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The statement issued by the prelates of the three nikayas requesting
the nation to forget their narrow party differences and petty gains and
to give their unstinted support to the President, the Government,
Defence Secretary, police and tri-forces to solve our national problem
is timely.
It also said: “President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his Government is
doing its utmost to solve the national crisis to bring in peace where
all communities and religious groups could co-exist harmoniously and
this attempt should be wrested in order to open doors for the
development and good governance of the country.”
As the prelates have quite rightly pointed out, some parties are
attempting to capitalize on this opportunity to gain political mileage
favourable to the terrorist outfit and this cannot be accepted by the
right thinking people.
Ironically, the request has come at a time when the UNP and its
leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, powerful foreign interests, pro-LTTE INGOs
including their paid agents in various bogus media and human rights
movements are in full swing to attack the President, the Government,
Defence Secretary, police and the Security Forces who are trying to get
rid of the mess created by Chandrika-Ranil combination.
In an another news item appeared in media, Mahanayaka thera of the
Asgiriya Chapter has quite correctly said that there is no ethnic issue
in Sri Lanka, but there is a problem due to one terrorist group claiming
part of the country.
The prelate also said the majority of the people in the county live
in harmony, no matter what community or religion they belong to.
President Rajapaksa has made a similar statement recently when he met
the Sri Lankan community in Italy.
Although there are several articles and books written by eminent
scholars on the subject of Tiger terrorism in Sri Lanka verifying what
the Mahanayaka thera of the Asgiriya Chapter has simply expressed, the
thera’s statement is also quite timely and is an eye opener to the so
called pundits who blindly attempting to mislead the country and the
world community at large by finding a political solution based on
‘racial basis’ to a problem which is almost non existing.
We as the ordinary citizens of this country have witnessed several
solution packages presented with a view to end the so-called ethnic
conflict during the last three decades and none of the solutions were
able to end the LTTE bloodshed due to the simple reason expressed above.
The UNP Government once made Constitutional changes by making both
Sinhala and Tamil as official languages and creating Provincial
Councils.
The proposals to abolish the Provincial Councils said to have been
made by the SLFP in their political solution to APRC appears to be a
move in the right direction.
The treacherous CFA prepared by Eric Solheim and signed by
Prabhakaran and Ranil could also be considered as an attempted
‘political solution’ since the agreement illegally demarcated areas of
the LTTE control and almost paved the way for separatism.
Thanks to the patriotic forces of the country, the disastrous PTOMS,
a ploy set by the same Norwegian as a ‘political solution’ to obtain
funds directly from the international donors and to pave the automatic
way for its recognition as a separate entity by the so-called
international community and the lending agencies was foiled, otherwise
the country would have already been partitioned by now.
There is no society or country in the world without conflicts based
on tribal, caste, religious, colour etc. It is political elites who turn
those identities into forces that mobilises people to violence to
achieve their sinister motives.
Many who advocate political solution based on racial basis have
forgotten the fact that more than 60 per cent of the Tamil population
live among Sinhalese today.
Tamils, Muslims, Hindus, Christians etc. live peacefully among
Sinhalese Buddhist, educate their children; carry on their profession
and business as usual, similar or better than those countries who
attempted to teach us co-existence.
Instead of blindly copying what the other countries have and what the
other countries wanted us to have as solutions which are far away from
the realities, the country must build on the good sense and existing
peaceful co-existence of the ordinary people.
Unfortunately what is happening today is that powerful foreign
countries and institutions and their paid agents, whose interests lie
elsewhere, are stressing for a political solution to encircle the
President and to get him to establish a Federal system based on racial
grounds in order to aggravate to the situation.
Such a solution under the present context will be a never ending
voyage to peace and should be defeated.
The LTTE terrorism is bound to continue until terrorism is treated
the way it should be treated.
Fortunately we have a President today who understood the real nature
of the LTTE terrorists and the motive of their supporters!
S. AKURUGODA - via email
Vesak has fivefold significance for us. It marks the birth,
attainment of enlightenment and Parinibbana of the Buddha and in
addition, it signifies the beginning of the Buddhist New Year and the
arrival in Sri Lanka of Prince Vijaya, the founder of the Sinhala race
which is unique to our country.
Two major types of activities take place in Sri Lanka during Vesak -
spiritual and cultural. The former largely confined to Buddhist temples,
whereas most cultural activities take place in public places and homes
of Buddhists.
Sri Lanka is, in fact, transformed into a fantastic festive world of
light, sight and sound during Vesak. Basically, it is Vesak that
provides the greatest of opportunities for Buddhist artists to express
their Buddhist emotions and inspiration.
In fact, it is their festival of arts, bringing together painters and
other artists, poets, lyricists, musicians, singers, dancers,
playwrights, actors, actresses, craftsmen, electricians, photographers,
film-makers and those actively involved in or skilled in computer
graphics and animation popularly used in some Buddhist cultural
activities of contemporary times.
It is Vesak that takes Buddhist paintings and other works of art to
the people in the street. The Vesak thorana (pandol) is the fundamental
method by which this is done.
In actual fact, it is a temporary relocation of what is found inside
Buddhist temples, on their walls, ceilings, and other surfaces.
It is the depiction of the colourful paintings of the life of the
Buddha, Jataka tales and episodes from the history of our nation.
Evoking serene joy in people and getting them to reflect on the
virtues of the Buddha appear to be the primary motives of Buddhist
cultural activities during Vesak.
DAYA HEWAPATHIRANE – Athurugiriya
It is a known fact that Vesak pandols and lanterns are displayed
adjoining the main highways of our country to attract larger crowds.
However this happens to be an inconvenience for those who use these
roads in the evenings and nights, as either the traffic comes to a
standstill or it is being diverted through other small roads.
Specially Negombo and Kandy Roads are impassable during Vesak as
there are no alternate routes for the motorists.
Hope the traffic police and the relevant authorities will take
appropriate action to shift the pandols and lanterns into interior
playgrounds or parks to avoid traffic congestions which becomes a
nightmare to travel during religious and other festivals.
A. A. M. WITHANA - Wattala |
