Unity among Diversity

By  J.Yogaraj  – Senior Journalist  & Announcer ( S L B C ),

People talk about unity in public places, but some do not realize and understand the real meaning of unity.Unity simply means think in one direction or support one’s thought and rally around him.

It also denotes the practices and work as one unit. You need patience and tolerance to work a s a unit. Unity becomes more strong when diversified communities and groups get together.

Unity

You may to the state of being in full agreement or a way of combining the parts in a work of art or literature so that they seem to belong together

Diversity

The state or fact of being diverse; difference; unlikeness: diversity of opinion.

It also means variety or multi-formity. You may also refer to a point of difference.

In Srilanka , the main talking point was tamil-sinhala unity. With the end of the war in 2009 , the separate state concept also vanished from the tamil’s minds.Tamils in Srilanka have shown willingness to live with Sinhalese in peaceful atmosphere.Some elements in Tamil Diapsora still trying to revive their different concepts , but many feel those have become obsolete and redundant.

But Chief Minister of Northern province C V Vigneswaran is trying to create a rift by making various statements in Chennai-INDIA. These statements are not well represented by TNA. These are CV’s own comments. But CV did a good thing that he defended the verdict given by Sri Lankan court to 5 fishermen.

The Chief Minister of the Northern Province C. V. Vigneswaran, when he recently visited Chennai, said he had explained this to the families of the five Tamil fishermen awarded the sentence by a Colombo court recently.

In what could be a major relief to the five Tamil fishermen who have been awarded death sentence by the Sri Lankan High Court on drug trafficking charges, the country’s Northern Province Chief Minister C. V. Vigneswaran said his country had not implemented death sentence since 1976.

Mr. Vigneswaran, who was a former Judge of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka, said in Chennai that even though death sentence was still part of the law it had not been implemented since 1976.

He said the families of the five fishermen also met him in Chennai and had sought his intervention to cancel the death penalty. “I explained to them that death sentence was not strictly implemented in Sri Lanka”, he added.

On the other side , TNA leader R Sambandan has responded positively to Minister Basil’s request to support the government inn future election. Mr Sambandan said, they consider the call very seriously and discuss this matter in their executive group meeting and will respond with conditions.

Sri Lanka is a multi-ethnic country. Sri Lanka has an history of maintaining a peaceful atmosphere among all communities while safeguarding their identities to a certain extent. Country has shown more flexibility during the last 10 years.

But on the Muslims side, another situation is being developed. Recent media reports say Muslim congress is looking for a separate administrative unit in Ampara District. This is against the constitution and promotes separatism. When tamils give up their separatism concept, muslims take up that as their primary goal. Muslims should learn from history or at least they should learn from tamils. Modertate muslims will never support for separatism, but some groups from the muslim community try to show their identity through this separatism concept. This will definitely bring drastic repercussions. Muslims should act fast and slowly eliminate this mentality from their community before it is too late.

Opposition MP wijeyadasa lambasted Sri Lanka Muslim Congress for demanding a separate unit in Ampara

The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) demand for a Muslim-majority administrative unit in the Eastern Province was very much similar to the LTTE’s demand for a separate state in the Northern and Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka. The SLMC is a constituent of the SLFP-led UPFA though it contested the last parliamentary polls on the UNP ticket.This might also revive the separatism perception among the ordinary people. Further it will also promote , currently silenced LTTE separatism concept as well. Therefore, it is important that all peace loving people in this country to get together and eliminate this menace from the root.

“This is a dangerous start in politics. All of us must oppose the SLMC’s move. The government should act fast against such projects,” UNP Colombo District MP Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe said.The MP opening the debate on the expenditure heads of the Ministry of Defence Urban Development during the committee stage of Budget 2015, said the majority of Sinhala politicians represented the interest of all Sri Lankans, whereas some smaller political parties pursued agendas inimical to the national interest.Even the moderate tamils have realized the mistake and Mr Sambandan has told the supreme court that TNA will never ever promote separatism. TNA is now ready for an internal solution for the ethnic issue.

MP Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe pointed out that SLMC’s call for a separate administrative unit was equal to the separatist demands by Tamil leaders like Amirthalingam and Chelvanayagam. “Their actions provoked the Tamil youth taking up arms against the government of the day. Referring to turmoil caused by the LTTE and other terrorist groups, the UNP parliamentarian alleged that the SLMC was trying to do the same. The MP regretted Muslim leaders making an attempt to instigate their youth to campaign for a separate administrative unit for the Eastern Province.

This is a serious situation. Muslims to be blamed for the problems cropped up against them in this country. Moderate muslims should think twice and lead the other muslims towards a peaceful path. There is a big responsibility vested in muslim religious leaders that not to provoke the ordinary muslis under any circumstances. They also should urge the muslim community and muslim politicians not to fall prey to external elemants or play politics under the name of religion.If they realize this , it will be good for the community otherwise it will be a curse and disaster.

Common Candidate & Executive Presidency

This has become the talking point in common circle.

But if think deep , there is nothing in it. Those who are interested in Common Candidate ,have not named anyone for Common Candidate . Who is a common candidate ? general definition states that a candidate who addresses the common interests of all communities. A person who is also represents all communities and justifies his presence through various means in the past. Thos e who are interested in common candidate should blame themselves , because they are the people who made this concept popular among the public.The main joke is that without naming a common candidate , we have a media spokesman for the common candidate. He is none other than Dr Nimal Ranjith Devasiri. This has made the common candidate concept a joke.On the other side the planned MOU did not happen among the major opposition members because of disagreement on certain points. Especially JHU and TNA stated that they will not come into agreement on this issue , until the name of the common candidate is revealed. But the opposition members do not have a solution to this. The other major issue is that the Opposition members include Chandrika Kumarathunga who was a former president enjoyed and misused the executive presidency, now turning around to show her dissent on Executive Presidency . Will the people accept this ?

On the other side Ranil Wickramasinghe also almost enjoyed powers equivalent to executive presidency during 2001-2003 also opposing the executive presidency. But President Mahinda Rajapaksa raised a question from opposition that what is the wrong thing he did using executive presidency. Opposition parties are still finding it difficult to answer to this question. Another simple question raised by the public is that “Why should we about common candidate?” is it really necessary now?

Basically common candidate is a myth where some bankrupt politicians are trying to create and show that there is a strong opposition force to face MR. But in actual fact, there is no such person. Even the opposition try to show a common candidate who represents the whole community has become another joke. Some of the parties which get together to form a common candidate do not have a proper address or leader or representation at provincial / Local Bodies / Village administration bodies. This is ridiculous. How can you expect a moderate citizen vote for so called “common candidate” where he/she does not represent 20% of the population? Main thind is that we still do not know who this common candidate is. Therefore, Opposition parties should give a serious thought to this. They should field a strong component to face MR. But having said that, if they do not find such character, it is much better to surrender rather than facing a humiliating defeat at the hands of MR.

J.Yogaraj – Senior Journalist