The Postwar Discourse & The New Sri Lankan Identity: How Can We Have A Just Peace?
Dr Godfrey Gunatilleke
The last part of the background note prepared for the first session of the Marga Institute’s panel discussion on ‘Long War, Cold Peace’ contained the conceptual framework which Dr Jayatilleka uses for his assessment of what he describes as the post war crisis – “ the cold peace” on which he focuses in Chapters 3, 4 and 5 of his book. A war which he argues was fundamentally just for the reasons he has given is followed by a peace which is flawed by “the delay or inability … to make the transition to a stable and just framework for durable peace and successful nation building.”
This formulation of the conditions of peace gives us the point of entry to our discussion. The author closely examines the nature of the post war crisis. He goes on to analyze the manifold character of the crisis, distinguishing five major components of the crisis. He then elicits what we might identify as the five fundamentals of peace and nation –building. He does this in the chapters 3, 4, and 5 and distinguishes five major components of the crisis which he highlights in the overview he provides in Chapter 1 “The Lessons of the Thirty Years War. These components contain the main issues pertaining to a just peace. Let us recapitulate the main elements of this conceptual frame (which we reproduced in the note for the first session).
- First, “the crisis of national unification – reconciling and reunifying the different identities into an overarching macro identity – that of being Sri Lankan.”
- Second the inability to make” the transition to a state that is neutral as between the constituent communities and with capacity to mediate between them”.
- Third the crisis of public policy arising out of the war – the depletion of resources to health, education, public transport and infrastructure.
- The fourth the party system as a whole and the democratic opposition in particular.
- Fifth the crisis of transition and transformation which he argues is at least in part the post war discourse.
These are the strategic issues we need to address. The five facets of the crisis are as it were integral parts of a pentagon. We can use this structure to locate where we are at present and the spaces that have to be covered if we are to achieve a just peace. There is a resonance in the chapter on “Lessons of the Thirty Years War”.
