If your point is that the American Civil Rights movement had no separatist nationalism in it, you are wrong. Against the backdrop of the Civil Rights movement (which emphasised non-violence and negotiation) was violence and the call for a separate nation by the Nation of Islam and Malcolm X. Prior to that, from the 1910s, there was Marcus Garvey, who responded to American white racism by appealing, not to a nationalism, but a pan-nationalism, a transnational black nationalism uniting Africa and the African diaspora, seeking to establish one country for blacks alone (involving fighting colonialism in Africa and transporting black Americans to Africa). The American whites were astute enough to realise that they had to negotiate with Martin Luther King and use him against the separatist elements or it would create a big violent mess. Equal rights legislation was a product of their timely action to contain the problem of black separatist nationalism.

Sri Lanka missed that moment in the 1970s to co-opt the equal rights movement against emerging separatism. I was reading the Vaddukoddai Resolution of 1976 which demanded a separate Tamil nation. Look at all the reasons cited for the separation. The bulk of it, from the 6th “Whereas” contained instances of all the failures of the Sri Lankan state to offer equal rights. The justifications cited by the “Whereas” 1-5 were weak justifications. I would say that successive Sri Lankan governments basically handed over the moral authority for separation to the Tamil separatist politicians on a silver platter through their action and inaction. They failed to see that when you deny a community equal rights, psychologically the only option left against loss of self-esteem is to take refuge behind a discourse of one’s own ethnic supremacy. Frantz Fanon deals with that in Black Skin/White Masks. The pathology that Fanon talks about showed itself in the emergence of the Tigers’ violence and recalcitrance. I believe, like Fanon, that this won’t take the Tamils anywhere because in the end they must heal themselves from the underlying sense of inferiority and abandonment that the supremacy discourse covers up. But there’s nothing to say that the pathology cannot continue to build up, abroad if not in SL itself. Perhaps the Sinhalese ruling elite think they can continue to deny equal rights now that the Tigers have been defeated, but there’s always Tigers II.

The Tamil nationalism issue can actually be dealt with right now by the Sri Lankan state, by enshrining equal rights, whether through federalism or the unitary state. But there’s also the pathology of Sinhalese nationalism to deal with, which has been whipped up through the decades by SL governments. Instead of dealing with economic matters, the working-class were offered Tamil nationalism as their enemy, and Sinhalese nationalism as their savior.

You talk about not allowing an “odious” Tamil nationalism to get a free ride; that both Tamil and Sinhalese nationalism must be disdained with contempt. Your interest is to focus on judgement and blame. Perhaps these nationalisms need to be rather understood and their causes healed? The pathology of the country’s two nationalisms are showcased right out there in the open, in the fact of the IDP camps. The state shows (to me) that it has no intent to heal Sinhala nationalism through its maintenance of the incarceration camps. Its solution appears to me to involve the humiliation and emasculation of Tamils until they are willing to accept the merest semblance of equal rights instead of the real thing. Sinhalese and Tamil racism must be healed together because they are connected and feed off each other. But right now if Tamil nationalism is focussed on and dismantled, it will only allow Sinhalese nationalism to grow. On the other hand, if Sinhalese nationalism is tackled, the Tamils will follow suit.

Healing can only happen with acknowledgment of the past. I am not as hopeful as you because I see resistance to that coming even from educated Sinhalese. They want to focus on punishing Tamils, never mind that they have already been punished through killing in war and now through incarceration in camps and through having to deal with the violent end of two competing nationalisms. Perhaps the Sinhalese can never have enough punishment of Tamils?

Maybe I can pose this in another way. If you took ego out of the equation, what do you think would be the sensible thing to do in Sri Lanka now?

You said:
“… but institutional racism, where laws and negative public practices and attitudes towards the ‘other’ have been normalised and made acceptable by the state and public discourse and allow for systematic discrimination.”

I think that’s a very good point and I’m in complete agreement that such things should be fought against. But I believe these changes must come gradually, as a country and society develops insight into why such attitudes are wrong. They cannot and will not change overnight. Look at the US today, it’s held up as an epitome of multiculturalism, yet it took till 1968 for all forms of racial segregation to be declared unconstitutional. Sri Lanka *never* sank to that level. So how did the blacks in the US achieve such parity starting from truly appalling conditions? By blowing themselves to smithereens? By trying to create a little black Eelam somewhere? The Sri Lankan problem indicates a deeper problem somewhere don’t you think? And it can’t be just the Sinhalese, because discrimination on a daily basis was never that severe. Part of the problem as I see it, is because Tamil ultra-nationalists continuously rode on these issues to further their own racist ideals, envisioning a little racist utopia for themselves. The Sinhalese ultra-nationalists gave them ample justification, and public Tamil opinion understandably swung in their favour after these violent pogroms. In my humble opinion, the Tamil ultra-nationalists essentually hijacked a struggle for equality and replaced it with a violent struggle for a racist utopia. This is why you see me express equal contempt for Tamil nationalists as much as Sinhala nationalists, because they are essentially two sides of the same coin. It’s not because I don’t understand that the Tamils have suffered the most in this situation, they have, but let’s not let our sympathy for one party cloud our judgement and let an odious evil get a free ride out of it. I had fallen prey to this error in logic for a while before I finally came to the realization that Tamil nationalism should not be continuously excused and ought to be dealt with the same contemptuous disdain as Sinhalese nationalism. Understanding the reasons for some behaviour does not excuse that behaviour, not for the Sinhalese, not for the Tamils.

But how do we get rid of institutionalized racism? Bringing about actual equality I believe must be a slow process of consiousness raising and legal safeguards to enforce any short-comings. But perhaps the most important factor is to transfer allegiance from a primitive ethnic identity to a broader national identity. This is what most societies have done. They call themselves “Americans” or “Australians”. So too must we forge a “Sri Lankan” identity.

Even now, even the most advanced countries have instituionalized racism to varying degrees. A poorer country like Sri Lanka, saddled with baggage from the colonial era, has a longer way to go, but I think we can safely say that there has been a great deal of improvement. No pogroms for 25 years right? Tamil and Sinhalese both national languages. No serious discrimination in terms of opportunities for education, employment etc. Colombo is a showcase of multiculturalism. The majority community is a minority in it. Some severe shortcomings in the north, but I consider that to be an exceptional situation, and I’ll explain why later. All in all, I’m hopeful 🙂

Rohini’s path to truth was through analysis, where she extrapolated a scenario of unethical government behaviour and intent from various facts admitted by government statements, examined the rhetoric of state and army leaders and looked at past events. Given the lack of transparency by the state, she was entirely warranted in doing so. Many other commentators have come to similar conclusions. Also, it is highly difficult to disprove her main concern, that these were incarceration camps since the residents are not given freedom of movement. This is not an unreasonable contention. Even your article cannot claim otherwise.

Yes, she relies on argument, but in argument we always have to clearly state the premisses on which we make our moves. These premisses are articulated in her article, in particular the ethical principles to which she holds.

Where you and Rohini differ is that you find the government’s continued incarceration of innocent Tamils to be acceptable for pragmatic reasons (such as to identify Tigers in their midst, to de-mine the villages, etc) and she does not find these to be acceptable reasons to incarcerate innocent people. I agree with her because I too do not think that people’s inalienable rights such as freedom of movement should be sacrificed by taking an instrumentalist view of human beings–that innocent Tamils’ freedom of movement should be sacrificed in order to make life safe for other citizens. The IDPs are not there to serve the interests of other citizens–they are equal citizens. Unfortunately, neither the state nor you recognize that. As for the landmines excuse, are you saying that the path to their homes are littered with landmines? Aren’t there people living in these areas and moving about? They’re talking about mines in rice fields. Well, so, just tell the IDPs to avoid these.

You claim that you state your biases and assumptions. One bias is clearly stated towards the end: “At the same time, as a citizen, I do not want any fellow-citizen to remain in these conditions indefinitely.” But you follow this up by saying “The speedy return to their homes, however, depends on everyone cooperating, everyone doing their bit and more than all this, to be responsible in their description. It is one thing to alert authorities to problems and to suggest pragmatic correctives to apparent flaws, and quite another to give a free run to a wild imagination.”

You want speed, yet you name all the conditions that will inevitably slow down the process of return. Plus these conditions are unverifiable. How do you know if an IDP or a journalist is being responsible in his description except insofar as they say what the authorities deem to be the truth? Everyone cooperating? You mean submitting to authority? And you want “pragmatic correctives”, which suggest that you want reformed IDP camps rather than an end to their existence.

This central contradiction in your article splits the rest of your narrative. You imply that you don’t think the camps are an ideal situation, yet you cite stories that are designed to bring tears to readers’ eyes, and make them think that the IDP camps are far better than returning them to their villages where allegedly even worse conditions exist.

By the way, I find your story about the woman suffering from Parkinsons’ Disease hard to swallow. My own mother suffered from PD, and she could not usually even recognise her own daughter or her husband of 40 years. She was usually disoriented, even when well-medicated. PD is a neurological condition where the person is shut off from the workings of her brain because of the absence of neurotransmitters. At 70, this woman would be in an advanced stage of PD. I can’t see her getting down on her knees because even standing would have been highly difficult (for neurological reasons rather than due to muscle exhaustion). She might have been trying to get down to the floor simply to ease the pain of standing. Or she might have been pleading for something.

Something else that perturbs me about your article–your attack on Rohini Hensman, which at times degenerates to the extremely personal, such as when you suggest sarcastically that the government should take all elderly without a home and deposit them at Rohini’s house. It increases a journalist’s credibility when they are able to maintain some detachment, and attack ideas and arguments rather than persons, especially when the other person is a fellow-journalist. Otherwise, it begins to smack of rivalry and jealousy. By contrast, Rohini’s comeback piece is measured in tone and she disagrees with your ideas and claims rather than with your person.

Kumaran (see above) sees Rohini’s verbal activism for freedom of the IDPs as “an act of pure benevolence.” I agree with that description.

I am sure you have already read Rohini Hensman’s follow up:

http://www.groundviews.org/2009/07/07/setting-the-record-straight-challenges-of-internment-for-idps/

She summarizes and clarifies further. She is so thorough in indexing into the arguments of the Tamil IDP issues, I felt relaxed after reading it, because I know she is already packaging and presenting these arguments and agitating for the benefit of everyone in SL. An act of pure benevolence!

GOSL have heard all these good arguments, but why are they falling on barren rocks? Do we have more weed whackers than planters in GOSL?

Anyhoo, I agree with you on the point of telling STORIES. If GOSL releases the IDPs now, propaganda wise will be its net gain, because right now, the IDPs hate LTTE more than GOSL. But if GOSL keeps them hostage for six months, they will forget the LTTE atrocities altogether, and will have plenty of bad stories to tell about GOSL, because nobody likes to be held captive for a long period (six months or more?) even inside a five star hotel.

There is already a creative spurt among Tamils due to their narratives of pain and this IDP situation is only going to make it gush out. Who knows we may soon hear the chants rise from the Wembly Stadium for the Tamils in SL.

However, this may make no difference in SL. Because some folks say, GOSL has let the massive India and China entrench themselves inside SL. Due to this, the much anticipated nuanced approach (a la Hillary’s nuanced approach to terrorism) to resolve the ethnic conflict has already left our harbor even before it arrived at the shores.

SL does not matter much to these giants in the global scale of things. They have bigger fish to fry in their empire-building business. They could care less about Tamil Eelam or Temple of Tooth; but the ports and the beaches definitely matter. We just have to wait and see how this plays out in the future.

Except this is not art, is it? There are human beings experiencing, living this surreality, this distortion, this perversion, in and through their body.

You said: “What Sinhalese are not realizing is, as the days go by, more and more Tamils are resenting the Tamil IDP camps and dropping off from the reconciliation process.”

Do they not realize it? Shouldn’t it be an obvious deduction? Maybe it is more convenient to have Tamils drop off from the reconciliation process, especially now that there are no arms for them to pick up. Is that the purpose of the camps’ continued existence?

The camps are to me, an omen, a signifier that the government has planted in full view of everybody about the future it is planning. I just can’t decipher the message yet. Is it saying that Tamils can’t hope to have free movement and free settlement henceforth? Does it speak of plans of colonisation? Would a government that intends to give Tamils more rights do this to them? I think not–it gives off all the wrong signals about their notions of equal/human rights.

You said: “After the war, as a moderate, I was excited about reconciliation and peace in SL. But in the meantime, I wanted the innocent Tamil IDPs to go home quickly. Now I no longer see any point in this exercise of leaving comments and agitating for the release of the innocent Tamil IDPs.”

Yes, I agree with you about the China and India involvement, and that their focus on empire-building could mean an eclipse of the Tamil struggle. Will this entanglement be good for SL since the two are rivals? What happened the last time SL pissed off India? India trained the Tigers and made them into a force to be reckoned with. Is the West going to be happy with China’s presence in the Indian Ocean? It’s not clear how these countries will align themselves, but no country can court foreign investment without guaranteeing a peaceful, safe environment. The power also lies with the people of SL and with the people of the world. If you say these commentaries are useless, then you’re saying that education itself is useless. I’d like to think that is not true. That’s how the South African situation changed, with public discourse changing and escaping the control of the government. It wasn’t just about Mandela and all the others who gave up their lives but about the STORIES of these people going around the globe and how it inspired them. Do you remember the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute Concert held in1988 at Wembley Stadium organised by the British Anti-Apartheid Movement, which demanded that he be freed at the age of 70? It was attended by 70,000 people, and watched by billions of people all around the world. I still get goosebumps remembering the power of the audience chanting “The whole world is watching. The whole world is watching”, repeatedly, directed at the South African government. Could South Africans continue to live as pariahs? No. On another matter, how did a Black man become President of USA and cut through centuries of prejudice? Through the appeal of his words and ideas. So let’s keep the hope alive and the conversations going.

Lost Queen Of The Track

“Yal Devi”, a word of the past
The train that no longer arrives
To see the palmyrah trees…
The lost beautiful queen of the track
Woven with a magnificent cloak of blue
And white,
Can you take me to Jaffna once again?
Like you did in the olden days.
The road is still there, waiting, do you know?
A road without tracks
Symbolising a bond without brotherhood
Limited only to words,
And perhaps of pen and paper too,
A road that once was
Now covered from ashes and sands of time

Waiting to find her way back again
And to fly…
With her majestic powerful engines
Which pumped life to separate cultures,
A distant merger written in the sky,
A dream perhaps,
Tired of waiting…
Of an eternal joining of hands
And a pigeon with wounded wings
A stream of blood
Running down
Making its mark,
Eye for an eye
Blood for blood
The words keep repeating
And a union that never took place,
“Yal Devi”, the lost sister of the mist
Is still waiting to find her way
But when will you
Mighty train,
Arrive,
To take us home again? (JP)

Endless chatter about “Thamil rights” is only a smoke and mirrors campaign to cover up a much more insidious drama unfolding within the Thamil Diaspora. Many of the people who built their careers, including academic careers, on tiger propaganda find themselves suddenly exposed in the cold light of day. As this was their only claim to fame, it has become more urgent than ever for them to maintain the pretense of ‘genocide’ in Sri-Lanka. They will cling to this propaganda as if to dear life because at the end of the day it consoles them with a false sense of moral superiority.

This is their ontological security in a world that constantly undermines essentialist interpretations of the world.

I like what you said:

“… I am very sure that a state killing civilians and interning innocent civilians in order to find a few (disarmed) terrorists among them, is very, very wrong. I am horrified by that, and frustrated that others seem to want to ignore that and instead discuss other matters. I am also appalled that fellow-citizens aren’t protesting that, and instead are offering food and supplies, which suggests an implicit acceptance of the ethics of the situation.”

I couldn’t agree with you more and couldn’t have said it better. I left some comments earlier at D.B.S. Jeyaraj’s blog something along these lines:

http://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/archives/808 comment no 13, no 144

http://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/archives/819 comment no 21

This whole IDP camp situation is surreal to me. But as the days go by, I am beginning to realize these camps are here to stay for awhile (long enough to become real and stay in our minds for the rest of our lives).

What Sinhalese are not realizing is, as the days go by, more and more Tamils are resenting the Tamil IDP camps and dropping off from the reconciliation process.

After the war, as a moderate, I was excited about reconciliation and peace in SL. But in the meantime, I wanted the innocent Tamil IDPs to go home quickly. Now I no longer see any point in this exercise of leaving comments and agitating for the release of the innocent Tamil IDPs.

If India and China (considered the “two tracks on a railway-line running independently” as Bogollagama now elucidates) don’t see anything wrong with the long term internment of the innocent Tamils, I think we should begin to suspect their motives.

While everyone is excited about the gravy train (Yaal Devi train between Colombo and Jaffna, expected to bring in the Tami Diaspora money.), are these big players trying to derail it for their own political benefit of empire building? I dunno.

GOSL vs. LTTE war came to a quick end because India and China wanted to get on with their empire building business. Now, India and China must impress upon GOSL to release the disabled and innocent Tamil civilians ASAP to diffuse the tension in Sri Lanka and Tamil Diaspora.

Thank you for explaining your point of view. I feel that we both to see the same outcome, a just, equitable, plural society. What differs are our perceptions of the events that have occurred so far and perhaps how to get where we want to go.

I will address the points you’ve raised in greater detail in a few days time. Please check back on this same thread.

But just a quick point of clarification: “1,000 to 3,000 killed is a large number, though you seem to treat it here as a blessing that it wasn’t more”

I in no way intended to trivialize it, merely to make my point that it was more a case of a pogrom, with a few opportunistic mobs using the event to pillage and carry out racist attacks against Tamils. For comparison’s sake, take a real genocide, like the Rwandan case, where 7 out of 10 Tutsis were systematically killed over a period of 100 days by well organized groups. Therefore, I don’t feel that the Sri Lankan situation is indicative of a “genocidal Sinhalese”, although there is no argument that, that day will live in infamy as one of the most shameful days in Sri Lankan history. The real reason that the situation escalated to that level was because J.R’s govt. passively endorsed it and did nothing to reign in the mobs, and we all know that mob mentalities take a dynamic of its own when left to its own devices. I think the whole situation is rather well understood, so I won’t harp on it, but that’s on the whole why I think it’s pointless to characterize the Sinhalese as “genocidal”.

Note also that since that day, there has been no such major event, despite the many desperate and extreme attempts by the LTTE to provoke one, in order to justify their cause and bolster their ranks, such as the bombing of the Temple of the Tooth. So I think we should see the positive side of things and the relative maturity of the country compared to those abysmal days. Improvement will always be incremental, rarely overnight.