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Talk of ‘Sinhalisation’ is not racist; talk of ‘Sinhala country’ is racist- double standards?Ramanie de Zoysa
LTTE is often credited with mastery in the ‘art’ of using destitute women as suicide bombers; but, so far it has not been fully understood by some that the LTTE killers in the Wanni and their financiers / theologists in the Tamil Diaspora have also mastered the ‘art’ of practicing ‘Safe racism’. Hitler practised racism when he targeted and executed 2 million Jews; but, his practise of racism was brutally direct and primeval- unsafe indeed. There was no sophistication and no universal appeal having artfully camouflaged racism in Emperor’s clothing. The LTTE Emperor’s followers in the Tamil Diaspora invented both a ‘moderate Tamil’ and a ‘Sinhala Right/ Sinhala chauvinist/ Sinhala Supremacist’ to camouflage the poison of racism lingering within their very bosoms. Those who can see Tamil racism through the layers of non-existent clothing are petrified of speaking out about what they see because to do so would certainly invoke the wrath of the LTTE- the Emperor and his ardent followers whose private goals the Emperor serves.
Much bally-hoo has been raised by LTTE Emperor’s followers regarding a statement of a fact made by arguably the finest Army Commander the modern world has seen, General Sarath Fonseka. the Army Commander’s statement that Sri Lanka is a ‘Sinhala country’ has been described by the Emperor’s creative writers as being offensive to the minorities and causing ethnic disharmony in the country; this is the start of another thirty years of civil war, they screech. One of Tamilnet’s most quoted scribes, Tissaranee Gunasekera went as far as calling it a “Neanderthal uttering”!
But then, there is nothing “Neanderthal” about the ever present talk of “Sinhalisation”, “colonisation” or “State sponsored colonisation”, according to these mouthpieces. Claims of Sinhalisation are made by learned Tamils wearing ‘moderate/ democratic’ labels at both local and international forums where hand picked audiences lap it up as making perfect sense. Of course the Emperor’s scribes see absolutely nothing wrong in such utterances. It was no lesser person than Prof. Ratnajeeevan Hoole who reiterated this frightening concept most recently at a meeting hosted by Canadians for Peace in Toronto, Canada where Mr. John Argue of Amnesty International was a chief guest. Under the heading “Eye Opener to Tamils”, Hoole was speaking to the Tamils worldwide ostensibly condemning the brutal LTTE in a bid to extricate the good Tamil name from the now seriously blood smeared image of the LTTE. He pondered the imminent annihilation of the fighting unit of the LTTE in the Wanni and the aftermath and expressed his fears on the quality of life after LTTE for Tamils. He said:
“….The kind of democracy we will enjoy can be seen in what is happening in the East – more colonization, new Buddhist temples sprouting up everywhere, vote-rigging, more Sinhalesization, etc. When I was on the UGC, there was a proposal to have a massive infusion of money into South Eastern University [sic.]. Billions of rupees were to be poured in. It is officially a national university but understood to be a Muslim university. The suggestion for the expansion came from the ministry. But we of the UGC had to initiate it officially. We enthusiastically supported it. We believed that aid to develop one of the least developed parts of Sri Lanka was a great idea and that economic activity would grow around the university. We proposed the plan. But today, after the liberation of the East, the report is that the new class would consist almost 40% of Sinhalese…..(emphasis mine)”
Here is a person who ran from Sri Lanka to escape- by his own admission- “Tamil guns” and who is held in high esteem by the Sri Lankan intelligentsia as well as the polity as a “Tamil moderate”. He accuses Sinhala people settling in the East of ‘Sinhalising’ the East. This very intellectual and ‘moderate’ is also dismayed that an Eastern University is educating “almost 40%” Sinhala students. This is notwithstanding the fact that even after years of ethnic cleansing by the LTTE, 33.33% of the East to date comprises of Sinhala. He is objecting to the new Buddhist temples coming up in the East. Not that there are no new places of worship of other religions coming up in the East; it is the Buddhist temples that this scholar takes an exception to. Instead of condemnation, such utterances meet with deadly silence among the Sinhalese and great acceptance amongst the international community. Worse still, a certain section of the Sinhala intellectuals use the same terms and join the Tamil racist chorus in a bid to be seen as ‘moderate Sinhala’ due to the fear of vitriolic abuse and vilification by the Emperor’s charlatans.
The dictionary meaning or the common usage of the word ‘colonisation’ implies a foreigner setting up habitation in a new land, often uninvited and undesirable. In fact, thrice colonised Sri Lanka needs no elaboration of the modus operandi of colonisation. By its very nature, the term ‘colonisation’ has to spring from the basis of a Tamil homeland which deems non-Tamils aliens and thus sees any attempt to enter the area by a non-Tamil as a hostile, illegal or an immoral act. The unilateral demarcation of the North and the East of Sri Lanka as being “Tamil areas” by the Emperor’s clan provides the basis for vilifying the Sinhala people for attempting to move freely into the North and the East of the country they are natives of.
Setting aside the issue of the right that the Army Commander and a Sinhala person has to state a fact or to present a point of view, it is the double standards this frightful brigade practise in discriminating against the majority Sinhala people while claiming victim status, that takes ones breath away. It is acceptable for the Emperor’s brigade to demarcate ‘Tamil areas’ randomly into which entry is prohibited for the Sinhala, strictly on the basis of ethnicity. For a Sinhala to venture to settle in ‘Tamil areas’ would amount to ‘Sinhalisation’ of those areas and there are harsh penalties in the form of intimidation, death threats, killing, public humiliation, international condemnation and last but not least the threat of R2P being invoked and Sri Lanka becoming a vassal state under the administration of UNCHR. Any attempt by the Sri Lankan Government to allocate any resources in these so-called “Tamil areas” to the landless poverty stricken Sinhala would be called “State Sponsored colonisation”. The agenda is that Sinhala people are compartmentalised into certain geographical areas with only the Tamils monopolising the freedom of movement throughout the country. Sinhala people are setting a unique trend in that they are the only people in the world that can ‘colonise’ their own country. An American can not ‘Americanise’ any part of America by moving into that part of America; the rationale being that the American would already be in his home country. But, a Sinhalese can “Sinhalise” the Northern or Eastern Province pf Sri Lanka if he moves to the Northern or Eastern Province.
This concept extends to the Hill Country as well- once the home of a vibrant Sinhala civilization and a citadel of Sinhala governance. In fact, a Sinhala can be accused of “Sinhalising” the Hill country if he thinks he can acquire a humble roof over his head in certain parts of the Hills where people of South Indian heritage were naturalised and settled in the more recent history. A prime example is where the Sri Lankan Government attempted to allocate alternative land for several Sinhala families who were rendered homeless as a result of several land slides in the Hill Country during the last couple of years when CWC chided the Sri Lankan Government for ‘settling Sinhala people in the best tea lands’! The vicious irony is that this very land was robbed from the Sinhala peasants by the British planters for tea cultivation. Under the cloak of ‘human rights’, ‘democracy’ and ‘pluralism’ reverse discrimination against the majority thrives in Sri Lanka.
What ails the Sinhala people in this situation is the same predicament the character enacted by Jack Nicholson found himself in, in the famous movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Once labelled insane and committed to an asylum Nicholson’s character found that he needed super human courage not only to break away from the situation but also to convince himself that he was not mad. He found that the more he screamed for help and the more he pleaded for understanding the more tightened the restraints / violence became and higher the dosage of sedatives administered. At some point it became a matter of mere survival that he kept quiet and underwent pain in the hope that ‘someday’ justice will be restored. Also, the increasing levels of poison administered in to his system rendered his body into a semi-paralytic state unable to think for himself. I find that a section of the Sinhala society reacts to the ‘racist’, ‘supremacist’ labels and the ‘Sinhalisation’ accusations the same way Nicholson character in the movie- with semi-paralysis, acceptance or even complete submission to the accusations and labels. Any attempts at denial of the lies or to establish the truth meet with howls of further insults, intimidation and threats from the Emperor’s brigade.
The other layer of the cocoon of Tamil racism is the invention of the Sinhala fiend that is parallel to the LTTE in villainy and violence. It is the Sinhala chauvinist/ racist for whom Professor Hoole has a new name- the Sinhala Right. To make the parallel even more visible Professor Hoole gives LTTE – the now disgraced part of Tamil racism he is trying to distance- the name ‘Tamil Right’. Now the scales are even- there is a Tamil Right which is the LTTE and there is an equal entity - the ‘Sinhala Right’. Of course the Tamil Right is the product of the Sinhala Right which makes the Sinhala Right double guilty- the Sinhala must always take the blame in this game. According to Hoole, this Sinhala Right, whoever they are or which ever jungles they hide in, are downright barbaric because they keep free thinking Sinhalese shaking in their boots not able to express how they feel. He said in his above mentioned talk that:
“……any reasonable peace loving Tamil who gives voice to his views is slandered, vilified and demonized by the Tamil right. Mr. V. Anandasangaree, Ketheesh Loganathan, and Neelan Tiruchelvam have suffered this fate. Likewise, on the Sinhalese side we see the same thing happening to Elmore Perera, Rohan Edirisinghe, Jayadeva Uyangoda and Jehan Perera. Their stories will tell us what happens to those who refuse to conform (to the right)….”
According to this statement Elmore and Jehan Perera, Uyangoda and Edirisinha are victims who are unable to express themselves out of fear. However, the fact is that at least some of these individuals get paid handsomely in foreign currency for ‘expressing’ their views demonising the Sinhala Buddhists and the Sri Lankan Government on a consistent basis which gives lie to the existence of the Sinhala Right monster or a fear caused by it.
Prof Hoole argues for separation assuring that it will not hurt Sri Lanka a bit.
“…To be sure, peace is not antithetical to separation. It is possible to have separate geographical units where the Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims pursue their own well-being without clashing with the other communities…. Such territorial division is good for all of us, be it through federalism or outright separation.”
This coming from an intellectual and a so-called ‘moderate’ shows that Eelaam Tamils are still at square one aspiring for Eelaam. ‘Separate geographical units where Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims pursue their own well-being’ is the unmistakable dismantling of Sri Lanka. Under Prof Hoole’s separate geo-ethnic entities theory Tamils and Muslims will get a exclusive ethnically pure geographical area but nothing will change for the Sinhalese. The Sinhalese will continue to share provinces other than the North with all others. Even in the East the Sinhalese will be restricted to a ‘Sinhala compound’ which will be governed by the Eastern ‘Government’ more or less completely dominated by Tamil speakers.
Hoole is by no means suggesting that Tamil speakers resident in other provinces move to the Northern or North eastern Tamil state/ province to allow Sinhala the same freedom as Tamil speakers to ‘pursue their own well-being’ in their own patch. He retains the right for Tamils residing in wonderful prosperity in other parts of Sri Lanka to hang on to their wealth too. Multi-million dollar condominiums in Wellawatte and other parts of Colombo built by Diaspora Tamils from affluent countries – mainly Canada- who gained residency claiming genocide after 1983 must not lose all that ill-gotten wealth. He says:
“… A federal deal would avoid the ruination of Tamils living in the South, especially the many Tamils who have investments in the South. Eelam means that the multimillions in new flats in Colombo might have to be sold in fire sales as happened after the 1983 riots which probably in monetary terms were of higher value than the properties that were destroyed….”
In fact the second-most obvious victim in this Eelaam struggle is justice, the first being the truth. There is one rule for the Sinhala majority and another for the Tamils. Muslims just might be awarded with prosperity and gains similar to the Tamils at least while they are still useful in justifying Eelaam for the Tamils. Sri Lankan Muslims, who the history told us were the descendents of Arab traders have had their history re-written to suit the Eelaam struggle. The SL Muslims are none other than Tamils from South India who got converted to Islam, we are now told. Fa-hien who met Arab traders in SL, according to the now re-written history, must have been either lying or mistaken.
Professor Hoole is only one representative of the Eelaamists who wear the cloak of ‘moderation’ or ‘democracy’; the pool of such people is large indeed. One of the fathers of anti-Sinhala racism and Eelaamist separation TULF’s Veerasingham Anandasangaree has not changed much from the Vaddukkodai resolution days even though he is now more for Indian style federation than for outright Eelaam; but, he is a ‘moderate’ ‘democratic’ Tamil with whom the Sri Lankan Government must negotiate a ‘just settlement’. It is yet to be seen how TMVP’s Karuna and Pilleyan would ‘democratise’ themselves and serve the Sinhala contingency in the East. So far, they have not shown much interest in the rights of the minority Sinhala in the East. Sinhala students have been killed by Tamil assassins and students have been intimidated into leaving the Eastern Universities without raising a ripple of concern either in the democratic Tamil pool or in the Human Rights conscious international community. Douglas Devanada is the same; other than the needs of the Tamils Devanada as a Sri Lankan Government Minister has shown very little interest in the non-Tamil speaking communities. The scary thing is that it is this pool of Tamil ‘moderates’ the Sri Lankan Government is expected to negotiate a ‘just settlement’ with. Jehan Perera in his essay titled THE LAST BATTLE AND NATIONALISM’ recently stated how unwise the Sri Lankan Government is to think that defeating LTTE militarily would solve Sri Lanka’s problem.
“…there is a reservoir of Tamil nationalism in the Tamil expatriate community that lives abroad, that no amount of military solutions in Sri Lanka can ever hope to subdue. There is only one answer to Tamil nationalism and that is a just political solution.”
By Prabhakan’s own admission Tamil Nationalism is larger than Sri Lanka; in fact, it is a worldwide phenomenon. In his last Maaverraar day speech last year (which hopefully would be his last) Prabhakaran let it slip that he was fighting a war on behalf of the 80 million Tamils worldwide. Fighting a genocidal war in Sri Lanka to carve out a State for the 80 million Tamils world wide in itself is an unjust proposition. Given that, how unjust the ‘just solution’ needs to be to appease the Tamil Nationalistic aspirations worldwide is anyone’s guess.
The negotiating parties are to be the Sri Lankan Government and Tamils or Tamil speakers. The selection of parties is based on a huge assumption that the Sri Lankan Government equates to Sinhalese. However the Sri Lankan Government is mandated to ensure the benefit of all ethnicities and will not be in a position to be partisan towards one ethnic group. No attempt has ever been made to ensure that Sinhala grievances will be heard or their aspirations will be taken into account in this ‘negotiation for a just settlement’.
The 3000 year plus history of the Sinhala habitation of Sri Lanka is already being denied and pushed under the rug of multiculturalism. 2500 years worth of Sinhala Buddhist historical sites and archaeological monuments are being erased from the face of the earth in the North and East at will. The Sri Lankan Government is unable to resist any of this for fear of being blamed for pandering to the ‘Sinhala supremacists’. Moreover, the Sri Lankan Government is compelled to use a heavier hand than needed to ‘rein in’ Buddhist priests based on hundreds of false claims that are being lodged by Christian fundamentalists around the country. All because Sri Lanka is bending over backwards to ‘prove’ that they do not run a ‘Sinhala Government’.
Previous Australian Prime Minister John Howard told the Sunday Mail newspaper on 19 December 2005 something that very well applies to Sri Lanka. He called for religion to be put back into Christmas. In an impassioned plea to the nation, Mr Howard said Australians should stop downplaying the importance of Christianity at Christmas time for fear of offending other faiths or non-religious people. Mr Howard said he had "contempt" for arguments that the religious aspect of the festive season should be toned down through the removal or banning of Christmas trees and symbols, nativity scenes and concerts. It was not a sign of tolerance to "bland out" such things, he said. The Premier said that "You don't demonstrate tolerance towards minorities by apologising for your own heritage," and I agree with him.
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