Ordinary Tamils Between Sinhala Communalism and Tamil Fascism
by S. Ratnajeevan Hoole
Sri Lankan Ambassador Bernard Goonetilleke has put a good but inaccurate face on the Sri Lankan Sinhalese majority’s conflict with the Tamil minority.
First, he says weighting examinations was never intended to discriminate against us Tamils. I took the common Advanced Level exam in 1969 and was admitted to the engineering faculty.
The government then redid the admissions after adding some 28 marks to the four-subject aggregate of Sinhalese students.
I lost my seat. They effectively claimed that the son of a Sinhalese minister in an elite Colombo school was disadvantaged vis-a-vis a Tamil tea-plucker’s son. Unable to defend this, in 1973 they created the statistical scheme equating Tamil and Sinhalese averages with regional preferences to which the ambassador refers.
Tamils were still shut out.
Second, Sri Lankan democracy: The ambassador is justly proud of Sinhalese democracy with universal adult franchise since 1931. However, promptly upon independence, half the Tamils those in the tea plantations were denied citizenship.
The rest of us Tamils began losing our franchise in 1981, when the government rigged the District Council elections, ironically meant to devolve power to us.
By 1983, our parliamentarians, set upon by government hoodlums, fled to India. The vacuum was filled by the virulent Tamil Tigers. They claim to be our sole representative, forcibly recruit our children and murder those standing for election without their blessings.
They have massacred innocent Muslim and Sinhalese villagers. Cornered by the Indian peacekeeping force from 1987 to 1990, they got a new lease on life when the Sri Lankan government accommodated them in five-star hotels and armed them.
His excellency laments the loss of our rights without acknowledging his government’s hand.
Zeal for denying democracy for Tamils is evident as it promotes a breakaway faction of the Tigers fielding candidates for elections while recruiting children, bearing arms and terrorizing Tamils the very methods of the Tigers that the government excoriates.
Finally, there is the suggestion that Tamils prefer living under the government to living in Tiger territory: I for one loved living in the Tamil neighborhoods where I grew up. But my ancestral house was destroyed, and innocent locals disappeared.
Tamil shopkeepers visited by soldiers for cigarettes and public servants have been murdered by the Tigers. Few dare live there in these circumstances.
Sri Lanka’s real story is the more complex oedipal unfolding of inexorable Sinhalese nationalist communalism meeting its ugly little baby, Tamil fascism. We ordinary Tamils struggle under the two.
(This article appeared under the heading “The Sri Lankan story” in The Washington Times of Feb. 24, 2008 in response to the article by Bernard Goonetilleke (Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Washington DC) in The Washington Times dated Feb. 17, 2008: The author was appointed Vice Chancellor of University of Jaffna Sri Lanka and fled after receiving death threats from the TamilTigers. He has also been assaulted by the Sri Lankan Police.He is presently attached toGoodwin College, Drexel University, Philadelphia)
KTR said,
February 26, 2008 @ 2:12 am
Professor is frustrated for not being able to serve the Tamil community
Sinhalese said,
February 26, 2008 @ 7:23 am
Dear Dr Hoole,
“The government then redid the admissions after adding some 28 marks to the four-subject aggregate of Sinhalese students.”
I am not sure of this claim of yours however as a vivid reader of UTHR I beleive you are telling the truth. As a Sinhala student I won a grade 5 scholarship and studied in Royal. In A/L I had the marks to go to Colombo Uni but not Eng Faculty. (I was called later to Chmeical Engineering at Moratuwa) But students from Gampaha, bordering Colombo who attended tution classes in Colombo could get admission to Univercity of Moratuwa having agregate marks less than me. I felt at the time I was cheated. However students from vanni or other areas could get to uni admission but the students from Jaffna not due to Jaffna having better standards as in Colombo. Funny things students from Galle went in having lless marks than us. but Gall have good schools and that was injustice too. But jafffna students like you atributed that against Sinhalese. So what about me? For that matter my sister who Studied in Vishaka College also gained admission from grade 5 scholarship from Badulla. She lost a uni place because she had few marks less than for agregate in Colombo district. If she would have stayed back in Badulla she would have been a Doctor now. I choose to emigrate as you perhaps. So where is the discrimination against only Tamil Students. Our system was discriminatory for us all not only for Tamils. That’s why we never supported our governments but all the other normal Sinhala voters vote only thinking about the kilo of rice and bread. That is the tragedy here.
dingiri said,
February 26, 2008 @ 8:12 am
“…..Tamils were still shut out…..”
Visit the University Grants Commisions website and check out the cut off marks for Tamil Majority districts of Jaffna, Batticaloa, Nuwara Eliya, Mullaitivu, Killinochchi, Mannar, and Vavuniya. Then compare them with the Sinhalese majority districts of Colombo, Kandy Galle, Matara etc. and make up your own minds whether Tamils are indeed discriminated against when it comes to University admissions.
http://www.ugc.ac.lk/admissions/cutoff/Academic%20year%202006_2007.html
You’ll find that the entry criteria for all Tamil districts are invariably lower than those for Colombo, Kandy and the entirely Sinhalese district of Matara. So, if anything Tamils are receiving preferantial treatment viz University entry, but I dont see any Sinhalese complaining!
The cut off marks for the current year for Medicine and Engineering are as follows.
Medicine Engineering
Colombo 2.0357 2.0020
Kandy 1.9484 1.8848
Galle 1.9919 1.9265
Matara 2.0053 2.0308
Now for the Tamil districts..
Jaffna 1.8824 1.9080
Batticaloa 1.5650 0.9404
Nuwara Eliya 1.4042 1.0517
Mannar 1.4460 0.7154
Funny how the Jaffna Tamils object to a little bit of affirmative acction so their Batticaloa Tamil and Indian Tamil brothers too can get a University education.
Peter said,
February 26, 2008 @ 3:29 pm
Does anybody question why the so called ‘fascism’ came to dwell amongst the tamils. In my opinion it is because of the behaviour of all our politicians.Starting from the days of independence all our politicians except a very few were competing each other how best they can serve the Sinhala Govts.or any other foreign power. The best example coming to my mind about the olden days is non other than the Mr.C.Rajadurai M.P. for Batticaloa. This fellow was driving around in a car with a tamil ‘Sri’ no. plate only to change it to Sinhala Sri. beyond Vakaneri on the way to Colombo. He later switched loyalty and became a minister and High commissioner.They started with the cry of body for the soil and the life for tamil but later changed and became the servants of the Sinhala regimes for perks.You can go on mentioning a long list of such traitors in the history of Srilanka.Whereas on the otherside you can hardly find any such creatures. There is no need to mention anything about the present day so called North and East ‘Sole representatives’ of the Tamils.Please note the divide of North and East and the reasons and purpose of this tactic. I strongly feel that if anybody think that this an evil it is very ,very necessary evil if you like . Otherwise there will be unnecessary and undue deviation from the course taken by the tamils.We need a strong arm to tame these traitor creatures though it becomes painful and undemocratic in the eyes of many
darwin04 said,
February 26, 2008 @ 4:20 pm
Professor Hoole seems to be unaware of the background of highly skewed marking after the Swabasha switch had reached the A-level/Univ. Entrance exams, and which had resulted in gradually increasing to a near 79% of entrants to the Sciences/Med/Eng being from the Tamil medium (12% in the population).
Something was obviously very wrong, and needed to be remedied. When the medium was English, even with the better Sceince education in Jaffna schools, the ratio was something like 40% Tamil students, but after the switchover, it became obvious that the standards adopted for marking or some other factor were responsible for the highly skewed results. Something had to be done, so a correction factor was introduced to adjust performances in the two language streams and to correct this irregularity.
The ensuing uproar led to the UNP govt. in ~1977 reexamining the entire procedure and bringing in the District quota system which was an improvement, and which then permit ted Tamils from outside the Jaffna area schools to also gain entry. This can be vouched for by Tamils who have told us that if not for the District Quota system they would have not got entry to the University.
In the US, university entrance is not on marks alone, and adjustments are made for socioeconomic background so that diversity is aimed as being highly desirable. The Jaffna Tamils of Sri lanka have wanted a purely marks -based system, even as the government has been the provider of university education at no cost even to students of Science, Medcine and Engineering. This is in contrast to the Universities in the USA. where tuition costs a lot of money, especially in the professional fields mentioned. People end up paying off loans for many many years after graduation. The Sri Lankan govt. has been aggressively criticized by Tamil professionals who have come out to the West after receiving free education in Medicine/Eng etc. and presented inaccurate details of what took place in order to support their perceptions of discrimination.
Prof. Warnapala should consider appointing a Commission to examine and report on this matter so that this continuing misrepresentation could be put to rest..
Expatriate said,
February 26, 2008 @ 5:32 pm
Jeevan Hoole’s response unduly places more emphasis on standardization without adequately challenging the deliberate misinformation by Mr. Goonetilleke.
Also, unduly giving respect to mendacious diplomat, he addresses the liar as ‘His Excellency” –the old fashioned Lankan way.
On February 24, the same paper published a comment by Mr. SATHEESH THADCHANAMOORTHY of Canada.
Excerpts:
“…Mr. Goonetilleke argues that because Tamil people live and work among the Sinhalese in the south, the Tamil claim of state-sponsored oppression is a lie. What the ambassador conveniently forgets is that these risk-taking Tamils fell victim to the repeated state-sponsored pogroms of 1956, 1957, 1977 and 1983. There are Americans who risk their lives to find employment in Iraq and Afghanistan. Does this mean those American workers think Iraq and Afghanistan are better democracies than the United States? People have worked under risky conditions since the beginning of civilization. The ambassador shows how desperate he is for examples to establish his fiction of “Sri Lankan democracy.”
and
” The Tamil struggle for independence is not driven by ideologies, nor it is about re-establishing past glories. On the contrary, it is about survival. Whether the ambassador admits it or not, there is ample evidence why the Tamils cannot continue to coexist with the Sinhalese. No one in his right mind could expect Tamils to remain sitting ducks at the mercy of the Sri Lankan state. Secession was the last resort for Tamils and the reasons only become stronger by the day.”
I consider that to be a more effective response.
The Tamil claim for statehood is justified by the state’s illegitimacy and terrorism in the past 60 years as well its history in the last 200 years; there is no need for Tamils to get into several centuries old ‘history’ to argue their case for Tamil homeland.
Perhaps people like Taraki Sivaram and Nadesan Satyendra would advocate such a historical claim as well, but in reality, what happened more than 200 years ago is entirely irrelevant. Jobless ‘historians’ can write volumes and pass off their ‘guesses’ as ‘history’ , but it doesn’t matter at all.
Sri Lanka’s recent past, starting at the time of British conquest, the state’s bestiality, terrorism, genocide, and failure to receive the consent of the Tamil people for its constitution, are sufficient reasons to justify Tamil homeland.
Devinda Fernando said,
February 26, 2008 @ 7:18 pm
The Government of Sri Lanka regardless of its past flaws has made attempts and continues to make attempts to balance the issues faced by Sri Lankan Tamils. No credit is given for how far we have come correcting past mistakes. What can be done about Tamil Fascism? Nothing! Which is more easier to control and change?
Obviously not Tamil Fascism.
If Eelam materialized tomorrow, what sort of a society do you think it would be? A Dictatorship run by Thugs. Good luck trying to get a Democracy or any sort of government with proportional representation of the people. It will be a Totalitarian State run by the least educated and most aggressive savages on the Tamil Population. People think this Eelam will blossom into the ‘Next Singapore’. Please tell me you if you truly believe that is the reality.
Lester said,
February 26, 2008 @ 8:39 pm
Please put a by line for this article as :
” Hoole argues his case with half baked anecdotal evidence from thirty years ago”
KTR said,
February 27, 2008 @ 8:22 am
By Talking about LTTE or Fascism doesn’t justify the GoSL to bomb Tamil Area and kill Tamils and called it Collateral damage- A lame duck excuse.
I think the only way out of this mess is first have a federal set up and have an interim Government and then a referendum in NE only to see whether they want to continue as one country or part as seperate country.
LTTE will never be wiped out and the killing will never go away unless the “SUPER DOCTORS started treating the cause and not the symptom”
We have identified the cause and people who are PAID EMPLOYEEs like the ambassador and Dayan are refusing to label the disease and only want to treat the symptom… How long we they can pretend to be sleeping???
As for the others, SLFP propose the district council and upgraded the provincial council only because LTTE is still holding some real estate. Once (if )that is gone we will get municipal council from the Sinhalas.
They (sinhalas) love democrasy because it gives them absolute majority and for the Tamils we are always minority.
Peter said,
February 27, 2008 @ 11:54 am
What sort of society we are living in now with the Mahinda and Mervyn Silva gang in Colombo and Pillayan and SLA in the East in control. Incidently how qualified are Mervyn Silva and Pillayan , probably they are writting a thesis for their Phd.Does the Busing out Tamils out of Colombo, arbitary arrest of Tamils, Kidnapping and disappearences of Tamils , recovery of dead bodies of tamils from various parts of Srilanka, White van abductions , allowing arrested Tamils to lanquish in jails and Boossa without charges for years means some of attempts made to balance the issues faced by the Tamils . If it does then surely they deserve some credit for that. I truly believe it will be a better society than the present one .
punitham said,
February 28, 2008 @ 2:40 am
Thank you Expatriate, Sinhalese, KTR and Peter.
Many Tamils talk about the standardisation for university entrance only. But much more damages are A. nationalisation of schools and i.closure of some Tamil medium sections in Sinhala schools in the 60s and ii. poorer funding(including staffing) for Tamil schools thereafter B.poorer technical education facilities for Tamils (and far fewer places for trainee nurses) C. poorer funding for universities in North and East and D much poorer opprtunities for government employment and industrial and agricultural development. Tea plantation workers have always been having poorer wages than the rest and much poorer health, education and housing services.
Court cases: In those days there were not as many cases as there should have been because i.Tamils’ cases had been dragged on for too long and ii.the government was providing immunity to the armed forces, the alleged perpetrators, in many cases. These days there are additional reasons of intimidation, abduction and murder of i. those victims who wish to file cases and ii those lawyers who wish to argue the cases.
The mound over the grave of democracy has been only growing over the last sixty years…….
Sri said,
February 28, 2008 @ 7:03 am
Prof Hoole,
I am disappointed by this article because I had read better and forceful articles from you
On a similar subject..
You,as a person personally affected by the standardization, your first person narratives would have convinced any doubting thomases because this standardization started all these conflicts.If I remember correctly, there were three stages in the selection of university admissions in the 70s.
Stage 1 1970/1971Pure racial basis:-A Tamil drivers son from Royal College should
score more marks than a doctor’s son to the engineering faculty from the same
Royal College This has no any scientific basis.
Stage 2 1971/1977 Media wise standardization.
Stage 3 1977 to date District wise standardization.
What is common in all the three methods is the same to reduce Tamil intake. The objective was achieved 100%.
Now a stage has reached when the same result could be obtained without any standardization, but even under a merit basis.
But the bitterness is there!.
The desire to take revenge is there because the discriminated lot was helpless and they respond by the only way possible,the result is …………..
Any kind of military solution will result in this same output!
dingiri said,
February 29, 2008 @ 6:31 am
“What is common in all the three methods is the same to reduce Tamil intake.”
Sri, See my previous post if you want to see the real situation wrt to standardisation. Tamils from Jaffna need far fewer marks for University entry than Sinhalese from Colombo, Galle and Matara. If anybody its the Sinhalese who are discriminated and should be complaining. Infact those who are favoured most by district based standardisation are Tamil students from Batticaloa, Mullaitivu, Mannar and Kilinochi districts. Tamils from Jaffna faced no more discrimination than Sinhalese from Colombo. Tamils from the East, Vanni and Plantations have always benifited from district based standardisation.
Do you know what the background was for Standardisation on ethnic basis in 1971? It was found that Tamils who make up 12% of the population made up some 78% of all undergraduates in the Medicine and Engirneering faculties. Some politicians felt that students writing for their exams in Tamil were being marked up by Tamil examiners because when the sole medium was English this figure was only 40%. I dont know if there was any truth to this allegation but it would certainly cause problems even here in England if they suddenly found that Pakistani Moslems suddenly made up 78% of Oxford and Cambridge. Standardisation based on ethnicity was an ill advised “fix” to try and redress this imbalance. What they should have done was to have reverted to English, but that was not possible due to Sinhala Nationalists.
Sri said,
March 2, 2008 @ 3:25 am
Dingiri,
Thanks for your well intentioned moderate reasonable response.
But you are not well informed of what happened in 1971.A committee of Sinhala Lecturers were appointed by the government to re check the answer scripts corrected by the Tamil examiners in 1971 itself. After rechecking they endorsed the genuineness of the marks and the integrity of the Tamil examiners. But the government of that period continued with their racial agenda.
Mr Dingiri you take into consideration the Z score for university admission in 2008 for various districts and come to some hasty conclusions.
It is true that the Z score of Jaffna, Batticaloa, Vavunia, Kilinochchi and Mullaithivu is very much lower than those of the Sinhala Majority Districts. But what is the ground situation in those Tamil Majority Districts?
Is there a conducive atmosphere for educational activities? -with aerial bombings, shelling, economic embargo and all types of economic deprivations. Does the environment favors education? Do you think the university admissions are in the mind of those students?
Mr Dingiri,you are living in a different world?
N2 said,
March 3, 2008 @ 3:29 am
What I want to know is what is an “Ordinary Tamil”?
Can there be “ordinary” people in extra-ordinary and tragic times who just go about untouched and unmoved by the events of the times? If so then such “ordinary” people must surely be bloodless automatons or mindless ’sheep’ (with apologies to real sheep and robots).
This kind of “ordinary” Tamil (or for that matter “ordinary” Sinhalese) should be alerted to the poem:
“First they came for the ….. , and I did not speak out –
because I was only an Ordinary Tamil/Sinhalese….
Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak for me. “
dingiri said,
March 3, 2008 @ 8:38 am
Sri,
“…..It is true that the Z score of Jaffna, Batticaloa, Vavunia, Kilinochchi and Mullaithivu is very much lower than those of the Sinhala Majority Districts. But what is the ground situation in those Tamil Majority Districts?
Is there a conducive atmosphere for educational activities? -with aerial bombings, shelling, economic embargo and all types of economic deprivations. Does the environment favors education?
I am not defending the Govt. for the unconducive situation in Jaffna, Killinochi and Mullaitivu. I personally think the Govt should hand over these areas to the LTTE and get the hell out.
However my point is, if not for the District based standardisation system Tamils will not be compensated for the less than ideal situation in these districts and be expected to do as well as the students in the South. District based standardisation was a means of creating a level playing field so that students from districts with poor educational infrastructure could compete with those from Colombo and Jaffna which then had the best schools in the country.
It is a system of admission used in many countries with uneven educational infrastructure. Australia favours students from the outback over those from cities. The UK drops the standards for students from Comprehensive schools over those from Public schools and the US has affirmative action for Blacks and Native Americans. However only Sri Lanka gets pilloried for it. And thats the world we live in, Sri.
Sri said,
March 8, 2008 @ 2:54 am
Dingiri,
Thanks for your response. I just tried to clarify certain inaccuracies in the writings of the Ambassador and Prof Hoole.
You are trying to confuse theory and practice of standardization. We have no problem with standardization as a scientific tool.But unfortunately it was used as a weapon of oppression.-to subjugate a people.
My grievances on this entire problem as pointed out repeatedly by so many is that the majority is still not prepared to consider that Tamils have equal rights .This is what is popularly known as majoritarian agenda.The moment the Sinhalease sincerely consider the Tamils and Muslims as citizens of this country and not speak about 12% and 2/3 of coastal areas and other nonsense as if the rights are somehow related to percentages, all the problems related to races vanish.
For that to happen you need a paradigm shift