Is there an ethnic problem in Sri Lanka, or is it a persecution complex in the minds of the Tamil intelligentsia?

By Charles Perera.

Recently in an interview Neelantha Ilangamuwa asked an Indian intellectual Dr. Geeta Madhavan to comment on the APRC proposals. The Foreign intellectuals and non-intellectuals seem to know more about political problems of Sri Lanka than the Sri Lankans themselves. The answer she gave was that " . The APRC proposal has been seen per se as a political solution. However, it does not seem to address the core issues of the conflict and therefore seems to lack the very support it sought to garner. The LTTE has come out vehemently against it .It also raises the question as to how far it is compatible with the envisaged quasi federal devolution package? India has been categorical in stating that any settlement should be acceptable to all the communities within Sri Lanka as well as be within the framework of united Sri Lanka and should emerge from within the nation itself."

That was her answer, but she does not elaborate what the core issue of the conflict the APRC report does not seem to address. We expect an intellectual to give a more precise, complete and incisive answers to a question so that the non-intellectuals reading them have not got to wander what she exactly means. It becomes more complicated as the APRC report seeks to solve an ethnic problem. But no body has so far defined in exact terms what is the ethnic problem in Sri Lanka.

For this undefined ethnic problems, lots of Tamil intellectuals seem to think that the solution comes from the denigration of the Sinhala majority, as the causal factor of the ethnic problem. But the problem itself , if there is one, is camouflaged in verbal tirades. However, an ethnic group is defined as " People of the same race or nationality who share a distinctive culture." Hence, going on that definition the ethnic problem in Sri Lanka could be defined as being Tamil, Sinhala and Muslim and not wanting to be together.

I went to a web site: ( http://www.theacademic.org/forum//viewtopic.php?p=6030&highlight=&sid=0e4b6c392c6bc3ca5f5666dbc0b7defe ). There too an ethnic problem as such is not defined, but some one gives three solutions to the problem:

1.Amend the constitution and make all languages and religions equal, without any privileges for any particular race or religion.
2. Recognise Tamils as a nation
3. Recognise their right to self determination
4. Settle for a federal solution

In relation to Sri Lanka this means the division of the country according to the ethnic groups. The countries of the world are made up of different ethnic groups. This applies to the countries in the West as well as those other countries of the globe. But breaking up nations, into smaller nations is not a solution to ethnic difference. Some had paused the question of apartheid in South Africa, and the situation of Dalits in India, as ethnic problems. But in Sri Lanka the Sinhala, the Tamils and the Muslims have no problem of apartheid or that of Dalits.

In South Africa the black Africans could not enter certain areas specially reserved for whites. There was strict segregation of the black Africans. There was such segregation some time back in America, where the blacks had separate seats in buses. In India the Dalit children admitted to certain schools had to sit on special benches, and some schools which admitted Dalit children were burnt down by the high caste Hindus. In Sri Lanka ethnic difference had not been extended that far. But yet it is made out that there is an ethnic problem in Sri Lanka. If so where is the problem?

If it is about the use of the Tamil language, introduction of standardization in admission of students to Universities, representation in Provincial Councils, or use of Tamil in correspondence with Government departments, they are political issues, and are not ethnic problems as such. In Sri Lanka, Tamils, and Muslims live where ever they want, they practice their religious rights without being troubled by others, they study Tamil, they have their own schools, or they attends other schools. They are free citizens to do what they want to do respecting their cultural background. They are not pushed about by the Sinhala majority.

There appears to be no serious ethnic problem, as such. If the ethnic groups other than the Sinhala consider, that their problem comes from their being the minorities compared to the Sinhala, it is another problem. They have, then, to increase their numbers to be in par with the majority community and if that is not possible they have to learn to live in peaceful amity, with the Sinhala. To sum up the situation if one is to look at it objectively the ethnic problem is created by the minorities, in their inability to be in par with the Sinhala.

The Sinhala people have no objection to live with the Tamils or the Muslims, and they will also live happily even if the country were to be one day under a Tamil or a Muslim as the President of Sri Lanka. This is a possibility if the Tamils give up their racial hatred and decide to live as citizens of Sri Lanka sharing pain and happiness with the rest of the people without having a complex of their Tamilness or Muslimness. The Tamil intelligentsia do not understand , that the Sinhala people have no superiority complex.

When you take every thing into consideration there is no real ethnic problem in Sri Lanka. It is a persecution complex or paranoia in the minds of the Tamil intelligentsia.