I read with interest the concerns of a group of Tamils on the situation of IDPs and their suggestions for a speedy recovery of a human tragedy. However, I am a little concerned and in fact unhappy why only a group of Tamils should be concerned? Aren’t the Sinhalese, Muslims, Malays and Burghers not concerned about the plight of the IDPs. Why this separatism on an issue of humanitarian recovery? Why shouldn’t there be a common platform – a common platform has many significations. Ideologically it speaks of National unity, a spirit to togetherness, solidarity and collective and cooperative efforts of a common citizenship. Practically it means greater numerical involvement and greater political strength. The greater the number, the greater the impact and it leads to seriousness of purpose which the many actors in the field – the state, the judiciary, the civil society, religious and theological groups, the church, the temples and the Viharas – will pay attention. A meaningful weightage may be added to the act.
There are many among us who take humanitarian, sympathetic, empathetic and progressive views on the unfortunate present tragedy. Newspaper columnists such as Sharni, Tissaranee Gunasekera, Lyn Ockerz, Emile Vander Poorten, retired civil servants who were trained in ideas of liberalism such as Somapala Gunadheera, the old leftists trained in Internationalism such as Upali Cooray, CRM members, who know the civil rights of the citizens, educationalists and university dons such as Prof. Ganantha Obeysekera, the entire women’s movement who believe in sisterhood is global and many others who will take common cause with this group.
It is true that some old stalwarts of the old left and the CRM are lost to us and some of the new left of the EPRLF, EROS, JVP have become nationalists and ultra nationalists. However, there are many who are not leftist and who do not subscribe to any isms, but have emerged as concerned human beings. It has been reported, I report gleefully, that the Sinhalese in the border villages who ere brutalised by the LTTE are also contributing relief materials to the affected IDPs. They have commonsense or perhaps folk wisdom to isolate suffering human beings of the present from the past or present violent people of the LTTE. We have lost Regi Siriwardhena and Bishop Lakshman Wickremasinghe, but we have others.
Let us go back to the old traditions of the Youth Congress of Jaffna, the old left – LSSP and CP, the CRM, Citizens Committee and such organisations and groups where ethnic, religious, Caste and Class belongings of the constituent members didn’t matter for unified affirmative actions.
Let us build a common platform of concerned citizens and not merely “concerned Tamils.”