EDITORIAL : THE DAILY MIRROR, SRILANKA

National New Year the heart of unity in diversity

While Sri Lanka’s traditional external beauty as a tropical paradise or the Pearl of the Indian Ocean is being gradually restored after almost three decades of a devastating ethnic war we need to focus more today—the eve of the National New Year on the potential for the more important and lasting inner beauty in multi-religious, multi-ethnic and multi-cultural unity in diversity.
The National New Year today is the heart and the highlight of unity in diversity and the people of Sri Lanka need to be conscious of the role they could play in protecting and promoting the beauty of this unity in diversity. It is this multi-religious and multi-ethnic unity which could make Sri Lanka one of the foremost nations in the world.
Educating the people and inspiring them to get involved actively in this noble mission of unity in diversity must essentially be the role and responsibility of enlightened leaders of all major religions. They need to do this because especially during the past three decades most party politicians instead of working sincerely and sacrificially to unite the people have instead resorted to deception or double games for their personal gain or glory. To cover up their hypocrisy and the sanctimonious humbug, most of these party politicians divide the people and divert attention to selfish and self-centred donkey tricks like the battle for preference votes at regular elections. Therefore it is necessary for religious leaders to come forward and foster unity in diversity among the people of all religions and races. We are happy to note that Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the Archbishop of Colombo is taking a major initiative to cooperate with Buddhists and other prelates to build lasting unity with peace and justice in Sri Lanka.
The natural examples for the importance of unity in diversity are plain to see. Take for instance the human body itself. Every part is different and plays a different role. But they act together for the common good of the whole body. The eyes play an important role as do the ears, the mouth, the head, the hands and feet and even the seemingly less important finger nails or toenails. Yet they are all equally important. And it is the diversity that makes for the beauty of the body. The human eyes are important as are the ears. But imagine a situation where the whole body is one big eye or one big ear. It would be a monstrosity. Yet some people seek such uniformity apparently not knowing how absurd or ugly it would be.
Another good example is a flower garden. Its beauty lies in the diversity of the flowers in terms of shapes, sizes and colours. While the rose is a beautiful flower, a garden full of roses and roses only would be like a crown with more thorns than roses. So is the illusion for uniformity.
This country’s Sinhala Buddhist people, being by far the majority have a greater privilege and a greater responsibility to foster the spirit of unity in diversity. Essentially this spirit of unity in diversity grows when people while practising their own religion and acting according to their own culture and tradition, learn the importance of respecting the religious beliefs of others and also the customs and traditions of people of other religions. It is such a spirit of respect that will bring about a National New Year not confined to festivals and feasts but a significant event that will help build a Sri Lanka that becomes a wonder of the world.