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| Sunday, 29 January 2006 |
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58th Independence Day on Feb. 4: National unity, need of the hour by Deepal Warnakulasuriya
All set for the commemoration of the country's 58th anniversary of Independence on February 04, 2006 at the Galle Face Green, Colombo. The Tsunami tragedy that took place in December 2004 did not allow the country to have the usual pomp and pageantry last year. Anyhow, the new President Mahinda Rajapakse and his government will make this an opportunity to build a new country, where democracy dominates with pleasure, prosperity and peace, realizing the political, economic and social freedom. Imperialism After a democratic struggle, and that too at an unforgettable high price, the country regained political freedom from the British. Whether you wish to accept it or not, a considerable amount of the credit of regaining independence should go to our neighbour, India. They had launched its agitation campaign against the British Imperialism patiently, and with a lot of determination. India's campaign led by Gandhi demanded a self-rule urging the British viceroys, governors and authorities to quit India once and for all. D. S. Senanayake, D. B. Jayatilleke, Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan, Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam and W. A. de Silva were the pioneers who paved the way for the country's independence, in addition to host of others like Wariyapola Sri Sumangala Thera who have gone down in the country's history. Ceremonies At the first independence anniversary celebrations religious ceremonies and an armed forces parade were held at the Galle Face Green, and four outstanding athletes from the four different communities completed the last lap of a relay in the afternoon, at the Independence Square, carrying with them messages from Point Pedro, Dondra, Batticaloa and Colombo in 1949. From that day, Sri Lanka celebrated the independence anniversaries with honorary participations of several leaders from all over the World. It was not the only Asian country that regained freedom from the British, and the list includes India and several other countries. When the British left India in 1947, they had carved out Pakistan and East Pakistan as a separate nation from the Indian Sub-continent. Though they did not devide Sri Lanka into segments there were incidents where they created artificial divisions among the Sinhala and the Tamil people, among Northern Tamil and Eastern Tamil and among Sinhala speaking and Tamil speaking businessmen. Nobody had any language or ethnic problem at that time, unsophisticated, non-English educated Sinhala carpenters from the South enjoyed a lucrative furniture businesses in the North, and the tobacco merchants, banana boutique keepers provided ingredients for the best Jaffna cigars and home grown banana products. However, petty politicians who were nobodies and wanted to be somebodies took up the language as an issue with the only aim of entering to the mainstream of politics. It was a beginning of an invitation for crisis after crisis for the country. The learned,educated and national conscious men were sidelined and their posts were doled out to foreigners. The control of the country's first university was handed over to Sir Ivor Jennings: the head of the Directorate of Education was an Irishman H. W. House. The Vice Chancellor who was completely ignorant of the country's 2500 years of Buddhist culture, made him to quip that Sri Lanka was a cultural desert. Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam were strongly discriminated by the British. Education was entirely based on English medium and the Christian missionaries ran the schools. The motto of the British was 'Buddhism will die out in a few years time'. The mighty heroes who came to the forefront, to boost us with the spirit of independence included Colonel Henry Olcott, Madam Blavatsky and Anagarika Dharmapala. The scholars, Ananda Coomaraswamy and Hindu leader Arumuga Navalar, rich Buddhists Hevawitharanes, Senanayakes, Wijewardenes, Amarasuriyas, Rajapakses, Pedrises and the scholar knight Sir D. B. Jayathilake, all joined the independence movement. From the Sangha, the support was from Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala, Migettuwatte Gunananda, Waskaduwe Subhuthi and Ratmalane Dhammaloka. Priorities After the tragic events in 1915 Muslims, Sinhalese and Tamils were reunited to demand independence. Followed by the restored unity, the Ceylon National Congress was born due to significant efforts of the brothers Ramanathan and Arunachalam, Sir James Peiris, Macan Markars, Caders and Razeek Fareed, the Coreas, Jayawardenes, E. W. Perera and A. E. Goonesinha. Now, all that is history, and the time has come to think about the present and the future. This is the right time which will never come again to realise our priorities. Former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga in her address to the nation at the Independence day celebrations last year emphasised on the massive task of commencement in rebuilding schools, hospitals, roads, power and telecommunications supply which were damaged and destroyed by the unexpected tsunami. While attending to the country's major problem, the new President Mahinda Rajapakse and his government have to look into those pledges by CBK on tsunami tragedy. When we come to our major problem, most of the intellectuals consider that the government is on the right track at the moment, and at the same time they should be capable of keeping it up. It is a good notion that the President being flexible on the issue of a venue for the talks, last Wednesday, LTTE had agreed to hold the talks in Geneva and the process should be streamlined without wasting time. Fruitful The Opposition's support is also a significant factor and their inability or dislike to assist the President will leave a black mark in their political history. To make the political freedom more fruitful, it should be made more meaningful by paving ways for a visible and prevalent peace. That is the single most important challenge we must collectively take on urgently. |
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