Sri Lanka: To help in your
statements
An Open Letter To Senator Barack Obama
Asoka Weerasinghe Ottawa,
Canada
January 13, 2008
Senator Barack Obama
Democratic Presidential Candidate
U.S. Senate
Washington
US
Dear Senator:
On the first week in January, I left a mini-mountain of snow in Ottawa
to get away from the cold and get some sun on the Cuban beaches of Varadero.
But what transpired on January 8^th was that I was away from the sun
and in my air-conditioned room in the hotel, glued to the TV with my
fingers crossed, rooting for you during the New Hampshire Presidential
primary.
Although my interest for you to win was not based on US domestic issues
since I am your neighbour in Canada, but that I wanted you to create
history by becoming a black US President, and that of your foreign policy
which might affect
US- Sri Lanka
relations as Sri Lanka happens to be my Motherland.
You had touched on the subject in one of your statements, characterizing
the conflict of Sri Lanka as a *“vicious civil war”* and *“the
problem of the 21^st century is the* *problem of the other.”*
You also described the phenomenon as the inability of people to accommodate
others, *“ who are like us”*, and mentioned Sri Lanka as an
example of pointing out that war rages even when *“every body there
looks exactly the same.”*
On your first comment, I fully agree that, any internal war which involves
sophisticated military weapons becomes a “vicious war”, but
it certainly graduates to a notch higher when one of the protagonists
happens to be an internationally acknowledged ruthless terrorist group.
And in Sri Lanka’s feud one protagonist happens to be such a terrorist
group - the Tamil Tigers, trained by India in the mid-80s. Thus you
are right to call this feud which has been going on for the past 25
years as a “vicious civil war”, all for the want of a mono-ethnic
racist, separate Tamil state, Eelam, in an island of the size of the
State of Virginia.
You were right again, when you disparagingly remarked that the inability
of people to accommodate others “who are like us”, and mentioned
Sri Lanka as an example when “everybody there looks exactly the
same.”
However, although that remark has a superficial intrinsic value, under
its cuticle the Sri Lankan issue takes an extraordinary twist and an
awkward turn.
Although the Sri Lanka’s stake holders are several ethnic groups;
the majority being the Sinhalese (74%), the minorities Sri Lankan Tamils
(12.6% in 1981 and 3.9% in 2007), Moors (7%), Indian Tamils (5.6%),
Malays (0.3%), Burghers (0.3 %), and others (0.2%), the minority Sri
Lankan-Tamils (12.6%) were ruling the roost as the *‘privileged
minority’ *during 131 years of colonial rule because of the ‘divide
and rule”
policy of its colonial Masters, the British, in comparison to the ‘*wronged
majority’*, the Sinhalese (74%), who were undermined in every walk
of life.
Then came Independence from the British in 1948, and in the process
of correcting the discrepancies, the Tamils, who “looked exactly
the same” as the Sinhalese, had difficulty to accept the policy
of equity, as they still wanted to continue being ‘cocks of the
walk’ and continue to rule the roost and did not want to give up
some of their privileges to the majority and other minority ethnic stake
holders, and had every intention to be the rulers of the majority Sinhalese
community. That is where the problem was, Senator. Not that the Tamils
who are fighting for their separate racist state were discriminated
on any account by the majority Sinhalese.
But please Senator, make note of this bit of information which will
help you to make some informed remark on Sri Lanka the next time around.
*Blacks in the United States made up 12.1 % of the population, roughly
the same percentage as the Sri Lankan-Tamils in Sri Lanka in 1981, just
two years prior to the riots when the Tamils flew the coop and landing
on foreign lands saying that they were refugees running away from persecution.
Considering that charges of discrimination against Tamils in Sri Lanka
are a cornerstone of the rationale of Tamil Tiger terrorists fighting
for their separate, racist state causing over 70,000 deaths so far,
it is enlightening to compare the status of American-blacks and Sri
Lankan-Tamils, and I am certain that you would conclude, as I have,
that the Tamil Tigers are full of humbug, and so are the Tamil Diaspora
lobbyists who are supporting the Tamil Tiger cause,*
* I think that you will agree that American-blacks constitute an underclass
by any criterion in the US. An article in the /Washington Post/ of February
3, 1986 entitled “Blacks on the Bottom’ details the litany
of discrimination and neglect. Black infant mortality, for example,
is nearly double that of the Whites. Blacks’ life expectancy and
median age are below that of the Whites. So are the numbers of high
school graduates and college graduates, 8% and 10% respectively. In
January 1986 Black unemployment was 14.9% compared to 5.9% of the Whites.
Unemployment among Black youth was 2 ½ times more than that among
the White youth. The statistics go on. Another point made in the article
was that the status of this underclass was getting worse. It is, of
course, a shame that we see this kind of human anomalies in the world’s
wealthiest nation.*
* How did the Sri Lankan-Tamils (12.6% of the population - 1981 census)
who are fighting for their separate, mono-ethnic, racist, Tamil state
complaining that they have been discriminated, do in Sri Lanka?*
* In 1981, believe it or not, unemployment rates were three times higher
(25.9%) among the majority Sinhalese than among the minority Sri Lankan-Tamils
(6.7%). And yet they tell the world that they have been discriminated
and thus the reason why they are fighting for their separate, mono-ethnic,
racist state. Senator, go figure out that logic!*
* At the 1981 Census, the Sri Lankan-Tamils (12.6%) occupied the following
percentages of the various professions among the over all
population: doctors 35.1%; dentists 24.7%; veterinary surgeons 38.8%;
life scientists 41.5%; medical technicians 30.2%; engineers 34.9%; land
surveyors29.9%; engineering technicians 24.3%; survey draughtsmen 27.8%,
public sector administrators 15.9%. And so they feel that they have
been discriminated and thus engaged in a war to claim their separate
state.
Perhaps you are in a better position to be judge and jury on this issue
to reconcile in your mind why these Tamil Tigers are fighting for their
racist Tamil state, complaining that their 12.6% population have been
discriminated. I call them humbug. And you being an experienced politician
from America’s black population who understands minority discrimination
quite well should be able to come to your own conclusions after studying
these authentic numbers.*
**As I see this ‘privileged minority’ of Sri Lanka-Tamils
(12.6%) by
1981 were wearing jewels on their crowns and were cocks of the walk
were looking down on the majority Sinhalese even though they “looked
exactly the same”; while the “wronged majority” Sinhalese
(74%) would have been lucky if they could have found attractive river
pebbles to wear on their crowns, and they felt down and trodden by an
ungracious ethnic community who happens to “look exactly the same”.
If logic had any meaning, then it should have been the majority Sinhalese
who should have been screaming that they have been discriminated, but
it so happens that they are not aggressive and are generally gentle
people.
The FBI had quite rightly described the Tamil Tigers as the “most
dangerous and deadly extremist” outfit in the world. The FBI had
asked donors to be careful about charities established as front organizations
by this terrorist group to raise funds to finance its terrorist activities.
They had a valid point.
If 9/11 made America resolve that Terrorism should be wiped out from
every nook and corner on Earth, then the Tamil Tiger terrorists should
be prime candidates to be wiped out. And the Sri Lankan government should
not be penalized for trying to do exactly that.
I, as a Sri Lankan-Canadian, who is rooting for you to be America’s
next President, want to make one simple request. Please assess the Sri
Lankan issue well before you make any comment that would be harmful
to the present situation in Sri Lanka which might empower the Tamil
Tigers to claim their right to go on killing innocent civilians with
impunity and keep hemorrhaging that island nation.
Yours sincerely,
Asoka Weerasinghe
Ottawa, Canada
e-mail: weerasin@magma.ca**
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