Evolution of a nation
Dr. Tilak S. Fernando
The tiny pear shaped island known as the ‘pearl of the Indian Ocean’,
whose material treasures and spiritual values acted as a magnet to
foreign travellers around 350 BC was known as Taprobane, Simundu, Salke,
Silv-Diva, Serndib, Zeilan and Ceylon under foreign domination from 1505
to 1948. During the final stages of the British governance, the
Donoughmore constitution offered an elected legislature - the State
Council and the Universal Adult Franchise.
While ‘Ceylonese’ politicians derived training in legislative and
executive functions some of the British planters and business hierarchy
influenced the local politicians to become ‘masters’ in their own
affairs.
Foreign barriers
A new era dawned for Ceylon in February 4, 1948 by becoming an
independent sovereignty with full of promise. A unique factor in
achieving self-determination marked a ‘struggle’ without having to shed
a single drop of blood, thus national patriotic leaders’ effort in
restoring the self-respect of this nation that had been crushed under
the foreign boot of Portuguese, Dutch, and the British, over four
centuries came to an end.
Independence after four centuries of foreign dominance should have
showed the way to a superlative transformation once the foreign barriers
were removed. Understandably one could not have expected for an
‘enslaved’ nation to wake up overnight through any kind of overwhelming
jingoism from a centuries old ‘slumber’ under a Colonial boot!
With another name change from Ceylon to Sri Lanka the populace
displayed patience to afford the new rulers time to shell off from the
old mentality and the attitudes of ‘white masters’ that had been imposed
on the nation.
Political analysts over the decades have assessed the post
independent Sri Lanka with negative comments often sighting all
administrations who promised people to maintain the political freedom
they achieved.
After two decades of independence dark clouds appeared above Sri
Lanka once more. The administrators had to grapple with a different kind
of problem this time with a youth uprising from the South where the
degradation of human values became contagious. The public at large were
made to witness repugnantly unaccustomed murders, corpses floating on
rivers and decapitated human bodies burning on road-side-spikes with
fetid yellow liquids draining out in the form of melting human body oil.
This was followed by a second uprising by Tiger terrorists in the
North and the East. Seemingly they became the most ruthless terrorist
organization in the world by introducing suicide bombing. Extremist
attacks on civilian population and on soft economic targets paralysed
the country’s onward progress drastically.
Major world players
Sri Lanka has certainly been a blessed country despite a few hiccups.
At the nick of time when the whole country was about to head towards an
unfathomable adversity, a ‘political messiah’, in the name or President
Mahinda Rajapaksa, appeared with firm determination and promise to
eliminate terrorism from the Sri Lankan soil which he accomplished
within a short spell to the envy of major world players who are still
making desperate attempts to ward off their own terrorist parasites.
Today Sri Lanka is open to the entire world to witness the mega
transformation taking place rapidly in her environment, economy, culture
and spirituality.
The two aspects of human life (culture and spirituality) flourish
naturally when a nation is freed from suppression. ‘Spirituality is not
mere religion or faith but it goes beyond to the humanism of man. The
spirit of a nation is the bold outcry of its soul. A dispirited nation
is a state that has sold its soul. Culture is not a mere act but has
more to do with the morale embossed in our hearts’.
In such a scenario those members of Parliament in the Opposition will
have to refrain from getting bogged down in the same old rut of
criticising those who govern and shed their internal minuscule
disagreements and work as a single unit with the government for the
benefit of the country, bearing in mind that they are nothing but
representatives of the people whom the public have elected to represent
in Parliament.
Cynosure of Asia
With regard to development taking place in the country at present one
has only to take a bird’s-eye view from a tower block in Colombo and the
suburbs to get a glimpse of modern architectural edifices that have
changed the skyline of Sri Lanka. Similarly, a tour round rural villages
will reveal the element of progresses the country has been transforming
in both towns and in villages.
Now with peace prevailing in the country and the word ‘terrorism’ is
buried and concreted, it is encouraging to see international aid
agencies, business entrepreneurs, financial institutions are responding
favourably to make a contribution to make Sri Lanka the cynosure of
Asia. This is evident from the transformation of a wider road network
where the old pot-holed and gravel roads in the North and East are
transformed into international standards, roads in general, are being
carpeted and the emergence of a Southern Expressway, a harbour in the
South and another international airport is about to take birth.
As an additional boost to the economy the presence of crude oil
deposits and gas have become the hot news and may start to flow from Sri
Lanka’s North sea oil platforms to transform this Pearl of the Indian
Ocean into a modern dreamland replacing the motor bicycles, ‘tuc tucs’
and all ramshackle vehicles with ultra modern latest designs from the
automobile industry.
King Parakramabahu's advice to ‘make use of every drop of water
before it is allowed to drain away to the seas’ may become a reality
once again with irrigation developed, home grown food becoming plentiful
and in abundance to be self sufficient, and Sri Lanka be called the
Paradise Island once again. The underline factor for successful progress
depends on the freedom and the everlasting spirit of the people as a
nation.
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