Sri Lankan Identity in a Time of Seige
Repost This Article“All along the watchtower, princes kept the view”
Bob Dylan, All Along the Watchtower
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Though it may seem otherwise at first blush, the agitation in Tamil Nadu is not helping the Tamil cause in Sri Lanka. It is hardening majority opinion on the island and serves as a reminder of the existential threat posed to the Sinhalese from across the narrow Palk Straits. It is likely to make the Sinhala majority warier about the degree of autonomy granted to the Tamil majority Northern periphery, susceptible as it may be to the pull factor of Tamil Nadu sentiment given the extreme physical proximity.  Â
While Colombo’s political commentariat had concluded that the agitation in Tamil Nadu was the avoidable result of Sinhala chauvinism stimulated or tolerated by the Rajapakse administration, it was left to Malini Parthasarathy, respected voice of the educated and highly sophisticated Tamil Nadu elite, a director of the 130 year old Hindu newspaper, and observer-commentator of Sri Lankan affairs since the 1980s, to name the agitation for what it was: Tamil chauvinism.  Her editorial was followed by a longer statement by N Ram Editor in Chief of the Hindu, and editorial comments in other respected Indian newspapers which extended the critique to identify the phenomenon as pro-LTTE Tamil secessionism.
Malini Parthasarathy and N. Ram quite rightly pointed to President Rajapakse’s pledge to implement the 13th amendment, and the initial action – the electoral process– taken in the Eastern province as sufficient evidence, on balance, of the excessive and unwarranted nature of the Tamil Nadu reaction.
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Tamil Chauvinism across the Silent Sea
However, it would take a bout of amnesia or intentional falsification to forget that Tamil Nadu agitation – featuring the same cast of characters – was an important factor during the Indian Peacekeeping Force operation against the LTTE and in support of the 13th amendment. Wounded IPKF soldiers in Tamil nadu hospitals found themselves less well-treated than the LTTE wounded who had been smuggled across. The slogan of the IPKF as an Indian People Killing Force originated in Tamil Nadu, as did the rumors of Tamil girls being raped by IPKF soldiers. Tamil Nadu support for the LTTE provided the atmosphere in which the EPRLF’s K Padmanabha and his entire Politburo were murdered in a machine gun assault in an apartment block in Chennai, for which no one was arrested under Chief Minister Karunanidhi. Indeed the entire propagandistic narrative which justified the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi was shared and disseminated by Tamil Nadu chauvinists.  Â
MG Ramachandran was able to play a role in catalyzing Operation Poomalai (the famous “parippu drop”) aborting Operation Liberation of the Sri Lankan armed forces, notwithstanding the fact that Colombo and Delhi had been negotiating seriously on devolution at least since late 1985 when Colombo agreed to the province as the main unit of devolution, through the November 1986 proximity talks at the Bangalore SAARC summit, the Natwar Singh Chidambaram mission of November 1986 and the easing of fuel restrictions on Jaffna in April 1987. In short there was an ongoing process of bilateral negotiation on devolution, when Tamil Nadu was still able to play a negative role.
Tamil Nadu pressure prevented the IPKF from going flat out against the LTTE. As tellingly, the latent Tamil Nadu factor was able to prevent Indian assistance to Sri Lanka to counter the LTTE’sJaffna offensive of 2000, notwithstanding President Kumaratunga’s pluralist discourse and manifest willingness to radically restructure the state. In an interview given to Nirupama Subramanian of The Hindu, President Kumaratunga was to express her grave disappointment.
The Tamil Nadu factor prevented Delhi from signing a Defense agreement with Sri Lanka when it was mooted by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, whose commitment to a negotiated, non-military solution was obvious to the point of excessiveness.
My point is this: Sinhala chauvinism does exist and plays a negative role but not everything is the fault of Sinhala chauvinism. There is such a thing as Tamil chauvinism, which has an autonomous existence, and poses an abiding threat to Sri Lanka as a single country. This is also a factor in the birth and sustenance of Sinhala chauvinism. However, it is not necessary to adopt a narrow Sinhala chauvinist stand to combat Tamil chauvinism.
All Along The Watchtower
The discourse of the agitations in Tamil Nadu (and now Karnataka), which involves threats to cross the waters in support of their Tamil co-ethnics, must serve as  salutary reminder and warning, as must the hate speech in the cyber spaces of the Tamil Diaspora. This little island has powerful enemies with aggressive, expansionist impulses. The state is threatened and has always been threatened by an enormous horde across the waters that hates us Sinhalese. While Sri Lanka belongs to all of its citizens whatever their ethnicity or religion, while all those citizens have equal rights irrespective of ethnicity and religion, while this island is the homeland not only of the Sinhalese, it is the only homeland that the Sinhalese have. It is where we are coming from and the only place we have to go back to. It is where for better or worse, we belong. It is who we are. Though it does not belong only to us, it is the only place that really belongs to us and in the final analysis, the only place we really belong to. It is not only ours, but it is ours. We must protect it and ourselves, for no one else will. We are unique but we are not superior to anyone else. The fact that our uniqueness does not confer intrinsic superiority does not mean we must forget our uniqueness. It is only on this island, in this combination of space and language that we can be comfortable in our uniqueness. We have our own special destiny, though this is not a destiny superior to that of any other.
We must protect ourselves and our home. Given the dangerous environment we shall always exist in – and for this we must thank Karunanidhi, Vaiko, Ramdoss and the claque of Tamil Nadu filmmakers for reminding us – this island will always have to be something of a fortress with its ramparts and watchtowers. This means that autonomy will have to be finely calculated so that it makes the Tamil people sufficiently comfortable to be integrated into Sri Lanka but is not so excessive as to permit interaction with Tamil Nadu. Devolution must be centripetal not centrifugal. Too little as well as too much devolution can act in a centrifugal rather than a centripetal fashion.
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Before Barack, After Barack: The Obama Age
The reminder or realization that Sri Lanka will always have to be something of a fortress state is in no way a commendation of the ridiculously narrow minded and backward sentiments that are being aired by those who see themselves as Sinhala nationalists.  A fortress cannot survive without supplies, at odds with its changing environment. If Sinhala ultra-nationalism laments the impending victory of Barack Obama (whom I supported in print, way before the Democratic nomination) while the world welcomes it, there is something wrong with Sinhala nationalism, not with the rest of humanity. A Barack Obama victory will tilt the balance between ethno-nationalism and republican civic nationalism in favor of the latter. Ethno nationalism, often antiquarian, holds that an older or majority ethnic or ethno religious community has some greater claim over or ownership of a given territory while modern civic (and especially but not exclusively republican) nationalism holds that every citizen has equal rights and equal ownership of that country. (The Sri Lankan state as defined by the Sri Lankan Constitution is a Republic, and the Constitution is the supreme law to which we all owe allegiance).
When General Colin Powell, Jamaican-born former Chief of Staff of the US Armed Forces and US Secretary of State endorsed Barack Obama last week, he gave as one of his reasons his disgust that John McCain had not responded appropriately to an ignorant heckler in a Republican crowd who had shouted that Obama was a Muslim. (As is well known Obama is a Christian who often quotes the Scripture in his speeches). Colin Powell said that Senator McCain should have responded “so what if he is?” and went onto to tell the TV audience about how moved he was about US Muslims dying for their country while fighting against Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Iraq. He concluded that he looks greatly forward to the day that the USA has a President of the Muslim faith. Â
In case some Sinhala chauvinist were to scoff that this is good and fine for the USA a  new nation of immigrants unlike one with an ancient civilization, one may have to remind them that India, with a 5,000 year civilization and a history that produced the Buddha, Asoka, Gandhi and Nehru, has a population that is 85% Hindu, but a Prime Minister that who is a Sikh (2% of the population), had a President who was a Tamil speaking Muslim (when India had an adversarial strategic equation with an Islamic state), and a pre-eminent politician of Italian Catholic origin. The commonality of values and notions of citizenship between the world’s most powerful democracy (the USA) and the world’s most populous democracy (India) will be cemented by an Obama triumph. Sri Lanka cannot survive as one country unless it forges a single sense of identity a sense of nationhood which shares those values of inclusion, equality, merit and absence of ethnic or ethno religious discrimination.
Especially with the Tamil Nadu factor next door, Sri Lanka can stay united only if its Tamil citizens feel equal citizens and partners of this country. Any sense of suffocation due to insufficiency of autonomous political space; of alienation – which is unavoidable when there is a discourse of discrimination and intimations of inequity (“organic”, “visitors” , “majority ownership”) – leaves room for external attraction, manipulation and intervention. A contented integrated household is an entity which can maintain the friendliest and most productive relations with its neighbor. Only a household with unhappy inhabitants can be subject to manipulation by neighbors, and often will be. A house divided cannot stand, and a house which practices or permits discrimination cannot but be divided.
(These are the strictly personal views of the author.)
What’s amusing about this piece is that the writer is evidently grappling with a profound internal dilemma, between adopting a paternalistic majoritarian standpoint and the alternative of recognising the moderate Tamil call for self rule within the structural confines of a single state. This internal conflict finds him straddling Sinhala nationalist chauvinism, while at the same time attempting to in some way reconcile that with some moderate platitudes and the now common and obligatory serving of Obamaphilia.
I wonder whether he’s aware of it, but there’s this wonderful principle of interpretation called the expressio unius rule. The true meaning of the words “though it does not belong only to us, it is the only place that really belongs to” is clear, even without reference to the writer’s assertion of some outdated, debunked and nonsensical notion of uniqueness. The writer believes that the Sinhalese are the only ones who will protect the country, i.e- the Tamils and the Muslims will not, and yet he denies the assertion of superiority. What arrant nonsense? What intellectual dishonesty? What total disregard for language and logic?
The writer must take a stand. Either cast in his lost entirely with the racists, and stick to the first half of the essay and renounce the other. Alternatively, renounce the racist assertion of Sinhala uniqueness and superiority and accept the Tamils as equal partners.
I will call the writer as a “Sri Lankan Patriot” who has the well being of the country at his heart. But he is not coming out with a solution that is appropriate and in keeping with the policies that are being explained by him. I had put forward a proposal that includes all his expectations that a solution should contain.
My proposal is for unitary form of government and though it looks like a federal system it is not a federal system. The system of governance proposed by me is NOT existing in any part of the world. Our country can adopt that system and show to the world that there is a better system of democracy than the one initiated by the Western countries. In the Western democracy there is ample room to practice bribery and corruption. None can deny it. With “bribery and corruption” in the saddle as the ruling majority it is impossible to have good governance. The trouble in ALL the Western countries is due to bribery and corruption.
The writer correctly says that ” Sri Lanka cannot survive as one country unless it forges a single sense of identity a sense of nationhood which shares those values of inclusion, equality, merit and absence of ethnic or ethno religious discrimination.”
The writer has not touched on the subject of bribery and corruption which is actually fanning the ethnic and religious fire so that some can enrich themselves and keep=on ruling the people. That is not one of the actual basic problem but the one and only problem today.
Once bribery and corruption is eradicated from this country (and for that matter from any country) there will be good governance and the people will lead a pleasant life with serenity. My proposal is towards this goal. It is race-blind, religious-blind and language-blind. It looks only from the point of Sri Lanka people.
The sovereignty and dignity of the people must be respected
So the system of governance must be that which does not give room for bribery and corruption.
“The true meaning of the words “though it does not belong only to us, it is the only place that really belongs to” is clear,”
Unfortunately the true meaning of Dayan’s words remains unclear to Aadhavan. Dayan simply pointed out a fact that most non-Sinhalese do not grasp or refuse to grasp- that Sinhala nationalism stems from the reality that there is no other place on Earth which has had a Sinhala civilization. Dayan, unlike Sarath Fonseka, was able to simultaneously acknowledge that the island does not only belong to us (note Dayan’s consistent negation of the word “only).
The recent howlings in TN only reinforce this point. We are resisting the LTTE and Tamil separatism in spite of poor governance, a tottering economy, and censure from the Western powers precisely because we don’t have ethnic compatriots in other lands to howl on our behalf.
“Alternatively, renounce the racist assertion of Sinhala uniqueness and superiority and accept the Tamils as equal partners.”
Anyone with a modicum of reading skills would see that Dayan had rejected the notion of SInhala “superiority.” As for uniqueness, would Aadhavan apply the same for Tamil culture/civilization?? If there is no such thing as a unique Tamil language or identity, then Aadhavan should be the first to declare that Tamil nationalism and political consciousness from the 1920s onward has been a total fraud.
This guy aadhavan seems an illiterate masquerading as literate. he finds amusing what he calls my “grappling with a profound internal dilemma”. The guy obviously hasn’t read Obama’s first autobiography which is precisely a grappling with internal dilemmas. Secondly he is obviously unware of Obama’s celebration of American exceptionalism, as distinct from the NeoCons American hegemonism. My article contains a recognition of Sri Lankan (and Sinhala) exceptionalism, as distincy from an advocacy of Sinhala supremacism.
Ambassador, I’ve read Obama. I”ve heard Obama. Obama is a hero of mine. Ambasador, you are no Barack Obama(with apologies to Bentsen) Obama was grappling with the internal conflict of being half black in America- a far cry from the hesitant racism of the writer.
Obama’s exceptionalism comes fromhis belief that America has the capacity to inspire the world through its constitutionalism, values, protection of rights etc. Sri Lanka is no America Ambassador, and only uneducated, illiterate, bitter red necked racists talk about white American exceptionalism.
that should be, only uneducated, illiterate, bitter red necked racists who hero worship Sarah Palin talk about white American exceptionalism.
dear aadhavan,
I was right when I figured you for a political illiterate masquerading as a political literate. Now I figure you are dishonest as well. I never once wrote of White American Exceptionalism. If you want to read Obama on American Exceptionalism– in precisely those words– please check out his Sept 1st TIME interview. there is a redneck version of American Exceptionalism and a pluralist version. the same goes for sri Lanka.
Obama’s voyage is a model of how to reconcile contradictory aspects of identity, in all their complexity, and arrive at a synthesis. If you cannot appreciate and undertake the search to reconcile Sri Lanka’s exceptionalism — at the centre of which is the fact that it is the only land in which the Sinhala language is spoken by a collectivity– with the need for universal values and equality among all sri Lankan citizens, you will never contribute to the search for a solution. Nor will you understand how, with 80 million Tamils the world over, and 50 million next door, the LTTE has been in action for three decades and failed miserably to achieve its goals, even during the period it had Indian support. Nor will you understand how “Tamil federalism” failed for fifty years. And Indian intervention was reversed.
Of course you didn’t refer to white American exceptionalism, you referred to “Sri Lankan(Sinhala) exceptionalism), which comes to the same thing, The claim of exceptionalism for a state based on the perceived exceptional status of one constitutive race. And unlike in the States, where the red necks talk about “God bestowing the country to the white people to safeguard his city on the hill”, here the claim is that a language that sounds just like Dhivehi and the script of which looks just like Kannada is spoken only here by a largely Dravidian people group who think they descended from the steppes? Perhaps I underestimate the similarities, that safeguarding myth sounds vaguely like the safeguarding of Buddhism story that Mahavamsa enthusiasts get fired up about. The writer perpetuates this fairy tale when he says “only Sinhalese will protect the country” That people like the Ambassador take this view is scarier than it is funny.
DNFTT – “Do not feed the trolls” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll).
Problem is it is hard for me as it is to Mr. Jayatilleka to not counter such useless remarks. But if we realise that intelligent readers will see through the non sense from people like aadhavan, it will be easier to ignore it. I am consciously making an effort only to correct factual errors and exaggerations rather than get fired up about dumb propaganda. Again DNFTT – i know its easier said than done.. I fail my self at times..
The author makes a good point.. When we (Sinhalese) are pushed back we only have the sea to jump into. Like the Tamils we don’t have a safe heaven half an hour boat ride away! So our only option is to fight together for what rightfully belongs to anyone who considers themselves Sri Lankan and willing to live united. On a global scale we are the true minority here as seen by the recent development in TN. [Edited out]
The point is eelam is the next step in Sinhalese extinction. If you think ahead for few 100 years it’s not hard to imagine the final out come through separation. Don’t expect the LTTE to go about normal business within eelam borders. It will be a worse border than Kashmir!! Confrontations will escalate from time to time and it will be strenuous. Not only that it will escalate tensions in India for a Tamil state.
I don’t want to sound like a chauvinist, I am being realistic here – Sinhalese and other minority survival depends on staying united with all races in Sri Lanka not against! Borders serve no purpose in a small country like ours! Should India ever threaten us we need to have that unity to entrench ourselves and fight another day against a true enemy.
Not each other.
this guy aadhavan’s illogic is scary when it isn’t funny. the point is not to compare and contrast exceptionalisms. it is to understand that which is exceptional, unique,specific — and that includes a deep seated collective perception. aadhavan cannot figure that one out and goes on to make the most insulting remarks about the sinhalese. no wonder these guys can’t win the war, have countenanced the elimination of their political elite, and roll on hot tarred roads in the trincomalee sun behind portraits of prabhakharan their sun god wheeled around in a chariot!
Atta boy. More racism from the gentleman please
Didn’t take too long to heed my advice.
Deep seated convictions can sometimes be the figment of a collective imagination, or they can be grounded in reality. The deep seated conviction among the red necks that America is the one last city on a hill, given to white Christians for safekeeping is fantasy. It is also racist. The deep seated conviction that America’s constitutionalism, it;s belief in human rights and the idea of the American dream are all to a great extent rooted in reality. The idea expressed by the writer that the Sinhalese are the only ones who will protect the country and are unique whereas the Tamils, Muslims and Burghers cannot protect the country and are not unique is fantasy. It is also deeply racist and offensive.
This guy aadhavan either cannot read plain english or is a bit of a crook. he says “The idea expressed by the writer that the Sinhalese are the only ones who will protect the country…”
Now where on earth in the article under discussion or any other did I say that? the Sinhalese — and not all of them either– will defend the country because it is the only one they have, but this does not mean that the sinhalese are the ONLY ones who will defend the country. From Lakshman Kadirgamar to Douglas Devananda, from anandasangaree to Karuna, from Subhathiran ( Robert) to the ex-Mahattaya fighters with the LRRP, from Major Azad to Col Fazly Laphir, non-Sinhalese have paid the supreme price to defend the country.
Aadhavan talks of collective perceptions which are realities and ones that are not. the realities are that the Cuban guerrillas won their war in under three years, the Chinese in twenty and the vietnamese beat the Japanese, french and Americans in thirty but the Tamil separatists could do nothing of the sort after 30 years of war despite 50 million coethnics next door, 80 million throughout the planet and at one time the support of the regional superpower….and are now down to two districts. That’s how real the collective perception of tamil secessionism is. what –and how real –is the collective perception that permits a group to prevent a community from voting, murder the entire educated political elite, and cause people to roll on roads in the noonday sun behind a human being called a Sun god?
whatever one thinks of the colective perception of the sinhalese, it has been real enough to ensure the pevalence of electoral democracy for decades, defeat and domesticate two southern insurgecies of large scale, maintain relatively high social indicators, roll back neighbouring intervention and resist separatism and a massive terrorist suicide bombing campaign.
real enough, i should think.
“Though it does not belong only to us, it is the only place that really belongs to us and in the final analysis, the only place we really belong to. It is not only ours, but it is ours. We must protect it and ourselves, for no one else will” – Ambassador D. Jayatilleke
Mr Ambassador, American was pretty successful under white racist rule. That’s been the story of white imperialism. Racism and Success. Very real. It’s just that the basis for the claim of exceptionalism was as fictitious as the claim you’re making here. Come on Ambassador, you are said to be smarter than this.
Aadhavan, why are you ducking from my question? If you don’t believe that Sinhala culture/language is unique, do you likewise believe that Tamil culture/language is nothing unique?
PS- Dhivehi sounds like Sinhala because it derived from Sinhala. Sinhala script looks like Telugu script (Kannada????) because like Tamil script it derived from Grantha which in turn derived from N. Indian Brahmi script.
c’mon Aadhavan, you cannot accept a simple anthropological and demographic fact — namely that the island of ceylon/sri lanka is the only one of which sinhala is spoken by a collective, and that collective constitutes the overwhelming majroty on the island, that collective does not spill over anyone’s borders, and has no defence in depth or land borders and has only the ocean around it. that is what i have said in my article which you quote.
instead of recognising this and working out an equation which factors it in , a better equation than that which exists, you alternate between dissing the Sinhala language and equating the demographic fact to white racist rule.
you’d best live where you are and dream on buddy. the tamil community is far better served by people like prof ratnajeevan hoole Dsc, who have held up a mirror before it. try to do something for a community that is wrecking itself producing more suicide bombers than any organsation in the middle east according to robert pape, a community that has disintegrated into refugees and IDPs, produced the assassin of nehru’s grandson, produced a movement which is the closest one can come in today’s world to European fascism of the 1920s and 1930s ( that’s worse than white racist rule and was opined by Prof walter laquer, expert on fascism– he wasn’t talking about the sinhlaese either!)
If Obama wins the Presidential election on November 4th, it will be because of him getting a significant percentage of the ‘white votes.’
I’m wondering if someday the UNP puts forward a Tamil, Muslim or Christian as it’s Presidential nominee, if the Sinhala Buddhists would vote for him?
It’s more likely that pigs will fly and beef will be sold on a full moon day before a none Buddhist becomes President of Sri Lanka!
Of course, the demographic fact is fact. Whoever denied it? The denial was of a valid claim to exceptionalism for the whole state based on that simple fact relating to one of the constitutive races inhabiting the country, and other assorted assertions about sole rights to protection etc.
If the comparison of Sinhala with Dhivehi and Kannada constitute a “diss” on Sinhala, you must really detest Dhivehi and Kannada. This irrational uber sensitivity is a little sickening and a little Palinesque
The Tamil community has it’s own problems, but the relative merits of the Sinhalese vs Tamils is not quite the issue here. It is evident you see it that way Ambassador, but you tried not to frame the original post in those terms. My project was to expose your latent racism. You duly obliged. I am grateful. Ciao.
dear Aadahavan,
Wijepala already picked up on and responded to your subtle implication about Divehi and Kannada, namely the denial of the specificity of Sinhala and the exceptionalism of Sri Lanka. But let me end this by recirpocating your earlier attempt at a Bentsenesque flourish. Aadhavan, I have fought racism. I was a founder of the movement for inter-racial justice and equality in Sri Lanka in the late 10970s, was indicted under the Preven5ion of terrorism Act together with many tamils inclding EPRLF leader Padmanabha, and now two decades later, am chairman of the intergovernmental body on implementation of the 2001 UN world conference’s declaration against racism while being facilitator-negotiator of several processes of the UN anti-racism review conference in 2009. what you have in sri lanka , aadhavan is nothing like white racism. if it were, tamils and sinhalese wouldn’t have been able to marry ( Obama’s parents marriage was illegal in some US states at the time it took place), Tamils would not have been able to vote, or sit in buses or at lunch counters or park benches or use toilets or attend schools together with Sinhalese! This was the case in the USA until 1960 in one case and 1964 in general, in white ruled Southern states. And not only in the South! I was in liberal Boston in the 1970s when whites stoned buses carrying black kids to white schools. So much for the analogy with white racism, aadhavan. you seem to understand neither Sri Lanka nor the USA.
Obama will win. And that would have taken 140 years after the US Civil War and the defeat of secessionism.
And why the UNP? Had Lakshman Kadirgamar not been murdered by the LTTE, he would have been the closest to such a candidacy someday.
Mr. Dayan Jayatilake does not seem to be interested in seeing the country prosper by ending “terrorism”. “Terrorism” cannot be brought to an end by military means as accepted by the Army commander. But it can be brought down politically with my suggestions being implemented, which are not being taken up by Mr.Dayan Jayatilake. I think I might be wrong in trying to call him as a “True Sri Lankan Patriot” because he has paid no heed to by suggestions for a way of ending not only “terrorism” politically but also bribery, corruption, injustice and discrimination, the four pillars supporting an “evil society”. Once “evil society” is replaced by a “just society” terrorism will just evaporate into thin air without the loss of lives and property belonging to Sri Lanka. I am very much interested in the implementation of my suggestions because I too belong to Sri Lanka. I will not at any time say that Sri Lanka belongs to me or for that matter to Mr. Dayan Jayatilake or as some people are saying that Sri Lanka belongs to Sinhalese with or without the word “only” like the “Sinhala only Act” and it present status. It is the four pillars that support an “evil society” supports “terrorism” in this bountiful country which was once known as “The Paradise Isle of the East”. Let us jointly make an effort to bring back that ” Glory” and allow the inhabitants, who call it as “their” country and others who say that they belong to this country to lead a pleasant and abundant life with serenity. It is to be noted that “my” parents do not belong only to”me” but also to my brothers and sisters as well, who are their children. So I humbly request Mr.Dayan Jayatilake and others to comment on my suggestions that are aimed at creating good governance in the country. Good Governance will destroy bribery, corruption, injustice and discrimination and these four will take “terrorism” along with them. Your comments please.
In the article, Dayan highlights in bold:
“while this island is the homeland not only of the Sinhalese, it is the only homeland that the Sinhalese have”.
This sounds exactly like the argument that has been made for Sri Lankan Tamils having certain parts of the country as their own special “homeland”.
What makes a place “home” for people is varied and complex. It seems to me strange and naive to assume that Tamil Nadu can be a homeland for Sri Lankan Tamils, just by virtue of certain cultural and linguistic commonalities.
I read Dayan as claiming that Sri Lankan Sinhalese have an exceptional or superior or prior or special claim to Sri Lanka as their home, over and above the other Sri Lankan communities. It is probably a common attitude amongst Sri Lankan Sinhalese which may be why Dayan is inclined to assert it as if it were self evident, and express frustration at having the assumption questioned.
The claim is not self-evident and nothing here is likely to persuade those who don’t already hold the view uncritically. Moreover, It seems to me a claim that automatically denies equal “home” status to the other Sri Lankan communities, and by that is ultimately chauvinistic.
dear mr kathiravelu,
my views on this subject are pretty much the same as contained in the new and extensive interview just given by president rajapakse to n. ram the editor-in-chief of the Hindu. a military solution for the LTTE; a political solution based on devolution and the 13th amendment, to the tamil question. Elections and re-democratisation. However, as he said, de-militarisation comes first.
NdM,
there is political correctness and then there is the recognition of reality. i prefer the latter. if there is a concentration of people over time who speak language X, and there is no wher else on the planet in which that is the case, there will be an extra strong adhesive between that place and those people speaking that language. if those people are the numerically vastly superior in that place, then the sense of adhesion is greater. it cannot but tbe greater than for those whose language is spoken by collectivities elsewhere. the proof of the pudding is in the eating: in the event of a threat from the outside world, say tamil nadu, the response of the sinhalese will be unambiguous.
Dayan
Why do you vascillate in your opinions?
In one of your earlier postings, you argued that Tamil Nadu would never support the Tamils of NE because of the assasination of Rajiv Gandhi. Now you have been proved absolutely wrong.
Now, you say that Sinhalese stand towards Tamils will be hardened. Wheteher it hardens or softens is not any one’s concern. The concern should be that Tamils of NE should be given the right of self determination and statehood. The rights of all citizens should be the sole factor. If the GOSL does not give the legitimate rights it will have to be achieved through International justice.
If the majority people decide to do wrong, it means that there is no political leadership to lead the masses correctly. That is the truth behind democracy.
Usually, Tamil matters make the Sinhalese politicos to get into emotional politics, instead of genuine and reason based politics. This is the curse for Sri Lanka. Instead of getting into dirty politics Sinhalese politicos should learn to talk genuine politics, based on democracy, equality, justice and human rights for all.
Sinhalese are being utterly fooled by saying that in any democracy the majority could ride rough shod over the minority. That is “Ostrich democracy”. The majority has no right to violate equality, justice, freedom and human rights of the minorities, let alone the legitimate rights, which the majority has no choice but to grant immediately.
Cameleon politicians always try to change side. They never respect the votes they received from the people. They only look at washing their tummy. This is also reason for dirty politics in SL.
Dear Justin,
You assert “In one of your earlier postings, you argued that Tamil Nadu would never support the Tamils of NE because of the assasination of Rajiv Gandhi. Now you have been proved absolutely wrong.”
That’s nonsense. When and Where did I say that “Tamil nadu would never support the Tamils of NE because of the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi?”
You are confusing the LTTE with the Tamils of the NE. I maintain that the majority of the people of Tamil nadu will not support the LTTE beacsue of the rajiv assassination. And far from being proven wrong, the Indian Express poll taken in tamil nadu proves me right, as does the opinion of most Tamil Nadu mainstream figures. even Mr karunandhi has put some distance between himself and the LTTE. there is however a significant fringe in tamil Nadu that is pro-tiger.
Justin, the tamils of Sri Lanka do not have an absolute right of self -determination. Asbjorn Aide , the UN special rapporter on Minorities made that very clear: as a national minority they have a right of autonomy. In no international forum has a sri Lankan tamil right of self-determination been accepeted or even entertained.
Personally I would say that at best, they have the right of international self-determination, which does not touch the existing boundaries of the state.
As for international justice, please tell me when and where any organ of international justice has upheld a Tamil right of self-determination?
Not even the Indo-Lanka Accord in its enlightened Preamble came close to recognising such a right.
The Tamils of Sri Lanka can fight on for self determination for the next decades as have for decades past, with the same result: nothing, or more correctly, reverse evolution.
Or they can get realistic and fight for integration, equal rights, non-discrimination and provincial autonomy.
Oh by the way Justin, please note that agitation in Tamil nadu has receded.
i’m sorry i wrote in a hurry.
that should read “internal self determination” not
” international self determination”.
Dear Justin,
“Now, you say that Sinhalese stand towards Tamils will be hardened. Wheteher it hardens or softens is not any one’s concern. The concern should be that Tamils of NE should be given the right of self determination and statehood. The rights of all citizens should be the sole factor. If the GOSL does not give the legitimate rights it will have to be achieved through International justice.
”
Alas, your second sentence contradicts the first. For the Tamils to get any sort of autonomy let alone a separate state, they will have to earn the acquiesence of the Sinhalese. Without this acquiesence you will have to fight (and get killed), and you will not be able to get any sort of justice from the International Community.
It is high time that the Tamils in the diaspora who bankroll the LTTE get their act together and demand some accountability to end the sort of barbaric behavior that has brought approbrium on their cause- 1) stop recruiting child soldiers, 2) stop using the sort of suicide bombs that are killing American soldiers in Iraq & Afghanistan, 3) compromise on separatism and go for a negotiated settlement.
Many Maldivians claim a thousand year old Sinhala ancestory, the agro-engineering culture and the only surviving Buddist culture in the sub-continent is what is unique to Lanka. The largest reservoirs/dams up untill the last century, a continuity of recoded history and survival and the earliest Buddist writings (not Mahavamsa).
It was in 1985 they surrounded a school in Tamil Nadu to kill the six Sinhala students and the Internationally recognized and appointed pricipal of this Internationalschool in Tamil Nadu, Mr. Frank Jayasinghe. Rama to Ellala, Raja adi Raja to the Madras seapoy colonizing force, we now about Tamil racism. If you have lived there you know some poor villagers kill their new born baby girls to escape dowrey and poverty. It is time better spent for TamilNadu govt and Fils stars to address these issues. Hanibal canibal prabha represents a wee minority of Tamis in little lanka, see outside nazi eelaam, ask moderates or even tigers sucg as col. Kruna !
Sri lanka has seen notable Tamil leaders in all spheres of our society, long before any non-white in the US. Strangely non-christians cannot claim that in the US while we have had plenty Christan and even the worldsfirst Woman leader!
If tamils can live and work in all parts of the country, that right should also be extended to the Sinhala, non-tiger and other people ! This is the genuine problem in SL and it needs to be fixed !
One can never clean a people with a shower of untruth. The agitation in Tamil Nadu will make the Sinhalese to be defiant initially, but afterwards they will come to realise that they have been fooled by political parties in the South for six decades.
“When General Colin Powell, Jamaican-born former Chief of Staff of the US Armed Forces and US Secretary of State endorsed Barack Obama last week, he gave as one of his reasons his disgust that John McCain had not responded appropriately to an ignorant heckler in a Republican crowd who had shouted that Obama was a Muslim. (As is well known Obama is a Christian who often quotes the Scripture in his speeches). Colin Powell said that Senator McCain should have responded “so what if he is?” .
The failed responsible behaviour of a politician, under such circumstances, to bring out the truth, is what Barrack Obama calls “gutter politics”. He used this coinage against senator Mc Cain.
I am sure that when he becomes the president of the USA, he will reprimand and disciplinee the countries all over the world, for “gutter politics” and promote genuine political debate and correct political action.
When the Sarth Fonseka, the army commander and a JHU cabinet minister said that Sri Lanka is for the majority Sinhalese, none from the UNP or JVP or even the president, rebuked and said ” No, this country belongs to Tamils also”.
When the 1972 constitution was drafted to name the island Sri Lanka (SL), and call it a Sinhala Budddhist country; none from the UNP, LSSP said “No, this country should be called a coutry where the Sinhalese and Tamils lived side by side with autonomy and separate sovereignty for long and was secular”.
This is not “Sinhala nationalism” as the Sinhalese often portray. This is gutter politics; speaking untruthful and detrimental things against fellow citizens. In this instanjce it is the Tamils.
Gutter politics has lead the South to discriminate and dehumanise Tamils , collectively punish them and carry out human rights violations and Tamil genocide. Now, SL is soaked in this evil.
What is needed now is remorsefulness and repentance from the Sinhalese political leaders for their gutter politics of the past, admit guilt and make it illegal and punishable constitutionally.
You can’t just claim self determination! The word sounds almost as a fascist dictatorship if you think about it. If the majority of the people decide that they love their country and don’t feel like giving pieces away then tough luck! There are sovereign international borders with all the rights to protect them at all costs. Crushing violent rebellions such as JVP and LTTE is all part of the duty that we owe to the homeland. Try self determination in any country like US, UK and you will get a similar or worse reaction from those administrations not different to the reaction from Sri Lanka administration. UK-Northern Ireland is the prime example. I see a similar power sharing future in Sri Lanka if LTTE agrees to disarm like the IRA did. Other than that it can be assured of warring till one side drops dead.
Mr Thambipillai seems to dislike “gutter politics”. good. how does he characterise Prabhakaran’s Tamil secessionist politics of murdering Nehru’s grandson on Indian soil, not to mention assassinating mr amirthalingam, dr rajini thiranagama, dr neelan tiruchelvam, mr yogeswaran and his widow mrs yogeswaran?
I feel sorry for Sam because he thinks there’s something other than “gutter” politics. Politics is a dirty business! As the name inherently suggests it is not something sacred. It’s a dog eat dog world buddy. Grasp the reality. If you have closely followed the US elections or Tamil Nadu fake concerns – prior elections then you will know that politics even in the US is not that different from 3rd world countries. Except they wear shiner clothes and have big money to horde the media.
If Obama is the Tamil’s cause savior then why did the US Tamil diaspora back Hillary Clinton during the Democratic pre selections? Because she looked like the winner back then not because of the principles. Shame on them and serves them right for wasted campaign funding! If you think Obama like all other politicians don’t use “gutter” politics, then I wish you well living in your candy land.
I saw the Powell interview and I don’t see any relevance for that reference. MR has repeatedly said quote “this country belongs to all people of Sri Lanka”. If you want to distort the facts go ahead. Powell got demoted because he couldn’t tow the line during a war. He’s probably bitter with them now but as a general you don’t make opinions. You follow orders. Being emo is not an option for a military man.
The majority of Tamils and others are sick of you exploiting the ‘race’ card and holding the country ransom. This is the reason they (the overwhelming majority !) chose to live out side wanni ! You dont have to listen to us , just listen to ex-tigers like Karuna and Pillayan! The world is against fascism.
Tamils live all over lanka, this is also the right of every community !
Where was the concern when Tamil-Nadu was killing other Indians (and Lankans) for the British? If not for them (Madras seapoys) India would never have been colonized!
Dayan,
Do you remeber writing an article in September this year in this website titled ” ………………..take it and kill it”. You refered to a quotation by Colin Powel during the liberation war of Kuwait. You meant that the GOSL soldiers should take Kilinochchi and kill it. You gave the impression that Colin Powell would have liked it !! Do you see that he is a man for freedom, dignity and honesty of mankind and not murder of civilians? Were you not vascillating?
You failed to realise that the USA and Colin Powell were fighting a liberation war in Kuwait to liberate the oppressed people from Iraqi regime. When he said that he was for freedom, human dignity and human rights of people of Kuwait.
In that example, Iraq is synonymous to SL and Tamil people are the oppressed people like the people of Kuwait, GOSL commits murder, disappearance, torture, rape and violate human rights like the Iraqi regime.
You also appear not to have read clearly, the 51% support the Tamils of Tamil Nadu expressed to LTTE in a survey. Please refer to your notes. If this info is absent add this info to it !!
One must remeber that Tamil Nadu is the immediate neighbour of North East Tamils. They know better than the Sinhala government about discrimination, dehumanisation and destruction of Tamil lives and propety to commit Tamil genocide. GOSL should listen to their views and provide self determination and self governance to the people of North East.
As a pragmatic solution divide the island into two countries; Tamil Eelam and SL. Then see how these two countries can work together. One should do this before more bombs are dropped in Colombo, electricity goes off again, may be permanently and Rajapakse goes into his bunker again trying to save his life !
Dear Justin,
Contrary to what you say, when I quoted Colin Powell, I did not mean “that the GOSL soldiers should take Kilinochchi and kill it”.
What kind of nasty person do you think I am ? I have absolutely nothing against Kilinochchi. What I meant was that the Sri Lankan armed forces should cut off the Tiger army and kill it, i.e. the Tigers, and as many as possible.
By the way, do you know the meaning of the word vacillate? Given your usage of it here, you do not seem to.
If Tamils can live all over Sri Lanka, that too with the over-whelming majority out side Tamil-only eelam, while (some) waging a fascist-terrorist war with a baby army holding the country ransom, how are they the oppressed people? The ones that are oppressed are the ones who do not have that right to live anywhere in this multi-cultural state!
Tamil 90 million : Sinhala 12 million. From Rama to Ellalas, Raja adi rajas to Madras seapoys, the historical genocide of Lankans runs to many millions! Yes, Justin right, Karuna is wrong, Pillayan is wrong, East-wrong, no case, only wanni has case, majority Tamils-wrong, world-wrong! Think Bramah, Do kuppa!
Tamils in Tamil Nadu, Tamils all over Lanka, Tamils in Tamil-only eelam, so what seems to be the problem? If so others should also have one!