To Set Out In The Direction Of Redemption
By S. Sivathasan –October 9, 2015
S. Sivathasan
If the Sri Lankan nation is to go forward, the polity needs to take the Tamils into confidence. They have to move together. The Tamils in turn need to act in a manner to inspire hope and reliance among the communities. With neither party taking the initiative, there is not even a glimmer for either. So too for other minorities. This writer has asserted this position consistently since the end of hostilities.
The sheet anchor for unification is economic parity – of opportunity and reward. The whole complement of supportive factors together with capital, training and a contented hinterland of the community will have to obtain for wholesome results to be seen. The spread needs to be equitable.
Lessons to Learn from Germany
Modern Germany provides quite a few lessons for Sri Lanka. The comparison may look odious, but the parallels are very telling. West Germany (WG) and East Germany (EG) were split up in 1945. The compartments were watertight. This arrangement stood till 1989. In the eighties in Sri Lanka, the writ from Colombo did not always reach the extremities in the North East. The situation persisted till 2009. The collapse of the Berlin Wall in October 1989 brought East and West together. In Sri Lanka the Tamil offensive collapsed in May 2009. But have North and South come closer? No. Why?
Germany, described as a geographical expression or a collection of principalities till the Napoleonic wars up to 1812, was welded into a nation in 1971. This nation had 91.5% Germans, 2.4% Turks and five other ethnicities forming 6.1%. In contradistinction, Sri Lanka at independence had 71% majority community and 29% minorities of other ethnicities and different religious persuasions. In a century was there ever an earnest effort to build a national consciousness?
