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Saudi Arabia- Also a patron to Hafiz Sayeed?

Thursday, 11 March 2010 10:18

Recently Prime Minister concluded his visit to Saudi Arabia. This is the first visit by any Indian Prime Minister to Saudi Arabia in the last 25 years. It is said to be very productive in strengthening relationship between the two countries. Apart from other agreements, both the countries also signed an extradition treaty. After this treaty, India can extradite from Saudi Arabia any wanted criminal who has committed any crime in India. But from this treaty can we conclude that Saudi Arabia has no role in the worldwide expansion of terrorism and its linkage with the worldwide movement of so-called ‘Islamic Jihad’? Is Saudi Arabia as peace loving as it seems?

Before continuing, it is necessary to clarify that the Wahaabi ideology, which has become the biggest inspiration for Islamic terrorism, has its roots in Saudi Arabia itself. If Wahaabi ideology teaches to follow radical Islam, the same radical Islam defines the word ‘Jihad’ in its own way directly linking it to terrorism. Let’s have a look at this Wahaabi ideology. An 18th century Muslim Scholar of Saudi Arabia, Mohammad Ibne Abdul Wahaab started this radical mission of giving an extremist face to Islam. He stressed on promotion of so called ‘Pure Islam’. The things he felt necessary, he termed them as Islamic and what he didn’t like, he termed it as anti-Islam and non-Sharia. Wahaab was of the view that the Muslims, who do non-Islamic deeds (according to him), are also Kaafir (non believer). In a short time, he became very popular among the illiterate Arabs. During the expansion of this ideology, Wahaabi supporters created large scale armed disturbance in many parts of the world including the holy cities of Mecca and Madina. Consequently, so many innocent Muslim women, children and old people were killed. The same people destroyed the house where Prophet Mohammad was born. The supporters of this ideology also destroyed many mausoleums of Sufi saints. The same ideology made Saudi born Osama Bin Laden, the world’s most dangerous terrorist.

When this Osama Bin Laden becomes the most wanted terrorist of the world, the same Saudi Arabian government disowns him and again becomes clean and peace loving. Moreover, Saudi Arabia never hesitates in speaking against Laden or other terrorists. Currently, Hafiz Mohammad Sayeed, the chief of Pak-based Jamaat-Ud-Dawa has emerged as the biggest hurdle between India-Pakistan relations. He has become the world’s most controversial and most wanted terrorist. His name tops the list of the perpetrators of 26/11 attack on Mumbai. The alone alive terrorist of 26/11 Ajmal Amir Kasab himself has admitted the involvement of Hafiz Sayeed in the attack. He has also admitted that his training took place at terrorist training camp at Muridke in Pakistan. This training centre is operated by Jamaat-Ud-Dawa. At New Delhi in the foreign secretary level talks between India and Pakistan on February 25, the dossiers submitted by India to the Pakistani foreign secretary Salman Bashir include the demand of handing over of 34 terrorists including Hafiz Mohammad Sayeed to India. On this Pakistan has made clear that it will never give Hafiz Sayeed to India.

After the 25 February talks, Hafiz Sayeed gave his interview to a TV channel in Pakistan. In this interview, he told that his education in Saudi Arabia has a major influence on his thinking and working. Possibly, as a result of the same radical education, instead of face he put his back in front of the camera. On being asked by the journalist, he said that capturing a picture is not allowed in Sharia. Notably, Hafiz Sayeed was a professor of Islamic studies. And now he is running many Madrasas, hospitals, many NGOs and spreading Jihadi ideology under Jamaat-Ud-Dawa. He himself admits that his mission is to connect with Muslims through Jamaat, to ‘reform’ them and to ‘spread Islamic education on global scale’.

After 26/11, Pakistan house arrested Hafiz Sayeed under Indian pressure. At that time, Mr. Abdul Salam from Saudi Arabia mediated between Hafiz Sayeed and the Pak government. This incident compels us to think about the reason of sympathy of Saudi Arabia towards Hafiz Sayeed. After this settlement, Hafiz Sayeed was not only freed, in fact since then he started doing rallies in major cities of Pakistan calling for jihad against India. General Zia Ul Haq, the military dictator of Pakistan, who gave Islam an extremist face in Pakistan, also had the hand of Saudi Arabia on his head. The mention of one more incident would be relevant. When General Parvez Musharraf thrown out the Nawaz Sharif government and put Nawaz Sharif behind bars, at that time also Saudi Arabia provided full help to Nawaz Sharif in saving him from Gen. Musharraf and called Nawaz Sharif to Saudi Arabia. This instance is enough to understand that Saudi Arabia not only keeps a close watch at every political happening in Pakistan but also has a considerable say in Pak politics.

The irony is while Indian Prime Minister visits Saudi Arabia to strengthen the bilateral relations and by doing his unprecedented welcome, the royal family there is also trying to convey to the world that India and Saudi Arabia are progressing on the path of friendship. At the same time, the same Saudi Arabia is providing financial assistance to, many Pak based such organisations including Jamaat-Ud-Dawa, who are active in anti-India terrorist activities. Hafiz Sayeed has expressed his support to the Lashkar-e-Taiba which is the most dangerous Pak based terrorist organisation and was also involved in February 26 attack on Indian Medical Mission in Kabul. During his interview, he said that he is with not only LeT but with every such organisation which is doing ‘jihad for the independence of Kashmir’. While defining Jihad in his own way, he says that the effort made to defend yourself from an attacker is jihad. According to him, the effort he is making to save the Kashmiri Muslims from the Indian Army is jihad.

This terrorist Hafiz Sayeed also terms the militant struggle in Kashmir as right and calls the terrorists involved in it as freedom fighters. Though he denied his involvement in attacks on Indian Parliament and 26/11, but when asked what he means by ‘one Mumbai is not enough’, he had no answer to that. He also called on the Pakistan government to declare jihad against India or else the religious leaders of Pakistan would themselves decide to declare jihad against India. He says that every child of Pakistan and every member of Jamaat-Ud-Dawa is ready to fight against India.

Above situation is certainly a matter of concern for India. Apart from the terrorist activities in Pakistan, the world should also notice the roots of those extremist activities in Saudi Arabia, as a result of which the roots of communalism and Islamic sectarianism are rapidly & deeply spreading in the world. The price which Pakistan has paid for the Saudi patronisation of Zia-Ul-Haq to Hafiz Sayeed, is entirely visible not only to the Pakistani people but to the entire world.

About the Author

Author Tanveer Jafri is a columnist based in India.He is related with hundreds of most popular daily news papers/portals in India and abroad. Jafri, Almost writes in the field of communal harmony, world peace, anti communalism, anti terrorism, national integration, national & international politics etc.He is a devoted social activist for world peace, unity, integrity & global brotherhood. Tanveer Jafri is also a member of Haryana Sahitya Academy & Haryana Urdu Academy (state govt. bodies in India). Thousands articles of the author have been published in different newspapers, websites & newsportals throughout the world. He is also a receipent of so many awards in the field of Communal Harmony & other social activities.

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Don’t pull the draw bridge up

Thursday, 11 March 2010 10:18

There is euphoria in the island and none can deny the relief felt by any peace loving Sri Lankan to know the military conflict is over. Whether he is cultivating in Kakirawa or marketing in Wellawatta the opportunity has dawned for everyone to begin a new and safer journey. Who does not want peace? Who wants to live in fear and get so used to it that it becomes a regular routine to hear of yet another bomb blast. Or for a mother to be frightened to death when sending a son to school not knowing which institution would be targeted next. The Northern story is no different. What would little kids feel when they hear the scream of fast jets tearing the sky? Wouldn’t it bring back stories, or worst still, terrifying recollections ingrained in hard disc memory of death falling from above? Would they forget easily monstrous helicopter gunships loitering menacingly searching for enemies that are difficult to define?

That has been our lot and we all have paid the price. The ones abroad too, irrespective of what race they belonged to. Everyone suffered from this war and the ravage of their homeland. It is an empty statement to say that only those who live in Sri Lanka have a right to talk. It is another meaningless morsel to add “if they love this land so much, they should come here.” Yes, such sentiments are good for evening TV times and baseless conversation.

Scott’s immortal “breathes there a man with soul so dead” did not imply that someone abroad cannot retain the love of his motherland. The Diaspora may buy their chicken at Tesco’s and lunch on Caesar salads but the sambola, parippu and ala theldaala feelings will always be there same as the idely, waade and masala thosai tastes that will not leave the pallet with a hundred sips of Shiraz or a thousand bites of Kentucky fried.

That is us, Sri Lankans, Sinhalese, Tamils, Burgers and Muslims, home rooted or diasporic, always having a little place in their heart linked umbilical to a tiny island that has been the home of all races. As for Sinhalese and Tamils, we came on Monday, they came on Wednesday, that was more than 2000 years ago, let’s not forget that.

So what do we have now? The LTTE war machine is defeated. An army of separatists that the CIA rated as the most ruthless terrorist organisation in the world has been vanquished totally for the entire world to witness in awe, erasing forever our “kavun kanna yodaya” label. The long drawn battle had lasted almost three decades and many a nameless fallen had fought valiantly and have selflessly sacrificed life, leaving behind loved ones to lament so that we could have our homeland back. That is the totality, wasted lives from both sides for blatant mistakes by men who had the power to decide. It does not matter today who supported whom, the war is over and the draw bridge must be down and hands must extend in newly acquired friendships built on trust, maybe slow at start, but trust it must be, if we are to change the festering dissection. What wisdom is there in denying the defeated an honourable way to search for peace and reconciliation?

The people in the camps, that’s tragic and nobody denies the harrowing experiences of the displaced. Yet, we must be careful not to mix the issue with other connotations of minority rights.

The situation in the camps fell upon the administrators and 300,000 people came as an exodus seeking shelter and they had to be accepted, accommodated and cared for. Questions of security had to be addressed in the midst of mostly biased international scrutiny. If the occupants of camps are not in universally accepted living conditions that should be positively addressed and not racially demarcated. During tsunami times I personally saw effected people languishing in makeshift shelters for months in putrid conditions and suffer the worst. They were Sinhalese, Muslims and Tamils. It wasn’t easy to handle tsunami displaced people and even today if one were to visit Moratuwa, right next to the Lunawa Railway station there are so many tsunami victims still living in squalid conditions and waiting for a new home to move into. They are mostly Sinhalese, all suffering with impotent anger for five long years since the tsunami.

Let us totally accept that the plight of the IDP is sad, but it is not racial, just circumstantial. This is the time we need everyone to take the blinkers off and look across ethnic barriers. Steps are being taken to care for the displaced and steps must be expedited to stem the tide of disaffection. No one in his right mind would deny the need of resettlement so long as the enormity of the task at hand is given due consideration.

I know that 84 years old grand dame of journalism, Aunty Anne is coming with a walking stick to write about racial amity. I also know Sohan and Sunil gathered thirty artists, the best in the land to record a song “Sri Lanka we are one” and arranged to give proceeds to help the children of the injured and the displaced. Thousands are rising to the call and it is not a call of a government or a race, but a Sri Lankan call of people who love this land and who prayed and pleaded for peace and has risen from the mire of war to add their smidgen for racial harmony.

Let us not allow die hard racists from either side, local or settled abroad, to raise the draw bridge. The big picture is so beautiful, we of the older generation have seen it and you of the younger minds need to know what it is to live in peace. A Sinhala man to go to Keeramalai and bathe and drink Thal ra or a Tamil counterpart to visit Bundala Bird Park and taste meekiri with kithul pani in Hambantota and not be asked to produce an id card.

More than eighty thousand deaths have been counted in this conflict that began with an agenda to divide the land which unfortunately has now resulted successfully in dividing the people.

This is the moment for the leadership to set the tone and the “common us” to add our mite to tilt the scale in favour of peace and harmony.

As individuals, be it a Sinhalese or a Tamil, let us not raise the draw bridge to isolate ourselves and callously wallow in racism. The war is over, we are one people, we have all suffered and it is time to find ways to live together in peace.

“Sri Lanka we are one” that is what they are singing now, let us clap hands and stamp feet and join in the chorus.

About the author

Capt Elmo Jayawardena is the Founder/President of CandleAid Lanka
CandleAid Lanka (formerly AFLAC International). We are a link between one person's generosity and another person's humanitarian need.
CandAid helps people who suffer from the multiple burdens of poverty. My job is to make the world hear their cries - HELP ME
Website: www.candleaid.org

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A case for continuing talks

Thursday, 11 March 2010 10:18

The much awaited foreign secretary level talks between India and Pakistan concluded on 25^th February at Hyderabad House in New Delhi. Though different people have different views about these high level talks but political analysts are of the view that the coming together of foreign secretaries of both the countries is itself a proof that both India and Pakistan are willing to establish peace and more such talks will follow in future. India’s main opposition party the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was not in favour of these talks. They even accused the Indian government of acting under the US pressure to carry out talks. The opposition is seeing the Indo-Pak talks by linking them with the continuously deteriorating image of America in Afghanistan and Obama’s future strategy vis-a-vis Afghanistan. But, indeed, India being the largest and the most powerful nation of South Asia, is trying to tell the world that it is a responsible nation, which follows the ideals of truth and non-violence of Gandhiji and believes in maintaining friendly relations with the neighbours.

In the recently concluded foreign secretary talks, it was accepted that there is an atmosphere of mistrust between the two countries, which is restraining both the countries to establish peaceful, strong and friendly relations. No doubt the people of Pakistan, like the people of India, have also become bored of terrorist activities, killing of innocents in such attacks and resultant insult of Pakistan in international community. Despite this, there is a considerably strong set of people who always try to create an anti-India atmosphere in Pakistan in the name of Kashmir. As I have written many times earlier also, there are many power centres in Pakistan. For instance, if both India and Pakistan arrive at a decision taken after consultation with the elected government of Pakistan, it is not necessary that the decision is accepted by the Pak army also. Similarly if a Pakistan Army General takes a decision, its acceptance by the ISI is not guaranteed. And the Pakistani judiciary can’t be taken as granted by all these power centres with regard to their decisions. At last, it is not necessary that the anti-Indian extremist Jehadis and Mullahs agree with the above institutions.

Pakistan, partitioned from India in the name of an ‘Islamic State’, is finding difficult to come out of the trap of its own contradictions. Though the people of India are always excited and optimistic regarding good relations between these two nuclear armed states, but slowly the common people of India have started believing that Pakistan is deliberately trying to disturb peace and harmony in India by taking undue ‘advantage’ of India’s mature and peaceful policies. Besides the 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Amir Kasab, India has many such proofs which it shares with Pakistan from time to time. A new proof has been added to this list. Recently, Hafiz Sayeed, the chief of the banned Jamaat-Ud-Dawa and Lashkar-e-Taiba, organised an anti-India rally in Lahore. In his evocative speech, he talked about spreading ‘Jihad’ in India and called on the Muslims of the world to participate in this and capture Kashmir from India. In the rally, not only many most wanted banned leaders and organisations were active, besides hundreds of people were seen wandering with dangerous prohibited arms.

What can such rallies are termed. If we go by the Pakistani logics regarding terrorism, it says that Pakistan itself is a victim of terrorism and thus needs sympathy rather than criticism from the entire world including India. Regarding Hafiz Sayeed, Pakistan’s logic is that he doesn’t represent the government of Pakistan; therefore the government has nothing to do with his statements. The question is then why the Pakistani government or Pak Army is not stopping Hafiz Sayeed from making anti-India statements? Two possibilities are there- either this anti-India open game is directed or patronised by one or more power centres of Pakistan OR Pakistani government has bowed down to such small number of extremist and poisonous leaders and organisations. The increasing strength of terrorist organisations in Pakistan is a clear proof of this.

Now the question is for how long the atmosphere of mistrust between India and Pakistan will prevail and for how long such meaningless and inconclusive talks would continue? There is need to know the nature of the ISI besides that of the people of Pakistan. While both the democratic government and Army are always in perfect competition for capturing power in Pakistan, the ISI has emerged as a shadow organisation of the Pak army. This is the reason that there is an exchange of officers between the army and the ISI. Pakistan’s many high ranking army officers have worked on key posts in the ISI. Now the question is what the Pak army and the ISI are trying to get by creating disturbance in India.

Even though the new generation of Pakistan may have forgot the 1971 Pak-Bangladesh partition but there are still many officers in the Pakistan army and the ISI who had faced the insult from the Indian army or Mukti Vahini. Those officers are also fully conscious who had witnessed or were themselves involved in the biggest ever surrender. This surrender was by the Pakistani army in front of the Indian army in the India-Pak-Bangladesh war of 1971. The same Pak army and the ISI has not forgotten or is not willing to forget that ‘insult’. This is the reason that the extremist forces and the ISI are trying to replicate in Kashmir, the communal model used by the Pakistani leadership in 1947. It is the duty of the peace loving people of Pakistan, its democratic government, intellectuals, journalists and educated class to tell their people that the way in which the religion based 1947 partition failed in 1971 partition, which was not religion based, similarly to talk about ‘jihad’ in Kashmir is useless. The Pak army/ISI sponsored jihad in Kashmir is proving detrimental to the relations between the two nations.

Therefore, there is need of complete transparency and trust building between the two nations. Quoting a famous Indian poet, Nida Fazili - Dushmani laakh sahi, khatm na kije rishta. Dil mile ya na mile, haath milate rahiye. (Even during enmity, don’t end the relation. Either hearts meet or not, hands should meet).

About the Author

Author Tanveer Jafri is a columnist based in India.He is related with hundreds of most popular daily news papers/portals in India and abroad. Jafri, Almost writes in the field of communal harmony, world peace, anti communalism, anti terrorism, national integration, national & international politics etc.He is a devoted social activist for world peace, unity, integrity & global brotherhood. Tanveer Jafri is also a member of Haryana Sahitya Academy & Haryana Urdu Academy (state govt. bodies in India). Thousands articles of the author have been published in different newspapers, websites & newsportals throughout the world. He is also a receipent of so many awards in the field of Communal Harmony & other social activities.

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It’s time to walk the talk

Thursday, 11 March 2010 10:18

“Peace begins with me.” That’s what I wrote a week back. In keeping with the spirit of my article I travelled to Jaffna and mingled with the people and visited four little schools. My mission was to represent CandleAid Lanka and gift books to start libraries. Another team went to Muttur and Thiriyaya. All In all there will be twenty seven such CandleAid libraries in the North and East helping children affected by the conflict.

The Expo Air aeroplane took the final turn over the Kankasanthurai coast to align with the Palali runway. I sat on a passenger seat with my eyes glued to the window, watching everything, noting the rain washed northern landscape in shades of green. It was thirty five years since I had last been here, landing aeroplanes in the same airfield. That was then, when peace reigned, where the days were soft and lazy and we picked gold skinned mangoes and kottakilangu to take home. It was another world.

The places I visited this time were in need of everything, ranging from rubber slippers to pens and pencils and desks and chairs. More than anything else they needed a bit of friendship and care from the south.

It’s not that CandleAid Lanka can move mountains, but we sure can take a few steps to level an anthill or two and pave a path for others to follow us to the north, just to say hello to our forgotten Sri Lankan brothers and sisters.

That developments will come in time is certain. However, this would be infrastructural. Banks will open, supermarkets would mushroom and the bill boards will be erected tall and broad showing Ajantha Mendis eating sausages. Roads would get tarred and the war ravaged roofless houses that stand dilapidated will find Rhino sheet coverings and Lankem Robialac paint will bring in the new looks in multicolour.

But the over-riding question is “would all that usher peace?” Isn’t there a factor of harmony too? Promises are good and plans are better and these will be handled by people who are supposed to take care of them. But we, you and me, can do so much more to add our little contribution to the consonance.

Go to Jaffna my dear friends, the A9 will open and travel to the north will get easier. It is time for us to get to know that part of the island and its people.

In the newspapers every day I see huge advertisements to holiday and see the world. Valley of Kings or safari in Kenya; maybe fly to the holy land and walk in Jerusalem or travel very far to study the Inca civilization in Machu Picchu. There is also China, India, Europe, USA and a host of other destinations well researched and packaged, all taken care of if you can afford. Great, but why not go to Jaffna too? Find a copy of Pathmanathan’s Kingdom of Jaffna or Early Tamils of Lanka by Parameswaran or any other book that gives details of the area. Devour the information and head north. The history alone is so vast there. The temples are a magnificent sight to see. There is the Nallur temple, Maviddapuram temple in Tellipalai or Naguleshwaram temple in Keeramalai, three among the many, all filled with legends and mythology that go way back to the early Dravidian civilization. The Naga Vihara stands serene in the heart of the city and Naga Deepa is just a boat ride away. Then there is the Dutch Fort built in 1680 -it is a beautiful place to relax and enjoy the clear blue sky that often spans the Jaffna peninsula. The Subramaniam Park is nice to walk and the British Royalty gifted clock tower stands now with digital clocks and Dialog advertisements. These represent just a few sights, there is so much more to see, including the renovated Jaffna Library that shadows a story of eternal shame. I am sure Gabo Travels and Superlink and the likes of them will do their arithmetic and come out with package tours for all of us to go north and say hello to the people of Jaffna.

The streets in the city are filled with school girls riding bicycles. The old too use this main mode of transport, sitting on the bar with the young pedalling. The food in Jaffna is great, very enjoyable, tasty and inexpensive, I relished every morsel. The people I met were the best, teachers in small schools, students who shook hands with me and common men. I chatted to all who welcomed me to their domain with open hearts.

This is the essence of what is needed in Jaffna today. It is for us to go and shake hands and become friends again.

Such were my thoughts as I watched the evening sun seated on the Panna Bridge that joins the road from Kayts to the mainland. The single sail long boats were searching for fish in the lagoon under white patches of cloud rolling in a vermillion sky. The entire locality for three decades had witnessed a lot of grief, both for man and place alike. The tell-tale marks are everywhere. Far away the Chelvanayagam memorial jutted up to the heavens silhouetting against the city of Jaffna, awakening in my mind the years of politics and promises and the sadness of lost peace, for both him and his people and for us from south of the Wanni.

Yes, peace begins with me. It begins with you and it begins with each individual who stakes a claim to a birthright in this island, irrespective of what race or religion he belongs to. CandleAid will open its libraries. We will go from Point Pedro to Kalmunai with hands extended in friendship. Books are a lovely way to reach children effected by the conflict, maybe a very small step in the direction of peace, but then, there is no place called far away if one decides to walk.

Yes, it is time to walk the talk.

Capt Elmo Jayawardena can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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Peace begins with me

Thursday, 11 March 2010 10:18

Sri Lanka’s civil war ended in May, the battle at Nandikadal lagoon near Vellamulli Vaikal saw the defeat of the LTTE leadership. The thirty year old bloodshed was over and people celebrated and heralded the dawn of a better day. Hopes rose as high as the sky and with good reason and more, and we all waited to drive down Bullers Road and maybe make a trip along the A9 to places that we have seen years ago.

Peace, that is the word, sacred and serene to all those who have endured and suffered terror and turmoil.

The guns are silent now and the path is cleared for the people of Lanka to search for peace. Of course the pit-falls are there, embodied by the vociferous few who take pleasure in fanning the fires of discontentment and re-kindle the hatred that had festered us for three decades. The foibles of politics and power-hunger do give many a proselyte the platform to play to the galleries. They do find the lamebrains who listen with scant reasoning except racial revulsion, and this is common to both parties, from the by lanes of Wellawatta to the kadamandiya in Balapitiya.

Peace can be chartered by the powers that be but it is the individuals represented by you and me who need to change our thinking.

If we hope to see the coming years where harmony reigns, then the effort must be from us, the individuals. Peace begins with me, that should be the thought and it should ideally ring across all racial barriers and re-align the moral compasses of everyone who consider themselves the inheritors of this paradise home.

Currently I am associated with a project to open 26 small libraries, stretching from Velvatathurai to Kalmunai. Yes, peace begins with me. I believe the words and I need to act and tell others too. I need to ask you to spare a thought and ponder over the ideal that peace begins with me.

I do not know who will contest the next Presidential election or when the people in camps will go home. Such things are beyond me and I leave them to be sorted out by people who seem to know better. But I can go with my team to Mylampaveli and Chulipuram and 24 other similar locations and extend our hands and say we want to be friends. Already many have joined this simple project we named COTC, Children of the Conflict. Total strangers have walked in to work with the organisation CandleAid Lanka (formerly AFLAC – www.candleaid.org) and have blended beautifully to bring the project to a stage that we are ready to launch. Books are bought and packaged to be sent to the North and East to be gifted in simple ceremonies. The funding has come mainly from the Sri Lankan Diaspora, Tamils, Sinhalese, Muslims and Burghers, individuals and teams, each picking a library and sponsoring, believing in the slogan “Peace begins with me.”

It does not stop there. All these libraries will be linked to schools and let me give it straight, non Tamil schools from all over the island in a project called “Uniting children.” Already Methodist College and Panthiya Maha Vidyalaya from Matugama have come forward, with their Principals leading the parade. A Thera from Kakirawa is getting ready to build at least an “A -danda” across the racial divisions by getting his students in Ipalogama to team up with a school in Morokottachenai. Yes, peace begins with me is simple, but the ripples can and will reach even beyond expectations to make us walk as one nation.

I only hope none would flag us down. Roads are meant to be travelled, pot holes or not.

When the camps opened in Vauniya, everybody was off the blocks to sprint and assist in Samaritanic sentiment. So much was done by individuals and organisations, cheers to them. But, that is the IDP; apart from them there is an entire population that needs the olive branch and be partners in a search for racial harmony. Governments can implement policy, but it is the individual assistance that is needed to rebuild what is shattered, to extend hands to people who have suffered. If their kith and kin are shouting foul play from Montreal, the best stance is to ignore. They can carry their placards and do their lobbying. It is the same you hear at times from the southern side too, morons and their myrmidons voicing empty rhetoric of race and hate that only widens the existing divisions.

What has all that got to do with a little child getting a book in Nelukulam?

Ex Air Force officers from Melbourne came forward to fund a library of this project in Tiriyai. They, on a sad day, had fought on the beaches near Pirate’s Cove and some did not return. Now they go back with books, extending a warm hand of friendship, maybe to children of former adversaries. A Tamil gentleman from London wrote to us and is refurbishing a school for visually handicapped and hearing impaired children in Kaithady. He says he sang carols there as a kid. There are many more wonderful gestures such as these which make us believe we are doing something right.

The work done in preparation to open 26 libraries did have its demands. There were many hurdles, and they were cleared by the combined effort of people who are not politically connected, but both ethnically and religiously different, yet in one voice as Sri Lankans.

They all had one thing in common, to do something to bring the races together. “Peace begins with me” was the clarion call.

One day when a child from Vaddukoddai reads a book gifted by a child from Matugama, and writes a post card that speaks of friendship; it would be the result originated from the ones who believed in the simplicity of “peace begins with me.”