And after the glory, what next?

I read this morning that another holiday is to be added to the cards - National Liberation Day.

This is not to detract from the news that these terrorists have finally been militarily defeated, but surely, to commemorate this every year hereafter as a day of Liberation?

My grasp of the Queens English is mediocre at the best, perhaps that's why I associate the term 'Liberation' as to something a nation would use freeing its self from a foreign tyranny or something along those lines, rather than an internal issue with a small group of terrorists. The implication surely at the least is a tacit acceptance that the LTTE held this entire nation, all 65000 sq km of it in their hand after all?

Surely not!

So why I ask are there plans afoot to give the LTTE such recognition? Are we so short of holidays we are to add another, or are we trying for a listing in the Guinness World Records as the ONLY nation in the world to celebrate Independence from a foreign country AND liberation from a group of terrorists?

But these are minor matters, and its what comes after all the celebrations that should be of greater concern to all.

The Tiger Supremo we read about for the last 30yrs maybe dead, about to be killed, captured, perhaps even have already escaped. Its not really relevant for the future.

Relevancy lies rather in what we, what SRI LANKA consisting of the we the people and the GOSL representing us do next.

We have seen more sustained violence in the last three months than in the last 30yrs, violence in which civilians bore the brunt of of that violence, displaced in their 1000's, numbers which should appall everyone of us, and no amount of justification that it is necessary for a final solution make us ignore the suffering.

And from what I hear those Sri Lankans who are not from the majority community are facing even greater discrimination almost as if just as the terrorist are being eliminated we are determined to give cause for more dissatisfaction.

Destroying the LTTE, militarily is not the end, merely an means to wards the end, the end to all of this can only come about when all Sri Lankans, irrespective of ethnicity can walk from corner of this land to another without feeling discriminated for any reason - be it language, culture, name. WE ARE ALL SRI LANKAN's

But I am less that sure this will happen, I am concerned, that we and I mean the Sinhalese majority, drunk with victory will fail to understand the point and rather presume that this is instead a license to enforce more rather than no discrimination.

A political solution, an addressing of the issues of discrimination is a must- along with a few more things like stamping out corruption, reducing the heavy financial burden this government places on its people; more on that perhaps later.

Perhaps I am a pessimist, but I doubt that there really will be a will for a political solution - that requires greater sacrifice than what has been made in the last 3 decades

PS
Perhaps it could be Unity we could celebrate rather than liberation. Cultural differences add to the greater good, the sum of the whole bigger than the individual parts...