Monday, 16 April 2012

The Stupid Editorial of the Daily Mirror,

The Editor of the Daily Mirror writes, “ Due to the war, Sri Lankans are hurt and wounded in several ways and some of them are still in camps.  There are others who are hurt and wounded because of injustice and economic factors.”

A war could be seen from different angles. There could be a positive aspect of a war or a negative devastating  aspect of a war. It all depends how one looks at it.  Looking at the “war”  in Sri Lanka there were many physically hurt and wounded.  Those who are still in camps, referred to by the Editor of the Daily Mirror, are a “positive” aspect of it ,  in which a group of terrorists coming from the Tamil Community had  put in danger the lives of their own Tamil people, who were thereafter saved and taken care of as best they could by the Sri Lanka Government Armed Forces composed mostly of Sinhala Buddhists.

Those in camps are the living example of the generosity of the Sinhala Buddhist Soldiers, who risked their lives to rescue the Tamil Civilians from dying as human shields of the terrorists.  The Sinhala Buddhist Soldiers stepped into to save the Tamil Civilians running in disarray seeking the safety among the Sinhala Buddhist Soldiers, who even carried the wounded or the Old Tamil Civilians in their arms, and the children on their shoulders.

In Sri Lanka it was a “war” only to the extent that there was the use of arms, and therefore an armed conflict.  In reality it was a military operation to wipe out the terrorists who were a menace to the people of the country. Those others, the Daily Mirror mentions  as  hurt and wounded  because of  injustice and economic factors, were those who were dragged into it by the terrorists

The Editor of the Daily Mirror says, “We Sri Lankans are an ancient people and we have our traditions, heritage and values. Moreover we have in our land four of the world’s living religions and all our religions have values.”

As he says  the Sri Lankans are an ancient people, with a very long Buddhist tradition, heritage and  values, perhaps complemented by other traditions and other values, or distorted by later traditions, and values. We have in this land which is primarily Sinhala and Buddhist, other religions with their values.  Of the other religions  the Christians and Roman Catholics have their adherents who were originally  Buddhist or Hindu converted through force or offer of other economic or social favours , very few if converted through  conviction.
 
The Editor of the Daily Mirror pontificates, “….Therefore this year at our New Year time we need to leave the war behind and move into a post conflict era of peace with justice for all our people. This demands action.  For instance we as a people must stop celebrating the May 2009 victory where tens of thousands of people were killed or wounded. ”  That makes one question this man the editorialist of the Daily Mirror , “ who the hell he is to tell us what we should do  and should not do ?”

There is every reason to make the 19  of May, 2009 a special  Day to be remembered in Sri Lanka when a nation that suffered under a ruthless terrorism, sacrificing its  valued men and women, and innocent  men, women and children,  ended a  period of terror by the satanic psychopath Prabhakaran and his terrorists. And in that unwanted war Sri Lanka sacrificed tens of thousand of its youth to eliminate terrorism to keep the country free and undivided.

This Editor of the Daily Mirror in a show of his rank stupidity states, “  We also need to take a second look at the wisdom of putting up monuments to remember war heroes. Doing this demands courage from our party politicians and our religious leaders.” 

It is an honourable people  that remembers its heroes, and those who rescued them from disaster. Our soldiers ,  unlike other soldiers in any other armed force in the world, were patriots who fought risking their lives to save the country from the peril of terrorism, and it is a grateful people who will build memorials to remember those who made the supreme sacrifice and others that gave their sight and limbs to save the country and protect its people.

Neither the Editor of the Daily Mirror nor perhaps his pay masters the pro terrorist diaspora would never understand the logic of it  as they, not being  either patriots, or people who could even imagine  the suffering the people of Sri Lanka went through for 30 long years under terrorism.

The Daily Mirror editorial  rants, “…..People of this school of thought believe that this year at New Year time we have the opportune moment to participate in genuine reconciliation so that we in this land who have lived for centuries respecting each other and our culture with our languages and religions will this year begin a new era. May this New Year usher in therefore this dawn of hope for our land recovering from violence and abuse of power. ”   

The reconciliation efforts began from the day the terrorists were eliminated.  But from that day there had been a profusion of prophets of doom to negate, downgrade and criticise  every attempt of reconciliation by the Government as well as by the Sinhala Community to bring the communities together into a united Nation of Sri Lankans. 

There are the MPs of the TNA who demand  to attend to the grievances of the Tamil Community ignoring the grievances of the other Communities.  There are the expatriate Tamils living abroad not moving a finger to help the Tamil people in Sri Lanka but spending millions of Dollars  to carry out anti Sri Lanka propaganda to force the West to intervene to destroy the peace and the  development  projects of Sri Lanka. 

The pro-terrorist media like the Daily mirror has refused to rally round the Government to facilitate its efforts of reconciliation.  The Government and the Armed Forces of Sri Lanka then and now did or do  not discriminate  against one community in favour of another.  The “war” the Sri Lanka Armed Forces fought was against the terrorist and was never against the Tamil people of Sri Lanka though the TNA, Tamil Nadu, the  expatriate Tamils, and the anti Sri Lanka media such as the Daily Mirror try to make it out to be so.

The Daily Mirror editorial  gives publicity to a Movement for Inter Religious Dialogue met to discuss how the essence of all religions could be brought together as a foundation on which to build a new Sri Lanka of sharing and caring, love and forgiveness, equality and social justice.

This is a dangerous move to bring in religions  to build a  new post terrorist Sri Lanka.  The religions such as the Catholicism could be a dividing force rather than a uniting force.  The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka was involved “neck deep” with the Sri Lankan terrorists to make a success of the terrorist ideology of a Tamil homeland.  The Catholic Priest Emmanuel is the leader of the Global Tamil Forum.

It is well known that the Catholic Action in Sri Lanka some years back was all out to destroy the historic Buddhist culture by setting  up  anti Buddhist activities, which was brought to light by the  Bouddha Balavegaya led by late Mr. L.H.Mettananda and other partriotic Buddhists.  We cannot allow this type of  forces to interfere again in Sri Lanka in the guise of  bringing the essence of religions to build a new Sri Lanka. 

If we are to speak  frankly of religions, the Catholics are doubtful patriots as their  real allegiance is to the Church in Rome, Hinduism looks after its own ceremonies and rituals, Islamism is a religion apart trying to conquer the world towards Islamism.  It is only Buddhism which is a philosophy far from being a religion capable of bringing all “beings” together  without discriminating against one religion or another, or one race against another.  

A foundation on which to build a , “…..new Sri Lanka of sharing and caring, love and forgiveness, equality and social justice……”,  cannot be built on any religious “essence”, it has to be built on a true understanding  that  people behest of  their religious beliefs and  cultural background  are equal, are the same,  with same hopes , same grievances , and the same desires to be partners of a united Sri Lanka.  

It has to be built by brining people together in a social context where all are equal.  It could be cultural events, and celebrations even if they are of a religious nature, without mixing the “ religious essence” at such get togethers.

The Daily Mirror continues that, “….. The solution essentially is to cut down on the number of religious holidays and turn them into holy days by having a religious talk with fellowship and tea from 8.00 a.m. to 10 a.m. at state institutions, schools and private companies. Workers and children of all religions and races will take part in this two-hour devotion before starting work at 10.00 a.m…….” 

This  is a deformed idea of reconciliation.   If the “ essential solution” is to cut down on the number of religious holidays”  It is meaningless making them “holy days”.  That is to make the people believe in some thing “holy”, which is not a home grown idea. 

Sri Lanka being  principally a Buddhist Country cannot accept any thing  as “ holy”.  If holidays are to be reduced it is the holidays allocated to other religions that have to be reduced and not that of the Buddhists.

The Editor of the daily Mirror says,  “….as a result it is hoped that people would have a deeper understanding and respect for each other’s religions and take what is good from them while the country will also economically benefit with hundreds of additional productive working hours. The movement for inter religious dialogue unanimously resolved to submit these comprehensive proposals to the President for his consideration and implementation for the common good of all people and the country…..” 

We pray that the President just ignores this proposal of the  “ Movement for Inter Religious Dialogue”, as it smells of a  “cover” to implement a different Agenda.



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