Sri Lanka Day 4 Feb 1979

Filed under asia-oceana

On 4 February 1979) the thirty-second anniver-sary of Sri Lanka’s independence) H.E. Mr. Nadarajah Balasubramaniam, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka to the United Nations) spoke about his country’s history and its role in the United Nations. He then treated the audience to an extremely beautiful and sensitive film produced by the Government of Sri Lanka) giving insights into the life of a Buddhist renunciate.

Following are some excerpts from Ambassador Balasubramaniam’s talk, as well as a song dedicated to Sri Lanka by Sri Chinmoy that was performed during the celebration.

(Text below will need clean up edit after cut and paste from original report – see image of page to compare in gallery below)

H.E. Mr. Nadarajah Balasubramaniam, Deputy Permanent Representative of Sn’ Lanka to the United Nations:

At the outset I should thank you for inviting me to participate in this function which you have organised to commemorate the 32nd anniversary of our independence. Sri Lanka, as some of you will know, is a small island situated in the Indian Ocean. We are an old people but a new nation. Our recorded history goes back nearly 2,500 years. We came under foreign occupation around the 16th century and after a lapse of something like four or five centuries and three colonial powers (Portuguese, Dutch and British) we became independent on 4 February 1948. We are a country where many cultures have found a place. We have all the major religions of the world flourishing on the island. Sixty-five per cent of our people are Buddhists; about fifteen per cent are Hindus; eight per cent are Christians; and seven to eight per cent are Muslims. I perhaps should tell you that we have a sacred mountain in our country called Adam’s Peak, which is known by different names by the different religions. The Christians and the Muslims call this peak Adam’s Peak because they believe that the footprint at the top of this peak is that of Adam, the first man. The Buddhists believe it is the footprint of the Buddha. Hindus believe that it is Shiva’s footprint. So here Adam’s Peak is a symbol of the universality of mankind. And incidentally, the film we have selected to show today deals with a pilgrimage to this peak. Your Chairman wanted me to tell something about Sri Lanka’s role at the United Nations. This year is important to us because it marks the Silver Jubilee of Sri Lanka’s admission to the United Nations. Sri Lanka believes in the principles of the United Nations Charter and has a total commit-ment to these principles.

During these last 25 years she has tried hard to make her contribution towards the achievement of the aims and objectives of the United Nations. Now, it is very difficult to measure the contribu-tion of a country to the United Nations. Perhaps one way of doing it is to identify areas where we have been elected to office, which would indicate a measure of international confidence in us. In that sense, for a small country like Sri Lanka, I believe our record is not too bad. We have held the post of President of the General Assembly once; we have been Vice-President of the General Assembly twice; we have served one term in the Security Council; one term in ECOSOC; and as you may know, we were Chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement for three years from 1976-1979, and during this period , Sri Lanka acted as spokesman for the ninety-odd non-aligned countries in the different United Nations bodies.

Today, we hold the office of the Chairman of the Ad Hoc Commit-tee on the Indian Ocean. Incidentally, Sri Lanka took the initiative seven years ago to introduce a re-solution calling for the declaration of the Indian Ocean as a Zone of Peace. We are also currently Chairman of the A d Hoc Committee on the World Disarmament Conference, and we were elected as Vice-Chairman of the Committee of the Whole, which is charged with the responsibility of making preparations for the special session to be held late this year to conduct global negotiations to set up the new international economic order. We are also members of the UNDP Governing Council. For a small country, the United Nations is very important. We don’t have the strength to protect and defend ourselves against aggression, and the United Nations is the first and last bastion of defense from our point of view. 34

Perhaps I should just say a few words on the film you are going to see. This film is entitled “Medita-tion,” which we thought was appropriate to show to an assembly like yours which is also dedicated to meditation. It deals with the Buddhist ideal of renunciation. When I saw this film for the first time, I was speechless at the end. It doesn’t have the same feeling as a touristic film. It makes you think about, shall I say, meditation. Thank you very much.