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My objective is not merely to point out the problems so obvious to any reader of average intelligence, but also to reinforce by so doing that the means of arriving at a solution to ‘ethnic disharmony and distrust’ (whatever may be the country’s take on a solution to ‘terrorism’, which are clearly two different issues at this juncture of the country’s history-in-the-making), can in no means be sought through the aid of arms and violence. If every citizen does not make the conscious decision to grow out of the prejudice in oneself, and start thinking about the good of the country as a whole and not through political party lines or through the myopia of ethnic superiority, even over the next 60 years, we will be a nation independent of foreign powers, but completely imprisoned by enemies of our own making, right here within our own borders. No doubt, the issues are big, the interests are great, the causes are large and no one can underestimate or pacify the sheer depth of pain of the injustices suffered since Independence. Even so, ultimately, no cause, no interest, no issue can be greater than human life, or justify the senseless murder of it.
At the risk of sounding naïve, let me quote Tagore who put it best when he wrote:
‘Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
……Into the heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.’
That day will truly be Independence Day for Sri Lanka, and if my daughter does not live to see that day, I pray my granddaughter does.
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Harini Dias Bandaranayake
Harini Dias Bandaranayake is a social/relief worker and coordinates capacity building for the youth in South Asia to work towards regional peace building and conflict resolution and to advocate and address the various social, political, economic and environmental issues homogenous to South Asia.
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