A road which never again should be taken!

It is with the utmost heaviness of heart that we decry the death of a fisherman in the violence which broke out in Chilaw on Wednesday. This was a fatality which should never have occurred and we see the violence which swept the coastal town as absolutely unwarranted and counter-productive in nature. The fisher folk of the area were reportedly protesting the recent rise in fuel prices and were exercising a democratic right but it is most unfortunate that the demonstration was allowed to degenerate into manic and murderous violence.

It should be plain to see that a most complex situation had arisen in the trouble spot in question. A glance at the pictures of this incident of violence which were splashed in some sections of the media would convince the impartial onlooker that it was not a case of the innocents being slaughtered. Violence was being resorted to very brazenly by many who sought to confront the law and order agencies and it is difficult to view the incident in stark black-and-white terms.

Nevertheless, the incident should not be prejudged and we urge that the legal process be allowed to take its course. The wrong-doers in the unfortunate confrontation, regardless of rank and walk of life, should be identified and brought to justice. Meanwhile, we offer our profoundest condolences to the kith and kin of the deceased.

Moreover, we wish to reiterate the position we took in this commentary a couple of days back that the rich possibilities in post-conflict Sri Lanka not be squandered by the unthinking and irresponsible in our polity. We need to point out that there are political forces forever on the prowl which have a vested interest in taking this country down a path of violence and destruction - a path which should never again be traversed by this country. But the fact is that these forces are alive and kicking and the citizenry need to be alert to their dark designs.

Impressionable sections could be easily provoked into reacting violently if they are egged on by these political forces which are seeking to take the country down the path of violence and civil strife. The recurrence of industrial and connected forms of unrest in some sections indicates that there is an element of planning in these developments which carry with them the seeds of chronic strife. These tendencies need to be defused in the bud.

One way of defeating these designs is by educating oneself on the post-independence political history of this country. The present generation of youth is all too familiar with the Northern uprising but the upheavals of the South are lost in the mists of time and are therefore not part of recent memory for the vast majority of the people. But the youth uprisings of Southern Sri Lanka are as important, from the viewpoint of political awareness, as the Northern insurrection which bled Sri Lanka white and very nearly plunged this country into the ranks of failed states.

Of the two Southern insurrections, the 1989-1990 uprising was the more cataclysmic and barbaric. Those were times when provincial roads in particular were littered with corpses and pyres were made out of dead bodies. Those were indeed horrendous times which we shudder to recall.

However, suffice it to know that there are political forces which would prefer to see Sri Lanka in political turmoil. The entirety of our public should be enabled to see through the designs of these sections. A big 'no' needs to be said to violence, to begin with. Next, every effort should be made by our body-politic to make maximum use of the opportunities that have now opened out to take this country along the path of material prosperity and contentment.

The lessons of the past must be learnt assiduously. No one stands to gain by political and social instability. That road led to nowhere in the past and the same holds today too. Rather, the hearts and minds of all should be bent on development and on making the most out of peace.