The Challenge Of May 19 Is To Commemorate & To Mourn
Jehan Perera
The war ended on the battlefields of the north seven years ago on May 19. The commemoration of this day is a divisive one. During the period of the previous government, which claimed ownership of the war victory, the commemoration took the form of a victory celebration, with military parades and narrow ethnic nationalistic speechmaking that catered to ethnic majority sentiment but injured the sentiments of the ethnic minorities. At the same time the government also took action to ensure that there would be no commemoration of the LTTE or even of civilian loss of life. This led to the prohibition of any form of public coming together in the north of the country where the last battles were fought, even within places of religious worship, for the purpose of remembering the dead.
However, a shift could be discerned last year, after the new government had come to power. Although once again the commemoration took the form of a military parade with associated speechmaking, it was conducted on a smaller scale and with less nationalism. The decision of the new government headed by President Maithripala Sirisena to redefine May 19 as a Day of Remembrance marked a significant break with the past. However, it was still not a complete break. It was accompanied by a military parade, as in the past, attended by the President. The sacrifice of the Sri Lankan security forces who ensured the territorial unity of the country, and the final military triumph over the LTTE and its separatist campaign, were the main themes of this event.
At last year’s May 19 event there was also reference to the general loss of life in the war by the President in his speech. This satisfied neither the Sinhalese nationalists in the south who wanted the war victory celebrated nor the Tamil people in the north who wanted their dead commemorated. However, there was an improvement in the flexibility of the government and the people in the north were permitted to hold religious services for those who lost her lives. These events even took place on the battleground where the last of the fighting took place. At one such event a multi religious commemoration took place with a Buddhist monk from the Jaffna district inter religious committee being present.
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