The week of July 16th to the 22nd has been declared as ‘Social Integration Week’ in Sri Lanka. It was launched ceremonially by President Mahinda Rajapakse at Temple Trees on Monday.
Colombo Page reports that the ‘initiative’ has been launched to tackle disparities in civil rights, to sanctify co-existence and ultimately to unite the nation.
The president was presented with the ‘Social Integration Policy Framework’ which aims to reintegrate all ethnic groups as one nation, free of ‘petty’ social and cultural differences. The framework is yet to be published, though one can only presume it will not outline how the government should tackle ‘petty’ issues such as land-grabbing and militarisation in the North.
President Rajapakse is reported to have urged everyone to set aside their differences and join hands to achieve ethnic harmony - a gesture of seeming harmony that comes weeks after the government ordered the removal of a mosque and a temple in the South as their presence offended the local Buddhists.
While the President expressed his belief, that unless society is equal nothing can be achieved, it remains unclear whether he explained that some groups in his society are more entitled to be equal than others.
