Tamil in Sri Lanka: Time to dream a new

“ Let us identify our selves as Sri Lankans in the national context and exercise our rights. If there are constraints to exercising these rights let us seek legal remedies. Let us march for our rights. Let us sing for our rights. Let us write for our rights. Let us argue for our rights. But let us do it as Sri Lankans.”
____________________

By: Dr. Rajasingham Narendran

(August 14, Dubai, Sri Lanka Guardian) Dreams are a prelude to progress. Dreams lay the framework for achievement. Dreams must precede groundwork and realization. Individuals and peoples who are incapable of dreaming will be struck at the lower rungs of society and the back waters of history. Dreams have to be lofty if they are to define individuals, societies and nations. The time has come for the Tamils in Sri Lanka to dream of their place in Sri Lanka in a different context. The time has come for the Tamils of Sri Lanka to have a gigantic grand dream and then work to achieve it in all its vivid colours and panorama. This dream should envision our position as individuals, Tamils, Sri Lankans and global citizens.


The dream to fly laid the foundations for the aero plane. The dream of reaching the moon was realized through the Apollo missions. These dreams may have sounded impractical and impossible to achieve a century back, but they became a reality with time. Ravana is reputed to have had his own aero plane –the Pushpaka Vimana. Ravana had also summoned his allies from all corners of the universe to support him in the war against Rama. The Ramayana and Mahabharatha describe in detail wars that involved technologies that are akin to modern multi-barrel guns, cluster bombs, thermo baric bombs, inter-continental missiles and more. To many these may be fictions of Valmiki's and Vyasa's imaginations, as these epics are thousands of years old. However, even those who sneer at these legends, have to accept the people of that vintage were capable of such grand dreams. In many instances, either history has repeated itself or the dreams of the past have reached fruition now! We are today enthralled by the idea of intergalactic travel and the presence of life elsewhere in the universe. These dreams also will come true some day.

Tamils have to start dreaming of a glorious future, if they are to come out of the rut – mental, social, economical and cultural, they are currently in. The failure of one dream, however flawed it was and however debilitating it has been, should not be the end of dreaming. Independent Eelam was a dream bound to fail, because it was unwarranted, extreme, ill-conceived, ill-defined and very badly executed. It was the dream of mediocre and selfish politicians, and hot-blooded youth, which became the emotional burden of the Tamils over time. It was a dream that misdirected the Tamils over several decades and has led them to disaster. However it was a dream that was built on the core desire of Tamils to be citizens with equal rights, equal obligations, equal opportunities, equal freedoms and equal safety. The dream of the Tamils to be a successful people in Sri Lanka which was encompassed within the larger dream of Eelam, has not failed. It has to be re-focused, better defined, re-directed and given new life, now.

The Tamil dream of standing tall in the land of our birth, has only suffered a temporary set back in term of our long history. We are a capable people who have had our ups and downs in history. We recovered from the brutality of the Portuguese invasion and the repressive colonialism that followed. We are capable of recovering from the effects and after-effects of the recently concluded civil war. 'We will do it ' has to be our slogan and this will be done within the context of a united Sri Lanka, however hard the tasks ahead are bound to be. It is not going to be easy, but it can be done.

To dream will be healing. We have to heal ourselves. It is futile to expect others to heal us. The dream and the optimism it will entail, will help us come out of our misery- in some instances justifiable and in others a figment of our imagination. The dream will help us relegate a past that was hurtful to many, to the back burner. We have been conditioned by our politicians and militants to view every problem that confronts us nationally as a grievance and as a slight. Our wounds are to a considerable extent self inflicted. We cannot play martyrs for ever and continue the self flagellation. We should not lose our ability to look ahead and seek new horizons. If we could have invested- willingly and unwillingly- our monies to build a war machine that has surprised the world, we can find the resources and resourcefulness to fund the grandest dream. Let us find the will to work towards a future that will be better for us, our fellow citizens, our country and the world.

We have funded a war and supported it- mostly as outsiders- in pursuit of a flawed and ultimately failed dream. The world knows now there are Tamils, who have stood up for their rights in Sri Lanka and have suffered immensely as a result. We have won respect for the manner in which we were organized to fight the war. However, we have been also painted as criminals, weapon smugglers, drug peddlers, human traffickers, terrorists, suicide bombers, blackmailers and a people without moral scruples. These characterizations have overtaken our previous reputation as a highly educated and cultured people. We tolerated criminality in the name of a liberation struggle and it turned out to be a Faustian bargain. We have a big task ahead to regain our reputation as a people. Our dream should include moral and spiritual recovery as a major component. If we do not, we will not have the right to call ourselves Tamils.

The major components that have to form the four pillars of our dream should be:
Education ( Kalvi),
Ability (Thiramai),
Courage / Bravery (Veeram) and
Wealth (Selvam)

If we can erect these pillars, strong and tall, as quickly as possible, we will automatically regain our dignity as a people within Sri Lanka, exercise our rights of citizenship and gain the power to influence affairs in Sri Lanka. In a global village, the world is fast becoming, it is futile and foolish to base our grievances on concepts such as ethnicity, religion and land boundaries- concepts that belong to the past. We have a right to be Tamils. But, we have a greater right to be human beings. Individual rights are becoming more important than group rights, in the world of today. We have to acquire the tools needed to succeed in the 21st century and beyond as individuals and the pillars listed above would provide these.

Education (Kalvi): This has to be the foundation on which our society is founded. To be educated is more than being literate and skilled. It is a combination of knowledge, experience, culture and wisdom. Education is confused today with literacy and skills. An illiterate person can be educated and a literate person an absolute imbecile. Education should not be a box in which we are locked in. It should be the key to open the world to us and, appreciate its beauty and recognize its ugliness.

Education should broaden our thinking and help us understand our own language, history and culture, while appreciating those of others. We have to pave the way for our youth to tread new paths in the pursuit of real education. If our schools are incapable of providing such an education, we have to evolve alternate mechanisms to supplement the mediocre material our youth are stuffed with.

Tamils in the post independence years strived to produce clerks, accountants, lawyers, doctors and engineers, while neglecting to ensure that they were also educated men and women. This was the chink in our armour. We failed to produce thinking persons. Our militants having understood thinking men and women will undermine their hegemony took upon themselves the task of eliminating or driving into exile even the few who could do so. We have to have an educational system that produces skilled men and women, but we have to make sure they are 'Educated' in the true sense of the word. The education system should produce creative men and women, and a surfeit of entrepreneurs.

We have to also become Tamils in the true sense of the word. Being a Tamil is a way of life. It goes beyond speaking a language. Tamil is the only language that is classified into Prose (Iyal), Music (Isai) and Drama (Nadaham). We have to learn not only Tamil better, but also Sinhala, English, Hindi, French, German, Spanish and Mandarin. We have to lead the Tamils the world over in being Tamils and projecting our Tamil culture, while also imbibing the best from other languages and cultures, as a means to progress.

We have to have the best libraries, museums, schools, music and dance academies, technical colleges and universities. We have to have the best teachers and professors. We have a huge task to revamp our universities and make them centres of learning, excellence and wisdom. We have a big task in making our schools geared to the needs of our people and the 21st century.

Ability (Thiramai): We have to acquire skills that are productive and of value in the modern world. We have to strive to be the best in what ever we do. Our skills must benefit our people, our country and the world. Our skills must be an adornment on our education. We should as a people become excellent farmers, craftsmen, sportsmen, musicians, technicians, cinematographers, technicians, IT professionals, architects, doctors, engineers, scientists, historians, anthropologists, geologists, clerks etc. We should become valuable to our country and contribute to its progress. We should be wanted and not just tolerated. We should be an asset and not a liability. We should be recognized for our excellence the world over.

Courage/ Bravery (Veeram): One has to be brave to survive and succeed in this world. This world is not for the meek and the cowards. Bearing arms and fighting wars is not bravery. It is the weak who need arms to fight for their cause. We need courage to meet challenges and adapt to changing circumstances. We need the moral and physical courage to stand up to evil. We need courage to face the truth. We need to be brave to stand up to bullying and intimidation. We were and are a timid people, despite the war fought in our name. We should not continue to be so. We need to have the courage to stand tall, where ever we are. We need courage to forgive the sins of others and do penance for our own sins. We need the courage to come out of our shells and seek adventure. We need to have courage to come out of our villages and towns, and seek our fortunes in the jungles of the north and east, the rest of Sri Lanka and the world over. We need also the courage to sacrifice and return from where ever we are, to invest and serve our peoples and our country.

Wealth ( Selvam): Wealth is of two kinds to the Tamils- Arudchelvam (spiritual wealth) and Porudchelvam (material wealth). We have to acquire both. We have to rediscover our spiritual traditions and roots. There is no better time to do this than now- a time of calamity and decline. We have to become a better people. We have to rediscover our love for learning; respect for elders, learned and the spiritual; and the fear of doing things that are wrong ( Theemai Illatha Seyal – Aram: Theemai ulla Seyal- Maram). We have to understand the principles in the religions we practice and discard meaningless rituals and hypocrisy. We have to have physical and moral discipline. We have to learn the value of honesty and hard work. We have to understand our responsibilities to our society and the country. We have to have systems to care for our orphans, war maimed, war-affected, elderly, under-privileged and the handicapped. We have to develop a compassionate society. We have to protect our cultural heritage and religious institutions. We have to promote our culture and religions. Arudchelvam will make us a better people and a caring society.

Material wealth has to be acquired through investment, development and industriousness. We have to improve our agriculture and fisheries to be environmentally friendly and profitable. We have to invest in education, health care and industry. We have to understand what mother- nature has blessed us and learn to benefit from this bounty. Our agricultural lands, seas, beaches, lagoons, rivers, forests, plains and estuaries, are resources. The winds blowing across our lands and the sun that shines on us are also our resources. The rugged beauty of our lands is also a major resource. The fresh water available to us is the most precious of our resources, which has to be harnessed and used with care for maximum benefit.

We have to minimize the corruption among those who serve us through the public services and weed out the venality among our politicians, if we are to embark on the mission to create wealth. These are cancers that destroy a society and constrain development. We have to demand character, performance and service from our politicians. We have to make our public servants understand what these words mean. Let us spear head a movement to reform our politicians and public servants and set an example for the rest of Sri Lanka.

Our temples, churches and mosques are not only a part of our heritage, but they are also a part of our resource base. Our culture is unique and ancient. This once again is a resource to be tapped. Our people – hard working, progressive and long suffering- are our greatest resource and they have to become partners in and beneficiaries of, progress and development. We have to generate employment for not only the Tamils but for also the other peoples in Sri Lanka. We have to become major contributors to the national GNP, rather than aspire to become a major component of the government pay roll and pension list.

We have acquired a multitude of skills and exposure in various countries, particularly in the west. We understand the working of the most developed economies. We understand the discipline and hard work that has gone into making these tick and on occasion's tock. We understand how democracy works in these countries. We understand how wealth is created and used. We understand the modern day environmental concerns and how we can preserve nature, without destroying. We understand how villages, towns and cities are planned in the west. We understand modern concepts in architecture and house design. We understand the principles and modalities of recycling.

We understand the venality of politicians the world over, and the power of true democracy to rein them in. We know what it is to be exploited. We also know what it is to nonentities in these countries. We also understand how painful it is to see our children become alienated from our culture. We have also missed our homes, villages and towns in Sri Lanka. Our love for our land has not decreased but increased over the years. We yearn to die in our land. We are frequently sad our children will not savour the quality of life and the relationships we had in our youth in our country.

We have also as a community of people living in different countries, collectively the financial resources to invest in our villages, towns, cities and country. All these experiences and assets should be put to good use now to create wealth for our people.

In conclusion, this is the time to come together to build, rather than destroy. This is the time to prove our mettle as a people. This is the time to share a dream and contribute to make it come true. Once we recover as a people and erect the four pillars to support our people, society and country, the political rights we demand will become our natural birth right without any one having to gift them to us. Birth rights are not gifted, begged for or borrowed. They are inherently ours and it is our right to exercise them. We have demanded our rights for sixty years and spilt blood over it.

We have not only lost ours shirts, but also our skins as a result.

Let us identify our selves as Sri Lankans in the national context and exercise our rights. If there are constraints to exercising these rights let us seek legal remedies. Let us march for our rights. Let us sing for our rights. Let us write for our rights. Let us argue for our rights. But let us do it as Sri Lankans. Let the Sinhalese, Muslims and others, march, sing, write and argue on our behalf and along with us. Let us probe the limits which constrain what we want to achieve in Sri Lanka and strive to break the ceiling when we reach it. If the government of Sri Lanka has the wisdom to revamp the political system in Sri Lanka to accommodate the wish of the Tamils for greater degree of self governance, it should be welcome. However, the delay in finding such accommodation should not prevent the Tamils from pursuing our dreams.

However, it is also imperative that the other peoples in Sri Lanka share our dream and accrue benefits from our dream. We should not forget that a vital component of our dream is to be part of a united Sri Lanka and a vital component of Sri Lanka's social, political and economic development.

-Sri Lanka Guardian