This is an interview with a real live Tamilian
This reporter from the Huffington Post is asking me how Tamil people feel. I told her that Tamil people are not extinct and she can ask them directly. I forwarded to some friends, but if you’re Tamil then perhaps you could answer the questions in the comments below, or email her directly to go under your real name (which I recommend). I’ve posted the questions below and my responses (which are quite frankly, conjecture). If you are Tamil do explain how you feel. I see no reason to speak for people who can speak for themselves.
How are Srilankan Tamils responding to the crisis?
First off Sri Lankan is two words. And it is no longer a crisis per se.
Sri Lankan Tamils did not celebrate as much as Sinhalese and Muslims did. The few I’ve spoken to are grieving for friends and relatives in the North. They are basically keeping quiet. In private I think some do regret the LTTE losing. Many simply feel like there is no ‘balance’ now, no counterweight to the radical Sinhala elements in the state (no matter how terrible the LTTE was).
I’d say the response is generally quiet and discreet. The Sri Lankan Tamils I know are anxious for their own safety and they keep quiet. They do help with relief, but they do so very discreetly.
There is also a lot of disinformation and rumor among the Tamil story. I’ve heard the same rape story many times, it always ends with ‘they took the fair one’. Many think Prabhakaran escaped, I’ve heard that the government stored his brain, I’ve heard that Buddhist monks are hijacking relief shipments, etc. There’s a lot of rumor, but it’s hard to clear it up when there’s a vacuum of real information.
How are they helping their countrymen?
Discreetly. Tamils, quite frankly, have to be extra careful because even the hint of trouble can mean detention. There are serious terrorist threats, as a caveat. However, I know that some of the old Tamil families in Colombo are doing incredible amounts of work behind the scenes. I personally work with a lot of Tamils who coordinate huge amounts of aid, but they’ll never advertise it.
In the camps the local communities are helping out a lot with cooked food, etc. Organizations like Sarvodaya have had local village centers in the region for years and those people are helping out. In Colombo I see a lot of Tamil people involved in coordination, citizens groups, church collections, kovils, etc.
Many are quiet and discreet so it’s hard to tell on the surface.
How do they handle the emotional weight?
I don’t know. That’s a stupid question. I have no particular knowledge of the emotional state of Tamil people. It’s Sri Lanka. People deal with death and messed up stuff all the time. Tsunami, terrorism, war, whatever. We’re a hardy people. We deal.
What now for Tamils after demise of LTTE in Sri Lanka?
Up to a point they have to take whatever they get. However, the government has also called elections in Jaffna and Vavuniya. The IDPs aren’t registered anywhere so they won’t be able to vote for a while, but in time one hopes that moderate representatives can emerge. It will be easier without the LTTE killing them off, as they have for countless mayors, MPs, leaders, etc.
I do think that things are significantly better than 1983, but Tamils still don’t have equal rights. Now it’s mainly under terrorism laws other than explicitly racist ones. As the terrorism simmers down hopefully emergency will be loosened and everyone can enjoy full rights as Sri Lankans.
Of course, the state could simply crush and neuter Tamil political activity and keep them surrounded by troops in the north and constantly checked in the South. I don’t know. I hope and work for the best.
What are their expectations from international community?
Again, I’m not Tamil and I have no particular knowledge of internal states beyond my own. Nobody here expects the IC to come in here and carve out Tamil Eelam or anything. I think that is a particular arrogance of the west. Most of the International Community actually supports Sri Lanka and the government. If you look at the recent UNHRC vote, China and India and most of the global south voted to commend the victory and support Sri Lanka in establishing rights for all.
The ‘punishment’ resolution was actually backed by a minority of the world’s population. I think it’s a particular arrogance of the west to think that they are the international community. The geopolitics have shifted and India and China (and most of the worlds population, by extension) are supporting the Sri Lankan state in whatever it does.
What are their concerns and what solution they are looking for?
Again, I can’t speak for Tamils, but I have spoken to some. The ones in the camps want to be reunited with their families and to go home. The ones in the south want to travel without checkpoints, not have their homes searched, feel like they are protected.
Many say that if Mahinda does what he says in his speech (protect Tamils as his duty, not treat anyone as ‘minorities’) then they would be happy. When I asked some guys if they think Mahinda can do it they shrugged and smile.
I think most Tamils just want to know that they and their families will be safe. That they won’t end up in jail or stuck in camps. I don’t know what the solution is, but I think we need a few months to see. The war is still winding down and we won’t know until people resettle.
I don’t think people are necessarily looking for a separate state, because over 50% of Tamils live and work in the South. I do think they want equal protection. The solution, I believe, is strengthening our own democracy and improving our government by participation. I don’t know if most Tamils here have the same hope, or faith.
Good Post! Hats Off!
You Canadian brat. You have no right to speak for any Sri Lanka, let alone the Tamil people. You think just because spend a morning taking photographs in a camp that gives you an understanding of what they want. You’re just as sick as the rest of the western assholes trying to impose solutions on people without understanding them.
Sampath, do you have a better understanding of what Tamil people want? Or a greater right to speak for Sri Lankans? What kind of criteria do people have to meet, according to you?
I do have the right to speak for one Sri Lankan, and that’s myself. Everything is written from that perspective.
Sampath,
I think you are a patriot and want the best for Sri Lanka. So does Indi. And many others who view the IDP camps as a monstrous problem the Government has yet to tackle. So monstrous that it has the potential to destroy the hard wonrespite from terrorism. The trick is for all Sri Lankans to come together on the big issues that we all agree on. One country, many races, many languages and many religions. All our people treated equally and protected equally under law. Genuine social respect for each other at grass roots level.
I agree with Sampath. He’s a Sri Lankan. Sampath please answer the questions and show Indi what crap he is talking. Go on machan….we are with you.
Excellent Post :)
I agree with ying_yang – you are a true patriot !
‘I do think that things are significantly better than 1983 but Tamils still don’t have equal rights. Now it’s mainly under terrorism laws other than explicitly racist ones”
What a loaded comment. Please elaborate on the rights Tamils don’t have. Because that’s a question a lot of people look for answers to. Not in a sneering way but in genuine puzzlement and concern. And what were the explicitly racist laws in force in Sri Lanka that were responsible in the past for depriving Tamils of their equal rights as opposed to the terrorism laws that are responsible for the current deprivation.
Ratnawalli:
1. There is a quota system in place for university admissions. Until that was brought in, it was Tamils who would
consistently secure the highest number of places in faculties such as Engineering. I think admission figures for
Tamils have dropped considerably since. No education = no social mobility.
2. Tamils cannot study in the Sinhalese stream. This deprives them of the chance to study in the one language used in
government . No education = no social mobility.
3. Colonisation: It’s a strong word but it’s used everywhere to describe the way in which successive governments have
moved Sinhalese people away and out of the south and into areas that previously had a high concentration of
Tamils.
4. the list goes on….
I don’t think Indi was right to have commented on behalf of the Tamil people. I don’t think his grasp of the issues extends to a significant depth but he’s trying and that’s more than the goons with flags were doing a month ago.
It’s also quite possibly more than you’ve done if your comments are anything to go by.
@Ratnawalli
I’ve gone into it at greater length here, but basically
Emergency applies to us all but it falls disproportionately on Tamils.
@azrael
I’m certainly not qualified to comment for Tamils. I said no to this person a few times and then just wrote my best guesses, based on Tamil people I’ve talked to. I’ve tried to qualify myself as unqualified and contacted Tamils themselves to respond. Except they don’t
Your first sentence which brands Indi as “You Canadian brat” shows a strait of prejudism. There are people of Sri Lankan origin born overseas and of oversean born Sri Lankan lovers who want to do the best for the country. Indi is persuing a cause of helping people and he is trying get a fair hearing from a cross section of the population by interviewing people. Did you see the interview with the guys who just came out of the pub? Do you understand the underlying problems? “Western assholes” (I think it should read arseholes) is another instance that your true colours are shown. It is a global village. The world is a small place now. All people should help each other and live in harmomy. Indi, keep doing the good work.
Indi/Azrael
I was contacted by the Huff post contributor as well and i did respond. My responses can be read here. http://guruchetra.blogspot.com/2009/06/six-questions-for-tamils.html
Thanks azrael.words for replying. It is as I thought. You have given the classic response trotted out whenever this question is asked. Standardization, Language, Colonization.
Standardization or the quota system in university admissions was implemented to redress unequal distribution of economic and educational resources among the districts of Sri Lanka. A student sitting the A/L exams from Nuwara Eliya for example simply do not have access to the same educational resources as his counterpart in Colombo. Standardization was brought in to prevent students from under developed districts from being unjustly handicapped at the university stakes thereby creating a vicious cycle where under resourced districts are under represented in higher education resulting in further marginalization of the district population. Poorer district/ lesser educational resources/ lesser social mobility for the population/ poorer district.
Due to the historical role of the missionary schools, Jaffna was a well endowed district as far as education resources go. Due to obvious factors so is Colombo. Sorry if all this basic explanations of the district quota system is boring you. But your statement “There is a quota system in place for uni admissions. Until that was brought in it was Tamils who would consistently secure the highest number of places in faculties such as engineering. I think admision figures for Tamils have dropped considerably since. No education=no social mobility.” strikes me as a classic example of a well known, but less honest and less brave debating technique ;making a single sweeping statement thereby glossing over and sweeping under the carpet real issues that would have been cosmetically damaging to your argument.
District basis is a common first year public debating topic in Universities in Sri Lanka. But the essential fairness of the system has always been obvious to me. Some birds fly with the wind some birds fly against the wind. It’s an unequal race so the finish lines have been adjusted. The best birds will win irrespective of the wind direction. A Colombo candidate and a Jafna candidate getting x marks at A/Ls will not get into Uni while a Badulla candidate, a Nuwara Eliya candidate, a Baticoloa candidate with a lesser mark will . This has never seemed unfair to me irrespective of the fact that I am from Colombo.
Unless your statement has a subtext. Such as ‘As a race Tamil people have better brains, superior mathematical and analytical ability. Therefore a higher number of Tamils got into Unis specially the engineering faculty. The Sinhala State was jealous of this and introduced the quota system thereby depriving the Tamils of their rightful place in the scheme of things. (It fits! It all fits! Cried he clutching his head). Well that is one way of looking at it. But not the best way. It’s an ism like the word Sinhala primism that Indi used re Gotabaya and Sarath Fonseka. Supremism, elitism some such ism.
Allocating quotas to ensure proportional representation of disadvantaged groups is a universally accepted method. To native aboriginal populations, so called low caste populations, to women and descendants of immigrant labor forces it can give that much needed leg up the achievement ladder. Naturally this gives rise to protests. In India there are caste protests that their rightful places get usurped by casteless pariahs. Seems mean to me.
I will reply to Colonisation and language too as soon as possible. Specially colonization. It’s a word that fills me with glee. I can’t wait to tackle that. But unfortunately I have to work for a living and my time and focus is required for other things also. (“But soon. Soon!” said she breathing hard with excitement).
I agree with Indi that in the sense he means Tamil people do not have equal rights. When it comes to freedom of movement, freedom from harassment and freedom from undue arrest, freedom from being unjustly detained there are grave violations. These are symptoms and complications of that malignant tumor terrorism. Now that has been miraculously cured these symptoms should gradually disappear. If they don’t that means there’s a tumour growing somewhere else. If there is let us hope it can be destroyed before it grows malignant.
Nice…may I quote you on this succinct and clear debunking of the quota system myth?
Yes you may.
ratnawalli,
i certainly don’t agree with geographic affirmative action but do agree with affirmative action on the basis of income. Money in most places does determine access to and quality of education.
It seems as if you think (remember: AS IF) the Tamils who moved away before 1983 were doing so simply because they hated Singhalese and refused to learn it (as you unilaterally supplied the subtext for the previous commenter, so shall I, but with a wink and a nod.) This is simply not the case. I have relatives who did so and could read and write Tamil, Singhalese and English. Surely they did not move away on the strength of a suspicion that they would not get a fair shake but experience of something–i’m not sure what but i’d like to know what you think.
WRT to Jaffna, would you say that children there are now assured of receiving a better education than those in Badulla, Batticaloa and Nuwar Eliya? If this affirmative action for the rural population (by geography) is justifiable, will the general population accept that Jaffna kids are getting a leg up over the very rural children this district allocation system was designed to assist? Conversely, how will politicians justify the continued privileging of rural district kids over Jaffna kids when it is now quite obvious that even the poorest bugger in Badulla wouldn’t dream of taking a chance on life in Jaffna? Do they even have to?
Indi,
In your last comment on this post you provide a link to an article that you wrote for montage in late 2008 where you say:
“What does it profit a nation to gain the Wanni and lose its Constitution? What does it profit a nation to gain brush land and lose its own people to migration and death?
If you’re fighting for Sri Lanka and believe in Sri Lanka, then Sarath Fonseka and Gotabaya Rajapakse are the most unpatriotic people imaginable.”
I wonder whether you still standby what you said especially the second limb of the first para cited above.
Nayagam thanks for replying. District basis merely allocates quotas to districts to ensure that each district gets adequately (proportionately) represented in the higher education scene. In other words district basis attempts to approximate the district’s share in the total university student population to its share in the Sri Lanka’s population. There’s no ‘privileging’ as you put it. There is a proportionate quata. If a district is well endowed with educational resources the cut off score for uni entrance goes up to ensure the uni admissions stay within the quota because there is an abundance of academic success. When a district is poorly endowed the cut off score goes down in order to extract the quota from amongst the scarcity of academic success. Cut off scores will rise and fall depending on the rise and fall of a district’s academic performance. No one could say Jafna is privileged now. Ironically as Jafna’s fortunes fall it is district basis that would prevent Jafna from getting under represented in higher education by setting up a lower cut off mark for its students.
Do I think Tamils who left Sri Lanka before 83 left because they hated the Sinhalese and refused to learn it ? No. I just assume they left for greener pastures. Isn’t that why people leave Sri Lanka? Tamils, Sinhalese, Muslims Burghers? “They did not move away on the strength of a suspicion that they would not get a fair shake but the experience of something” What did they experience? That this country was a dead end? hopeless? never would amount to anything? Or simply a certainty that the grass would be greener in the first world. I don’t know. Could you tell me?
what is the definition of “well endowed” with educational resources? Financial resources in most places directly correlates to educational outcomes–success at the undergraduate level and in the professional world. How does the GOSL quantify the educational resource endowment of a particular area? How is that more accurate and equitable than individual means-testing?
all questions and no praise but i have little time. my apologies.
“Colonization it is a strong word but its used everywhere to describe the way in which successive governments have moved Sinhala people away and out of the south and into areas that previously had a high concentration of Tamils”
Azrael you are obviously referring to irrigation schemes like the Mahaweli, Galoya and etc implemented by successive governments to drive economic development. Under these, new settlements were indeed established in the Eastern province. These settlements were established on unpeopled land. Nor were any Tamil people displaced and chased away in the establishment of these settlements. Indeed as far as I know race was not a factor in granting land in these settlements.
What exactly is the right violated here? The right of the Tamil people to live in demographically homogenous areas segregated from the Sinhalese people? You don’t mean this do you? Do you? ‘Course not. Had me worried there for a second.
No what you mean I think is the changing the demography. You see the changing of demography in the East as diluting a powerbase of the Tamil people in the democratic process. And territory and traditional homelands come into it somewhere too don’t they? An invasion by the Sinhala State into Tamil territory?
Demography is a very sensitive issue? Especially if you are a minority? More especially if you are a demographically doomed minority? Colonization is yet another nail in the coffin of their demographic doom? Am I right here or am I raving?
Can I take it that you consider changing the demography of the Eastern province by settling Sinhala people there constitutes a Tamil rights violation? That the demographic sanctity of the North and the East should be preserved at all costs.
Could I make a suggestion here? You should form a club. All you people who believe in demographic sanctity. You could have headquarters right next door to the ‘lets keep our pedigrees pure without contamination by common stock’ club. The purpose of this club would be to bemoan the loss of demographic sanctity. Membership would include but not be restricted to
1. Those who moan about the loss of demographic sanctity of the central province with the settlement of migrant Tamil labour in the heart of the ancient Kandyan kingdom. A state sponsored colonization
2. Those who moan about how the demography of the East changed to the detriment of the Sinhala interest when the Dutch brought over and settled in the eastern province Tamil labour from India for tobacco cultivation. Yet another state sponsored colonization
3. Those who moan about how the demography of the north was changed drastically by successive south Indian invasions and occupations
4. All those who moan about the demographic upheavals that have taken place in the western province since Independence that have for example almost made the Sinhalese into a minority in Colombo
5. Those who moan about the demographic changes that happened in the Eastern province due to land grant/settlement schemes under the above irrigational projects.
The entire membership is accursed. What does it matter if the demography changes? There is no demographic sanctity worth preserving. There never has been and never will be. Demography changes. It is natural, desirable and wonderful. In dealing with it, it helps to take the cosmic perspective. One people occupy a pocket of land on the planet Earth, leave their imprint on it and move away. Another people take their place. Then another. They all enrich the land, the memory and create the rich epic that we call history.
In the last analysis race is nothing but an accident of birth. Once you decide that this country should remain as one and it is not a decision that should be taken because the LTTE has been defeated and there’s no choice but on the basis that even if there were currently in existence ten LTTEs it would have been morally and historically right that it should remain one country, then you should accept that every Sri Lankan has equal territorial rights to all parts of Sri Lanka.
The right to maintain an inviolate, sacred demography within any area of the country is not a right any race should have. If you believe that you will believe anything. Including in Sri Lanka there are Tamil areas and all the rest are multicultural areas.
Nayagan
Educational resource endowment in a district can be quantified through indicators such as number of qualified teachers in the district, student teacher ratio, the number of functional schools in the district, availability and access to libraries, labs and other resources, etc.
But GOSL does not have to quantify the educational endowment of a particular district to operate the district quota system. A quota is allocated to every the district to ensure that it is represented proportionate to its population. When a district is well endowed an abundance of academic success occurs naturally year after year. That’s why to select the allocated number from a amongst a well performing many the government has to set the cut off score high. When a district has scarce resources that district naturally produces a scarcity of academic success. So to select the allocated number from among a lesser performing population the cut off score has to be low.
GOSL does not sit there and quantify resources and then set the cut off score. For example say there was a cosmic radiation spill over monaragala and the students suddenly got a boost of intelligence their cut off point would go up without the GOSL ever having to know about the spill or the intelligence boost or educational resources having to enter the picture at all.
GOSL makes an assumption here that if resources had been equally distributed among districts they would naturally get proportionately represented in higher education. Since the resources are not so distributed GOSL makes an attempt to redress the unequalities by artificially creating the result that would have occured if they had been.
All questions and no praise is ok. I wish I could have replied earlier. But I too have little time. My apologies
so it’s not rewarding merit but luck. “Would have been” is a Dr. Suess solution to a very real problem.
Afraid can’t see how luck comes into it
any distribution mechanism that is not premised on individual means-testing loses the input of a variable most closely correlated with educational outcomes.
Where is your evidence that the factors you identified, as judged by a fallible gov’t official, can justifiably distribute resources to the needy? Geographic redistribution is the tool of marxist-soaked development economists without the last 50 years worth of data. I’m not surprised that it has survived so long in SL, given the dominance of statist thinking in general discourse, but there really is not empirical basis for a causal relationship between where you were born and how well educated you become. Controlling for income negates the impact of nearly every other variable considered.
Nayagan all that I have done so far is in vain if I have not managed to convince you of the following
fallible government officials don’t get together and tell each other “lets go assess the educational resource distribution among the districts of Sri Lanka” They don’t then go off and assess same in their fallible way and come back and report same based on which the fallible government allocates places in universities to districts.
If I haven’t yet got that fact across I have failed. This is very frustrating. Like being in a room made of rubber walls. No matter how hard you bang your head no impact either on the head or the wall.
The government or I should say the State at some point after Independence realized that some districts were getting under represented in higher education. That is on analyzing the student sample that got granted admission into the university system each year they realized that the proportion of university entrants produced by some districts (Jaffna, Colombo, etc) far exceeded the proportion of the district population to the entire population. And that there were some districts that produced a proportion of university entrants far lower than their population warranted. The reason for this was crystal clear to the State. It was not rocket science. In Sri Lanka most people get their education from the state run free education teat. And the State knows exactly how State education resources are distributed. And also how non State resources are distributed.
And so it was decided by the State to fill a certain percentage of available places in the state University system based on merit that is performance at A/Ls. The rest of the places it was decided to distribute proportionately to the district population among the districts of Sri Lanka.
Now Nayagan the crux of the matter is this. Do you or do you not believe that all the districts of Sri Lanka should be proportionately represented in the higher education scenario. What do you really believe? If all the districts in Sri Lanka had been equally developed and endowed with infrastructure and resources would they be represented within the Uni entrant population proportionately to their populations. Or would some districts produce a disproportionate number of entrants because they were inherently smarter or stupider?
“But there really is not empirical basis for a causal relationship between where you were born and how well educated you become”
Erm…Nayagan but there is there most definitely is. Consider this scenario
A student from an average lower middle class income family in Colombo can get into a bus, pay Rs 9 and after about ten minutes journey go to a school where there would be basic but functional class rooms. Where every student will have a desk and a chair. Where at least 6 out of 8 study periods in the day will be reserved for teaching because there will be at least one qualified or partly qualified teacher to teach each subject. Wwhere there will be at least one basic lab to do the practicals. Where there will be at least a moderately equipped library to refer things for assignments. Where there will even be luxuries like a nominal play ground, toilets etc. After school a few rupees bus ride will bring that student to a mass tuition class where the same subjects taught at the school will be taught with more panache, flare and verve by a tuition master in more interesting and innovative ways to make the subject come alive for the student. So that dull subjects will miraculously become favorites. After one hour in the class another bus ride around Rs. 25/- will bring him home. So that an average study day in the life of such a student can end without too much hardship. Even if their school library lacked those necessary reference books and facilities there would be the Colombo public library like a beacon lighting the academic darkness mostly just a single bus ride away from anywhere within the Colombo district.
Now let’s take a student from a lower middle class family of the same average income living and studying in Badulla, Monaragala or Baticoloa. To get to the nearest school more likely than not he would get up at the un Godly hour 4.30, walk two kilometers along a solitary, hilly road that would give backache to a to a Colombo bred person. Because there would be no buses and most likely the road would not be fit for a bus. And what would await him at the end of such hardship? A school that will not have the full compliment of buildings. Where the class room may be an improvised shack which will be unusable in rain. Where only during 2 out of 8 study periods will any teaching take place due to lack of qualified teachers and the unwillingness of any qualified teacher to stay on in such a school. Where covering the syllabus would be a beautiful but remote dream. Library, labs? Forget them. Tuition classess? After another 2 km walk on foot home are you joking?
So can you see how a student can be a prisoner of geography in a setting like Sri Lanka where the welfare State has taken on the burden of educating the population? So where does your brave statement “Controlling for income negates the impact of nearly every other variable considered” stand? Geography does indeed negate and define income. Geography defines academic performance. 3 C passes obtained under such conditions would be equal to 3 As obtained in Colombo.
Your emphasis on income is wrong on another count. State education in Sri Lanka is free. So while income is a factor (at least you have to buy pens notebooks, shoes etc) whether you are based in a endowed geography compatible with education far outweighs it.
So Nayagan this is my reply. Sorry that I took so long to reply. But I replied and that I think is the main thing. Hope you will find this reply. As this page is now off indi’s home page.