|
A Sense of Patriotism &
An Emerging New Culture in Sri Lanka
By Darmitha-Kotte
Listening to the morning "Subharathi" programme on the National
Service of the SLBC this morning, makes one feel proud that at long
last the Sinhala listeners are able to listen to programmes with a nationalistic
flavour to them. While most of the English programmes thrive on aping
foreign aspirations even in the English accents we hear from those who
conduct such programmes which is a far cry from the excellent renditions
we heard from the likes of Jimmy Barouche and Vijaya Corea, the Sinhala
programme mentioned above makes the listener feel a sense of belonging
as well as pride about our country.
Before 2005 during the leaderships of Chandrika Kumaratunga and Ranil
Wickramasinghe their agenda which was blatantly flaunted, was to ridicule
nationalistic sentiments and patriotism and to be cynical towards the
Sinhala Buddhist culture at every possible turn. We have gone through
the period when Ranil Wickramasinghe instructed the Director-Generals
(concurrently) of SLBC & Rupavahini Corporations to wipe out all
sentiments of patriotism and nationalism from this country! That is
how patriotic our UNP leader is. Not too surprised ofcourse, Chandrika
Kumaratunga left no stones unturned when it came to laughing/ criticizing
Sri Lankans who had strong patriotic feelings towards our Sri Lankan
heritage " Sinhala chauvinists/ extremists" was a word we
heard on a daily basis during her time. While our soldiers were supposed
to be fighting LTTE terrorists in the North & East, she was shameless
enough to organise what was called "Sudu Nelum Movement" and
put her "tail wagging puppy dog" Mangala Samaraweera at the
head of this movement to go around the country and promote "peace"
completely demoralizing our soldiers who were out there sacrificing
their comforts! It was also with her blessings that he organised a group
to go all the way to Kataragama and conduct a shameless "pol gahana"(coconut
smashing) event to curse our Maha Sangha. It was during her time that
she instructed the shameless "Dr.Mervyn de Silva" (who considered
it a highly heroic deed good enough to even brag about his achievements)
to physically beat up Bhikku parliamentarians of the JHU within the
August House of the Sri Lankan Parliament. Chandrika Kumaratunga's other
shameless misdeeds and dishonesty at the cost of our country came out
only after she disgracefully was forced to step down.
When it was decided that Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse was coming forward to
contest the Presidential Elections of November 2005 we saw Mr. Lalith
Kothelawela who gave a press conference to a Middle Eastern Media group
that the LTTE was fighting a justified war to gain a homeland, considered
it fit to place page long advertisements in all Sinhala, English and
even Tamil newspapers in the name of SOLO-U which included his photograph
and that of Archbishop Rt.Reverend Oswald Gomis with a message "Christians
Awake!" in which they instilled fear in the minds of the readers
by warning them not to vote for Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse! Today, Mr. Kotelawela
and the Catholic Church are seen smiling and shaking hands with that
very person they wished to prevent from winning the Presidency!
Having said that, many attitudes and things have changed in this country
after November 2005 when Mr. Rajapakse took over the mantle of Executive
President from Chandrika Kumaratunga and subsequently the leadership
of the SLFP.
Change in Environment 2005-2008:
Within the Colombo 7 elitist politicians President Mahinda Rajapakse
was known as " a Godaya" who couldn't speak English properly-this
was their yardstick to judge the capabilities of a person. They all
crossed their fingers in the hope that he would crumble before long
and that they could regain their political supremacy which unfortunately
seems to have fallen by the wayside.
Today we have an Executive President who is proud to wear the National
Dress that his father also wore, he is proud to speak in Sinhala and
keep the listeners spellbound with his eloquent speeches in which he
extols the virtues of patriotism and the Sinhala Buddhist culture &
heritage that is part and parcel of this island called Sri Lanka. He
is proud of the achievements he has gained during a mere 3 years which
others could not achieve in 17years(1977-1994 under UNP), 11 years(1994-2005
under CBK as President with a 2 year stint of Ranil Wickramasinghe as
Prime Minister). Our country has begun to regain the self-esteem which
we had lost completely save for the valiant fight that the late Mr.
Lakshman Kadirgamar as Foreign Minister put, to place Sri Lanka back
on the international map and erase that black mark the UNP left us for
posterity.
Since 2005 Sri Lanka has been able to convince most of the western
governments, our neighbouring countries India & Pakistan that the
current GOSL is determined to eradicate terrorism from this country
and that the exercise is by no means targeting the ordinary Tamil civilian
but the LTTE terrorists. He has also stated in simple clear language,
that "terrorism" whether it is in USA.UK, Europe, Australia,
Iraq, Pakistan, India or Sri Lanka- are all one and the same inhuman,
brutal terrorism wreaking untold misery on the entire country. Within
these 3 years, even the all pompous USA & UK have now begun to tone
down their accusations and support President Rajapakse in his efforts
to free this country and bring back peace and harmony to all citizens.
Since 2005 President Rajapakse has managed to hand over the war front
operations entirely to the Commanders of The Combined Armed Forces without
interference to carry out their duties to free this country of Prabhakaran's
brutality towards his own Tamil community which he professes to represent
as "Sole Representative" and even this myth is crumbling fast
due to the fact that Tamils living in the North are realizing how much
they have suffered due to the LTTE atrocities and how many of their
families have been held to ransom. Other than the unrepentant and blind
TNA who still continue to be the mouthpiece of the LTTE within the Sri
Lankan parliament, most other Tamils living in this country are extremely
happy that before long, terrorism will be wiped out from Sri Lanka!
The morale of our valiant soldiers is at an all time high and they are
moving forward into LTTE areas with caution, discipline and strategic
precision. The once proclaimed " un-winnable war against the LTTE"
proclaimed by the UNP and then Chiefs of the Armed Forces, Chandrika
Kumaratunga have now taken a 360degree turn with the able command of
Sarath Fonseka leading the Armed Forces. The last heroic achievement
is entry into Pooneryn and the withdrawal of the LTTE from their stronghold.
Since 2005 the current GOSL under President Rajapakse has been able
to carry on programmes running parallel with the ongoing terrorist war,
agricultural and economic to boost the local economy even though it
may sometimes seem to be with a few hiccups on the infra-structural
areas. Those living in big cities are talking about the "untold
suffering of the masses" for their own political agendas while
the villagers feel that they have a better future under this government
taking into consideration all the decisions taken to give the local
economic stakeholders a better deal to protect the local economy.
Since 2005 the INGOs, NGOs, Foreign Funding Agencies, Western Governements
that have for so long been dictating how we must run our internal affairs
and country, are beginning to feel uncomfortable in the presence of
President Mahinda Rajapakse because he dares to challenge them and tell
them where to draw the line unlike formerly when Ranil Wickramasinghe
would rush his Ministers all the way to American, British and European
leaders to obtain medication even for a "cough!" The Catholic
Church and Christian Alliances are beginning to understand that all
their unpatriotic and traitorous conspiracies against the GOSL and majority
citizens of Sri Lanka are beginning to fail and their hopes of dividing
this country to appease LTTE will have no future.
Since 2005 we are now hearing of various measures being taken by the
GOSL to instil decent moral standards in the minds of the young in this
country. Many programmes which give a sense of identity and pride by
identifying oneself as a Sri Lankan are being conducted to gradually
make our citizens proud and patriotic. Buddhism and Buddhist programmes
on SLBC have been increased to instil proper religious practises in
the minds of the majority of this country.
Today being the Birthday of President Rajapakse, there is no doubt
that he must be a happy man while going down memory lane and looking
back at four years of achievements. Let us hope that we will all witness
the day when we can celebrate unity, peace and harmony among all communities
with the achievements of our Armed Forces as they move forward to perform
their duty and eliminate terrorism from Sri Lanka!
|
