A blunt parliamentary intervention credits Mahinda Rajapaksa for ending movement barriers between North and South, while insisting that racism and political hero worship have no place in Sri Lanka’s future.
Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who enabled people from the South to walk freely in the North, has now been rejected by the very people of the South, according to Jaffna District MP Ramanathan Archchuna.
Speaking in Parliament, Archuna said he does not treat Mahinda Rajapaksa as a political deity and openly stated that he opposes him. However, he acknowledged that the freedom enjoyed today by Southerners traveling in the North exists because of Mahinda Rajapaksa’s actions.
“We are against racism,” Archuna said, stressing that people from the South should freely visit the North and understand its realities, just as Northerners should travel to the South. He noted that he himself visits temples in the South as part of this national coexistence.
He strongly condemned speeches that promote ethnic division, saying he opposes any call suggesting that Northerners should not go South or Southerners should not go North. Such rhetoric, he warned, only revives racism and undermines national unity.
