Towards a Sri Lanka without minorities

By Hilmi Sulaiman

(May 26, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The country is breathing a new air freedom from terror and bloodshed. Our children for the first time in their lives are enjoying silent nights free from the sound of bombs and bullets which were music to the terrorists.

Terrorism has given a beating to the Paradise in many ways, stunting its growth, killing and maiming thousands, eliminating leaders and potential leaders of every community. The tigers were relentless in the pursuit of their goals of course along a wrong road. They even killed a Prime Minister of India and a Tamil who could have become a Prime Minister of a United Sri Lanka some day, even to the chagrin of the Sinhala Extremists.

Terrorism in all its forms must be wiped out from this earth. Whether in the name of Language, religion, race or land, the use of terror has no place in any community or religion including Islam. I mention Islam because I am a Muslim, proud of my religion and taking pride in having hundreds of friends and relations among Buddhists, Christians and Hindus without any problem whatsoever.

We grew up in an environment where language was no barrier; lesser still was one’s own belief in religion or politics. But the divisive nature of current political thought and the lack of a link language common to all communities of our paradise have made our youth of different communities, strangers to one another in their own motherland. They are unable to communicate among themselves and worse they don’t understand one another. A generation has grown refusing to understand other communities, unable to appreciate other values and belies and unable to tolerate dissent.

We have hardened so much that we descended to the level of lighting crackers at the killing of a president by a terrorist. Did the fact that President Premadasa came from the slum areas of Colombo too contribute to this saga? Did not our clapping encourage Prabhakaran even a little?

This is our Dharmishta land. The next leaders of our country are being made from this divisive hate filled mould.

The time is ripe for change. Change we must!

My memories go back to 1959, 26th September to be exact. I brought home from school, the news of Mr. S.W.R. D. Banadaranaike being shot. My late father was shocked. political camps. I have neither forgotten nor have been able to find an answer to his remark which was in the form of a question. “What is happening to our country?”

Half a century later I am still looking for the answer. I wonder if my children would find one either. Could one of this great man’s decisions have contributed to many dark incidents of today? We no more have people who could objectively analyse such a sensitive question.

The Bandaranaike – Chelvanayagam pact was never allowed to see the light of the day and there was later “Dudlige Bade masaala wadai” not forgetting the marathon walk of JR . They had their political effects then. Now, we reap the fruits.

As time passed, gradually we have taught our children to believe wrongly, that the bullet has more power in this country than anything else. We have made them to look at the other side when fellow citizens are being tortured, humiliated, robbed, raped or murdered. We stopped shedding tears for death and rape after 1983. We have communities unable to stand up for their rights. Might is right is the recent political thought. We dot feel for others, we do not weep for others. We are afraid to stand up and fight for the rights of others. That is the nationalism we have cultivated in our blessed land, fretilised by hate, hunger for power and the blood of the innocent.

The harvest is there for many generations to see. These are not by us doing something really bad, but by simply being unable to do something… some little thing or even raise a finger to stop the rot.

We don’t weep any more, or feel any more for people of other communities. This is from the people of the land that Adam has supposed to have descended from heaven and lord Buddha and even lord Shiva , are supposed to have visited.

Shock waves went through my body in 1971 each time bullets went through the bodies of many innocent Sri Lankans looking for solutions to political issues. Today, I am still wondering what could have happened to some of my friends from the Peradeniya Campus with whom we once shared our rooms, meals and even shirts, trousers and shoes. We did not bother then whether one was of a different cast creed or race. A bucketing from Marrs Hall was same for all, Sinhalese, Tamil or Muslim. Ragging then did not take us to mortuaries and court houses for there was then no hatred, no enmity and no superiority of one over another. We shared, we did not plunder. We cared we did not destroy. We lived and let others live too.

The comrades, by the way are still liberating people from other people, good and bad while I am trying to find simple answers to complex problems like many others of my generation.

The open economy brought the judiciary into humiliation by the one man whose only regret was that he could not turn a man into woman. Such was the power and pride of a president. Dr. Kaleel who spent his lifetime building a party was publicly asked to quit the party if he wanted to object to the entry of Israel into this country. The civic rights of the world’s first woman prime minister were removed. A police officer who was found misusing his powers against a lady leftist politician was given a promotion. That was our democracy. Nothing much has changed since!

Jaffna mayor Alfred Duraiappa, was the first recorded victim of Prabhakaran’s rusty old revolver. It was also signal to the world that the LTTE had attained manhood. I do not remember whether Inspector Bastianpillai was ambushed and killed before or after this incident.

1983 July, saw the killing of some 12 soldiers after being ambushed by the Tamil terrorists.

My wife was pregnant with our first child. The burning started when I was in office. I had to take my boss home. For the first time I began to think of him as a Tamil. An innocent lawyer of a distinguished Tamil family. Our general manager had to take our legal officer another Tamil, home. Some looked at me in dismay.

I put him and another Sinhalese lady in my car, picked up my pregnant wife, now trembling in terror and began the longest journey in my life! It was from Collepitty to Dehiwela. We dropped my boss at his home to the relief of his family and we ourselves reached home after escaping from gangs demanding petrol form every vehicle and gangs setting fire to vehicles and damaging buildings. The picture of a man being beaten near the Savoy Cinema is etched in my memory as if carved on rock.

My wife was pinching my hand- no holding my hand so tight, that her nails pierced my skin and it was bleeding. We reached home to the relief of everybody. The lunch was half cooked. People running hither and thither.

A young man was carrying a radio looted from a house. Many youth from the beach area were parading the lane with clubs and knives.


A bhikku and a few of us tried to stop them with very little success. Some houses were damaged. Fortunately we could stop them from setting fire to a few houses. Yet the thugs went on the rampage. Smoke was rising from the next lane. There was none to stop them. Galle road was in chaos.

The Sinhalese people have reacted! That was how the powers that be reacted. The black July made history and changed many things for Sri Lanka and the world. The rest is history.

Hate mongers had a field day. Great men like Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan were quickly transformed into a Tamil from being a Proud Sri Lankan. Tamil sign boards were tarred. The ground was made fertile by the Sinhala extremists for the Tamil terror to bloom.

My friends and I would meet not so regularly as before. Our families like thousands of other fair minded families tried to build bridges between communities. One by the Tamils left and our friends, mostly professionals found greener pastures in the west.

Many non Tamils too made use of the opportunity and joined the Diaspora.

I chose to stay behind with my family, in my motherland for we belong no where else, even today.

The children of those who left the paradise can no more feel for their kith and kin here. There culture is no more ours.

Indian food packs came from the Air and stopped the forward march of the Sri Lankan forces. The Tigers rewarded India by killing Rajiv Gandhi and in the process introduced the female suicide bomber to the blood thirsty terrorist community of the world.

IPKF came and went presumably with the help of the tigers and President Premadasa paid the price.

Of course as expected Israel trained and perhaps equipped all sides, adding fuel to the fire and enjoying the blood of the innocents. The terror grew at times with the help of the duplicity of Indian internal politics as well, just as my one time favourite star Jayalalitha did an only a few days ago and is paying the price.

The JVP lost its head and most of the body literally and metaphorically by trying too much, too fast and too big.

Chandrika became the first survivor after a suicide bomber pulled the wire.

History has now repeated itself. But the players are different this time round. We now have the fragrance of a new freedom, thanks to the determination of our president on whom the wrath of some fell faster than the bullets from a multi barrel gun.


The JVP is a spent force reduced rhetoric and rejected by the electorate. Their chits don’t close any more shops or stop Mysore Parippu or Change Bombay Onions into Big onions! The Tiger has been twisted by its own tail. UNP is drifting without a life line. SLMC is in splinters. Karuna is a VP of the SLFP.

JHU and the extremists are happy for their part in the victory. The breakaways from all parties are happy as well and will be vying to get noted by the HE as the best architect of the victory and bury Ranil in the process.


There are in this 21st century some who believe that the Majority will is the only pill to kill…….the minority will!

The world must realize and accept that Mahinda is a different kettle of fish and the commander of the army who is the next one who survived the suicide bomber and lived to tell the tale is not a loser. The defence secretary has not forgotten the splash of blood on his collar when the Tiger tried one too many.


Prabakaran is dead. There is relief all over. The armed forces must be congratulated for this swift finish. The Tamils must be made to feel honestly that they too have won and have been liberated from this terrorist. Though he wanted almost a third of the country for the Tamils, he inflicted the greatest damage to the Muslim community. From the ethnic cleansing of Jaffna and Muthur to many massacres of innocent Muslims in their homes, paddy fields and Mosques, the tigers drank the blood of innocent Muslims. They wiped out the Sinhala and Tamil leaders of yesteryear. They treated dissent or disagreement among their own community with bullets. Karuna and Pillayan must thank the Sinhala leaders for being alive first and in powerful seats next.

How must one react when we know that the one man whose thirst was blood is no more? H.E. the president has given the statesmanlike answer.

“There are no minorities in this country”. There are only two groups in this country, one which loves this land and a minority, which does not, according to H.E the president.

But , many would beg to differ!

There is another group! Nay there are many other groups who should be behind bars or better still, about twelve feet under. These groups love blood and tears as well as power and position. They are more dangerous than the second group the President referred to.

The gun trotters, rapists, extortionists and power hungry hate mongers and the like, form the third group or is it the third force?

But we have to go on looking at the future that will be a new Sri Lanka where a Sri Lankan will and must reign, not because he is a Sinhalese or a Buddhist, but because he is a true Sri Lankan. He should ensure that extremist forces within, don’t change this noble slogan to “ There is no place for minorities in this country”, for it is they who called the Muslims to go to the Middle East forgetting the fact that Prince Vijaya came from Bangladesh and that the same rule should be applied his people in this Dharmishta land. We can not clean the environment by seeing a Prabhakaran in every Tamil and “sending the Sri Lankans to where they came from”

When flyovers are built in 60 days at the will of the president, bridges must be built between communities in sixty minutes. Art, music, drama and culture of different communities should be the corner stones of these bridges of love and friendship not, power, position and money,

There are many more tasks to be completed before this paradise could tell the world that we have no minorities.

Once again we are faced with the crisis of managing internally displaced Sri Lankans. A quarter million of them- all Sri Lankans The difference this time round is that plane loads of INGO and media personnel have not descended with glee on our Island Paradise.

They must be re settled as much as the Muslims who were given the marching orders by Prabhakaran, the most wicked Sri Lankan ever. Muslim land grabbed by him in the East have to be given back to them. Why is the delay?

The Diaspora who funded him, whilst enjoying luxuries abroad, must now think of funding re settlement and rebuilding. The president has rightly called them back. This call should be backed up with acceptable answers to minority issues. HE must also ensure that tiger cubs are not born again in the blessed paradise. No Sri Lankan could have a different agenda.

There should be public servants who know Tamil so that the Tamil speaking Sri Lankans will be at ease in any government department. Tamils should be able to speak to a policeman in Tamil. Road signs and street names should not forget that Tamils are Sri Lankans too.

I was stunned to see the CMC imposing Pali words on Tamils in their Tamil hoardings praising the president . Minds must change too! The superiority game must end too.

Though it is only human to rejoice at victory , we Sri Lankans must be magnanimous in victory and should not take it too much and too far to alienate the losers. It is not the Tamils who have been beaten! Tamils must be made to feel that they are victors too and it is their voice that the world will like to hear. They are not the vanquished!

Though small in number there are groups in this country who feast on blood and tears. Their guns must be silenced too.

The Murderers, rapists, extortionists and the drug peddlers should be eliminated as the Tiger was. If some of them hold high offices, they should be identified and asked to go where they belong. Bribery and corruption must be eliminated. Crimes must be solved and the guilty punished irrespective of rank or position. The rule of law must prevail.

Justice must also appear to be done.

There are millions of things wrong in this country. We are fast getting immuned to social evils and are afraid to stand up for justice and fair play. The right to hold a different opinion must be re established. The media should be free. Might is not right. In short democracy must return in its full glory.

Every great journey begins with the first simple step. Prabhakaran’s demise is just that.

President Rajapakse deserves to be admired for his unity of purpose in defeating terrorism militarily- the first in the world to do so. We salute him and wish him well. The people around him must now allow him to see the task ahead of him the correct perspective.

He needs to be given all the help from all quarters, to rebuild the country into a haven of peace. May Allah guide him well and make him a leader of every Sri Lankan that the country can be truly proud of.

-Sri Lanka Guardian