PM urges need to build righteous society

Atapattu BANDARA

As a result of the 30 year long war, people's values and morality has deteriorated. It is necessary to create a righteous society but it will take years to boost discipline and moral values among the people, said Prime Minister D. M. Jayaratne.

He said so at a Diploma Certificate awarding ceremony for students of the Higher Diploma Certificate Course of the Arts and Performance School at the Tower Hall Foundation recently. Certificates were awarded to 25 students who successfully completed the course.

The media has always given extensive coverage for sensational, evil incidents that occur in society rather than worthy causes expecting to attract a greater audience to market their institution, he said.

This happens locally and internationally, he said. The media expands their market by selling bad things among the public and this has become normalized with the advance of science and technology, he added.

Untimely deaths which were rare in the past has now become a simple matter, he said.

The society has gone from bad to worse and they are tempted to turn their heads away when someone dies at the side of the road, the Premier added. Cultural components such as art, drama and literature would help create a righteous society but this cannot not be done immediately. It needs time, he emphasised.

"Building a righteous society has become the need of the day. The war has disrupted traditional lifestyles and we have observed a cultural backwardness with the deterioration of artistic values," he said.

"Some philosophers have shown that man is, by nature, evil. But literature and art civilize people. Man can be guided towards the correct path through these," he said.