No point of blaming and shaming, which normally all can do. What is important is for each one of us to take our life into account based on our individual responsibility as a human being and a citizen of this country
by Nilantha Ilangamuwa writing from Kandy
(March 8, 2018, Kandy, Sri Lanka Guardian) The volcano of racial extremism has erupted. Yet again, it has started burning the soul of the nation while making it possible for horrendous danger of pulling the country back into its darkness. The ugly beast is ripping us off. It is the moment for the ruling alliance to govern the country wisely rather than making decisions based on emotions and political motivations.
The tragedy which caused the riot is now known to the public. Solving such grave issues is lying nowhere but our in our readiness to listen as if the pain is ours and taking proper action within effective time by understanding the ground realities. Banning social media and shaming the country’s reputation internationally will achieve nothing but it will certainly escalate the crisis.
There is one small but unbreakable and touching statement given by the wife of the victim whose husband was beaten to death by an undisciplined group of men.
“There is no point in fighting and claiming more precious lives of the people and making more widows like me. My husband was so innocent and everyone in the village adored him,” Thilaka Pushpakumari, the wife of late-H.G. Kumarasinghe, told the media. This is how the majority of Sinhalese as well as other communities are thinking and acting. Majority of the people quite well understand the depth of the problems arisen out of tragedies.
“Working as a driver, he looked after me, his mother, our disabled son and the daughter. We have become so helpless now. We have no future now. Honestly, we don’t have much hopes and confidence that the Government will support us,” she said.
It is time to prove to the Government and those who have the power to manipulate the politics in the country that they have the wisdom to understand the bottom of this painful statement and take every possible action to eliminate the racial seeds. She has clearly stated that she does not have much hope and confidence that the Government will address their grievances and sorrows.
This is the issue. This is an issue which can fuel the racial elements among the public. Solve her problem and prove to the public that we are capable of solving the issues, internally. Then apply the same constructive approach to those who were victimised after the main incident.
What was the lesson in the recent history we learned? One single incident can drive a nation on the wrong path and destroy in no time what we as a respectable nation earned over generations. When emotions drive the steps to be taken without allowing authority and other responsible authorities to access and fulfil their duty, then those who are manipulating the incident will win and the country will be further destroyed.
We have the bloody lesson from the past; we as the nation hammered internationally after allowing small groups of “beasts” who destroyed the unity and dignity of people on many occasions.
Please don’t again! Don’t let anyone pull our motherland into a bloodbath. Don’t immerse our younger generation into the pool of fear. Don’t let anyone take away the all good hopes for us to become the nation of prosperity.
Don’t let our nation to weep again. We have cried enough and wetted the earth out of our tears enough.
We have learned enough bitter lessons out of fear, out of terror, out of misunderstandings, out of misguidance, out of fake propaganda against the country, out of all sorts of what is commonly named as inhuman activities. Hundreds of thousands of skulls buried out of nightmares in last few decades in the country are still weeping their tears for the remaining. We are still paying the price for that.
What Sri Lanka needs today is for leaders to take individual responsibilities followed by collective action to block every possible way which could create disunity and dissension.
So let’s be together. Let’s listen to each other. Sympathy is not the solution, but taking necessary action to make life better for all is the need of the moment. Banning communications is not the solution, but pathetic move to hide the symptoms without proper treatment, which suppression would lead to the problem erupting again and again.
No point of blaming and shaming, which normally all can do. What is important is for each one of us to take our life into account based on our individual responsibility as a human being and a citizen of this country; And take precautions and proactive decisions to strengthen ourselves so none can distort the reputation of our nation. Then none can destroy the quality of our humanity. Then our nation will prevail as a Sovereign entity.
Featured image: Placard holding by a Buddhist Monk with a Mulism in Sri Lanka, reads Sinhala, Tamil, Muslims -- We are Human
Post a Comment