( May 31, 2013, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) There is so much hype about reconciliation with the Tamil speaking peoples particularly as a consequence of the recent UN resolution and international concerns, as a homemade remedy for the ills of racial antagonisms and ethnic differences in Sri Lanka. The question is how much are the Tamil people take this seriously, to what extent they are interested in it and how does one measure the success of it.
The Tamils as far back as in 1949 just after independence, witnessed with great alarm, apprehension and consternation the unprecedented disenfranchisement of the indentured Tamil speaking peoples both Hindus and Muslims of Indian origin who were brought in by the British to work in the plantations. Of a total population of 7 million people, 1 million people who as citizens had voted at the elections of 1947 lost not only their citizenship belonging to no State but also their right to vote which they had hitherto enjoyed at the elections of 1931 and 1936 having been represented by the Ceylon Indian Congress. This action, unique, borne out of xenophobia on the part of the Sinhala polity as far back as in 1948, needless to say had a longstanding and devastating effect on the lives of these peoples people, their relatives and their descendants. Quite justifiably the indigenous Tamils anticipated that they would be the next in line for any future victimization. Space limiting, not going into details, we refer to the Land Development Ordinance enacted as far back as in 1935, by the minister of agriculture and Lands, D S Senanayake who was later to become Prime Minister of independent Ceylon made sure that the Indian Tamils were excluded from also benefiting from the alienation of state lands.
As a consequence of the continuation of this racist trend, it is not surprising that the indigenous Tamil people of the north are being subjected to the effects of them being denied the unfettered possession of their own lands both agricultural and dwelling with more than 6000 acres in extent are being compulsorily acquired willy-nilly ostensibly for the use of the army to expand their empire in the north. This is being done at a time when the Tamil people are most oppressed. Effectively, the idea is to deny the Tamil people of the concept of their homeland. The fact that there had been vehement protests by them within a virtual police State notwithstanding is evidence of how much these small holdings are vital to their livelihood.
Scoundrels like the minister Devananda amongst other Tamils of the ilk, who are averse to even the minimal degree of devolution, for their own survival, identifying themselves with the Sinhala Buddhist chauvinists providing the Rajapaksas with the slightest excuse not to have the provincial council elections could not have had it better. Naturally they would not want to have their mediatory role for money and power destroyed.
Never before have the army and the police had it better intimidating and terrorizing the local people. They run their own businesses including even brothels. Many Tamil women both married and unmarried serve as comfort women for the military personnel at the peril of being killed or their family members harmed.
We are not for a moment trying to defend the manner in which the Tamil militants conducted their struggle, suffice it to say that they were short sighted in many ways while the fears and the potential dangers to the Sinhala civilians in the south were exaggerated and overestimated for political advantage and convenience with considerable blame laid at their door for some crimes they did not commit.
Given the justice system having descended to the lowest ebb with the rule of law almost defunct where cases in the courts are decided almost at the very initial stage of their being filed, the Tamil people have become apathetic to the outcome of any real justice that would be meted out to them. In the lower courts with the police so corrupt working in cohorts with a hostile army, a judgment with a semblance of any fairness is regarded as an accident. Further, in so far as the political future of the Tamils is concerned, even senior public servants such as Gotabhaya the secretary for defence, purely by virtue of being the brother of the President have the liberty to declare with impunity to determine what would be afforded to the Tamil people in so far as the Northern Provincial Council elections is concerned.
The Tamil people in the north while in the process of recovering and rebuilding their lives after their devastating experience in being "liberated" by the Rajapaksas in their war against the Tamil militants, having lost their near relatives in their tens of thousands, the sick, the infirm, children, infants, their homes, their lands are far too tired and desolate to care for any degree of reconciliation just to save the skins of the Rajapaksas from accusations of war crimes and genocide. They could not care less if reconciliation is to save the skins of the Rajapaksas and their accomplices. They are also too preoccupied with recovering from the experiences of posttraumatic stress along with their near relatives, looking for new avenues for education and health for their children and literally finding roofs for their houses. Many of them told by the LLRC, in order to fob them off, that they should write letters to the government about their missing relatives are still desperately looking for their near relatives who had disappeared without any trace. Numerous letters to the government have been sent to no avail. These are only some of their travails.
Not enamoured by bridges, roads and railways put for international consumption, the convenience of the ruling classes and for commissions from Chinese banks for loans obtained, the Tamils who had been hitherto living in a climate of self reliance desperately need their more basic needs satisfied than these infrastructural show pieces referred to as development.
The continuance of demonstrations of triumphalism as referred to recently by the celebrated journalist and of the national peace Council Jehan Perera, thank God he is still around: "The government's decision to celebrate May 19 as a day of victory and the country's second Independence is another one of its actions that has polarised the Sri Lankan people. Whether by accident or design, it is ironic that through its continuing actions the government that reunified the territory of the country should also be the one that fosters the divisions between the people.... The LTTE has been replaced by the Sri Lankan military who govern them in conjunction with the civilian administration. The Northern Province, where the first gunshots of the war were fired and where the last of the rebel fighters fell, has still to enjoy the right of elected provincial governance even to as limited an extent as the eight provinces do.... ". Nothing could be further from the truth.
For the prospects of reconciliation , this comment should be perceived in the context of what a former Sri Lankan President JR Jayawardene, the author of the 1978 authoritarian constitution, in betraying State complicity in the race riots of 1983, being one of the principal architects, had this say to a British journalist, Ian Ward: "I am not worried about the opinion of the Tamil people...now we cannot think of them, not about the lives or their opinions...the more you put pressure on the North, the happier the Sinhalese people will be here...Really if I starve the Tamils out, the Sinhalese people will be happy.."' (Daily Telegraph, London 11 July 1983)
The expression of this mindset coming from the horse's mouth continues to this day dominating the thinking of the Sinhala polity, inhibits any hope on the part of the Tamil people to positively and constructively respond to the futility of idea of reconciliation.
( The writer is the editor of the Eelam Nation, an online journal)
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