Sugath Kulatunga

The attention of readers with national interst is invted to the article on LBN by Dr.Sudath Gunasekera on the very important issue of the proposal to establish mono-ehnic villages in the Plantation sector. Relevant excerpts of the report are produced below.

What is worse is that while this Government treats the natives in this manner the same government has created a new Ministry called Ministry of Upcountry New Villages, Estate Infrastructure & Community Development only for estate Tamils and appointed P. Digambaram as its Minister, introducing a new type of Villages to this country called ‘Upcountry New Villages’ unheard in the annals of history in this country since the dawn of history. I also would like to point out at this stage that these were the very lands denied to the native Sinhala people who were evacuated in thousands from Kotmale and other landslide affected areas in the past to satisfy Thondaman. They were sent to the LTTE infested Dry Zone then. How come the present Government is generously handing over land denied to the sons of the soil to the Indian Tamils who should have been sent to India in order to create Tamil villages in the heart land of the Sinhale.

I am sure these Villages will be the future mono-Tamil villages referred to by Ra nil Wickramasingha and Kiriella during the pre-election period when they were handing over outright ownership of lands to estate Tamils. The ultimate result of this programme is the establishment of a separate Tamil country on the central Sri Lanka comprising Kandy, Matale, Nuwara Eliya and Badulla which will be extended to parts of Kegalla, Ratnapura and Monaragala districts in the near future. This is travesty and blatant violation and betrayal of the birth rights of the native Kandyan peasants. I am lost to understand as to why the Kandyan politicians and leaders, if there are any, do not protest against this selective discrimination against their own people.”

It is obvious that this is a political manoeuvre to win over planatation votes. It can turn into a misadventue similar to the failed MOU signed with the LTTE by RW as the then Prime Minister. The creation of mono ethnic Bantustans* will discourage ethnic integration which is a vital need for communal harmony in the region. The Government is adivised to learn from the policies of Singapore to achieve communal intergration in that country. An outstanding strength in the Singapore society is its communal solidarity which was deliberately promoted by the State. Minister for National Development in Singapore S. Dhanabalan warned that it would be unthinkable” for Singapore to regress to the days before independence, when a certain place was seen as belonging to a certain ethnic or dialect group.

Singapore established population based ratios for different ethnic groups in the allocation of flats. This policy has encouraged better understanding and harmony amongst communities. Such a rigid population ratio may not be appropriate in the proposed villages. But it is necessary that at least there is a fifty-fifty mix of communities in them.If this is not done these villages could become enclaves of seedbeds for communal agitation” and lead to a demand for an autonomus Malayanadu.

Sugath Kulatunga

*Bantustans = exclusive settlements for black Africans created by the Apartheid regime