A Project in Reconciliation in Sri Lanka

A Project in Reconciliation in Sri Lanka

On February 24, 2010 the Venerable Dr K.Gunaratana and I launched our project of reconciliation in Vavuniya in the north in Sri Lanka. We conducted a ceremony of Laying Foundation Stone for the Chen Su Lan Education Centre. After three decades of Civil War between the Sinhalese and the Tamils with loss of lives and property the war came to a decisive end. Survivors have to set their hearts on relief, rehabilitation and reconciliation.

The decision was made to establish an Education Centre for service and reconciliation in the area of Vavuniya where the majority of the population are Tamil Hindus, Christians and Muslims. Venerable Gunaratana is a Sinhalese Buddhist working for some years in Singapore as Spiritual Advisor to Maha Karuna Society. I represented the Chen Su Lan (Christian) Trust in Singapore. There is the ecumenical and international aspects of this venture.

Mr Namal Rajapaksa who is the son of the President of Sri Lanka was approached earlier and he endorsed our request for a piece of land. On the eve of Nomination Day for his own candidacy for election to Parliament, he was gracious to give us an appointment to meet and personally thank him. We drove all day in the hot sun for about 300 miles along a single lane two way traffic from the north down to the very south to do so.

The Government Agent, Mrs. P.S.M. Charles (Christian) who is also the District Secretary approved our application and allocated over half an acre of land without cost in the city for our project.

Mayor Mr. S.N.G. Nathan (Hindu, National Tamil Alliance-TNA Party), Chairman of the Urban Council, helped us to negotiate with the squatters who were living besides the land earmarked for our use. He participated in our launching event.

The ceremony of the Ground Breaking and Laying of the Foundation Stone for the Chen Su Lan Education Centre was honoured with the presence also of Major General Kamal Gunaratne, Commander of the 53rd Division of the Army who led the final battle and now in charge of the Internally Displaced Persons programme and security of the area. We have visited him a few occasions before and appreciated the hospitality of the Guest House under his Command. From the very beginning he supported our efforts. In his speech he thanked us for our contribution.

Senior Superintendent of Police, Mr Senaratne is the Police Chief in the area graced the occasion as well. Two Parliamentary candidates, one a Sinhalese, Mr Upul Balasuriya and the other a Tamil, Ms Geetangalee were also present.

Ms Geetangalee, a Tamil Christian, is a feminist and entered the political arena to serve the women particularly in the war torn areas in the northern region. She herself survived the war. Her husband who is an Anglican priest is still missing for the past nine months. She suspects he was kidnapped by political rivals. She has a list of 1,900 such “disappearances.” They had demanded money from her for she is working as an administrator in an International School. They threatened her two children and she sent them off for their personal safety to school in Ukraine. The present government offered her round the clock security officers to protect her. She is gifted and has great passion for social justice and women’s rights. She recounted to us the utter misery of the women and children in the war torn areas with nothing left for them. They are without the basic necessities. They have to fend for themselves after the men gave their lives in the battlefield.

Local religious representatives of the Buddhist, Hindu, Christian, Muslim faiths were present to chant and offer prayers to bless the occasion. The religious leaders have been engaging in dialogue and we intend to intensify the programme and provide interfaith education. As a form of community service we will offer education first in English and computer skills for the O Level and A Level students irrespective of race or religion.

We visited a local school in Vavuniya which had to accommodate 3,000 Internally Displaced Persons who had come from the neighbouring areas to the city to secure an education. They were sitting literally shoulder to shoulder in a few old classrooms, temporary huts, and even under tents and trees. Classes are being conducted in all levels of primary and secondary education under extremely limited conditions. Most of the students have lost their homes or parents and seek shelter in the city to receive the free education offered by the State.

Under military escort we traveled to Kilinochchi which was the centre for the Tamil Eelam movement where fierce battles were fought. It was for some years the de facto capital of the LTTE (Tamil Tigers) until the city was re-captured. The Battles for Kilinochchi resulted in the loss of 70,000 lives. Almost a year after the war ended, shophouses along the main road still stand roofless and abandoned. A large artillery shell lodged in a wall now serves as a War Memorial. The town’s water tower was blasted and tumbled on its side just off the main road. Churches and temples were damaged and yet to be restored. The civilians in this war zone had to keep moving every day caught between the two opposing forces. Their homes were leveled, their land was mined and they sneaked through the battle lines at great risk. At the conclusion of the war about 300,000 displaced persons both civilians and Tamil Tigers were placed in camps. We were informed at present only about 60,000 remain. Out of that number are about 10,000 Tamil Tigers militia undergoing re-education and rehabilitation. Meanwhile the land is being de-mined and made safe for the civilians to return to farm their land and rebuild their homes.

War-wearied, the people are looking for whatever assistance that can be provided to start life from scratch and to restore their livelihood. They were made the wretched of the earth. The process of reconciliation is desperately needed to help one another to realise their hopes for a peaceful future.

Absolute Truth
In my recent explorations about the “parting of the ways” between Judaism and Christianity and in the origins of early Christianity, I discover different truth claims in antiquity. The various groups each claim its own to be absolute, exclusive and universal truth. Each is a sincere conviction believing in faith that God has revealed it to them only. They therefore deny the validity of the other claims to truth. I was struck by the sea of diversity in the early Christian movement.

It was from the fourth century C.E. (common era or after Christ A.D.) when Emperor Constantine embraced Christianity, it became the one true official religion for the State and its people. The Church Fathers like Augustine provided the theological justifications for the Christian Church to claim that it has sole possession of absolute Truth. They formulated the creeds and official teaching The Church through the office of the Pope was given the power to define the dogma of the community.

History further informs us that the Eastern branch of the Church separated from the Rome in the West to form different Orthodox Churches with their center in Constantinople. The Reformation further developed denominational churches and separated themselves from the Roman Catholic Church. Independent Churches now distanced themselves from the orbit of the mainline churches. The unavoidable question even within the Christian movement is whose claim of absolute truth is THE real absolute TRUTH.

Even though we believe in revelation from God there are various receptions and perceptions of divine revelation. This is the human condition and the only valid understanding we have is that it is a claim that each individual or group makes and views it to be absolute, exclusive and universal. Hence the concept of truth-claims. Call it relativistic if you must but what is the alternative. Your perceptions may be shared by some but will be different from others. There is no choice but to admit differences, diversities and pluralities. Otherwise, we will have to enter into conflict and conquer by the sword.

The theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg adopts the position that "every religion is incomplete pointing to a fulfillment in the future beyond itself. That religion which knows this and so interprets itself thus represents an absolute position in its very relativity."

Canon Max Warren of the Anglican Church Missionary Society in the early eighties advanced this classic attitude towards people of other faiths:
“Our first task in approaching another people, another culture, another
religion, is to take off our shoes, for the place we are approaching is holy.
Else we may find ourselves treading on men’s dreams. More serious, we forget that God was here before we our arrival.”