Minorities within minorities

Sinhalese belonging to other religions are minorities, aren’t they?
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By K.S.Sivakumaran

(August 10, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) If we were to trust the President’s recent remark that there are no so-called Minorities then there is hope that most of the problems faced by the minorities would gradually be resolved.

I think we should be optimistic because there is a possibility that the ideal of the Head of State is translated into action. And further, having made a public statement which hit international headlines, the president cannot retract his statement.

Having said this I should add that the so-called Minorities are yet to establish their rights in concrete terms. This should be visibly executed. The Minorities need protection.
Who are the Minorities? It is not Thamilians alone. There are minorities within minorities. We must identify these people in the context of Lankan situation.

Vociferous

Take the case of Sinhalese. It won’t be surprising if we really think about it. There are Sinhala Buddhists (a significant group if not the dominant group), Sinhala Christians, Sinhala Hindus, Sinhala Islamites amongst us. However, the Lankan Sinhalese are a small minority when measured against the world population.

Even though, the Sinhala Buddhists are numerically the majority within Lanka. This makes some ultra nationalists vociferous in proclaiming that Lanka is a Sinhala Buddhist rata.

But one must be quick to point out that such ‘monists’ are out numbered by a truly religious and humane Sinhala Buddhists who want to co-exist with other minorities. They do not ask the other minorities, particularly the Thamilians and the Muslims to go back to Thamilnadu and Arabia. Did the mono-racists know that most of the Sinhalese had come originally from Orissa and southern India?

Sinhalese belonging to other religions are minorities, aren’t they?

Naturalised Lankans

Then we have the second group in Lanka who belong to the Thamilaian community. Even among them are minority sub-groups: the Thamilians in the north, the Thamilians in the east, and Thamilians in the plantation sector. Even here there are subaltern groups like the high caste and low caste people.

Similarly in other groups of people there is also a kind of chasm among the Moors and Malays.

Then there are the naturalised Lankans coming from places other than Lanka. So we have a number of minorities who have their own problems in relation to their individual rights.
Really there are minorities even within the minorities.

Then we have to spell out the rights of these sectors of minorities. It is these people who should specifically state how their rights as human beings are being violated.

These rights have to be identified legally, particularly when applying the Rule of Law and other instruments of Justice and Fair Play. Basically all human beings must be treated as such and not identified with their intrinsic labels.

All this will fall into place if we bring about attitudinal changes among us.
Love and hatred lie in our minds and if we love the humankind fully then the hatred and prejudices will melt and drive us to see the ‘other’ in a humane way.

The Rights of the minorities will then be protected if we all act humanely.

As for the rights of the minorities in post war political debate, I think most well-meaning people among the debaters advocate the application of the 13 th Amendment with few changes in regard to debatable components. That would satisfy most people and bring about harmony quickly and a positive step towards solving individual problems of each district in the provinces.

My views are based on Humanism and Spiritualism.

-Sri Lanka Guardian