“Too Little , Too Late” considerations will not satisfy Tamils
“Too Little , Too Late” considerations will not satisfy Tamils, Mano Ganesan speaks out in Swarnavahini TV show
“You are now considering provincial councils. These provincial councils law was made part of the constitution by 13th amendment in year 1987. You have taken 20 full years for just mere consideration. It is too sans police and land powers. Sinhala was made the only official language in 1956. You corrected this at least on paper in 1988 through the 16th amendment to the constitution. It has taken another 22 years in this case. This is your incredible history and bizarre political reality. Can you tell me how on earth the Tamils can have any confidence in the government of Sri Lanka?”; asked Western Peoples Front Leader Mano Ganesan during a recent popular Sinhala language ‘Rathu-Ira’ (Red Line) weekly political debate in Swarnavahini television hosted by Mr. Budhika Kulathunga.
Mano Ganesan MP was replying his co participant in the programme Rajitha Senaratne, who is the Sri Lankan Minister of construction and engineering services. Minister Senaratne referring to provincial council elections during the programme earlier told Ganesan that President Mahinda Rajapakse is able to do today what Sri Lankan leaders J.R.Jayawardena, R.Premadasa, D.B.Wijetunge, Chandrika Bandaranayake Kumarathunga and Ranil Wickramasinghe could not do during their respective tenures.
In his reply Ganesan said further as per the English translations released to media by Western People Front:
Tamil is also an official language since 1988 as according to the 16th amendment to the constitution. But it is only on paper. Even to make it to the paper you have taken some cool 22 years. You cannot go to any of the 19 police stations in the city and register a complaint in Tamil language right in this capitol city of Colombo. I know the reality in Colombo since I represent Colombo. You cannot conduct business in Colombo’s any government ministries and offices in Tamil language as prescribed in the constitution. So where is the official language law? What is use of the 16th amendment constitutional law? You threw the 13th amendment Provincial council law into dustbin. You are now bringing it out from dust. You need to project it as a great political exercise to the international community. Yet, it will never be implemented with police and land powers. You are only talking and making mere declarations. We are sick of these for last 60 years.
The LTTE engages in terrorism. I do not hesitate to condemn the Tiger terrorist activities. Similarly we have state terrorism in this country. But this is not new to this country. State terrorism prevailed in this country way back in 1989. When Sinhala youths were killed during the then UNP regime current president Rajapakse from within the opposition referred to it as state terrorism. When now Tamils are being abducted and extra-legally killed I am using the same terminology. We condemn both state and LTTE terrorism.
The presidential secretariat is situated opposite Galle face green. Formally our Parliament functioned in that building. When the ‘Sinhala only’ law was brought in the parliament Tamil leaders conducted a peaceful protest from the Galle face green. There were S.J.V.Chelvanayagam , Naganathan and Amirthalingam and many others. They were Parliamentarians. They did not resort to violence. They did not throw grenades. They did not even throw stones. It was a non-violent ’satyagraha’. But what happened to them? They were attacked by the state organized goon gang. It was merciless attack. It was the beginning of state terrorism against non violent Tamils. What is worse is when the bruised bloody Tamil leaders entered parliament they were ridiculed by the government leaders. That was the response of the state to Tamil peaceful parliamentary struggle. Tamil terrorists did not fall from the sky and created ethnic problem in this country. It is the conduct of the successive governments created Tamil ultra nationalism , transformed Tamil nationalism into extremism, transformed Tamil extremism into separatism and terrorism.
The current maneuvers are ‘too little and too late’. The national question here is deep rooted. It needed to be understood with historical perspective. It cannot be solved by political tantrums. I as a person wish to live in one united country with my Sinhala brothers and sisters. That is why I learned Sinhala. No Sinhala politician is learning Tamil. I wanted to talk to Sinhalese in Sinhala. I attempt to explain the aspirations of Tamils to Sinhalese in their own language. I do not wish to witness my attempts go waste. But it is not in my hands.
[Full Text, Released by the office of Mano Ganesan MP]
gunapala said,
April 26, 2008 @ 1:35 am
THANK YOU MR. MANO GANESAN. YOU HAD THE CORRAGE TO TELL THE TRUTH OF WHAT MADE THE TAMILS TO COME TO THIS SITUATION. I HOPE THE PEOPLE WILL TAKE SOME TIME TO THINK ABOUT IT AND TO ACT ON WHAT IS JUST AND FAIR FOR ALL SRILANKANS.
dias said,
April 26, 2008 @ 1:54 am
The Tamils can opt to work towards one of 3 strategic objectives:
(1) Strive to achieve their individual and Tamil-collective aspirations through the securing of a separate Tamil nation (primarily through a combination of military and political tactics)
(2) Strive to achieve their individual aspirations within a single transformational Sri Lankan nation as equal stakeholders of a new egalitarian Sri Lankan state (mostly by working cohesively with the majority Sinhalese in nation building and transformation)
(3) Remain within the present impasse – arguing about history and hating one-another
The Sinhalese are certainly not off the hook as they too have a clear strategic decision to make:
(1) Rigidly (and foolishly) hang-on to the notion advocated by nationalists that Sri Lanka is an exclusive Sinhalese-Buddhist state that by virtue bestows them with special privileges, and this superior Mahavamsa-status must at whatever cost be perpetually maintained and protected
(2) Let go of these unhealthy nationalistic attachments (since most are Buddhists, it should be easy for the Sinhalese to let go of attachments!); be flexible and strive to define a new national identity that lovingly includes all segments of society into such an identity and re-construct the state (and its institutions) so as to provide security, safety and opportunity in a manner equal as optimally possible – to all of its citizens
(3) Remain within the present impasse – arguing about history, who landed on the island first, and committed the the first error and hating and killing one-another
In assessing the realism of each option, if Tamils truly believe that they can attain a separate Ealam along the lines of Kosovo, then they are being terribly unrealistic. Similarly, if the Sinhalese believe that they can continue to exercise their hegemonic ethno-religious ways on the minorities in these modern liberal times, then they too are not only being unrealistic but also idiotic.
And hopefully both Tamils and Sinhalese agree that they neither want the present situation to continue, option (3).
Given these limited plausible future outcomes, do either the Tamils or the Sinhalese have much of a choice? – But to begin reconciling and initiating the rebuilding process towards a single egalitarian nation? A primary responsibility for leadership, the Rajapaksa administration has miserably failed in providing the impetus towards this inevitability. The entire blame cannot be laid on the nation’s leadership – it is also the responsibility of leaders of other parties as well as civil society to advocate peaceful feasible solutions. By stating “too little, too late” all what Mano Ganeshan has done is the same – cop-out from his own responsibility, possibly in the naive belief of option (1), a separate Tamil Ealam. What a gargantuan waste of time and energy – by both the Sinhalese and the Tamils?
N. Suba said,
April 26, 2008 @ 2:02 am
Dear Administrator sir,
Referring to Sinhala only law of 1956 and the 16th amendment of 1988 when Tamil was also made an official language, it is a 32 year wait and not 22 years. We regret for the typing error made from our side in our translation script.
N. Suba
Office secretary to Hon. Mano Ganesan MP
vel said,
April 26, 2008 @ 12:21 pm
Hats off to Mano Ganesan who is now a very matured politician.There are none to match Ganesan’s courage and integrity among our parliamentarians.It is impossible for anyone to refute any of the charges made against the ruling elite in the past 60 years since independence.It is this ruling elite which created this chaotic condition in this country.We can only pray for his long life in this blessed country.
Chandralal Gunaratne said,
April 26, 2008 @ 1:43 pm
I don’t understand what you are talking about. Hope you are not trying to fool readers. What should be there is a law like in the US or other developped country; unless the only national language is spoken, the citizenship is not granted. Just one example; I have no awareness of any government school that teaches in a different laguage in any of those countries. Howabout Sri Lanka…. Howmay tamil language goverment schools in everywhere, even a university. I don’t want to make a big argument. Just try to be fair by not pinching the big effort on defeeting terrorism. Help the current government while crushing this hartless murderes, so you and I can walk in North or South peacefully before we are on the “heramitiya”, just like our grand parents did.
wijaya said,
April 26, 2008 @ 10:39 pm
I agree there are many issues relating to languages,humen rights and so many things in our beutiful country in Sri Lanka.But we have to understand very important thing in our life.We never can solve any of such issues through violence.As humen beings we must always try to seek answers throguh negociations.Only animals kill each other over small problem.Tamil terrorist s in Sri Lanka say that they are tigers.That means they have no any other option but killing the people over small issue they have.Therefore I suggest first of all they should change their attitude and behave like humens and try to seek answers through negociations for all the issues they have.As long as they think that they are tigers they never can think positivly.
S Rasalingam said,
April 27, 2008 @ 2:54 am
Mano ganesan is right, and Mano Ganesan is also dead wrong. His mistake is in FAILING to understand the bankrupt politics of Chelvanayakam, Naganathan and others which started the racial rift WELL BEFORE 1956. The sinhala only act was a culminating madness of the racist politics set in motion in the 1930s. The war inturrupted this, and gave an opportunity for sensible politicians like D. S. Senanayake, Arunachalam Mahadeva and the more moderated Ponnambalam and others to attempt to mould a united “Ceylonese” nation. But it was precisely THIS united, multi-ethnic nation concept that the leaders of the Tamil Arasu Kadchchi rejected in 1948. They proposed the two-nation concept, and tried everything to undermine the unitary “Ceylonese” concept that held sway with the early UNP of the Senanayakes. Banda was a heaven sent for the Arasu kadchchi.
Chelvanayakam and Naganathan knew fully well that they would be man handled by Sinhala Nationalist thugs. Even in western countries at that time, blacks who merely tried to go in buses or enter school and exercise their rights were attacked by thugs in Littel Rco and Alabama. In Jaffna, low- caste people could not enter a temple or get admission to a school. There were two types of Tamils. The ruling class which had all the rights and the lower castes which had NO rights. Did Chelvanayakanm and Naganathan think that the lot of the poor, down-trodden Tamil would be helped by their confrontational (alledgedly “non-violent”) campaigne?
The Tamils at that time had a strong place in Commerce, Banking, the professions and other trades, and could have conserved those advantages if not for the stupid confrontational politics of our Tamil leaders.
Let us take two examples from the US.
The Jews in the US were a bit like the Tamils in Ceylon in the 1950-1960 period. If the Jews in new York had began a campaigne for Hebrew language rights etc, they would have antagonized everyone and they would never have retained the powr they enjoy in the USA today. But even now they probabaly would not attempt to run for presidency. A vice-presidential candidate was possible only just recently.
What would have happened if the Hispanics of California, New Mexico, Arizona etc had claimed that they are the “traditional homelands” of hispanics in the USA, and demanded language rights as well as an equivalent to our 13th amendemnt to the constitution in the US, today or just after the world war? After all, California WAS initially populated by the Spanish long before the Anglos got there. The west was colonized without the slightest attention to the Hispanic heritage. But yet, no hispanic-majoritarian state governor would suggest or ask for any special hispanic constitutional claims, even though the hispanic content is majoritarian in many such parts of the US.
The situation in Ceylon at that time, after the war, was far more favourable to the Tamil language than it would have been for US Hispanic groups asking for Spanish-language rights. And yet, the Tamils FAILED to get such rights. The way our Tamil leaders attempted to manipulate the Donoughmore commission, the Soulbury commission, the UNP, the Kothalawala regime, etc paved the way for SWRD Bandaranaike to capture power with sinhala jingoism. After coming to power, SWRD Bandaranaike was ready to grant such rights for the tamil language, even though the poltical situation was extremely tense. The Banda-Chelva pact testifies to Bandaranaike’s wish to deal with Tamil rights. So why did it not happen?
You cannot have political pacts unless you have prepared the people for such political pacts by a long process of meetings and explanations. There can be no pact unless there is trust. The 1952 election was fought by the Arasu katchchi in Jaffna on the two-nation concept. They lost to the Tamil congress which was working with the UNP. However, as a relatively young person in Jaffna at the time, I clearly remember the militant nationalist rhetoric of the Thamil Arasu kadchchi which did NOT talk of Federalism in the Tamil language addresses in Jaffna. Even the names used for the party, i.e., Federal party in english, and “arasu Kadchchi” in tamil, refelected this double-tounged approach. Undoubvtedly, the Sinhala nationalists knew of the double entendre practiced by the Chelvanayakam click. There was deep suspicion of the intentions of the so called Federal party in the minds of the Tamil nationalists as well as the Sinhala nationalists, for opposite reasons. In addition, the Tamil leaders had NOT, for decades and decades, done ANYTHING to attempt to build bridges between the communities. In fact, they had sponsored the division. It should be remembered that the attacks on the Mahavamsa (the historical work deeply respected by the Sinhala Buddhists),, practised even today by our Tamil polemicists, was brought out into the political arena and most ferociously dealt with by G. G. Ponnambalam in the 1930s. This earned him brownie points with the Jaffna nationalists, but also established his racist credentials. Even the 1939 Sinhala-Tamil racial riots are attributed to his vitriolic speeches. The demand by the Tamils for 50-50 representation in Parliament, followed by the demand by the Arasu Kadchchi for a two-nation approach to Ceylonese politics, established the intital ethnic polarization in the nation’s political future.
So then, given such a strong rift, the Sathyagrahas on the Galle face Green were merely the intial facing off to more martial approaches. Not long after the failure of the Banda-Chelva pact, Arasu kadchchi printed its own postal stamps, attempted to bring the civil administration in the North to a stand-still, and created the conditions where young Tamils would naturally seek violent methods. It is no secret that Chelvanayakam visited the militant youth groups in Trincomalee in 1965,
and encouraged Sivakumaran (he was the first person to die eating cyanide, when caught attempting to rob a bank for collecting funds for the Tamil-nation project). Chelvanayakam viewed the Sinhalese as a group of invaders who should be thrown out of the North and the East, just as the British were thrown out of India by civil disobedience methods. Chelvanayakam never accepted that the Sinhalese also had an ancient history in the North and the East.
Given the vast amount of mis-information that has been generated by the writings of the Colombo-7 Tamil intellectuals, the Chelvanayakam – Wilson -Thiruchelvam axis, tamil thinking has become completely warped and pushed into a cul-de-sac of no return. Young people like Mano Ganesan are also sucked into this vortex of misconceptions about the history of the “tamil struggle” since the Donoughmore times- he probabaly does not understand the enormous culpability of the araogant Karuvaakaadu tamils in creating the conflict.
Because Mano Ganesan is less connected with the Karuvakkaadu Tamils, there is hope that he can strike a new path, take a more statesman-like view of things, and begin to understand that BUILDING BRIDGES between the two communities is the basis for creating a futur for the Tamils of Sri Lanka. Otherwise, we have to be for ever battling a majority group who we have to claim are invaders of the North and the East.
The point is, there are no invaders or original settlers. What matters is who is that everyone in the
Island have the same rights of citizenship in every part of the Island.
The Banda-Chelva pact failed, the Banda-Dudley agreements failed, not because GGPOnnambalam opposed them or JRJyawardene or the Buddhist priests opposed them. They failed because the political climate of opinion had already been converted into a claymore mine set to go at the slightest suspicious move.
The LTTE is THE NATURAL OUTCOME of the Chelvanayakam’s two-nation politics based on the Arasu idiology. Today the new young tamil leaders
who have escaped assasination have the enormous task of reneging the Chelvanayakam approach and building a consesus of understanding between to communities which have been at war.
Unfortunately, Mano Ganesan has uttered the usual ‘Manthrams” where he has recited Thevaarams to Chelvanayakam.
There in lies his grevious error.
Devinda Fernando said,
April 27, 2008 @ 6:01 pm
More Tamil Communalism….
Mano Ganesan has only Communalism to Hang onto… after all these developments in the East take root and develop he will be Marginalized further. No one will vote for him as a Tamil , he will actually have to come up with real policies to compete with Real and Serious Politicians with more to offer than his Race Based Cries fo Past Injustices.
Funny how the guy talks about the past 60 years when he can’t be more that 50 years old… Once again speaking for Tamils without knowing… or basically truly choosing to selectively ignore Selfish Tamil Communalism that was the cause of many disputes in our history and white-wash Tamil History to paint Tamils as the Only TRUE LEGITIMATE Victims of this conflict.
Murugan said,
April 27, 2008 @ 11:18 pm
Rasalingam,
your understanding of the conflict is fundamentally flawed.
You reveal this flaw when you compare the Tamil demands to “what if the Jews in NY demanded rights for Hebrew”.
What you fail to understand is that Jaffna Tamils feel they have an indisputable claim to Jaffna. And therefore if the whole island is united under one umbrella then the Jaffna Tamils must be treated as equal founders of Ceylon. Meaning Ceylonese nationalism must be a fusion of Tamil and Sinhala cultures. And Tamil language must be respected as equal.
Your analogies incorrectly portray the Tamils as ‘boat people’ who should appreciate the largesse of the Sinhalese for allowing them to live in Sri Lanka.
Nevertheless, Rasalingam you are correct in your analysis of the Tamil politicians stroking communalism to get in power after the Donoughmore Constitution. This is a natural result of democracy. Democratic elections give way to centrifugal politics and communalism. Therefore, the Donoughmore constitutions (universal democracy) is really the core of the problem in terms of building Ceylonese nationalism. Today we see that the entire county has been hijacked by the majority Sinhalese Buddhists who make up 70% of the electorate.
Therefore, if we want Ceylonese nationalism to work there needs to be a one party system similar to Singapore.
I think there actually were some true patriots who realized this when they tried to lead a coup against Sirimavo.
But today, after 25 years of war, I think Ceylonese nationalism is just ‘what could have been’ and not something that will ever happen in the near future.
The current leadership on both sides seems hell-bent on winning the ‘Final War’.
harsha said,
April 28, 2008 @ 4:06 am
I think Mr. Ganeshan should read this article:
Mano Ganeshan must be fair (An open appeal)
-R Jayadevan
In the climate of fear and threats facing Tamil politicians, Western Province People’s Front (WPPF) leader, Mano Ganeshan, plays a difficult role to expose the human rights violations by the government and its agents. His critical comments have been widely published and he has been found to be one of the rare outspoken politicians to stand up and raise issues (though limited) in a public way.
As Tamil, Mano Ganeshan is playing a very difficult role compared to other politicians. His loud cry is widely spoken about in the Tamil community. By expressing his views and knowledge openly, he has put himself in a life threatening situation and there are concerns for the safety of his life due to his stand.
In the polarised politics in Sri Lanka, there is no one who could stand up and be counted for taking a middle ground to criticise all types of violence involving all the involved parties. In this regard, Mano Ganeshan too had positioned himself of being one sided and critical of the government for its fall backs on human rights. The voice that loudly and vociferously criticise the government fails to see the other side of the coin involving the other main antagonist-the LTTE.
Whilst the government as legal body have the major responsibility to uphold good governance, democracy and respect human rights to the utmost. It is imprudent for persons like Mano Ganeshan to maintain silence over the whole scale human rights violations committed by the LTTE. It is not the intention to go into minute details of human rights violations by the LTTE here. These have been widely reported and documented elsewhere.
Every Tamils belonging to the North and East of Sri Lanka (wherever they live) have chapters and verses of their experience of violence for being born as Tamils in Sri Lanka. Their experiences are millions of untold and unpublished stories. The violent conflict that has inflicted the country on a continuous basis since 1983 has produced volumes of pathetic and painful stories. The successive governments since independence must take the responsibility for the causes of the present predicament facing the country and we will be failing if we fail to ignore other contributory factors other than the government for causing the progressive decay.
As far as Tamils are concerned, the LTTE must be made accountable for its conduct towards its own people. The cry from the Tamil leadership about the conduct of the LTTE is not equal and proportionate compared to the outcry against the government. The Tamil National Alliance parliamentarians are very outright when they criticise the government. But they maintain pin drop silence when the very same people are abused by the LTTE. The very same parliamentarians whom call themselves the representatives of the Tamils in the Sri Lankan parliament maintain dumbfounded silence on issues relating to the LTTE. This is the same predicament facing Mano Ganeshan.
Their working routines are limited to criticising the government. They remain determinedly tight lipped to express the facts and views against the LTTE in public. Even when they visit the expatriate Tamils, they will play hide and seek games by avoiding the questioning and concerned Tamils to duck any questions being asked about their compromising and selfish stand.
Mano Ganeshan has rare quality of vociferously and powerfully raising the issues affecting the Tamils with the government unlike the TNA parliamentarians. It is necessary and of utmost importance that Mano Ganeshan takes a middle ground and deal with issues affecting the Tamils in an equal footing.
The stories that we hear about the situation for the people in Vanni and Jaffna are very serious and cannot be soft peddled. These are termed as sacrifices needed for the liberation of our land by some selfish vested interests. Mano Ganeshan must come out of his one sided approach and play the laudatory role as an outspoken critic of the LTTE violation too and pressurise the LTTE to end its gross human rights violations.
Twenty five years of suffering of our people on the visionless separate state agenda has created a monster (LTTE) that needs to be dealt with urgently by the Tamil people. One sided approach of only criticising the government is unhelpful to our people, who are sandwiched between the government forces and the LTTE terror.
Kusal Perera said,
April 28, 2008 @ 5:12 am
Never wanted to get into arguments with one track Sinhalised minds. But Mano Ganesan wanted me to read through the comments and thus felt like answering a few of those nasty remarks.
1. Devinda Fernando, where ever he is residing, he is not in SL, if not physically, then in mind. What development is there in the East ? Is F’do so naive as to believe all the muck this government is doling out ? How can a government that does not know to handle a market economy develop a country ? Is it by price controlling, money printing and mass scale corruption ?
Sorry, Mr. F’do, the podiens who only know to wield guns, abduct people and kill, will not bring any development to the poor Easterners.
As for Mr. Devinda F’do’s kindergarten argument that a person less than 50 years has no possibility of talking a 60 year history of a country, well, let me not say there are people who talk about Mohandajaro-Harappa civilisation too, who are not that old.
2. As for Rasalingam, he is talking of warped Tamil minds and feels it is the Tamil politicians led by SJV who blundered. He is sadly mistaken. The break up of the ACTC is based not on what DS said but on what he did. DS is responsible in uprooting over 01 million Tamils of Indian origin in 1948 thus allowing for a change in elected representation in favour of Sinhala voters in the Central and Uva provinces. He is responsible for the total change in the demographic pattern in the East, again in favour of Sinhala representation. He is thus a Sinhala communalist before SWRD. And he is also responsible for the bloody mess we are in today.
The 1957 B-C pact does not in any way prove SWRD is a democrat as claimed by Rasalingam and the pact became a cropper not because SJV wanted a “two nation” solution, but as every one knows the SInhala Buddhist sentiment hyped by monks and the opposition UNP was willingly acceded to by SWRD. The same reason made the D-C pact to fall apart. Every attempt to negotiate a political settlement to the conflict, before it became bloody, was stalled in the South and not in the North.
Why this conflict can not be solved is because the Southern Sinhala leaders are not prepared to set the pace for such negotiations, acceptable within the Sinhala society. Even now, the UNP is peddling with Sinhala extremism. The South is without a political alternative. Without a political dialogue. That only justifies the LTTE as the other side of the coin.
sebastian said,
April 28, 2008 @ 1:32 pm
Mr. Kusal Perera RE-states the usual false history propagated by the A.J.Wison-Chelvanyakam- popular press without consulting the writings of
distinguished historians. Kusal Perera says “as every one knows the SInhala Buddhist sentiment hyped by monks and the opposition UNP….”. This is precisely the grevious error of Mano Ganesan as well as many others who are practicing the blame game, without realizing that BOTH SIDES
have been very culpable. In particular, it has been easy to blame the Buddhist Monks as they have been a part of the recent political picture. But as a man who grew up partly in the Donoughmore era, I have seen a lot more.
Kusal Perera says several things:
1.He blames DSSenanayake for ” uprooting over 01 million Tamils of Indian origin in 1948″
2. He blames DS for a chauvinistic colonization policy
3.He blames “Sinhala-Buddhist sentiment” for the failure of the Banda-Chelva agreement
4. Kusal Perera thinks that the whole reason why there is a conflict is because “the Southern Sinhala leaders are not prepared to set the pace for such negotiations, acceptable within the Sinhala society”
My answers are as follows, with the issues taken in reverse order:
4. The emergence of of politicians who are statesmen is necessary before “negotiations” can occur. No negotiations are possible with the LTTE which has committed far too many crimes against the Tamils. Instead of pointing fingers at the Sinhala politicians, I as a Tamil prefer to set my own house in order. Among the current Tamil politicians, I feel that Mr. Ananadasangaree, together with Mano Ganeshan and Thondaman Jr. CAN attempt to stand above cheap communalism. They have nothing to loose and everything to gain. Thondaman Jr. has adroitly solved the Sellasamy issue in his own doorstep. If he can show that he can think beyond the up-country Tamils and be fair-minded with the Moslems, up-country Sinhalese, and the other Sri Lankan Tamils, he is young enough to take the lead. Mano Ganesan also has that potential. But they MUST avoid the old confrontational politics of the Karuvakaadu-ITAK Tamils. To his immense credit, Ananadasangaree has already achieved much of that, although he comes from the old stock.
3. The Chelva- Banda agreement could not have happened because the two communties were NOT prepared and nourished to accept such a pact, immediately after the Sinhala-only excess. Distinguished Historians like Dr. Jane Russell (”Communal Politics, 1931-1947, Oxford Scholar), Dr. Michael Roberts (”Tamil Nationalism” article), Prof. Kingsly de Silva have shown how the complex process of communal confrontation in the 1930s led to the rise of Sinhala Jingoism in parallel with Tamil Jingoism which came up partly as a response to the fear of Universal Franchize, and the handing of power to the Majority.
The Tamil leaders of the time looked for a non-minority solution for a minority problem. When the 50-50 demand of GGPonna failed, and when the Soulbury commission gave him a fair hearing and replied him in detail, G. G. Ponnambalam moderated his racist politics and called for “responsible cooperation” with the Senanayake government – he took the right step. The moderate post-Soulbury Ponna’s call for cooperation was rejected by Chelvanayakam in 1948 – at a time when Buddhist Monks were hardly an important political force. Chelvanayakam went FAR beyond the 50-50 formula by asking for two separate nations. Here I add a reply to the comments made by Murugan. The “boat-people” are NOT the Tamils, but the Sinhalese. Vijaya of the Mahavamsa, myth or reality, was a group of boat persons. At that time the Island was (myth or reality) populated by various tribes, Nagas, Yakshas, austrlo-asians, sea-faring Phoenecians, Etrascans, and most certainly south-Indian people who later emerged as Dravidians. But at that time ethnicity as we know it today had not emerged (See Karthigesu Indrapala’s book). THERE IS NO POINT IN ASKING WHO CAME HERE FIRST – that is as irrelevant as the Romans having been in Britain before the Normans. The error of the Sinhala Chauvinist AND the Chelvanayakam click is that (a) the Sinhala Chauvinist denies the ancient origins of the Tamils, and (b) the Chelvanayakam click denied that the Sinhalese had an ancient, long history in the East and the North.
BOTH groups are dead wrong.
WE need to reverse the seeds of hatred sown for many decades (in the 1930s onwards) by the GGPonna-Chelvanayakam click and the SWRDBanda click. This is a slow process of re-integration. Actually, such a reintegration is ocurring in the Colombo suburbs and other urban centers in the south where the Sinhalese and the Tamils are re-learning to co-exist and do business without the communal attacks of the olden days. So I am an optimist.
2.Kusala Perera hurls the accussation of discrimination in colonization against D.S. Senanayake. This accussation was brought up at the Soulbury commission and the research wing of the commission dug up the necessary details which were used by Soulbury to fully reject the accusation. The post-Soulbury colonization, e.g, Galoya etc., was run by a number of distinguished Tamil civil servants led by Mr. Kanagasundaram who was the chairman of the Galoya board,
together with others like Sri Kanthan et al. This question has been discussed in detail by many historians. Michael Roberts (Tamil Nationalism article) and other historians, and geographers totally reject this accusation against Senanayake. When false claims and accusations are hurled by political writers for decades and decades, they get ingrained in the popular psyche, and given the poor ethnic record of the Post-Dudley Sri Lanka government policies since the 1970s, we tend to unfairly use the same Tar Brush against the people who led colonization policy up to 1960.
Would Mr Kusal Perera claim that the American West should have been colonized only on the basis of ethnic ratios that existed in 1840 in the USA, with California, New Mexico, Southern Texas and Arizona mostly Hispanic?
When the railway was built in Ceylon connecting Jaffna and Colombo in 1905, a very large colonization of Colombo by Tamils happened. We need to have that possibility in the future as well. We need FREE migration of able people irrespective of ethnicity. We don’t want restrictions placed on Tamils by limiting them to enclaves proposed by the Colombo-7 Tamils or expatriate Tamils who are never likely to send their kith and kin to Uyilankulam or Puthukudurippu. By contrast, Tamils living in Uliyankulam or Puthukudurippu would like to have the possibility of sending their kith and kin to the south, or settling down in Colombo or Hatton WITHOUT restriction. If we demand ethnic enclaves, the Sinhalese Jingoists will also demand restrictions on us. Then we have no right to cry foul.
1. The 1948 Indian citizenship act was largely drawn by DSSenanayake’s advisors, Vyithialingam et al., even G. G. Ponnambalam, and probably Ivor Jennings who was the constitutional Guru of the period. It defined citizenship for Indo-Pakistani people whose citizenship was not defined, and many western nations hailed it as a very liberal and advanced act – even when compared with what you today have in, say Switzerland or USA for immigrant workers. It provided for citizenship if there had been 7 years of residency. By contrast, the Canadian (Indian) citizenship act of 1952 required that a white official declare that the Native Indian is “civilized”, if he were to get even travel papers, education. medical help and other basics. When the Senanayake citizenship act was challenged in the supreme court (by SJVChelva and his supporters), and then in the Privy Council in London, the learned judges of BOTH courts rejected Chelva’s submission, with very detailed explanations where it was unanimously granted that the Ceylonese government had NOT discriminated against the Indian Tamils either before the act, or by the act. Ponnambalam, Vaithyananthan, and even Natesan supported the act, although Natesan criticized it in his Senate speech in 1948. The 1952 election in Jaffna was fought on the Indian citizenship act and Chelvanayakam and others were rejected by the Tamil voters. So, judicially, and electorally this issue has been settled. Yet the Arasu Kadchchi-Karuavakaadu-Tamil apologists, and also Kusala Perera very unjustly continue to throw this against DSSenanayake. This merely destroys their own credibility.
If we Tamils are to live in Sri Lanka, we have to compete in the economic sphere with the Sinhalese and carve out a distinguished place for us. We had that in the 1950s, and lost much of it because of stupid politics. Instead of developing the North and the East, we tried to separate it AND SPENT MONEY ON ARMING IT AND CONVERTING OUR CHILDREN TO CANNON FODDER.
We can still regain that old eminent position. Money and business in an open-market society transcends the legalistic battles brought into center stage by the Queen’s counsels of Colombo-7 who knew nothing else but confrontation. Remembering that Tamils have been leaders of Business, banking, shipping etc. a new, emergent Tamil leadership has to focus on those assets, covering the whole country and the whole Globe.
nathan said,
April 29, 2008 @ 10:49 am
The past is past. It cannot be reversed. It is pointless talking and arguing about it.
We need to deal with the present situation urgently.
The LTTE wants to negotiate, but the state is determined to eliminate the LTTE.
So, where do we go from here?
I suggest that firstly, the Rule of Law must be established. Then tamils can live without fear and contribute their efforts along with the sinhaleses, towards a negotiated solution.
But it appears that the present regime is bent on remaining in power at any cost. The eastern elections are only a means to this end.
If Pillayan wins, there will be no Rule of Law in the east.
If the government wins, same will happen.
Hence the mindset of “power at any cost” must change. But this is deeply ingrained in the body politic since 1948.
Any suggestions ?
sinhalese said,
April 29, 2008 @ 12:17 pm
I pretty much like Sebastian’s arguement here. I agree with him Mano Ganeshan is a good Tamil leader but he is with wrong crowd. He is seems not to understand Sinhalese at all except people like Kusal Perera. Kusal Perera seems die hard trotskyte to me , irrelevant to any specific subjective or objective realities on the ground he supports self determination of Tamils and violent Tamil Struggle which eventualy destroyed and destroying Tamils themselves. As a follower of Prof Sucharita Gamlath in early 80s I think I was correct to support Tamil Self determination then. However that right of self determination cannot be supported now within context of LTTE and GOSL violence and taking into consideration-idea of creation of pan Tamil Mono ethnic state developed by western residing Tamils and LTTE. I would say it is still not too late to Hnoroable MP Mano Ganeshan. We have to start from somwhere as much as perhaps 13th amendment to constitution and then move forward. As oppose to JVP I wouldn’t mind down the 10 years line if there will be a separate state in the North. (Not Tamil Ealam). Perhaps some sort of democratic Ealam with Sinhala, Muslim and Majority Tamils. What Mano Ganeshan indirectly supports is LTTE milatarism and so as Sinhala nationalists who supports GOSL militarism. Reject both and path remains us is what?
Sri said,
April 30, 2008 @ 5:16 am
Thank you, Mano Ganesan! for reminding all readers about the beginning of the Human Rights Violations.
Yes! It was the beginning of state terrorism against non violent Tamils and we are proud of your contribution in the human rights field and your relentless campaign to bring perpetrators to justice.
But when the state itself is the culprit what is the solution.
I fully endorse the stand of ManoGaneshan in the human rights issue and appreciate the services rendered by him and he deserves to be called the leading human rights activist in Sri Lanka
There is nothing wrong in Mano Ganeshan exclusively concentrating on human rights violations in Colombo and the upcountry areas excluding North East.
As for the LTTE violations there is the democratically elected sovereign government of Sri Lanka to look into those violations.
If the Government fails in that respect also then it is a failed state and international intervention is justified..
However I cannot agree on the rest of Mano aneshans article.
We always talk about the Sinhala leaders going back on the agreements signed by them and about the non implementation of even constitutional provisions such as 13th and 16th Amendments.
We must understand the context in which these agreements were signed and look at these problems with proper understanding of democracy.
The famous definition of democracy or government as of the people by the people and for the people.-Abraham Lincoln come to my mind..
S.W.R.D.Bandaranaike,Dudly Senanaike and Chandidika were only elected by the people by a majority vote for a limited period of five or six years.
The problem arises when they sign agreements for an unlimited period as if they have a mandate even to make decisions affecting future generations.
Further these agreements were signed under duress and behind the back of the people.
For instance the Dudly- Cheva pact was signed to enable UNP When it did not have majority in Parliament. to assume power
It was a black mail. As in any black mail when the first opportunity arise the victim will repudiate his agreement.
The BC pact of 1957 of 1965, the DC pact,JR-RAJIVs Indo-Sri Lanka agreement of 1987 and PTOMS of 2005 came under this category.
The moment the blackmailer is not alert the other party will renounce.
The Tamils should understand this dynamics.
Any political package agreed even under international pressure will not last long.
If Tamils could not understand this simple theory, not even god can help then.
In this scenario what is the way out? Let us be realist!
We need not go for tit for tat!
The problem is among us and the solution is also among us.
The 13th and 16th amendments are now universally accatable at least among the majority.
With simple adjustments, it could be made workable.
We need not go on blaming every one other than ourselves for our misfortune and go about with beggars wounds!
We can live in Sri Lanka with self respect and dignity and there are still very serious matters regarding democracy, governance and human rights and we have to join and fight this battle ,
but not with arms!.
Devinda Fernando said,
May 2, 2008 @ 1:29 am
*** What development is there in the East ? Is F’do so naive as to believe all the muck this government is doling out ? How can a government that does not know to handle a market economy develop a country ? Is it by price controlling, money printing and mass scale corruption ? ***
Kusal Perera.
You know exactly what is going on in the East… Don’t play dumb. You may fool the Deluded Diaspora in Canada, or UK, or wherever who only look for news articles and opinions to compliment their indoctrinated thinking but you don’t fool the rest of us. Try thinking in Real world terms for a change… Do you think the East will just Sprout a Utopian Wonder land of Development overnight? Is that what you think or is that what you know won’t happen but talk as such and then criticize the SL government for not achieving it? After Eighteen odd years under LTTE rule and you are criticizing the developments in the East???? Give me a break, you must be smoking the good stuff! You ask how a government that does not know how to handle an economy? We are at war, you please point out an Economy that has not been strained by war? Please point one out to me…if you can. That’s what Wars do…they cost money and they are detrimental to the economy. You fail to realize this, or worse, you ACTUALLY DO realize this but feign ignorance to engage in condemnation for this current government conducting of the War and its policies of Zero-Tolerance towards Terrorism.
You must be living in your Liberal Fantasy Ideal world… Come back to Earth sir… we miss you!
*** As for Mr. Devinda F’do’s kindergarten argument that a person less than 50 years has no possibility of talking a 60 year history of a country, well, let me not say there are people who talk about Mohandajaro-Harappa civilisation too, who are not that old. ***
My point is that Mano Ganesan does not care about 60 years of discrimination towards Tamils? He claims to be this ‘Great Crusader’ for Tamil Rights but what really is he squawking about? He cries about a microcosm of this entire conflict trying to make it the Centerpiece of the Whole current conflict. I in no way say that Sinhala communalistic politics are without blame. I know the history, but you selectively ignore and deliberately white-wash Tamil Communalistic politics. From before independence there has been a jockeying for power between the two Ethnic groups in order to carve out the best deal for themselves… this was plain to see, but you make it seem like Tamils were just Happy to be Sri Lankans and wanted to be equal…which we all know is not true. Most people never mention GG Ponambalam’s attempt to go 50-50 on the Island. What was that? Fair? Or just Communalist Opportunists at work. Mr. Ganesan always implies that the LTTE is a direct result of Sinhala injustices, so then after 25 years of fighting and several attempts to devolve power to the LTTE, exactly what have they accepted? Nothing. The LTTE only want Eelam or nothing. Once again Mano Ganesan has to be incredibly naïve or incredibly Stupid to believe that there is a Peaceful solution with the LTTE. Now that we finally have a government that won’t tolerate the LTTE’s lies and fake peace attempts we have Ganesan trying his level best to hinder that effort. Mano Ganesan cares nothing for Tamils in general like he would have us believe. If he truly cared about Tamils as a Race then his noise making over a few hundred abducted Tamils (and lets face it these are not Innocent Tamils getting picked off the streets, rather they are those political enemies of the other Tamil groups who would just as sooner do the same to the likes of TMVP or EPDP) but instead he would be making noise against the LTTE for forcing (Tamil) men and women to fight and needlessly die for a goal they will not achieve. Instead what do we see… Prabhakaran’s 50th Birthday DVD with Mano Ganesan talking about Tamil Injustices along with the TNA Jokers and Vaiko, Nedumaran, Karunanidhi, and the other Tamil Nadu Communalist Clowns in full support of the LTTE. How can he claim to be for a united Sri Lanka and then appear on an LTTE video expressing support for them? I wonder what Mr. Ganesan discussed with the LTTE when he met Thamilchelvan and Prabharkaran during the CFA? Was he going there in optimism, that they would hold to the CFA,…? Or did he go there with a wink and a nod to support their ulterior motive? Either way he got played like a Prize Sucker if he thought they were serious about peace with the GoSL. Mano Ganesan pays lip service to a united Sri Lanka, claiming he speaks Sinhala and his brother is married to a Sinhalese woman,..yada yada yada…. But he really does not accept Sinhala as the common language. He openly admits that he encourages Tamils to remain as “Tamil as possible”.
The fact that Sinhala is the Majority language is what irks these communalists so much. But if it were English as the common Language then Tamils would have no problem with it. 20% of the United States of America are Hispanic and Hispanic speaking, yet, you don’t find them lobbying to have the Majority English speaking population learn Spanish too? Should all American Politicians learn Spanish too? A united country need a common language, and face it, the majority are Sinhalese speaking so what is wrong with that? It is not like they tell Tamils not to speak Tamil? Is it not taught in Schools as a Medium? Is it not recognized in the constitution? It is this Communalistic superiority complex that make them resist anything Sinhala. No, Mano Ganesan is not fooling anyone, he like Rauf Hakeem are just using the LTTE as political chess pieces to gain more footing from the current government. It’s the Good-Cop, Bad-Cop routine. He doen’t have the guts to openly speak out against the LTTE, because then he would be living in fear like Anadasangaree and Devananda are doing right now. People are tired of listening to you Comunalists harp on about Past injustices… you people sound like such Broken Records.. Give it a rest, we’ve heard that tired old tune a million times already…. Mano Ganesan should look to the Late Jeyaraj Fernandopulle as an example of how to be a Sri Lankan and a Tamil, and have an appeal with everyone (Sinhalese included) otherwise he is what he is practicing – a communalist with no real position in the future of Sri Lanka. Sooner or later people will stop voting for politicians who enter politics on the basis of their race.
S. Ganga said,
May 4, 2008 @ 3:21 am
Mr. Devendra Fernando is again.
Besides the usual language, we have certain issues raised by Mr. Fernando.
Mr. Mano Ganesan or for that matter Mr. Kusal perera and all other like minded ‘Crusaders’ are speaking and making the ‘Tamil Rights issue’ the centre piece of the entire conflict. Yes, it is true. It has valid reason Mr. Fernando which you kind of people chose to ignore and selectively forget. It is because of the very black and white fact that Tamils as community who are at the receiving end. It does not mean that Sinhalese and Muslims do not suffer. But Tamils are greater sufferers in the last 60 year history of Ceylon and Sri Lanka.
There had been Tamil communalist slogans, campaigns and campaigns. It is true. The 50:50 demands do not fall in this. It has a different meaning. Mr. Fernando should study the history. Anyway we agree we agree that there is Tamil communalism. No argument. But on the other hand there had been Tamil leadership which worked for unity and equality within one single country. Sir.Pon.Ramanathan was the senior most ‘Crusader’ in the national congress. What’s more? Even federalism was rejected by Jaffna leadership when it was proposed by Kandyan Sinhala leaders. Later after independence and formation of Federal party when C. Sundaralingam proposed ‘Separation’, non other than FP stalwart A.Amirthalingam called it ‘Suicidal’. So please do not unfairly accuse Tamil leadership in totality and white wash the Sinhala communalist leaders who were armed with ruling power.
This is the new fundamentalist conspiracy in emergence. They accuse LTTE and Tamil militancy for all ills and conveniently begin the political history from 1983. Similarly they now bring various accusations against early Tamil non violent parliamentary leaderships. By blaming both non violent and violent Tamil leadership in totality, they try to ‘bail out’ Sinhala Buddhist leaders and politicians of Ceylon and Sri Lanka. How’s that? This is a new conspiracy. All peace lovers and who oppose war and support political solution based on political power sharing should be aware of this tendency.
We do not say Tamil leaderships old & new and non-violent & violent are saints. They have their parts in the communal politics of pre & post independent Ceylon and Sri Lanka. But the Sinhala politicians hold the larger parts of the communal politics of Sri Lanka. This is simply because Sinhalese politicians are armed with the ruling power.
The government is considering provincial councils. Is it ’solution’? Forget about LTTE and TNA. Even the EPDP and Anandasangaree clan do not accept this as ’solution’. Besides it has taken 20 years since this 13th amendment became law. No wonder, it will take another 50 years or more for the implementations of these provincial councils. We learn from history. We will be fools if we do not learn from the history. We are only fair by going through history. Sinhala politicians have never implemented what they agreed. Sinhala masses are whipped up by the politicians. We have never seen any Sinhala statesmen, resigning from their posts of head of government when they were forced to disown their own agreements with Tamil leaderships. If any of them had done this it would have changed the history of Sri Lanka. It would have had an effect on the Sinhala mindset. We have not seen a Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Nelson Mandela and Abraham Lincoln within the Sinhala community. Accommodative political tendency towards minorities is prevailing in India all the times. We have never witnessed such tendency within the Sinhala establishment.
You do not have to talk to LTTE or TNA. We had spoken too much. Bring reasonable fair proposals on paper and place it on the table. If they are reasonable Tamil people will defeat LTTE.
If the Hispanics do not claim their language rights in the US, that is their problem. There is clear two language policy in Canada. The language of the majority need not be always the common language. Tamil politicians encouraging Tamils to remain as Tamils is correct under any international law. If not it will be amount to cultural assimilation and racism. Mr. Fernando, please go and study international law.
Mr. Mano Ganesan traveled to LTTE areas searching for peace and political solution during the CFA period. Not only there are many Tamil politicians in current government went to Vanni searching for political solution. It was permissible then. Mr. Fernando should know that his idol minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle too traveled to Batticaloa and met with Mr. Gousalyan and other LTTE leaders. Minister Jeyaraj went there with his family. You can verify this with his wife, the new replacement for minister Jeyaraj in SLFP.
Thank you sir.
Ms. S.Ganga
Devinda Fernando said,
May 7, 2008 @ 4:49 pm
*** If the Hispanics do not claim their language rights in the US, that is their problem. There is clear two language policy in Canada. ***
Ms. Ganga,
Do you see Canadian Parliamentarians speaking French in Parliament? How many address the Majority in French How many actually KNOW and can SPEAK French?????
Yes, you are right in saying that Canada has a 2 Language policy, but lets be real here… English is the majority spoken and thus it is spoken when addressing the Nation as a Whole…
Sri Lanka has a similar 2 Language policy, but this is not enough for you because it is your deep down aversion to Sinhala as the predominant language that makes you come out swinging against the Sri Lankan government. The fact is that the Language issue is only a Political football you kick around to further Tamil Communalism demands.
Also, The very fact that you bring up the Official Language of Sri Lanka being English and somehow saying that it was ok – only further substantiates my point that it is Tamil Communalism’s aversion to Sinhala and ALL things Sinhalese that is the deep rooted problem here. If English (which is an Alien Language forced upon the the people of the Island) was kept in place as the National language you are saying that Tamils would not have a problem with that? Oh Puh-leeaaase! Give me a break!
The fact remains that English cannot be the national Language as it belongs to the British. I’m not against anyone learning English, as it is a extremely useful language to know in the world today. However Tamil and Sinhala are native languages and in the past before unification of the Island the two languages were practiced independent of each other in different areas. However the situation is different, now we are integrated, the Island is unified and Tamils, Sinhalese, and Muslims live all over the place. It is no longer possible to have different areas speak different languages and have smooth flowing and trouble free commerce and social order.
…and by the way….I never white washed Sinhala Communalism,…if you bothered to read my initial post on this topic, I started by saying that it was a well established fact that Sinhala Communalism was the cause of these problems, but you Tamil Nationalists have had a field day covering up Tamil Communalism to portray your history at a Spotless, Faultless one…