CIIA Toronto - Past Events

Event Summary:

Sri Lanka: Short-term Imperatives and Long-Term Solutions
(interactive panel discussion)

Tuesday, 22 September, 2009
Hart House Debates Room, Hart House, University of Toronto
Moderator:

Prof David Cameron, University of Toronto

Panelists:

Stewart Bell, journalist, National Post
Dr Bikram Lamba, former advisor to Indira Ghandi, Ombudsman for the National Ethnic Press
Prof Bruce Matthews, Professor Emeritus of Comparative Religion, Asian Culture and History, Acadia University
Ken Kandeepan, Canadian Tamil Congress

On September 22nd 2009, The Canadian International Council (CIC) and the Hart House Debates committee jointly hosted an event entitled, Sri Lanka: Short-Term Imperatives and Long-Term Solutions, in the Debates Room of the Hart House to a packed crowd. Jo-Ann Davis, programming chair for the CIC Toronto branch, opened the event and introduced the Moderator for the night’s event, Dr. David Cameron. Dr. David Cameron, the head of the University of Toronto’s Political Science Department and a scholar with intimate knowledge of the situation in Sri Lanka through work through the Forum of Federations, then went onto to introduce the four panelists and allowed them to make their opening statements.

Mr. Stewart Bell, an award-winning journalist with the National Post, was the first speaker to speak about the challenges and possible solutions in post-war Sri Lanka. Mr. Bell drew on his experiences from reporting on the ground in Sri Lanka to identify the problem of press freedom in post-war Sri Lanka. He recalled intimate first hand experiences he had with many press institutions in Sri Lanka, including the Jaffna-based Uthaayan newspaper. He described the bullet- ridden walls of Uthaayan’s offices and the printing presses that were destroyed by grenade attacks after Uthaayan had published articles critical of the government. He stated that press freedom would be essential to national reconciliation and an open and healthy debate would be absolutely vital to legitimizing any post-war solution in Sri Lanka.

Dr. Bruce Matthews’, an Acadia University-based religion scholar who has spent his career studying Sri Lanka, made the case that institutions in Sri Lanka ought to be reformed to better reflect the ethnic make-up of the island and his pessimism that the current government was in a position to do so. Dr. Matthews recent work as Canada’s representative on the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP), an internationally appointed body that until recently was investigating human rights abuses in Sri Lanka, gave him a unique perspective to some of the institutional challenges in Sri Lanka. He stated that both of the major communities on the island, Sinhalese and Tamils, share common roots and common values, yet their collective psyches have been scarred by the on-going civil war. It was imperative in his mind that the government, in its victory of the Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam (LTTE), be magnamonious and look for pathways for reconciliation with the island’s estranged Tamil Community. Unfortunately, Dr. Matthews believes this is unlikely to occur in the near future.

Dr. Bikram Lamba, an adviser to successive Indian governments in the 80’s and the early 90’s, gave the audience a sweeping historical perspective on Sri Lanka. He emphasized that, in the lenses of history, a united Sri Lanka was an anomaly created by British colonialism. In that sense, a strong federal model was imperative in post-war Sri Lanka. Dr. Lamba recounted his own experiences with the Indian federal model and stated that Sri Lanka desperately needed a viable federal model for their to be a stable peace.

Mr. Ken Kandeepan, a representative with the Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC) was the last of the panelists to address the audience. He focused on the spate of human rights abuses that the current government of Sri Lanka has committed and that have drew international condemnation. In Mr. Kandeepan’s view, this amounted towards a lack of respect towards the island’s minority Tamil community. He argued that there was a need for a greater respect from the government towards the Tamil community and he cited the issue of the Internallly Displaced People Camps in the north of the country as one area where the government could build faith with the Tamil community. Mr. Kandeepan argued that quick resettlement of these peoples would help the country move forward, but he believed that the current government was not interested in resettling these peoples faster, citing the government’s continually shifting plans for resettlement.

After Mr. Kandeepan spoke, the evening then moved into a Question and Answer session. Audience members were given question cards on which they could write their questions and these were then submitted to Dr. Cameron. The audience of over 140 people overwhelmed Dr. Cameron with a number of insightful questions. The questions ranged from press freedom in Sri Lanka, details of possible federal solutions in Sri Lanka, the role of the Canadian government in helping stabilize the peace in Sri Lanka, and the possible return of extremism in Sri Lanka. The lively Q+A then ended with closing statements from each of the panelists.

Dr. Cameron first began with his own thoughts. He said that the government’s recent victory over the LTTE was on thin ice and that the LTTE was not unique phenomena, but rather a product of the social circumstances in Sri Lanka. Reform of governmental institutions and trust building between the ethnic groups were essential in his mind to cementing the peace in Sri Lanka Mr. Bell thanked the audience for showing interest in a country that he has long been covering and a country, in his words, that has suffered too long. Mr. Matthews ended on somewhat of a pessimistic note, again stating that the current government’s triumphalism was eating away at any chance of a lasting peace. He proposed a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, similar to South Africa’s, as a way to build reconciliation. Dr. Lamba endorsed the idea of a truth and reconciliation commission and ended by recalling an anecdote from his time advising Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Dr. Lamba recalled the power of ethnicity and group politics in the context of the Golden Temple siege that the Indian government undertook and the wisdom of storming the temple with members of the Indian enemy that shared the same ethnicity with the insurgents holed up in the temple, so as not to provoke further ethnic tensions. Dr. Lamba warned that unless there was a strong federal model thar responded to minority needs, violence could once again spring up in Sri Lanka. Mr. Kandeepan ended the panel with a message to the members of the Sri Lanka diaspora in the audience saying that concern for the livelihoods and conditions for the people in Sri Lanka would help shape a better post-war future. The evening ended with a reception where members of the audience further engaged the panelists.

View the event flyer: Flyer.