How realistic is the adoptability of the message of non violence to Sri Lankans?

Observers of the violent Sri Lankan conflict are of the view that decades of efforts to find a solution to the ethnic problem in Sri Lanka through war have gradually eroded all the good values and norms of Sri Lankans and shrouded the future of this country in uncertainty. It is true that culture of bitterness, suspicion, and misunderstanding has been created as a result of these violent tactics, and it has developed into a dangerous situation that has made impossible the plausibility of bringing about a just and fair solution. The masses, political parties and militant organizations are divided. This is the reason for the failure of all negotiations.

It is argued that the people of this country have lost their values and norms and thus the situation has resulted in the current degeneration of the society. This article is centered around the argument that the people of this country have not lost their values and norms; they continue to retain and cherish their inherited values and norms, but the ‘improper political socialization’ prevailing in this country for the last three decades has become dominant and rendered these values and norms, non-functional. It is possible to bring these values and norms back to life by threshing the poisoned layer of them through an effective ‘Peace Social movement’ with a clear objective and well defined strategy at the grassroots, there by ensuring lasting peace and harmony in Sri Lanka. An articulation of scientific process will make it possible.

Dealing with a ‘Divided society’

We are dealing with a situation where the population of the territory is not only physically divided, but also divided in the trust it places in the actors of the conflict.

There exists a low level consensus regarding the peace efforts. The governments could never come to a compromise with the opposition parties for a bi-partisan approach, and have even failed in reaching a compromise with the President.

More explanation can be referred to the Knowledge-Attitudes-Practices survey on the Sri Lankan peace process conducted by Social Indicator-Center for Policy Alternatives in 2003. The study concludes that, the Sri Lankans are divided on the peace process. They are divided on how far they are willing to compromise for the sake of peace, and they are divided regarding their readiness to protest against a peace agreement they consider to be unfair. Ethnic differences in attitudes towards the peace process loom predictably large. A great majority of Sinhalese people opposed most peace proposals while a great majority of Tamils, Up-country Tamils and Muslims supported the majority of the peace proposals. In all, 67% of Tamils and 64% of Muslims were active supporters of the peace proposals. Most of the rest were passive supporters. A substantial majority (64%) of Sinhalese people opposed virtually all of the peace proposals. Opposition to the peace process was strongest in the JVP and Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP). Government concerns about ‘selling’ a peace agreement to United National Party (UNP; which handled the peace process) supporters appeared exaggerated.

This underlines the fact that, the task of building a national consensus is not going to be an easy one. It has to address all these issues before a set of “national objectives” can be defined and a consensus built around these. It has been realized that the solution has to come out of the heartfelt blessings of all Sri Lankans. What is needed is a humanist approach, which Gandhi showed us - A path of non-violence to unlearn the wrongs. There is an overwhelming need in Sri Lanka for a Gandhian style ‘Peaceful Social Movement’ to right the wrongs.

What is a Social Movement?

Social movements are a type of group action. They are large informal groupings of individuals and/or organizations focused on specific political or social issues, in other words, on carrying out, resisting or undoing a social change.

They are more likely to evolve at a time and place which is friendly to the social movements. Generally, the social movements are formed in liberal and authoritarian societies but in different forms. Yet, there must always be polarizing differences between groups of people. Many social movements are created around some charismatic leaders.

The current crisis of Sri Lanka demands for a Peaceful social Movement. It is the need of the hour in Sri Lanka. The signs for such a movement emerging from the people are visible now. A peace movement is a social movement that seeks to achieve ideals such as the ending of a particular war, minimizing inter-human violence in a particular place or type of situation, often linked to the goal of achieving world peace. Means to achieve these ends usually include advocacy of pacifism, non-violent resistance, diplomacy, boycotts, moral purchasing, supporting anti-war political candidates, demonstrations, and National Political lobbing groups to create legislation.

Generally, it is the campaigns which become movements later on. Campaigns work on one agenda. But, other agendas also can come out of this main agenda. The strategy behind this is that when a mass of people get involved it increases the number and the number becomes visible. Thus the visibility triggers the rulers to make social change.

What does the youth really care about?

There is a meaning and importunacy in examining weather the youth really care about their society, when we embark on answering what does the youth really care. As far as my understanding is concerned, the youth really care about their community.

The action resulting from the genuine care of the youth has set the foundation for the progress of most communities If we look at the past, we see, from Sri Lanka to India, Chile to Serbia, and Iran to Philippines, there is a long list of instances, where the youth have played a vital role in evolution of their communities.

It is pertinent to draw an example from my own hometown ‘Jaffna’ to explain this argument. The youth in the past did well to contribute to the growth of ‘Jaffna society’. According to an article UTHR (J) website, it is the youth of Jaffna, represented the youth congress during 1920s, and dominated the political activities of the Tamils. (UTHR (J))

The youth congress had been the back bone of the Tamil politics, committed to self governance (Swaraj) and pluralistic nationalism. As Kadirgamar mentioned the eradication of inequalities, respect and tolerance for all religious faiths, the development of local trade and industries, the revival of national literature, art and music and the teaching of Tamil in schools in south Ceylon and Sinhalese in schools in north Ceylon were other prime objectives of youth congress, and the youth of Jaffna had been inspired by this. The youth had been the driving force behind the many notable successes of the ‘Jaffna community’ in the socio-political and Economic contexts. (Kadirgammar)

Furthermore untouchability and the dowry system are gradually disappearing from the Jaffna community. The credit for this change goes to the youth, as they are becoming the change they want to see. Youthm in general, care about issues such as corruption, diversity, untouchability, armed culture of impunity etc. There is no doubt that they strongly care about their societies. A Harvard study has found that 60% of youth are involved as volunteers in many organizations to help society. (Hansra.H)

More often than not, they believe in actions, not in words. These are the people who are supposed to take the responsibility of the future of their communities. They realize that it is their responsibility not only to care about themselves, but also to care about their society. Indeed very rightly they do both of this.

Selvarajah Mathangie

Human clonig?

Animal cloning has shown excellent advances and recently, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has achieved success in cloning an embryo successfully. A sheep, named Dolly, was the world’s first cloned mammal and we have come a long way since then. And now, the reality of human cloning may be just about in a corner, although not like what people feared ten years ago.

Generally, skin cells have DNA which is necessary to make another person in cloning method. When cloning these skin cells, the DNA is made to undergo several physical changes. These physical changes have an impact of turning off lot of genes which are not used to make a skin of person.

Very recently, the Roslin Institute scientists had shown that it was very easy to destroy the physical changes by putting the stem cells in to an egg. As I mentioned earlier, cells are made to undergo various physical changes and made to lose several genes. These physical changes trigger the hereditary nature of the cells. But, by putting it into an egg, it becomes very easy to remain the potential of those particular cells.

The above technique is the way in which Dolly was “made”. There were no positive reports that suggested same possible result for human cloning, until 2004. There were various successes in animal cloning method. So people started to believe in the possibility of human cloning. But the reports of human cloning did not reveal any concrete results. It reduced the hope of human cloning and there came about a general revulsion of all victories of animal cloning amongst the people.

However, in 2004, Korean scientists claimed that they had successfully cloned a human embryo. But, their report turned turned out to be false. They had not tried to make a cloned baby. They had made a cloned embryo in an attempt to make an embryonic stem cell.

A cloned person will have the same features of the person who gave the skin cell. This is called as “Promise of tailor made stem cell”. That means a cloned human would be the duplicate of the person who gave the cell. Any how, it leads to a big legal issue. Even now, it is prohibited to elaborate brands which have same logos. In view of that, would it be acceptable to make a human with cent per cent same features? It makes a perception that it is an illegal, unethical and an invention against the order of nature.

One main roadblock of cloning is that it is difficult to overcome the shortage of human eggs. If the scientists can control the above-mentioned problem, then it would be a step towards cloning humans. But, it is difficult to solve this problem. This is because there is a doubt whether young women will endow their eggs needed for research. Even if they do they agree, they might expect to millions and billions of dollars in return.

California is spending more than 3 billion dollars on the research of human cloning and stem cell. However, it is also a fact that there is a huge obstacle posed by the presidents of several countries, especially by Bush.