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Mahanayake calls for urgent steps to build bridges between communities
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Mahanayake Thirikunamale Ananda Thera
For the Amarapura Sri Dharmarakshitha Nikaya Mahanayaka, the Most Ven. Thirikunamale Ananda Thera, Trincomalee is his home district and he has the welfare of its people at heart.
He believes that though there is no war now, much needs to be done to build bridges between the communities.
He says there are many issues to be dealt with on the road to reconciliation– and external solutions won’t provide answers to them. The people will have to work out internal solutions themselves to achieve reconciliation in the district.
The Mahanayake Thera, who is also the chief incumbent of Bambalapitiya Shri Vajiraramaya told the Sunday Times that he believes religious leaders can play a major role in improving harmony and eliminating groups which are spreading disharmony among communities.
“There are political groups which go against the principle of building harmony among religious and ethnic groups,” he said.
He said since the war ended, the people have been benefitting from infrastructure development projects, but the benefits have not reached some areas due to various actions of officials and thereby affecting the reconciliation process.
He said another hurdle towards national reconciliation is the language problem.
“Some people, including poor farmers or the fishermen, find it difficult to explain their problems to the officials due to the language problem. They are unable to get solutions to the problems,” he said.
The Mahanayake Thera said the Government should take urgent steps to appoint officials who are capable of communicating with the villagers in the language they are most familiar with. “This language problem affects both the Sinhalese and Tamil-speaking villagers.”
There was little use in carrying out development activities, without building bridges between communities, the Mahanayake said insisting that the Government should maintain the ethnic balance of the district when implementing resettlement programmes.
He urged the Government to do away with the system of ethnicity-based schools as it leads to division within people. He said he was concerned about the emergence of foreign-funded radical religious groups in the district.
Stressing the importance of religious harmony, the Mahanayake said illegal settlements had cropped up in Buddhist religious sites of historic importance and damage had been caused to the site.
He said the Government should move fast to protect these areas. “These issues can disturb the Buddhists and lead to conflicts,” he cautioned.
The Mahanayake proposed that civil society and religious groups work together to build harmony, instead of leaving this sublime task to politicians.