Root cause of problems!
Our country has been under the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British, and of these under the British for 150 years.
The British developed the tea, rubber, coconut, spice industries, the railways, roads etc and Sri Lanka was very prosperous.
At any time of their reign, there was no ethnic conflict, no ill feeling against another citizen and all lived peacefully as one community. The Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Burghers, Malays, all lived as one family, as Sri Lankans.
English being a universal language, it was but right for the British Administration to have the education in English, as the medium of instruction and the mother tongue of the students to be the second language.
Many brought fame to the country in various parts of the world as doctors, engineers, architects, accountants and scientists.
With our country gaining independence and with the philosophies of some of our politicians, the vernacular system of education was introduced and the English language relegated second place. The medium of instruction was in Sinhala and Tamil for the respective ethnic students.
Then came the competition between the two communities in the sports field, concerts, debates, etc resulting in the claim of supremacy and the feeling of hatred against each other.
Earlier it was not so and my best friends were the Samaraweeras, Attapattus, Nazeems and Wazeers, in a peaceful society. Discrimination against a particular community resulted in the 1983 conflict. The rest is history!
In a country with a multi racial community, language, colour, religion play an important role and it is up to the Administrators to instil a nationalistic mind, as One Country, One Citizenry, One United Nation with English as the Common Language for all to live peacefully in tranquillity with the freedom of speech, worship, human rights and make our country where there will be no hatred, and make Sri Lanka a model to the world.
-Kingsley Durairaj, Pannipitiya.
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“Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss”
A person not settling down for long in the same institution, employment or place is referred to as a ‘Rolling Stone’.
The saying “Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss” means that a person moving from place to place in whatever he does, will not be successful.
However, in the context of our country, especially, in the political arena, it looks as if it is those criss-crossing from one political party to another and back – the “Rolling Stones” - who are mostly successful.
Can anyone please correct me if I am wrong.
- Upali S. Jayasekera