Time to build national unity - DEW

M.P. Muttiah

The 26 year-old war had come to an end and terrorism thwarted. The time had come to bring about national unity and recommence the task of nation-building said Constitutional Affairs and National Integration Minister D.E.W. Gunasekera at a Discussion Forum held at the Mt. Lavinia Hotel. "We have united the country. Now we must unite the people," he added.

The Minister further said that the Government was committed to explore the possibility of finding a lasting political solution to the national question. His Ministry had undertaken the task of formulating a national integration policy as a matter of high priority. Many efforts had been made in popularizing the concept of national integration. He said that did not under-estimate its impact on the society.

Minister Gunasekera pointed out that society was totally pre-occupied with the war and all efforts had been submerged as forces of chauvinism, terrorism and separatism emerged. "There is now national consensus as far as the language policy is concerned. There is no obstacle or impediment on the political front. This is a giant step forward. Even though Tamil was made the official language in 1987 through the 13th Amendment, it remained in the Statue gracefully enshrined but disgracefully un-implemented for 20 years. We are now speeding up the implementation. We have succeeded where all previous regimes since independence have failed," he said.

D.E.W. Gunasekera said that discussions were held to extend the policy of bi-lingualization to the area of secondary education. Within the few months after the war the Government started the recruitment of Tamil officers to Police, security services as well as to the public administration. Training and proficiency examinations have begun and incentives had been offered for the study of second language. The second language had been made compulsory to all recruits to the public service from July 2007. All these steps objectively promoted national integration, he added. He said that his Ministry was formulating a National Integration Policy for the Govt. The Minister said that what was taking place in the North and the East on the economic front convincingly proved that a proper balance between political and economic issues was the ideal approach.

Ven. Maduluwawe Sobhitha Thera, Western Province Governor Alavi Mawlana, Export Development and International Trade Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris, National Integration and Reconciliation Minister Vinayagamoorthy Muralidaran, National Integration Deputy Minister S. Jegadeeswaran, Ministry Secretary Malkanthi Wickremasinghe and several others participated at the Discussion Forum.