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By Charles S Perera

APRC should delay their report on the devolution of power, until the terrorism is wiped out, if not completely, then until the threat of an Eelam could be considered at an end. A political devolution is no solution for peace and development when the population of the country is divided.

Therefore, all politicians, religious leaders, academics and other social leaders, as well as the media should wake up to the necessity of bringing the nation together by developing a communal understanding. The Tamil Parliamentarians and activists like Mano Ganeshan, T.Maheshan should bury their racial antagonism towards the Sinhala majority and work towards building a lasting communal integration.

Ever since the war against terrorism, there are voices raised from all quarters defending the human rights of the Tamil population to the extent, that the other communities like the Sinhalas, the Muslims, the Burgher, and the Malay, seem to have no human rights what so ever. It is a contradiction in terms, as it presumes that whole problem in Sri Lanka, is caused by violation of human rights of the Tamil.

However, it cannot be left unsaid that the real violator of the human rights of all communities is the International Community, along with the UN System, the Human Rights Watch, Media Forum, Amnesty International and the Red Cross. Because, the carrying on of this campaign of pseudo violation of human rights by the government, creates in the minds of people of different communities, an unpardonable bias against the government. The government is only doing its best to end, a more than a quarter century old terrorism that is eating into the entrails of the Nation. If the International Community could at least, stop their unwanted interference on the question of a non-existent violation of human rights, it will stop further isolation of the communities taking them away from a much needed national unity.

The Catholics as well as other Christian Churches too, defend the human rights of the Tamil Community taking the Sinhala Buddhists to be the violators of their human rights. In reality, the Sinhala Community is not racial minded. They had accommodated both the Muslims and the Tamils in their midst, despite their refusal to wholly accept the Sinhala Community. We observe that despite the endless provocations by the terrorists, by murdering the innocent Sinhala villagers, the Sinhala community has maintained patient calm without letting sentiments rouse against the Tamil community. Mano Ganeshan and Maheshvaran and the TNA Parliamentarians could move about among the Sinhala people without the fear of being lynched.

Mano Ganeshan, Maheshvaran , Archbishop Oswald Gomis, the Anglican Bishop Duleep de Chikera, and Anandasangaree, being the more vociferous defenders of human rights of the Tamils, should re-evaluate their stand, and instead of the cry of violation of human rights, call for brotherhood among communities. Mano Ganeshan should not let the US Freedom Defenders Award go to his head, as it is only a poisoned gift, making him a cats paw for the USA Agenda of discrediting the President, and taking revenge for his visit to Iran, among other reasons.

Jehan Perera, Kumar Rupasinghe, Jayadeva Uiyangoda, or Wickramabahu, who defend the rights of the Tamil people make their contribution more significant, by their being Sinhala and belonging to the Sinhala community. They stake the respect and the confidence of the fellow members of their own community, and even risk their lives in defending their Tamil brothers. That itself speaks a lot for the non racist, peaceful, and generous attitude of the people of the Sinhala Community.

The fault with Jehan Perera, Kumar Rupasinghe, Jayadeva Uiyangoda, or Wickramabahu Karunaratne, is their attitude towards the war, the retaliatory war against the terrorists which is to rid terrorism from Sri Lanka for the well being of all. The terrorist are a lost creed, they cannot be recuperated from the extremism they have fallen into. Therefore, they have to be eliminated through military force. These people should change their anti-war cry, and instead appeal to Prabhakaran and his mislead followers to give up war and reconcile with the government for lasting peace for all, and unite to build together Sri Lanka the homeland of every one living together in it what ever are the religious, political, or social differences. Unless and until they do that, their highbrow opinions are a meaningless obstacle to governments attempt to end terrorism.

One could of course delve in to the past or recent history and point out to 1915 Sinhala- Muslim riots during the British rule and more recent Sinhala-Tamil clashes in 1958. In the former case of the Sinhala-Muslim riots, the situation was made worst by the British declaring martial law, and arresting Sinhala leaders, and the Government Agent ordering "to shoot at sight". Incidently the Sinhala leaders arrested by the British were defended by Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan.

But neither one, nor the other, stemmed from an underlying racial hatred of the Sinhala either towards the Muslims, nor towards the Tamils. These were isolated incidents that became National issues, and laid the foundation for later communal division by interested politicians.

The Sinhala –Muslim riots started from the Muslim religious leaders in Gampola demanding a Buddhist processions to stop beating drums when going past the Mosques. The later Sinhala-Tamil riots began, when the feelings were high after Bandaranayake-Chelvanayagam Pact, and anger surfaced with a rumour that the body of a Sinhala man killed by the Tamils, was being taken from the North to the South. It marked the beginning of sporadic fights between Sinhala and Tamil groups which spread to become a racial riot after the Prime Minister made an appeal over the Radio to the people to be calm, and refrain from harming each other.

There were lot of other factors that contributed to make the initial communal differences to conflagrate the situation. The fight for independence from the British rule was a united, national effort by the leaders from the Sinhala Buddhist, Hindu Tamil, Islamic Muslim and Malay Communities. There was then hardly any communal difference, let alone communal antagonism. But the second generation leaders like G.G.Ponnambalam , and Chelvanayagam a non-Hindu, born in Malaysia were the ones who laid the seeds of communal dissension. Thereafter things changed with the setting up of different political parties, dividing the Tamil, the Sinhala, and the Muslim Communities.

The setting up of Universities, the free education system , over population and so forth contributed to unemployment problem. It was these developments, and the problem of unemployment which would have been more acute in the North , which exposed its youth to militancy, resulting in the formation of an armed group, that eventually embraced terrorism. They would have certainly been influenced by interested groups, the secrets of which are perhaps known only by the terrorist leader Prabhakaran. The rest is history.

Now that the peril of terrorism is waning, it is time to bury the hatchet that divide the communities, and a genuine effort is made by every one to bring the communities together. As a first step towards this reconciliation, what is necessary more than the devolution of political power, is a genuine effort to understand the Sinhala Community. Why the Sinhala Community ? Because every one seems to carry with them the misunderstanding that the whole problem of terrorism has arisen from the racial discrimination of the Tamils by the Sinhala majority.

This is certainly not true, and that is why it is necessary to understand from where this wrong impressions have sprung, and take measures to correct the situation. The Tamil militants living in the South, are quite aware that the Sinhala majority is not that racist as they are made out to be. It is those pioneer groups of Tamils who had left Jaffna to settle down in Canada and other European capitals who paint the Sinhala people as racist monsters. This is primarily because they had never lived with the Sinhala people in the south, and their image of the Sinhala are those the militant terrorist groups in Jaffna had inculcated into them.

Their children, and their children's children will grow up with this wrong image of the Sinhala people. The young Tamil children of the Tamil diaspora who have never set foot in Sri Lanka, believe that they have been deprived of the motherland of their parents, because their parents had been made to leave their mother land due to the cruelty of the Sinhala people. With such misconceptions, the fires of dissention, and theories of violation of human rights, take fodder.

Therefore, if a real communal unity is to be built to make us all a part of the whole Sri Lankan Nation, and make Sri Lanka the homeland of the Sinhalas, the Tamils, the Muslims, the Malays, and the Burghers, everyone who now speaks of only the violation of human rights of the Tamil people, should change their attitudes, and make an effort to stop this continued violation of human rights of one another, and share the human rights which are our natural birth right.

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