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Thursday, 20 September 2012

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Invaluable opportunity to be non-partisan

The appointment of the UPFA's M.N. Abdul Majeed to the position of Chief Minister of the Eastern Provincial Council, ends prolonged and tense speculation as to who would be at the helm of the Council and which party would spearhead the provincial administration. The UPFA is a multi-communal political formation and the support pledged by the SLMC to the provincial administration adds to and enhances its broad-based character.

A duty is now cast on the UPFA-led provincial administration to prove that it is above petty communal and religious considerations. In fact, the opportunity is at hand for the establishment of a model administration which would serve every community in the region on the basis of equality and non-discrimination. We hope this challenge would be successfully met.

It was entirely in order for President Mahinda Rajapaksa to call on the Chief Minister and his incoming ministerial team to be guided always by the consideration that even-handed service to the people is a prime requirement. Besides, adhering to the highest tenets of justice, the PC administration should prove capable of mobilizing the communities of the province to work as one man towards the common good, the President stressed.

These are some valuable guidelines for the PC, which, we hope, would be stringently adhered to. Rather than think in divisive terms, and nurture grievances against each other, those political formations which were in the election fray would do well, from now on, to put divisions and differences behind them and work in unity towards the general good of the Eastern public. Those in power would be obliged to co-opt all sections of the Eastern polity into the socio-economic development drive in the East. The language of unity and fraternity is an essential tool in this momentous exercise.

It could not be emphasized enough that it is a sense of magnanimity and empathy which would be the key to reconciliation and fraternity in the East. Hopefully, there would not be a 'winners' and 'losers' division. Those in the highest seats of office should devise ways of winning the cooperation of those in the opposition benches to forge ahead with developing the region.

This scheme of things should be considered a blueprint for progress.

The Eastern Provincial Council which would be nominally representative of all the main communities of this country, is replete with very interesting possibilities. It would be a matter for regret if these possibilities are not exploited by the main political actors of the region. Given the ethnic and religious composition of the province and the possibilities it offers, it is our considered opinion that the Eastern PC could be converted into an exemplary Provincial Council, provided the openings for social betterment are fully utilized.

If a sense of magnanimity and cooperation prevails, the Eastern PC could be showcased as the model for ethnic harmony we have been yearning for, as a polity. We call on the TNA, in particular, to give of its best towards the smooth functioning of the PC by contributing constructively towards the development and other initiatives that would be ushered.

It should be also the aim of the Eastern PC to prove that it is not yet another huge drain on the public purse.

The UPFA governing coalition should be out to prove that it has not been seeking power for its own sake. Power is the means to development, and this needs to be a principal axiom of governance.

If the Eastern PC could rise above petty considerations and usher in socio-economic equity, we would have the clinching evidence that the communities of this country could work in unity towards development of one and all on a sustained basis. This is a priceless opportunity which should not be squandered.

Globalization, development and geography - Part II:

Primacy of social protection

Keynote Address delivered by Emeritus Professor M. M. Karunanayake at the Fifth National Geography Conference August, 2012 convened by the Sri Lanka Association of Geographers in collaboration with the Department of Geography at the University of Kelaniya,

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Evolving a service culture

During location filming of the iconic Monty Python television comedy series, the cast stayed at a hotel in the English seaside town of Torquay. The idiosyncratic behaviour of the manager caught the eye of actor and screenwriter John Cleese.

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Imagined communal hostilities and historiography

A persistent myth, which has helped create disharmony in Sri Lanka, is that the Sinhalese and Tamils have had a continuous history of mutual antagonism from the earliest past. In fact, ethnic enmity in Sri Lanka has modern roots, based in the divisive race politics of the British colonial power.

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