of the tongue, which would have earlier been ignored, is now a spark that could trigger a backlash against the Muslim community and plunge the country to further chaos. 

As noted by Higher Education Minister Rauff Hakeem during a press conference this week it is time for self-reflection and even self-criticism but that cannot happen in isolation. Nor can it happen within one community without engagement from others because then change happens slowly or is pushed aside entirely by conservative elements. 

Since the Easter Sunday attacks the identity politics of Muslim ministers have gained more focus. The controversy over the Batticaloa campus and its shadowy funding, allegations that conservative Wahabism was supported and encouraged in Sri Lanka due to generous Saudi funding, concerns of tensions emerging between the Tamil and Muslim populations in the East due to perceived support for the latter from politicians are just some examples that have grabbed headlines of late. 

While the focus on the finding of weapons has unfairly charged the Muslim community and should be handled in a more sensitive manner by stakeholders including media it is also important to keep the focus on having a wide ranging discourse on the roots and reasons for extremist ideologies being embraced in Sri Lanka. This includes the majority Sinhala Buddhist majority, the Tamil community and even the Christians. 

This is not the time to say that these issues should be handled from within the community and take a ‘hands off’ approach and dismiss concerns of radicalisation on the basis that only a few people have been linked to the terror attacks. Taking this kind of stand will only serve to isolate the moderate Muslims even more as moderates from other communities move away.    

There is nothing intrinsically wrong about politicians supporting their vote banks but as the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake pointed out in Parliament this week, when it is done excluding the idea of a Sri Lankan identity it opens the door to deepening divisions. There is no doubt that other politicians have done the same. 

Sinhala Buddhist politicians have whipped up populism, at times to dangerous levels, drawing heavily on vituperative identity politics. In recent times that has spilled over into populism and threatened the tentative peace Sri Lanka managed to laboriously piece together after 2009. Identity politics and populism had a large part in ensuring that peace in post-war Sri Lanka remained fragile and intolerance remained plentiful.

But narrow-minded politicians should not be allowed to steer the discourse that this time. It is time for moderate, intelligent, progressive, and patient public members from all communities to step forward and work with understanding and empathy. Their voices in all communities are the need of the hour and may provide the healing Sri Lanka desperately needs