Reading through Mr. Neville Jayaweera’s recent news paper article on "A draft manifesto for a Sri Lankan Obama", I picked up the word, "triumphalism" as a key concept that should be carefully understood by all of us in Sri Lanka in the present context. Over the last few months, we were constantly fed with news of the victories of our services personnel in the battle front. As Sri Lankans, we were all happy that the menace of terrorism that caused so much of grief was eventually to be eliminated.

These feelings of the individual citizen were to be accentuated by a vigorous campaign of calls for national celebration. For the last several months, we have been bombarded with victory speeches and nationalistic discourses and calls for joy and happiness, all of which tempted us to hoist national flags in our houses and run to the street and make our victorious presence felt by everybody. While this extravaganza of feeling good is useful to motivate thousands of young persons who have courageously come forward to risk their lives, yet, as Mr. Jayaweera’s says, there is a sinister aspect of the outcomes, which is not readily seen, but is ominously present. What is very positively seen as a triumph that is publicly advertised mainly for benefit of the majority group to celebrate in terms of their own religious and traditional ceremonies, can be negatively seen and felt by those who are not closely associated with such sentiments.

The on-going victories of the services personnel are by no means small achievements, particularly in the context of a multitude of obstacles they have had to face and certainly in the face of the very unfriendly reactions from various local and foreign groups. They continue to fight with the single objective of eliminating the threat of terrorism, with very little concern for parochial political considerations. Unfortunately, the triumphs are generally seen as victories by the majority group, particularly in the political arena. In fact, with the call for national celebrations, only a small percentage of Tamils outside Jaffna could be seen to participate in these celebrations.

Could we somehow avoid this lop-sided triumphalism? Isn’t it time for us to portray the demonic aspect of terrorism and present to the public the value of enjoying the feelings of long-term freedom from terror focusing on the small group of trouble makers, so that all ethnic groups could find such feelings palatable. Magnanimity, tolerance and equity that are embodied in the concept of "upeksha" should be the basis of happiness.

Tissa Bandaragoda