Rebuilding Sri Lanka
A perceptive and sensitive Sri Lankan has noted;
“It is reported that the people of the North, especially in the Jaffna district, have developed a feeling of dissatisfaction, disaffection and contempt towards the people of the South, who post the end of the war are now engaging in pilgrimage and sightseeing related visits to the North in large numbers, and in the process totally disregarding the need for privacy, encroaching on meagre infrastructure resources and services of the district, causing significant negative impact on the environment/cleanliness and pollution in the area, and behaving in a manner unacceptable by the cultural and religious values of the Northerners.
These negative feelings are expressed in relation to the following issues highlighted in support of the claim;
1. Large and unrestricted numbers of pilgrims are traveling from the South to the Jaffna District especially to visit Naghadhipa, Nallur Kovil, Madhu Church and other places of religious worship and there are no adequate infrastructure facilities for this level of inflow
2. Following the pilgrimage these visitors engage in sightseeing and visit war damaged areas, IDP resettlement areas and places of religious and cultural heritage of the Northerners
3. During the sightseeing tours visitors do not effectively engage with the people of the area, do not respect their need for privacy nor empathise with their present status and enquire and try to extend any help or even express feelings of solidarity as citizens of one nation in brotherhood. They state and look at them in a manner that they feel that they were once captives of the Terror groups, then displaced persons and now destitute looked on by their southern citizens as animals in a cage or helpless people in a hopeless state. These feelings are heightened as the people in the North do not see their plight, lifestyles and challenges of life and livelihoods are shared by the southern brothers and sisters.
4. Large numbers use Duraiappa Stadium and areas in the vicinity and these areas are not capable of providing the necessary housing, waste, sanitation, garbage clearance facilities to the present level of visitors and therefore they use open areas and their resting areas for washing, toilets, cooking and leave the areas totally polluted with garbage, polythene, waste and toilet waste causing great inconvenience to residents
5. These pilgrims indiscriminately use the water and other resources of nearby temples, kovils and Churches and use water for washing, cleaning after toilet use etc without consideration of the cultural and religious values and use of these premises and the state they leave behind after use with no concern for residents who use the same facilities thereafter
6. Visitors who are not actual worshipers crowd temples/kovils during poojah time and crowd out actual users and disturb the sanctity and value of the poojahs
7. These pilgrims use religious places and culturally significant places like the Jaffna Library disrespectfully ( in shoes) and use it for lying down, relaxing and entertainment including some times for consumption of alcohol
8. High Ace Vans are sometimes parked in front of Kovils and other places of cultural significance and visitors have food and at times alcohol and dancing with blaring music disrespecting the places of worship and cultural values
9. Ladies and Young Girls on bicycles are subjected to harassment, whistling, hooting and negative comments by visitors
10. Insensitive behaviours all round by not recognizing and aligning with the the socio-cultural values of Northerners.”
I have not been to the North post war, but vividly remember my post cease fire (2002) visits to Jaffna, Batticaloa, and Trincomalee where I encountered scenes and reactions very different to those described above. Those scenes were of the joyful mingling on equal terms of thousands of visitors and locals. Now, it appears, the meetings are of the victims and the vanquished. The primary fault is with neither the visitors nor the locals but with the manner in which the end of the war was treated by the national leadership and the media. The atmosphere of triumphalism, yet prevailing, is deeply damaging to inter ethnic harmony and to the prospects of healing wounds and reconstructing the Sri Lankan nation. There is much physical construction work but the locals remain disempowered and marginalized.
Under Apartheid, South Africa had been burdened with incomparably greater inter-ethnic hostilities and institutionalized racism and oppression than Sri Lanka ever was. But with the inspired leadership of Mandela, Tutu, and the others, they successfully dislodged those burdens in a manner that few predicted, and achieved a level of success that seemed impossible. Leadership of that quality may not appear anywhere on our planet for decades to come, but can we in Sri Lanka not find ways to bridge our much more modest but yet widening ethnic divides? We surely can, though, sadly, we see very little of even acknowledgement of the problem, still less of meaningful steps to address it. Our problems today are of our own creation and not of meddlesome foreigners or of the Diaspora or of the LTTE, dead since mid May 2009.
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When I read through this I do not see ANY RACE based discrimination which was supposed to have been committed by the so called southerners or basically the SINHALESE-BUDDHISTS.
The complaints are basically behaviourial in nature.
May be this is the ROOT CAUSE of the problem to begin with. People have to tolerate one another. I am sure the Sinhala people can complain about the ghetto culture in Wellawatte, Kollupitya, Bamballapitiya etc….
So these things can be easily managed if you have the proper notices OR by allowing only limited access to the areas so that the resources can be correctly used.
The state should provide parking, water, and lodging facilities immeadiately ON STATE GROUNDS OWNED BY THE state.
If there are no state land then the state should nationalise the land required to build adequate facilities to everyone in Sri Lanka or let private enterprise build it.
There are many state run rest houses and places of lodging in the south for everyone to use irrespective of race.
So this means those visitors do not have to use private hindu temple resources , their water supply etc etc….
Those people in the IDP camps should not be exhibits for anyone from anywhere unless they themselves want to come and interact.
You have not been there, and some sensitive and perceptive mythical person has told you this, Great.
Even if what you is true, only the number three holds any salt. For all others, my answer is; have you ever visited Kataragama during the season? if not ask someone who has.
After 30 years or so, Sri Lanakans are able to travel the country and happy about it. I like the way you try to plug racism in to it. There will always be bad elements, but blaming all “southerners” who visit north, will not help either nor is fair.
I am sure we can over come the short falls of people. If there is racism, there is very little that the leaders could do. The responsibility lies with us, individuals, yes leaders can help. Your post trying to depict that northerners are different from the rest, does little to help. Aim should be to teach everyone that others are not different from them. You could expand on the #3 and educate others on the ways to be nice to others, be it northerns or southerners.
“Ethnic divide”? My friend you are the one who is drawing lines. Sri Lanka is a country with many different people, there should not be any lines. Thank you for leeting us know how you feel.
(If you want to balme some one blame INDI.CA, he is one the first to visit and blog about it! drawing all the mad crowds.)
South Africa? have you ever been there? (If you do visit cape town) or do you read any news, in that case here are few items for you, leaders are fine but other blacks are suffering. We do not want that in Sri Lanka;
BBC News – ‎Feb 24, 2010‎
Racism remains a sensitive issue in South Africa, where black people were oppressed under white-minority rule. The four students RC Malherbe, Johnny Roberts …
White students face trial for South Africa race video Telegraph.co.uk
Devanesan Nesiah thanks for detailed and informative article.
It seems to me that the Victorious Sinhalese are humiliating the vanquished, dispossessed and disadvantaged Tamils.
Also sexually harass the Tamil young ladies and vandalize Tamil places of worship while abusing the meager water and other recourses in Jaffna
Yes, When I read through article I feel the situation is bleak. But I oppose who interpret this as ethhnic descrmination. It is not that we who live in middle part of the Island get harmed by southern local tourist.That is the truth.Young generation in particular they do not behave themself as we expect them to be. So we too have same problem here we can not accept behaviour of them and they do not much care about envourment, they polute it and go away. This is a sign of society which go in to disaster. This is so pathetic.
I can understand the situation in North may be worst as lot tour there and infastucture yet to come up. Also I beleive government need to deploye more people to maintain law and order as many people visiting there.
I apeal tamil folks that do not come to conclution that we all live in south behave the way some tourist behave. Pepole who behave bad way in your area do the same way when they visit anywhere. Monkey are monkeys where ever they go…..
What Dr Nesiah said is really disturbing.Visitors should observed self developed decency and respect when they visits war ravaged areas. If their visits are for “sight Seeing” purposes,then it is in built with the culture of joyness which is more damaging and disrespectful toward the people who suffered long years from the brutal war. To me these sight seeings are look like “Yala safari” tours for fun loving people. I am a Sinhalese and Buddhist, and I feel very sad and disappointed.
What the hell – how do you rank kataragama (down south) when the tmails trekk through yala and come down.. do others complain..
[Guys] hoot at girls women not only in north but also in colmobo, sydney and toronto?
this is absurd – the law and police is there, what ever else needs to be endured..
do i complain that wellawatta kovil blocks traffic for its wel procession? it part of living a life,
Dear Deva,
You are neither right nor wrong. To tell you the truth, the Southereners feel the same when passing through Wellawatha. But we never complained about itInstead we tried to adjust to it. Tamill culture is everywhere in Wellawatha. It is nothing to complian or feel discriminated about. The difference in culture is something that we all have to understand and tolerate. So you should not try to make an issue out of it and let some people capitalise on the racial issue.
It is high time tamils learn the art of living happy without complaining at a hats drop.
This is a totally false report. Two days back we were in Jaffna and we were able to visit various places including Nallur Temple.
We feel that the people in Jaffna are very happy to see lot of southerners coming there. Opening of A9 road was one of their main expectations.
The people have erected boards in sinhalese to say that there are rooms for accommodation in their houses.
The writer personally visited the Chinnavely fair and bought small onions and the trader gave a special discount for I was from South.
Of course there can be still people who are unhappy about southerners visiting Jaffna, specially who do not wish to see the people of North and south coming together and developing a cameraderie among them.
Ravi
The message being conveyed by the second hand information quoted by Dr.Devanesan Nesiah is pure mischief. I was in Jaffna recently and did not find any expression of such resentment by the general public. There are of course elements who are yet hurting from the LTTE defeat and who resent the presence of Sinhalese in Jaffna. Their wounded pride does not permit them to express the hospitality inherent in the Tamil culture! They do not represent the the Tamil population in general.
Business is booming in the north due to the influx of visitors and the demand for services is driving the Jaffna economy. The resources in Colombo and its environs are stretched too due to the large influx of Tamils! Should the Sinhalese start complaining about this?
Let the Sinhala visitors see what a stupid war has done to the Tamils and their plight today. Let them also see the results of bad governance in Sri Lanka. Let the Tamils see that all Sinhalese are not the monsters they were painted to be. Only such interactions will pave the way for national reconciliation .
While driving down Ramakrishna road, Wellawate, a few years back, four Tamil girls were walking in the middle of the road, without any consideration for the vehicles. Without realizing that the window was open, I remarked to my wife, “See how these Tamil girls are behaving!”. On hearing this the girls remarked in chorus, ” Yes, we are Tamil girls”. They were indeed proud of their bad road behaviour, in addition to being proud of being Tamils! Should the Sinhalese begin to start taking offense at how some Tamils conduct themselves in the south or take offense at the presence of Tamils in their thousands in the south, what would be the outcome?
Is this what some elements are trying to provoke, to enable the return of the LTTE? Dr.Nesiah should have become a tool to propagate such poison!
Now, it appears, the meetings are of the victims and the vanquished. The primary fault is with neither the visitors nor the locals but with the manner in which the end of the war was treated by the national leadership and the media. The atmosphere of triumphalism, yet prevailing, is deeply damaging to inter ethnic harmony and to the prospects of healing wounds and reconstructing the Sri Lankan nation. There is much physical construction work but the locals remain disempowered and marginalized.
I think the above para summarizes in part the mind-set of the visitors. BUT the other way round is also going on. Some Southerners become aware of the living conditions in th North and the facilities available in the North and might be comparing the North with the South and then realize the truth. IF one percent of the visitors realize the truth then you can sure that a North-South bridge would be built in the near future..
All that happened is for the better. “ELLAAM NANMAIKAY”
What does this article have to do with citizen journalism?
This is more like criticism journalism!
Mr. Nesiah,
Your article has nothing to do with rebuilding Sri Lanka. This article is written to further divide the community.
Was this article actually written by Devenean?
It’s not only pilgrims who don’t know how to behave but commutors using public transport throughout the island don’t care for other passengers. This has nothing to do with racism. It is bad discipline and lack of values in society in general. North, south, east and west; problem is the same.
There is a tamil saying “tying the cow to the tree” and this is what is happening when all the problems in sri lankan society are looked racially or with an ethnic glasses.
I see this is as an opportunity for people of North to take advantage of. Sinhalese people are not going to be going to Jaffna in such large numbers forever. This is a period of needing to know the otherside and is temporary. Once you have gone and seen it, the crowds will come down. But when the crowds are this big, local leaders should figure out a way to improve the economic condition of the people of Jaffna. Shopping, Food, Transportation, Hotel building, Medical facilities all can have a positive impact from these crowds. Someone in Colombo is already thinking about it taking advantage of it, instead of people from Colombo coming up with new ideas why not the locals take advantage of the situation instead of complaining.
To magerata:
All other responses contain positive elements but yours illustrates the validity of the observations made by the very distinguished Sinhalese on whose notes I based my entry. As I stated, “The primary fault is with neither the visitors nor the locals,” which is the opposite of what you seek to imply. The locals are conscious of being disempowered and marginalized. It is the non-recognition of that reality by the national leadership that is at the root of the problem. Festering social and political problems are not healed but continue to fester when they are not acknowledged and directly addressed.
Racism has existed for thousands of years in many countries and may continue to exist for centuries. As I stated, “South Africa has been burdened with incomparably greater inter-ethnic hostilities and institutionalized racism and oppression than Sri Lanka ever was.” To expect that reality to disappear within a few years would be stupid. What the South African leaders achieved was to acknowledge the scale and severity of the problem and jointly work out remedies, some short term and others long term. They did not dismiss their difficulties as all rising from Terrorism. The short term remedies have produced dramatic results. The long term remedies will take decades, perhaps centuries to bear major results.
In Sri Lanka, in contrast, our national problem has been dismissed as non existent or as exclusively arising from Terrorism. In consequence, the problem is becoming more acute. There can be no improvement until our national leaders first acknowledge the nature of the national problem and then jointly formulate and administer meaningful remedies.
I think this is not an ethnic issue…but managing – interacting with a group of people who have gone through pain and sufferring – loss of life due to the conflict….specially after Januray 2009….like any other religious places which has boards sugesting the ‘proper attire’ – ‘behaviour’ – ‘rules agains the use of liquour’ etc….the GOSL should have boards put on…..create awarenss in the holiday makers on sensitive issues….The southeners need to interact with the Jaffana people…they need to know what the horror of war and conflict was….we need to listen to the stories….need to reassure that Sri Lankan people in their own way will work towards avoiding such a human disaster to be repeated etc….it is a very useful excercise in ‘Conflict resolution. In Sri Lanka – the leaders don’t seem to beleve in ‘Transitional Justice’ – so we the public have to do it ourselves …in the best way we know….up to now we just heard what the government wants us to hear…..but lets widen our horizons of knowledge on this ‘very-clsoe- to – our heart’ issue….which drowned us for so many yers…..
The Jaffrna Town Council – Muncipal Council have a huge role to play in providing the basic facilities, infrastructure, garbage disposal etc….and to see that the local peoples lives, and values are not disturbed…..we should continue to encourage South- North interactions…ON AN EQUAL STATUS….
Beewhy
Dr. Nesiah,
Yours is an interesting article. You have mentioned that our national leaders need to acknowledge the nature of our national problem. I agree. But at the same time I think the public should also realise that there is a national problem(apart from the terrorist problem) relating to the minorities. I think in Sri Lanka the public does not to a large degree understand that there is a national problem. I believe the problem is one of uderstanding. If the public did understand they would have by now put presure on the politicians to acknowledge the problem and to solve the problem. After all the public supported the war effort and that effort boosted the morale of the security forces.
I’m not surprised !
State terrorism has always been the major problem in this tiny island.
For more than sixty years, successive Sri Lankan governments backed by racist Sinhala extremists have been oppressing the Tamil minorities.
They brutally killed thousands of innocent Tamils, burnt their properties and sent the rest in ships as refugees to the North of the country in the fifties, sixties, seventies and eighties.
When Tamils asked for their rights, Sinhala extremists always responded with violence.
Can the Tamils do the same thing in Anuradapure or Pollenarruwa?
Will the government allocate State land for Tamils to come to these places and booze and snooze around?
Paramanathan, you fail because you fail to acknowledge what UNP did to the JVP. That was state terrorism. But with the LTTE it was a conventional war. Battle lines were clearly defined and it was an armed conflict with a conventional military force. Therefore that cannot be clarified as state terrorism. What UNP did against the JVP can be classified as state terrorism. Which was kidnap, torture, kill on a massive scale. I sometimes wonder if most of you live through this period in Sri Lanka. How can we forget that? Why are we letting elements of that terror like Ranil roam freely? Isn’t that endorsing crimes against humanity?
I can understand the sensitivities of emotionally hurt people from the massive tourism influx. However this is a good opportunity for budding entrepreneurs to capitalise from a clearly growing industry. For the venture capitalists out there, there are some good investment opportunities – yes very high risk but the ROI will be quite lucrative if you get in early. Challenge is to get these 2 groups together. This could potentially also help in easing tensions between the 2 communities. Again you can feel like a victim or you can move on.
OMG! Typical Tamils, never satisfied! never enough! never being gratful! never appreciates! always complaining, complaining complaining! Someone raised (quoted in the article) a list of issues Tamils face during Sinhalese visit in the North. The author wants to discuss and bring the issues adding more spices.
The author (Devanesan Nesiah) of this article http://www.groundviews.org/2010/03/03/rebuilding-sri-lanka/comment quoted the list of complaints and say;
“I have not been to the North post war, but vividly remember my post cease fire (2002) visits to Jaffna, Batticaloa, and Trincomalee where I encountered scenes and reactions very different to those described above. Those scenes were of the joyful mingling on equal terms of thousands of visitors and locals.” ,
giving an impression that, during LTTE, situation was under their control and did not happend such things. That means he agrees with the list quoted in his article and he explains why? Because now Tamils feel defeated, but in 2002 Tamils were equally strong.
“Now, it appears, the meetings are of the victims and the vanquished. The primary fault is with neither the visitors nor the locals but with the manner in which the end of the war was treated by the national leadership and the media.”.
The list of complaints (1-10) during Sinhalese visits in North is full of resentments and jealousy. Tamils freely walked anywhere in Sri Lanka for the last 30yrs (even before, ever since coolis improted from south India during Dutch time and later given citizenship breeding a dozen of children per family ) and Sinhalese never complained Tamils shitting; on the streets, rivers, lakes and spings, streams (drinking water) in the high hills and tea plantations, spittings betel (bulath kela) everywhere (including cities, public places and houses) overcrowding cities,living in railway/bustations, lodges and hotels neglecting proper sanitory usage.
After 30years when Sinhalese visit the North, all of a sudden Tamils are well civilized, like Europeans. They accuse Southerners for encroaching lands, invading privacy, polluting environment, dissatisfaction, disaffection…ETC . Tamils themselves did all these in the south and Sinhalese tolerated and showed hospitality to Tamils of North. Tamils are annoyed by Sinhlese visit in the North.
All these are baseless accusations directed to support Eelam cause. They somehow like to touch the words “discrimination”, “apartheid”, “Genocide” becuase those are magical words for Eleam. It is good though the author has hopes in achieving ethnic harmony.
Lets have a brief look at the list point by point to see what are negative impacts?
1. Increas of local tourism is good for economy, increase facilities to cater all.
2. visitors do sight seening any where in the world including war torn places.
3. they like enagagement but it harms privacy, feel offended by sinhalese without doing anything.
4. Supply-demand issue, increased tourism with limited facilities
5. Again sanitory issue
6. Describing the identity of the visitors
7. Guidelines & instructions for library visitors: removing shoes when entering?
8. Parking places & Code of conduct in religious/public places?
9. Public harrasment? hard to believe, southern women also on bicycles
10. Insensitive behaviours? How about taking nude photographs at buddhist temples?
If you caefully go through the list iand weigh it has more positive than negative impact. What hav these issues to do with Apartheid or discrimination? All communities must be happy we go rid of terrorists!
These allegations are inline with Diaspora internationa call for a Eelam endorsed by 99% Tamils
http://www.groundviews.org/2010/02/04/an-open-letter-to-the-remote-control-diaspora/#comment-15301
Sinhala buddhists crowd hindu places of worship in sri lanka, and now they are doing this in jaffna too, after the war ended. There are Vishnu Shrines in the premises of many buddhist temples in the south,which too are visited by buddhists. I was told that Vishnu is the ‘protector of buddhism’. At these Vishnu shrines, they donate cash,break coconuts to obtain blessings and sometimes to curse their ememies, make vows and pray for success in business enterprises. These Vishnu Shrines are a good source of income for viharathipathis. Our politicians from the president downwards too pray at hindu shrines in sri lanka and in india. This behaviour of buddhists sometimes disturbs the prayers of hindus in their temples.
Tamils, especially hindus, dare not behave in the manner quoted by the author, in the south, nor do they wish to. When people visit places for sightseeing, they should not pollute the environment and they should behave in a polite and quiet manner – unless in public areas like sea beaches, parks etc. Apparently this is not happening.
Hindus rarely if ever visit and or pray in buddhist places of worship, or pollute places they visit in the south.
All of us must respect the rights of others to live their lives without disturbing their way of life when visiting their areas.
This should not come as any surprise. Visit any public beach in the South and you will be appalled by the level of garbage.
GV, correction: The hyperlink I gave in my comment doesnt link to the article as intended. Please edit the link in the comment (March 6, 2010 @ 2:45 pm ) as below.
The author (Devanesan Nesiah) of this article http://www.groundviews.org/2010/03/03/rebuilding-sri-lanka
Thanks
If the Tamils in Sri Lanka act in a manner that signal that they need power equivalent to or close to powers that the state of Sri Lanka has then there can be NO SOLUTION to problems in Sri Lanka.
If individual rights are not upheld in Sri Lanka then it should be of CONCERN TO EVERYONE in Sri Lanka.
Has any so called TULF, SLMC etc etc come with a ALL-ISLAND solution to problems faced by ALL Sri Lankans irrespective of ethnicity, caste, language, world view, socio-economic standing ?????
WHY NOT ?
If you are willing participants in a democracy you have the responsibility to do JUST that articulate your position.
But over and over again we hear Tamil grievances, Muslim grievances, minority grievances….???
I think we have come to the stage where we have to think about SOLUTIONS not complaints.
At the same time we have to realise that Tamil Separatism did not come about suddenly it has a history going back to at least 1931 way before the introduction of Sinhala as a official language.
We have to be in SOLUTIONS MODE not COMPLAIN, BLAME mode.
Dr. Nesiah,
It looks as though some sections of the Sinhala middle class is racist and therefore a political settlement of the Tamil problem is unlikely.
Quite a large section of the voters who voted for President Rajapakse in 2005 and in 2010 is made up of this Sinhala middle class.
Where the CFA was concerned a majority of the Sinhala middle class was suspicious from the beginning and later on they totally rejected it. I agree when you say there was interaction between the communities during the CFA. The communities trusted each other. Now there is less trust even though visitors are going to Jaffna in large numbers and accomodation is hard to find.
There is another difference between the CFA time and now. During the CFA time the upper middle classes, the middle classes and the lower classes visited the North and the East. Now it looks as though most visitors to Jaffna are from the lower classes and some from the middle classes.
The upper classes may prefer to visit the East. Things may well change in future though.
There is quite a lot of suspicion and racism around between the communities. A political settlement to the problem is highly unlikely. It may well be the case that we are now going back to the 1950′s and the 1960′s when there was no war but mistrust between the communities was high which eventually led to war.
The comments on Dr Nesiah’s article shows that the majority of the respondents are quick to take offence and not listen to what is being said. I have just returned from Jaffna. It was my observation that what is going on there is war tourism. Travellers from the South are pouring into an area that is simply not equipped for large groups. Garbage, inadequate toilets (especially at the jetty to board the Nagadipa ferry), lack of sleeping quarters (hence the Duraiappah stadium substitutes) cannot be compared to any sort of tourism in the South. After the tsunami, many victims of the tsunami were getting tired and sick of people coming to their areas ostentibly t help but to really gape and see for themselves.
We have to be a bit sensitive to the plight of our Northern brothers and sisters, who have been isolated for so many years, utterly neglected by state and other citizens and who now may feel that we come to their areas to look a them as if they are exhibits in a zoo.
Niranjan,
Why are you grovelling at Dr. Nesiah’s feet?
Tell me, how many families would fall into the upper class category anywhere in the island? Also, please elaborate on those you label lower class? You are quick to brand members of certain communities/religious affiliations as racists. You may have a knack for identifying the “racism” of plain speaking people but, unfortunately, you are so naive as to swallow the hidden racism and nationalism of politically correct people.
Just to note, Chundikuli – the Cinnamon Gardens of Jaffna – has produced “activists” dime a dozen just like their Sinhala counterparts in Colombo. Those Chundikuli types who didn’t allow members of the oppressed castes into their homes have not changed an iota. Mind you, most of the dominant families from this area are Christians. If you want to know about the academics, school trustees and members of the clergy hailing from Chundikuli, I am sure Dr. Nesiah can enlighten you. I would like to know how many people belonging to this community had the guts to rescue Muslims and Sinhalese during times of unrest in Jaffna. Also, did your community, being its counterpart, give shelter to Tamil people during the ’83 riots? Ah, it looks like this is when the poor come in handy!
You keep throwing around terms like “upper class”/ “middle class”/ “lower class” without knowing the significance of such labelling. I think you should know that money alone won’t buy you membership into upper class society; but I suppose this is a possibility nowadays. There is a common saying: “one can be poor but not cheap”.
Niranjan, if you are not a racist, you don’t have to break your back trying to please anybody. Just call a spade a spade, and leave it at that.
“It looks as though some sections of the Sinhala middle class is racist and therefore a political settlement of the Tamil problem is unlikely.
Quite a large section of the voters who voted for President Rajapakse in 2005 and in 2010 is made up of this Sinhala middle class.”
Sinhala middle class is probably no more than 30% of the population (guesstimate). I’d appreciate any statistics that tells otherwise. Clearly that alone can’t elect a president. You’d be further surprised that this 20% is also bitterly divided between UNP & SLFP. Most of this “middle class” is also concentrated in and around Colombo district. Put simply, these are the white collar workers in this country.
Your argument has no merit Niranjan.
Largest block of MR voters were the disadvantaged folk, who makes up the majority of the population in this country.
Observer,
You are correct when you say that middle class Sinhalese are bitterly divided and many of them live in and around Colombo. But that small Sinhala middle class has a voice in the country and if they can rise above petty racist politics and make the Tamil people also feel a part of this country then I think a lot of problems will be solved. There are sections of the Tamil middle class which is also racist. They also need to rise above petty politics based on race.
The ideal opportunity to do that is now because the war is over.
Athiest,
Your story on Chundikuli is interesting. I was hoping that someone would enlighten me on the Tamil side of class and you have done so. thank you.
All classes in society have racist elements among them.
There is a class system in SL. You get members of the old Sinhala feudal class, you get the British appointed gentry, you get the new rich middle class which is growing in number, you get the working class and you get a large peasantry.
Money is not everything and it is not that easy for money to buy class even though it happens.
By the way I am not trying to please Dr. Nesiah. I agree with some of what he has said.
Observer:
Quoting from your comments;
“It looks as though some sections of the Sinhala middle class is racist and therefore a political settlement of the Tamil problem is unlikely.
Quite a large section of the voters who voted for President Rajapakse in 2005 and in 2010 is made up of this Sinhala middle class.”
sections with racial attitudes do exist in every population when also considering the countries in europe even after 65 yrs 2d world war is ended. I believe, if our general public is made better aware about the grievances of the minority volks in the country, the majority of the nation will support a poltical settlement leading peace. Fedelism practising in GERMANY could also go with lanken state.
When readng news following held presidetial election in January 2010, atleast 50% of the nation will not agree withthe results announced by EC. So, basing on that results, it is not wise to presume that a large majority of the country voted for MR.
Hmmm, let’s turn this around, shall we?
““It is reported that the people of the South, especially in the Colombo district, have developed a feeling of dissatisfaction, disaffection and contempt towards the people of the North, who are engaging in pilgrimage and sightseeing related visits to the South in large numbers, and in the process totally disregarding the need for privacy, encroaching on meagre infrastructure resources and services of the district, causing significant negative impact on the environment/cleanliness and pollution in the area, and behaving in a manner unacceptable by the cultural and religious values of the Southerners”
Wow, who’s the racist now?