“The political history of Plantations did not begin with Mahinda Rajapakse government. Plantation politicians were virtually part of all successive governments since 1978. You can call the names of past governments from J.R.Jayawardena, R.Premadasa, D.B.Wijetunge, Chandrika Kumarathunga, Ranil Wickramasinhe and to current Mahinda Rajapakse.”_____________________
(May 03, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Today the plantation workers vote and elect their own representatives. Beginning from the bottom, there are hundreds of local and provincial councilors. There are ten parliamentarians of recent Indian descent. Except me, nine are ministers.
Therefore the under development of the plantation community is cannot be because of any inadequate political representation. The prime fault is not in the political system but in those persons, who have been elected from the plantations over and over again said Mano Ganesan MP at the DWC May Rally held at Bogowantalawa, Nuwara-Eliya district on May 1st 2008. Ganesan who is the president of Democratic Workers Congress, the plantation trade union wing of Western Peoples Front said further in his address to the large gathering of plantation workers,
Plantation workers have sacrificed everything at their disposal for this country. Hard work of plantation workers has kept this country going for the last 200 years. It is going to be the same for next many decades in the future. Look at the prices fetched by tea and rubber today. Plantation export is the single largest foreign exchange earner in real terms. I challenge any economist to disprove me. But pathetically this is the sect of people who have been meted with the most injustice treatment. One can understand this by comparing plantation community’s enormous contribution to this country with their appalling living conditions. Be it education, housing, health, everywhere plantation statistics are at the bottom. Recent studies have revealed that over 50,000 of under aged plantation boys and girls are working as domestics in the urban sector. Those who talk about child soldiers never bother about these child laborers. Estate schools and living line rooms are no better than cattle sheds. Illicit liquor is brewed, distributed and sold systematically in the estates which keep them down so that their life span is low.
But who is responsible for this horrendous state of affaires prevailing within the plantation worker community? You cannot put the blame on the government of the day. I cannot fault President Mahinda Rajapakse for this. You can neither point blankly hold all the past governments responsible. There was a time when Indian origin plantation workers were stateless. They were not permitted to vote and elect their own representatives. Our late president Abdul Aziz and CWC president Soumayamoorthy Thondaman were nominated to the parliament to look after the interests of the plantation workers. It happened during the Senanayake and Sirimavo regimes. But today times have changed.
The political history of Plantations did not begin with Mahinda Rajapakse government. Plantation politicians were virtually part of all successive governments since 1978. You can call the names of past governments from J.R.Jayawardena, R.Premadasa, D.B.Wijetunge, Chandrika Kumarathunga, Ranil Wickramasinhe and to current Mahinda Rajapakse. What’s more, these politicians held numerous ministries. I can name a few subjects from Rural and livestock development, Tourism, Textile, National housing development, Estate housing development and to the ministry of Estate infrastructure development. In addition today there are deputy ministries of education, health, postal, vocational training and justice held by plantation based politicians. Political power and opportunities were given to these politicians for the last 30 years since 1978 by successive governments. You cannot blame Sinhala majority politicians for all the ills of the plantation workers.
Of course there is a form of blamable majority communalism practiced against poor plantation worker community. The governments of India and Britain too share parts of the blame. But the major blame for the under development of the plantation community should go to the credit of Minister Arumugan Thondaman’s Ceylon Workers Congress and Minister P.Chandrasekaran’s Up-Country People front. Actually the Sinhala presidents and prime misters were somewhat generous towards the plantation community in the recent past. President Chandrika created a super ministry that is Estate infrastructure. Prime Minister Ranil offered the national housing ministry what was previously held by president Premadasa. Today President Rajapakse has given two cabinet and seven deputy ministries to these plantation based politicians. Therefore we cannot put blame the Sinhala political leadership and escape. The major culpability lies with plantation electors and the elected. These men have failed miserably in their respective duties to their poor electors. These self centered plantation politicians have become part of the problem ailing the plantation community. We are reconstructing our historical Democratic Workers Congress trade union in which great plantation leaders Abdul Aziz, Nair, Doraisamy Naidu, V.P. Ganesan and others performed. We have a duty to our electors in Colombo. Also we are determined to the help out our north eastern brethren in their struggle for political and human rights. Yet we have plenty of energy and bravery left in us. Today let us in the Western Peoples Front and Democratic Workers Congress pledge with courage to evict the ‘all-time ministers’ from the plantations and bring development and justice to this pathetic people.
United National Party National Organiser S.B. Dissanayake, WPF General Secretary Dr.N.Kumaragurupran MMC, DWC General Secretary and WPF national Organiser Praba Ganesan MPC and many others addressed the rally.
- Sri Lanka Guardian
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