Sri Lanka Celebrates
Living miles away from my motherland never kept my heart away from its glory and beauty. Being physically away from it is hard. But still I, like many other sri lankans here, stay in touch with it whenever we can however we can. Like many of us I kept my self up to date with the situation in Sri Lanka. especially with the war and the issues thats been rising around it.
On 18th May 2009 we came to know from many news feeds, that the fight against the extremist militant group LTTE, finally has come to an end. The government forces claimed that they have destroyed the whole LTTE. This is obviously one of the highlighted events in Sri Lanka’s history. Especially after spending a my whole life in a “state of war”.
We made Kiribath that night and had a gathering with few of our friends, some were celebrating, and some, for the wrong reason. I hear them say worst things that could come out from a Sri Lankans mouth at this moment. Which made me to think about what we are and we should be celebrating.
Celebration over the military Victory
And I don’t think we shouldn’t be celebrating this situation for the reasons we are thinking of. If we think about it, we have been in this stupid situation for our whole life time. We have been through horror that no other country has been, we have been under constant fear. Death was just too casual for us. Blocked roads literary blocked a brighter future. It is a shame that we have made bad decisions and chose wrong paths in the past. Being a country especially with a Buddhist background and a rich culture we could have acted more rationally and sensibly.
We should recall the reasons why we were in this situation at the first place. Must come to the senses at least now and understand that this was not just an issue with the LTTE or Prabhakaran. Prabhakaran and LTTE is just one face of the devil. We may have destroyed it. But the real devil or the cancer has not been treated yet. People who talk are the people have never walked that talk.
Everybody thinks that they know everything about the war, especially the once who has never been at one. We should regret loses of our fellow brothers and sisters. As for me I even regret loses of young men and women of the LTTE, and the millions of Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims and all Sri Lankans, because we all have been affected by this in some way.
Our country is strong, especially now. Since we have a “king“. It’s good to see after a long time (May be for the first time in our life time) we have gathered together with our Sri Lankan flagsCricket or Susi. But still the I feel an extra weight on my Sri Lankan shirt, as I know that we have a greater responsibility to overcome what we have been through, rise like one and build our nation to be one country to its very meaning, a place where all ethnic groups treat each other fairly and respect each other. We have been in this kind of a situation after the tsunami and we made the whole world to see what we are capable of. And now we have a greater challenge to win. on for a reason other than
We have now reached one of the most critical junctions of our country’s path. The whole country, (at least the majority of Sinhalese are) is on one side having one thought in their minds. And I believe that has a great power. We must use that power to change our mind sets and understand the true meanings of our lives and true meanings of our country’s history. And we shall overcome. We shall change. All our minds were corrupted with WAR, by force or by choice. But now, it’s over. Now is the time for us to hit our breaks and think what we should do now. We are left with hundreds of thousands of displaced innocent Tamils. And may be millions of extremist Tamils really pissed and may do anything to get back us. If we go back to eighties and act like those idiots & maniacs back then another war is not so much of a fiction.
We are blessed to have such a leadership to bring one country back together. Now he is faced with a much
Over half a million refugees needs attention
larger responsibility, to heal a broken nation. The final political solution and the ideology that would define such act will define the future of our country as well. This is the best time to do such. If we make the mistake of putting a plaster on it again we may lose the greatest opportunity of our life time and will face the consequences of it tragically. We all must act wise. Especially the majority Sinhalese.
“WAR, NEVER AGAIN!!!. Celebrate not the war but the end, the peace that it brought us. Celebrate the bravery of our fellow brothers and sisters. Salute the courage and unity of our people. Regret the losses of all beings. Hope for this light to brighten the future and to set our sights on a land with Love, Peace, Respect and Unity among all Sri Lankans.
Furthermore, This should be a Sri Lanka’s Victory and a Sri Lanka’s Celebration. not just Sinhalese. If you have seen or read about such wars and their history and their aftermath, its a fact that people who were caught in cross fires and even the solders will be left with personal, emotional and social trauma. The sights that they have witness will scar them for the rest of their lives. It is very important at this stage to focus on those IDPs and and prepare for a well planed rehabilitation process. This is important for many reasons.
1. Because they are Sri Lankans
2. Because we need to show them that we are still not their enemies.
3. propaganda to wash off any scars madeon us by outside.
4 .Start to change our own mindsets.
For the next couple of days, months and may be years we will face with lots of trust issues. from both sides. Tamils, even the innocents will fear to face any Sinhalese because they are still haunted by the black July.
So we will have to compromise and reach out for those who need. help them out. It is said that the way to mans heart and mind is through the stomach. JVP, Hela-Urumaya and other Extrema fractions, now have a responsibility to show the people of their real ideologies. We should stop making all this a numbers game as well. what done is done.
PA, UNP and all the other political wings have a responsibility to open their forums and start discussions with minor representations (real once) about the “Political Solution”. It must be a democratic one which will define equality and harmony among all races, religions, ethnicitys in side one Nation.
“WAR, Never Again!!!!”
~JayaSri~
by Hirunda
The Deliverance 