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The old year is passing and the new is yet to be - EDITORIAL
As we approach the end of 2022, it is good to look back, not only at 2022 but to go further back in our history, and learn from mistakes of the past to ensure non-repetition in 2023. Ours is a country where if one were to press a stick into the soil, it would take root and bloom into something beautiful and/or useful.
But here we are, at the end of 2022 with 30% of our children facing malnutrition. Our health system -if we are to believe such organisations as the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA)- is on the brink of collapse.
Basic drugs needed for heart patients are said to be in short supply and drugs for the treatment of cancer have run out. Worse, we have defaulted payment on our foreign debt and are considered a credit risk internationally.
So how did we get here? A country once described as a land flowing with milk and honey? Are we capable of getting out of the dreadful mess we have boxed ourselves into?
For thirty long years, we waged a war on a section of our countrymen/women. Hundreds of thousands of our citizens died at the hands of their fellow citizens in the name of language, race and religion.
This did not happen after Independence. As far back as 1915, we had blood-letting between members of the Muslim community and members of the Buddhist faith. Over a hundred died in the clashes, businesses were damaged and even political leaders were imprisoned by our colonial ruler-the British.
Shortly after independence, we disenfranchised a section of our population -the estate workers. In the fifties, race riots broke out between the Sinhala and Tamil communities. Since 1983 thousands of Sinhalese, Muslims, Tamils and other races died -a fallout of a nearly three-decade-long ethnic war, whipped up by opportunistic political leaders.
When the war drums were silenced and a semblance of peace returned to the land with the crushing of the LTTE insurgency in May of 2009, one and all believed the country was on the path to economic and political stability. But that hope was short-lived. Particular politicians used members of the clergy to inflame religious ill feelings. Soon mobs, including and at times led by members of the clergy attacked members of other faiths dividing our people once again and leaving economic chaos in its wake. More recently we -all Lanka- were shocked and shamed when a religious leader, perhaps unintentionally referred to a particular section of the Sri Lankan community in derogatory terms.
With our country’s economy in tatters, with political leaders forced to roam the world -begging bowl in hand- it is time ‘we the people’, shed our trappings of race, religion and ethnicity first and put the needs of our people and country first. Lanka -the land we love and cherish- is what we all have in common, irrespective of race, language and ethnicity. Our population of 22 million. often speaks with pride of civilisation thousands of years old.
Yet, the sad fact of the matter is, we have not been able to shed our shallow prejudices of race, religion and ethnicity over the love of country.
Our neighbour India has a population of over 1,393,000,000. It has 22 separate official languages, it is home to a total of 121 languages and 270 mother tongues. It is also home to one of the world’s oldest languages, Sanskrit.
According to the 2011 census, 79.8% of the population of India practices Hinduism, 14.2% adheres to Islam, 2.3% adheres to Christianity, 1.7% adheres to Sikhism, 0.7% adheres to Buddhism and 0.4% adheres to Jainism.
Yet they refer to themselves as Indians with pride. Not Hindu, Tamil or Punjabi. As the year 2022 draws to an end, it is time for us to shed old prejudices even as we await the dawn of the New year. It is time to realise we have failed to light the path of peace between peoples, but have unfortunately paved the way for suspicion and distrust. Fear does not brighten the prospect of peace and without peace, there can be no prosperity.
According to data released by the Department of Immigration around 200,000 Lankans left the country this year alone. The state of our economy offers nothing to young people as hunger, fear and suspicion stalk the land. It is time we demand religious and political leaders stress our commonalities rather than rouse ethnic and religious differences for personal gratification. If they do not, let us cast them out at the time of husting or via peer pressure.
May 2023 help us turn the tide against fear and prejudice, unite us as Lankans and bring peace to our people.
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