ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lankaâ€s Marxist-leaned President Anura Kumara Dissanayake promised to prevent politicians using racism as well as communal and religious slogans to capture state power in future.
Dissanayakeâ€s National Peopleâ€s Power swept the parliament election held last week to record a landslide win with 159 seats in the 225-member parliament.
For the first time in Sri Lankan history, a political party was backed by all Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim, and Catholic communities during the election with the majority of them backing the NPP.
The NPP won 21 out of 22 electoral districts and 150 out of 160 electorates, the official election results showed. A Marxists party led coalition has won national elections for the first time in Sri Lankaâ€s history.
Dissanayaka in his policy statement during the inaugural session of the new parliament said when racism becomes a theme of a political camp; the definite consequence is counter racism from opposition political camps.
“Racism does not remain in one place. One portion of racism will nurture and grow the other portion of racism. We have experienced this in our long history, politics, and society,†Dissanayake told the parliament while addressing the new parliament in which his party had 156 new legislators compared to the last parliament.
“Although we were in different provinces, although we were far apart in cultural views, although we spoke different languages, although we practiced different religions, this election has shown that we have converged into focusing on one purpose and lined up for that,†he said.
“This election has shown that a very strong opportunity has now been created to build national unity, which has been a long-cherished wish in our country.â€
“We can have different political ideologies, but I also say one thing responsibly. We will not give in to racist politics in our country again.â€
Previous president Gotabaya Rajapaksa used racism against Muslims after the April 2019 Easter Sunday attack. His government before the 2020 parliament election ordered forced cremation of Muslim and Catholic victims of Covid-19 despite heavy criticism from the international community.
The island nation also has seen a 26-year civil war as a result of successive governments†communal-based decisions while depriving the rights of ethnic minority Tamils. That war killed more than 100,000 people with thousands still missing amid a large number of human rights violations.
The island nation also has seen riots targeted ethnic minority Tamils, Muslims, and Catholics, mainly for political reasons in the past.
He said his government will not allow religious extremism to rise its head “at any costâ€.
“Our people have been affected enough by communal conflicts. This land has been soaked with blood. Rivers have been filled with peopleâ€s tears. Suspicion, distrust, and anger have been there between us. Today, our responsibility as representatives of this parliament is to not create a state like this for our future children,†he said.
“We have the responsibility to do politics with whatever slogans, it could be economy, it could be democracy. You can use anything you want. But we will not allow the creation of communal and religious slogans to capture political power in the country.†(Colombo/November 21/2024)
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