[Part 111, a slightly expanded conclusion of the Bakeer Markar Memorial lecture on ‘Challenges to Strengthening Sri Lankan Identity’, delivered by Dr Dayan Jayatilleka, former Ambassador/Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations at Geneva].

We must look at ourselves and the outside world. When we look at our own culture, our own traditions, we must learn to discern and discard that which is no longer appropriate and retain that which is valuable. Not everything about tradition is appropriate. Caste is not appropriate. Certain attitudes are not appropriate. Are we to embrace them simply because at one time they were part of our tradition? We must be able to critically sift out that which is relevant, that which is appropriate, that which is precious, that which is essential, and those aspects which are not. We must be able to blend our culture with the best of other cultures — and this is in fact is how our Sri Lanka evolved! There is nothing within Sri Lankan culture that has not been influenced or impinged upon by other cultures, whether they were and are Indian, Tamil or Arabic or European. This is all the more so today in the era of the internet. All you have to do is to turn on your television set and you will find that culture is not something static. It is not something that belongs to the museum. Culture evolves; culture has a future and is to do with the future just as much as the past. In the construction of a Sri Lankan identity should we look to the past or the future? I think we must rediscover, reflect on and revaluate the past, but not stay mired in it as we tend to do. We must look to the future. We are not only what we have been. We are not only what we were. We are what we can make of ourselves.

I say all of these because of personal experience, and also because of a strategic reason which I will get to. The personal reasons are these: I belong to a majority and a minority. I am a member of the majority in so far as I am a Sinhalese. I belong to a minority in so far as I am a Christian, a non-practicing or not quite practicing Catholic. So I am able to see the issue of a Sri Lankan identity through the eyes of the majority as well as of the minorities. Therefore, I believe I am able to see a bigger picture, a fuller picture, rather than if I were either only a member of the minority or only a member of the majority. Now the second personal reason is how I was brought up, the foundational formation of my own identity. Many people in this audience knew my father, the late Mervyn de Silva, the famous journalist and respected editor, not to be confused at any time with another person of the same name whom I would never call a gentleman! Though he had a Sinhala Buddhist upbringing and family background, Mervyn never referred to himself or our family members as Sinhalese, nor did we say, "We were not Sinhalese". We never disowned the Sinhala identity but it never figured consciously or explicitly, and if anyone, such as Mervyn’s good friend the late Gamani Jayasuriya, founder of the Sinhala Arakshaka Sanvidhanaya (SAS), were to bring it up, my father would brush it aside. I cannot remember in all my years of growing up that there was any reference to us as Sinhalese or any time my parents said "as Sinhalese" we must think such and such, or do such and such or be this way and not that. No, our standards were international, universal; I was brought up to behave according to and adhere to standards which were the same anywhere in the world, which is, I suppose, why I was able to function with ease and success at the UN in Geneva. We were "Ceylonese", "Sri Lankan"— and "Asian" (my mother Lakshmi was particularly conscious of our Asian identity, while Mervyn was more "international"). Our identity was one of citizenship, of being citizens of the country and of belonging to the continent as a whole; there was no narrow ethnic or ethno religious identity or what Lakshman Kadirgamar used to decry as "tribalism". If you look at Mervyn de Silva’s writings, he would refer to himself as "a journalist", as "a literary critic who became a student of international relations". So the aspect of personal identity that was most important to him was not what he was by accident of birth, but what he had made of himself through free choice. That is true of our country as well. To be Sri Lankan does not necessarily only mean this or that version of what we were or where we are coming from. It also means what we make of ourselves in the future. We have the free choice to do that.

Lakshman Kadirgamar gives us the formula for being truly Sri Lankan, exemplifying and articulating what a Sri Lankan identity is: "I am first and foremost a citizen of Sri Lanka. I don’t carry labels of race or religion or any other label. I would say quite simply that I have grown up with the philosophy that I am probably, kind of a citizen of the world. I don’t subscribe to any particular philosophy; I have no fanaticism: I have no communalism. I believe that there should be a united Sri Lanka. I believe that all our peoples can live together, they did live together. I think they must in the future learn to live together after this trauma is over. We have four major religions in the country. Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, Christianity. All these religions exist very peacefully. They get on very well. I see no reason why the major races in the country, the Tamils and Sinhalese cannot again build a relationship of trust and confidence. That is my belief. That is what I wish for and in working for that I will not be deterred by having some labels pinned on me." (Interview with Japanese National Television, NHK, 2004)

Quoting this on the occasion of the Kadirgamar commemoration this year, Mrs. Suganthi Kadirgamar correctly said that it "encapsulates Lakshman’s vision, idealism and aspiration for a united Sri Lanka devoid of conflict".

Now the hypocrisy of our dominant social ideology is this: many Sinhalese would applaud this but not say the same themselves! They applaud these sentiments coming from a Tamil, but are not willing to adopt the same stand, defining themselves "first and foremost as a citizen of Sri Lanka", eschewing "labels of race or religion". So it is a good thing when a Tamil or Muslim eschews "labels of race or religion" and affirms their Sri Lankan identity, but it is perfectly in order for Sinhala Buddhists to assert their own "race and religion"! Who and where is the Sinhala Lakshman Kadirgamar? Friedrich Nietzsche, my favorite philosopher said that "there was only one Christian — and he died on the Cross". Similarly we could perhaps say that there was only one Sri Lankan and he is dead. It is no accident that this pioneer and practitioner of a Lankan identity and consciousness, this prototype of being a Sri Lankan, was murdered in the name of liberation no less, by ultra-nationalists or hyper-nationalists, the Tamil extremist LTTE. He is dead precisely because he was a Sri Lankan!

Many of our ultra nationalists, mainly the Sinhalese ultra-nationalists say that the views expressed here are all Western values, which we can and must reject because we are part of Asia — but let me tell you that their attitude is not part of Asia at all! It is not only alien to contemporary Asia; it was certainly not the attitude and perspective of the Asia of Zhou En Lai and Nehru! India, which has over 80 per cent Hindus, has a secular State. It had a President who was a Muslim. It has a Prime Minister who was a Sikh, despite the fact that there was Sikh secessionist insurgency in the 1980s and Indira Gandhi’s assassins were Sikhs. The leader of the major party which was re-elected happens to be of Italian origin. If you take Singapore, 9 per cent of the people are of South Asian origin, but many in the top ranks of the Government happen to be South Asian or Indian or Tamil. It is an integrated society based on merit. Indonesia has a population over 90% of which is of the Islamic faith but the state is defined as secular, while Bangladesh which has a Muslim majority and elements of a Buddhist heritage is also a secular state. So, while we talk about Asia we are not really part of today’s Asia at all. We must not remain out of step with the new Asian consensus and must adopt our own version of the 21st century Asian model, which is one of meritocracy, multi-ethnicity and multiculturalism. We are really displaying an island mentality which is rather like that of the proverbial frog in the well or as a friend of mine once said it is more like a frog in a coconut shell in the well. We have to get with Asia, and it is important that we do so because this century is the century of Asia, of the Asian resurgence, the shift of economic power to Asia and we only have to hook up. It is our region, our extended family, where we belong.

Our identity as Sri Lankans must include a strong commitment to equity and social fair-play, but do we want to level upwards or do we want to continue leveling downward as we did with Sinhala Only and later with media and district wise ‘standardization’? In the name of Sri Lankan identity, do we want to lower our standards and adopt the lowest common denominator with the excuse that we are compensating for colonial privilege? Or do we want to excel in Asia and the world once again, because there was a time we did (the first post WW 2 or post Independence decade), by raising our standards to the level of excellence and making ourselves competitive with the rest of the world?

All this may seem less than patriotic in the traditional or conventional sense of the word. However on the basis of our experience in the battles we fought and won in Geneva, I can assure you that it is very patriotic in the strategic sense. Those were not battles on our soil; it was a struggle on alien territory, even enemy territory. Ours was a small beleaguered mission. We were out there in hostile territory in the middle of Europe with very experienced western foreign Ministries campaigning against us, with their capitals just a few hours away by plane. Yes, we prevailed, but I also saw at first hand — because we were the "breakwater" — the massive demonstrations of pro-Tiger, pro-Tamil Eelam youngsters and the tragic self-immolation of a 21-year old boy who had come from London.

So, as I have said elsewhere, "The war is over, but the struggle is not", because there is another generation of young Tamils, born and educated in the West, who are deeply alienated from Sri Lanka. How is that challenge going to be met? It cannot be met with fire power because that is not a military challenge. It has to be met through the generation and projection of "soft power" and "smart power"; brains, education, economics, diplomacy, communication. It is a struggle in the Western-dominated international media, in the corridors of power, in Washington, in London, in Brussels. Are we ready to win this "peaceful competition"? It is not a battle that Sri Lanka is geared for. It is a battle we will lose if we do not revise our notions of what it is to be Sri Lankan. If we do not construct a broadly inclusionary Sri Lankan identity based on equality and merit, we will find it difficult to win the battle.

However, we can win it because there are many young Sri Lankans, Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, men and women, who do not believe in separatism (like Imthiaz’s son at the LSE, a boy we can proud of). But how are we going to attract and enlist young people like that including young Western educated and/or westernized Sinhalese, while remaining in the grip of a closed minded cultural conservatism and traditionalism, even overseas, in the Diaspora and the state’s interactions with it? I went on some of the Sinhalese community radios in Australia and said "you are going lose your kids if the Sri Lankan culture they are getting are songs that are 30 to 50 years old! They will come for ‘Sri Lankan events’ with their parents till they are 12, 13 and 14 and then you are not going to see them!" So we have to change that. There is a lot going on in Sri Lanka on our television screens, on FM radio. There is a modern Sri Lanka. There is a post-modern Sri Lanka. There is a Sri Lanka of the 21st century that has already begun to emerge. We do not reflect that officially. Our State does not reflect it. The official or dominant discourse does not reflect it. It is that Sri Lanka that is already in formation, a Sri Lanka and Lankan identity that is a fusion because among young people you already have that fusion. There is an open mindedness in that fusion, which is taking place not only between the communities here, but also between Sri Lanka and the world. If only we are able to open our minds and our hearts, use our brains and modernize and democratize our notion of Sri Lankan identity; it is only if we are able to break the chains that enslave our minds, that we will be able to achieve the defeat of renewed attempts of secessionism which are based overseas and hope to leverage powerful countries outside the region against us. It is only then that we will be able to fulfill our potential as a country and as a nation. It is only then that we will be able to move confidently, reaping the benefits of our splendid military victories, arriving in the 21st century to compete and win. Thank you.