Financial Times

Time to make our child minds work
By Random Access Memory (RAM)
Remember when we were children. We fought. We made up. We forgot. We forgave. We got up each morning to a new day. We carried no baggage from the past.
The child's mind is amazing. It is non dogmatic, its caring, its immensely creative, its innocent and most important of all, devoid of lasting hate and is full of love and the capacity to love. When all else fails, what we need in times of crisis, such as the one we have now between the executive and legislature in our wonderful little country, may be to appeal to our leaders to put their child minds to work.
Never mind the complex processes, strategies, plans and schemes to outdo each other.

What they now seem to need is a full dose of innocent silent meditation to look inwards. Focus on the back to basics of why they are there, to do what and for whom. It is indeed true that there are lots of cobwebs clouding their minds now. There are also a lot of spiders of varied kinds weaving new cobwebs to make the maze even more confusing.

Viewing a Sinhala television talk show on Swarnavahini earlier this week, RAM saw just one of the many instances of how the clouding takes place. Allegations, counter allegations, calling names came in galore. The richness of the local folk idiom was used to the hilt. What was amusing was that each participant had a copy of the 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka with them and was quoting verbatim to justify their respective positions on the seesaw fiasco that is going on.

Two Ministers, a MP and a Provincial Chief Minister, all of whom once sat on the same side, now opposing each other, were looking shamelessly straight at our - public’s eye - on the boxed screen. They were of course dressed in their best evening attire, but some looked as if they were naked to the core.

After all the abuse and stone throwing, interestingly enough, one common target of attack emerged. And that, was none other than the now sacred Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka of 1978.

Once compared by a legal pundit to the likes of a journal, with 18 amendments within a short span of two and half decades, it is today a 'blessing' to some and a bane to others. At the talk show, the Chief Minister from the Western Province, referring to the constitution made the comment, 'How can Satan's Bible give birth to sweet angels'. Ironically, there were references from both sides to the wisdom of late Dr. N.M. Perera, who in 1978 predicted the occurrence of exactly the same scenario we are faced with today.

We also know that our over 2500 years of history is dotted with more than several follies made by men and women at the helm, in their quest for power. It is a truism that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Today what we need is to recognize where we have gone wrong and take a 'back to basics' approach to make it right. Like children learn to walk, little steps are what we may want to take in getting to realise our mission for the long-term common good of our country.

It may even be a good thing for us to give a little recess to the peace process and get our own act together to face the negotiations with a stronger level of confidence.
Some think it will take a miracle to have our warring Southern leaders to think and act sensibly. But with profound leadership, such miracles indeed have happened. A living example is that of Mr. Nelson Mandela of South Africa.

This week a good beginning has been made when the President and the Prime Minister met to talk the future. We urge our leaders to read the very pragmatic and commendable three-point approach presented in an article published in the Daily Mirror of Tuesday this week, by peace proponent Dr. Jehan Perera. It contained a rational agenda for action that could well serve as a sound way forward for our leaders. Thankfully, we have a safety net of the international community supporting Sri Lanka with the truce with the LTTE. What we need today is for all right thinking citizens of Sri Lanka to come together to create our own safety net of strong positive vibes of support.

Support for a governance of cohabitation to make ourselves stronger to take on the process of peace negotiations and the utilization of donor assistance for development. Although who holds the leadership reins matter, what is more important is to work focussed on achieving the final objective.

It makes good social sense for community leaders, good business sense for business leaders and simple good sense for all of us, as a lasting peace and prosperity is only possible if divisions are minimised and the peace process is taken forward on a collective front, unhindered. We all know that it is a tough call. We know that most adult minds are often clouded with over doses of self-interest, vanity and pride. But if we make our child minds work before we take on the more difficult domains, then we will be able to forget, forgive and move on to truly 'Regain Sri Lanka'.

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