Here is a short tale about another laudable bureaucrat, this time in Mannar.  Mrs Stanley de Mel is the Divisional Secretary (DS) of Mannar and in charge of 49 Grama Niladari (GN) Divisions and 166 villages – a total population of 72,872, including approximately 30,000 Muslims and 14,071 students.  This Division holds 51% of Mannar District’s population even though there are five divisions in all.  There are increasing pressures on land and amenities as many groups return – refugees from India after two decades, internally displaced persons from the Vanni and Muslims from Puttalam and also Sinhala families who used to live in South Bar and Madhu many years ago and have deeds to prove it.  There is little state land to give away and the 3,500 badly needed houses are now grossly insufficient now that the Muslims are returning, particularly to Mannar Town and Musali.

Mrs de Mel is warm, obliging, makes time for strangers (me) and their strange requests.  Yet one can sense that she is made of tougher stuff.  Often she has to come between warring factions and help find solutions that would test even the wisdom of Solomon.  She has been loved, admired, criticized, screamed at and punched up badly but her commitment to Mannar seems unwavering.

The DS mentioned a couple of her mediation experiences in passing.  In one area of the Division, there is a housing scheme with 80 dwellings which needed an access road.  The purported owner of the land on which that access road would be situated refused to give the land for that purpose.  A heated and protracted fight broke out between the people of the housing scheme and the land owner.  Eventually they all descended on the DS to ‘sort it’.  The owner refused to budge even when offers to buy that portion of land were made.  Finally she packed them all off needing some time to devise a strategy to coax this impasse.  Eventually she decided to send one of her officers to the Survey Department in Vavuniya to get an actual survey plan of the area.  What she discovered was that the ‘owner’ had encroached on government land and had built his house on it.  She now had the upper hand and gave an ultimatum to the owner – provide the access road or forfeit his land and house.  In the end it was an easy matter.

There was another instance of a family who had built a house in Talaimannar ten years before.  A family returning from the refugee camps in India claimed it was their land and had the deeds to prove it.  Again Mrs de Mel again was asked to intervene in the quarrel because neither party was willing to budge.  Eventually the DS negotiated an acceptable settlement.  The family with the original deed was monitarily compensated for the land by the current owner and built elsewhere.  Many such conflicts don’t always end in such an amicable way.

According to Mrs de Mel, over the years numerous residents have encroached on government land and taken it as their own. When government agents try to reclaim it, they are often accused of land grabs.  Keeping track of land has become problematic as now there is a severe shortage of technical officers in Mannar. Most of the officers from all five divisions who had looked after land registers, roads, buildings and the rest were poached by other districts following the local government elections of last year.  So problems like sea water encroachment in three villages – Pallimunai, Santipuram and South Bar have to take a back seat for now.

I am surprised at how well Mrs de Mel’s positive demeanour cloaks her uncompromising resolve to be an effective ‘go-between’ in many politically and socially sensitive situations.  She is the veritable ‘meat in sandwich’ between higher levels of government and the people and among warring factions over a legion of issues, and wears the flak if any party is aggrieved.  Upon reflection, I suppose my calamitous issues on my landing in Australia fade into insignificance when compared to her’s.

Our conversation took me back to another discussion I had over a year back with the Assistant Commissioner of Local Government in Mannar District, Mr Thuram, when he surprized me with his response to my question, “So what are the most pressing issues for you?”  It wasn’t development, drainage or environmental degradation with which he retorted but the problem of dangerously deteriorating inter-religious relations, particularly evident between Muslim and Tamils of all religious persuasions and between Catholics and Evangelical Christians.

So back to our little gathering and I am being stone-walled and given the ‘white-wash’ treatment reserved for outsiders.  By this time many others had gathered.  Only the Catholics and Buddhists were still absent.  I decided to plunge in with my own views about how I saw local inter-religious relations gleaned from numerous conversations.  I did this because I didn’t want to waste everyone’s time just ‘beating around the bush’.  My approach must have given them permission to be more forthright, because out poured a passionate tirade of words describing experiences of animosity and victimization, yet tempered with moments of honest reflection and level-headedness.

What follows was sparked by just one question, “What is happening in Mannar to bring peace and better inter-faith understanding?” One by one, around the table it went.  Insights into the religious impasse emerged although I had wanted to steer the conversation onto more constructive paths.  The group had its own ideas, dishing up recriminations – claims and counter claimed – but not without fruitful suggestion aimed at their religious heads in their appeal for true spiritual leadership.

On the question of spiritual leadership, people at the meeting urged their leaders to get beyond petty religious differences and point-scoring and to get back to the root beliefs of their respective religions.  As expressed by one participant, “All the major world religions are practised in Sri Lanka. We must teach people what all religions teach on forgiveness, tolerance, love, kindness and non-violence.  Our religious leaders must ask us to practise those things and not focus on the things that divide us.  We need to promote the teachings of all religions to reduce the tensions.”

Participants admonished and challenged their religious leaders to reflect hard and long on their motives for being in those positions.  In Mannar, religious leaders were regarded as powerful and the primary opinion makers.  It was seen as the role of these leaders to create reconciliation and peace from the bottom up, because in Mannar, the people’s thinking is directed by them.  “We can’t express our ideas or do anything without the approval and blessing of our leaders.  But our religious leaders are like politicians.  They create divisions between religions like between Catholic and Christian and they use incidents to win people over.  In the process they make themselves more prominent.”  Another said, “Everyone wants to be a leader.  They do wrong things to survive otherwise they think they will get nowhere, so they go after wrong goals.”

Some felt that the dominance by the majority that exists at a national level also exists in Mannar albeit via a different majority. The Roman Catholic Church, as both the majority religion of Mannar District and the only hierarchical one, came under much criticism by members of the other faiths.  Christians, Muslims and Hindus felt their right to peaceful coexistence was not tolerated by the Catholics.  Many instances of damage to non-Catholic places of worship, shrines and the private property of worshippers were raised in evidence of such sentiments.  There were even instances where the Church had blocked the sale of land so that non-Catholic institutions could not be built.

Religious disunity had many fault lines, according to those gathered.  The vexed issue of the rightful claim to land was driving a wedge between the Muslims and Tamils of all religious persuasions, the upshot of the Muslims’ forcible removal by the LTTE in 1990; the Bishop’s granting of church land and houses to Tamil Catholics raised the ire of the others; high level negotiations between the Bishop and the State locked out all other religious representation; the rapid growth of the Evangelical and Pentecostal movements and the ensuing poaching of Catholic flocks threatened Catholic lineage; the destruction of Hindu statues and monuments seemed unfair to those who wanted to ‘live and let live’.  However, other participants felt there was a reasonable religious understanding between the Hindus, Muslims and non-Roman Catholics but that to them the Catholics were ‘scary’.

Participants were in agreement that the problem of religious disunity could not be solved at a grassroots level.  It was up to their leaders to openly engage in high level discussions to sort out these issues. The Catholic Bishop’s involvement was critical to any positive outcome.  Their leaders’ reluctance to take up this suggestion was based on their refusal to show public disunity.  “They openly act like there are no issues.  They attend each other’s public events and put on smiling faces but when the issues arise there is clear evidence of the division.  It is false community relations.”

The Buddhist monk never showed but an amiable middle-aged Catholic father eventually turned up for the meeting and then the whole atmosphere changed.  The other participants froze and made a hasty retreat from the safe, candid and congenial space that had been created.  Silence fell as small talk replaced substance.  Initially anxious at this negative development, I decided to take a risk to try to bridge the widening chasm.   Without breaking confidences I summarized the types of issues raised thus far, not shying away from the criticisms levelled at the Catholic Church.  This must have eased the tension because in the next breath, the very person who had initially tried to gloss over the interreligious dissention that existed, came out with, “Religious leaders of the past thirty years were brought up through violence.  Now they are inciting violence among the people.  There should be a generational shift and the removal of all the present leaders.”  Many were taken aback.

The whole focus then turned to another difficult issue, what to do with their youth.  They agreed that the current generation, brought up through violence, were not active and energized and were being corrupted by outside influences.  They felt there was no longer any proper religious education and this led to a secular outlook and violent thoughts.  To them, “only religious education will build a peaceful and calm society”.

In the end I was left feeling challenged by the extent of religious tension yet strangely encouraged because those gathered had been able to articulate a major fault-line.  They were not afraid to ‘call a spade, a spade’ and acknowledge that their religious leaders were engaged in a sophisticated game of ‘pseudo unity’, that it would take courage for them to tackle the root causes of local religious disunity and that it would have to occur at a high level for any significant shift to occur.

One side’s argument sounds so convincing until you hear another side, and another.  Then you quickly realize that to get a little closer to the truth, the listener has to take in multiple perspectives and act as a ‘human synthesizer’ of all the versions of ‘truth’.  It is no mean feat to do so and calls upon a certain ethical rigour on the part of the listener.  Giving all sides a fair hearing and a fair assessment remains the challenge.

I wanted to find out more of the story of the Muslims of Mannar.  I had run many focus groups to be in touch with the ‘pulse’ of the place but had not come across many Muslim voices.  One of the Directors of the Mannar Chamber of Commerce with whom I had known for some time, recruited 13 participants from Mannar Town, Erukkalampiddy and Uppukkulum and organised the focus group session for me at the central mosque.  The Moor Street group consisted of a wide range of ages from youths to retirees and represented a good cross-section of ages, experiences and views.

Unlike other focus groups I had run, building rapport with this group was much more challenging.  The first fifteen minutes of the session were difficult and at times hostile, with participants’ suspicions expressed very directly.  In part, their response was based on the fact that many NGOs had visited them in the past seeking their input but had not told their story especially to the international community.  They felt betrayed. They inquired how it would be any different this time.  What benefit would ensue for them if they again allowed an outsider to pry into their personal histories.

All I could say was that I could not guarantee anything and that I was committed to this district, evidenced by the fact that I had returned four times in the past year.  I asked them whether they still wanted to continue with the session, and they agreed.  I had a whole list of questions but had time to ask only two in the two-hour session.

How did the war affect you?

There was palpable emotion while this question was being discussed.  Much anger surfaced as respondents told stories of displacement, loss of livelihood and land, shattered families and sense of humiliation for a once well-off community.  The resentment appeared deep and enduring, not only toward the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam), Tamil political parties and Tamils in general but also toward the international community who did not voice what was happening to the Muslim community and did not do anything to assist them.  Some were angry that NGOs had represented the interests of the Jaffna Muslims even though the Mannar Muslim population was much more significant, being over twice as large.  They were interviewed but their stories not represented at wider forums.  In their words,

“I was displaced from here and this badly affected my education.”

“It had a big psychological impact on me, also economic, lost my house and lots of land, disrupted my children’s education and the LTTE allowed us to only Rs 5,000 to take out.”

“It divided our families.  Parents were scattered from their children.”

“We were displaced.  Before the war, there were very good relationships among Tamils and Muslims.  The war created dissent between the two.  It was not our wish but the tension is now inbuilt.”

“You can divide the war in two.  One was a war between the government and the LTTE.  The other war was between the LTTE and the Muslim community.  Muslim youths were kidnapped for ransom by the LTTE.  The LTTE forced us to move.  We had no rights.  The worst scenario was not having any money to take with us.  The psychological impacts were great.  The LTTE told us that we had no right or business being in Mannar, and this was supported by the TNA (Tamil National Alliance).  It was ethnic cleansing.  The government has now liberated the land which now allows us to return.”

“As a student I couldn’t continue my education.  When the bomb blasts started, the education institutions closed.  This has impacted on me finding employment.”

“Muslims have suffered two types of impacts – being displaced and also being forced from our natural and historical place.  This has not been acknowledged or recognised by the international community.  The focus is on Tamils but what about us Muslims?  When Tamils were displaced in the last few years, there was a lot of care to resettle them but the Muslims have been displaced for twenty years but no comment from the West.  You need to express this to the diaspora.  When the resettlement started to happen we got the same treatment from the government and NGOs.”

“I was born in a refugee camp.  This impacted my education and it has long-term economic impacts on me as well.”

“Muslims have lived in this area for the past three to four hundred years.  We were given three days to leave.  Most of the Muslims in Sri Lanka live in the north-east (north and east); a hundred thousand in the northern region; 55% in Mannar.  20,000 left from Erukkalampiddy alone.  UNHCR is only supporting those people who were displaced between 2008 and 2009.  What about the long-term displaced?  In the 1990s one village had 500 families.  Now this has expanded to between 1,500 and 2,000 families who need to be resettled.  We were forced by gunpoint.  We lost economically in a big way.  Tamils and Muslims were very close.  Now they are suspicious of each other.”

“When we were forced out by the LTTE we were rich and independent.  The LTTE robbed us through heavy taxes and taking our properties.  We lived in fear.  I was so angry that I wanted to take revenge against the LTTE, to kill them.  This was my right.  We feared for our lives and my family’s security when we were forced to leave.  I wanted to arm myself with a gun to fight back.  In Puttalam we were poor; reduced to begging for rations.  One positive thing was our elders urging us Muslims to differentiate between Tamils and the LTTE.  In 1992 I came back to Mannar by boat.  I still feared the LTTE but we had the protection of the army.  We got some assurance that the LTTE wouldn’t kill Muslims.  We lost so much – education, divided families, economic security.  The reason why we can give our give our opinions now is because there is no LTTE.  Muslims were not armed so this was a disadvantage.  Others with arms pushed us around.  In 1993-94 the LTTE killed some young people.  They wanted ransoms but didn’t get them due to our poverty.  We were forced to sell our lands at a cheap price.  This impacts on us now.  The LTTE wanted eelam – one language, one religion, one race.”

“In 1990 I left empty-handed.  After being resettled back we are not united as one community as in earlier times.  The NGOs have not recognised Muslim displacement and this has not been recognised by the relevant bodies around the world.  From Moor Street, only 5% of the original population have resettled in my village.  In Mannar all communities used to live very peacefully.  We want this to return.  The LTTE from the East were responsible for forcing us out.  Please use this information to advocate for advocacy to help us bring peace.”

“People originally from Mannar are pro unity.  It is the outsiders, especially from Jaffna, who are the cause of the disturbances.”

“Because of our displacement, we have lost 20,000 votes.  This will affect our future electoral fortunes, power and presence.”

“I too was born in a refugee camp.”

What are the most pressing issues faced by the Muslim community?

This question was used as a way of summarising the main concerns raised in the session – fair and equal settlement, land ownership, just political representation and good education for children.

“We are not properly settled after being displaced.”

“Lack of documentation – land, house, business premises, estates.”

“Fair and equal solutions for Tamils and Muslims.”

“No community should dominate another community.”

“Restore voting list.  If there is a quota, we are disadvantaged.  There used to be 154 Grama Sevaka (GS) in Mannar District.  Now only 3 GS in Mannar.”

“Education!”

“Decent package for Muslims.”

“Constitutional change to protect all those affected by the war including Muslims.”

“Most vacancies are filled by outsiders.  How about giving jobs to locals?”

Concluding reflections

Of all the focus groups conducted during the past twelve months, this was the most heated.  Members had a legitimate gripe and it was obvious to me that what were needed were opportunities for this community to have catharsis before it could move on.  The wounds were still smarting.  It was also the community with the most worldly goods to lose.  The Muslims had established thriving businesses and benefitted as a result of their own initiative.  Their children went to local schools recognised for their high standard of education.  Their wealth was invested in houses and land, a rich community driven out as beggars in 1990 to ill-equipped refugee camps in Puttalam.

Despite the resentment and anger still prevalent today, there was also a pining for the past, particularly of good relations between Tamil and Muslim experienced over hundreds of years.  That there is something positive in their common history to which to appeal provides hope for a reconciliation.  Appealing to memory as catalyst in bringing about a desired paradigm shift, away from ‘Tamil’ equated as ‘enemy’ is the challenge that awaits those of us who see that reconciliation needs to occur on many levels and in many guises.  Their Muslim politician has fought hard to restore some of their lost fortune but this has deepened the rifts between the Muslims and Tamils as the latter judges this as political favouritism.

If the resolution of such issues were not arduous enough, an equally vexing issue for me was the increasing radicalization of the Muslim population of Sri Lanka as a result of being recipients of Saudi money.  A once moderate Islam here in Sri Lanka could be undermined.  In the past many Muslim women wore sari with the pallu (loose end of the sari) used to cover the nose and mouth.  Increasingly they are now wearing the burka.  Saudi funds enable the building of magnificent mosques in poor neighbourhoods and schools based on more extremist madrasah models, with the teaching staff being trained in Saudi Arabia.

There was much more to be said, and more questions to be asked but this would have to wait for another time.  Although it had been a tentative start, it did not take long for there to be a high level of engagement from participants.  Respondents were keen for their contributions to be written up and made public.  Enthusiastically, they asked me to return and agreed to arrange a number of such focus groups in various other parts of Mannar so that I could hear their accounts as well.

A bunch of us did the impossible.  We managed to pull off a great project in the shortest timeframe ever and came up with a good result.  The elected members and staff of the Urban Council Mannar were fantastic to work with and we couldn’t have done it without people like Sinclair, Kamal Raj and Majuran, and of course a host of other people from Mannar.  The villain in all of this was my pushy friend, Visakha, who ordered me to ‘pull my finger out’ and get this community visioning project done before I left Sri Lanka.  In an ambivalent sort of way, I was glad of her insistence.  We did in a mere three weeks what would have taken at least 18 months to do back in Oz (Australia).  So here is most of the Executive Summary of the report…

A Stark Choice

As the District of Mannar slowly emerges from war, its people are reticent to make the mental transition from war to peace and deprivation to prosperity.  One gets a strong impression that they have already surrendered to a fatalistic view of the future, victims of other people’s plans and designs.  Harbouring such feelings will only prevent them from benefitting from the significant opportunities coming their way, the result of government and private sector plans for the district.  The people have a window of opportunity to ‘get with the agenda’ and prepare for these vast changes or else become socially and economically marginalised.  This was the choice presented to people who attended the visioning sessions.

A community setting its own agenda

The Mannar Marumalarchi 2022 (Restoring Mannar) community visioning project was instigated by the Urban Council of Mannar to arrest a society’s despondency and to empower its constituents to be ‘the authors of their own destiny’.  Elected in March 2011 after an absence of 30 years, the Council was keen to incorporate a people’s perspective into Council deliberations about its direction and priorities. In so doing, it gave the people of Mannar a stake in determining their own future and Council an understanding of the people’s wishes, particularly important at the commencement of the council’s first term in office.

Over the horizon

According to Government plans, Mannar is to be developed as the first point of entry into the country. Talaimannar is to be made an entry port connecting various parts of the country and the Indian subcontinent. To facilitate the free flow of international and domestic travel, the Asian super highway, an Indo-Sri Lanka bridge, bus and railway terminal and a domestic airport are also in the offing.  These development initiatives will attract a surge in tourists, business people and pilgrims from other countries, creating a greater demand for better accommodation, business support services, culinary outlets, black star coffee shops and leisure activity within Mannar. The free trade agreement between India and Sri Lanka, a refurbished port, regional off shore gas and petroleum exploration, a proposed export processing zone and a 24 acre industrial estate have also been planned.

Mannarin Marumalarchi 2022 involved a survey of 210 people, four village-based workshops and a large community forum. These different activities ensured that a broad cross-section of people deliberated, debated and negotiated a common vision for their beloved Mannar Urban Centre.  The summary of findings below provides clear guidance to the Urban Council of Mannar as it embarks on a people-centred approach to planning and program development.

What people said

Eight key themes were highlighted by those who participated in the survey, workshops and forum – further education, business development, the environment, town planning, community programs, women’s development, tourism and finance.  Participants joined in enthusiastically especially in drawings depicting their ideal Mannar community in 2022.  Raucous discussion, moments of humour and plenty of good will characterized the sessions as they dreamed Mannar 2022 into being.

a.     Further education

Education was an issue highlighted frequently, particularly for young people up to the age of 30 years.  Further education was seen as essential for laying a solid foundation for Mannar’s future.  Respondents expressed concern at seeing their youngsters leaving Mannar for other parts due to a lack of local tertiary education facilities.  Of utmost importance were the establishment of technical colleges, a branch of a university and language teaching in English and Sinhala.

b.    Business development

Although there was a great emphasis on business development in relation to fisheries, other areas like tourism (covered separately), the need for ‘value add’ opportunities for the agricultural sector and a focus on IT development were also highlighted.  For overall business development in Mannar, many suggestions were made including construction of a large and technically modern fish market, refurbishment of the port and fishing harbours at South Bar, Keeri and Thalvupadu, IT training and a reinvigorated cottage industries sector especially carpentry, tailoring, coconut products, toddy manufacture and a modernized palmyrah industry.

c.     Environment

The people of Mannar admitted their complete dependency on the natural environment for their survival.  There was a great desire to protect their environment for future generations and a resentment toward sand mining, dynamiting of coral reefs to ensure quick fish catches and the filling in of traditional ponds for house construction, with disastrous effect on the Town’s natural drainage systems.  However the people’s greatest fear centred on rising sea levels, holding fears that the island of Mannar would be submerged altogether. Their plea was to build rock walls around vulnerable areas, find alternative sources of sand and soil to halt erosion and mining, overhaul building codes and zoning to mitigate against the effects of natural disasters, plant more trees to stop erosion and to beautify the place and help the natural drainage system by restoring the natural ponds.

d.     Town planning (municipal services, public facilities, drainage, garbage, roads)

Although residents demonstrated commitment and loyalty to their beloved Mannar Town, they expressed great disappointment about the ‘look and feel’ of the place. They felt that the town was badly planned and ‘messed up’.  Perennial problems of flooded streets due to poor drainage, ad hoc development, illegal encroachment on other people’s land, lack of drinking water, a failed sewerage system, an intermittent electricity supply, outdated public facilities and services, ‘moon scaped’ roads and few recreational facilities had all taken their toll on the place.

Their greatest desire was to ensure that proper town planning occurred through redesigning the town; beautifying it and ensuring adequate utilities (electricity, drinking water, effective drainage and sewerage); working with the Urban Development Authority to produce a people-centred town plan for Mannar; modernized facilities (general hospital, shopping complex, railway, library with IT facilities), tourist facilities; catering for children and young people (modern sports stadium with swimming pool and children’s parks), and introduction of efficient public transport facilities.

e.    Community programs

There was a significant minority who wanted to see the Council introduce community service programs for the betterment of the not so well off, particularly for the elderly, war widows, orphans and the disabled.  They also bemoaned the rapid disintegration of the moral fabric of their society since the end of the war, witnessing the rise of domestic violence, teenage pregnancy, child sexual abuse, the abuse of war widows and alcohol and drug dependency.

They suggested the following initiatives – programs to help the elderly live in dignity; drug and alcohol programs which include relocating the centrally sited Wine Store in Mannar; programs to stamp out teenage pregnancy, domestic violence and child  abuse, and initiatives to address sliding moral and religious standards.

 f.      Women’s development

A separate women’s development committee was formed so that their issues and aspirations would not be lost or side-lined among the other priorities.  Most discussed were self-employment services for women, particularly livelihoods for war widows, exploration of income generation initiatives in new untapped fields and community awareness programs focused on the abuse of women and children.

g.     Tourism

Throughout the visioning process, residents began to see the benefits of tourism for the area and the need to take control of it themselves so as to minimize any adverse effects.  They preferred small-scale, culturally sensitive, economically sustainable and eco-friendly approaches to tourism over the ‘high end’ imposed western resort-styled models.  They also talked about a custodial approach to tourism in which they both preserved their heritage and shared their unique local knowledge with others.  Of central importance, however, was the need for a military withdrawal especially from public places as this would not be conducive to attracting fun-loving tourists.

They contributed many ideas to encourage tourism in Mannar including construction of a modern transport hub for public and private busses and railway; negotiation of the withdrawal of the military from Thalladi camp so it can be converted into an airport; development of attractive tourist facilities including good quality restaurants, culturally sensitive beach resorts and hotels, upgrading and restoration of local tourist attractions and sites – Madhu Church, Thiruketheeshvaram  Kovil, Mannar and Arippu Forts and the Baobab Tree.  Also identified was a need for attractive publicity about what Mannar has to offer.

h.    Finance

A finance committee would be vital in developing a strategy for the procurement of funds to bank-roll the people’s ten year ‘wish list’.  The committee would be tasked to determine which suggested initiatives were already on the government’s drawing board so that partnership arrangements could be negotiated; identify available central and provincial government financial allocations; develop plans to attract outside investment and  improve the current revenue raising strategies of Council.

If you were the Chairman of the Urban Council…

As a final exercise at the Community Forum, participants were asked to rank what priorities they would pursue if they were the Chairman of the Urban Council.  Although ‘drainage’ was the winner, along with ‘roads’, both are part of routine considerations in town planning.  Taking this into account, the exercise clearly demonstrated the great importance that Mannar’s residents placed on proper town planning, ranking this ahead of what might have been considered as far more pressing issues during this post-war period:

1. Drainage – 79 votes
2. Town planning – 62 votes
3. Roads – 40 votes
4. Garbage – 30 votes
5. Environmental care – 22 votes
6. Library – 22 votes
7. Leisure park – 12 votes
8. Social service / volunteering – 12 votes
9. Community unity – 11 votes
10. Tourism – 5 votes.

The People’s Plan

The inspired title, Mannarin Marumalarchi (Restoring Mannar), was conceived by a young person, Kamal Raj.  The title received instant acceptance and now rolls off the tongues of many locals.  Mannarin Marumalarchi has become the new vehicle of hope for this town’s dreams and aspirations for the future.  In total, over 500 people contributed to negotiating a ten-year vision for the Mannar Town Division.  Their overall messages were clear.  They articulated a vision, a set of principles and a raft of actions to bring their dreams to fruition.

Vision Statement

Mannarin Marumalarchi – visioning our future restoring our heritage

Principles

• Well planned
• Sensory-attractive
• Heritage preserving
• Forward-thinking
• Environmentally sound
• Diversity affirming
• Leadership inspired

Action objectives

• To establish a sound educational footing for Mannar
• To undertake responsible business development
• To ensure environmentally sustainable development
• To pursue effective town planning solutions
• To develop community programs that advance the needs of the most vulnerable
• To affirm the rights, roles and contribution of women and children
• To undertake culturally sensitive and eco-friendly tourism development
• To ensure ethical and Mannar-advancing financial planning.

This section concludes with two participants’ reflections of the community visioning project.  Each describes the journey of the residents of Mannar Town through the visioning exercises, from suspicion and resignation to one of hope for a bright future in which they play a central role.

Father Victor Sosai, Vicar General, Catholic Church, Mannar

“This is the first time I have been at a gathering in Mannar where there has been such a broad representation of people from different walks of life – rich and poor, Muslims and Catholics, educated and uneducated, women and men, the elite crowd from Sinnakadai and ordinary residents from rural areas.

The youth especially were very happy and wanting to get involved in the process of developing their city and getting more infrastructure and facilities for it.  They also discussed the importance and availability of new technologies.

People got the message. This was a great opportunity for people to voice their desires and requirements, to present at a public forum what they want for their city and for future generations.”

Mr Sinclair Peter, Retired Agriculturalist

“At the very beginning of the workshops, people were not motivated; they thought that with the government’s interference nothing could be done according to their wishes. They were negative about every development plan that had been put forward. After the workshop everybody had hope for the future. They were no longer negative or passive. Their thinking pattern had changed.  This was an eye opener for them, that they had been given an opportunity to think and plan their future.”

”They also believe that talk is not enough.  They wanted to get involved in the development process themselves.  They were ready to contribute in every possible way. They also wanted organizations like the Urban Council and even Diaspora Lanka to do the follow-up, push these matters forward and especially keep the public aware of the progress.”

That’s the guts of it!  A reinvigorated Town and eight sub committees who will continue the work throughout 2012 as they count down to their Mannar in the year 2022.  Plenty of work for all, including the diaspora.

One recent conversation with a senior public servant in Colombo brought this dilemma once more to the fore, of whether to subscribe to the pragmatics of probability or to pursue an inalienable idealism in reshaping future Sri Lanka.  Alas, servants of the public in Sri Lanka get short shrift. They are tarred with the same brush as their counterparts in many jurisdictions around the world.  Unfair! When one meets a dedicated officer like this who is a rare combination of idealist, pragmatist, incrementalist AND believer.  He is open and persuasive and gives me much more than the time of day, although he is extremely busy.

I spoke with, let’s call this mystery figure, Raj, about some of the dilemmas local (as opposed to capital ‘C’ Colombo) TNA politicians are facing in the discharge of their duties at municipal government level.  From interviews with large numbers of local TNA politicians, I gathered that decisions they make about roads or other development work are quickly overturned or blocked by the central Government through their local instrumentalities. For important meetings about urban development instigated by the Government Agent or heads of departments, none of the Urban Council, Pradesiya Sabha or non-government party MPs is invited.  Another galling issue for them is that in the Vanni with an 80% Tamil population, that Muslims are being appointed to most of the Government positions.

Raj was quick to advise that the local TNA pollies should work hard on producing both a development strategy and a political strategy that distil a voice and message distinct from their politically savvy counterparts in Colombo.  His advice to me was to work with these politicians to “reduce the trust deficit”.  Blur the battle lines with the government and join in pursuing mutually beneficial agendas, was what he was hinting at.  Raj again advised that the TNA Chairmen from the Urban Councils and Pradesiya Sabhas in the North and East should consider forming a Local Authorities Chairman’s Association to present an alternative voice to the Colombo-based TNA group.

He said that the Government’s intention was to isolate the TNA from important development work so that in the end the only option for development would be to vote for the Government.  He added that this was simply ‘politics’ rather than any real anti-Tamil plot.  Already locally based TNA politicians have been locked out of forums like the District Development Committees, the engine room for development in the North and East and controlled by the central Government.

In Raj’s opinion, for the TNA to be a relevant force, they need to soften their rhetoric. In the South, the TNA is regarded as the new face of the LTTE, who are again leading the Tamil people astray.  The current Government has built its reputation and its very existence on an anti-LTTE, anti-separatist stance so it is difficult for any back down.  Raj reflects, “Mahinda won the war; something that no one believed was possible so people especially in the South want to trust him.  Perhaps we need to wait for ten years or another government or two before we see real change.  This is not only this Government’s style; this is Sri Lankan style – majority dominance.”

I asked Raj about ‘reconciliation’ and what it would take for the nation to move down that path.  For genuine reconciliation, according to Raj, the whole issue of war crimes investigations had to be dropped.  To pursue it would be foolish, counterproductive for all including Tamils and can never be the basis for reconciliation in Sri Lanka.  It is the ‘grid lock’ issue.  It would prompt the army to turn against the Government and this would destabilize it.  Raj expressed a deal of frustration with the West who he thought needs to be far more pragmatic and realistic about their demands.  He raised the 1.2 million casualties of the Iraq war in passing…

Again Raj had advice for the TNA, “Change your tactics!  They are outdated.  You have to present your issues differently.  Be more tactically astute and not just raise the ire of the Government at every turn.  So firstly, stop with the ‘war crimes broken record’.  Second, appreciate that the Government would naturally be suspicious of you because to the last you were with the LTTE.  Third, find common ground.”  Raj thought that if the TNA acquiesced on the first point, that the government would start to ‘come to the party’.  Raj continued, “Tamil Eelam needs the West who wants to destabilize the region; the local Eelamites will remain poor and destitute, and the Eelam Elites, the rich and educated outside the country will continue to pull strings just like the Jewish diaspora and mess things up.  In the light of this, the Government will continue with its current approach.”

For Raj, Tamil people need a new philosophy and approach and to take responsibility for their own past misdemeanours, especially toward Muslims.  They need to “patch things up with them”.  Many Muslim people now treat the Tamils as their enemies. In Mannar and in many other areas there was always an historic understanding about whose land was whose.  Then in 1990 when the LTTE drove Muslims out of the North and parts of the East and confiscated all their land permits, Muslim people were left with a strong feeling of being betrayed.  Muslims felt that Tamils, of all people, should have been able to empathize with them after all that has happened to them.  So Raj surmises that reconciliation in these areas will not be so simple.  Now certain groups of Muslims are in support of Sinhala settlements in the North and some are not.  Those in favour argue that Sinhala people never chased them out when they relocated to Sinhala areas so why not support them now.

Raj thought that what is required is a new generation of Tamils and new Tamil political parties, disconnected from the Tamil diaspora, who will represent the impoverished Tamils living in Sri Lanka.  The Government will try to neutralize the Tamil diaspora before it works constructively with the local Tamil population.

Raj concludes the interview with a few sobering words, “Peace will not come that quickly.  A lot of social fabric is damaged.”

I have now met Raj on three occasions.  He is part of our team because, after all he is privy to, he remains a believer.  Like us he loves Sri Lanka and wants desperately to see a reconciled, peaceful and prosperous land.  Sans rose coloured spectacles, he knows that it will take much longer than our Pollyannaish impatience would like to entertain.  He also realizes that it will also need the involvement of a band of ‘true believers’ who have the country’s best interests at heart.

The locals think of them as menace, traffic hazard or just dangerous.  The outsider is mesmerized by this unique spectacle, dives for the camera and squeals with audible ‘ooohs’ and ‘aaaahs’ as the shutter clicks away at the sight of these cute animals.  Whether despised or desired, the donkey is a unique feature of this unique part of Sri Lanka and must be cared for at any cost.

The history of the donkey in Mannar is absolutely fascinating!  These attractive beasts of burden, scientifically identified as Equus africanus asinus, are considered the descendants of those introduced from Somalia by Arabian merchants many centuries and possibly millennia ago. They purportedly had a dual purpose, as pack animals particularly for the dhobi (clothes washer) fraternity and as the ancients’ answer to a can of Mortein, to discourage the coconut beetle, the nemesis of the coconut plantations.  Their insect repellent qualities also spawned two schools of thought, one, that the donkey’s high-pitched ‘hee haw’ bray drove away the beetle, and two, that their dung attracted the pest away from the young shoots.  Whatever the truth, alas donkeys serve no such useful purpose today, hence their feral and neglected state.

The Donkey Census Project was born out of a mutual desire by Visakha Tillekeratne, a rabid animal lover, and I, who had fallen hopelessly in love with these gorgeous beasts, to do something to save these creatures from a diet of plastic bags, open sores and broken legs.  Visakha contacted Indian-based organisation, Animal SOS and the local vet to get their support while I liaised with a bunch of local youngsters to undertake a donkey census, the prerequisite for Animal SOS getting involved.

Kamal and Majuran dissected a Mannar Urban Council map into nine zones.  A trial was held to determine the best counting strategy and the project kicked off.  What a spectacle as small groups of young people were seen chasing donkeys through flooded roads, open fields and restrictive lanes, armed with a can of spray paint and paper to document their tally.  A spray paint tag on the back of each donkey meant that they would not be counted a second time.  All up, some 350 donkeys were counted in this urban precinct.  They were by far the unhealthiest.  The wilder herds in more far-flung areas of Mannar District would be safe for now from these young, energetic graffiti artists!

Majuran is currently writing up a report which will be duly forwarded to our partner organisations.  The plan is to first micro-chip the donkeys’ ears to more efficiently track their movements, tend to their health needs and follow up with a proper management plan for Mannar’s most famous mascots.

Another unusual project for Diaspora Lanka!

Their answers took me by surprise.  On average, they answered, “The same.”  Why?  I retorted.  How can you say that?  The war is over.  You have far more freedom.  You are safer.  You can start planning for the future! Their answers put me in touch with another dimension of their lives – its moral fabric.  Already they had started glorifying the ‘good old days’ of the LTTE when a strict moral code was imposed and people behaved themselves – or else!  Now their families, villages and communities seemed to be imploding under the pressure of a disintegrating morality.  Amazingly, the need to rebuild a district’s moral fibre was also highlighted in workshops and in a community survey which were part of the Mannarin Marumalarchi 2022 (Restoring Mannar) community visioning program we in partnership with the Mannar Urban Council held recently.

Many of the focus group adults between the ages of 25 and 35 told me of their current pain, of seeing incidents of domestic violence – emotional, physical and sexual, instances of child abuse and an overall depletion of parental love, care and protection that was so evident during war times.  The external threat had vanished, and with it, the extrinsic motivation that had preserved the moral high ground.  This new situation was exposing an underdeveloped internal moral discipline, and with it a plethora of vices, paramount among them being alcohol and drug abuse, violence against women and children and under aged sexual relations.  This was more surprising for an area like Mannar with its strong Catholic and Islamic roots.

On 5 December I had the privilege of meeting with a group of inspirational women from the Mannar Women’s Development Foundation (MWDF), a primarily Muslim-run organisation who was reaching out in friendship to their Tamil sisters.  Their tales were sobering.  They said that only the day before nearly 150 young people were discovered at Keeri Beach quite intoxicated and engaging in compromising behaviour.  After the war such ‘get togethers’ would result in unplanned teenage pregnancies which had risen sharply, particularly amongst 11 to 16 year olds.

Instances of sexual promiscuity and abuse were becoming more common particularly in families with absentee parents, with mothers working in the Middle East and fathers engaged in long hours of work themselves. Some young girls had over 150 mobile numbers on their phone and part of sex networks.  Another experience of sexual abuse, I was told, involved some who had been displaced from the village of Vidataltivu to Mannar Town.  A number of girls managed to get jobs in Muslim shops but were then sexually abused by Muslim youngsters. Other opportunities for sexual encounters were due to the proximity of military camps to settlements and the ease at hooking up with a willing partner via mobile phone connection.  During the war, one way a young woman could refuse the sexual advances of the military was by grabbing the nearest male and introducing him as her husband.  Alas this afforded no protection now.

With no culture of safe sex practices, the spread of AIDS is also a threat as a once tightly controlled culture becomes more liberalized.  In Jaffna the cases of AIDS is steadily increasing.  In Mannar there are no official records.  The moral code, upheld so strongly for generations, seemed to be fraying while local Catholic and Muslim institutions continued arguing and blaming each other.

Stark choices await pregnant teens.  Many girls either suicide, abort, disappear to a faraway convent to deliver the baby or become prostitutes. After work, a local factory owner takes his young female employees to the beach and pairs them off with elderly married Muslim men.  Their parents are aware that this happens and begrudgingly support it because it brings in income to cash-strapped households.  A prostitution ring, now disbanded due to threats from the MWDF, rented women to military guys for Rs 5,000 a pop.

“Mannar is becoming a dangerous place for women between the ages of 22 and 30 and for female ex-LTTE cadres, it is a more desperate story.  They are ostracized from their communities.  Few accept them.  No one will marry them.  The only people who talk to them are members of the military and MWDF staff.”

“Women were severely exploited by the LTTE and now by others. LTTE propaganda convinced women to give up their bodies and blow themselves up.  The LTTE bought children to be suicide bombers. These women now look up to anyone in military uniform and sleep with them.  If a military guy speaks nicely to them, they go with him.”

“The military are not forcing them.  These women don’t have men.  They become comfort women for the military.  Half of their family is dead and gone.  There is no spiritual space left.  If someone is nice to them and provides money, they sleep with them.  Not only the military but also Muslim and Tamil men.”

“Unplanned pregnancies lead some desperate women to strangle their unwanted babies to death.  This is true for comfort women and rich women alike.  If they are found guilty of murder, they are put away forever.  In some cases the medical officer records that the baby was still born because he knows that many of these women are mentally gone.”

They survived the war but a more insidious battle rages.  Organisations like the Mannar Women’s Development Foundation are doing much to address complicated and culturally delicate predicaments.  Running workshops for teens, training police women and men to recognize and deal appropriately with domestic violence and confronting those who would traffic their own women are part of their work terrain.  They form a band of local and unsung heroes yearning to make a difference.

This two month stint has been the most pressurized to date. As a result of big pressure from a trusted friend and colleague, we brought forward a community visioning program for the Mannar Urban Council division planned for next year.  Mannarin Marumalarchi 2022 (Restoring Mannar) would have taken any local authority in Australia at least 18 months to organise and operationalize.  We had three weeks to pull it off! How mad is that!!

Getting the Mannar community mobilized was a hefty challenge, as was trying to encourage them to divide their attention more equally to being more future focused and not so completely obsessed with present and past circumstances, however understandable.  In the next ten years Mannar will be significantly changed due to public and private sector plans for the area.  If the people of Mannar don’t get with the agenda, they will be severely disadvantaged and locked out of sharing the ‘spoils’.  The aim of the series of workshops and forums was to get them thinking and planning for a bright future, to provoke them to be the authors of their own destinies instead of victims to other people’s profit driven motives.

At the end of the process I now know people from many villages, members of the rural development societies and rural women’s societies, heads of departments, the new Government Agent, Divisional Secretary, Additional Divisional Secretaries, local MPs, religious leaders, businessmen and women, young people, reps from police and the military, elected reps and staff from the Urban Council Mannar, our main partners, and the list goes on…  Eighteen hour days, electricity cuts, flooding rains, lack of equipment, people not used to this sort of punishing pace – a volatile cocktail to gulp down.

In the background other projects were also being progressed or gaining trouble-shooing attention – IT PLatform to train war affected young people to computerize the small and medium enterprise sector of Mannar, finalizing the MOU for a women’s development project across three villages, planning a donkey census project, undertaking an annual evaluation of Mannar Chamber of Commerce staff, exploring mechanisms to assist recently elected politicians overcome obstacles to effective public service, searching for documentation (land use plans, detailed urban maps, town drainage plans) to work toward a sustainable and future oriented town plan for Mannar, and again the list goes on.

The accumulated emotional baggage from this multi-tasker’s soup laid the foundations for these episodically weird and twisted nightmares.  So the emotional detox will continue for a few more days and will hopefully restore some level of sanity before the next series of challenges in our move forward.  The Motown songsters, the Temptation’s Psychedelic Shack, Cloud Nine and Just My Imagination Running Away with Me make suitable background tracks for this phantasmic drama.

We are now on a roll and have gained the confidence of many people in Mannar Town. I feel the emotional residue draining away as space for new dreams and adventures takes hold.  Join us!

Mannar faces a legion of ‘wicked problems’ which test the most resolute and committed of its citizenry.

Mannar is a fishing haven.  Unlike other parts of Sri Lanka which have been fished out, there is an abundance of marine life in these waters, preserved by fishing restrictions imposed during the last thirty years of war.  But not for much longer…  Daily hundreds of fishing trawlers from India and some from Jaffna invade Mannar waters using drag nets to scour the sea floor.  This has devastating longterm consequences for the marine ecosystem, future fish stocks and livelihoods of thousands of Mannar families.

Bad enough…but it gets worse! Recent discussions with some local skin diver fishermen revealed the complexities.  There are about 2,000 divers in Mannar who plunge the depths of up to 60 feet in search of sea cucumber, conch shells and large fish.  They have been doing so for over fifty years.  They dive unaided by oxygen cylinders and so have been involved in an environmentally sustainable operation for generations.

These skin divers alleged that recently the Government issued Ministry of Defence passes to about 30 Muslim divers from Puttalam to fish in Mannar waters.  These divers have cylinders and the catch of one of them equals the catch of 30 divers without cylinders.  Each uses up to five cylinders daily.  Imagine their comparative catch and advantage!

To compound matters, the local skin divers are now restircted to diving only during the day – not an optimal time – again giving an unfair advantage to the outsiders who have unrestircted access day and night.  Even divers from Jaffna can dive at night but not the locals.  The local divers are very concerned that the whole area will be fished out by these intruders.

Recently about a thousand fishermen descended on the Mannar Kachcheri in a noisy public protest. They demanded a ban on cylinder diving for all to ensure a sustainable fishing industry, a stop to Indian and Jaffna trawlers from encroaching into Mannar waters, the lifting of a ban on night diving for locals, and a removal of the pass system for Mannar fishermen.  Represented at the meeting were the Navy, Fisheries Department, local MPs, Government Agent, Police, Army and members of the Fisheries Society Federation.

No joy! The Navy reiterated that the pass system would continue as it was a prominant plank in their fight against illegal drug trafficing, terrorism and illegal immigration from India.  On the issue of night diving, the Navy did not see any problem with removing the recent restriction.  However in an unexpected move, the President of the Fisheries Society Federation, I was told, betrayed his own membership by supporting the continuation of the ban on night diving.  This was a big blow to local skin divers whose livelihood now remains threatened.  Finally the ban on cylinders was not supported.

Two months of a limited six month season has passed and the income of Mannar skin divers has dropped drastically.  Protest action has failed and betrayal from within their own ranks as weakened the fishermen’s resolve and position…a wicked problem in murky political waters.

]]> http://diasporalanka.wordpress.com/2011/12/17/mannar-skin-divers-between-devil-and-deep-blue-sea/feed/ 8 jeremyliyanage http://diasporalanka.wordpress.com/2011/12/12/mannar-fort-now-open-to-the-public/ http://diasporalanka.wordpress.com/2011/12/12/mannar-fort-now-open-to-the-public/#comments Mon, 12 Dec 2011 21:59:06 +0000 jeremyliyanage http://diasporalanka.wordpress.com/?p=6 Continue reading →]]> After many years residents of Mannar can now visit the old Dutch Fort!  Two friends from Australia and I decided to wander down to the fort to see how far we could get before being stopped by the military.  On previous occasions this had been a high security zone so access had been denied.  Just to make sure, Samanthi, one of our group, went over to one of the military officers to see if it was in fact open to the public.  Her reassurances when she joined us enboldened us to ‘go for it’ and explore this amazing monument!

For local Mannar youngsters, they have never had the chance of visiting this site that forms such an important part of their rich hybrid heritage.  For us It was freeing to wander around the site and encount donkeys and a litter of the cutest puppies amidst the hefty historical buildings. We took lots of photos as we strutted along the ramparts and gazed out over the calm waters below.  A sense of freedom and release!

As we wanted to return to the fort with our Tamil friends, we decided to check with the military authorities one more time just to make sure.  Again it was a resounding ‘YES’, that it was indeed open to the public!  I was delighted.  Here was another piece of evidence that, very slowly, war-enduced restrictions were being lifted.

It is a great cause for celebration that another site of cultural significance has been restored to its rightful custodians, the people of Mannar.