By Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga Sri Lanka boasts of a millennia-old history with a highly-advanced civilisation dating back to 15 centuries. The kings and people of our island nation evolved their unique culture, building some of the largest and the most resplendent cities of antiquity. The first Kingdom, Anuradhapura, with its massive, technologically-advanced irrigation works, as well as the stunningly beautiful dagobas, which were the largest and tallest brick structures in the world at that time apart from two of Egypt’s largest pyramids, bear witness to our ancient civilisation. Ruwanweliseya, Jethawanaramaya, Abhayagiriya, and Sigiriya, as well as the great irrigation works – Tissa Wewa, Kala Wewa, Parakrama Samudra, etc. – still stand as the silent witnesses of the grandeur of the ancient civilisation of Lanka. The language, literary and poetic works, paintings and frescoes, and architecture are marvels that demonstrate the genius of the people of our small island nation. Two millennia after the rise of this civilisation, colonisation by three European powers lasting nearly five centuries successfully destroyed the economic foundations of the country, together with its technology.   The sociocultural fabric that bound the people together into a sophisticated system of rural governance structures, operating effectively under a monarch, who ruled over a strong and united kingdom, was torn asunder by colonial rulers.  Whilst destroying the military power of the monarchy, the economy was decimated. Buddhist religious establishments, together with the educational institutions managed by the temples, were either destroyed or weakened. Sinhala – the language of the people from ancient times – was subjected to the language of the colonists – Portuguese, Dutch, English – which were in turn imposed upon the populace. In place of the pirivena education carried out in Sinhala in the Buddhist temples, modern schools of the Western style were built to educate our children in English. However, these schools were situated only in urban areas and were mostly fee-levying, so that education was limited to the children of the elite – Sinhala/Tamil/Muslim and the descendants of the colonial rulers. All administration was carried out in the English language. Thus evolved the Lankan elite class, speaking English, with all the sociocultural practices of the Western colonial rulers and adopting their religions. The British rulers ensured the undying loyalty of the Lankan elite by means of their clever governance strategy. The Lankans who proved their loyalty to the colonial regime were generously endowed with land and titles, and later, licences to undertake business – mainly in the alcohol trade. The movements for independence and self-rule saw the rise of demands for universal franchise, fundamental freedoms such as press freedom and the freedom of expression and so on. But how would the majority of Lankans – denied entry through oppressive colonial policies – gain entry to schools, universities, the public service, the professions, obtain their equal rights and operate them, if they could not express themselves in the only language they spoke? How could the identity of the nation express itself and blossom forth after centuries of oppression by colonial domination? The most powerful expression of the national identity of a people – its language – had to be freed from its shackles and given full and free expression. The only effective means of restoring the Lankan nation’s identity was undeniably through the vehicle of the language of the vast majority of its peoples. The re-establishment of Sinhala became a necessity to rebuild the national identity of the nation and to restore its self-confidence as a free and independent country. But, where we faltered was when what should have been ‘Sinhala as the National Language with Sinhala and Tamil as the languages of administration and education’ was allowed to become ‘Sinhala Only,’ to the exclusion of all other languages. It is of great interest to note that S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike supported the call for ‘parity of status’ for both Sinhala and Tamil until 1955. Speeches he made in 1944 and as late as 1954 in Parliament are proof of this. The coalition of political parties and groups, hurriedly cobbled together for the Parliamentary Elections of 1956, also included Sinhala extremist groups. Bandaranaike fully understood that their preferred policy of ‘Sinhala Only,’ to the exclusion of all other groups – the Tamils, Muslims, Burghers – would be catastrophic for the Sri Lankan nation, emerging from centuries of colonial oppression. Bandaranaike brought in the ‘Reasonable Use of Tamil’ Bill in 1957 and the ‘Bandaranaike-Chelvanayakam Pact’ in 1958 soon after the Sinhala Only Bill was ratified by Parliament in 1956. The Deputy Leader of the United National Party then, J.R. Jayewardene, led a group of extremists to protest and oppose the Bandaranaike-Chelvanayakam Pact. They were not strong and did not receive much support from the people. The tragedy of our times was that Bandaranaike did not have the courage to resist this weak opposition to his far-sighted and visionary strategy. It forever continues to hamper the progress of the Sri Lankan nation. In conclusion, may I add that Bandaranaike’s daughter did have the courage to formulate the definitive solution to the minorities’ problem in our country. The new Constitution of 2000, brought in under my presidency, is said to be the best resolution to the ethnic-religious issues, continuously challenging the lasting progress of independent Sri Lanka. I did not baulk at climbing steep and slippery mountains, facing immense challenges – even near assassination – in my determined quest to rebuild a great Sri Lanka where ‘unity in diversity’ would prevail for all its people. I worked tirelessly to win the support of more than 80% of the people in the country. Yet, the greatest tragedy of our nation will forever remain that this visionary effort was thwarted by a handful of politicians of the then Opposition Party led by their Leader.