There is a certain section of the Sinhala population who have bigoted views when it comes to Tamils. I guess it is the same on the Tamil side. What the Govt should be doing is to sideline the bigots on the Sinhala side and those within its ranks and work towards reconciliation with those who do not hold bigoted views.
If in future the Govt is able to do that then there is a future for this country. If not there is no hope.

“If any of you are in touch with common man on the streets (the majority!), you know the answer to this!”

Actually, I missed the underlying implication here 🙂 Well, everyone fancies themselves as being “in-touch” (I honestly do too). But here’s a question – what is your “in-touch”ness based on? Talking to some random 3 wheeler guy on the way to the market as I recall? Do you consider this a representative sample of the population? I think you know statistics and inference don’t really work that way.

Also, can you give me a rough figure on how many people have bigoted views about Sinhala-Tamil race relations so we know how much work needs to be done? Instead of just assuming that *no* work needs to be done (a clear fallacy – this is utter rubbish if you think so) or needlessly assuming that *an impossible* amount of work needs to be done.

We can’t follow the Ostrich algorithm and solve our problems. We need facts and figures. You’re an IT guy, you should know.

cheers,
/SD

You said: “Anyone ever visited Sri Lanka interacted with Sri Lankan people know the answer to this question. Answer is hardly ANY!”

You and I agree to a large degree on this. I too don’t think the majority of the population is bigoted either. This is true of both Sinhalese and Tamils.

But ask a Tamil in the diaspora, they are likely to believe the opposite.
Now – just look at the assumption I just made. I automatically assumed that a Tamil in the diaspora is much more likely to think otherwise. I have no idea what the real numbers are. They are all just treated as an amorphous blob – for convenience. This is at least part of the problem isn’t it?

The point is, without concrete facts or figures – we are stabbing in the dark – we don’t know exactly how many people perceive things in a certain way and what and how much work needs to be done to change that perception. It would therefore be very beneficial to have a survey which actually measures the attitudes and disposition of the population at large.

Can and have any such surveys been done? I would really like to know the results.

cheers,
/SD

Dear Dr. Saravanamuttu,

You do realize that “Dasa Maha Yoda”’s overblown act was meant to be sarcastic?

Still, I do wonder how many “real life” characters, that Dasa Maha Yoda is trying to form a caricatural imitation of, exist in Sri Lanka? ”

(gv twitter) How is that a cogent question? [Edited]

If any of you are in touch with common man on the streets (the majority!), you know the answer to this! Anyone ever visited Sri Lanka interacted with Sri Lankan people know the answer to this question. Answer is hardly ANY!

“in my reckoning, having examined some of the extant documentation regarding the population in vanni prior to the onslaught, i estimate the death toll to actually be in the region of 60,000. for all autonomic deniers of this probable fact”

Tell us more please; you may well be right but how did you arrive at this estimate? what was the data on those documents? are these documents in the public domain? what are your calculations? and what was the margin of error in your estimates?

[In the estimation business one has to be careful, you see: “I saw two dogs, one did not bark, therefore 50% of dogs don’t bark”, is bad practice of statistical inference. Something like “50% plus or minus 49% of dogs don’t bark”, would be better. We will then know that according to your estimate the proportion of non-barking dogs is somewhere between 1% and 99%.]

You do realize that “Dasa Maha Yoda”‘s overblown act was meant to be sarcastic?

Still, I do wonder how many “real life” characters, that Dasa Maha Yoda is trying to form a caricatural imitation of, exist in Sri Lanka? Is it perhaps possible to peg this down to a number? Are there any surveys which might find whether such attitudes and ideas are indeed prevalent and provide some concrete numbers for us to work with? Because otherwise, we are all needlessly getting worked up over an exception as opposed to the norm (and the norm seems to be that we all get worked up over the exception). It will also tell us how much work needs to be done in terms of opinion building, if we are to think of forming a truly plural society.

I think surveys on all ethnicities are needed. Would anyone whether this has already been done?

cheers,
/SD

Dasa Maha Yoda, your comment reflects the ideology in the ascendant. With sentiments such as this, who knows, you could even be president or alternatively end up in navy detention!

Needless to say, the country will risk being detained indefinitely from the peace and prosperity all of its peoples seek.

You have an inalienable right not to know me or ridicule me. I am used to your kind mainly my Tamil journalistic colleagues and this desire to ridicule fellow Tamils is indelibly etched in the genes of Jaffna Tamils.

Tamils hate each other more than they hate Sinhalese adn the war in which thousands perished was largely due to discord and dissent among Tamils.

Perhaps you have heard of the tale of the prisoners from the three communities where the bunker in which the Tamils were kep needed no cover since if one tried to get out the others would drag him back.

So what’s new.

There’s such a thing as cursor on your computer which could ignore my comments or writings. You will save yourself some stress in your advancing years.

my basic point still stands – what is the point of writing and trying and be in the ‘game’ if you fail to acknowledge even the simplest and most significant fact of 2009 in sri lanka – i shall repeat again…
“It is staggering how saravanamuttu manages to completely avoid mentioning that upwards of 40,000 Tamils were killed in the first 5 months of 2009.”

http://www.viddler.com/explore/frontlineclub/videos/242/
pearl i had never heard of you before i watched this – and the kindest thing that can be said of your dismal peformance was that it was spectacularly unspectacular. your writings too on groundviews seem for the most part to be piffling – perhaps it is a form of catharsis for you, it is dreary and homespun for me (and maybe others).

my points above were addressed to sara, not you.