Created on 24 March 2015
GOING BEYOND ELECTION PROMISES TO STRENGTHEN NATIONAL RECONCILIATION
The government is being criticized for its slow pace in implementing the 100 day plan of the president’s election manifesto. However, the government is also going beyond the promises of its election manifesto to strengthen the confidence of the Tamil people in its good faith. President Maithripala Sirisena’s decision to permit the national anthem to be sung in the Tamil language taken at a meeting of the National Executive Council, which is composed of political party heads in the government coalition, is a courageous action. The National Peace Council commends the President for his statesmanlike decision. We see it as yet another reconciliatory action of the government that will make the Tamil-speaking people feel a greater sense of belonging to the Sri Lankan polity when they sing the national anthem in a language they understand.
Since 1951 the national anthem was sung in the Tamil language translation of the original Sinhala language version and to the same music. However, in 2010 after the war victory, when the previous government was consolidating the forces of Sinhalese nationalism, they decided to withdraw state sanction to the singing of the Tamil version and insisted that the national anthem should be sung only in the Sinhala language even in the Tamil speaking parts of the country. Former government leaders made, and continue to make, absurd and untrue statements that no national anthem anywhere else in the world is sung in more than one language, and that this will divide the country. Such unenlightened statements when raised to the level of government policy made the Tamil people more alienated from the mainstream of the national polity.
more and source: http://ift.tt/1y2Z90f
GOING BEYOND ELECTION PROMISES TO STRENGTHEN NATIONAL RECONCILIATION
The government is being criticized for its slow pace in implementing the 100 day plan of the president’s election manifesto. However, the government is also going beyond the promises of its election manifesto to strengthen the confidence of the Tamil people in its good faith. President Maithripala Sirisena’s decision to permit the national anthem to be sung in the Tamil language taken at a meeting of the National Executive Council, which is composed of political party heads in the government coalition, is a courageous action. The National Peace Council commends the President for his statesmanlike decision. We see it as yet another reconciliatory action of the government that will make the Tamil-speaking people feel a greater sense of belonging to the Sri Lankan polity when they sing the national anthem in a language they understand.
Since 1951 the national anthem was sung in the Tamil language translation of the original Sinhala language version and to the same music. However, in 2010 after the war victory, when the previous government was consolidating the forces of Sinhalese nationalism, they decided to withdraw state sanction to the singing of the Tamil version and insisted that the national anthem should be sung only in the Sinhala language even in the Tamil speaking parts of the country. Former government leaders made, and continue to make, absurd and untrue statements that no national anthem anywhere else in the world is sung in more than one language, and that this will divide the country. Such unenlightened statements when raised to the level of government policy made the Tamil people more alienated from the mainstream of the national polity.
more and source: http://ift.tt/1y2Z90f
Going beyond election promises to strengthen national reconciliation
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