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Wednesday, 29 February 2012

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Putting popular support to good use

The sea of humanity which swept Colombo and other major urban centres and towns on Monday in a historic gesture of support for Sri Lanka in the face of the confrontational course being taken against it by the West at the current UNHRC sessions in the form of the so-called accountability resolution, should be a cause for deep reflection by both the rulers and the ruled. Here is proof of the popularity of the Mahinda Rajapaksa administration and of the loyalty it is continuing to command, North, South, East and West.

It was not only in the entirety of the South that such solidarity was evident but even in the former war-ravaged districts of the Northern Province, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu and Jaffna included. The message that is thus sent out is that the whole of Sri Lanka almost believes that Sri Lanka is being wronged for no fault of its and that the government has been doing right in this context.

The bald truth is that the state did right by putting an end to terrorism and making Sri Lanka habitable once again for the majority of our citizens.

Achieving this was a legitimate function of the government because it has no choice but to govern and making the country safe for living is an integral part of governance. This self-evident truth the majority of the public clearly perceives. This is one of the reasons why the people readily evinced their support for the state on Monday.

The public also sees the concomitant truth. That is the unconscionable unreasonableness of attempting to haul this country before the UNHRC on allegations which are nebulous and do not stand-up to rational scrutiny. Therefore, the massive support for the state is also expressive of the mass-scale moral revulsion the resolution move evokes in the populace.

Meanwhile, in Geneva, Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe could not have been more cogent and comprehensive in exposing the unreasonableness in trying to bring allegations born of the highly controversial Darusman report and other dubious means, in the form of a resolution against the Sri Lankan state.

Those who are labouring under the misguided notion that Sri Lanka is doing nothing or going slow in bringing normalcy to this country should only peruse Minister Samarasinghe's address to the UNHRC to be convinced otherwise. Much has been achieved by the state since May 2009 in the form of national rejuvenation and the minister gave the world a detailed break-down of the state's achievements. As the state explains, Sri Lanka must be given more time to show what it is capable of by way of national reconstruction and development. Clearly, it must be given a chance to grow and prosper.

A point that should be sufficiently highlighted by the state and all those who are concerned about the good name of Sri Lanka is that the West has over the decades supported wholeheartedly, on strategic and other selfish considerations, some states of the Third World whose governance records just would not bear scrutiny. In contrast, Sri Lanka has been a thriving democracy and a staunch adherent of International Law. What accounts for such unjust attitudes and double standards? It is simply that some sections of the West are all out to halt Sri Lanka's progress on the basis of a neo-colonial agenda which centres on the subjugation of states which do not do the bidding of former colonial and expansionist powers.

Now that the majority of the public are behind the state, the latter should lose no time in proving its detractors absolutely wrong by further implementing the recommendations of the LLRC report.

There should not be any doubt that Sri Lanka is cruising smoothly along the sea lane of domestic normalcy.

Besides, the moral capital in the hands of the state in the form of the firm backing for it by all our communities must be put to good use. If the totality of our communities is backing the state, it is because the latter has been shunning ethnic and religious chauvinism. This good record must be maintained and the support thus garnered must be used to further strengthen the foundations of equity and equality within the state.

Steady implementation of LLRC recommendations - Part II:

Massive development in the North

Economic development continues to play a pivotal role in the reconciliation process and the return to normalcy. Massive infrastructure and development programmes are underway in the former conflict-affected areas of the Northern and Eastern Provinces. The government has embarked upon 27 donor assisted projects of which 23 are implemented in the North and the East to develop infrastructure including housing, roads, bridges, schools, hospitals and irrigation schemes, valued at approximately USD 201 million for the year 2011 alone,

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The Human Dimension

Don’t our children matter to us anymore?

Personally, I find any news unpalatable when it is about a missing child. Last week was a lot more unpalatable; a five year old boy had been abused beyond all accepted norms and died as a result of his injuries.

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George Clooney, Mary Foster and Anagarika Dharmapala

In the film ‘The Descendants’, George Clooney plays the descendant of a Hawaiian princess and a ‘Haole’ (white foreigner), who is the sole trustee of a vast ancestral holding of land on the island of Kaua’i and who has to decide what to do with it: most of his relatives want to develop it as a tourist resort.

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