{"id":52073,"date":"2016-02-15T12:48:37","date_gmt":"2016-02-15T19:48:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=52073"},"modified":"2016-02-15T12:48:37","modified_gmt":"2016-02-15T19:48:37","slug":"accolades-for-prez-and-pm-a-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/02\/15\/accolades-for-prez-and-pm-a-response\/","title":{"rendered":"Accolades for prez and PM \u2013 a response"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Rear Admiral Dr. Sarath Weerasekera VSV, RWP, USP <\/em>Courtesy The Island<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

February 14, 2016, 7:48 pm<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>
\nProfessor Carlo Fonseka is an intellectual whom I treat with utmost respect. He has earned a reputation for his sharp-edged, often controversial but genuine criticism without fear or favour, towards even his closest friends. That is why it made me really happy to read his appreciative criticism of my film \u2018Gamani\u2019 a few years ago.
\nRespect towards a person is not a barrier to challenging his views. In such spirit let me state that the contents of his article (with regard to the National Anthem), published in The Island of 10th February 2016 titled “Accolades for President and PM” are very superficial and unpatriotic.<\/p>\n

Prof. Carlo, justifying the singing of the National Anthem in Tamil, states that the Tamils could “understand” the meaning instantly when they sing it in their mother tongue. If so, the Anthem should be sung in \u2018English Also\u2019- if not in Portuguese and Dutch – for the greater understanding of the Burghers in our country.<\/p>\n

\u2018A national anthem is a generally patriotic musical composition that evokes and eulogizes the history, traditions and struggles of its people, recognized either by a nation’s government as the official national song, or by convention through use by the people.\u2019 It is a symbol of patriotism officially proclaimed so and designed and deemed to strengthen a nation\u2019s resolve. The text of a National Anthem and the way it is set to music is more an expression of patriotic fervor than a literary composition. It is noted more for the inspiration it evokes than for its musical quality or for the beauty of the way its words are strung together. Hence when one tries to justify the singing of the National Anthem in Tamil too on the grounds that the Tamils could understand the meaning, that argument does not blend with the true spirit of the anthem. In South Asian culture, certainly in Sinhala culture, the National Anthem in particular is composed with due regard to the auspicious nature of the words, especially the initial sound of the words which are arranged in \u2018musically expressive succession\u2019 all in harmonized form.<\/p>\n

In fact the original song composed by Ananda Samarakoon which began as Namo Namo Matha was changed with official approval to the present Sri Lanka Matha because it was believed that the initial sound \u2018Na\u2019 was not auspicious.<\/p>\n

A National Anthem is a symbol of the identity of a nation. It is a symbol of unity. It depicts the united and unitary character of the state. Twenty nine thousand soldiers were killed and fourteen thousand maimed in the recent process of preserving this country as a “unitary state” by winning the North. Today the North is all Tamil due to ethnic cleansing of the Sinhalese and Muslims, actions perpetrated by the Tamil Terrorists, and getting increasingly endorsed. And today, in the North, in spite of the country being unitary, the National Anthem is sung in Tamil and an MP has with all impunity even refused to hoist the National Flag in Jaffna on the Independence Day! Worse still such conduct is tolerated with asinine and sheepish cowardice and surrender \u2013 all in the name of reconciliation and inclusivity. Is not this situation an insult to our war heroes who made the supreme sacrifice? They protected the lives of all communities from terror and will do so in future if the necessity arises. When one stops paying respect to one\u2019s war heroes while still expecting to be protected by them, one is, to say the least, being a hypocrite.<\/p>\n

Quoting someone Carlo says “patriotism is the last resort of a scoundrel”. But, I must say, like all emotions, patriotism too comes from within. Whether we are rational or not, we are reaping the benefits of the thoughts and deeds of people who are moved by patriotism.<\/p>\n

We are aware that the Indian National Anthem is written in Sanskritised Bengali by Nobel laureate and mystic poet Ravindranath Tagore. It is not even in Hindi, the majority language. Do all the Hindus, Tamils (76 million), Guajarati, Marathi, Punjabis, Muslims et al in India not understand the meaning of it because it is not written in their language? They all sing it in unison. No community, not even the Tamils of Tamil Nadu, demands that it should be translated into their respective languages and no professor would dare to volunteer to shamelessly justify such a demand.<\/strong><\/p>\n

India stipulates that in all schools, the day\u2019s work begins with the singing of the National Anthem. School authorities have been instructed to make adequate provisions in their programmes for popularizing the singing of the anthem and promoting respect for it amongst the students. Mind you, these children belong to all communities in India. That\u2019s why we see, on nationally important days, when the Indian national song is sung, even the Marathi man\u2019s eyes glint with tears. That\u2019s what is called love for the country. The National Anthem is a symbol of national pride which is not supposed to be perverted by the whims and fancies of the local “self proclaimed diplomats”. When it is sung it brings out all the love for one\u2019s country and reminds one of what ” being patriotic ” is all about. It is not about the government or its machinery, but about the social cohesion of the people. When the country needs you the National Anthem will be a reminder of what is at stake and what one\u2019s duty is to one\u2019s country. Can it ever happen in a country with two National Anthems based on ethnicity, is allowed? The frequently used fashionable phrase of the day – “national reconciliation” – becomes a reality only, when all the communities in our country could sing “Sri Lanka Matha” in unison. It will never happen as long as we have leaders with warped selfish political minds and the so called “academics” ever ready to sing “prasasthi gee” or praises to them.<\/p>\n

Prof. Carlo maintains that some people diabolically tried their best to prevent Tamils from singing the National Anthem in their mother tongue and there exists a “primeval fear “that it amounts to the beginning of the end of “territorial integrity”. He also says that that fear “is a “whopping delusion”. But I say that “fear” is not unfounded. Those who think it is a delusion are the ones who look at this sensitive issue superficially and in total isolation or total exclusion of attendant facts.<\/p>\n

What is the background in which this matter has cropped up? The separatist Tiger is slowly raising its ugly head again. The Chief Minister of the North tells the world that Tamil genocide was practised and demands unbridled powers for the Northern Provincial Council. The TNA is fighting hard for federalism with a view to achieving secession. And the authorities today are offering on a platter what the terrorists caused murder and mayhem for. Zeid Hussein, representing the modern day colonial masters of Sri Lanka, demands expeditious reduction of military strength in the North and calls upon the armed forces to face up to the “stain” on their reputation. With the tremendous pressure from the international community to implement the 13th Amendment fully, and considering the current behaviour pattern of our leaders, there is a strong possibility that the North will soon become a federating partner in a Federal State and eventually a separate state. In this state of affairs, allowing the National Anthem to be sung in Tamil on the National Independence Day, without even any request by the ordinary Tamils and also by blatantly violating the Constitution, naturally arouses suspicion amongst patriots in the midst of the already prevalent signs of territorial disintegration. Hence that “fear” is not a \u2018whopping delusion\u2019 as Carlo Fonseka propounds but an issue to be viewed very seriously.<\/p>\n

We must have one country, one flag and one anthem. I am sure every citizen of the country. Endorsing and tolerating National Anthems in the plural, in more than one language, in this case in the indigenous Sinhala, sows discord, not concord. If Carlo Fonseka calls those who object to two anthems in the country “self-proclaimed patriots” who then are the” real “patriots and who are the real “traitors”?<\/p>\n

Rear Admiral Dr. Sarath Weerasekera VSV, RWP, USP<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rear Admiral Dr. Sarath Weerasekera VSV, RWP, USP Courtesy The Island February 14, 2016, 7:48 pm\u00a0 Professor Carlo Fonseka is an intellectual whom I treat with utmost respect. He has earned a reputation for his sharp-edged, often controversial but genuine criticism without fear or favour, towards even his closest friends. That is why it made […]<\/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-52073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52073","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=52073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52073\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}