Role of academics and journalists in making and unmaking a nation

By Roshenka de Mel

Bold and insightful speeches on the role of journalists and academics in nation building were delivered by keynote speaker and Chief Guest Nirupama Subramaniam and Guest of Honour Professor Jeevan Hoole at the fourth Naro Udeshi Commemoration Lecture on 30 June.

The lecture was hosted by the Mahatma Gandhi Centre (MGC) in honour of the late Naro Udeshi and was focused on the theme of ‘The Making and Unmaking of a Nation.’

The ceremonial proceedings commenced with the lighting of the oil lamp by all key speakers, which was then followed by a welcome address by MGC President Mohamed Saleem.

Constitutional reform

He explained that as Sri Lanka finds itself under mounting internal and international pressure due to the manner in which the end of the war was handled, constitutional reconstructions were now essential to create a situation and environment where all groups of people in Sri Lanka could live amicably alongside each other, free of impositions.

Saleem stated: “The Mahatma Gandhi Centre is dedicated to advocating social justice in Sri Lanka and we believe that constitutional reform in the country should start at the very bottom with each individual. The decision making circles in Sri Lanka today tend to consider the financial worth in making and rebuilding the country and often the decision to rebuild is taken only when the benefit of something is rendered useless or destroyed.”

Saleem continued: “The media and academia are equal players in efforts to reconstruct the nation. Whilst they share in the making of a nation, they also contribute to the unmaking of a nation and this is why MGC has made this issue the theme of today’s lecture.”

Reconciliation efforts

In his introductory speech, MGC Chairman Walter Ladduwahetty (former Secretary, Ministry of Justice and former Principal of the Law College) paid tribute to the late Naro Udeshi, who was a founding Vice President of the Mahatma Gandhi Centre.

About Udeshi, Ladduwahetty stated: “He was a very fine and kind human being in all his thoughts, words and actions.”

Commenting on Sri Lanka’s reconciliation efforts, he explained that Sri Lanka had overcome huge problems and was at present being assailed from all sides. In order to illustrate his thoughts better, Ladduwahetty drew on the example of former US Senator George Mitchell, who from 1995 played a key moderating role in the Northern Ireland peace process, in which he chaired the peace negotiations between all parties involved in the Northern Ireland conflicts.

Mitchell continued to keep the doorways to discourse open between conflicting parties, so that they would identify their problems and resolve them through continued discussion.

He proposed a deadline by which a solution would have to be reached by all parties and this along with the progress born from a continued dialogue, led to the Belfast Peace agreement (the Good Friday Agreement) being signed in 1998.

Laduwahetty stressed that Mitchell’s example brought to light the utmost importance of creating a continuing dialogue between conflicting parties in order to resolve the problems at hand.

Laduwahetty closed his address by quoting Mitchell’s fundamental principles of peace: “An agreement will last because it is fair and balanced. The agreement requires the use of democratic and peaceful means to restore a problem and the agreement should be approached on the basis of mutual tolerance and respect. It should reject violence for the resolution of any political problem. There is no such thing as a conflict that can’t be ended. Conflicts are created and sustained by human beings. They can be ended by human beings. No matter how ancient the conflict, no matter how hateful, no matter how hurtful, peace can prevail.”

Laduwahetty continued to echo the words of Mitchell by stating that “violence causes the degeneration of a conflict; the rejection of violence should be one of the fundamental principles of reconciliation. Conflict originates in the mind. If people have the willingness to compromise and are determined to arrive at a compromise with determination and persistence, conflicts can and will be resolved.”

Changing news trends

The Chief Guest and keynote speaker Associate Editor of ‘The Hindu’ and award winning correspondent with 20 years of journalism experience Nirupama Subramaniam delivered the fourth Naro Udeshi lecture titled ‘Journalists in Making and Unmaking a Nation: Global Implications’.

Subramaniam stated: “The concepts of nation, nationality, national interest and nation building are all very complex themes that are continuously being redefined. At present, media practitioners are grappling with the complexities of new media and new technologies. Also traditional media is certainly now in decline.”

Subramaniam brought attention to the fact however that Asia still has the world’s highest newspaper readership. In reference to the 2010 PA (Publish Asia) report on global newspaper readership, the five largest markets for newspapers were India (110 million daily copies sold), China (109 million daily copies sold), Japan (50 million daily copies sold), United States (46 million daily copies sold) and Germany (20 million copies sold). Sixty-seven of the world’s 100 largest daily newspapers were Asian.

Subramaniam continued to explain how the latest news trends in America are changing. She chose to use America as an example to demonstrate how even in a country that prides itself on democracy and freedom of expression, the role of the journalist and traditional journalism is fast evolving.

In reference to a study conducted by the PEW Research Centre, Subramaniam stated: “Traditional news rooms are cutting jobs and the internet is the latest news destination of choice, right behind television. Journalism is no longer confined to media professionals alone; many breaking news stories are generated by ordinary citizens, (they just happened to have a camera or mobile phone and be at the right place at the right time); they just upload their story or image on YouTube and lo and behold, it’s the news of the day.

“Technology has also played a crucial role in freeing journalists form the confines of geographical locations. News organisations are becoming increasingly dependent on outsiders, software technologies and social media channels to connect themselves to audiences. On the downside, technology has also brought about other changes. News used to break once a day, now news breaks on an hour to minute basis.’

Role of journalism

In providing a greater understanding on the role of journalism in its relevance to building a nation, Subramaniam stressed that an understanding of the term nation was important; however it is one which is constantly changing and being redefined by numerous factors.

A nation is commonly defined as a large aggregate of people sharing a common decent, history, culture, or language with shared occupancy of a particular country or territory. However, this is not what a nation is always comprised of. Subramaniam stated that the building of a nation has long been determined by several factors.

She said: “The apparatuses inherited from the departing powers of a state to those challenged with the task of building a nation are also matters to consider. Regardless of what mechanisms are provided for people to invest in a nation, it is always a work of progress. More often than not nations progress in democracies where pluralism, a tolerance for others and a respect for human rights is present.

“Journalism helps create a critical mass of public opinion of social, economic and cultural issues and requires a commitment to people and social agendas. It demands the freedom to access information and journalism has across the ages influenced positive contributions to the making of nations.”

In reference to the roles of journalism, Subramaniam stated that journalists must play a credible informer role, an agenda building role, a critical investigatory role and an educational role.

Subramaniam touched on how the Watergate scandal shifted the paradigm of American journalism and forever changed the way Americans viewed their politics, nation and journalism.

As was the impact of the Watergate scandal on American journalism, every country goes through its own development undergoes changes that impacts how its journalism changes.

Plotting positions

Subramaniam highlighted how news stakeholders plot their positions on national interest and the media is either hailed or assailed in their stand and management of these matters. This either unifies or divides a nation and can be seen by some as good and by others as bad.

The search for Saddam Hussein and the war on Iraq was fuelled by American national interest and greatly influenced journalism and the work of the media in the country at the time. The war consumed journalists and the government extended a ‘with us or against us’ approach towards the media.

So consumed was the American Government and the media with the search for weapons of mass destruction that a press release in 2004 revealing an investigation into torture reports at the Iraqi camps went unnoticed. It was only months later that the Abu Ghraib incident became a huge issue, generating consequences of a colossal nature.

The media parties who did take on the story were accused of ‘Bush bashing’ and carrying out propaganda for ‘the other side’. The Chronicle’s reader representative in response to anger generated by the media’s decision to run the story stated: “It’s not the newspaper’s job to sanitise the war.”

The entire incident is a classic example of how national interest influenced and prevented the media from investigating an issue that they should have probed with greater zest. In this instance the media shied away from uncovering the scandal and failed to immediately recognise the significance and consequences of the violations committed by the USA Army.

The Abu Ghraib story was eventually carried by publications along with photographs; even though it was a case of delayed action, the US emerged stronger as a nation for their decision to run the story and fulfil their obligation to the public.

Subramaniam elaborated further on how government interest used to be the main driver of media (with the state controlling the flow of information); today the co-option and manipulation of media through capitalisation is increasing and demoting the role of the media itself.

With the phenomenon of ‘paid news’ increasing and journalists being paid to give favourable coverage to politicians and corporate entities, journalism’s impact on nation building is one that encompasses a mixed review.

New media

Referring to the words of Chris Hedges, Subramaniam stated: “The dying profession of newspapers and traditional journalism spelt doom for journalists. Traditional news gatherings helped shine a light in dark corners. An economy thrives when civic discourse is well grounded. New media cannot undertake the crucial task of agenda building. The increasing fusion of news with entertainment, celebrity journalism and a retreat to internet ghettos are rendering us deaf, dumb and blind. Technological advances have influenced the manufacture of consent. The game has changed so much that even nations that are not democracies, have had to loosen up.

On the upside, new media along with the internet has played a crucial role in the recent uprising against dictatorships in Tunisia and Egypt. The role of Facebook and Twitter in bringing these revolutions about may be exaggerated, but it’s undeniable that they played some role. Even China has had to make more media concessions in the last five to eight years. Some states have tried to block this technology, but technology has proved that it is always a step ahead.

“WikiLeaks is a recent and important new player. Information so far was revealed to a few sources, WikiLeaks has laid out all what goes on in the murky world of international relations. My stand on WikiLeaks is that we all need all the information we can get. The more information we have, the better we are able to make crucial choices that affect our lives.”

Rapid evolution of journalism

Addressing the rapid evolution of journalism, Subramaniam continued to explain that like with all things, change is and always will be inevitable. Modern technologies and developments such as the WikiLeaks revolution have served a positive purpose as well, in making it very difficult for those who are powerful and have something to hide, whether it be state or business related. All that remains is for this news and media to continue to evolve in a manner that stays faithful to the accurate dissemination of information.

Subramaniam ended with a reference to two media gurus who once said, “Commit yourself to telling the truth by following a methodology of accuracy and establish independence from the subject you cover. Declare your first loyalty to citizens, provide a forum for dissent by committing yourself to your conscience. There can be no ethical dissemination of information, without humanness.”

Role of academics

Speaking on ‘The Role of Academics in the Making and Unmaking of a Nation’ with a focus on Sri Lanka, Guest of Honour Professor of Electrical Engineering and Human Rights activist, Samuel Ratnajeevan Herbert Hoole, a renowned academic with 28 years of lecturing experience, spoke of the poor role academics have played in assisting with the building of Sri Lanka.

Hoole commenced his speech by stating that academics had failed at nation building: “When there is so much that binds us as Sri Lankans, we academics have written foul histories that distort our heritage. There has been a general failure among scholars to come to a rational understanding about relations with India, which appear inseparable from the ethnic conflict. We still do not understand the consequences of the grossly iniquitous citizenship acts of 1948/49. Dissatisfaction among the minorities was paralleled by official anti-Indian rhetoric and the use of history as propaganda. Almost no scholarly reflection emerged from our universities after the 1977 and 1983 communal violence, except a mob attack on Tamil students by fellow students at Peradeniya in May 1983.

“There were also two papers from Peradeniya by leading professors of geography and history, supporting Sinhalese ideological claims to the north east and indirectly justifying colonisation by State-sponsored Sinhalese paramilitaries of land in the north east from 1984, where many original Tamil inhabitants were massacred by the armed forces. This resulted in mainly LTTE massacres of the Sinhalese. In the resulting embitterment the latter were actively or mainly passively justified by Tamil scholars.”

University curriculum

In reference to comments made by the Friday Forum, comprising of prominent intellectuals on the topic of forced training of university entrants in a military environment, Hoole explained: “The curriculum reveals extremely problematic aspects. The predominant focus is on military regimentation including a five km walk to be completed in 45 minutes irrespective of individual physical fitness. What is more problematic is the content of the module on history and national heritage. The topics are, in order, the arrival of the Aryans, foreign invasions and the development of Sinhalese kingdoms.”

Hoole explained how the ‘National Heritage’ section of the curriculum focused exclusively on prominent cultural symbols of the majority Sinhala community, with no representation provided from other communities.

Hoole continued: “Subjecting new university entrants to a course which focuses exclusively on the majority community undermines all the official statements on national reconciliation after three decades of civil strife. On the whole the curriculum seems to discourage tolerance for viewpoint difference and sensitivities for the pluralism and diversity of our country.”

Relations with India

Commenting further on the important role India has played in Sri Lanka’s past and its role in the country’s future progress, Hoole elaborated: “In many ways the contraction of our worldview into those of two narrow nationalisms lie at the root of the ethnic conflict. Only two generations ago India was part of our natural environment, where we went, studied and imbibed of its culture with no artificial barriers. I believe more open relations with India are essential to our healing.”

Hoole referred to the respected scholar M.D Raghavan, who in his book ‘India in Ceylonese History, Society and Culture,’ painstakingly showed that Kerala influence forms the bedrock of Lankan culture, be it Sinhalese or Tamil.

Need for academic reform

Continuing to address the need for academic reform, Hoole stated: “When children have to read nonsense as history, they are trained to ignore contradictions and are being uneducated and readied to believe anything that is fed to them. This is a trap. While a few academics have taken a broad, liberal inclusive view of national life, most take a sectarian parochial view, even a self-centred view, and little can be expected of us.

“For instance we all know that our university system is beset with severe problems. The chief of these is the absence of the rule of law. Even the University Grants Commission (UGC) has violated the very rules it is supposed to uphold. Millions are siphoned off and council members unlawfully do business with the university to the tune of hundreds of millions of rupees and the UGC is too scared to ask how. In general there is total impunity for those in high office. In my years on the UGC I saw lots of corruption and only one Vice Chancellor was ever punished and that was by mere removal. We can cheat with almost guaranteed immunity.”

Hoole brought to attention that the lack of admonishment delivered to high officials is perhaps directly related to Sri Lanka’s culture that guarantees respect for those in high positions. Regardless of how much is stolen, according to Hoole, action is rarely taken and charges are rarely filed. The UGC merely chooses to ignore such violations and makes minimal use of its regulatory powers.

Further elaborating on the need for Sri Lanka to address the quality of education it delivers as a nation, Hoole explained that when given the opportunity to address academic reform, the only issue professors feel fit to highlight is their salaries and requests for raises.

Hoole admits that he cannot blame them as often the students taught by lecturers graduate and earn salaries that are much greater than that of the professors who taught them.

Importance of language

Bringing attention to the importance of language in academic development and the role language plays in facilitating progress, Hoole stated: “When it comes to academics, I see a strong correlation between those educated in the national languages and those educated in English. Of the academics who write on national integration matters, the most respected academics across the ethnic chasm (including NGO sector academics) are nearly all foreign educated in English.”

Hoole continued to explain that by providing a broad selection of views and creating a platform of ideas, the NGO sector is doing with greater success what universities are meant and paid to do. Through their seminars, the NGO sector and NGO academics are also making a key contribution to the development of academics.

Stressing that although there are many independent writers expressing themselves in Sinhalese, Hoole explains that their writing is not subject to the criticism and correction on a wide enough scale and therefore Sinhala writers cannot generate enough material in their own language to engage intellectuals.

Hoole stated: “The fault lies in the idea of mother-tongue education. Let us be honest. However much we may love our own languages, Tamils numbering some 80 million people throughout the world and a global Sinhalese population of 16 million, do not and cannot produce in their own languages the literature required for a broad and intellectual discussion with a cross-section of views within the communities. Even where we have good material, there is no one outside of our closed societies to read and criticise us and thereby engage us in the process of fine-tuning and ever rejecting or disseminating our ideas.”

Hoole explained how Sri Lanka faces an interesting dilemma whereby discourse needs to be held in a language that is not confined to a particular place or people. English is the predominant language of international discourse and provides access to an international domain and global criticism.

Hoole stated: “To reach our masses, we need to write in Tamil or Sinhalese, but to be respected through the test of widespread reading and critiquing, we must write in English or some other international language.”

Commenting further on writers using the English language well, Hoole stated: “We are now in the period where English school education has returned and good writers, Tamil as well as Sinhalese, are emerging again. Initially this group consisted of those who picked up their English from home, church or in big cities and then studied in English in India or the West. The Diaspora also has children who studied from grade 1 in English and are good writers. From this group are emerging organisations (such as Lanka Solidarity) whose writings have been excellent so far.”

Nation building

On the topic of nation building, Hoole stated: “For me to speak about nation building, we must first define ‘nation’ and that in itself is problematic. A dictionary defines nation as a ‘large body of people, associated with a particular territory, that is sufficiently conscious of its unity to seek or to possess a government peculiarly its own’. On the basis of this definition, let me raise a hypothetical question: as Europeans go into the European Union and America pushes NAFTA (The North American Free Trade Association), why don’t we in South Asia all subsume our national identities and go into a new nation with a single united identity to be called ‘South Asia’ under one currency, one language, one parliament and one government? If any group could move freely and live anywhere in South Asia, would we all be one happy people? Of course it’s an absurd proposition being met by all with a resounding ‘no’.”

Hoole continued: “‘One Sri Lanka’ will never work, for the same reasons that ‘One South Asia’ will never work, unless the different cultural groups have ways of expressing, practicing and celebrating their culture.”

In reference to Carolyn Stephenson on her notes quoting Immanuel Kant of the 17th Century, Hoole explained: “Peace can be achieved by developing a federation or league of free republican nations. Representative democracies, organised in an international organisation would bring peace.”

Efforts to unite Sri Lanka

In reference to efforts to unite Sri Lanka, Hoole stated: “In his recent sixty-third Independence Day message, President Rajapaksa stated that we must set right the error of both past and present in this march towards greater freedom and that building a united Sri Lanka is the best means by which freedom can be secured and given more meaning. The word ‘united’ is profound and the words culture and language used on that day were singular and not plural. An inherent part of defining citizenship and national identity this way will in the same breath also define those are not citizens and those who lack that united national identity.”

Hoole explained that by defining a nation, we also define strangers.

Demonstrating how the needs of different groups in Sri Lanka should be met and represented fairly, Hoole gave the following powerful metaphor: “I have a loving family; I have three daughters and one son. All are loved equally. In our house, the girls have different rooms with different furniture and facilities to cater to their specific needs. My son has different toys and access to different items in his room for all his needs. The arrangement does not make my children unequal; it gives them greater freedom to lead better lives. Giving Tamil people a space to lead their lives according to their specific needs is not separatism.”

Words of advice

Hoole concluded his address by stating: “My advice to the military: Be unobtrusive and just stick to law and order. Entering the civilian domain breeds resentment. My advice to the Government: Hold elections and deal with us through whom we elect, not thugs you impose on us. That is democracy.

“What is happening in Sri Lanka is not integration, it is disintegration. We thus see that in defining a united Sri Lanka, Tamils of Sri Lanka and our feelings have been ignored. We are not building a Sri Lankan mansion of many rooms where Sinhalese, Tamils, Buddhist, Hindus, Christians, Muslims, Malays and all cross-sections of these live together in amity. We are speaking of Sri Lanka with a boring mono-cultural visage of imagined common bloodlines and we are living in one large sultry hall with no privacy. The enforced oneness appears so far to be entirely Sinhalese and Buddhist.”

The evening’s proceedings ended with the 2011 Mahatma Gandhi Awards being presented to Dr. Lionel Weerakoon (National Coordinator MONLAR), Dr. Imtiaz Latiff (National Vice President, Asian Homeopathic Medical League) and the 2011 Naro Udeshi awards being presented to A. Sivalingam ‘Peace Village’ Batticaloa and Moulavi U.L.H.M .Mackie ‘Peace Village’ in Batticaloa.

The vote of thanks was delivered by Mahatma Gandhi Centre Secretary General W.B.A. Jayasekera, who stated: “Even after more than 60 years of independence, we are in search of an environment where Sri Lanka belongs to all and everyone can pursue life without fear of intimidation. Our progress depends on how fast we tear down barriers of mistrust between people. Benevolent policies from the top are not enough to affect change; it is only when people open their hearts to manage their own independence that change can be achieved.”