We, as a Nation are at last reaching maturity, so why the rift over a Majority and a Minority.

by Charles.S.Perera

(October 02, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) We are glad at last Sri Lanka has the people of the ilk of the Army Commander General Sarath Fonseka , who no more put up and shut up , but get up, and speak up. It makes no difference whether one avoids the truth expecting unity, or tell the truth to be in unity. The reflexions and vitriol of abuse of those who oppose the majority will not cease.

The anti Sinhala stance of the Tamil diaspora, with abuse and ridicule of the Sinhala, with the Mahavansa in their hands, and insisting on a Mahavamsa mindset of the Sinhala , has not changed from what it was before the Army Commander's interview to the Canadian journalists. So let the caravan roll on.

We are glad we have found in the President Mahinda Rajapakse, Defense Secretay Gotabhaya Rajapakse, Army Commander Sarath Fonseka and the Commanders of the Naval and Air Forces, people who could take their responsibility as the representative of the majority Community to defend our country and its people. They do what is expected of them and say why they do it without hypocrisy or to please the International Community which from the beginning wanted to leave our country with the status of a "developing country". We can depend on our present leaders to maintain course and reach the goal of victory, to make us a united nation of all Communities that share this land as their own motherland.

Mahavansa or no Mahavansa it was the Sinhala people who had to bear the brunt of suffering from incursions from belligerent clans and tribes from the neighbouring India, and thereafter from conquerors and adventurers from the West. The Occupation of the Island by the Portuguese, and the Dutch stole the Sinhala of their Culture, dividing them through the introduction of the religions of the occupants.

The British divided the people in to Communities, pushing the Sinhala in to their back yards, making cooks, appus, mudaliars, arachchis, and interpretors of them. The religion of the Sinhala, and places of worship were desecrated, building their Churches dominating over the temples. Their language was not given a recognizable place. And when we finally gained Independence our National leaders were not any different from the former Colonial masters, except for the colour of their skins. Nevertheless, they tried to govern as best as they could but nothing really changed until SWRD Bandaranaike broke away from the ruling party to form his own political party.

It was only thereafter, we were able make our voices heard. He wanted to make the Independence meaningful by making Sri Lanka a Nation from its semi-colonial Status. Therefore, displaced English- the reminder of its former colonial status in to a secondary place, making Sinhala the language of the people who had been down trodden by the several Colonialists, the official language.

This antagonised the Tamil Community, which was used by the Tamil Politicians to call for equal rights. It is this antagonism that continued going through different stages of political changes, until terrorism showed its face. Large numbers of Tamils left Sri Lanka seeking refugee status in other countries. Some went through fear , while others making it an occasion to migrate, as two Tamil journalists had recently explained in articles to Sri Lanka Guardian Website.

Some really believed in terrorism to establish a State purely of Tamils to vindicate their anger against the Sinhala, who they thought was the reason for them to have left their motherland. They contribute to make the terrorist a strong force able to fight against the Government Forces and break away a good part of the territory to form their own Tamil Eelam. To justify their Eelam State, several Tamil Writers , and Journalists started a campaign of hatred, distorting the culture, the history and the religion of the Sinhala, portraying them as an enemy of the Tamil people . They helped the terrorists to murder all liberal Tamil intellectuals and all Tamil opponent of the terrorist cause.

Thus nourished in racial hatred of the Sinhala, they refuse to accept that the Sinhala are after all in number the larger Community, and they are in number the minority community. They will take ammunitions, if not bombs, and guns, words, phrases and books to attack the Sinhala to prove that the Sinhala are in all respect inferior to the Tamils, though they are more in number.

While the present political leadership, supported by its defence forces are doing their best to show that Sri Lanka is a Nation that could stand on its own, without being treated by the International Community and their different supporting agencies such as the NGOs, INGOs, Human rights mongers, and various other lackeys, as a developing country that could be kicked from pillar to post.

All developing Countries to emerge as independent Nations want the help of the rich Nations. The former President of France the Late François Mitterrand, was keen on assisting the developing countries and proposed a North-South dialogue and said at a press conference after the conclusion of the 15the Summit of the Industrialised Countries, on the 16 July,1989, "In a general way, one wishes to bring about a solution to the problem of development. It is a step which has been taken, and the practical arrangements, which you will hear about, are numerous and significant". (http://www.g8.utoronto.ca/summit/1989paris/press_english.html)

The South- meaning the developing Nations should be economically and technologically assisted in their development. That is a duty of the developed Nations to do so.

The Nations of the world have to unite and work in coordination with each other in order to avoid a financial crisis as the one we see to day in America which is taking a global dimension. Politics of rivalry and antagonism has to stop, building more friendly relations with Nations is the key to survival in the competitive world of to-day. As it was pointed out by Paul Craig Roberts in an article " Why America Should Listen to Ahmadinejad ?" which appeared in the Sri Lanka Guardian web site on the 30 September,2008.

Therefore, the Tamil Politicians and those of the diaspora should pay attention to these development in the Western Nations, and understand the necessity for us to unite with out starting "tribal" wars among ourselves. What does it really matter who is the majority and who is the minority as long as both the majority and the minority could work together to be a united Nation of Sinhala, Tamil, Muslims and others.

Living in Foreign Countries has its value, there is comfort, security, and opportunities, but one will for ever be strangers and second class citizens. Our place is with our people as we are all Sri Lankans, whether we are Sinhala, Tamil or Muslim, or whether Sinhala is the Majority and the others the minority. - Sri Lanka Guardian