Discussion on Post-war Identity and Nation Building

Friday, 1 February 2013 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

A discussion on ‘Dilemmas of Diversity, Post-war Identity and Nation Building’ will be held on Tuesday, 5 February, at 6:30 p.m. at the OPA Auditorium – 275/75, Prof. Stanley Wijesundara Mawatha, Colombo 7.

Given the recent surge of extremist ethno-religious discourse in various quarters, and aggressive anti-Muslim propaganda in particular, the prospects of a sustainable peace and a united Sri Lanka seem in jeopardy.

The discussion will examine what lessons we have learned and should have learned from a 30-year war and the exploitation of passions on all sides that precipitated this. It will consider how we might arrive at sense of Sri Lankan nationhood, while considering what it means to be a Sri Lankan citizen possessed of inalienable freedoms and equality of rights.

The discussion will range beyond constitutional reform to look at institutional and structural frameworks necessary to ensure democracy and pluralistic development.

The opening presentation will be by Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka and invited discussants are D.E.W. Gunasekara, Godfrey Gunatilleka, Jeevan Thiagarajah, Dr. Pradeep Jeganathan and Salma Yusuf.

This discussion is the second in a discussion series on constitutional reform organised by The Liberal Party. The third discussion in the series will be on 20 February, on ‘Electoral Reform and the Role of Parliamentarians’.