federalidea.com

By Fr. Elmo Dias

A woman has the physical and spiritual capacity to be a mother. She has the ability to beget, form, bring forth and nourish life. And this role is corporal as well as spiritual. With the process of begetting, forming and bringing forth she begins the process of being a mother. And the motherhood of such a woman begins from the time she absorbs into her spirit, the joy of being a mother. It is that woman who enters the motherhood thus recognized and respected as mother by the offspring.

Just as much as motherhood gives meaning and dignity to a woman of being or becoming a mother, so is the concept of motherland that gives meaning and dignity to a land or a territory. Motherland is defined as the country that you were born in and that you feel a strong emotional connection with. The word motherland has a connotation of ones country of birth and growing up, with the country being respectfully viewed as benign mother nurturing its citizens as her children.

A motherland belongs to all citizens, irrespective of their race, creed or caste. When citizens are convinced that everyone born in a territory designated as a country are joyfully absorbed into her being and are treated with equal rights and freedoms, equal opportunities, responsibilities and duties, it is then that they consider a country as their motherland. Then they develop a sense of belonging to that land which has become their motherland.

What a motherland stands for and the peoples’ attachment to it is hinted by the Indian Chief Seattle’s words, from his famous speech of 1851. “The rivers are our brothers, they quench our thirst… The rivers carry our canoes and feed our children… The air is precious to the red man for all things share the same breath, the beast, the trees, the man they all share the same breath… the wind that gave our grandfather his first breath also receives his last sigh… How can you buy or sell the sky or the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us… If we do not own the freshness of the air or the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them?” Sri Lanka is the motherland of every Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim or Burgher or any other who is born on her soil. All of them have a right to repeat the Chief Seattle’s words about the land of their birth.

Unfortunately for Sri Lankans, that is exactly what is being denied every passing day by the LTTE separatists and terrorists and unbelievably by the very administration that is supposed to protect their rights. It is no secret that since the new wave of war began how the rights of the people are being systematically infringed upon. To repeat what is already known, for example, making thousands in the North and East internally displaced, abduction and murder of aid workers and media personnel, restrictions on freedom of expression, recent eviction of Tamils from city lodges, abductions and extortion from businessmen of minority communities and the common man being burdened with the cost of the war and being compelled to live in a society gripped by a fear psychosis are all signs of the destruction of the values that once made Sri Lanka a benign mother to all her children. All these keep dividing and destroying the ethnic fabric of Sri Lankan society further.

In that background today, one has to ask whether the non-ending war, that is being justified as a “war against LTTE terrorism” and according to some reports to be fought for another two to three years till the LTTE is made weak and the rebel held areas are brought under government control, is to defend a land or the motherland. Which of the two are we trying to defend? There is a hue and cry being made by many of the need to defend motherland. It is a legitimate cry as well as a duty of every citizen to do so. No one will question that. But one has to ask sincerely whether we are defending the motherland or just fighting for land? Are our soldier sons and daughters laying their precious lives so often to defend motherland or to defend land? Are we spending our meagre financial resources, making even the unborn generations debtors, really in defence of motherland? We need to ask such questions since Sri Lankan nation is confronted with many a contradiction and confusion on this issue today and since there is a steady erosion of social values and security on which the citizens relied on so far.

Rubbing salt to injury are the extremist statements that are made by responsible secular and religious personalities that “Sri Lanka is motherland to Sinhalese only”, “a dictatorship is the only salvation”, “eviction of Tamils from Colombo is better than their detention”. Such irresponsible public rhetoric together with the fear psychosis that prevails will only encourage another round of exodus of the powerful among the minorities and spread despair and disillusionment among the ordinary citizens of every ethnicity. Looking at these tragic events one can only say “Oh my motherland, so beautiful and so lost.” Has our country lost her national conscience, lost her humane rationality and lest her traditional civility?

If we are genuine in our defence of motherland then on the one hand we have to treat every ethnic group as Sri Lankans and sons of the soil and on the other hand, avoid what exactly the separatist terrorists do, that is “to fight for a land” at whatever the cost to the people and their future. It is estimated that about 70,000 citizens have already paid with their lives as the cost of war, not to talk of disabled security personnel, destruction of public and private property and billions of dollars spent over 25 years of war. These are the precious and valuable assets that any nation so conscientiously tries to protect. Terrorists will destroy anything and anyone, for they do not care for a motherland. But can a government do the same for its citizens and their motherland? Defending motherland means defending its people, for it’s the people who look up to, giving meaning and respect to a country as a benign mother. If any administration, a party or a group denies that right to a citizen in the process of defending motherland, then they inescapably become “defenders of a land” and certainly not the saviours of motherland. This regrettably is what is taking place particularly today, admitting that right through the history of the conflict there were similar instances.

Today at every national and international forum our leaders and representatives have to bend backwards to “defend” what is taking place “in defence of motherland”. Why? One may ask. Despite the fact of our telling the world “we will manage our own affairs”, “we will find a solution to the conflict among ourselves”, “do not interfere with our home and home problems”, we have been confounding what is already complicated by the recent actions which are leading the nation deeper into the labyrinth of hopelessness.

Like the optimist who shouted at every passing floor “I’m OK so far” while falling from a ten storey building we seem to say “we are defending our motherland and we are OK so far, and the rest of the world is not OK thus far.”

The silver lining in this moment of gloom, is that some responsible media though under lot of pressure, keeps on highlighting this agony and plight of the nation, moderate citizens keep speaking out in defense of the people, the judiciary has woken up to uphold the rights of the citizens, the religious dignitaries of all faiths have banded together to condemn the atrocities against the helpless people. But the question is, will those who matter hear? Are they sincerely willing to make Sri Lanka a country in which all Sri Lankans feel a strong emotional connection with? Will they, who represent different political hues, as someone recently wrote, stop behaving like pirates who board the ship called Sri Lanka from time to time? Therefore one hopes and prays that the silver-lining will develop into a full glare of light and bring solace and solution, relief and reconciliation to the beleaguered nation.

Since Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims and Burghers all had their ethnic origin outside Sri Lanka and since all major religions came from outside Sri Lanka it would not be unpatriotic to recall the words of a foreigner, W.S. Senior whose heart kindled for mother Lanka. He prayed for the rise of a son or sons of Lanka to make her a motherland once again “where a stranger, becomes a brother”. It is then that we could also sing in the words of Sri Lankan artistes “this land belongs to you, this land belongs to me, this land belongs to all of us, to live in harmony.” Then and only then can we conquer terrorism and defend this land as our motherland.