UNITY: Sri Lanka whether one accepts it or not is a multi-ethnic and multi religious country and recognition of this fact is the basis for unity, co-existence and for a coherent understanding of the nation state, that drives us all to live as brothers and sisters of the soil we are born in.

Pursuing this one country, one nation concept , I am reminded of the steps taken by the late President Ranasinghe Premadasa to bring about harmony and better understanding among all the religions practised in the country.

He constructed a place of worship at Katharagama where according his thinking pilgrims of all faiths to this venerated shrine could observe rites and rituals of their respective religions in one and the same place. This bore an unmistakable message that we are a multi-ethnic and multi-religious country.

He found it a fascinating idea to manifest the oneness of the nation through unity in diversity. What a beautiful concept to entwine multi ethnic, multi-religious, multi-cultural and multi-linguistic people into one single unit, Nation.

During the Presidency of Dingiri Banda Wijethunga, former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga as Prime Minister elected on August 19, 1994 was assigned the subject of National Integration, a new Ministry in addition to several other ministries. She thus was the first minister on National Integration.

The formation of such a ministry was in itself an acceptance that we are a multi-ethnic country and a recognition of the need to foster good understanding and peaceful co-existence between divergent communities.

But it is regrettable to find that nothing concrete, meaningful or tangible has been done to drive home the aim behind setting up of the ministry and to educate the public on the need to think as a single people of Sri Lanka. The reason for the failure to drive home this vital point was the `dirty politics' which prevented anything good or meaningful being implemented towards achieving the goals set with the establishment of this ministry.

With the passage of time and change of governments from 1994 to date, the National Integration Ministry occupies a place in the Cabinet. But we are yet to see something good and meaningful emerge from this ministry that is very vital for ethnic harmony and peaceful co-existence.

Malaysia, a country which I had the opportunity of visiting, comes to my mind in this regard. Malaysia is home to many nationals. Being a multi-ethnic, multi-racial, multi-religious and multi-cultural country she has come a long way in the prosperity ladder through unifying the divergent communities and introducing "Basha Malaysia".

Therefore whether one was a Malaysian by birth or not, whether one was a Tamil, Taiwanee or any other nationality like Portuguese or French, while retaining their respective national identities, they call themselves `Malaysians' and identify themselves as `Malaysians' before the world manifesting the unity and the integrity of the Nation-State they represent, wherever they may be.

Malaysia is also famous for its `Bhoomiputra' concept but that hinders not anyone, according to those who know well the Malaysian Constitution.

I am not suggesting here to introduce a concept similar to `Bhoomiputra' for certain folk to claim they are the 'original' Sri Lankans. Far from it. All I am attempting to do is to cite Malaysia as a model for us here in Sri Lanka to a see an end to the ethnic strife we have been trapped in for nearly three decades.

What I want to focus is, or draw the attention to is, that we need something similar to `Basha Malaysia' introduced here in Sri Lanka where every Sri Lankan identify himself or herself as belonging to this beautiful island and stand with dignity before the world and be proud of being called a Sri Lankan.

When I was in Malaysia, I found those people who proudly called themselves citizens of Malaysia always at ease among the different linguistic and cultural communities in their midst. I was asking myself and here I would like to think loud `Why not we introduce "Basha Sinhale or Sri Lanka" through our Constitution, to give meaning to the concept of `one country and one nation'.

If we take steps now to introduce something similar to `Basha Malaysia' taking a cue from Malaysia (I am not suggesting we should be imitators) that would be one meaningful step in the direction towards bringing about national harmony and an end to ethnic strife.

If we lay a firm foundation now towards achieving this goal, although we may not see its blossoming results during our life time, one can assuredly rest in peace that within a century from now on, a future generation that emerges, would use that language as a `common language' and stand under one umbrella as `one nation' although each community living in Sri Lanka, the country they have born in, still could maintain their ethnic and religious differences.

It is the duty of the National Integration Ministry empowered to promote inter-racial harmony to think on these lines seriously and study them and bring out proposals that could be put for wider discussion before we reach consensus.

The responsibility of working towards creating one country and one nation has now fallen on the shoulders of Constitutional Affairs and National Integration Minister D.E.W. Gunasekera, one of the leading champions of the Left Movement in Sri Lanka.

Nothing very much seem to have been done through this Ministry and the people of this country look up to you Minister so that you would do everything possible at your command to see the dawn of the day that citizens could live in peace and harmony in this country.