{"id":90801,"date":"2019-06-27T00:45:15","date_gmt":"2019-06-27T06:45:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=90801"},"modified":"2019-06-26T17:07:29","modified_gmt":"2019-06-27T00:07:29","slug":"strong-message-which-should-be-heard-by-all-citizens-of-sri-lanka-true-patriots-should-unite-to-bring-about-a-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/06\/27\/strong-message-which-should-be-heard-by-all-citizens-of-sri-lanka-true-patriots-should-unite-to-bring-about-a-change\/","title":{"rendered":"STRONG MESSAGE WHICH SHOULD BE HEARD BY ALL CITIZENS OF SRI LANKA: TRUE PATRIOTS SHOULD UNITE TO BRING ABOUT A CHANGE"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Building a stronger sense of national identity holds the key to\nachieving social cohesion, true reconciliation and overall development in our\nisland nation. We need to be united behind the Sinhala Buddhist norms and\nvalues that historically underly our nation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Genuine Sri Lankan patriots, should not under any circumstances\nlet our nation\u2019s wholesome Buddhist cultural inheritance be undermined and\neroded away by extremist Muslim religious and cultural trends that are totally\nincompatible with the enviable Buddhist social values that form the basis of\nlife of this historic Sinhala Buddhist island nation of ours. As patriotic\ncitizens of this nation, we are duty-bound to work towards transforming and\nchanging whatever harmful and undesirable trends evident in our motherland. It\nis important that we firmly reinforce Buddhist principles that constitute the\nbasis of the national culture of Sri Lanka. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Muslim communalism and religious extremism are not in-keeping\nwith Buddhist norms and principles.  Attempting to implant norms and\nbehavior patterns of Muslim countries aimed at being exclusive and different to\nthe long established social and cultural norms of our nation has a strong and\nhighly undesirable divisive effect on our society. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buddhist leadership in our country, especially the traditional\ncustodians of our nation\u2019s cultural and values \u2013 our Bhikkhus, are duty-bound\nto prevent attempts by anyone to undermine the long-established Buddhist\nsocio-cultural norms of our nation. They should necessarily be in the forefront\nto confront and contain in a legitimate manner, any extremist and divisive\ntrends on the part of Muslims or any non-indigenous community who have been\naccommodated in our nation. It is clear from events in the recent past, that in\ngeneral, separatism, divisiveness and terrorism appear to dominate the thoughts\nof the minority communities – the Muslims and Tamils who have made Sri Lanka\ntheir home. This attitude inevitably prevents them from developing a sense\nof belonging to the nation and cultivating better relationships with the\nmainstream community. This parochial attitude prevents extremist elements from\nappreciating the worthy principles and values that characterize the Sri Lankan\nnation, and that give this nation its identity as a peace-loving unique nation\nin the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The development path of our country needs to be built from the\ngrassroots, based on its Buddhist cultural foundation. It should involve the\ndevelopment of strong local economies in which producer-consumer links are\nshortened and cultural values are respected and peaceful coexistence in harmony\nwith the environment and all diverse people are assured. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Daya Hewapathirane Building a stronger sense of national identity holds the key to achieving social cohesion, true reconciliation and overall development in our island nation. We need to be united behind the Sinhala Buddhist norms and values that historically underly our nation. Genuine Sri Lankan patriots, should not under any circumstances let our nation\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90801","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\/90801","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=90801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90801\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}