Some Thoughts on Our Cultural Values and National Harmony – Lionel Bopage
Culture of Sri Lanka?
07/03/2016I recognise, respect, appreciate and congratulate the valuable work done by many including those of Sri Lanka Invites. Several other organisations that promote rights, freedoms and development efforts needed for building social cohesion and harmony, have been supportive of this event. National Harmony Day in Melbourne is an occasion for celebration. At the same time, it needs to be a serious time to reflect, to remember. Why? Because this harmony day celebration itself is a response to the discord that is rooted among us, both in Sri Lanka and in the Diaspora. We need to ask ourselves the question, if we wish to continue with this discord that led to periods of our infamy.
Each of us has been brought up in a certain socio-economic and political environment. Each of us has a certain cultural identity, of which we are proud. Yet, this proudness should be not enjoyed at the expense of the other. We need to recognise, respect and appreciate the fact that others also have their own proud cultural identities. Each person needs space to claim his or her identity without being subject to discrimination. That is why fundamental rights and freedoms are necessary. Each of us needs to become aware that irrespective of ethnicity, language, gender and faith, we are all citizens of a larger community, Sri Lankan or Australian.
A civilised society cannot and should not celebrate barbarian values. We need to be able to respect the ethnicity, language and faith of others, even if we may disagree with their beliefs. At the same time, certain beliefs or practices may not be immune from scrutiny. If certain beliefs and practices breach our common values and laws, then such beliefs and practices need to be repudiated and criticised. However, this is totally different from vilification of or inflamed animosity towards an ethnicity, language and faith of another person or community group.
Yet, our own upbringing has inculcated in us, bias and prejudice against ‘the other’ in one form or another. Racism not only diminishes the freedom of the other, but also diminishes our own freedoms. It also diminishes the social cohesion and harmony in a diverse society like Australia or Sri Lanka. We need to work towards building harmony amongst ourselves both in Sri Lanka and in the diaspora. In any good musical composition, the musical instrumentalists and singers harmonise diverse pitch ranges of sound. This is broadly analogous to the multicultural harmony we enjoy here in Australia. Despite the colonial past of massacres in Australia, we have been able to live together in relative harmony. We, from many diverse cultures around the world, peacefully coexist with one of the oldest cultures of the world, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
