Now that the IDP issue is being settled on the original time fame agreed with Ban Ki Moon, it is time that the key concern of ethnic reconciliation commences on a sound footing.

Reconciliation between any opposing parties has to be based on mutual trust. For this we have to separate facts from fiction.

Is DN prepared to do this?

This is a short follow up on my post on November 12, 2009 @ 1:08 am above.

My understanding of a “Racist” policy is a policy that targets a specific ethnic group or skin colour. Such a policy should target the “WHOLE” ethnic group or all people of a certain skin colour. Where do you see such a policy regarding the IDP’s?

However I may be wrong in my understanding of a racist policy and am awaiting a clear and erudite definition from you and how such a definition applies to the IDP situation in particular.

My contention is and has always been the security threat posed by the LTTE terrorists hiding amongst the genuine civilians to ALL Sri Lankans “IRRESPECTIVE OF RACE” living outside the camps and there are 20 million of them who will definitely be exposed to a life threatening risk as it happened in the past (please note that I do not make a race distinction here).

Today’s paper (12 Nov), gives details of the discovery of an underground storage containing 2000 KG of C4 explosives from Puthukudirippu. The largest ever discovery of explosives since the war ended. To put this into perspective compare the amount of C4 explosives used in past attacks on the SL population. An early release of terrorists would have put these explosives in terrorist hands. It does not leave room for second guessing what the result could have been.

You have been attempting to sweep aside the above risk as you don’t even mention it in your article and attempts to cloud it over “with a mine clearing reason that you claim to be patently false” and your subsequent replies. But security is the “ONLY” reason the govt has made in the UN for the continued internment of the IDP’s who of course are Tamil. The “REASON” for the internment is not racist as I pointed out to you in one of my comments. How can such a policy be “RACIST”?

I once again reiterate that Dr P. Jeganathan is great Tamil writer worthy of emulation. He does not resort to melodrama.

I could not reply your post of October 30, 2009 @ 10:27 am due to pressure of work. I will do so in detail as soon as possible.

Your latest post caught my eye and this is just a brief reply.

I have stated why I believe that you demonise the Sinhalese as a race in my first ever post on GV September 22, 2009 (http://www.groundviews.org/2009/09/17/the-internment-%e2%80%93-a-collective-punishment/comment-page-3/#comment-9232 )

You are too intelligent to do so directly but you do demonise the Sinhalese by what you leave unsaid.

Here is just ONE example

Your first para discusses IDP’s and that discussion is limited to TAMIL IDP’s. You pose the following question

“The widespread indifference to the continuing misery of 280,000 interned IDPs, most of them already unlawfully detained for about four months without any charges, is a sad reflection on the moral values of our society.”

You follow it up with a very telling question to draw attention to ethnicity….

“Is the ethnicity of the IDPs a factor that contributes to the tacit acceptance of the detention without any charges of virtually the entire population caught up in the territory conquered from the LTTE?”

Now you draw the reader’s attention to the Tsunami generosity of the SL populace and then you ask

“Do ethnic differences suppress our generosity when the disaster is caused by ethnicity-related political oppression or violence?”

Why did you omit the spontaneous support that the Southerners gave the IDP’s?

Why did you drag “Ethnic Differences” into the picture, when there was no such difference as evidenced by the spontaneous support from the South?

Who provided the majority of support from the South, Tamils to the exclusion of others?

Did you not see that even during the 1983 mob attacks on Tamils that many Sinhalese came forward risking not only their lives and property but also the lives of their own children and family to protect Tamils?

Did you give any thought as to how the several millions of Tamils living in the South were saved when mobs went on the rampage the day the bodies of 13 Sinhala soldiers killed by Prabahkaran were laid to rest? Was it due to police action or was it due to the many hundreds of thousands of brave civic minded Sinhalese and others who threw caution to the wind to save a fellow human being?

Was “Ethnicity” a deciding factor for them to do so? I am one of them who risked my family to save my neighbours family and hence the mud you attempt to throw has no personal affect on me. I did not for a moment think that they were Tamil but just that they were my friends needing my help as a fellow human being.

Regarding the IDP’s my view is still the same, the lives of a 20 million population takes precedence to the freedom of movement of 170 thousand. Care should be taken to filter out all possible remnants of the LTTE hiding behind the genuine civilians to prevent the terrorists getting out and using the multitude of arms, explosives and munitions still remaining hidden (even today the newspapers reported the unearthing of parts for 130mm and 152mm artillery guns, RPG’s and booby traps).

What I requested you to do is to use decorum in writing as a Tamil intellectual in order not to inflame feelings and hardening of positions of all involved

A great writer to emulate is Dr P. Jeganathan. He does not resort to melodrama.

Events are overtaking the IDP issue and the statement made in parliament by TNA shows the Govts genuine efforts at resettlement.

The LTTE within the Diaspora requires propaganda from every quarter to get the terrorists in hiding free, to restart mayhem. Writing unbalanced articles will only help them and not reconciliation.

There can be no basis to demonise any ethnic group. Genetic differences between one group and another may account for differences in physical features but not for differences in character. Even cultural characteristics develop in response to environmental factors. Change the environment and, in course of time, the culture will change. For example, violent crime was minimal in Jaffna till the third quarter of the twentieth century, Murders were so infrequent that if one did occur, it became the talk of the Peninsula for months and years. Changes began in the seventies and accelerated in the eighties, resulting on the profusion of militia and violence.

Mass emigration to Canda led to further changes in culture among the diaspora. The Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora in Canada is very different in culture both to their ancestors back home and to the fellow Tamils of the same generation they left behind. So too in the case of the Sinhala diaspora and many other diaspora around the globe.

Those interested in the subject may read R Cheran’s ‘The Sixth Genre: Memory, History and the Tamil Diasporic Imagination’ in the Marga Monograph Series that I co-edited. There is good international literature too, eg. the writings of Prof John Ogbu.

It is those who criticise racist policies and press for changes in those policies who can claim to be for ethnic harmony and nation-building. Apologists who defend racist policies are not helping.

Yes, the war has aggravated divisions in society and we see inhumanity all around us every day. But tribalism was always there, but the war has made it far worse than what it was. I think education can do a lot to reduce tribalism in society. This has to start with the schools. It is perhaps too late to change peoples views by the time they go to university.

Yes! I do agree with you about the tribal, primitive Sri Lankan society. Even Sociologists of leading Universities agree about this. I remember when I was studying Sri Lankan society (a course unit offered at the sociology department of university of Sri Jayawardanapura), the lecture interpreted the Sri Lankan society as “A traditional society mixed with tribalism”. Not much is done on behalf of the universities to change this tribal perspective.

The Three-decade civil war has instilled racism, hatred, tribalism, ultra-nationalism in the society. But in my opinion, the worst a war can do is the disregard for humanity! This fact is well portrayed in the brutal murder of the mentally handicapped youth in the Bambalapitiya beach!

Asking your opponent to abandon the premises after he wins an argument is not very civil. I know you are quite fond of the “white-van” culture existing in that particular parody of a “democracy”, and have written volumes and volumes in a desperate attempt to legitimize its evils… nevertheless, may I remind you that such a “white-van” culture and all of its numerous derivatives do not exist elsewhere, including in cyberspace (save for websites that spouts its venomous propaganda). In light of which, your challeng lacks any basis and is dismissed on the grounds of redundancy.

OK you have shown what you are made up of.

The report does not exist and you are soooo Braaaave.

Sure my assertions about the Mother Tongue are wrong. The US Universities which did research for over a decade on it are wrong, the UN experts are wrong, The Educational experts who published research are wrong but you are right as usual.

If you really want to discuss this seriously, open a thread on the subject on GV and I will take you on with pleasure. In the meantime I have a much delayed reply on the subject matter of this thread to post here.

Since you are not game enough to take my challenge and call my bluff, open a thread on GV on the subject then you can have the link without risking your existence on GV as I will be quoting extensively from it.

Two Sinhala sayings that describes you and your predicamnet comes to mind

“Empty vessels makes most noise”
“Like the dog who defecated on a stone”

“Japan was always a developed nation even before WW2”

Japan did not become industrialized until after WWI. Industrialization was due to Western pressures to trade, as well as Japan adapting Western economic models. Again, a total contradiction of your absurd assertion that the “mother tongue” plays any role in the development of a nation.