Monday, May 4, 2009

Letter from the Grave

Lasantha Wickramatunga, Sri Lankan lawyer/journalist/publisher of the Sunday Leader was assassinated in January of 2009. He had previously been subjected to attacks from the government, and wrote a letter to be published in the event of his untimely death. An amazing read. Excerpt:

"Our commitment is to see Sri Lanka as a transparent, secular, liberal democracy. Think about those words, for they each has profound meaning. Transparent because government must be openly accountable to the people and never abuse their trust. Secular because in a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural society such as ours, secularism offers the only common ground by which we might all be united. Liberal because we recognize that all human beings are created different, and we need to accept others for what they are and not what we would like them to be. And democratic… well, if you need me to explain why that is important, you’d best stop buying this paper."

link to article and full letter

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