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| Sunday, 2 February 2003 |
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Editorial |  |
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Editor, Sunday Observer. E-mail: [email protected] Snail mail : Sunday Observer, 35, D.R.Wijewardana Mawatha, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Telephone : 94 1 429239 / 331181 Fax : 94 1 429230 Freedom The brass and leather are being polished, weapons oiled, and the squads of police personnel, sailors, soldiers and airmen and airwomen are rehearsing their parade routines as the country prepares to celebrate its fifty-fifth anniversary of freedom from European colonial domination in two day's time. Independence Day is being celebrated this week after nearly a whole year of peace following the historic Cease-fire Agreement signed between the Government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. More than anyone else, the proud spouses, children and parents of police and armed forces personnel will celebrate this past year and this Independence Day. More than all other Sri Lankans, they know and feel the significance of the fact that, at least for now, the guns are for pageantry and not combat. The rigid, smartly uniformed troops that march forward on February 4th will not be marching to war. Rather, they will embody the pride of a country and a people who have, at long last, begun overcoming strife and destruction after decades of it. With the dawn of the fifty-sixth year of freedom from foreign imperial subjugation and exploitation comes hope for another year of freedom from war and communal disharmony; another year of slow, painstaking effort towards a comprehensive political settlement of the brutal conflict that has torn this island society apart. If the five hundred years of colonialism has ravaged our island home, fifty years of 'independence' has also seen Sri Lanka ravaged by Sri Lankans themselves. If colonial domination ended a half-century ago, the manipulations and depredations of the colonials laid the ground for manipulation and depredation by Sri Lankans themselves. Today, we are once again seeking a new era for our country. What this new era will be is something we, Sri Lankans, must define. This time round we cannot allow others to define our goals and our strategies. This time round we cannot allow others to add to our failures. With the hopes of the whole of Sri Lankan society behind it, this country's political leadership, both North and South, is committed to strain every sinew to achieve an end to the ethnic conflict by re-defining the political structure to resolve the problems of ethnic inequity and rivalry. Time and again, in recent electoral decisions, the people of this country have mandated our political leadership to work towards constitutional and administrative reform for this purpose. The on-going peace negotiations with the LTTE are a vital part of this process. It is the hope of all Sri Lankans that their political leaders in Government and in the Presidency co-ordinate their efforts in every way and at every moment towards this goal of a permanent peace. The onus of leading the country towards a new, post-colonial era is on the whole political leadership. Thus, the responsibility of a failure to collaborate lies on all national political leaders. At the same time, the people as a whole must also fall in line, disciplined and in cohesion, in the march towards this new era. After five hundred years of colonial rule, a mere half-century is but a short time to recover. Our post-colonial struggles, endeavours and failures are all part of that process of recovery from the dark age of colonialism. If ethnic injustice has been found to have been a major obstacle to that recovery, then any re-assertion of that injustice can only be regarded as national treachery. A proud new Sri Lanka cannot emerge without triumphing over ethnic inequity. Likewise, other goals and other aspirations must also be acknowledged and upheld as we strive forward in building a free Sri Lanka. Economic deprivation and social marginalisation loom high on our national agenda. These too must be addressed in the near future and cannot be forgotten in the process of dealing with the more urgent problem of ethnic conflict. National freedom can only have meaning if the whole society is involved and is participating in national life. |
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