Ceylon an Honour, Sri Lanka a Shame
By S. Thambyrajah
[Colombo 3]
Ceylon gained Independence in 1948. At that time it had the highest living standard in Asia next only to the Philippines. Japan was devastated after the second world war. Slums then and even now are known as ‘Koreawa’, as Korea was a very backward country. Ceylon Rs. 3 was the value of a Sterling Pound.
During the second world war, Great Britain obtained Foreign Aid from Ceylon. The Education system and living standards of Ceylon had world wide praise and acceptance, while the law and order situation was the envy of other countries. Students from continents such as Africa, Europe and Asian countries, such as India, Thailand, Burma, China, Nepal, Maldives were attending Ceylon schools. Many Europeon soldiers of the second world war took up teaching appointments for short periods, to recover from the stress and strain of the war before returning to their own country. However, the short periods sometimes extended to as much as 20 years in many cases as these Europeons fell in love with this Island of Paradise also described as the Pearl of the Orient and were reluctant to leave. Even as recently as in 1970 when the Mahaweh Dam construction at Polgolla off Kandy was carried out by a Yugoslavian company, a few Yugoslavian children were studying at Trinity College, Kandy (TCK). The names of foreign students who played rugby football and cricket adorn the roll of Honour of TCK.
Today there a number of projects, especially BoI ones in Sri Lanka, employing many foreign nationals, but how many of their children are in Sri Lanka schools? The standard of former outstanding public schools are being brought down to the level of State schools. There are large numbers of Sri Lankan students finding their way to educational institutions abroad. The medical profession then was a pride to the country. Rule of law and balance of power was greatly respected. A highway robbery, a shooting or a crime was rare and therefore sensational
Our ancestors toiled and lived for the welfare of their children and future, generation. But today the younger generation is being gradually wiped out. Sri Lanka Rs 204 is the value of a Sterling Pound. ‘The process of peace was shattered the day before Armistice by the cold blooded murder of a Human Rights Activist. Abductionists, Arsonists, Assassinators, are at large and war mongers on the prowl.. Several opportunities for peaceful settlement have been lost to the nation Disaster after disaster followed because of arrogance, pride, deceit, hypocrisy, lack of sincerity and commitment. The LTTE and their political allies on one side and the Government and their allies on the other side have to share the blame for bringing Sri Lanka to shame.
[A Letter to the Editor, published in the island.lk]
Sunny said,
December 8, 2006 @ 1:26 am
Good article Mr. S. Thambyrajah! You take a totally unbiased approach to desribe the shame brought to our country by both the Sri Lankan politicians and LTTE terrorists. I am a sinhalese and I totally agree with you on this article. What a shame these bastards have brought to our little island. We can only keep on dreaming of a rich sri lanka as long as these illiterate politicians rule over our land!!!!!!
N said,
December 8, 2006 @ 2:38 am
An interesting article.
But wrong conclusion.
If a solution/cure is to be had then the diagnosis must be correct.
The LTTE is a symptom of the “arrogance, pride, deceit, hypocrisy, lack of sincerity and commitment” on the part of the governments who are infected by and/or have kowtowed to the ‘Sinhala-Buddhist’ extremists.
Blame the virus/germs not the symptoms.
A Sinhalese said,
December 8, 2006 @ 1:07 pm
Mr Thambyrajah, Thank you for the artcle. Yes we Sinhalese agree with you. As for N – well symptoms have to be eradicated with the gems tobe cured fully. There are arrogant High Cast Tamils also wanted their priviledges after British left. So not only so called Sinhala Buddhists, but Minorities with Majotity Complex and Majority with Minority complex has to be blame. Whetever it is we have to save the lives of people and other Sinhala moderates who see the “truth” from both extremist sides if we have to come out of this. It is rather other way round. In the internet discussions or in the power bases in Colombo and Kilinochchi extremists rule the day.
Raj, United States said,
December 9, 2006 @ 8:34 pm
Well written… I think the damage has been done in all aspects for this
country …
What a shame !
HYDRO, COLOMBO said,
December 12, 2006 @ 3:33 am
The thing I’d like to highlight is that the so called independence we received from colonial has no value. We got it independence free without much of a bother, no fighting, no blood shell. Therefore we don’t feel what we received; we started fighting for every thing free. SWRDB find it easy to grab the power lighting fires by sinhala only and pepolization. We got every thing free, so who wants to work for his living. We lost our enthusiasm and productivity. There we started our down fall. Now we fight for every thing. Our JVP & JHU singhala extremists and LTTE terrorists are fighting for their survival, not for tamils and sinhalees. Those can’t survive without war. I THINK WE DESERVED TO BE SHAMED.
Shanta Wickramasinghe , Melbourn, Australia said,
December 14, 2006 @ 8:21 pm
Even though you say “Ceylon an honour” It started with shame by passing infamous Citizenship act in 1948. Presented by D.S Senanayake and backed by Bandaranayake of Sinhala Maha Sabawa and G.G Ponnambalam of Tamil congress, the act robbed citzenship rights from Tamil estate workers. Those were the days seeds of the present day misery were sawn.
The true problem is not with Sinala and Tamil but with the rouge opportunistic Sinhala/Tamil politicians who do any dirty jobs possible and whip up communalism to win & stay in power.
Shanta