by Shaine
Keep ancient lands, you storied pomp! Give me your tired, your poor,
your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
the wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, the tempest-tossed, to me;
I lift my lamp beside the golden door." - Emma Lazarus (1849-1887)
(January 22, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Statue of Liberty stands tall at the entrance to the New York Harbour. On its pedestal is a plaque in which is inscribed the above words of the New York poet Emma Lazarus. New York City is a mosaic of myriad immigrant cultures – Native American, European, African and Asian. In her poem, written before the arrival of the second wave of immigrants, Lazarus is inviting exiles from other lands to arrive and settle in her country. Note that she is not inviting just the wealthy, the affluent and the people with professional skills. Her invitation is particularly directed towards the tired, the poor, the homeless and the marginalised of their country. No doubt, Lazarus believed that exiles from all strata of society would contribute to the richness of the diversity and character of the American Dream. About the same time that Emma Lazarus wrote her poem, Ralph Waldo Emerson, essayist and poet, also wrote on similar lines. He spoke of the American continent being an asylum of all nations – ‘the energy of the Irish, Germans, Swedes, Poles, and Cossacks, and all the European tribes, of the Africans, and of the Polynesians, - will construct a new race, a new religion, a new state, a new literature, which will be as vigorous as the new Europe which came out of the smelting-pot of the Dark Ages, or that which earlier emerged from the Pelasgic and Etruscan barbarism.’
These nineteenth century American writers sought a multi-cultural ethos for their country. That ethos was to include the poor and the marginalised of all cultures. They felt that that would make the US a culturally richer country. Lazarus termed her poem New Colossus’ invoking the comparison of the Statue of Liberty to that gigantic statute of the sun-god in the harbour of Rhodes, Greece; her welcoming poem can be read by anyone who gets close enough to the Statue in the New York Harbour.
How much would the poor, the homeless and the marginalised in Sri Lanka appreciate similar words from our political leaders here. Instead, there are being rubbished and treated as if they do not matter to policy-makers. Hundreds of families who have lived for generations in parts of Slave Island and Kollupitiya in and around the Beira Lake are reportedly to be evicted from their homes in the name of development. The kind of development that is envisaged is the setting up of five-star hotels, casinos and the like in the land presently occupied by the urban lower middle and working class. Of course, the country needs the tourists and the foreign exchange they bring. We need the hotels to look after them. There may even be a case for the casinos and those comfort lodges that people like ‘Madame Jeena’ run for these tourists and our own hard-working VIPs to relax after a busy day’s work is done.
But that is not the issue with which this column is concerned. What concerns us is how decisions are made to evict thousands of our citizens without any process of consultation, without any attempt to understand the feelings and concerns of the affected people. Instead, they are only told of policy decisions and are intimidated into silently accepting them. They are not told where they are going to be re-located or what facilities, if any, would be available to them in the place of re-location. If they have to be moved owing to some priority development programme, then it should done with transparency and in a dignified manner. The country needs to know why their lands are required and what kind of development will take place in that land. We also need to know if it is going to be possible to re-locate them in the vicinity of their original place of residence. In any case, adequate housing, infra-structure and educational facilities should be made available before they moved out. That is the only dignified way to treat these tired and poor of our society.
Another group of the poor and marginalised amongst us are the recently re-settled persons in the North. They were promised much and have been delivered little. These are the people who went through fear and suffering at the hands of the LTTE. But their woes have still not ended. They were struggling without proper housing, little livelihood and inadequate schooling for their children. The recent rains have added to their woes. The most charitable explanation is that the authorities were simply unprepared for the gigantic task of re-settling 300,000 of the war-displaced and lack resources for this even now. As for the unpreparedness, the obviously authorities believed their own propaganda that there were less than 100,000 civilians left in Vanni in the last stages of the war. The system was overwhelmed the numbers of refugees coming out of the Vanni was very much larger. But that unpreparedness can be passed over. The security forces did whatever was possible within the constraints of government policy to handle the situation.
But the government must take the blame for the post-release situation. They knew the task ahead but the displaced have simply been left to fend for themselves with little support. Some of the security personnel, who also may probably come from similarly deprived backgrounds, empathise with the helplessness of the re-settled and have been physically assisting with the erection of a shelter, etc. It is possible that the government lacks the resources to provide the assistance that was promised to these people (though it seems to have adequate resources for foreign travel and lavish entertainment at home). But if resources have been the problem for the government failing to honour its promises, the government should have welcomed assistance from foreign governments and international NGOs. We know the response the then government received from outside in the aftermath of the tsunami. Undoubtedly, a similar response was received in respect of post-war development and re-settlement of the war-displaced. But for some inexplicable reason, he government has been tardy about accepting these offers. The government reportedly has suddenly imposed a ban on the building of new houses for the war-displaced. Even the Indian government which offered to build 50,000 new houses has also reportedly been irked by the government decision. The International Red Cross which was doing some excellent humanitarian work in the North has been asked to cease operations there from February 2011. Again, as in the case of the Colombo urban poor, there has been no transparency; decisions are being made without any consultation or an explanation for such decisions. Also as in the case of the Colombo’s poor, the government either has an agenda which it does not want to make public or it simply does not care for this vulnerable section of our society, or may be for both reasons. Either way, the government is failing in its democratic duty by its citizens.
Recently, the EPDP leader who is also a cabinet minister referred to a fear psychosis that was pervading the North. The local army commander was quick to dismiss this as being untrue. In Parliament this week, the Prime Minister has repeated the Army commander’s denial. Local residents in the Jaffna Peninsula area however perplexed by many armed men and groups who seem to have taken the law into their own hands. There have been, within the last month, several incidents of abductions, armed robbery and murder or attempted murder. The white van syndrome and armed persons going about in the nights shooting and abducting seems to be returning to the North. Except in the instance where the public themselves on hearing the screams of a woman from her house in the early hours of the morning, arrested the intruder and handed him over to the Police, there has been no evidence of any progress in the Police investigations into these crimes. Like in the well-publicised cases of Prageeth Ekneligoda and Lasantha Wickrematunge, no arrests have been made. In the case of the attempted rapist arrested by the public and handed over to the Police, he may have been a loner (he was not a resident of the area) and his case was unconnected to the general trend of crime in the Peninsula. But the government, instead of issuing denials, must take this seriously and ensure that this situation is not allowed to escalate.
your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
the wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, the tempest-tossed, to me;
I lift my lamp beside the golden door." - Emma Lazarus (1849-1887)
(January 22, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Statue of Liberty stands tall at the entrance to the New York Harbour. On its pedestal is a plaque in which is inscribed the above words of the New York poet Emma Lazarus. New York City is a mosaic of myriad immigrant cultures – Native American, European, African and Asian. In her poem, written before the arrival of the second wave of immigrants, Lazarus is inviting exiles from other lands to arrive and settle in her country. Note that she is not inviting just the wealthy, the affluent and the people with professional skills. Her invitation is particularly directed towards the tired, the poor, the homeless and the marginalised of their country. No doubt, Lazarus believed that exiles from all strata of society would contribute to the richness of the diversity and character of the American Dream. About the same time that Emma Lazarus wrote her poem, Ralph Waldo Emerson, essayist and poet, also wrote on similar lines. He spoke of the American continent being an asylum of all nations – ‘the energy of the Irish, Germans, Swedes, Poles, and Cossacks, and all the European tribes, of the Africans, and of the Polynesians, - will construct a new race, a new religion, a new state, a new literature, which will be as vigorous as the new Europe which came out of the smelting-pot of the Dark Ages, or that which earlier emerged from the Pelasgic and Etruscan barbarism.’
These nineteenth century American writers sought a multi-cultural ethos for their country. That ethos was to include the poor and the marginalised of all cultures. They felt that that would make the US a culturally richer country. Lazarus termed her poem New Colossus’ invoking the comparison of the Statue of Liberty to that gigantic statute of the sun-god in the harbour of Rhodes, Greece; her welcoming poem can be read by anyone who gets close enough to the Statue in the New York Harbour.
The tempest-tossed in Sri Lanka
How much would the poor, the homeless and the marginalised in Sri Lanka appreciate similar words from our political leaders here. Instead, there are being rubbished and treated as if they do not matter to policy-makers. Hundreds of families who have lived for generations in parts of Slave Island and Kollupitiya in and around the Beira Lake are reportedly to be evicted from their homes in the name of development. The kind of development that is envisaged is the setting up of five-star hotels, casinos and the like in the land presently occupied by the urban lower middle and working class. Of course, the country needs the tourists and the foreign exchange they bring. We need the hotels to look after them. There may even be a case for the casinos and those comfort lodges that people like ‘Madame Jeena’ run for these tourists and our own hard-working VIPs to relax after a busy day’s work is done.
But that is not the issue with which this column is concerned. What concerns us is how decisions are made to evict thousands of our citizens without any process of consultation, without any attempt to understand the feelings and concerns of the affected people. Instead, they are only told of policy decisions and are intimidated into silently accepting them. They are not told where they are going to be re-located or what facilities, if any, would be available to them in the place of re-location. If they have to be moved owing to some priority development programme, then it should done with transparency and in a dignified manner. The country needs to know why their lands are required and what kind of development will take place in that land. We also need to know if it is going to be possible to re-locate them in the vicinity of their original place of residence. In any case, adequate housing, infra-structure and educational facilities should be made available before they moved out. That is the only dignified way to treat these tired and poor of our society.
War-displaced in the Vanni
Another group of the poor and marginalised amongst us are the recently re-settled persons in the North. They were promised much and have been delivered little. These are the people who went through fear and suffering at the hands of the LTTE. But their woes have still not ended. They were struggling without proper housing, little livelihood and inadequate schooling for their children. The recent rains have added to their woes. The most charitable explanation is that the authorities were simply unprepared for the gigantic task of re-settling 300,000 of the war-displaced and lack resources for this even now. As for the unpreparedness, the obviously authorities believed their own propaganda that there were less than 100,000 civilians left in Vanni in the last stages of the war. The system was overwhelmed the numbers of refugees coming out of the Vanni was very much larger. But that unpreparedness can be passed over. The security forces did whatever was possible within the constraints of government policy to handle the situation.
But the government must take the blame for the post-release situation. They knew the task ahead but the displaced have simply been left to fend for themselves with little support. Some of the security personnel, who also may probably come from similarly deprived backgrounds, empathise with the helplessness of the re-settled and have been physically assisting with the erection of a shelter, etc. It is possible that the government lacks the resources to provide the assistance that was promised to these people (though it seems to have adequate resources for foreign travel and lavish entertainment at home). But if resources have been the problem for the government failing to honour its promises, the government should have welcomed assistance from foreign governments and international NGOs. We know the response the then government received from outside in the aftermath of the tsunami. Undoubtedly, a similar response was received in respect of post-war development and re-settlement of the war-displaced. But for some inexplicable reason, he government has been tardy about accepting these offers. The government reportedly has suddenly imposed a ban on the building of new houses for the war-displaced. Even the Indian government which offered to build 50,000 new houses has also reportedly been irked by the government decision. The International Red Cross which was doing some excellent humanitarian work in the North has been asked to cease operations there from February 2011. Again, as in the case of the Colombo urban poor, there has been no transparency; decisions are being made without any consultation or an explanation for such decisions. Also as in the case of the Colombo’s poor, the government either has an agenda which it does not want to make public or it simply does not care for this vulnerable section of our society, or may be for both reasons. Either way, the government is failing in its democratic duty by its citizens.
The fear psychosis in the North
Recently, the EPDP leader who is also a cabinet minister referred to a fear psychosis that was pervading the North. The local army commander was quick to dismiss this as being untrue. In Parliament this week, the Prime Minister has repeated the Army commander’s denial. Local residents in the Jaffna Peninsula area however perplexed by many armed men and groups who seem to have taken the law into their own hands. There have been, within the last month, several incidents of abductions, armed robbery and murder or attempted murder. The white van syndrome and armed persons going about in the nights shooting and abducting seems to be returning to the North. Except in the instance where the public themselves on hearing the screams of a woman from her house in the early hours of the morning, arrested the intruder and handed him over to the Police, there has been no evidence of any progress in the Police investigations into these crimes. Like in the well-publicised cases of Prageeth Ekneligoda and Lasantha Wickrematunge, no arrests have been made. In the case of the attempted rapist arrested by the public and handed over to the Police, he may have been a loner (he was not a resident of the area) and his case was unconnected to the general trend of crime in the Peninsula. But the government, instead of issuing denials, must take this seriously and ensure that this situation is not allowed to escalate.
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