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Role of ICTs
(Information and Communication Technologies) in Building a
Culture of Peace in Sri Lanka
Sri Lankan ethnic
conflict has been a widely discussed topic among both local
and international scholars. There are different solutions
suggested to the conflict by various researchers. Regardless
of the differences of such solutions, many agree that the
Sri Lanka needs political solutions based on
decentralization of power and reorganization of diversity of
the society. By now, all the main political players to the
conflict such as Sri Lankan government, LTTE, Muslim
political parties and others have agreed for a political
solution based upon decentralization and federalism. The
need for such power sharing mechanism has been emphasised by
the post-Tsunami reconstruction and nation building program
of the country. However, still Sri Lanka has been not able
to develop any power sharing model suitable and agreeable to
all the stakeholders. There may be several reasons for such
failures but misunderstanding and misconception of concepts
such as federalism, power decentralization and sovereignty
remains one main obstacle for developing such political
solutions. One another main problem is the implementation
issues associated with conceptually agreeable principles of
decentralization of governance. Lack of communication
channels between different communities remains a great
problem in Sri Lankan conflict.
The focus of this
presentation is to analyse the role of ICTs as an enabler
for promoting a culture of peace in Sri Lanka. This will be
done by examining the basic characteristics of ICTs and
matching their compatibility with the conditions required a
culture of pace in the Island. It is also expected to study
the best practises of using ICTs in similar purposes in the
other parts of the world as case examples. Finally, it is
expected to study the possibility of internationalizations
of such ICT applications in developing a world culture of
peace. |
