How Maliboda led from the front in ethnic amity building

September 22nd, 2007

Fr. Angelo Steffenzie S.J.

I was travelling by bus from Colombo to Avissawella on that fateful morning in July 1983 when the ethnic violence erupted in Sri Lanka. Suddenly, our bus braked to a halt: hordes of unruly men armed with bludgeons and knives boarded the bus and ruthlessly set upon Tamil commuters, assaulting them mercilessly.

“What have these people done to you that you should do this to them”, I cried to the violent hot-heads.

“They have killed our people in Jaffna”, was their brusque answer.

I then appealed to the bus crew: “Protect your passengers; They are your responsibility.”

“Father”, they replied, “if we do not stop the bus, they will attack us. Our lives are at stake”.

Thus began that tragic week in July for me, which shook Sri Lanka.

By the time I reached Avissawella around 12 noon a curfew had been clamped on Colombo. I then proceeded to Maliboda, my parish.

After a few days, violence erupted in Deraniyagala town. Long-standing Jaffna traders, well known for their social service, were brutally killed and burnt in their own shops.

“The whole island is in flames”, screamed newspaper headlines. Government and religious leaders called for nation-rebuilding.

Overnight peace and reconciliation became national priorities.

What needed to be done?

“The development of all people in solidarity are the two keys to peace”, Pope John Paul II had declared.

In my parish in Maliboda, I tried to do my part to advance these noble aims. I conducted free evening classes for Tamil children, whose education was paralyzed by the violence. Tamil teachers hailing form Jaffna had fled the violence-hit village and returned to Jaffna. Overnight, all Tamil public schools were without teachers.

In a move which won the praise of government officials as an effective means of national integration, qualified persons from the Sinhala community in the village volunteered to teach these abandoned Tamil students.

In estates, we had small nurseries for pre-school children. Qualified Sinhala children from nearly villages volunteered to teach in these pre-schools.

The Tamil teacher in Udabage estate had to run for her life to escape rampaging mobs. A Sinhala volunteer teacher went to her rescue and ensured the safety of the teacher and her wards.

In Godagampola in the Parakaduwa area, a Tamil volunteer took to teaching estate children in the evenings, after work. On his own initiative he restored an abandoned creche for the purpose of teaching. Sinhala children too joined these classes to learn Tamil.

Emulating these exercises in national harmony, a Sinhala girl launched a needle-work class. Tamil and Sinhala teachers joined forces to conduct a cultural programme which proved a success.

“For years I was made to feel I was worth nothing because nobody was making use of my services. Now I feel different”, confessed a young Buddhist woman who was serving as a volunteer teacher in the Orupilla village.

She eventually blossomed into a community leader through her participation in these community development programmes.

The volunteer teachers in the Sinhala village next to Maliboda estate conducted a cultural programme with the participation of students attending the local public school. The entire village turned up for the event, testifying to its success as a bridge-builder among the communities.

Close on the heels of these successes came a ‘Bhakti Gee’ programme organized by the volunteer Sinhala and Tamil teachers of the Kolping Centre, Deraniyagala. The school staff were invited to the event, so were the students. The latter invited other children in the vicinity to attend the event.

The programme proved a great success from the point of view of communal amity. Sinhala and Tamil songs of a religious nature were sung to emphasize fraternal love among peoples. The audience was also regaled by some skits with the same theme.

Thus did nation-rebuilding begin in earnest in distant Maliboda, dispelling the shadows of ethnic hatred and proving a trail blazer in a strife-torn land

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