By Dr.T.C.Rajaratnam*
(February 15, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) President Mahinda Rajapakse has won the confidence of the Tamils as well. The landslide victory of the Provincial Councils elections has sent positive signals to the country and the world over that President Rajapakse’s party has won the elections steered by the people who have implicit trust and confidence in President Mahinda Rajapakse.
This is the first time in the history of Sri Lanka, that every citizen has a reason to be proud of such a dynamic and indomitable Leader who has been wisely supported by the able and most efficient Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse in the history of Sri Lanka together with Minister Rohitha Bogollgama who has successfully convinced the international community of the current situation by that the Government has made every move in the best interests of the Nation. Rohitha Bogollagama’s skills of advocacy has been best performed and displayed by this patriotic task cast upon him and his unique style of demonstrating and obtaining the objectives of the cause.
The importance of the task performed by Minister Rohitha Bogollagama has won world wide appreciation and acknowledgement.
President Rajapakse has been a tower of strength to the poor, the homeless and the destitute people of Sri Lanka regardless of race or religion. He has a deep sense of responsibility and has performed his duty with commitment, determination and courage to bring about a lasting solution. It is his inherent duty to protect the Nation as a whole. There was so much chaos and conspiracy to humiliate and persecute him but he has overcome all adversities and adversaries owing to the faith the Nation has for him.
We see that a person without the feeling of commiseration is not a human; a person without the feeling of shame and dike; without the feeling of deference and accommodation; and without the feeling of right and wrong is not a human. The feeling of commiseration is the beginning of humanity; the feeling of shame and dislike is the beginning righteousness; the feeling of deference and accommodation is the beginning of propriety; and the feeling of right and wrong is the beginning of wisdom. Humans have these Four Beginnings just as they have their four limbs.
Having these Four Beginnings, but saying that they cannot develop them is to destroy themselves. When they say that their ruler cannot develop them, they are destroying their ruler. If anyone with these Four Beginnings in themselves can give them the fullest extension and development, the result will be like fire beginning to burn or a spring beginning to shoot forth. When they are fully developed, they will be sufficient to protect all within the four seas. If they are not developed, they will not be sufficient even to serve one's parents. This ability to commiserate is what separates human beings from most other creatures. It is what gives us a conscience and is the source of the moral truth of the golden rule. Those who prey on other humans are not truly human for they have no empathy and can therefore be cruel and heartless in the things they say and do to others.
Any international treaty entails some surrender of national sovereignty, and is generally unpopular. The abolition of war will demand distasteful limitations of national sovereignty.
Whatever system of governance is eventually adopted, it is important that it carries the people with it. We need to convey the message that safeguarding our common property, humankind, will require developing in each of us a new loyalty: a loyalty to mankind a loyalty to the country and a loyalty to the President-The Leader of the country. Each of us has loyalties - from the smallest, the family, to the largest, at present, the nation. Many of these groups provide protection for their members. The entire country needs protection. We have to extend our loyalty to the whole of the human race.
We must appeal, as human beings, to human beings: Remember your humanity and forget the rest. If you can do so, the way lies open for a new paradise; if you cannot, there lies before you the risk of destruction.
Gratitude is a manifestation of conscience. Gratitude is what defines the humanity of the human being. We must help the children in the world, for the homeless, for the victims of injustice, the victims of destiny and society.
The political prisoner in his cell, the hungry children, the homeless refugees -- not to respond to their plight, not to relieve their solitude by offering them a spark of hope is to exile them from human memory. And in denying their humanity we betray our own. Does it mean that we have learnt from the past? Does it mean that society has changed? Has the human being become less indifferent and more human? Have we really learnt from our experiences? Are we less insensitive to the plight of victims of ethnic cleansing and other forms of injustices in places near and far?
What about the children? Oh, we see them on television, we read about them in the papers, and we do so with a broken heart. Their fate is always the most tragic, inevitably. When adults wage war, children perish. We see their faces, their eyes. Do we hear their pleas? Do we feel their pain, their agony? Every minute one of them dies of disease, violence, famine. Some of them -- so many of them -- could be saved.
A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance. It is fitting that at this solemn moment we take the pledge of dedication to the service of Sri Lanka and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity.
We have hard work ahead. There is no resting for any one of us till we redeem our pledge in full, till we make all the people of Sri Lanka what destiny intended them to be. We are citizens of a great country on the verge of bold advance, and we have to live up to that high standard. All of us, to whatever religion we may belong, are equally the children of Sri Lanka with equal rights, privileges and obligations. We cannot encourage communalism or narrow-mindedness, for no nation can be great whose people are narrow in thought or in action.
Religious freedom is a necessity - a human necessity within the legal norms. The Government has an obligation to protect that freedom. It makes a difference in the way we live and the way we function and our ability to overcome adversity. The people have by their performance acknowledged their confidence in President Mahinda Rajpakse- a leader to fulfil the promises and their aspirations. We must pave way for the process and progress of the mechanism.
A Government that is smaller, lives within its means and does more with less. The mission of our Government is to give the people an opportunity to build better lives.
We have to come out from behind locked doors and shuttered windows to help reclaim our streets from drugs and gangs and crime and everyone of us must assume personal responsibility - not only for ourselves and our families but for our neighbours and our nation. Our greatest responsibility is to embrace a spirit of oneness.
We should not succumb to the dark impulses that lurk in the far regions of the soul. We must overcome them.
The President has the wisdom and will to act in the best interests of the Nation. He will take affirmative action in the best interests of the Nation. The purpose of affirmative action is to give the Nation a way to address the systematic exclusion of individuals of talent on the basis of their gender or race from opportunities to develop, perform, achieve and contribute. Affirmative action is an effort to develop a systematic approach to open the doors of education, employment and business development opportunities to qualified individuals who happen to be members of groups that have experienced longstanding and persistent discrimination.
When affirmative action is done right, it is flexible, it is fair and it works. The law does require fairness for everyone and we must see that it is done. We have a history with a long history of unity.
We must be Patriotic. We must uphold and defend the Constitution and the Head of State-the President. We owe allegiance to the President and the Constitution as Citizens of Sri Lanka. We must uphold the norms of the Constitution. We have a history with a long history of unity.
We must look for diplomacy. Those who are opposed to us are not considered as our opponents. We must find a compromise with such people, meeting of minds-understanding so we would have a just objective as a unitary Nation.
[Dr.T.C.Rajaratnam LL.B(SL)., LL.M(Lond)., Ph.D(Lond)., was the Co-ordinating Secretary to the Chief Government Whip of Parliament, Late Jeyaraj Fernandopulle; The Member in charge of the English Media of the Media Observation Unit founded by Late Jeyaraj Fernandopulle for the Presidential Election Campaign of President Mahinda Rajapakse in 2005; Candidate for the Colombo District for SLFP-PA in the 1994 Parliamentary General Elections; Author; Former Lecturer in Laws, Member of the World Lawyers & Poets Society ; International Legal Consultant; CEO of the Chambers of Academic & Professional Studies] E mail: tcrajaratnam@gmail.com-Sri Lanka Guardian
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