COLOMBO: As Sri Lanka celebrated its 67th year of independence on Wednesday, President Maithripala Sirisena declared that national reconciliation between the majority Sinhalese and minority Tamils was the “biggest challenge” currently facing the island.

“The biggest challenge we face today is that of bringing together the minds of the people of the north and south, and through a process of reconciliation, bring about co-existence and national understanding,” Mr Sirisena said in his Independence Day speech at the parliament grounds.

The president said that as the country moved forward in freedom, the country should ensure the strengthening of peace and harmony to bring every success to the children and future generations who would inherit this land.

Lankans had the opportunity to take the path of development and bring together the minds of the people of the north and south after the defeat of the LTTE in 2009. But they were unable to make use of it, he said.

Calling for soul searching, Mr Sirisena said: “I think it is a great responsibility and a duty before us today to ask where we have gone wrong. We should not point fingers at others. Let us ask ourselves where we have gone wrong and how we can correct those errors.”

Mr Sirisena promised to make the Lankan bureaucracy non-partisan and to give more strength to parliament by removing the “unlimited powers” of the executive presidency.

On foreign relations, he said Lanka would follow the “middle path” marked by friendship with all nations, and would move towards the resolution of ethnic and economic issues “by strengthening its international relations”.

Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2015

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