{"id":61149,"date":"2016-12-07T12:34:19","date_gmt":"2016-12-07T19:34:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=61149"},"modified":"2016-12-07T12:34:39","modified_gmt":"2016-12-07T19:34:39","slug":"conforming-to-national-cultural-norms-and-values-of-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/12\/07\/conforming-to-national-cultural-norms-and-values-of-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"CONFORMING TO NATIONAL CULTURAL NORMS AND VALUES \u00a0 OF SRI LANKA\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr. Daya Hewapathirane<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

MINORITY COMMUNITIES <\/strong><\/p>\n

It is the moral obligation of the non-indigenous minority communities such as the Tamils and Muslims to conform to the norms and values of the Sinhala Nation of Sri Lanka to which they belong today. They may have brought to this nation, various ethnic, cultural and religious baggage in the form of customs, traditions, traits and values from their original nation and homelands where their cultures evolved and consolidated. They are free to maintain these cultural norms as long as they do not conflict with the norms and practices of the Sinhala Nation of which they are now a part. Once the non-indigenous persons become a part of the Sinhala Nation it not only becomes their national obligation, but more importantly, it is to their advantage to become a part of the nation by learning and understanding the norms of the Sinhala nation where they now belong, and where they have been accepted as citizens by the indigenous Sinhala people. When a foreigner or a person not indigenous to a particular country migrates into the country, and decides to make it his home, it is incumbent on that person to learn about the history, norms and traits of the new country and its people. The new immigrant is expected to acknowledge, subscribe to and integrate into the new nation of which he now is a part. The same applies to all descendants of non-indigenous immigrants, who may have been born and raised in the new nation.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

NATIONAL RIGHTS AND INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Indigenous Sinhala nationals or the Sinhala people are the founders of the Sinhala \u00a0Nation, and are entitled to special national rights. Important in this regard is the promotion, protection and preservation of their culture, language, social system and values that characterize their Sinhala Nation. Sinhala should be restored as the sole national and official language of the country.\u00a0 Promotion and preservation of the Sinhala Buddhist culture as the national culture, should receive priority attention. It should be made a mandatory subject in the school curriculum.\u00a0 The national anthem of the country is sung in the Sinhala language. The minority communities are not entitled to such special privileges, because the Sinhala nation was founded by the Sinhala people and is the legitimate home of the Sinhala people. Sinhale is not the home of other cultures and languages. These cultures and languages did not originate or evolve in this land\u00a0 unlike the case with the Sinhala culture and Sinhala language. Therefore, the cultures and languages of minority communities cannot and are not entitled legitimately to be accorded national or official recognition at par with the Sinhala culture and language. However, these communities are free to observe and preserve their cultural activities and their languages within their communities. As far as ordinary human rights are concerned, members of minority settler communities are entitled to the same human rights as those enjoyed by members of the mainstream Sinhala community.<\/p>\n

As a nation with a historic cultural tradition that extends to over 2200 years, where the founding principles have been freedom, compassion, tolerance and accommodation of people of all faiths and ethnicities, it is necessary that the true patriots of Sinhale, the Sinhala nation, get to the forefront, mobilize themselves and\u00a0 take legitimate actions to protect and uphold these wholesome cultural traditions, and thereby reinforce the Sinhala nation\u00a0 – Sinhale.\u00a0 All citizens of the country who subscribe to the Sinhale Nation and respect the cultural norms and values that characterize this nation, will find acceptance as members of the Sinhale nation, irrespective of their ethnic and religious affiliations and differences. The Sinhale Nation incorporates the tremendous cultural wealth of the Sinhala people recognized the world over for its richness and uniqueness. This should be preserved and promoted for posterity. Those who undermine the nation\u2019s cultural heritage, sovereignty and territorial integrity are enemies of the nation and should be confronted and subdued forthwith, for the welfare of the nation.<\/p>\n

STRENGTHEN AND REVITALIZE THE SINHALA NATION<\/strong><\/p>\n

For the patriotic and caring nationals of this island, especially those of the Sinhala community, irrespective of their religious affiliations, there is one moral law that stands above everything else, and that is to do everything possible to strengthen their Sinhala Nation and to curb the efforts of anti-national elements both local and foreign, engaged\u00a0 in violating and undermining Sinhala Buddhist national interests. It was with such an attitude and approach that enabled our valiant Sinhala soldiers to wipe out anti-national, separatist Tamil terrorists who were hell-bent on destroying the integrity of this nation.<\/p>\n

The present generation of Sinhala nationals has a moral obligation to protect, preserve and promote the greatest of their inheritance, their unique nation, for the survival of their Buddhist cultural heritage and for the benefit of future generations. Concerned Sinhala nationals will under no circumstances allow the sovereignty, the distinct territorial integrity and the all-pervasive Sinhala Buddhist cultural character of the island be subject to any form of disarray or disintegration. They will not permit any force, internal or external, ethnic or religious, to subjugate or undermine the integrity of the Sinhala Buddhist culture of this island nation. .<\/p>\n

Sinhala history is replete with valor and courage in battles against overly superior forces. The struggle against extremism and the looming division of this Sinhala island nation of ours demands our full national strength. Let all Sinhala nationalists rise to the occasion, forgetting for a moment their \u2018other\u2019 differences, and swear allegiance to the unity of this country by giving unswerving support to those commendable organizations that have emerged in recent times to save the nation from undesirable elements. The renewed loyalty that is fast emerging among the Sinhala nationals, particularly among the contemporary youth, is most encouraging.<\/p>\n

VIOLATION OF SOVEREIGNTY AND NATIONAL INTEGRITY\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Sinhala nationals should not tolerate any individual or community who, whilst living in the Sinhala Nation and considering it their home, deliberately misusing such a privilege by scheming to form ethnic or religious enclaves within the country or adopting extreme means or contributing to devious actions to dismantle the cultural integrity of the nation in violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of this only nation of the Sinhala people. This includes both direct and indirect efforts on the part of these extremist elements, with ridiculously unfounded claims, to carve out ethnic and religious enclaves within the country, merely because some of them had lived in specific places for extended periods of time.<\/p>\n

Dr. Daya Hewapathirane<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Daya Hewapathirane MINORITY COMMUNITIES It is the moral obligation of the non-indigenous minority communities such as the Tamils and Muslims to conform to the norms and values of the Sinhala Nation of Sri Lanka to which they belong today. They may have brought to this nation, various ethnic, cultural and religious baggage in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dr-daya-hewapathirane"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61149","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=61149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61149\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}