‘ANCL has done yeoman service to foster ethnic harmony’

National Co-existence, Dialogue and Official Languages Minister Mano Ganeshan said the Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited (ANCL) has fulfilled its duty to establish ethnic harmony, while wiping out racism and extremism.

He added that there are racists in the North as well as the South. But as the oldest and the most experienced media organisation in the country, ANCL has done a yeoman service and a national duty to ensure ethnic harmony.

The Minister was while addressing an event organised to celebrate Thai Pongal at the Lake House premises on Thursday (18).

The Minister said that no room would be left by the government to allow the dark era which brought much disaster to the country, to return again. The President and the Prime Minister would never allow to take the country backward.

“The government will go until 2020, even though there are some issues. Those issues are natural and there is no doubt about the persistence of the government,” he said.

“There are extremists in the North and the South. They are cousins. It is an informal agreement between these segments. But we are treading on the middle path.

There should be a difference between religions, ethnicties, and languages. In a certain period, this was considered as a weakness, but this variation is a must,” he said.

He said the Thai Pongal festival has a long history, and such an event paves the way for religious harmony of the country.

It has been reported that the country has 19 ethnics, four religions, and three languages.

A new constitution is being formulated not as a government but as a country.

Parliamentarians in the government and the opposition have joined in the task of creating a new Constitution, he added.

The Minister said he has suggested to the Speaker to brief students about the value of coexistence when they visit Parliament.

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