TIA and transient paralysis affect business and civil society

The government, politicians, business, academics, professionals and civil society leaders representing mainly southern interests, living and earning in the majority south of Sri Lanka have grappled with issues and strategies relevant to conflict resolution, for nearly 25 years.

All these segments have been assisted by the international community and the international non governmental organizations with presentations, workshops, advice, organizational and facilitative support and overseas visits to conflict affected countries, as well as exchange visits to and from countries like South Africa, Costa Rica and Ireland, which have successfully resolved their internal conflicts.

Some of these segments, having genuinely or otherwise tried many strategies are now without a position, a voice or definitive action programme of their own towards supporting the conflict resolution process. At a time the government, with a stated policy commitment to a negotiated settlement, is clearly pursuing a military strategy, it appears that the medical conditions commonly referred to as Laryngitis (temporary loss of voice), TIA (transient ischemic attack) and transient paralysis (temporary paralysis) have afflicted the business community and the civil society.

Civil society leaders capable of organizing a people led expression of the voice of the community are silent, whilst others without such a capability network island wide are restricting their action strategy to small gatherings at Lipton Circus or Fort Railway Station, protest marches, holding press conferences and releasing media statements.

The silence of the business community may be due to a fear of reprisal from the government, division amongst members, due to a genuine lack of an alternate strategy they can support with resources they can harness, a weak leadership commitment or even a genuine belief that the present strategy is the best alternate option in the current circumstances.

If the business sector believes that it has a role to play in conflict resolution, and is genuinely seeking an alternate approach to the unsuccessful strategies previously pursued and is seeking a non confrontational strategy within its available resources, the business leaders can look towards the strategies that would have been expected from the now silent civil society (ie. arranging the voice of the community to be organized in the Gandhian Way).

Dr S. Sinha recommends “Gandhi’s Satyagraha” as a way towards resolution of conflict and makes reference to Gandhi having said “that the root of every Violence or Conflict is Untruth and that the only permanent solution of Conflict is Truth.”

“Consequently, to resolve conflicts, Gandhi conceived of a novel technique which he called Satyagraha. Literally it means Satya (Truth) with Agraha (Firmness) or, Unwavering search for the Truth. And since the only way of getting to Truth is by Non-violence (or Love), it follows that Satyagraha implies an Unwavering search for the Truth using Non-violence. And therefore Gandhi emphasized that Satyagraha is the most potent method of ensuring endurable peace.

Dr Sinha in his web says “Gandhi started his career as an Attorney in South Africa and he practiced Law for 20 years. During that period he dealt with hundreds of cases related to conflicts of all kinds– Interpersonal conflicts, Labour conflicts, Social conflicts, Religious conflicts, State conflicts and National conflicts – and used every possible technique for resolving them – through the legal channel, by mediation, by education, by arbitration and so on.

But right from the beginning Gandhi became disgusted with the legal technique and later in his life he remarked, ‘I became disgusted with the profession. As lawyers the counsels on both sides were bound to rake up points of law in support of their clients; the winning party never recovered all the costs; I felt it was my duty to befriend both parties and bring them together. I realized that the true function of a lawyer was to unite parties driven asunder’.

Slowly Gandhi evolved an entirely novel technique which he called 'Satyagraha'. Literally it means remaining firm on the Truth and resisting the Untruth actively but using only Non-violent means. Gandhi devoted all his life to perfecting the Satyagraha technique, teaching it to his followers and applying it in every kind of conflict that he encountered.

Will our business leaders take a lesson from Gandhi and look towards supporting conflict resolution initiatives leveraging, “non violent satyagraha” as the launch pad to mobilize members, employees and family members of employees in their respective homes spread across the country?