Lanka Citizen

PK Balachandran

The Sri Lanka Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SLCBC) has blamed the “non-inclusive” peace process for the prevailing climate of religious intolerance in the island.

Without mentioning anyone, any party or any religious group by name, the SLCBC hinted in a statement on Wednesday, that the previous United National Party (UNP) government had helped trigger majoritarian religious intolerance in Buddhist-dominated South Sri Lanka by its “non-inclusive” peace process.

“The lack of inclusive approach to the peace process alienated a concerned section of opinion. These groups, which failed to rally public support against the peace process used religious misgivings as rhetorical antithesis to galvanise nationalistic sentiments,” the statement said.

“These facts are evident from the electoral polling patterns for such parties during the General election of December 2001 and April 2004,” it added.

Clearly, the allusion was to the UNP regime led by Ranil Wickremesinghe between December 2001 and April 2004.

Wickremesinghe is the UNP’s candidate in the November 17 Sri Lankan Presidential election.

“The alienation of moderate opinion on political differences merely leads to perpetuating extremism and extremist parties that breed on ethnic differences,” the Bishops said.

SLFP slammed too

Again, without mentioning anybody or any party by name, the Bishops have also expressed unhappiness with the religious extremism aided and abetted by the present Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) government, and by the electoral alliance of the SLFP’s Presidential candidate, Mahinda Rajapaksa.

“The basic rights and freedoms in relation to our religious practice have come under great threat from proposed draconian legislation in the form of an Anti-Conversion Bill,” the Bishops said.

The SLFP government was keen on enacting the Anti-Conversional law and a bill had been drafted. And Rajapaksa is now in alliance with the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), one of the prime movers of the Anti-Conversion Bill.

Calling upon the candidates to pursue a different path this time round, the Bishops said: “The new President should adopt an approach, which is more inclusive than earlier in the peace negotiations, taking into consideration all shades of opinion and thereby develop a political consensus on the future of our country.”

Christians (Catholics as well as Protestants) constitute 6.2 per cent of the Sri Lankan population as per the 2001 census. They are the smallest of the three main minority communities, but they are an educated, politically and economically active community. They can play a critical role in a close electoral contest, as is the case now.

Church cannot avoid politics

An interesting aspect of the Bishops’ statement is that it argues for the church’s participation in politics. The church cannot abjure politics or take an ostrich like stance on it, it says.

Quoting Pope John Paul II, the statement said that politics was but a “prudent concern for the common good,” and that the church had a duty to speak on issues directly affecting the church and its members, apart from defending fundamental values like freedom of expression or assembly, of which religious freedom was part.

” In the Encyclical Pachem in Tarris (Peace on Earth of Pope John XXIII), the Catholic Church accepted and affirmed the comprehensive list of fundamental human rights, which includes the civil and political rights enshrined in international covenants,” the statement affirmed.

(HindustanTimes.com)