by Lasantha Pethiyagoda
(June 13, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) It is heart-wrenching when every few days I come to know that yet another bomb explosion tears apart my beloved motherland. The innocent public are the victims, in the "North", "East", "West", "South", and "Centre" and variations in between. Tragically, people are forced to "get used to it" while little else changes.
I feel that there is insufficient honest public discussion at significant levels about what drives this "war" among different sections of the same society. Is it the frustration that civic aspirations are unrealised? Is it the force behind two or more powerful institutions which struggle for supremacy, dictated to by the egos of their leaders? Is it "tit for tat" operations? Is it the result of festering hatred over perceived motives of the other side, fuelled by ignorance of facts?
We must not only ask ourselves such questions, but seriously consider what we offer our children as inheritance for them to live a normal life, receive a wholesome education, a decent income, bring up a family, the joyous experience of inhaling soothing fragrances of our land, and take in romantic landscapes that are like no other (this is true!), visit a place of spiritual sustenance in peace. Instead, if the only smells they know are of stale sweat, cordite and blood, witness only landscapes of fear of the unknown under a harsh sun or eerie darkness, then we would have failed miserably.
War can never replace love. Power must not be allowed to corrupt. The people at large should not be held at ransom for the whims of a few. Knowledge must win over ignorance. Sanity must prevail over madness.
- Sri Lanka Guardian
Post a Comment