Thai Pongal as a unifier

THAI Pongal, a major festival of the Tamil community, is in a very vital sense a celebration of life itself and its continuity. This is on account of the fact that on this day the sun and its outpouring, life-giving energy become a strong prayer focus of the celebrants of Thai Pongal.

What enhances this life-related theme of this great feast day is the fact that Thai Pongal also marks the beginning of the harvesting season.

Thai Pongal, therefore, is a vibrant symbol of life itself and all that is associated with it: energy, food and a renewal of the earth's vital resources which sustain the globe's living organisms. It is these aspects of Thai Pongal which render to it a national dimension.

It is an occasion with which the country as a whole could associate itself on account of Thai Pongal's universal thematic significance.

Accordingly, we call on all Sri Lankans to join in the celebration of Thai Pongal and thereby share in the joy and resplendence of this memorable day.

In fact, occasions such as these should be celebrated on a truly national scale on account of the potential they contain for closer national integration.

The communities of this country need to relate to each other in a spirit of unity and brotherhood and there is no better occasion for this than days of great significance for each of our communities.

Therefore, Thai Pongal, besides being a day of joyful celebration, should be treated as a day of national rejoicing and reverential prayer. We would be thereby strengthening the bonds of fraternity and friendship among our communities and laying the basis for enhanced national integration.

The right-thinking of this land would readily agree that national integration is one of our prime needs. For, closer national integration would enable the country to rise as one man to meet the challenges facing it.

The LTTE is trying its level best to divide our communities through its campaign of violence and mayhem. It calculates that brute, animalistic force would enable it to further its sinister design of dividing Sri Lanka.

This demonic campaign of the Tigers should be defeated at any cost and the fostering of enduring brotherhood among our communities and ethnic groups could prove one of the most effective means to it. The Tamil people are part and parcel of our citizenry and are an asset to Sri Lanka.

They are an exemplary people who have contributed abundantly over the decades to the well being of the country in numerous ways. It will be the State's endeavour to make the Tamil community as comfortable as possible within the national fold.

However, there is no commonality between the Tamil people and the LTTE. In complete contrast to the ways in which our Tamil brethren will be treated by the State, the LTTE would be dealt with through the use of tough law and order measures as long as they remain committed to terror and the achievement of a separate state.

Such important distinctions need to always be borne in mind by the public. The communities of this land need to be treated with the highest respect and esteem and they need to be sharply differentiated from lawless elements which are bent on undermining the State, through the deployment of force.

The latter, unlike the former, should be neutralized and brought to justice. However, the peace-loving sections of a community should be induced into identifying with the State very closely.

One way in which the State could achieve this is by celebrating the momentous occasions of each community on a national scale.

The State, in short, should identify itself with all our communities. The fact that today is a public, bank and mercantile holiday proves amply that it is already doing this. However, we need to now seek to strengthen friendship and cooperation at the level of communities.

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