Sharing knowledge for sustainable peace:

Meeting security challenges

Keynote address by Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunga at the annual symposium of Kotelawala Defence University on August 20. Part I appeared Saturday

Experience of various countries have shown the manipulation of information can be a trigger of increasing misunderstanding and tensions that can lead to devastating conflicts. Capacity building in academia will greatly enhance our economic revival. It will lay the foundation for technological progress, improved capabilities all-round and a deeper pool of resources for the country to utilize. The development of a research culture is essential.

A greater scope for invention and innovation will be generated through this. By encouraging the search for new knowledge, it will someday be possible for Sri Lanka to become a technology leader. The Mahinda Chintana has pledged that we will become a knowledge hub in Asia.

Cross germination of ideas between regular academia and Defence is an important way of achieving this (e.g: the US Government subsidizes scientific research very heavily; much of this is military research that later finds its way into regular academia). Greater interaction between the various domains of knowledge is in any case desirable.

ICT promoting sustainable peace

There is a lot of focus in the global media on how ICT is used in modern warfare at every level, from the use of smart weapons by the modern military, to the adoption of satellite communications by rebel groups in remote areas, the ease of obtaining recipes for explosives on the Internet, and the use of mobile phones as a means of triggering bombs. Militaries rely on communications technology to coordinate their forces and computers to control advanced weapons systems.

Hence, ICT is essential for all modern warfare. But communication is also essential for ending conflict and building lasting peace. ICT has a key role to play in improving communication, facilitating negotiations, increasing transparency and building trust.

The consequences of conflict must also be dealt with. Here, ICT response, peace operations and reconstruction processes. ICT is often one of the most crucial tools used by those carrying out vital work. ICT is also highly effective in collecting information on a wide range of vulnerability factors for preventing the relapse of conflict and supporting sustainable peace processes.

Many post-conflict Governments implement decentralization strategies to improve service delivery and foster inclusion, participation and peace. Experience in countries including Rwanda, has demonstrated that these strategies greatly benefit from the effective application of information sharing and dissemination through ICT.

It is therefore in the interest of governments to set up mechanism allowing them to manage information and knowledge assets. ICT can play an important role as a powerful tool both economic and social development, allowing governments to improve efficiency and to deliver more transparent, high-quality services to citizens.

This technologyfacilities communication between decentralized authorities and increases information sharing and coordination. It also promote better accountability and streamlines capacity building. In Sri Lanka, ICT is promoted extensively by the Government to improve quality and speed of delivery of public services in all parts of the country.

Experience from Sri Lanka

Since the end of war in May 2009, the Northern and Eastern Provinces are seen to be highly integrated into national development activities. This, in principle has created an environment to undertake and deliver services of the Government to all without hindrance. However, the ultimate success of this will largely depend on communication in both languages (Sinhala and Tamil) and communication between major ethnic groups.

Moreover, building of trust and confidence among the communities will also be rooted in how effectively they can communicate facts and feelings among themselves.

While it is necessary to build bridge between communities and achieve effective reconciliation, it is also important that a common Sri Lankan identity is achieved. All our citizens need to be stakeholders in building a common future. During the visit of the President to India in June this year, the two countries agreed upon the Sri Lanka-India Knowledge Initiative. One of the first activities foreseen under this will be the 10 Year Presidential Initiative to create a Trilingual Society by 2020 in Sri Lanka.

This project envisages establishing a Learning Hub in the Northern Province with adequate facilities such as classrooms, learning equipment, material and residential facilities for teachers and students in Jaffna.

Another initiative implemented under President’s direction is the English as a Life Skill program. It is implemented islandwide targeting all school teachers of English. One of the objectives is to enable every citizen of the country to acquire proficiency in English language that will go a long way towards creating greater opportunities, eliminating disparities and creating a more knowledgeable society. We believe that providing English language skills to the population at large will enable them to seek new knowledge. English still remains the most sought after language to acquire knowledge.

Library in promoting peace

Libraries are very significant institutions, when social conflicts arise. They are the founts of knowledge and much learning can occur in libraries. In research regarding conflict and peace, there is a well known theory that conflicts are also based on deficiency of information, whether it is the case of conflicts within the given society or even conflicts between or among different societies. Cases of misinformation, wrong information or simply missing information enhance disparity in opinions and social differences.

In heterogeneous societies, there is a need for both inter-cultural and intra-cultural communication and knowledge of the particular histories of the different cultures living together in the society. Libraries exist by sharing resources between people, between members of a community, for mutual benefit. Libraries are essentially communal, mutual, in their mission, their methods and their meaning. They foster independences of thought and interdependences of action.

Using new media to seek peace

Traditional media has undergone a major transformation in how we form our opinions and get information. Social networks like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter enable horizontal transfers of knowledge and empower people to build understanding through lateral learning. They allow people to keep in constant touch with friends and allow updates and feedbacks.

Video sharing on YouTube allow producing and distributing video content. On Twitter, we tweet our news in 140 characters or less. However, one must be alert to the dangers it can pose to institutions and countries. As a deterrent, we need to have extremely ICT savvy and knowledgeable groups to investigate what I see as cyber crime, which includes cyber terrorism.

This is a sophisticated area of expertise and Sri Lanka must develop its capabilities sooner than later. In this respect, institutions such as the KDU must take the lead. The Police Department must create a professionally qualified group to undertake this technically sophisticated activity.

One of the originators of a social network and platform for peacemakers had posted on the Internet how they had discovered that through enabling self-expression and interaction, new media tools are helping efforts for conflict resolution in the Middle East. “Social networks are empowering us as peacemakers.

By making it possible for Israelis and Palestinians to interact, they let us see and humanize the ‘other’. In a conflict where Israelis and Palestinians are physically separate, new media allows us to see and hear each other beyond the stereotypes and the physical barriers. We can use technology to reach out and overcome our differences. We can connect, convince and create coalitions. Today with WIFI and smart phones, the Internet is portable and so are our networks.”

Obstacles to knowledge sharing

There are a number of obstacles to be overcome in order to work together and collectively manage information resources in a manner that optimizes their capabilities and responses. First of these is the ‘Digital Divide’ - the disparities in access to and use of ICT. Complex emergencies frequently occur in places lacking the communication infrastructure needed for inter-organizational communication. Often, public switched telephone networks (PSTN) are not fully deployed on a nationwide basis. Cellular telephone networks have experienced rapid growth in recent years, jumping ahead of fixed line telephone deployment although costs are often high. Internet access via both public telecommunications operators and independent Internet Service Providers (ISPs) is correspondingly limited, normally to urban areas.

President being sensitive to the paucity of knowledge and information at the village level initiated the concept of the Nenasala, Sri Lanka’s brand of rural tele-centres that have over the past five years become very popular. We have 600 of those now, mostly in rural areas, but our aim is to increase it to 1,000 so that all Divisional Secretariat areas will be served.

Interoperability is the second obstacle to communication and co-ordination. Information is power and organizations may be reluctant to share it, because they believe by so doing they could weaken their credibility or influence.

Data needs to be in common formats, so that it can be shared between organizations; organizations, however, tend to become very attached to their own formats and are unwilling to change to share with others. In policy terms, information sharing is often not considered a priority and systems are not put into place to ensure that staff has guidelines to help them decide when and how to share information.

The third obstacle is the question of security. When considering whether to share sensitive information, individuals and organizations need to have confidence that this information will not be shared with any unauthorized bodies, whether through intent or negligence.

These decisions are based on trust, and trust itself cannot be generated by technology - only by individual actors on the ground, acting in good faith. Obviously, this is particularly difficult in a conflict setting and may appear to be impossible between actors with differing interests - such as between civilian and military actors.

There is also the need to upgrade our National Defence capabilities to meet security challenges that can have devastating effects. Improving our intelligence systems, monitoring mechanisms and maritime security are important to meet any future contingencies.

Strengthening our ability to respond to international action is also of vital importance. While this response must be rapid, it cannot be knee-jerk; it needs to be framed in the academic and socio-political language compatible with the Western discourse. Enhancing our capabilities in this regard would greatly assist in resisting external political pressures.

Inaccurate or misleading information can have serious consequences during a conflict, and even basic issues around quality of information can make people feel that sharing that information poses an unnecessary risk to their own credibility or security.

All of these issues must be addressed in a transparent and open manner, in a framework of trust between the different stakeholders - otherwise there can be no real progress and no real peace.

The General Sir John Kotelawala Defence by contributing to the development of a research culture, it is contributing to the future of this nation.

Concluded