Is there a Way Forward for Reconciliation in a United Sri Lanka?
18-June-2012

Guest Column by Dr. G. K. Nathan(The views expressed are author’s own)

Looking at our immediate neighbor India and other countries like Canada, Belgium and Switzerland with multilingual, multiethnic and multireligious groups show that there are ways forward to find a constitutional structure to achieve equality and peace by recognizing the differences. All these countries have resolved the differences between communities internally, led by leaders who considered that the integrity of the country is paramount; the majority respected the minority wishes and granted equal rights to all citizens and settled the differences amicably.

Examples of good governance are demonstrated in India and Canada, where they have had as head of the government or as a head of the country people of different ethnic backgrounds which strengthened the integrity of the country. Another evolving and working example is in the United Kingdom, where three ethnic groups Irish, Scottish and Welsh people have their separate governments, soon Scotland will hold a referendum among their people whether they should be an Independent country or not, which demonstrates maturity of the country which is the birth place of modern parliamentary democracy. A similar referendum was held among French speakers of Canada, a couple of decades ago and it is continuing to be a single country.  In contrast to earlier examples, Yugoslavia’s failure to find an internal resolution of conflict with different ethnic groups led to division into many countries based on ethnicity, with inevitable external intervention charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.  Reflection on the outcome in the countries above gives hope as well as raises question with respect to finding reconciliation between Sinhala and Tamil communities in Sri Lanka.

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