Not Only One! There Are Two Children At Kotadeniyawa: An Open Letter To The PM
Dr. Liyanage Amarakeerthi
Dear Mr. Prime Minister,
I hope you are rather settled in your prime ministerial seat now, and your president and Foreign Minister have handled the Geneva quite well, it seems. So, now you have some respite to read this letter. I have chosen to send this letter this way because I am sure, like all politicians, you have appointed a bunch of supporting staff to make sure that only the letters by powerful lobbies get delivered to your desk and priority lists. I have also chosen write this letter to you because I know that our president is busy introducing his son to some powerful men and women in the world.
Let me cut to the chase. Speaking of ‘chase’, you must have heard that Sri Lankan police stationed at Kotadeniyawa chased down the murderer of Seya Sandamini – that child of five – three years younger than my own daughter. I will refrain from further sensationalizing that murder story. Sinhala press – including the papers belong to your own family – interestingly enough there are only a few papers that are not somehow connected with your family – has sensationalized the story so much that people’s anger at that murder is far greater than their understanding of social conditions that create such tragedies. That anger was primarily directed at the suspects. Media reporting, ideally, should lead to understanding not to anger. As a son of a journalist you know that already. Anger is understandable; but it needs to be followed by the calming effects of an understanding. That understanding must not of a religious kind that teaches us the nature of life or karma but rather it needs to be of a social kind that teaches us of the nature of our society which is primarily under your prime ministerial care.
Seya Sandamini’s death is sad, wrong, tragic and it must not have happened. For that death, however, the entire socio-cultural situation is responsible. That includes even our thoughts and customs of bringing up children. Our thoughts of parenting need to be rethought. Mr. PM, perhaps you know already that Lanka is not very child friendly. Our country is ‘politician friendly.’ It is as simple as that. Your responsibility is to make that country safe again for people, especially children. You must have heard of some rating systems where some cities, townships, neighborhoods are rated as “most child-friendly” and so on. I myself have raised a son in a city that was named several times as “the most child-friendly city” of that country. If you are interested I can tell you more on that.
