We urge the Government to leave no stone unturned until all violators of the law in Mawanella are brought to justice. In fact, the enemies of communal and religious harmony should be made to pay a prohibitive price for their offences. This is one of the most effective ways of keeping the peace. Obstruction from any quarter to such acts of justice should be strongly resisted. The time is ripe to also learn the lessons of history.
History repeats itself when such lessons go unheeded.
The State and its citizens need to keep their eyes and ears wide open for the earliest signs of communal tension. Once noticed such tendencies should be nipped in the bud and rooted out. We are fully aware that the Government is committed to the building of racial equality and harmony but all sections of the people need to be consistently conscientized on these needs. In a polity which is unusually sensitive to ethnic issues, such awareness-raising needs to be carried out on a sustained basis. Simple grass roots level mechanisms and institutions could be built, if this has not already been done, to identify and defuse social tensions as and when they arise in neighbourhoods and localities.