BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS

The administration of Sri Lanka has encountered a gigantic task of uniting the people of the country after the ARAGALAYA, the challenge seems to be an arduous task. People in the country are divided based on various ideologies and policy matters of the government. It is natural, that people have a variety of characteristics, but divisions in Sri Lanka have unrecognized strings behind the divisions that may be unknown to many.   Human beings naturally have differences, they are subject to control by many organizations to a greater extent with different purposes which attempt to achieve a variety of aspiring and targets. On the other hand, the reasons for deviations may be biological or social or involve both together. 

When critically observing the history of Sri Lanka it provides sufficient evidence that the people of Sri Lanka were disunited for a long time for a variety of reasons such as to avoid suffering and issues. Many problems were created for a variety of reasons, and under an authoritative rule, the people were united because the law and punishments in the authoritative regimes forced them to be together rather than scattered life, and lawbreakers were subjected to punishments. This means that people in history were united in fear of punishment as well as to avoid individual sufferings from the actions of invaders and influences.  Was such pressured unity was true or false may be difficult to estimate and behavioural decrees of the authoritative regimes forced people to unite. Modern people may not understand the truth about unity in history. According to the scattered behaviour of the nation, the current president of Sri Lanka may need to apply an ascendancy rule to a certain extent, this means Sri Lanka needs an authoritative rule than an extreme democracy. People need to be united for the country while they are engaged in assorted activities. When critically observing the way the current president’s rule during the past few months it proves that the president is willing to apply ascendancy rule than extreme democracy.

The human division of the country was a significant feature of the culture of Sri Lanka since its origin as a separate state, geological evidence indicates that Sri Lanka was a part of India and geologically joined with India for a long time.  When analytically investigating and comparing apprehensiveness for the disunity among people in other countries of the world, Sri Lanka always gives evidence that it had been disunited to achieve various purposes and the disunity had a relationship with many social, cultural, religious and ethnic factors. Modern Sri Lanka has similar types of discrepancies in policy matters, but politicians are reluctant to disclose disparities and always talk about unity. Is unity a magic word when referring to Sri Lanka, it should be determined by academics.

The historical experience further indicates that clergy in Buddhism assisted to unite people despite the division of clergies themselves based on the caste of the monks which was contrary to the philosophy of Buddhism. It can be seen in religious practices associated with the enjoyment of people.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                While it is observing many factors contributed to the division of clergy, it also seems to be various issues related to laities. This means that the laities were not holy and committed many wrong acts and have been willing to maintain disparities based on castes and asset ownership,  areas of residence and many other matters.  

Against the views of historians who have not presented acceptable factors for the division, Sri Lanka was a divided country. For example, many kings recognized a divided country such as Ruhuna, Pihiti and Maya. Despite the past administration, modern politicians are working against the decentralisation of the selected areas of power of the central government and creating a provincial council system.  Uniting people together would be a giant task, the attitudes or the way they are thinking with contrasts have become noticeable divisions of characteristics of Sri Lankan society. Academically, it explains that the way people think is based on the motivation or direction of education, however, the lack of value education in the education system has contributed to disunity since the first inhabitants. It seems that current politicians use religious and ethnic aspects to misguide the thinking of people and their advantages.

Ms Samantha Power, a US policymaker viewed that politicians and bureaucrats are responsible for the current economic downturn as a major reason after independence and politicians want to change the bureaucrats as docile of them. Donor countries must advise the government that politics and bureaucracy must be separated and bureaucrats need to consider the reasonable points presented after consultation with the public.   However, politicians should not give an upper hand in the policymaking and implementation process, the reality in Sri Lanka is giving an upper hand to politicians without consulting voters.    

The other significant factor reflected in history was kings who governed the country knew real reasons for disunity and used an authoritative administration to keep people in a united and silent framework. It was a locked strategy that was successful to a certain extent. Could present Sri Lanka apply the past strategy is burdensome decision-making, modern world associate with human rights and social freedom which are against the authoritative regimes. People of the country need education and promoting qualities to live in a democratic framework sharing values. 

The past administration under various kings and queens gave a strong message to the people that they should maintain silent behaviour scaring them to go forward against authoritative regimes. Capital punishment for agitators was acknowledged by rulers and the people of the country agreed with the decisions of the authoritative regimes.  Robert Knox clearly stated in his book this situation and King Rajasinghe 11 wanted to lock and kill agitators. Therefore, the concept of democracy may regard as giving ladders to monkeys and the weakness in a democratic system that directs the responsibility of various control measures to the government. Neither people nor any other organization is subject to the responsibility of maintaining democratic values in society. This was the bloomer when giving democratic administration and people were not educated on the responsibility of the public. That is why the Aragala people push the blame on the government disregarding the responsibility of the public.   

The values must be respected in a democratic administration and also equally responsible for maintaining such values without harming anyone in society. The education system is not breeding values in society and providing practical support for applying values in society. Education in Sri Lanka has no practical strategy on how to maintain values in the social and economic environment. For example, the ARAGALAYA disregarded the responsibility of people to respect values. In many western countries, kids learn values at schools and such education they maintain in society after school education. Many university students in Sri Lanka are behaving in an irresponsible way harming kids by ragging and inhuman sex slavery activities. I would like to note that in 1973 I observed that university students rejected ragging which contained criminal behaviour among students.   

Policymakers in education do not know about values and how to practically apply value education in the system. If it has been in the education system during the past several decades no ARAGALAYA would be in society since 1971. A person who illegally entered the RUPAVAHINI Corporation was interviewed by a Journalist, Chamuditha Samarawickrama and showed the criminal elements of ARAGALAYA.