Lanka under one flag - Prof. Wiswa Warnapala

Lakshmi DE SILVA

Sri Lanka was one country that valued freedom, democracy and human rights since it obtained independence from the British. From 1948 there was unity and understanding among all the communities.

Later on there were political differences that came about especially with regard to the official language bringing in unrest, Higher Education Minister Prof. Wiswa Warnapala said.

It was on the basis of a linguistic oriented political formation that Prabhakaran was able to form the LTTE which thought of a separate state to be realized with the use of arms.

Prabhakaran got it converted to an armed struggle which destabilized the Sri Lanka's economy socially and politically, for more than two decades taking a toll of thousands of lives and destruction of public and private property, he said.

In 1987 with the blessings of the Indian Government a genuine attempt was made to devolve power through the construction of a provincial council system which Prabhakaran who was the sole advocate of separatism rejected and continued to wage a war Though all political leaders in the past made efforts to achieve negotiated political settlement Prabhakaran sidetracked talks every time they were started.

When you look at the geopolitics in the region a second state is not an acceptable entity in this country, he noted.

Though there were great leaders in the modern history of Sri Lanka it was President Mahinda Rajapakse who destroyed separatism and brought Sri Lanka under one flag.

He emerged as a powerful astute leader in Sri Lankan history and was able to vanquish the terrorist group that had threatened the country's stability for over two decades and caused much harm to all the communities, Prof. Warnapala said.

Now we have the major challenge to build a new Sri Lanka which will fall in line with the countries in a modern world and it was the President Rajapaksa who has the leadership and consideration to bring unity and harmony that was essential to bring development in social economic and political spheres.

Mahinda Rajapaksa is the one single leader who had the leadership and capabilities to build a new Sri Lanka with the challenges before us and I am confident that we could unitedly achieve that end he noted.