|
|
|
| Sunday, 1 January 2006 |
 |
|
 |
Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
Sri Lanka 2005, England 1802 - a comparison by Prof. P. A. de Silva After the Presidential Election the majority of this country expected that the politicians will join in the task of nation building. The winning candidate had addressed the real problem of the country which is poverty and exploitation. However there is an imaginary problem which some people have named as the 'National Problem'. The real problem that face all beings born on this planet is food. In addition to food humans need clothing and shelter. Education and health are needs that have been added later. With advancement of human society the aspirations of man changed. Better food, clothing and housing were required. Good education and a place in society for the educated became higher aspirations. Culture, literature and art grouped people in to specific groups. Our society in 2005 may be considered in the light of the happening in England 200 years back. In a book ' Years of Victory' by Arthur Bryant a parallel is seen. The french First Consul Napoleon has overrun the whole of Europe and bound the other nations by treaties advantageous to him. The Prime Minister of England Addington was a weakling, the King is said to be almost insane due to the pressures on him. They had lost all hold on America. All that England products of goods quality were flooding the markets of the world at very cheap prices. The textile industry including cotton and wool were automated. A single machine was doing 3000 operations automatically. Napoleon But the England society was a paying high price for this. It is said that children of seven years were at work from five in the morning till six in the evening. Girls of ten years were working fully naked and covered with coal dust inside the mines. They were dragging the coal carts while crawling in the small tunnels. All these activities brought ready cash to the owners, who were ready to pay for any war effort. Napoleon was threatening to cross the channel and invade England. In the face of this threat Premier Addington had no guts. He resigned and the King asked Pitt to form a government. Pitt wanted some persons like Fox in his cabinet, but the King was totally opposed. However Fox and several others who were excluded by the King (not Pitt) agreed to help Pitt. The day that Pitt took office Napoleon was crowned the Emperor. The government had no arms to supply the volunteers that enroled to protect the country from a dictator. Uniforms with glittering bands were available in plenty thanks to the textile mills. But instead of guns, majority had only wooden handled pikes. Napoleon had the biggest well trained army in the world. The English army was outnumbered often two to one in many battles. Napoleon was not a terrorist like Pirabaharan, still the English fought him defeated him and finally finished him off. Democracy was saved for the world by a small determined nation. It is now necessary for the democratically elected Government and the Opposition of Sri Lanka in one voice to tell the world, specially the English whether Sri Lanka is to give in to a minor terrorist and remove democracy from Sri Lanka and the entire South East Asia because this was the plan drawn up by Pirabaharan's ancestors. If we do not stand up to a terrorist a book named 'Decades of Defeat' will be published by a historian in the future. |
|
| News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
| Produced by Lake House |
