Sunday Commentary

Drawing a parallel

Prasad GUNEWARDENE

President Mahinda Rajapaksa	Abraham Lincoln

The nation will endorse that the country has a scoundrel who has buried the possibilities of peace and magnanimity for three decades. And that scoundrel is Velupillai Prabhakaran who leads a ruthless gang of terrorists. In the face of the ruthlessness of that scoundrel, the noble responsibility is to defend the unity and integrity of the Sri Lankan State. And to protect a democracy that is vibrant, where neither race, ethnicity, religion, caste, creed nor colour is allowed to play discriminatory roles.

Our politicos' and the people would recall the following extracts of a letter sent to a classteacher by the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln on behalf of his son. That order was tall but quite encouraging. Abraham Lincoln in that letter stated - `My son will have to learn I know, that all men are not just, all men are not true. But teach him also that for every scoundrel there is a hero, that for every selfish politician, there is a dedicated leader. Teach him to be gentle with gentle people and tough with the tough. Let him have the courage to be impatient. Let him have patience to be brave. Teach him to stand and fight if he thinks he is right. Teach him always to have sublime faith in himself, because then he will always have sublime faith in mankind'- .A careful reading of the charisma and character of Percy Mahendra Rajapaksa, the seventh Executive President and the fifth Head of State in office, stems to mind whether his father, the late Don Alwin Rajapaksa, the patriotic leader from Ruhuna, who passed away exactly one hundred years after Lincoln in 1967, read the contents of Lincoln's letter to the Principal of the school that educated young Mahinda Rajapaksa at that time, to ensure what he wanted to make out of his son, similar to what Abraham Lincoln expected from his son. In President Rajapaksa, we see a leadership determined to face the challenge of terrorism to break with the torn past. He is now on a journey to defeat, if not, defeat completely the demimonde of LTTE murderers.

The late Don Alwin Rajapaksa, known as the shadow of SWRD Bandaranaike in left politics, was known for his high standard of honesty and integrity. Once as a senior parliamentarian, D.A.Rajapaksa's travelling claim for four years, only added up to a modest sum of rupees four hundred which made Sir John Kotelawala quip, `D.A. you are one of the few honourable men in this House'. Sir John also commended him for his bravery when D.A.Rajapaksa fearlessly walked into the middle of two armed groups of fishermen at Kudawella to settle the battle singlehandedly. The rival groups armed to the teeth, sat down to talk peace. Thereafter, they lived in amity.By his actions, President Rajapaksa has proved beyond doubt that he is a dedicated leader, and not a selfish politician. He has braved himself to embark upon a task most impossible, at which many of his predecessors failed from the beginning. At the commencement of his Presidency, he studied Prabhakaran well and judged that the man was not just or true but only a scoundrel who played with the nation. He then began to be tough with that scoundrel. As Abraham Lincoln said the test of fire, has turned President Rajapaksa into a fine steel, to deal with Prabhakaran and the LTTE.

Equality could be assessed as the commanding component of an egalitarian society. Community and competence is the base to build a strong society of people. To achieve all that, the country needs peace and an end to the blight of criminal and terrorist violence. The administration of President Rajapaksa has utilized less than a three-year period of this decade to crush the terrorism of the LTTE that devastated the nation for three decades.We are now at the tail end of the first decade of this century. Though belated, political party leaders of this country should not mix up their priorities, but place the nation before them. At the end of the last decade, the nation stood at crossroads and the lives of the people were at risk. Today, that fearful trend has been reduced drastically with the terrorists being driven into thick jungles. The time is ripe to begin national reconciliation to link all people together, irrespective of race and language. Politics must not be used to disunite the people. That is a responsibility of all political party leaders.

The tragedy of all times is that politicians clamour for early power. The Opposition in this country has never opted to be partners or stakeholders with the government in office at critical times. Nor does it share patriotic sentiments for the sake of the nation. The Government and the Opposition must give up the trend of viewing each other with suspicion at times of national crises. With such an attitude, we could never dream of a transformation for the better. The people, with current victories being registered over the LTTE day by day, yearn to witness a process that is more responsive to the concerns of humanity.

The nation today rides firmly on a direction to defeat a common enemy. Therefore, the people should not be pushed again to experience horror and misadventure as a result of political disunity or errors. Political misadventures have caused immense damage to life and property for three decades. This is no time for repetition when the enemy is on the run. We must now leave proud adventures for education of the next generation. Abraham Lincoln once said - `I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts'.