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"Our finest hour" or is it?
By Carlton Samarajiwa
TV images and media pictures of the multitudes uniting in grief and generously giving…giving…giving… to help the survivors of the tsunami disaster, of religious ceremonies of sorrow and pirith pinkam, of lorry loads of relief material wending their way to the areas of disaster, of political parties coming together in a large hearted demonstration of good will, of the rich and the poor, the aged and the young, all moved to tears and numbness, of the spontaneous cancellation of every form of merriment on new year's eve from fire crackers to midnight balls, and the white flags everywhere. Multitudinous scenes such as these -moving and heart-rending- prompted a single bright thought amid the encircling gloom of death and destruction: this is Sri Lanka's finest hour - a time of oneness, of humanity, of compassion, of generosity, of nationhood.

The death of over 30,000 Sri Lankans is not a private death but a collective death of the nation. The tragedy is much larger and more tragic that the deaths caused by Tiger bomb blasts during the last two decades. The sight of mass graves that denied the tsunami dead a decent burial was more horrific than the JVP insurgents' decree of the late eighties that the coffins of their victims be not carried above knee height by their hapless mourners. It seemed as if there was no need now for wars, bomb blasts, grenade attacks, suicide bombers, insurgencies, fatal road accidents and other forms of killing, for Nature can be conceded its power to wipe out countless lives in seconds.

Politicians of various persuasions were seen standing together during the adhishtana ceremony. The hate-dimmed tide of party politics when rivals bashed each other in a frenzy of hate at public rallies and TV talk shows seemed to have ebbed.

But perhaps, as the days roll by and "9.0/2004", as the Sirasa christened it, recedes from our consciousness like the tidal waves itself that eventually receded from our shores, one wonders wistfully if this optimistic thought of unity and nationhood isn't premature. For unscrupulous elements with their minds diseased descended on the scene of disaster like vultures seeking their prey. They removed jewellery from decomposing female corpses before burying them or handing them over to their relatives. because Tamil residents had accepted aid from the Sri Lanka military. A Buddhist monk is alleged to have been involved in pilfering a stock of lingerie (of all things) meant for women displaced by the tsunami. There were stories of rape and child molestation, too.

What we are now witnessing in the aftermath of the tsunami disaster is mercifully more than a one-day wonder of oneness; our nation deserves credit and merit for a whole season of sensitivity and sympathy for the plight of the wretched of the shores. That season of good will, which began on Christmas Day, reached great heights on the Poya day that followed and for a week until the day of national mourning at the end of the year. But even at that time, undercurrents of subterranean insensitivities emerged and they will eventually produce more devilry. Is the metaphor, oft repeated these past days, of the fabulous Phoenix rising from the ashes ring true for our country or will the wicked, like the wretched, always be with us, notwithstanding the tsunami disaster.

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