Rajinikanth mural in a bombed out building in Kayts, Jaffna.
Property is almost guaranteed beef within any family. Sri Lanka is no different. Right now a few quotes seem to be driving the perennial debate, namely those from DefSec Gotabhaya Rajapaksa (in a BBC interview) and ITAK party leader Sampanthan. Their issue? Who exactly does the north and east belong to?
Here’s Gota:
“Earlier before the war, all were Sinhalese,” Mr Rajapaksa said. Just as “a lot of” Tamil officers worked in southern districts, Sinhalese and Muslims should be able to work in the north. “It is part of Sri Lanka.”
So were Tamils correct to view the north as a predominantly Tamil place?
“Why should be that? Why should be that?” Mr Rajapaksa said. “If you are a Sri Lankan citizen you must be able to go and buy the properties from anywhere. I’m not talking about the forced settlements, I’m talking about the freedom for a Sri Lankan to live anywhere in this country.” (Beeb)
and here’s Sampanathan:
The position that the North and East of Sri Lanka are the areas of historical habitation of the Tamil speaking people cannot be compromised in this structure of government. We must have unrestricted authority to govern our own land, protect our own people, and develop our own economy, culture and tradition. (via DBS)
So, there we go. In GENERAL spirit I must say I’m with Gota, if not in tone. Sri Lanka belongs to Sri Lankans. Sampanathan, as is somewhat traditional for his party, reaches way too far and will likely end up with nothing. He’s careful to say ‘tamil speaking’ people (including Muslims), but the rest of his speech is about a Tamil nation that the Muslims aren’t really a part of. Which makes the east a problem. By 2007 estimates, Tamils are a minority there at about 40%, outnumbered by Muslims and Sinhalese. In my travels there, Muslims and Tamils don’t especially get along.
Even in the north, other people need to be able to live there too. And what about Tamils in the south, or in Colombo? Again ITAK seems to be going away from a broad based, national civil rights platform and favoring a racial, territorial stance. Which A) doesn’t work and B) isn’t right. There’s no particular moral impetus to a Tamil homeland unless you’re Tamil (that wants to live there), but there’s a deep moral resonance to a Sri Lanka with equal rights to all, anywhere. It’s as if Martin Luther King campaigned for a permanent black homeland in, like, Alabama (unlikely, I know). You wouldn’t get a Barack Obama out of that.
Gotabhaya, of course, is no MLK. He has a reasonable point, but the tone and deeper worldview behind it is kinda… offensive. People in the north have felt threatened and are surrounded by military. They have harder times doing business or reclaiming property than, oftentimes, outsiders. They’re dealing with security forces and administration that often doesn’t speak their language.
I’ve heard about, like, free legal clinics that get disrupted by thugs on motorbikes, slashing tires and threatening violence. And the cops don’t investigate, harrassing the victims instead. That’s not cool, it doesn’t make people feel secure about personal or property rights, and this is under Gotabhaya’s purview.
So, yeah, all of Sri Lanka for all Sri Lankans, but we all need equal rights, which currently we don’t have. Not for everybody, especially for people that aren’t Sinhala, aren’t connected and aren’t Rajapaksa, in that order. The ITAK is calling for a backwards, provincial view, but Gota’s view that ‘everything is fine STFU’ isn’t right either. Freedom means freedom for everybody, to quote Dick Cheney in a moment of inadvertent humanity. In Sri Lanka you can say that the north belongs to everybody, but then equal rights belong to everybody as well. So… need some work on that.
The TNA are ‘moderates’? I don’t think so.
I am not with Gota on this one. Actually the sinhala ppl including their leaders have no understanding about the problem tamils face or they do not try to understand it.
According to tamil sources N and E have been their traditional homelands for millenias, even according to sinhala sources they have been living there for centuries. Therefore there is no harm in saying N has been a tamil area. It is still predominantly tamil. I dont agree with integrating N and E together as E is very much changed now. However still E has a predominantly tamil speaking population. Therefore the easiest way would be to have a tamil language administration in those areas.
Just take the example of an identity card. My ID is in sinhala, fine but what about a tamil? Last week i did an exam and my invigilator was a tamil woman, i wondered whether she read my ID at all, because simply she cannot understand it. See how things become difficult.
The communities in SL are not scattered around in a way that u find tamils, muslims and sinhalese everywhere, some parts are predominantly sinhalese, some are tamil and some with muslims. These are ground realities. Therefore we cant simply say SL is for all SLns without understanding this issue. That doesnt mean a person cant buy land in anyplace they want, i mean the administration.
I as a sinhalese do want to see my sinhala heritage being preserved in south. The same way i can understand that feeling among tamils. Actually this SL for all SLns mentality pushed the tamils into war because they feared their culture would be lost because of a bigger sinhala identity. Well we cant blame them for that as our leaders have not done anything to remove that fear from their minds.
As a sinhalese if i go to Jaffna i want to see the tamil culture thriving there.
after all how come Gota give statements like this to media? He is just the defence secretary. his statement itself undermines gov’s promises on power devolution.
You have talked about tamils in Colombo, well most tamils in colombo have their roots in Jaffna so most of them would move to north once a power is devolved. Other tamils can stay in colombo as they wish. Colombo has been very multicultural during its’ early days. After all colombo is the capital.
one thing that i disagree with sampanthan is tamils should his saying govern our own land, develop our own economy. Tamils should not limit their participation in governance only to N and E. They should participate in policy making in the centre.
this should be
“one thing that i disagree with sampanthan is his saying that tamils should be able to govern our own land, develop our own economy. “
As a SL if I want to buy land in Jaffna I should have the right to do so. If Tamil people oppose this tough luck. We won the war.
i totally agree with sach. i come from a sinhalese/malay background and i can say that to a very large extent the sinhalese do not understand the problems being faced by minorities. this is actually not a unique problem, this is more or less the same with other countries, where most majority community fails to understand and appreciate such problems.
on the view that sri lankans should be able to buy property from anywhere in the country. of course yes, but this is also a tool in which someone can eliminate political advantages held by minority communities by altering the demograhics of a region.
i dont really think gota is very genuine on the concept of any sri lankan being able to buy anywhere either. the fact is that successive govt’s have aided colonization on areas pre-dominantly populated by minority communities and there by have sought to eliminate any such political advantage of minority parties. this is far from private purchase of property.
i also wonder if gota would support large numbers of tamils or muslims moving into one of the sacred Buddhist cities and there by alter the demographics there.. and i also wonder what his defence would be to building temples in almost 100% tamil areas, whether this is just an extension of his argument that any faith should be able to build his/her place of worship anywhere and whether he would also supports the same in the case of the dambulla mosque? i really think not.
most Sinhalese would also argue against ethnicity based politicial parties as well ala TNA, SLMC etc. that these are the real evils. but does anyone really think major political parties like the UNP or the SLFP will protect the rights of tamil or muslim citizens from being trampled due to majoritarian pressure? the notion and concept or being sri lankan is all good, but it doesnt really appear too much in this country bar a international sporting event like a cricket match. the rest of the time , most sri lankan’s think of themselves as being part of an ethnicity. they rush to the defence or support of their own ethnicity irrespective of whose position is fair or just.
until sri lankans are mature enough to step out the shoes of being tied to a specific ethnicity and until people support justice and equality irrespective of one’s affiliation to an ethnicity, minority dominated areas will remain a necessity and provides much needed power to minority parties to maintain some bargaining leverage.
agreed with you totally, where was Gota when Dambulla Monk had a tantrum about muslim temple?
tamils who live out side of their mythical ghetto have lost their cultural identity? have muslims or indian tamil have lost their identity by living with other races?
to solve language problems u dont need to create exclusive lands based on races, just need to implement the current law,saying that sihhala villages like panama in east has to deal with documents like birth certificates getting in tamil, so it is not problem just confined to tamils only.
as gota correctly said. if there is aproblem with the current system then it should be changed to satisfy all the races and not just one, certainly should not reward people for terrorizing the whole country for 30 years. same time solution for a faulty system is not to create a small and similar faulty system just for tamils so that they too can act like majority. even if u create such a ghetto it would not help majority of the tamils since most of them live out side this mythical ghetto.
also how can one claim that north east is belong to tamils when these lands are the birth place of sinhala civilization. until 1600s when ducth brought indian tamils to work on tobacco plantations there is no proof to say that these lands were occupied by a significant tamil population. if it is the case quite soon central province also will become a tamil land soon .
i think it is about time we asa country stop pandering in to this racist tamil demands, if they are not willing to integrate and share this land with all as equals, then problems they faced in doing so is not any fault of others.
These are opportunistic vultures trying to gain something from proposing 1/3 of the country to be given away to 9% of the population. That is ludicrous. Where have you heard of a nation being split and a section given away just for some race?
That said. We should not forget the reason why a lot of minorities feel the way they do is not because of discrimination in a KKK sense, but that they feel discriminated against in their own minds, because the government is incompetent, and they don’t protect all their people, except for people in government and with shit tonnes of money. There is no proper enforcement or pride in law and order in Sri Lanka. Only people who feel ok with not being given proper protection are the Sinhalese (nationalists at that), because they are continuously fed the propaganda that there are others (who happen to be idiots just like them) who want to split the country up.
In any country people are made to feel safe when the Police and Judiciary work as they should. In Sri Lanka it is not a lack of laws / equal rights, but a lack of enforcement of these. Our government forgets that the minority vote base is also a vote base, and they should manipulate them just as they manipulate the Sinhalese nationalists. Considering all the crap they have let some people get away with, do some more evil, put some sinhalese in jail who have crossed the line, make a mockery of them, make our minorities feel safe, and make the rest of us actually feel safe to, by carrying out your duty!
What is so hard about this?
The only person of some what high stature who came out against that was this man:
Oh and if they ever manage to get their shit together and respect the law, they can then safely do away with TNA/SLMC. There would be no need for such parties. Some other sort of representation of the minorities in other parties should be put in place.
But none of this is going to happen because the status quo is such that so as long as there are nationalists who vote for the candidate that seems to be anti-separatism (a myth, something that would never happen without a perpetual war, helped kept alive by idiots like the TNA and Tamil Nadu and the Tamil Diaspora who couldn’t care less), that candidate is assured he will win. That candidate this time is MR, a man who had plenty of opportunity to destroy the separatist myth and bring about real change for all citizens of Sri Lanka, but he instead chose to scratch the backs of the criminals who helped him get to power and forgot about cleaning up Sri Lanka so that people can no longer use race politics. Race politics is what got him to power, and it is clear that he intends on keeping it that way. This will be the downfall of Sri Lanka if things continue this way.
While I agree with Indi’s sentiments, one must also realize where Gota comes from. Before he became Defense Secretary he was a ultranationalist Sinhala Diaspora in Southern California at war with the LTTE supporting Tamil Diaspora there. In that sense he was just as much a racist as the Tamils on the other side.
It therefore not his place to comment on a truly Sri Lankan identity as he really does not believe in it whatever he tries to portray in words and interviews. SO let us just count Gota and his ideas as mere hallucinating with hatred and move on with removing fear from people’s lives in Sri Lanka no matter what race, religion or language they can speak.
So if this government no longer seems suitable for the needs of the time, what can the people do? There is no opposition. There is no protesting without fear. There is no way out of this for the foreseeable future.
Lets hope the people’s attitude changes and they understand that Sri Lanka cannot be divided without a perpetual war, that will cause MR to change his election mandates. But that won’t be happening any time soon with Tamil Nadu/TNA/Diaspora calling for a separate state and putting fear into the nationalists. It’s a vicious cycle, and I feel sorry for the downtrodden classes of Sri Lanka (who no one really cares about, not even the Human Rights champs, foreign or domestic).
A race, just like a caste, is just a tribal concept. It is not tangible. Distinguishing people based on race should be treated no different from caste issues. People inter-marry, so even if one keep score, I am sure everyone has some blood from other “races”.
People like Sampanthan interchangeably use the words “Sinhala” and “Tamil” to mean many things. Race, culture and language.
Race is not tangible. Language and culture is.
And like Indi correctly points out, the “Tamil-speaking” is broader than the Tamil race.
I think the race concept should die, just like the caste system. It may remain for a long time to come in marriage proposals, but that’s someone’s private matter, not an official acceptance of castes or races.
I share most of your views. if you take the Sinhalese and the tamils there is no ethnic hatred among the people per se. but it’s misguided policies of the govt which has landed us in this current status quo. the minorities need to feel safe and re-assured that their rights will be protected and when something untoward happens against a minority community , the govt needs to show that they care and put those responsible behind bars , make an example out of them, this would go a long way in placating the minorities. the absolute absense of rule of law has contributed in a large way to increased insecurity among minorities.
i do not advocate that 1/3 of the country should be given to a specific community, but i do not also believe the demographic status quo should be changed in the present circumstances. i also think most sinhalese have a very simplistic view of the TNA and its policies.. i.e they want a third of the country. but this is just a stated starting position for bargaining as in most cases. the TNA is also a coalition of tamil parties who have different ideals. people like sambandan, sumanthiran are moderates , while ppl like mavai senathiraja advocate separatism. this speech by sambandan , pretty much sums it all up
http://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/archives/5415
you can also understand why they push for greater autonomy, the track record of sinhalese leaders is a long list of broken promises, with the current leader as you say making things worse when he could have turned a new page for sri lankan politics. until such time that true statesman appear on the sri lankan political scene that can make race politics redundant, minorities will continue to demand that they govern themselves and not rely on living off begging bowls from the majority.
This is coming form the same guy who rounded up Tamil people in boardings and lodges in Colombo and send them in busses to ‘where they came from’. Must be certainly because he felt they were all Sri Lankans and could live anywhere they want. :-)
You often hear a lot of people saying but there are lots of Tamils in the south living happily. Reality is you still cannot go to a post office or police station or any govt office for that matter and conduct any matters in Tamil. Heck, even the policeman in Jaffna doesn’t talk to you in Tamil most of the times. There is a constant look of suspicion if you dont speak Sinhalese. The 30 year war didn’t have anything to do with the govt. fixing these basic language issues. But all successive govt. chose not to fix it.
Why dont he build some Hindu Kovils and mosques in the south and also settle Tamil speaking people in what was traditionally sinhala areas and then talk about all people feeling equals?
That would be expecting a Rajapakse to walk the talk. As we have seen that is not something they are capable of, apart from the one of exception of the war where they had others who died to do the walking. All MR and his cronies have is self interest. It still amazes me that there are people in Sri Lanka who cannot recognize this.
….as opposed to the UNP and the JVP and their cronies having everyone else’s interests at heart?
DBS Jeyaraj goes off the deep end:
http://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/archives/6696
And people thought he was a “moderate”
You make some fair points about the language rights of the Tamil people. However, in my opinion, your world view appears to be very tribalist in nature, and one that seemingly agrees with the idea of bantustans ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bantustan ) in Sri Lanka. Do you think, that there may be a way to approach the issue rather than resorting to primitive tribal arguments over who “owns” what land? Is it possible to see Sinhala/Tamil/Moor/Malay/Burgher “heritage” as the common heritage of all Sri Lankans regardless of their ethnicity/religion/class/caste etc. That is, for example a Burgher Christian viewing the ancient ruins of Anuradhapura as part and parcel of his heritage as a citizen of Sri Lanka, or a Sinhala Buddhist viewing the Nallur Kandswamy Kovil as part and parcel his heritage as a citizen of Sri Lanka. Is it necessary that only Tamils “preserve and protect Tamil heritage” and Sinhalese “preserve and protect Sinhalese heritage”? Is it necessary that only Tamils speak Tamil and the Sinhalese speak Sinhala? Is the idea of ethnic homelands a really progressive idea or a primitive one that is not conducive towards nation building? IMO the idea that “Sri Lanka is for all Sri Lankans’ is the ONLY sustainable way to move forward on the imbroglio.
Where did I say that?
Going by Gota’s logic then Dambulla should be for everyone as well right? All races and religions.
Lol! Oh look at the cardboard liberals turning the other cheek at sampanthan’s blatant racism.
One thing is certain. Kelaniya belongs to Mervyn.
You are incorrect, read Jaffna under the Portuguese, it shows that the Tamils were the predominant population of the Jaffna penninsula/Vanni even in Portuguese times.
Well said DBS
Very well said DBS. . its funny that sinhala nationalists and the other bigots will talk about sri lankan identity when it only suits them.
being a moderate does not mean we turn the other cheek to racists like gota.
what rubbish this won’t happen until tamil diasphora or cronies who are trying to divide this country are there. true every person who works for a govt office or police in the north,east should be fluent in tamil .otherwise what is the point of this war victory if u can’t understand what tamil people there are going through in the first place. i don’t understand why govt can’t settle sinhalese people there in the north , should never remove army camps from north east until for sure these cronies and there helping countries stop at dividing this country.