“Too Little , Too Late” considerations will not satisfy Tamils

April 25th, 2008

“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]

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