Piece for Peace
This article was written by Mr. Sumananada Premasiri of Malaysia and posted on lankaweb.com
August 10, 2011
Dear Sir,
Sri Lanka continues to be haunted by people who are least interested by the immense sufferings experienced by one to two generations of Tamils who do not know another life other than war, conscription to fight government forces, hatred towards the Sinhalese, etc. The fight, prosecution attempts, rhetoric continues at the UN, at the Western government fronts, Human Rights Councils, etc while street wisdom dictates that these people need assistance to restart their lifes, livelihoods, and build bridges between the Sinhalese and Tamils by more exchanges, communication between both communities and overcoming the language barrier through cultural programs, sports, student exchanges, compulsory joint student leadership trainings, etc. The bridges needs to be built fast. Too many young people have sacrificed their lifes and it should not be in vain. The support for investment and climate for peace must be vigorous.
The people in the field are indeed being helped. Amidst the continuing rhetorics, it is indeed a humbling experience for the army to now help rebuild and help the very people they fought against who have undergone rehabiliatation, etc. It is equally humbling and a cognitive dissonance for the ex-combatants to receive assistance from the very people they once were taught to despise, fight against and kill. Please visit this website below, click humanitarian projects and then click the Rebuilding War Torn Lifes- Sri Lanka. Piece, by piece Bhante Wimala assists in this path towards peace in his own way. Little by little these adds on to become so many projects and to think one individual can inspire and pull off so many projects is indeed amazing. That is the power of determination, a Boddhisatva Parami! For the Tamil people, Bhante has rebuilt houses, kovils, provided robes for the Hindu priests, provided cows for single mothers, built wells for drinking water and irrigation, renovated reservoirs, etc. Let the Tamils know that there is so much good being done by so many people. Such news need to reach out to them. Sadly they are more often than not bombarded with the negative news only which continues to build their hatred within until a point they will not even believe if good work is done.
People need to know there is so much good that is being done, why are they only exposed to the rhetorics etc to create, incite hatred, etc? Bad news sells, good news does not? Why do the powers that be continue to drive a wedge between both sides? We humans love war and hatred, and abhor peace? A Tamil could be reborn as a Sinhalese in the next life, so can a Sinhalese be reborn a Tamil in his next life. We could be fighting, killing and and breeding hatred againts our past life fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, husband, wife, etc. That is indeed the wheel of life. Let us not be pawns for others’ hidden agenda.
Mettena Cittena
