By Fr Chryso Pieris SJ –

Fr Chryso Pieris SJ

In Jaffna, Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD) completed the circle of waging peace in the country after starting it in the rest of the country and promoting it in the countries of the diaspora. We were waiting for this to happen. National People Power (NPP) is the space created by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) for the Grand Alliance of Good People (GAGP) to take root, blossom and spread its fragrance throughout the country. This is what the good, decent citizens had been waiting for so long.

AKD’s logic, that peace is the foundation, sine qua non, for any just and fraternal development of the country, is incontrovertible, simple, straightforward, heart-warming and full of hope. Nobody with a shred of humanity in him can reject it.

His explanation is based on current and immediate history of the country. Previous generations sowed the seeds of communalism and of eternal suspicion of “The Other”. Our generation gathered the harvest by waging war, destroying tens of thousands of young lives and billions and billions worth of property. His direct question to his audience is: do we want to hand over this country, with these conflicts, antagonism, war-making attitudes and prejudices to the next generation; or do we want to hand over a country with people fraternally united and working together to rebuild the destroyed country in peace?

AKD explains with patience how our so-called national leaders from 1948 onwards used and abused race and religion to attain power and keep it. They divided the people and kept them divided, weakened and blind. So, they can rob the wealth of the people with impunity. They robbed the country to bankruptcy and they still keep robbing it raising the mountain of foreign debt higher and higher. Citizens of the bottom layer of our society are malnourished, starving, and dying but it is not their concern at all. It took 76 years and the Aragalaya 22 for the people to realize that ugly truth and reject it.

The Machiavellian method of “Divide and Rule” was the power grabbing strategy from time immemorial of human civilization. Kautilya’s Artha Shastra is all about divide and rule. In the old Roman Empire, BC, it was the guiding principle of empire building, “Divide et Impera” (Latin). And so, it has always been. The British without any qualms honed it to perfection all over their empire. Remember the smooth operator, John D’Oyly?  The American hegemony carries on the same ugly method in the Middle East and all over the world.

Coming to our current local history, the rulers pitted the Sinhalese against the Tamils and Muslims, Muslims against the Tamils and Sinhalese, Tamils against the rest; caste against caste, language against language, political party against political party, ideology against ideology. And the Ali Baba and the 225 thieves ruled, robbed and raped the nation with impunity. It is Ranjan Ramanayake, an Ali Baba ‘golaya’, who was the whistle-blower and dared to expose the truth. “Malli, they are all friends. They will never catch thieves. They are all thieves.” And he languished in jail.

The darkness is receding. The dawn is breaking. A birth is happening. “Divide and Rule” is dying. “Unite and Reign” is birthing. Listen to the voice of the youth of Sri Lanka. Everywhere, all over this country they are united and with one voice they proudly proclaim they are Sri Lankans and citizens and nothing else. They have no race or religion, they have no political party or ideology, they have no caste or status and they are just sisters and brothers, they are Nirpakshika Sri Lankans and citizens. The age-old political “jilmart” “divide and rule” is dying. A tectonic slide, a paradigm shift is taking place. This is the great gift of Aragalaya 22 to Mother Lanka. Yes, we shall “Unite and Reign”, we shall overcome.

When the country went bankrupt the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister said they were going to send food to the Tamils of Sri Lanka. One of our Tamil youths at the Gotagogama told him; “Mr Chief Minister either send food to Sri Lankans or don’t send at all.” What a beautiful and proud retort to the communalistic Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.

AKD, NPP and the GAGP must realize that they are swimming against the current. Human DNA is such that it naturally forms groups, communities, castes and races. Obviously, it creates “The Other” to strengthen its own identity. That is why we need a Renascence, a new birth. AKD and the NPP are making a superhuman effort to successfully midwife this new birth. They do not give us rubbish like fake dreams of a fully developed country by 2048. Or empty words like Saubaghya which brought bankruptcy, Yahapanalaya which robbed the Central Bank or Dharmishta Samajayak which was the beginning of all the deceit, corruption, thievery and the final downfall of the country.

AKD’s and NPP’s top priority is FOOD. From the first day of their ascendency to power they will get down to the task of feeding the nation. All the people will eat and eat nourishing food. I do not know how they are going to do it. But I am sure they have a plan and they will do it. Next will be health care for all with genuine and guaranteed medicines. This may not happen immediately. It needs time to put back into operation a credible NMRA other institutions and clean up the health sector that Keheliya and his hounds exploited for blood-money. Then it will be education. That will take a longer time. But the work will start immediately. Even the youngest child in the remotest village will have his right to education assured. All the three aforesaid deeply felt needs of the people cannot be put off to another day, to another time when all the conditions are in place etc. They are red-light emergencies. They must be dealt with from Day Zero, IMF and RW can go fly a kite.

These plans of NPP remind me of Jesus’ parable of “The Last Judgement”. It is about the duties of a Nation. “Then the (Christ) King will say to those (nations) on his right. Come you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”

Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and gave you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invited you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?

The King will reply “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” Mathew 25/34-40. This is how the seeds of peace and cooperation are sowed.

Feeding the people; this is religion. Giving all access to safe potable water; this is religion. Welcoming the stranger (The Other); this is religion. Dressing the nation; this is religion. Healing the sick; this is religion. In a country where the poor go to prison and the rich go to hospital, visiting the imprisoned; this is religion. This is according to the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ. And they say NPP and JVP are atheists!