The ethnic problem in Sri Lanka has been created by interested parties to keep the Sri Lankans divided.

By Charles Perera.

Sinhala supremacism and chauvinism are local media inventions for foreign consumption.

The most spoken subject today is, an ethnic problem of Sri Lanka. Whereas the real problem we have is the infiltration of a terrorist group into our midst, while we were still trying to rise above from years of abject colonial domination to rediscover our culture, religion, and language from false foreign values that had been forced upon us.

This so called ethnic problem of Sri Lanka raised its ugly head along with the Independence. Our National Leaders, who took the fore front to demand Independence from colonialism were a mixed bunch, representing the Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim, Malays and others. These original National Leaders had laid aside their ethnic difference and became a united force to demand the departure of the colonial Rulers.

The Sinhala was the majority community, followed by the Tamils, Muslims , Malays and the rest in that order. The Colonialists played safe in the colonies, by isolating the majority community, refraining from giving them any key positions in the administration. They chose people from the minority communities to positions that demanded the trust and confidence of the colonial masters. Thus they kept the Sinhala Community in check so that they will not spearhead a moment to challenge the authority of the colonialists. The Colonialists, created the ethnic divide as it served them to rule the colony, without the fear of an uprising of the people against them.

When Sri Lanka became Independent, each community that made up the Nation, took account of the numerical importance of each of them. It is normal that the group that is numerically large becomes the majority of the country. The Sinhala people did not discriminate against any one. But they being the majority however had an advantage over the rest of the communities. Therefore, as any other independent country, be it in Europe, America, Latin America, India etc. (who were not called supremacist for that matter), Sri Lanka too made the language of the majority as the official language.

That was not an act of discrimination against the Tamils or Muslims, for India too made Hindi- the language of the majority the official language of India. Education policies of the Governments applied to all communities and there were Tamil schools for the Tamils and Muslim schools for the Muslims. The ethnic difference was created by the Tamil politicians themselves way back immediately after the independence, with GG Ponnambalams demand for fifty- fifty, followed by Chelvanayagams Fedaralism.

It was the Tamils, who segregated themselves with their own brand of political parties. Muslims settled down creating their own villages. The Jaffna Tamil traders who came to South with their commercial ventures, of barber saloons, cigar boutiques, came alone leaving behind their families in Jaffna, and never mixed socially with the Sinhala people with whom they traded. But the Sinhala people accepted them none the less.

The Tamils and Muslims studied in English schools along with the Sinhala. No Tamil teacher was prohibited from teaching in Southern School. Though in Jaffna they preferred Tamil teachers. There were more Tamils working as Engineers, Doctors, Police Officers, Government Teachers, Technical Officers etc.in the South living among the Sinhala and Muslim people. There was no discrimination against them.

There were only two Universities. The free education system turned out more students, but all students seeking higher education could not be found places in the Universities. The government was forced to apply a system of admission to Universities according to a quota system based on the population strength of the different communities. Added to that there was unemployment looming in the horizon. Lot of Tamil youth who qualified for admission to Universities found themselves left out because of the quota system. This was, perhaps where the ugly roots of terrorism found fertile soil.

The Tamil political leaders at the time should have at least attempted to foil the situation at its beginning, if they did not pay attention then, it was because they could not envisage the extent of damage terrorism would cost to the Tamil Community first and for the Nation at large.

These were certainly not matters that should have given rise to terrorism. The Tamils and Muslims were represented in the Parliament and Government. There were no discrimination against the Tamils and the Muslims. If there were social, economic or political problems, they could have been settled in the Parliament through able representatives elected by the different communities.

The Sinhala Supremacy, and chauvinism are unclean words of a restricted vocabulary bandied by local media, to distort the ground reality for foreign consumption.. The immediate problems with the language could be settled by making Sinhala and Tamil in addition to English language, compulsory subjects in the school curriculum, and train translators and interpreters to help those people who do not speak these languages in their dealings with the administration.

Another means to solve the problem of higher education and unemployment would be to open more Universities and provide higher education to all those who pass competitive examinations. The Universities should turn out more Doctors, teachers, engineers and technicians and teachers, not to make them a privileged class in the society, but to provide assistance, to the people of all walks of life, and medical facilities to the people in the towns as well as in the villages. Cuba has done an effective programme in providing medical facilities to all Cubans, we could easily copy that programme to suit our needs.

We may also encourage mixed marriages to enable a healthy mixture of races. The people should be encouraged to live along with members of different communities without segregating themselves according to ethnicity.

The present political party system should be replaced by a two broad parties, the conservatives and socialists. The present system of parties representing communities widens the ethnic gap. The attempt should be to unite all communities into one whole Sri Lankan Nation. The North and East should be de-merged to make two provinces. Federalism may seal the ethnic difference, therefore present Provincial Government system should be streamlined for easy administration and create bring the governing and the governed closer.