TULF leader’s points to ponder
In a very thought-provoking observation,
veteran politician and TULF leader V. Anandasangaree has said that only
the present Government could find a solution to the country’s conflict.
There is no doubt that the TULF leader has found President Mahinda
Rajapaksa’s approach to resolving the issue, highly inspirational.
This is hardly surprising because President Rajapaksa has chosen the
advisable course of consulting every significant political party and
force in the country for the formulation of a solution.
The concrete proof that this process is taking hold is the All Party
Conference mechanism. This will enable the emergence of a broad-based
solution to the conflict. We call on the Tamil National Alliance too to
be party to this process because nothing could be gained by adopting a
destructive attitude to President Rajapaksa’s approach to
problem-solving.
All efforts at finding a solution have foundered so far because no
meaningful attempt was made by the administrations concerned to consult
all significant sections of Lankan opinion. However, the Mahinda
Rajapaksa administration is a government that is off the beaten track.
The administration has within its fold almost every significant
strand of Southern opinion.
Therefore, the Government is best placed to arrive at that hitherto
elusive Southern consensus which most governments of the past strove so
hard to find.
If the Government works out a solution that meets the legitimate
aspirations of the Tamil people, the UNP would also be compelled to
throw its weight behind the settlement because it too is for a peaceful
settlement that addresses legitimate minority aspirations.
Therefore, the Mahinda Rajapaksa administration is best positioned to
resolve our long-festering conflict and we urge it to take the necessary
measures to jump start the peace process.
Some thought should be given to Anandasangaree’s suggestion that a
broad-based solution, backed by the world community, be put to the
Tigers. The latter would find it difficult to reject out of hand such a
consensual formula.
Equally thought-provoking is Anandasangaree’s upholding of the Indian
model for emulation. Given India’s strong secular foundation,
discrimination among citizens on religious and ethnic grounds is out of
the question and this is a healthy feature which all democratic states
need to adopt.
That a Sikh is today the Prime Minister of India and a Muslim its
President, speaks volumes for India’s rich democratic heritage. Such
accommodation, tolerance and equality is the basis of ethnic peace.
Anandasangaree’s contention that Lanka is one, united country which
cannot be divided, should also be considered.
Left to themselves the communities of Sri Lanka interact amicably and
care for each other. It is divisive forces such as the LTTE which have
sowed the poison of division among some.
Such thoughts should remind us that the time is ripe for stepped-up
people-to-people interaction among the communities. This process too
could help in defeating separatism. |
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Excerpts of a speech made by Mahinda Samarasinghe
Minister of Disaster Management and Human rights at the inaugural
session of the UN Human Rights Council held in Geneva. " Today is a
historic day for all those who have worked relentlessly during the
past several years to make the UN human rights machinery more
responsive, accountable and able to heed the voices and sentiments
of the countless numbers of the aggrieved more effectively and to
act more decisively...
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freely available is this lethal "cargo" that every human on earth at
present could be easily shot twice with the bullets thus at hand.
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THE timely visit of President Mahinda Rajapaksa
to the massacre site at Kebitigollewa not only consoled the families
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