Statesman-like Statement by the President

For the first time in the recent history of Lanka an ennobling thought had been pronounced by a Lankan politician. President Mahinda Rajapaksa in his inspiring speech in Parliament on Tuesday, May 19, 2009 said that there are no more 'minorities' in the island and they are all Lankans with equal status (implying-irrespective of racial, religious and other differences caused by an accident of birth).

As a member of the Tamil-speaking community I salute and thank the President for publicly declaring a sublime thought.

At the same time, I have apprehensions whether the extreme nationalists (or shall we say chauvinists) among us would allow us to practice what had been declared as a piece of supreme wisdom. How this 'majoritarianism' phobia could be erased from the psyche of a few marginal people among us is a question that the rest of us must strive to drive home via religious, educational and media institutions.

I pray that the President's idealistic thought soon becomes a reality.

K S Sivakumaran

Colombo 6