For many years now, one of the most polarizing phrases in Sri Lanka has been the two words, human rights.
Our fellow citizens tend to divide into two camps. One camp says that human rights form the bedrock of our social contract with each other, and those who we elect to govern us.
To the other camp, human rights is a bag of dirty words. A list of boxes that a government must actively check simply to placate external parties who we depend on, like the United Nations or the European Union.
Whatever other policy differences we have among our political parties, between capitalism and socialism, our choice of foreign allies, agricultural policies, or how to educate our children, we as an electorate must never again make space for those who seek to usurp our birth rights.
That is a red line that we must never again cross.
What we need is not for a 'Big Brother' government to discipline our society, but as a society to insist on disciplining those who govern us and to make sure that they never dare violate our rights again.
Watch the full video below.
