Saturday Apr 20, 2024
Saturday Apr 20, 2024
Tuesday, 20 September 2016 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Outsider
What have the USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore got in common? Well they are all established and thriving economies, aren’t they? The USA has a GDP per head of $ 57,620, the UK $ 44,580, Australia $ 53,910, New Zealand $ 37,570 and Singapore an impressive $ 54,000 GDP per head. [Source: Economist – ‘The world in 2016’] Yes, they are thriving economies all right!
What this beautiful island paradise needs in the 21st century is creation of one nation built on equality and set out to become a multiracial society of equal citizens, where opportunities are equal and a person’s contribution is recognised and rewarded on merit regardless of race, language, culture or religion
Apart from their world-beating economic superiority, what else have these economic power-houses got in common? Answer: They are all multi-racial nations with equal opportunities given to all its citizens regardless of race or religion. Period!
Indeed try defining the ‘race’ of any of these countries – they do not have a ‘race’ as they all belong to the human race! Who is an American – he or she may be black or white, Hispanic or even Sinhala or Tamil but they are all considered citizens of USA. And fiercely loyal to their nation’s Flag!
When the writer was in Singapore a couple of months ago, he casually asked a cabbie who was driving him whether was a Pakistani. He was piqued and retorted in perfect English: “That’s an offensive question, sir – I am a Singaporean, my grandfather was from Karachi. People in Singapore do not mention the word ‘race’. Are you from Sri Lanka, by the way, as they always appear to be nosy about one’s race or religion?” To say that I was embarrassed and indeed chastened is an understatement!
Regarding Singapore’s model multiracial society, let me quote relevant extract from page 288 from the book ‘From Third World to First’ memoir of Lee Kuan Yew, arguably the greatest SE Asian leader in modern times, if not one of the greatest ever on this planet!
“Singapore set out to become a multiracial society of equal citizens, where opportunities are equal and a person’s contribution is recognised and rewarded on merit, regardless of race, language, culture or religion. In spite of our meagre natural resources, we succeeded, and our policies have benefited all our citizens, including our Malays. We have a growing class of professionals, executives and businessmen, including Malays, who have developed a strong competitive spirit and take pride in being what they are on their own merit. Each time we are rated as the Best Airline in Asia, the No. 1 Airport, the No. 1 Container Port, it reminds Singaporeans what a cohesive meritocratic multiracial society can achieve, better than if we were a Chinese-dominated one and lacked solidarity.”
Let’s quote another relevant extract from book: ‘The Big Ideas of Lee Kuan Yew’: “Many Singaporeans, especially young Singaporeans, are not aware that Singapore could have gone down several different paths of history if some key decisions were not made as far back as the 1950s. There is one simple fact that every Singaporean should be made aware of. The British left behind many multiracial colonies in all corners of the earth. The list includes Fiji, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Cyprus and Guyana. Singapore is the only multiracial ex-British colony to avoid major internal strife. Hence, the relative political calm and multiracial harmony that Singapore has enjoyed is not a natural phenomenon.” What a statesman!
Some pathetically argue that Singapore ‘is only slightly bigger than Colombo’ and therefore cannot be compared! Well ‘big’ Sri Lanka’s GPD per head is a paltry $3,750 and PPP [purchasing power parity] $ 12,050 as opposed to ‘small’ Singapore: $ 54,000 GDP per head and PPP a whopping $ 86,550. Also surely then aren’t the USA, UK, Australia and New Zealand where multiracialism thrives, even significantly very much bigger than Sri Lanka? I rest my case!
Sri Lanka is once again at the crossroads and on cusp of drafting out a new Constitution that’s going to hopefully, put an end to ethnic and religious strife fanned by inward looking fanatics under the garb of political hues of disparate power-blocks whose bread and butter hinges on racial and religious tensions!
Seventy years ago the Father of the Nation, then Ceylon, the late D.S. Senanayake when forming the still formidable United National Party, reiterated that the UNP is for forging links with all citizens regardless of race, language, culture or religion. Did Lee Kuan Yew borrow these then aspirations of ‘DS’ who was renowned for his statesmanlike speeches by crafting world renowned Singapore’s pragmatic model of multiculturalism and eminently successful meritocratic multiracial closely bonded society?
Whilst ‘DS’ and the leaders who followed in Sri Lanka did not possess the courage, focus and far-sightedness of Singapore’s leader par excellence Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore propelled ahead, undaunted by initial barbs of racialism. Sri Lanka is still sadly mired in Square One, as it was 70 years ago!
Already the sabre-rattling fanatics who espouse racialism and religiosity in their warped and narrow craniums have shot the oft-repeated slogan propped up by ‘majoritism’ and all the evils of one-upmanship of naked racism by trying to drown out with shouts of ‘Down with Federalism’!
Ironically latest research has shown that the Sinhalese, who make up around 75% of the Sri Lankan population [source: Daily Mirror 16 September] might very well have descended from inhabitants of ancient East India [Now Bangladesh].
In his study titled ‘Genetic affinities of Sri Lankan populations,’ Gautam Kumar Kshatriya found that 25.41% of the genetic makeup of the Sinhalese population was contributed by the Bengalies. Linguistically too, scholars have for long remarked upon the Indo-Aryan origins of the Sinhalese speech; now there! One could safely conclude that the Sinhalese and the Tamils who have been at each other’s throats at various times, should bow their collective heads in shame and instead embrace each other as blood relations would. At least kiss and make up!
Isn’t it time that Sri Lanka followed USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore and discarded the obnoxious word race from our collective lexicon and declare that our race is the Human Race?
I am reminded how my father at the height of the racial riots in 1958 saved two Tamil families from being thrown into their blazing houses and offered them refuge in our home for well over a month, until tensions simmered. The descendants of these then-affected Tamil families have integrated well into Sri Lankan society instead of running away to affluent countries and becoming part of the so-called ‘Tamil diaspora’ who still take an adversarial stance against Sri Lanka at every opportunity!
At least two of the boys from the earlier affected families have now changed their names to common Sinhala names and even ensured that their kids learn and speak in Sinhala; of course they are equally fluent in both English and Tamil – an ideal that should be followed by all Sri Lankans: speak English, Tamil and Sinhala.
Seriously we even don’t need Federalism as a so-called solution! Let us create one Sri Lanka for all its citizens, regardless of race, language, class, background or culture, like the SL Cricket Team!
Then very soon, at least within a generation, racial fanatics of both sides of the divide would soon lose their poisonous sting that have stifled unity, progress and oneness of this nation, we call home, to all!
What this beautiful island paradise needs in the 21st century is creation of one nation built on equality and set out to become a multiracial society of equal citizens, where opportunities are equal and a person’s contribution is recognised and rewarded on merit regardless of race, language, culture or religion. A sense of déjà vu a la D.S. Senanayake that was ‘copied’ by Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew!
