Celebrate triumph over evil

Kapila Bandara

Solemnity hangs in the air today as we salute those who fought a just fight and laid down their lives for our Paradise Isle, and the thousands who suffered grievous physical injury and mental trauma in the challenge to cleanse our land of the evils of terrorism.

Their sacrifice regained our freedom and they reclaimed for us the precious and unique way of life of this serendipitous island that minds its own business.

To the strains of the national anthem, resounding in our hearts and souls, we light an oil lamp, light incense, and bow our heads to the warriors who hunted down and killed the despot, South Asia’s Pol Pot, who had declared war on our State. The LTTE terrorism is no more. Millions breathe a sigh of relief at the death of evil. The evil that turned our State into the killing fields of South Asia met his match in a band of fearless warriors who were backed by all who believed in our power to overcome evil, and who were inspired by special individuals in whose hands the levers of State rested.

This time around, no one was intimidated by the despot from Velvettiturai, who tried to mask his sinister agenda of making us leaderless by exterminating our political and military leaders and turning our Motherland into a graveyard. The LTTE leadership who thought he was clever sought to mark our boundaries with barbed-wire, bunkers, and blood.

The self-appointed “colonels”, played hide and seek, until legitimate warriors sought them out and made them pay for the brutalities and savagery they inflicted on us.

Along the way, the facile theories of self-serving pundits and the NGO lynch mob who posited that terrorism will not ever be militarily defeated were also felled by the salvo that brought down the tyrant and his murderers.

Terrorism was our Everest, and our valour conquered it.

As the bugle call sounds above our rooftops today, joined by the roar of jets in our sunny skies, the purr of naval craft on our midnight blue oceans, and the resonance of the firm footfall of our soldiers, let us stop to listen to what the gentle wind is whispering in our ears. It is reminding us to cherish the freedom secured for us and for our children, the sovereignty that has been reasserted, and the proud culture that has been protected.

Remember, too, the picture of dignity that the men and women who bore arms represent.

Some have been lost. And we honour them in anonymity. Recall the Peloponnesian Wars of ancient Greece, where a bare stretcher was used to pay tribute to the unknown dead. Remember their eternal resting place and blow a gentle kiss.

Remember also the unsuspecting innocents who were slaughtered by a maniac and his cohorts of suicide and machete murderers.

Remember the heartbreak of the survivors who lost their children, the orphaned, and the permanently maimed.

Above all, remember that Sri Lanka has dispelled the darkness and ignited an eternal flame.

Let us celebrate a new beginning in our history.