The problem that has arisen in Southeastern University, Oluvil in the Ampara District has brought this issue of lack of integration into focus. Southeastern University was an outcome of the war that made it difficult for Muslim students in the East to make the journey to Batticaloa to attend classes at the Eastern University. The founder of the SLMC, the late M. H. M. Ashraff was instrumental in getting the university started in 1995, since when it has been seen as a university for Muslim students from the East.

However, in the recent past the government has begun to send Sinhalese students into Southeastern University. As in the case of anything that is done newly, there have been tensions between sections of the student body and the new entrants. I was in Ampara the day after the university was closed due to student clashes. There were at least three explanations I heard for this clash. One was that some Sinhalese students had got elected to the student union and that had not been kindly accepted by some senior students.

Another was that the Sinhalese students drank alcohol inside the university premises which was objected to by the Muslim students. The third was that the clash had originated in the political rivalries that have become accentuated due to the imminent General Elections, and was meant to undermine politicians such as Mrs. Ferial Ashraff, whose popularity cuts across ethnic boundaries.

The forthcoming General Election is proving to be a fertile ground for nationalist politics in the East. Prospective politicians who have little to offer the electorate and who, indeed, have parachuted there from other parts of the country, have resorted to nationalist slogans that transcend district-based concerns. I saw posters put up by an organization that called itself "We Digadamulla Sihala" and urged the Sinhalese voters to give their vote to a Sinhalese regardless of which party they voted for. The rationale for this is to prevent the splitting of Sinhalese votes to maximize Sinhalese representation in the Parliament from the Ampara District.

The reality of ethnic segregation in Ampara was brought out in the dialogue that was organized by the Media House in Ampara with the provincial correspondents of media organizations. When the journalists sat as one group, they sat separately, rather than interspersed and mixed. The organizers of the dialogue, too, had arranged the journalists into two groups for the purpose of holding two seminars concurrently, one for Sinhala-speakers and another for Tamil-speakers.

Prior to the seminar starting I asked one of the journalists, a Muslim, about the situation in Ampara in order to get a preview prior to making my own contribution. He looked all around him and lowered his voice and said it was not safe to be overheard.

When my turn to speak to the Sinhalese journalists at the seminar came, I asked them whether they could freely express themselves or did they feel a sense of intimidation. One of the journalists immediately responded and said, yes, there was intimidation, and went on to speak about what had happened at the Southeastern University. Initially, I was puzzled and thought he had misunderstood my question, as in my mind the intimidation related to slain journalists such as Lasantha Wickrematunge and to disappeared ones such as Prageeth Eknaligoda, and to assaulted ones such as the victims of powerful government politicians.

However, it soon became clear that the journalist was expressing his concern about the intimidation of one community by another. In the case of the incident at the Southeastern University, it was evident that he believed that the Muslim community, which is the largest in Ampara, dominated and intimidated the others. From this perspective he said that the Sinhalese students there were victims and had not one to speak up for them as the teaching staff at Southeastern University was Muslim. During this discussion, the reason for the poster urging the Sinhalese to vote for Sinhalese candidates only became clear. The journalists pointed out that although the ratio of Sinhalese to Muslims was almost equal, the number of Muslim candidates who got elected to Parliament from the Ampara District was double that of the Sinhalese, because the Sinhalese split their votes by voting for Muslim candidates such as Mrs. Ferial Ashraff.

As could be expected in a situation of ethnic polarization, the seminar I had with the Tamil-speaking journalists, most of whom were Muslim, brought out an entirely different set of grievances. They pointed out that the population of Sinhalese had been growing as a proportion of the total population ever since Independence due to the land settlement policies of successive governments that had favoured the Sinhalese.

That had caused a deprivation of land rights that the Muslim and Tamil people of that area had traditionally enjoyed and that was given to the Sinhalese. They gave the example of a housing scheme in Norochcholai in the Ampara District, where Saudi Arabian aid had been provided for housing to the Muslim victims of the tsunami. But after the houses had been built the government insisted that a proportion of those houses should be given to Sinhalese who were not victims of the tsunami.

The strong criticism of such actions by the government does not bode well for its success in the Muslim parts of the East. On the other hand, the Muslim journalists spoke warmly of Sinhalese community leaders who were indigenous to Ampara in contrast to the government politicians who came from outside.

One journalist recounted how the Buddhist monk of the Budurangala temple had publicly invited all Muslim and Tamil victims of the tsunami to his temple and urged the Sinhalese people to welcome to them. He also gave the example of another Buddhist monk from another temple in Ampara, who had blamed Sinhalese leaders from outside Ampara for blocking the housing scheme for Muslim tsunami victims at Norochcholai and said that he would not oppose it as Muslim victims could not go anywhere else.

The end of the three-decade old war that pitted the government against the Tamil militant movements and divided the population created a reasonable expectation that Sri Lanka would be able to reach reconciliation and healing. Although the open conflict has ceased, the divisions that existed in the past are still very much alive. The violence, suspicion, and segregation of the conflict have become deeply embedded in social and political life. The seminar at Ampara revealed how the differences that exist between communities are mobilized by political leaders to further communal agendas.

Thus peace building and reconciliation are critical needs in this post-war era. Unfortunately, a glance at the election manifestos of the main political formations shows that the political will for conflict transformation is absent.

One of the challenges to national integration and reconciliation will be to give people from different ethnic communities a better understanding of those from other communities. However an election campaign that sees an international conspiracy against the country in collaboration with traitors within is gaining strength. The political acknowledgement of past grievances that is necessary for healing and reconciliation seems far off. At present the indications are that a bipartisan approach that recognizes the current problems and seeks a common solution will be very difficult to achieve. The stance of politicians is replicated among their grassroots communities, furthering divide and promoting ethnically polarized voting patterns. Civic groups will have to strive to bind up the wounds that their political counterparts create in their bid for political power.