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Late Mr. Lakshman Kadirgamar said, JVP
are misrepresented often, they are not against peace at all. They
are for peace.
By Charles Perera
Forgiving is intrinsic to Buddhism. For in Buddhism what is important
is the present , not the past or the future. The story of Angulimala,
the story of a good man who became a murderer was finally forgiven by
the Compassionate Buddha and became a noble Arahat. Having imbibed this
Buddhist value, forgiving is part of the Buddhist culture. If the terrorist
would give up their weapons and become law fearing normal citizens,
the Sinhala people will forget their past and accept them as valued
citizens of Sri Lanka.
The weak can never forgive, forgiveness is an attribute of the strong,
said Mahatma Gandhi. The JVP is now a democratic party and we have to
accept and respect JVP. The members of the JVP, are young and not politically
corrupt . They have much to give, with fresh ideas of development and
enthusiasm to go forward to progress and development. They are neither
racists nor diehard Marxists.
They also do not have a pseudo Sinhala nationalist mind set. They believe
Sri Lanka belongs to Sinhala, Tamil, Muslims and Malays, and those others
who are its citizens. Perhaps they are not diplomatic, because they
are honest and truthful. They could be stubborn. That is perhaps their
strength as well. May be they should have accepted to become part of
the government of the President Mr.M.Rajapakse, without insisting on
the four conditions. May be they had their own reason, and perhaps one
of their mistakes which they perhaps regret.
Late Mr.Lakshman Kadirgamar spoke glowingly of JVP at a press conference
in New York. At an interview for BBC, he said , that, they [the JVP]
will take contrary position where they feel they ought to, because they
are coalition partners and they have their own philosophy. The main
point is that they are for a negotiated political settlement that was
thrashed out long time ago, and added, that they(JVP) are misrepresented
often, they are not against peace at all. They are for peace.
When JVP said that the government should get rid of Norwegians as mediators,
they had reason, because during the height of defensive action against
the terrorists, in Mulative, Norwegian head of SLMM issued statements
against the government and the Sri Lanka Army, and presented a wrong
picture of the government to the EU Commission.
They were correct too on the peace talks with the terrorists, which
is done merely to satisfy the International Community. Nothing useful
will come out with peace negotiations with the Terrorists. It is wishful
thinking, that terrorists problem could be settled through negotiations.
The International Community is using Sri Lanka as a guinea pig to experiment
settlement of terrorism through negotiations. It will take a long time
and many lives before the government and the International Community
will realise that negotiations with terrorists will serve no purpose.
The JVP understood this, because they could think independently without
pressure from the Inter National Community and donor states.
The Late Mr. Lakshman Kadirgmar told at a BBC interview with Ms.Zeinab
Badawi, that Irrespective of what they [the JVP] may say to Reuters
or anybody else, they have told me(Kadirgamar) very clearly that they
have no intention of breaking with the Government at all.
Going by that assurance given to a great son of Sri Lanka, who we love
immensely, we can be sure that the JVP will not let down the government
at a time of necessity, when UNP may sooner or later turn its backs
on the government.
With all the racism that is building up against the Sinhala, with epithets
like supremacists, chauvinists and extremists, the Sinhala people will
not side step from their cultural Buddhist back ground to despise any
one for his ethnic, religious, or caste difference. They had not been
racists before, despite the unfortunate racial riots, nor will they
be in future. The Sinhala people in the South should be applauded for
keeping calm and living together maintaining good relation with Tamils,
Muslims and others, despite all that is going on in the North and East.
That is also because of their Buddhist background in which they believe
in Kamma as a cause of birth. A Sinhala is not necessarily re-born a
Sinhala. He may be born into Tamil or a Muslim family. It is the same
with a Tamil or a Muslim, or any other. Que serra serra- what will be
will be. Therefore, in reality , in war or otherwise, we kill our own
kith and kin !!!
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