By Dr.T.C.Rajaratnam
President Rajapakse’s address to the 62nd UN General Assemby was a fearless submission of a World Leader. Terrorism should be wiped out completely. President Rajapakse with his legal acumen, skills of political analysis cleared with one sweep the allegations against Sri Lanka by carefully and analytically making a submission about the intricacies of Human Rights and the complexities of Terrorism.Dr.T.C.RajaratnamDr.T.C.Rajaratnam
Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle Chief Government Whip of Parliament has been the strongest supporter of President Mahinda Rajapakse both in and out of Parliament. Minister Fernandopulle remains a shield and defender of Present Rajapakse with his armory of skilled advocacy and eloquent oration.
Religion is in harmony with humanity. It has great potential for the common good. A splendid achievement of science and technology had turned malign. Science has become identified with death and destruction.
The ability to commiserate comes from a mind that cannot bear to see the suffering of others. For example, when someone suddenly sees a child about to fall into a well, they all have a feeling of alarm and distress. They will feel this, not as a ground on which to gain friendship with the child's parents, nor to seek the praise of their neighbors and friends, nor because they would dislike the reputation of being unmoved by such a thing. They rescue the child because of an innate feeling that resides deep in the human heart and is felt as empathy. From this case, we see that a person without the feeling of commiseration is not a human; a person without the feeling of shame and dike; without the feeling of deference and accommodation; and without the feeling of right and wrong is not a human.
The feeling of commiseration is the beginning of humanity; the feeling of shame and dislike is the beginning righteousness; the feeling of deference and accommodation is the beginning of propriety; and the feeling of right and wrong is the beginning of wisdom. Humans have these Four Beginnings just as they have their four limbs. Having these Four Beginnings, but saying that they cannot develop them is to destroy themselves. When they say that their ruler cannot develop them, they are destroying their ruler. If anyone with these Four Beginnings in themselves can give them the fullest extension and development, the result will be like fire beginning to burn or a spring beginning to shoot forth. When they are fully developed, they will be sufficient to protect all within the four seas. If they are not developed, they will not be sufficient even to serve one's parents. This ability to commiserate is what separates human beings from most other creatures. It is what gives us a conscience and is the source of the moral truth of the golden rule. Those who prey on other humans are not truly human for they have no empathy and can therefore be cruel and heartless in the things they say and do to others.
There are millions of children all over this nation who are left out and left back …. who will never become doctors or lawyers or teachers or police officers or much else …. who cannot even imagine a profession whose latent idealism will never be freed to grow into compassion and action ….. because there was no teacher, no friend, no one like you, who by action or example, quietly inspired them; showed them how to look up, not down; helped them to see their stake in their own and their neighbors dreams; touched a life in some private, but powerful way, and gave someone else a reason to hope.
The only way to prevent it is to abolish war altogether. War must cease to be an admissible social institution. We must learn to resolve our disputes by means other than military confrontation. Any international treaty entails some surrender of national sovereignty, and is generally unpopular. The abolition of war will demand distasteful limitations of national sovereignty.
Whatever system of governance is eventually adopted, it is important that it carries the people with it. We need to convey the message that safeguarding our common property, humankind, will require developing in each of us a new loyalty: a loyalty to mankind a loyalty to the country and a loyalty to the President-The Leader of the country.
Each of us has loyalties to several groups - from the smallest, the family, to the largest, at present, the nation. Many of these groups provide protection for their members. The entire country needs protection. We have to extend our loyalty to the whole of the human race.
We must appeal, as human beings, to human beings: Remember your humanity and forget the rest. If you can do so, the way lies open for a new paradise; if you cannot, there lies before you the risk of destruction.
The quest for a war-free country has a basic purpose: survival. But if in the process we learn how to achieve it by love rather than by fear, by kindness rather than by compulsion; if in the process we learn to combine the essential with the enjoyable, the expedient with the benevolent, the practical with the beautiful, this will be an extra incentive to embark on this great task.
Gratitude is a manifestation of conscience. Gratitude is what defines the humanity of the human being. We must help the children in the world, for the homeless, for the victims of injustice, the victims of destiny and society.
In a way, to be indifferent to that suffering is what makes the human being inhuman. Indifference, after all, is more dangerous than anger and hatred. Anger can at times be creative. One writes a great poem, a great symphony, one does something special for the sake of humanity because one is angry at the injustice that one witnesses. But indifference is never creative. Even hatred at times may elicit a response. You fight it. You denounce it. You disarm it. Indifference elicits no response. Indifference is not a response.
Indifference is not a beginning, it is an end. And, therefore, indifference is always the friend of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor -- never his victim, whose pain is magnified when he or she feels forgotten. The political prisoner in his cell, the hungry children, the homeless refugees -- not to respond to their plight, not to relieve their solitude by offering them a spark of hope is to exile them from human memory. And in denying their humanity we betray our own.
Does it mean that we have learnt from the past? Does it mean that society has changed? Has the human being become less indifferent and more human? Have we really learnt from our experiences? Are we less insensitive to the plight of victims of ethnic cleansing and other forms of injustices in places near and far?
What about the children? Oh, we see them on television, we read about them in the papers, and we do so with a broken heart. Their fate is always the most tragic, inevitably. When adults wage war, children perish. We see their faces, their eyes. Do we hear their pleas? Do we feel their pain, their agony? Every minute one of them dies of disease, violence, famine. Some of them -- so many of them -- could be saved.
A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance. It is fitting that at this solemn moment we take the pledge of dedication to the service of Sri Lanka and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity.
We have hard work ahead. There is no resting for any one of us till we redeem our pledge in full, till we make all the people of Sri Lanka what destiny intended them to be. We are citizens of a great country on the verge of bold advance, and we have to live up to that high standard. All of us, to whatever religion we may belong, are equally the children of Sri Lanka with equal rights, privileges and obligations. We cannot encourage communalism or narrow-mindedness, for no nation can be great whose people are narrow in thought or in action.
Dr.T.C.Rajaratnam is the Co-Ordinating Secretary to the Chief Government Whip of Parliament.
Asian Tribune
President Rajapakse’s address to the 62nd UN General Assemby was a fearless submission of a World Leader. Terrorism should be wiped out completely. President Rajapakse with his legal acumen, skills of political analysis cleared with one sweep the allegations against Sri Lanka by carefully and analytically making a submission about the intricacies of Human Rights and the complexities of Terrorism.Dr.T.C.RajaratnamDr.T.C.Rajaratnam
Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle Chief Government Whip of Parliament has been the strongest supporter of President Mahinda Rajapakse both in and out of Parliament. Minister Fernandopulle remains a shield and defender of Present Rajapakse with his armory of skilled advocacy and eloquent oration.
Religion is in harmony with humanity. It has great potential for the common good. A splendid achievement of science and technology had turned malign. Science has become identified with death and destruction.
The ability to commiserate comes from a mind that cannot bear to see the suffering of others. For example, when someone suddenly sees a child about to fall into a well, they all have a feeling of alarm and distress. They will feel this, not as a ground on which to gain friendship with the child's parents, nor to seek the praise of their neighbors and friends, nor because they would dislike the reputation of being unmoved by such a thing. They rescue the child because of an innate feeling that resides deep in the human heart and is felt as empathy. From this case, we see that a person without the feeling of commiseration is not a human; a person without the feeling of shame and dike; without the feeling of deference and accommodation; and without the feeling of right and wrong is not a human.
The feeling of commiseration is the beginning of humanity; the feeling of shame and dislike is the beginning righteousness; the feeling of deference and accommodation is the beginning of propriety; and the feeling of right and wrong is the beginning of wisdom. Humans have these Four Beginnings just as they have their four limbs. Having these Four Beginnings, but saying that they cannot develop them is to destroy themselves. When they say that their ruler cannot develop them, they are destroying their ruler. If anyone with these Four Beginnings in themselves can give them the fullest extension and development, the result will be like fire beginning to burn or a spring beginning to shoot forth. When they are fully developed, they will be sufficient to protect all within the four seas. If they are not developed, they will not be sufficient even to serve one's parents. This ability to commiserate is what separates human beings from most other creatures. It is what gives us a conscience and is the source of the moral truth of the golden rule. Those who prey on other humans are not truly human for they have no empathy and can therefore be cruel and heartless in the things they say and do to others.
There are millions of children all over this nation who are left out and left back …. who will never become doctors or lawyers or teachers or police officers or much else …. who cannot even imagine a profession whose latent idealism will never be freed to grow into compassion and action ….. because there was no teacher, no friend, no one like you, who by action or example, quietly inspired them; showed them how to look up, not down; helped them to see their stake in their own and their neighbors dreams; touched a life in some private, but powerful way, and gave someone else a reason to hope.
The only way to prevent it is to abolish war altogether. War must cease to be an admissible social institution. We must learn to resolve our disputes by means other than military confrontation. Any international treaty entails some surrender of national sovereignty, and is generally unpopular. The abolition of war will demand distasteful limitations of national sovereignty.
Whatever system of governance is eventually adopted, it is important that it carries the people with it. We need to convey the message that safeguarding our common property, humankind, will require developing in each of us a new loyalty: a loyalty to mankind a loyalty to the country and a loyalty to the President-The Leader of the country.
Each of us has loyalties to several groups - from the smallest, the family, to the largest, at present, the nation. Many of these groups provide protection for their members. The entire country needs protection. We have to extend our loyalty to the whole of the human race.
We must appeal, as human beings, to human beings: Remember your humanity and forget the rest. If you can do so, the way lies open for a new paradise; if you cannot, there lies before you the risk of destruction.
The quest for a war-free country has a basic purpose: survival. But if in the process we learn how to achieve it by love rather than by fear, by kindness rather than by compulsion; if in the process we learn to combine the essential with the enjoyable, the expedient with the benevolent, the practical with the beautiful, this will be an extra incentive to embark on this great task.
Gratitude is a manifestation of conscience. Gratitude is what defines the humanity of the human being. We must help the children in the world, for the homeless, for the victims of injustice, the victims of destiny and society.
In a way, to be indifferent to that suffering is what makes the human being inhuman. Indifference, after all, is more dangerous than anger and hatred. Anger can at times be creative. One writes a great poem, a great symphony, one does something special for the sake of humanity because one is angry at the injustice that one witnesses. But indifference is never creative. Even hatred at times may elicit a response. You fight it. You denounce it. You disarm it. Indifference elicits no response. Indifference is not a response.
Indifference is not a beginning, it is an end. And, therefore, indifference is always the friend of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor -- never his victim, whose pain is magnified when he or she feels forgotten. The political prisoner in his cell, the hungry children, the homeless refugees -- not to respond to their plight, not to relieve their solitude by offering them a spark of hope is to exile them from human memory. And in denying their humanity we betray our own.
Does it mean that we have learnt from the past? Does it mean that society has changed? Has the human being become less indifferent and more human? Have we really learnt from our experiences? Are we less insensitive to the plight of victims of ethnic cleansing and other forms of injustices in places near and far?
What about the children? Oh, we see them on television, we read about them in the papers, and we do so with a broken heart. Their fate is always the most tragic, inevitably. When adults wage war, children perish. We see their faces, their eyes. Do we hear their pleas? Do we feel their pain, their agony? Every minute one of them dies of disease, violence, famine. Some of them -- so many of them -- could be saved.
A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance. It is fitting that at this solemn moment we take the pledge of dedication to the service of Sri Lanka and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity.
We have hard work ahead. There is no resting for any one of us till we redeem our pledge in full, till we make all the people of Sri Lanka what destiny intended them to be. We are citizens of a great country on the verge of bold advance, and we have to live up to that high standard. All of us, to whatever religion we may belong, are equally the children of Sri Lanka with equal rights, privileges and obligations. We cannot encourage communalism or narrow-mindedness, for no nation can be great whose people are narrow in thought or in action.
Dr.T.C.Rajaratnam is the Co-Ordinating Secretary to the Chief Government Whip of Parliament.
Asian Tribune
