Upholding Sri Lanka’s dignity
It is
plain that the crying need right now is unity locally among
those political forces and progressive sections which are
desirous of stabilising peace, unity and solidarity within Sri
Lanka, in the face of those inimical forces which are seeking to
victimize this country in the wake of the controversial Darusman
Report. As President Mahinda Rajapaksa has time and again
pointed out, the citizenry of this country owe complete
allegiance to their motherland since they belong nowhere else.
This appeal has met with a tremendous positive response and the
coming together of diverse political and other forces yesterday,
May Day, in a show of undivided loyalty to Sri Lanka was the
proof of this.
There is no questioning the timely insight brought out in
some quarters that the Report could have a divisive impact on
the Lankan polity. The government has set before itself the
great and monumental challenge of welding the multiplicity of
the communities of this country into a single nation and the
Report could have the effect of undermining this undertaking by
opening afresh wounds that are healing in the collective psyche
of each community and by rekindling old enmities among some
mutually-hostile sections. For these reasons and more, the
Report should be denounced as being of malicious intent and as
totally lacking in foresight, besides being grounded on
allegations. The Report has obviously not taken into
consideration the deeply divisive impact it could have on local
society.
There are numerous views on how the government should respond
to the Report. Some are of the view that the divisive document
should not go unanswered and there is some merit in this
position. A stance of maintaining a silence on the Report could
be wrongly misconstrued to mean that the state has nothing to
say about it, or that the state is incapable of formulating an
appropriate response to it. Accordingly, we hope a studied
response is forthcoming.
However, in the longer and medium terms, we believe that the
best response to the current criticisms being levelled at Sri
Lanka could come in the form of reconciliation and amity among
all relevant quarters and communities in Sri Lanka. The
government’s policy of remaining engaged with the TNA and other
relevant sections of Tamil opinion thus emerges as a most
welcome trend. Increasing and concrete evidence that the just
grievances of the Tamil community are being redressed by the
government would not only accelerate the reconciliation process
within Sri Lanka, but expose the adverse international criticism
against Sri Lanka as false and lacking in substance.
In this connection it is relevant to point out that President
Rajapaksa is adopting the correct policy position by
continuously stressing the multi-ethnic and multi-religious
identity of Sri Lanka. There is no denying that such
pronouncements could have the important effect of promoting a
sense of identity on the part of all our communities with the
Sri Lankan state. Besides, these sentiments are bound to bring
our communities increasingly together in a spirit of
brotherhood. It was only a couple of days back that the
President reminded some Year 5 scholarship winners, hailing from
our numerous communities, about their common identity as Sri
Lankans and such sentiments are bound to have a positive impact
on young minds, besides promoting unity.
Accordingly, advancing national unity needs to be high on the
state’s agenda and this process would gather in strength and
pace to the degree to which political leaders lend it their
firmest support. It is also hoped that the Lessons Learnt and
Reconciliation Commission’s findings with regard to meeting the
legitimate needs of our communities, would be acted on quickly
by the state. The Commission, in fact, should be seen,
particularly internationally, as a very vital tool in bringing
healing to Sri Lanka.
In the long run, true reconciliation among our communities,
we believe, is one of the most effective ways of upholding Sri
Lanka’s dignity. However, it is also most important that Sri
Lanka as a political community comes together to oppose the
Darusman Report which is defaming this country’s image and
raising the possibility of undoing all that has been achieved
over the past two years in the form of internal stability and
unity. The Report needs to be discussed in depth in public so
that the general awareness of the harm it could do to Sri Lanka
is increased.
This is also an occasion when Third World groupings, such as
the Non-aligned Movement, should lend their undivided support to
Sri Lanka’s cause. The current balance of global political
forces is tilted against the developing world and there is no
denying that the latter should come together in a massive show
of strength if the current international efforts to undermine
Sri Lanka are to be defeated. |