With the Sri Lankan political parties and the citizens focusing mainly on the Presidential Elections to be held later this year, the country has an urgent need not just for smart political leaders but a statesman who will work for the next generation and not for the next election. Sri Lanka has produced few if any such statesmen who are in the calibre of Nelson Mandela. If we could mention a few who come near that status it could include our first Prime Minister D. S. Senanayake and his son Dudley Senanayake who became Prime Minister on three occasions. 

Most of the others have obviously been playing party politics or for personal gain and glory and that attitude plunged Sri Lanka to its worst ever economic crisis; which is being tackled by President Ranil Wickremesinghe and the SLPP Government with help from the International Monetary Fund and other world bodies. 

Next Thursday (July 18), the United Nations (UN) will celebrate the day dedicated to one of the worlds greatest statesman of modern times–South Africa’s former President Nelson Mandela who suffered for more than three decades to free his country and his people from the curse and calamity of Apartheid or white supremacy. 

In a statement, the UN invites people to mark Nelson Mandela International Day by making a difference in their respective communities. The world body urges people to take action and inspire change as Mandela said: It is in your hands to make the world a better place.

The UN also acknowledged Mandela’s 67 years in service of humanity as a human rights lawyer, a prisoner of conscience, an international peacemaker and the first democratically elected president of a free South Africa.

In November 2009, the UN General Assembly declared July 18 as ‘Nelson Mandela International Day’ in recognition of the former South African President’s contribution to the culture of peace and freedom. According to the UN, Resolution A/RES/64/13 recognises Mandela’s values and his dedication to the service of humanity in: conflict resolution; race relations; promotion and protection of human rights; reconciliation; gender equality and the rights of children and other vulnerable groups; the fight against poverty; the promotion of social justice.

In December 2015, the UN General Assembly decided to extend the scope of Nelson Mandela International Day to also be utilised in order to promote humane conditions of imprisonment, raise awareness about prisoners being a continuous part of society, and to value the work of prison staff as a social service of particular importance. The UN stated that General Assembly resolution (A/RES/70/175) not only adopted the revised United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the treatment of prisoners, but also approved that they should be known as the “Nelson Mandela Rules” in order to honour the legacy of the late President of South Africa, who spent 27 years in prison in the course of his struggle.

On Nelson Mandela day, as Sri Lankans, we could remember and act on the famous poem written by American novelist and essayist Josiah Gilbert Holland. It goes like this: 

God, give us men!

A time like this demands

Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands;

Men (or women) whom the lust of office does not kill;

Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy;

Men who possess opinions and a will;

Men who have honour; men who will not lie;

Men who can stand before a demagogue

And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking!

Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog

In public duty, and in private thinking;

For while the rabble, with their thumb-worn creeds,

Their large professions and their little deeds,

Mingle in selfish strife, lo! Freedom weeps,

Wrong rules the land and waiting Justice sleeps.