{"id":46657,"date":"2015-08-07T22:11:20","date_gmt":"2015-08-08T04:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=46657"},"modified":"2015-08-07T05:09:36","modified_gmt":"2015-08-07T12:09:36","slug":"forthcoming-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2015\/08\/07\/forthcoming-election\/","title":{"rendered":"FORTHCOMING ELECTION"},"content":{"rendered":"

Janaki Chandraratna\u00a0<\/em>Perth, Western Australia<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

In a few days time Sri Lankans will decide on the future of the country. Most Sri Lankans, 90% or more, would want peace and harmony regardless of their ethnic origins.\u00a0 They aspire to educate their children in a stable environment where there is respect for each other so that there would be a continuity of the nation for many more generations to come.<\/p>\n

This desire is not a \u2018Pie in the Sky\u2019, as comradeship has been intrinsic to Sri Lankan Society throughout our history for many thousands of years. Although the 30-year terrorist war has somewhat dented the peaceful co-existence in the country, there is a strong desire for reconciliation among all communities. For many this reconciliation needs to be within the unitary state as a creation of a state within a state is a luxury we cannot afford in a small country as ours. We therefore have no option but to live together and seek a solution of unity within diversity. This indeed is not a difficult undertaking as we have lived together recognizing ethnic differences, in our major cities like Colombo and Kandy, for many centuries. In fact multicultural living is in vogue in many countries with recent cross border migrations. An example is Australia with approximately 296 ethnic communities living together as one nation with freedom to follow one\u2019s own religious beliefs and cultural values, provided the adherences are in compliance with the rule of law practiced by the majority Anglo-Saxon community. \u00a0In fact the repertoire, is the same in other successful multicultural countries with unitary states, like Canada, US, Malaysia, Singapore etc. There is no dialogue on separatism although the geographical extent of some of these countries can entertain the idea if required.\u00a0 The indigenous communities of these countries are happy with the set up as their aspirations, like ours is to maximize the opportunities for the younger generation. Any dialogue they have with the Govt. is to better their opportunities within the existing framework rather than create ghettos of separatism.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka, however, is one step better than that of the above countries as we have three official languages instead of one. The issue in Sri Lanka is the politicization of the ethnic question. In fact the fundamental issue in the forthcoming election is the ethnic question. We often hear of discrimination against Tamil people but these are not elaborated for any discussion or reparatory action except in motherhood statements that Tamil people are devalued. Obviously, trust becomes an in issue when there is terrorism and in the pre terrorist era, it cannot be denied that Tamil people dominated the professions and were heavily represented in the cream of society. After the war, the Govt. gave preference to North and East infrastructure development, at the expense of the south, as a measure of good will to restore lost opportunities for the northerners.\u00a0 Therefore the claims by Tamil people and the spurious war fought for the detriment of all Sri Lankans lack substantiation.<\/p>\n

Sri Lankans now have the choice of finding a solution to the ethnic question within a unitary system as in other developed democracies of the world or have a divided country on ethnic lines like in Palestine. The manifestos of some main parties present the answer in elaborate terms. The UPFA is upfront in the declaration that a solution will be found within a unitary state. The TNA manifesto is a repetition of LTTE ideology and demands. \u00a0TNA needs to be commended for being upfront on their plans for the North and East. On the other hand the UNP which has negotiated links with TNA as a partner of the new Govt., in case UNP wins the election, is somewhat silent on the stance on the ethnic question except for a high level statement to say that a solution would be found with the Tamil parties.<\/p>\n

Asian Tribune notes on 4 August 2015, that the UN with the concurrence of the Security Council has decided to intervene in the affairs of Sri Lankan North-East region through UNHCR and the UN Department of Political Affairs. UNHCR\u2019s interference is with the permission of the respective govt. This indicates that UNP manifesto is lacking in the negotiated arrangements with the UN. This amounts to misleading the electorate on the UNP stance on the ethnic question. Sri Lankans have the right to have up to date information before they make their choice at the polls. I hope the major parties would seek clarity on this issue from the UNP and or UN sources, on behalf of the electorate so that the voters can take an informed decision at the polls.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Janaki Chandraratna\u00a0Perth, Western Australia In a few days time Sri Lankans will decide on the future of the country. Most Sri Lankans, 90% or more, would want peace and harmony regardless of their ethnic origins.\u00a0 They aspire to educate their children in a stable environment where there is respect for each other so that there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46657\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}