Fear: A Personal Experience in Sri Lanka
By Benita Sumita
“Beware of suspicious looking objects” – this is a commonly heard public announcement these days in airports, markets and metro stations from New Delhi to London to downtown Chicago. One cannot escape the voice of the sweet lady reminding us of the volatile and precarious times we live in. There is a sense of constant caution. However in Colombo, Sri Lanka, the reminder is more personal with a visit from your friendly neighborhood cop (mostly to offices and commercial establishments). I have quietly sat through one of these sessions. In a 45-minute talk in Sinhala by your friendly neighbourhood cop you are also reminded of the terror and backlash that led to the bloodletting of the 1983 anti-Tamil riots. Therefore as responsible citizens of Sri Lanka, listeners are advised to become the eyes and ears of the system. The message is that it is not enough to be cautious and alert for possible packages that could be bombs but “it is also important to alert authorities of anyone who seems suspicious”. This is what personifies Sri Lanka to me – the state of permanent fear.
This is the first incident that came to mind when I was asked to write about my brief stint in Sri Lanka though I have travelled to the tiny island of Sri Lanka several times and on different occasions experienced Sri Lanka differently. The very first time I traveled to Sri Lanka was as a tourist. I gasped at its beauty and made mental notes of the unfailing similarity the land bore to hometown. For my maiden voyage, Sri Lanka was everything I’d hoped it would be – breathtaking, homey and incident-free. However, this picture-perfect touristy image seemed to peel off during subsequent visits.
On the second and third trip I stepped out of my vacationing bubble and began to notice the country and its people. Staying within the seemingly secure confines of Colombo, I realized that the capital was an isle unto itself. The day-to-day routine, the evening dos, and the nonchalant existence give a sense of living on Paradise Island. My first question was to ponder how a people that have been dealing with violence and conflict for over two decades could continue to live as if the bombs and bullets are all part of everyday life. The younger generation in Sri Lanka has not known peace. Some of them began life at the core of the conflict and others are far removed; especially those who primarily reside in Colombo or have had the good fortune to be able to reside abroad.
However this casual demeanor is also a façade of sorts. The people’s persistence to carry on forward is not because they don’t care, but because on the face of it, they don’t want to seem to be giving in to fear. Sri Lankans are no strangers to fear and they have learnt the art of tackling fear. What I learnt very soon was that this fear was not because of the bombs and LTTE suicide bombers that have bloodied their post-independent history. Strangely the people are afraid of the very system that is meant to protect them – the State. The government machinery has an iron grip on the people’s freedom of expression. Since everybody in Sri Lanka is in a permanent state of fear the state has managed to refrain people from expressing themselves as they are afraid of being bracketed as pro-LTTE, or nationalist or anti-nationalist. Any one of these tags could invite trouble from the government or the rebel LTTE or the ever so many other paramilitary groups. By creating frenzy and fear the government has more control over the people and in consequence also creates a semblance of protection. This iron grip has tightened in the last two years as the government steamrolls its way with a military strategy aiming to end the armed conflict through an indisputable and crushing battlefield victory.
It may seem like I am insinuating the people of Sri Lanka are brain-washed. They are not. While speaking to people, I have realized that they see through this vicious web that the government spins but at the same time seem helpless to do anything about it. Of course, sections of the media or the NGO community – national and international – do try to take on the government; most often in vain and other times these face-offs end in attacks on the media, kidnappings and/or murder of journalists and/or eviction of “undesired” persons (foreigners) – who are considered a threat to national security. As a foreigner who studies Sri Lanka, I am perplexed by the politics of the violent conflict and the seeming docility with which its people endure it. In some instances, for e.g. Burma or Nepal, under various determining factors people have been able to rise and mobilize against repression.
Sri Lanka is yet to see such a people’s movement.
Perhaps they have to first break free from fear.
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Man who ever you are , You are wrong about Sri Lanka and government . Understand that we are fighting with world deadliest ruthless terrorist group.
So we have to take steps to protect its people. DONT GIVE EXCUSES FOR TERRORIST.
TERRORISTs ARE TERRORISTs – there is no good TERRORIST.
just wondering what makes a terrorist, first of all. terrorism has many faces, which many people are not aware of. One which is most unaware of is, state terorism.
Kamal, you seemed to be too dismissive of our government. Benita Sumita has given a very true insight into the situation plaguing our country, through the eyes of an outsider. You talk about terrorists and that no terrorist is a good terrorist. This is quite an obvious fact. So what do you call a Government that is collaborating with a break-away terrorist group, namely the Pillyan Group and responsible for the daily abductions and extortions happening in SL today? I would call it a ‘Terrorist Government’. I hope you understand this clearly, because it is because of people like you that the rest cannot break free from fear and start a people’s movement which this country so badly needs.
Kamal above sounds like Rajapakse and Brothers. Yes Terrorism is a big problem all over the world. I could not find any better discription for terrorism. Whats happning in world now how many people know Bin laden or al qida. before 9/11. but situation is diffrent now Means it just got worse. same in srilanka we just got worse off than ever before. Pls tell me if anybody have an idea how to deal with it other than killing innocent people (mainly Tamils), aid workers and school children? Proof is there that the both parties the state and the Ltte are in breach of human rights. Should we call them both are terrorists ? Then the both needs to be dealt by any means like Un forces or Un.
I believe Benita has missed out in understanding the bigoted Sinhala racism of false-history tutored Sinhalese, which is main reason for people acquiescing silently with current Stalinist government!
I agree with Kamal. TERRORISTs ARE TERRORISTs – there is no good TERRORIST in this world.
In my books, a person who kills un-armed civilians is a terrorist, regardless of the medium of killing, whether it is using a gun, using arial bombing, or using a suicide bomb.
In Sri Lanka, there were more than 50 to 60 thousand “civilians” were killed and most of them were Tamils. Of those, most of them were killed by the state forces for the Sri Lankan state. Now you decide who made a good terrorist in Sri Lanka. I agree with you Kamal. TERRORISTs ARE TERRORISTs, regardless of who they are even if they are an elected government.
Hope and Prey for peace for this wonderful island.
What the state does is propaganda against the LTTE. It is done in a subtle way.
When the lady announces that it is not enough to be cautious but alert for possible packages that could be bombs and asks people to inform authorities of anyone who seems suspicious, they mean that anyone could be dangerous in Sri Lanka.
The state carries out state terror, oppression and subjugation of people in the North East and conveys to the visitors “we are good guys look for bad guys” !
The lady should truthfully say “we all are bad guys please be careful”.” We love war and we are dangerously ugly warriors thirsting for human blood ” .”Please tighten your belts while in Sri Lanka”.
Sri Lanka and journalism have been at odds for a long time. Sri Lanka had kicked out very experienced journalists such as Paul Watson of Toronto Star (now Los Angeles Times), in the 80′s. Now, the only international journalists are bunch of Sinhalese journalists working for news agencies such as AP, AFP, Reuters. These guys (and gals) live comfortably in Colombo, simply cut and paste government handouts and do zero investigative journalism.
During the time of Ranjan Wijeratna, there was a programme of forcibly removing the eyes of Tamil prisoners and exporting them. It is not surprising that it took a Janpanese journalist to investigate and reveal this information. The Japanese journalist got suspicious when Sri Lanka was supplying large number of eyes to Japan.
[Edited out - if you do want to point to the incident you mention, please bring out the media stories you refer to. Comments that are potentially libelous will not be published here]. AFAIK, only the local Tamil media covered this cruelty.
Sri Lanka is a failed state. It will continue to be a failed state as long as the Sinhala people remain a bunch of asses — proud asses. Proud that Buddha has chosen them to preserve the true form of Buddhism (Theravada Buddhism) and gifted them the island to do their mission.
As long as they believe in this myth, they will not agree to any rational solution to the ethnic problem.
this is like saying after 9/11 ney yorkers should be not blaming the Al queda but be scared of their own government?
which country are u from benita?
by the way, if you take a walk on the NY tube or London underground you will also see and hear such statements. cant u remember the killing of a running man in the london underground? wasn’t that state terror?
Thank you Benita for voicing what many of us are unable/unwilling to say. It helps when people from outside Sri Lanka articulate the reality here.
‘Ambush’ that left SAS trooper dead
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7337873.stm
please read this article and note the similiarties and and effectiveness of other wars being carried out. i hope the editor of groundviews is able to publish the full article as it would be a eye opener to most people here,