by MICHAEL ROBERTS, December 2009
One of the fundamental problems facing Sri Lanka today has been an underlying current for some time. Let me present this argument first in abstract terms. I refer to a way of seeing the world that enables a PART to equate itself with the WHOLE and thus to subsume the whole.
In this insidious and yet powerful fashion the Sinhala part subsumes the Sri Lankan whole and provides one of the foundations for Sinhala domination. This attitude can be discerned in Anagarika Dharmapala’s writings. It underpinned the surge of political forces that effected the political transformation of 1956, challenged the primacy of English, made Sinhalese the language of administration and in the process placed the Tamil vernacular in a secondary position.
The 1956 ideology underpinned the triumph of the SLFP-led forces that brought Mahinda Rajapakse to power in late 2005. So, the recent defeat of the LTTE raises the possibility that the merger of whole within the dominant part of the population could poison the prospects of reconciliation.
I do not have the expertise to assess the degree to which such a mind-set prevails among the Sinhala-speaking people, both Buddhist and Christian. There are many persons of goodwill within the Sinhala community who are attentive to the needs of the present hour: a healing touch that is built on a genuine confederative ideology that sees the minorities as an integral part of the concept “Sri Lankan.” However, I do not know what political clout they carry or what proportion of the Sinhala-speaking problem are even aware of the part/whole relationship that I have set up as a PROBLEM.
If you do not consider something to be a problem, then you will not attempt to redress it. So, this little note is a consciousness-raising act. In parenthesis let me note that people who cannot read a text that runs to more than 250 words will not even get to the starting point of internal reform.
For an elaboration of this theme, also see Michael Roberts, “Some Pillars for Lanka’s Future,” in FRONTLINE, Volume 26 – Issue 12 :: Jun. 06-19, 2009 Volume 26 – Issue 12 :: Jun. 06-19, 2009. SEE http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2612/fl261200.htm
I have just returned after a 3 week visit to Sri Lanka where I met with several Tamil business leaders in Colombo. I also travelled to Batticaloa and Trinco, but what I found was that there is no real issue with reconciliation. Actually, there are lots (and I mean lots) of Tamil owned business that are at the forefront of business in Sri Lanka. The strangest thing was that these Tamil businesses have never closed or left Sri Lanka in the past 30 years. May be I am just a foreigner, but I have a very good understanding of the problems in Sri Lanka and I seriously believe that, if there is to be any reconciliation it should come from the Tamil side, because after all it was the Tamils that went about killing thousands of Sinhalese for the last 30 years.
THANK YOU, Duque
IT IS good for insiders –even insiders living outside –to get non-partisan views and readings from visitors.
Pardon my belated response but I had not mastered this web site system.
There are a great many things left out from your understanding it seems. There are many Tamils living out of the North and East areas of course, many due to the violence (pre-LTTE) that was inflicted on the Tamils as a whole where ever they lived, a huge reason being for a better quality of life and education as their traditional areas of living were severly repressed from full development compared to the rest of the country. Tamils in dominantly Sinhalese areas and areas where there are significant populations of them do get along with them and are essentially part of their society. However, Tamils are at huge risk to even discuss matters pertaining to the North or about dissatisfaction with the State about anything regardless of self-determination. Tamils in Colombo and the south are frequently pressured to vote in elections despite none of parties have an earnest desire to legitimately solve the problems facing the Tamil people. There is harrassment faced by communities in the south to keep their mouths shut and basically have no political opinion. Of course, there are also Tamils who do not believe in the pursuit of the radical separtist movement, but even the ones who believe in devolution are kept under. I think your confusing political opinions with obvious civility between members of communities. That’s all Tamils want: respect, recognition, and to be able to be fully themselves culturally and religiously. Their brethren in the North are being severely subjected to genocidal conditions even after the war. To put it more bluntly: Tamils in those areas are as repressed as their northern counterparts, but without actual restraints. Reconciliation is absolutely from both sides, not just the Tamils. Trust me the Sinhalese have perpetrated a very great amount of injustices that still continue today.
he has a bias in telling the actual situation
A few of points need mentioning in this regard
1) The Sinhala are as much interlopers as the Tamils. They just happened to come a bit earlier than the Tamils. They have no claim to “being here first”. The land really belongs to the Veddahs who were cheated (Kuveni to begin with) and then totally dispossessed by the rapacious invaders from India.
2) If the Sinhala people are just and intelligent as they love to self-proclaim, they should pay the Veddahs a Royalty for the use of the land, like is done in civilised countries like Canada where the original inhabitants are called “First Nations” and given huge benefits, including Royalty on all mineral extractions and mining on their territories. As a start, the Sinhala state can pay 25% of the take from the gates of all the National Parks – Yala, Gal Oya, Maduru Oya etc to the Veddah’s and their descendants.
3) We must not forget that Vijaya himself was an incorrigible and violent child who’s father not only threw him out of the house, but also banished him and his gangsta pals from the entire Kingdom; and to the misfortune of the Veddahs, this unruly mob landed on the shores of Lanka and took over.
4) With Vijaya’s and his mob’s genes sloshing around in the gene pool it is no wonder that Sri Lanka is such a violent and indisciplined place.
5) Adding insult to injury: Flashback to 1985: With Dr. Stegeborn serving as their intermediary and patron, the Wanniyalaeto were invited to come to Geneva in 1985 to submit testimony before the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations Commission on Human Rights, Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities. But the three Wanniyalaeto delegates were unable to attend because officials of the Sri Lanka Government’s Department of Immigration and Emigration refused to issue passports to them. One of the reasons offered for the refusal of passports was that the Wanniyalaeto were “not real Sri Lankans”. Subsequently, Dr. Stegeborn was declared persona non grata, further obstructing efforts to redress social injustice. I am personally aware of this ridiculous assertion by the Sinhala Officials. Ref: http://vedda.org/wanniyalaeto.htm.
Worth repeating: In the Sinhala mindset it is the Veddahs who are not real Sri Lankans. (sic) and sick
6) After the British left in 1948, it took only 8 years for the non-Veddahs to mess things up big time (remember those rogue genes are sloshing around). Here is a litany of woes:
1956: SWRD’s First Language Riots. Burning and killing and Tamils branded like cattle with the Sinhala letter “Shri” applicable to motor vehicle numbers. National tragedy. In the 1990s when Premadasa threw out the Shri from the number plates it was only 3rd page news. Such is the Sinhala mindset. Short but not sweet.
1959. SWRD Assassinated, not by Tamils or Veddahs, but by a pure Sinhala Buddhist Priest
1960s – Emergency Rule becomes the norm. Since independence, Sri Lanka has been ruled under emergency laws for 77% of the time. That should be in the Guinness Book of World Records.
1971. Unruly Sinhala youth aka the JVP cause havoc countrywide and are violently put down
1975. First post-independence constitution change to suit an individual’s rule, and bogus extension of the life of parliament.
1976: Tamil militancy given birth
1977: More language based ethnic riots
1979: 2nd constitutional tampering to suit an individual
1984: 2nd bogus extension of parliamentary life
1987: More ethnic rioting
1988: 2nd JVP chaos. Even more ruthlessly eliminated.
1980s: All out ethnic war proceeds. Tanks, helicopter gunships, warships, fighter jets used against local citizens
1993-94 Assassinations galore: Premadsa, Gamini Dissanayaka, Lalith Athulathmudali and others
1995 Reign of the Bandit Queen begins (Chaura Rajini. Family bandyism big time
2001: Chief Justice and President have a world unheard of Secret Swearing in after a rigged election.
2002 Press censorship, ballot box stuffing, Presidential Body Guard thuggery et al becomes the norm.
2004 More constitutional tampering aimed at President for Life status attempted but just fails
And so on ad infintum, with no end in sight
7) Meanwhile, just about anyone (Sinhala and Tamil) who can escape the local rulers flee as refugees to the civilized west inundating Canada, UK, EU, Australia etc, and importing the penchant for thuggery to their new homelands (note the violent Tamil gangs in Toronto and Paris)
What a nice chronological list of BIG LIES !!!
The Sinhalese never “came from India”
The Sinhalese identity and language developed entirely in Sri Lanka.
They as much sons of the soil as the veddahs are.
Have you read “Yatagiyawe yatagiya then” by W. S. Bandara? The book is all about the past and the beginnings of the Sinhalese. Some food for thought! Thinking logically after reading the book show what lot of nonsense the Mahawansa is about. Unfortunately the book is in vernacular. Someone ought to translate it!
Actually Sergei, the Mahavamsa has archaeological evidence to back itself up. Your weird and wonderful unheard of book written by who again likely does not.
Sam
Things like animal-human interbreeding..?
True, mostly after the arrival of Buddhism from India, but the fact that their language is of indo-aryan origin, which exclusively originated from India, and specifically has been from the prakrit Elu that probably originated somewhere in northern India, clearly indicates that they are just as much Indian as the Tamils. The development has immensely to do with the arrival of Buddhism and the influence of Pali. As for genetics they would have resembled their original ancestors if it weren’t for the lack of woman-kin they had amongst themselves. It even states in their chronicles, and is supported by genetic evidence that the early “Sinhalese” were an amalmagation of the indo-aryans and Tamil women supplied by rulers of the Chera and Pandya dynasties who had formed an alliance with the group early on to fend from the rival Cholas. The Veddah populace was largely incorporated into the developing Sinhalese identity, as even now their language is not their original and is a variant of Sinhalese. If you define Sinhalese as just the genetic composition of the group, than that is inefficient as the Sinhalese gene pool is now largely comprised of so many other groups even colonial groups. The Sinhalese identity is ninety percent culture, religion and language. Tamils on the other hand mostly center themselves around their language, religion though they never had a complete affiliation with one religion since ancient times, and probably their overall appearance in regard to genes that have largely remained intact since ancient times. The Tamils of Sri Lanka are variant of the Tamil populations in India in regard to dialect, food, dress, and certain other customs. If you look at the food and customs of the Sinhalese they are not completely unique, with a huge South Indian influence with slight variations. The Sinhalese did not emerge from the soil of that island, neither could have the Veddahs, they too have immigrated from India thousands of years ago probably from a proto-dravidian stock. To say who has “right” to the land based on arrival and what not is completely absurd. The main point is that the country is diverse and not a monoethnic place as many Sinhalese have strived to make it years ago and even to some extent still regard others as invaders of “their” land. The problem is intolerance and lack of knowledge of others’ cultures and that is what keeps everyone apart.
history would repeat
NOTHING…and I mean NOTHING…can justify the brutal terrorism inflicted by the LTTE on Sri Lanka. Their demands for the creation of a mono-ethnic racist State of Eelam – occupying no less than 50% of the Island – is totally untenable. I salute President Rajapaksa for his brilliant campaign in finally defeating the Tamil Tigers – after a prolonged and futile civil war over 30 years and 6 failed cease-fires – while shutting out and ignoring the biased UN, the bleeding heart West, and the press. Would that Israel would do the same with Hamas.
The Tamils have NO LEGITIMATE CLAIM to independence – historical or otherwise. Their only sordid history apart from being imported by the Dutch and English – who forcibly supplanted the Sinhalese from the East coast – and the Dravidian invasion of Jaffna in 1948 – was the destruction of Budhist temples and defeat of Sinhala kings in Kandy and elsewhere in the 700′s, 1000′s, and 1200′s.
It was the English colonialists who created the problem in the first place with their anti- Sinhala, pro-Tamil policies.
This white Canadian with no ethnic axe to grind, after researching the history of Sri Lanka and visiting there, is 100% behind the Government and against the Tamil Eelamists – many living in Toronto, unfortunately.
The country is re-building at a rapid pace, the North and East are being developed for tourism by the Chinese, Japanese, Koreans – to the benefit of the Tamils; all citizens – Tamil, Sinhalese, Muslim, Christian are living and working peacefully together, tourism is increasing yearly – Germans, French, Asians, Middle Easterners, Australians, British tourists are flooding the country, the Sri Lankan stock market is the highest performing in the world – and all this success is being challenged by false accusations of War Crimes from a dysfunctional UN.
I resent the Moon Report and its backers. Sri Lanka has nothing to apologize for. The LTTE were the real criminals. Many Tamils – held as human shields – were RESCUED by the SLA from the Tigers – who shot them in the back.
To accuse Sri Lanka of war crimes is a travesty of justice.
I am so happy that there are people in this world who can actually think clearly and focus on keeping peace in the country so Sri Lankans ( and by that I mean both tamil, muslim, christian and sinhalese) can live in harmony and peace together.
To the author off this blogg: By claiming that there were War Crimes will only lead to another war. It was most probably war crimes from both sides at some point (no one here is innocent!), but by taking these issue up now will only cause another war. Do you really want to put the innocent tamil and sinhalese people into this again?
I so agree with the comment above. Sri Lanka has finally managed to get up again and I can personally assure you (since I went Jaffna some weeks ago) that the tamil and the sinhalese people live quite good together. I actually did personal survey to find out whether the tamil people actually were treated good after the war, and guess what… Yes they are. They are more happy now that this war is over, as they finally can live in peace and not to forget, are treated on the same level as everyone else in the country.
I am actually so sick and tired of this propoganda which is going on stating that the tamil and sinhalese people can not live together, tamils are treated badly and that they want their own country. Well, the only tamils who actually wish for their own state are actually those living abroad. The rest would rather stay in peace as one unity.
Tamils living in Sri Lanka are quite happy and I think those people are the ones that should have the most to say at this point. Cus those living abroad are just sitting in their safe sofa watching the news and making storys to make it even worse for those on the tv-screen… quite sad.
Anyway I hope that the next generation can use their minds and melt together as one, cus thats what the two groups are. Two beautiful groups melting inn to a even more beautiful nation.
What baffles me so much is that anytime there is a remark or suggestion about the political sphere and criticism of the current regime of Sri Lanka, apologists of the regime and avid extremists conclude that whoever talks in such a way to not appease is a ‘terrorist.’ The only terrorists I think are those who try to whitewash the crimes of both the rebels and the government. Unless state terrorism is magically exempt. State terrorism is something still going on, while there are no more rebel activity due mainly because the people of the North and East are weary from the war and the the immense consequences felt by them and as well the intense supervision and meddling of the military and government into the public and private lives of them. Aside, talk of and independent state is not gone, but as long as those continue to spell the terrorism label onto those views, the whole country will never move on. There will always be talk of an independent state, whether there is war or not because it is a view, and not one synonymous with the rebel group exculsively, this view has predated their advent. It is not wrong either to assume a view, it is a radical form of self-determination, but not wrong. It only became dangerous when rebel groups formed to make it happen due to the non-existant political space at the time and will be dangerous if people talk of the emergence of such a group again. Devolution is another view, one more compatible with the interests of the bigger state and current situation of the country. The current mindset of the state and its people is one of a jingoistic triumphalism. The Sinhala-mindset functions strongly at this level, condemning people to be terrorists and looking at the situation one-sided, while not thinking about the future political situation of the Tamils, just talking smack. The mindset can also account for the discrimination against the Muslims currently. Self-determination of the Tamil people is a huge item on the agenda of the Sri Lankan state, so as to ignore it, as the regime has been doing so far, and ignore genuine reconciliation, as well being ignored, will result in a possible reemergence of such a group. The final assault on the rebels means nothing, just many lives gone, with such a current situation. The presence of an organized rebel group is no more, but the Tamils continue to be tortured, raped, and killed by the state. Many still mention the brutality of the rebels, but in no way can that justify the current situation, as the rebel activity is gone. Ah Sinhala-mindset. Ah humanity.
Whereever your getting your information from must be from a twisted place, your view is exactly that of a Sinhala extremist. A lot of your information is inaccurate as well.
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There are so many publications that not everyone is aware of. This is a recent publication and was given lot of publicity. I read through curiosity. Please read it once and I am sure you will be thankful you read it. It gives another interpretation. Everything that Mahawasama contains is not correct which many agree. Well I don’t want to get into controversies; I only mentioned about the book because it gives another view of our race. You are commenting without reading the book. The book is not expensive considered to its size and the amount of research done in writing that. Anyway thanks for your comment and I respect that you are entitled to your views.
This is what Professor Wilhelm Geiger had to say about the monk Mahathera Mahanama who compiled ‘The Mahavamsa’: I hope it will be useful to anyone who is interested about the content of The Mahawamsa.
“We must not forget that ‘The Mahavamsa’ is not a dry chronicle in the modern sense of the word, but a poem. In a poem, embellishments and sometimes also exaggerations may occur. But within these limits I have the strong impression and whoever reads The Mahavamsa without prejudice will have the same — that the author at least wished to tell the truth. He is perhaps sometimes misled by his education and by his conviction, on account of his priestly mode of viewing things, but he never tells a falsehood intentionally”
– Wilhelm Geiger –
“The Trustworthiness of Mahavamsa”, The Indian Historical Quarterly, Vol VI, No. 2, 1930.0
Sam that was not my comment but of someone else. I only mentioned about the book.
Michael,
Thanks for your thoughtful and reasoned comments on the Sinhala mind-set with which I totally agree. However, it takes two to tango… the Jaffna (and to a lesser extent East coast) Tamils also have a similar mind-set. At their back they feel the power of 60 million or so south Indian Tamils who give them assurance that they too can turn a part of Sri Lanka (the north-east) into a whole — a Tamil whole. Thus we had the claims of 50-50 before independence (which many Sinhalese and Tamils understood to be 50% of Sri Lanka for Tamils and 50% for Sinhalese — it was not this at all but the slogan carried the idea that it might be). And later so many of the Eelamists produced maps showing almost half the land mass and even more of the coastline to be “Tamil homelands”. Even now so many Tamil fundamental nationalists claim that Negombo is a Tamil town. This is all just a fruitless foray into a political cul-de-sac down unresearchable paths of forgotten and probably bloody history: I personally and idiosyncratically believe that domesticated winged dinosaurs were used by Sri Lankan kings as virtual spy planes (launched from the huge cave at Ella) to fight off an army of gigantic dinosaur gorillas from south Indian invaders — which led to the whole Ravanna myth. But I’d never expect to turn such eccentric crankiness into a theory on which to build a modern nation-state… but both the Sinhala Buddhist fundamentalists and Tamil fundamental nationalists seem to dwell in the fields of fantasy best left to JR Tolkein and JK Rowling!!
(Once, while waiting for a CTB bus at Kurumbacciddy Junction in 1974, I saw a blackboard advertising a lecture by the then proto-LTTE which showed speedboats pulling the Jaffna peninsula across the Palk Straits and joining it to Tamil Nadu… )
Meanwhile, the real nation-building (including proper historical research) is kicked off the field by the loonies who can shout louder and sloganise more easily ….
with best wishes and much sadness at so much blood having flowed under the bridge and still so few recognising what a waste of lives it has all been….
Jane
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Once, while waiting for a CTB bus at Kurumbacciddy Junction in 1974, I saw a blackboard advertising a lecture by the then proto-LTTE which showed speedboats pulling the Jaffna peninsula across the Palk Straits and joining it to Tamil Nadu…
There have been articles on the Federal option for Sri Lanka, published not too long ago. On reading some of them carefully, one realizes that the Federalism envisaged is federating with Tamil Nadu. This is a perfectly logical proposition, already followed by some sections of the Christian church.
Hi Chandre,
Thanks for your comment and the chance to further explain.
What I was trying to say in my overall comment, of which you have extracted a small portion, is that there are absurdly unrealisable and positively dangerous options posited by extremists within the Sinhala Buddhist warrior camp as well as by the Tamil warriors of the LTTE et al which each camp then takes seriously and thereby can justify their equally crazy antithetical position. It is “50-50″ in terms of who can out-trump the other in going more and more into the realms of political fantasy. However, the victims of this assault on the rational instinct are the political moderates who understand that mediation and compromise is the only the way forward and also the civilians who are sacrificed to this warrior mentality.
The example you use is typical of the kind of impossible scenario sketched out by the LTTE to their less worldly followers as something that could be achieved. Equally, the Sinhalese who talked (and still do) of “sending back to south India” Tamils who refuse to “Sinhalise” — an attitude which played nicely into the hands of the warrior Tamil nationalists who were able to introduce the label of “ethnic cleansing” into the global debate and thereby gain useful support among the human rights lobby and media in the west – are either shooting themselves in the foot or deliberately provoking the Tamils to adopt an even more extreme position. Whether cock-up or conspiracy, it is bad for peace and reconciliation and that is what is required now.
Two generations of Sri Lankans have endured thirty plus years of civil war plus a nasty backhander from nature with the tsunami: at least the man-inspired misery can be ameliorated … but not if the Sinhala and Tamil warriors continue to dominate intellectual debate.
TO ADD TO JANEs Latest NOTE — a friend in London with links across all ethnicites had this to say: “I am aware however that even onetime moderate or liberal Tamils, as distinct from the pure LTTE rump, have of recent become quite paranoid and look on anyone trying to maintain some sanity as being opposed to them, or as being apologists for the government. “Anyone who is not with us is against us” is what they are saying. However, given the hardening pro – Sinhala line within the South, and the apologetic stance taken by many onetime liberal Sinhala intellectuals in the South, such an extreme countervailing reaction from the Tamils is understandable. ….. what is happening now is that the confrontation is widening and the middle ground is fast disappearing.”
A few months back my sentiments were simlar in that I felt that within the middle class strata and politcoes on both sides in Sri Lanka the situation is reminscent of the 1960s and 1970s [when i lost hope].
ITs all about walking the Talk, we need to address the individuals involved for policy changes, or our time will be waisted on showing off our knowledge to each other, on history of SL, For both Sinhalese and Tamils, the only way forward is true economic growth in terms of education, health and purchasing power, which only could be done by our President, with no war, president could do wonders to make SL the miracle of Asia – over to you Sir! How will you like to be remembered over the years to come?
I presume you are addressing President Rajapaksa, ADRIAN; and not the Web Editor. I’m afraid the likes of Presidents do not read our columns [if they read much at all]. also take a galnce at “Mahinda Rajapaksa: Cakravarti Imagery and Populist Processes” in http://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2012/01/28/mahinda-rajapaksa-cakravarti-imagery-and-populist-processes/
One curios fact is that the pro Sinahalese resent Indians in general and Tamils in particular, with out going into the problems of the Tamils in Sri Lanka.
There were times when both the communities lived together.
Why every one is reluctant to talk about it?
(Why is that people forget that the Tamil and Singala Kings were also friends and some of them were related by marriage?
How many Kings of Sri Lanka were helped by the Tamil Kings and vice versa?)
Is it because it would hurt the Sinhalese sentiments?
With no apologia for LTTE killers, can some one honestly say that the Tamils were treated humanly in the recent past?
If one were to go by archaeological finds, one would know that all of us are invaders and interlopers in some country or another.
Why can’t we co-exist peacefully ?
If Sinhalese resent India’s invasion,why are they clinging to Buddhism,which is from India?
On Sri Lankan History I shall be blogging in detail with historical references in my site.-shortly.
It’s the Tamils who (1) killed an Indian ex-pm and (2) killed over 12000 Indian soldiers. It’s the Tamils who fight against Hindi. So how’s “anti-Indian”? The Sinhalese or the Tamils?
Though sounds rational ,on serious thought it is not.
Just as all Sri Lankan Tamils are not LTTE,the one who killed Rajiv though speaking Tami is not one who can be called one.,
it is one who has been brain washed into committing this reprehensible act driven by Sinahala extremism..
As to Tamils fighting against Hindi,why do Sinhalese fight against Tamil,though Sinhalese are a majority?
In India taken as a whole, Tamils are not a majority.
High sounding comments should have some information to back up.
If readers would like to know the truth from all the LTTE propaganda re-inforced by the likes of Michael Roberts, the English PRESS in Sri Lanka and around the world then please read “Sri Lanka The War Fuelled BY PEACE”. This 600 page book by Palitha Senanayake is simply brilliant and for the first time tells in ENGLISH the plight of the hapless Sinhala people marginalised in their own country as well as throughout the world. When only 6% of the Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim communities as a whole could speak, read or write English at the time of Independence it would have been a travesty of justice to maintain English as the language of administration in SL. SWRD Bandaranaike rectified this grave injustice against all 3 communities in 1956 when he allowed all of them to use their mother tongue in matters of administration. He reminded the Tamil community that they too have a proud language which they can use instead of ENGLISH. Tamils were blissfully happy to carry on doing everything in English and had forgotten that they too have a language called Tamil until 1956 when SWRD kindly reminded them of their mother tongue to which they paid their gratitude by calling him a racist and an extremist.
Bandaranaike was right on Tamil as a language,
But as to him not being a racist,history speaks otherwise
It is with humility that I type these lines.
The revenge is not justice, reconciliation or any form of deterrence; though the international powers tend to imply so only when it applies to poorer and socio-economically compromised nation entities.
Sadly the island renown for her theravada buddhist belief, heritage and peace practices continually being evolved through violence and hatred propelled by outsiders and powerful insiders alike thrive on divisions based on nothing but ‘stirring’ powers, since independence.
There is no justification for the vicious and most barbaric violence, LTTE terrorism carried out for over three decades within the island and on her neighbour killing one of their most innocent yet prominent inspiring asian sons, Rajive Gandhi.
It is not Mahawamsa or the LTTE that should decide the future of this treasure island but the all inhabitants, Srilankans of all walks of life who believes in peace, prosperity with tolerance and acceptance of our shared heritage, culture , languages, arts , sciences and beliefs with respect for all,
First sane observation I have seen for a long time.
Blaming Tamils because of LTTE, LTTE .the Sinahalese …is a vicious cycle.
The majority Sinhalese must adopt a reasonable approach to the Tamils and the Tamils must also let bygones as bygones.
But genocide…?
Some how climate has to be created to set it right, by punishing the killers.
I am yet to find a Tamil who has the character to admit the blatant and open discrimination that the sinhalese suffered under Prof Mylvaganum, The health sec, Yogabathan Of the BOC and many others who were in powerful positions . The only thing I hear is discrimination and claim to Land that has no historical perspective. The latest is the canard of Tamil buddhists which is part of a relentless propaganda claiming the whole of SL not the north and the east alone. Their recent arrival, brought by the Portugese, Dutch and the English are conveniently ignored. Having put the Sinhalese at the deep end they then talk of reconciliation. Under these circumstances and Tamil Nadu interference this whole process will never get any where. It is unfortunately pushing the sinhalese to accept regimes that are unacceptable. The Tamils and Sinhalese have to grow up and decide what is in the best interest of both communities. That is good governance and rule of law. A united front with these demands is in the best interest of the country, If not we will be bickering for centuries to come.
Every one who supported terrorism and the war are killers. So lets not start and end with the final war . Let us punish all those who were involved and that includes the Tamil diaspora. romanan50, I do not think it is feasible.hence best is to forgive all the killers.
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Hi there! Do you know of, or are you familiar with, any Vander Poorten in/from Sri Lanka or in/from Australia?
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Dear Jan,
I agree with almost all your sentiments — forgiveness of all the killers , once the truth of their killing has been acknowledged by them , is the only way to find enduring peace. And you are right — the rule of law and good governance are in the end the only things really matter – for any country. I believe there is now a Minister of Good Governance in the cabinet in Sri Lanka….and there you have the shame of it : a name is taken in vain and made a mockery of ….how will Sri Lanka ever escape this net of iniquity and lies? Other benighted states have managed it — slowly and imperfectly it is true, but it is possible–look at Lebanon, N. Ireland, the Balkans….they went through a valley of death and have come out the other side…well,hope springs eternal!!
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