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Congratulations to Mr.V Anandasangaree
After terrorism, it should not be intolerance and racism.
By Charles Perera
On the 16 November declared as the day of Tolerance, Mr. V.Anandasangaree
will receive the coveted UNESCO Madanjeet Singh Prize for the Promotion
of Tolerance and Non Violence. The Prize is dedicated to advancing the
spirit of tolerance and living together in peace with one another as
good neighbours, as mentioned in the Charter of the United Nations.
With the award of this prize Mr.Anandasagaree becomes a National leader,
not a parochial Communal or a Political Leader. Therefore he has now
a greater role to play in the terrorist battered Sri Lanka. Mr.Anandasangaree
drops his communal identity to become a National figure, to build tolerance
and goodwill between the Communities. In that role he cannot speak for
the Tamil people identifying himself as one of them. But , he becomes
the spokes man for the Tamil people, as well as for the Sinhala, Muslim
and Malays, in his capacity as a respected elder citizen, a statesman..
Mr.Anandasangaree comes from a pre-terrorist political background.
It was somewhere along the line that intolerance and racism raised its
ugly head.
We had Mr.
Chelvanayagam, who came from Malaysia, and sowed the seeds of bitter
racism, with the Vaddukoddai Resolution, an mono ethnic extremism. Mr.
Chelvanayagam even opposed the Tamil government servants learning Sinhalese
and visited the Government Kachcheries demanding the Tamil government
servants not to learn Sinhala. This was the beginning which subsequently
gave place to terrorism which has gone to unexpected extremes.
Having learnt this bitter lesson, we should nip in the bud all ideas
and expressions that tend to divide and isolate communities. As in any
other country we have to accept that there are a majority and minority
racial groups. The unity among the communities is built not in perpetuating
the communal difference, but in bringing together the culture each community
has inherited, to build a binding unity that will submerge differences
allowing each citizen to share in the culture of the other.
In this effort Mr. Anandasangaree should be the catalyst for the evolution
of a multi ethnic concept of a United Sri Lanka. He is the only remaining
old guard political figure, few of them had died of natural causes,
while others were brutally murdered by the faceless terrorists. It is
encouraging to note in the internet, there are many Tamil youth who
had suffered under terrorism, and who were kept silent through fear
of vengeance, or other reasons making their voices heard against their
aggressors the LTTE terrorists.
Though that awakening should be applauded, the racial bitterness they
bring along with them against the Sinhala majority becomes apparent
in their writings. This is not only restricted to the Tamil youth, breaking
away from the silence, but it is also found among certain Sinhala journalists
and intellectuals. The latter have self interests such as breaking into
media as independent journalists with an eye to foreign recognition
or the others simply doing their job for the foreign NGOs. The use of
epithets Sinhala supremacists, chauvinists, and Sinhala extremists ,
against any one who is critical of a Tamil person, or expression of
an opposite opinion, is far from the tolerance we expect to cultivate
among communities, once this bloody period of terrorism will come to
an end.
You had been a member of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party, and you know
that since its inception some where inh1935, spoke defiantly for all
communities.
Many were the Tamils who wore proudly the emblem of LSSP. Yet in Jaffna
LSSP was rejected by the Tamils despite their non communal politics.
That was a golden opportunity for communal integration which was lost,
giving rise to a Communal Political Party system. However, that past
should be relegated to history , and it is time to traverse a new path.
Mr.Anandasangaree you should take the role of the path finder towards
a new era, building bridges between communities.
That is why I thought that your stating that the Tamil people will
never accept any system other than a Federal system taking the Indian
model, was inappropriate at a time there is a consultative committee
of all parties, convened by the President to find a solution to the
problem. That I thought is not a statement that goes with the spirit
of tolerance and living together in peace with one another as good neighbours.
The Indian Constitution as you know is mid way between a Federal System
and a Unitary System. The Indian System had taken a long time to evolve,
and yet it is far from being a perfect model. We should have a Constitution
for a Unitary System of Administration, with appropriate safeguards,
and flexibility to a continued existence with amendments, without having
it to be abrogated to be replaced by another from time to time according
to political vagaries. Here again you have a role to play, not as a
Tamil Politician , but as an Independent National Leader whose good
counsel will be sought by all communities.
The recent Supreme Court decision to put right a wrong committed by
a short sighted politician, who by a mere gazette notification merged
the Northern and the Eastern Provinces, into one North East Province,
should be accepted as a correct legal rectification. You as a lawyer
yourself cannot deny that the decision of the court was correct. Further
more the merger would amount to defrauding the people of the East from
what belongs to them.
Jaffna enjoyed special privileges with the American Christian Missionary
work in Jaffna since 1800s. They had the best schools and a library
that was the pride of Jaffna. The East did not enjoy such privileges
and remained backward and neglected as some provinces in the South.
It is time that the Batticaloa Tamils along with the other residents
of the East, the Sinhala and the Muslim take into their own hands the
development of the Eastern Province. If you stand on the way of such
an evolution Mr.
Anandasangaree it will not be in keeping with the spirit of tolerance
and living together in peace with one another as good neighbours as
mentioned in the Charter of the United Nations.
Every thing said and done, we are very proud of you Mr. Mr.Anandasangaree,
for you had taken great risks, where many great sons of Lanka have paid
with their lives, to keep this homeland of every Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim
and Malay, a united entity not carved out into bits and pieces to please
one or the other. You have placed the grievances of Sri Lanka, suffering
under a group of terrorist led by a psychopath, before the leaders of
the world. We now expect you to be a National leader with your allegiance
to the Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim and the Malays, all , without a preference
and become a catalyst to build a real united peaceful Nation of Sri
Lankans.
We congratulate you for being the winner of the UNESCO Madanjeet Singh
Prize for the Promotion of Tolerance and Non Violence for 2006.
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