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Research Journal of the University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka- Rohana 12, 2020

the armed forces and glorify the heroism of warriors. Since the governmental power
is being claimed by the victorious, the monumental emotions of the victorious are

formed.

The memorialization should be a process of consensus making and leads to social
justice. It was observed that people-oriented memorialization makes the people take

ownership of memorialization and develop solidarity among them and enables the
people to share the pains and sorrows of the conflict. Due to the memorialization,

the civilians who lost their loved ones during the war, collectively share the pain,

sufferings, and losses of the people. The memorialization has stood as a powerful
method of expressing and giving life to counter-narratives and contesting ideologies

where multiple narratives have mainly been unwelcome. It can play a crucial role to
heal, to combat impunity, to reconcile and achieve sustainable peace where similar

violence is not systematically repeated. In this respect, the government must initiate,

at this crucial juncture, a National Policy on Memorialization that binds current and
future governments to abiding by best principles and practices. Suppose Sri Lanka

wants to engage in meaningful reconciliation. In that case, it needs to recognize the
necessity of healing grievances allowing spiritual necessity of remembering their

loved ones and constructing memorials and monuments in such a way to enable

people to learn the negative aspects of the war irrespective of eulogizing the military
victory over its people.

References

Abeyrathna, D.H.S. (Ed). (2007). Mahawansa, World Heritage Encyclopaedia,

Retrieved from https:// www.worldcat.cat.org.

Baddeley, A. (1986). Working Memory, U.K.: Oxford University Press

Baddeley, A. (1997). Human Memory: Theory and Practice, U.K.: Psychology
Press.

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