National unity through integration

There was a reassuring word from Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa to the Tamil business community in Colombo on the issue of security and it is in keeping with the highest norms of governance to ensure protection and tension-free living for all. Indeed, making all our communities stakeholders in this country's well being and prosperity is a must for development and progress and this process should be ongoing and vibrant, regardless of whether we are in the middle of a Local Government polls campaign or not.

On the other hand, the communities concerned need to cooperate with the state in furthering their security and well being. For example, extortion gangs, apparently, have been preying on sections of the Tamil business community in Colombo and these criminal elements could be dealt with firmly under the law, only if information on them is forthcoming to the authorities by the affected persons. Therefore, information should be volunteered for stamping out this species of crime.

However, the public had concrete evidence of the policy direction of the state recently on issues pertaining to nation-building and unity, when another batch of former LTTE combatants were rehabilitated and brought into mainstream society. At the relevant ceremony, no less a person than President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who presided over it, was quoted as saying that these young persons, who are now equipped with handy skills and abilities, would be fully integrated into the development process of Sri Lanka.

This is as it should be. It is not sufficiently realized that nation-building is essentially about caring and sharing. That is, communities, social groups and even persons, caring for and sharing with each other. The President and the state are committed to this course and this message should be blared forth over the length and breadth of Sri Lanka.

In these crucial post-conflict times, it is very important that the public of this country fully understands this simple but profoundly important idea - nation-building is all about sharing and caring. That is, we should not hear any more the dreaded drum-beats of communalism and ethnicity. It should be state policy to completely outlaw communalism and ethnic hatred in all its forms. It should be the bounden duty of the state to not only outlaw communalism but to ensure that these voices of hatred and division are not heard.

Considering the foregoing, the well-meaning of this country could be glad that it is the stated policy of the state to integrate rehabilitated former LTTE cadres into mainstream society. They too should be seen as partners in Sri Lanka's progress and the country could be glad that no less a person than the President is leading from the front in this great enterprise.

If every citizen of Sri Lanka is treated with dignity and accorded equality of condition and opportunity, there could be no cause for conflicts. If devolution and connected questions are proving divisive and controversial today, it is because this golden rule in governance had been neglected over the years. Therefore, there cannot be any alternative to treating every citizen and community equally and integrating everyone into the larger society emerges as a top priority.

Sri Lanka is, indeed, the mother of all Lankans and this is a principle of the first importance. But there should not be any reservations that Sri Lanka as currently conceived generally, is sufficiently broad-based and embracing to include within it all sections of the local public. On this, there should not be any dispute and President Rajapaksa has clearly indicated his position on this issue by going on record that there are no "minorities" as such but only those who love their motherland and those who are opposed to it. In other words, man-made divisions do not matter any more.

This is a sound policy position to proceed on. If man-made barriers do not matter any more, it follows that every citizen should be integrated into mainstream Lankan society and be enabled to be an equal stakeholder in its present and future.

As we have emphasized before, we cannot afford to forget the lessons of the past, but we cannot remain bogged-down in the troubling memories of the past either. The time's ripe to move ahead as one, undivided nation and healing policies and practices should be implemented swiftly.