The Two Elections in 2010: End of History for the NE Tamils or, A Fresh Beginning?
By Jolly Somasundram
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world." - W B Yeats" - The Second Coming."
| A daughter is not given in marriage on assurances of future good behaviour by the bridegroom, but, only after a critical scan of what he has done in the past. Promises, undertakings and manifestos are not worth a bucket of warm spit: they are not justiciable, just bedazzling lover's promises, to be abandoned once the objective is gained. |
Table of Contents
1. The Problem- The End of History
2. Strategic Thinking
3. Presidential and Parliamentary Elections: An Opportunity
PART 1- PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
4. Presidential Election: Two Choices
5. Criteria for Evaluating The Two Choices
6. Issues for The South: Issues for the NE Tamils
1. Issues for the South
2.Issues for the NE Tamils
7. Election Approaches for the NE Tamils
1. Boycott- The Pornography of Politics
2 Quislingam
PART 2- PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS
8. The Nature of Parliament
9.Opportunity Available for the NE Tamil Parties (NETAP
10.Conclusion
1. THE PROBLEM- THE END OF HISTORY
"War does not determine who is right: it just determines who is left," wrote Bertrand Russel. The NE Tamils (who include those from this region living elsewhere in the island), never had it so bad. Toronto and London had replaced Jaffna as the two largest population centres of the NE Tamils. For twenty years, the NE had undergone de-development, becoming the most backward part of Sri Lanka (worse than Uva) under any criterion of development- poverty, educational achievement, health, infrastructure etc.The position of first minority, in numbers, has been ceded to the Muslims. For over two decades, the NE Tamils were unable to exercise their free franchise, a position to which they had fallen, after supporting the disenfranchisement of the Plantation Tamils.
They had been helpless- except to bleat- when 300,000 of their civilians were incarcerated in foetid military prison camps in the Wanni (jokingly called humanitarian centres by the government) without even their elected representatives having access to them, not to mention the media or the UNHCR. (The army would not dared have such massive camps in the South, after the end of the two southern uprisings.)
These camps, with more than half its population composed of women and young girls, were under the iron control of the army (with possibilities invitingly open for misuse of power against these defenceless girls), with no external access, accountability or judicial review. Anecdotal evidence of what transpired within is not for delicate ears. In the South, full of animated discussions of ill-governance and the desirability of applying Dasa Raja Dhamma forms of Governance, there wasn't a comment: getting the 17th amendment implemented was of greater priority.
NE Tamils have no friends in S. Asia. Asia's arch enemies- India and Pakistan- banded together to assist Colombo and, later, Tamil Nadu Tamils acquiesced with the Wanni incarceration. A NE Tamil's passport is viewed with the same intense suspicion in India as Muslim's is, in the United States. It will not be long before the diaspora- which is onto their second generation- drops the NE Tamils. The once empowered NE Tamils, who engaged themselves vigorously in the politics of entitlement, are now a bereft, depowered people, stranded on the centre island of a busy highway, participating shamefacedly in the politics of supplication, aka as the begging bowl. For the NE Tamils, history seems to have ended.
2. STRATEGIC THINKING
But there is upside. It is only when there are no options that difficult decisions could be taken. The stitch, whose time has come, should enable the NE Tamils to abandon emotional orthodoxies and vainglorious ideas of their past (no one cares a damn for them) and take a hard, inward, pragmatic look at themselves. If they decide that they have an identity which deserves preserving, then, based on a SWOT analysis, they need to take strategic long, medium and short-term steps to preserve this identity. Instead of hard or soft power approaches they should adopt smart power methods. Lessons could be learnt from Thondaman, of how he pulled his despised Plantation Tamils in from the cold, to make them a proud part of the Sri Lankan polity, enabling them to become an important segment in her governance, even of making and sustaining governments. And Thondaman (snr) did not have a diaspora!
3. PRESIDENTIAL AND PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS: AN OPPORTUNITY
The forthcoming Presidential and Parliamentary elections are not video games played in virtual space but chess games played in real time, with the NE Tamils as human stakes, normally wooed only at election time and then dumped. These two elections offer the despairing NE Tamils a live opportunity to reverse the situation, by taking the initial concrete steps towards a strategic readjustment that would ensure an eventual rebirth of their history.
PART 1- PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS
4. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION- TWO CHOICES
The real Presidential choice (2010) is between an incumbent President- with 40 years of political experience- and a challenging General- with 40 days of it. To use a gynaecological term, the General is an ectopic Presidential candidate. In gynaecology, it is possible for the fertilised germ cell, prevented from reaching the womb for the foetus to grow- because the fallopian tubes were blocked- to grow on its linings. So has the General! Not having political experience, he has now decided to attach himself to political linings and grow political skills with on-the-job-training.
Both main candidates appeal to the same core Southern constituency and will be elected by the South. In respect of the NE Tamils, a Collective of Tamil Professionals- inexperienced in the hurly-burly of actual electioneering and, therefore, unfamiliar on how voters make their decisions- has said that "the voter needs to know the positions of various candidates so as to assess their suitability and credibility on several critical issues and, collectively, seek to make a difference to the outcome." Spoken like professionals! This Collective, no doubt, thinks that each voter will draw up a table, give weightages for each critical issue, produce a variety of equations and use the differential calculus to mathematically optimise who would be the best candidate. The two main candidates have now issued their sound bites- called manifestos. What now then? Professionals are a political unintelligentsia!
This neat Weberian rationality is not how the political world works, no such model is operational any where in the world. Politics works on dysfunction and is extremely untidy. Tony Blair, lied unashamedly about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and declared war. Even after his mendacity was proved, he won the next election. In the recent Health Care vote in the US Senate, Obama purchased the critical 60th vote of Senator Nelson by bribing his State of Nebraska with a $100 million investment. This is called 'pork' in the United States. Even if it were called Organic Vegetable Tikka, the taint of bribery will not be buffed. In Sri Lanka, the practice is to buy over, recalcitrant legislators with Cabinet portfolios much to the chagrin of professionals.
But, this is part of the downside of democracy: it comes with the territory of an electoral process, based on proportion that gives the advantage to smaller parties. Jumbo cabinets will not exist if proportion were abolished. Bismarck equated politics with sausage making, where rejects and offal are bundled within a sausage skin. In the governance skin all manner of divergencies have to be accommodated. If not, the current UNP and JVP common candidate, is inexplicable. Virtue, principle or gourmet taste do not apply to sausage or Cabinet making.
5. CRITERIA FOR EVALUATING THE TWO CHOICES
The main candidates should be judged, not on what they promise but how harshly they ruled the NE Tamils when exercising power. A daughter is not given in marriage on assurances of future good behaviour by the bridegroom, but, only after a critical scan of what he has done in the past. Promises, undertakings and manifestos are not worth a bucket of warm spit: they are not justiciable, just bedazzling lover's promises, to be abandoned once the objective is gained. Just to give an example. One of the main candidate's promises is to increase the salary of public servants by Rs 10.000 a month. This is plain impossible. There are 1.2 million public servants. This payment would cost Rs 140 Billion a year, that is three times the total education budget. At present, the salary, pension and the interest on the public debt is more than the revenue. To meet them, it is necessary to print money. This salary promise has been cynically made, knowing full well that it can never be implemented. So also the promises to abolish the Executive Presidency, implement the 17th amendment, abolishing Jumbo cabinets. None of these can be implemented for structural, processual, systemic and financial reasons.
The valuelessness of political promises was shown by Chandrika Kumaratunge. In the 1994 Presidential election, she gave a written undertaking to the JVP that she would abolish the Executive Presidency within three months (fixing a date) of her assumption of duties. Based on this promise, the JVP withdrew its candidate. Unwisdom has not left the JVP. It imagines that their present presidential candidate- a General who commanded an army- would self-sacrificially relinquish the Presidency if he were to win it, and then revert as a mere citizen like Cincinnatus- an anti-Bonapartist action. A study of history by the JVP may not go amiss and, indeed, that of sausage making.
Politics is about power, its acquisition and retention. Its grammar is deal-making, accommodation and the cashing of IOU's, to backbiting, clashing stakeholders, conducted with nuance filled equivocation. It certainly is not a spiritual quest. The Elephant- the symbol of the UNP- the other party backing the General, does not seem to have shared its reputed long memory with that Party. Only recently, this Party supported a group at the Colombo Municipal elections, in the vain hope that it would abdicate power to the UNP, once victory were gained. The group did win the elections but the UNP is waiting longingly for the abdication. Suckers are not born every minute but voters are!
6. ISSUES FOR THE SOUTH: ISSUES FOR THE NE TAMILS
1 Issues for the South.
Two separate constituencies would be contributing to the election of the President. The decisive choice will be by the South, for whom good governance, size of Cabinet, corruption, integrity, nepotism, implementation of the 17th amendment, media freedom, dynasty, law and order are hot issues. The South would be electing, whom it considers to be, the better of the two lead candidates.
2 Issues for the NE Tamils
For the NE Tamils, these issues of the South are luxuries. The down-to-earth concerns for the NE Tamils are mundane. They are,
1 The immediate return of the Wanni Tamils to their homes,
2 The treatment of the insurgent war-wounded on the same basis as that of the Ranaviru, as the United States did after the end of her secessionist war (1894). ( Insurgent war wounded are, after all, human beings who also suffer the effects of the war very much the same as the Ranaviru). The costs of both need not be met by taxing the South. Earmarked funds are available on grant or near grant basis from bilateral and multi-lateral sources. In addition, there is a tidy sum available under the frozen funds of the LTTE and inert LTTE assets. NE Tamils inherit these funds since they were contributed by the NE Diaspora or extracted by the LTTE by taxation of the NE Tamils. (The LTTE has a reputed 14 ocean going ships as against nil by the Government, though it has a well funded Shipping Corporation.)
These frozen funds or liquifiable assets should not be treated as war reparations and used by the Government to finance budget deficits.The pipe line flow of these funds to meet NE Tamil development requirements should be under the close supervision of the Government, to which accounts will have to be rendered.
3. The removal of all Pass laws. Pass laws under which the NE Tamils lived were reminiscent of the pass laws of S African apartheid ( This writer, who had lived over 60 years in Colombo and held high posts in government, was expected to register himself at the Police Station purely because he bore a Tamil name.)
4 The establishment of a Anti-Harassment Committee, preferably under the Chairmanship of a senior Southern politician. (Such a committee existed in 1999 and did excellent work.)
It should be mentioned, in the straitened conditions that the NE Tamils find themselves in, hoping for the implementation of the 13th amendment, the re-merger of the North and the East, providing equitable employment for the NE Tamils in the public service and the implementation of the language laws (all desirable and valid demands), are so much pie-in-the-sky. Politics, like comedy, is all about timing. The weak NE Tamils are hardly in a position now to make these demands which, for some atavistic reason, arouse primal opposition from the South. Starting with the two 2010 elections, the NE Tamils should patiently build power value, to, in some future date, make and obtain these demands.
7. ELECTION APPROACHES FOR THE NE TAMILS.
1. Boycott- The Pornography of Politics.
Boycott is an aphrodisiac for the NE Tamils. While, in other countries, citizens are fighting- and dying- to obtain the vote, these boycotters wish to deny it to themselves. They imagine that the world revolves round themselves, a view unshared by outsiders, (one of their MP's- a Presidential candidate to boot- was recently summarily deported from India despite he having a diplomatic passport and a valid visa). Boycotters wish to draw attention to themselves, even momentarily, by organising these disruptive withdrawals, irrespective of their repercussions. Immediately after universal franchise was introduced in 1932, they boycotted the first elections. The impact was nil on the national scale but led indirectly to the formation of the Pan-Sinhala ministry.
In 2005, they boycotted the Presidential Elections which led to the Mullaitivu debacle and the reduction of the NE Tamils to the margins. Some canvassing is now taking place for a 2010 Presidential Election boycott. Boycott advocating NE Tamils, resolute about irresolution, decisive about indecision, committed to non-committal, are waiting for God only knows what. If the NE Tamils respond to the cry of boycott, it must be suffering from a severe case of death wish.
2. Quislingam.
Sivajilingam, contesting the Presidential Election as a NE Tamil candidate, is the manifestation of this death wish, in another form. It is unlikely that he would consider himself an Obama, breaking through prejudice to win the Presidency. His political party- the TNA- does not support his candidacy nor does it wish to field a candidate. His candidacy is either due to ego, immaturity or, fielded for pure mischief. But the effect on the NE Tamils would be severe. In a closely contested Presidential election, as is this case, every vote matters.
On an earlier occasion, Kumar Ponnambalam irresponsibly contested the Presidency, making no impact on Governance. It will be remembered that mature Thondaman (Snr) never thought of contesting the Presidency though he was revered by the Plantation Tamils. The NE Tamils have the sorry option of rejecting the worse of the two Presidential candidates. Since the election is tight, the NE Tamils, if they vote strategically, could determine the President who would be better for them.
Sivajilingam's insurgency candidature, of a small man caught in a undertow much too strong for him, could help elect a wrong candidate. This would place the NE Tamils on a downward death spiral, perhaps never to recover.
PART 2-PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS
8 THE NATURE OF PARLIAMENT.
Much false glamour and power has been vested on the President. It is claimed that he can do anything except make a man a woman or vice-versa. Bosh! A President is powerful only so long as he/she controls Parliament. The all-powerful President Premadasa was shaken to his roots when the impeachment motion was presented. President Chandrika Kumaratunge had to smell the roses when Ranil Wickremasinghe was the Prime Minister with control over a Parliamentary majority. Sect 40 of the Constitution states that "The President shall be responsible to Parliament for the due exercise, performance and the discharge of his power, duties and functions---". A President who has lost control of Parliament is neither man or woman, just a neuter. What the NE Tamils should concentrate on, is maximising their strength in the 2010 Parliament and, thereby, tie up or make beholden to them, a President, whose actions or policies could be deleterious to the interest of the Tamils.
Under the present electoral system of proportion, no single Party can gain a 2/3rd's majority and, as most likely, even a simple majority. Either of the governing parties of the South will have to strike coalition arrangements with many minor parties- the generator of jumbo cabinets.The future of NE Tamils would lie, as Thondaman(Snr) did, in coming into coalition agreements with the appropriate majority South Party.
9. OPPORTUNITY AVAILABLE FOR NE TAMIL PARTIES (NETAP)
Since 1977, Thondaman had been a member of all governments though they were from different Parties. He was able to lever his political and economic advantages (heading the Trade Union that could cripple the plantation sector) and maximise advantages for his community. NETAP does not have the economic advantages Thondaman enjoyed, but, it could, if it plays the electoral game with finesse, manage about thirty seats (Western Province, national seats etc). NETAP should remember that in the next round of elections, the seats available for it will reduce drastically, since there will be a delimitation based on the 2011 Census.
The NE Tamils, while voting to elect a President should make the necessary inner electoral contest arrangements to optimise their clout in the next Parliament.
10 CONCLUSION.
There have been two inflection points in the electoral history of Sri Lanka, where, a specific election changed paradigms. The first was 1956, which changed the cultural paradigm. Sinhala culture, which includes the Sinhala language and Theravada Buddhism, replaced Western culture as Sri Lanka's dominant form. The second election was in 1977, which changed the economic paradigm into a decisive open market model. The third could be 2010 when the issue at hand is whether the form of Governance continues to be the democratic one or other forms of Governance. Some of these other forms are, monarchy eg Thailand, theocracy eg Iran, one party eg China, military eg Myanmar. It would be in the best interest of the NE Tamils to plump firmly to continuing the democratic form, though turbulent and chaotic-( Sri Lanka is the talk shop of the world)- despite it causing them their many woes.This dual approach, of voting for the Presidential candidate who would support their aspirations and, simultaneously building power value through the Parliamentary process, would enable them to painfully start on the fraught journey to re-establish their history.
(Jolly Somasundram was a member of the former Ceylon Civil Service.)
20 Comments
As long as narrow nationalism that pervedes the thinking of the minorities the problems will never be solved in SL or India and it will also prevent narrow nationalism of the majority.
A thorough and excellent piece of work interspersed with his unmistakeable wit. The "THE PROBLEM- THE END OF HISTORY"part brought home the real implications of three decades of war for the NE Tamils and brought a lump to my throat.
Very sensible advice for all Tamils to take into account before embarking to vote in both elections.
(On a personal note I had the previlege of attending some of the Board meetings in one of numerous boards you were a member)
Enjoyed his style of writing but failed to be convinced.
Why one should not boycott to send a political message has not been analysed at all. (Is he not aware that only a small percentage of Europeans vote in their elections).
Indians chased away Sivajilingam because they thought he was splitting the Tamil vote – tha same reason given by this writer. (Hope he is not unduly influenced by the Indians).
He seem to concule that the course of history of Sri Lanka – whether it will be democratic, authoritarian etc – depends solely on the Tamils who should therefore think carefully and definitely cast their vote. Precisely what the Americans and the Indians want! Never heard such bunkum.
It is a privilege to have the writer's views.
He is not merely a former (Ceylon) civil servant but was a popular one. Remember, the prefix Ceylon adds a different dimension to the position 'civil servant'. Jolly presenting an impartial assessment such as this would not have occured to the minds of those Sinhalese pals, who as students of the University of Ceylon, elected him as President of the Student Council. He managed to win that coveted title - despite being one with a Tamil name! - because it was a different era. An era for the elites of Colombo.
The presentation though is forceful, logical, and concrete.
Yet, some emptiness creeps in between the crevices caused by the ominous absence of a critical political element of the land, - the Sangha. Would the conclusion remain unaffected once that element is also introduced into the equation?
A very pragmatic and candid discussion.Lot of old school thinking which are pragmatic, rather than emotions driven.This is what was lacking in the narrow minded nationalist of all ethnic groups in SL, be it Sinhalese,Tamils,Muslims,Burgers etc.Given a chance Jolly probably could out wit MR in his own game.But his last name has to be changed to Somawansa or something simillar.
Excellent analysis of the pros and cons of the present election from the perspective of the Tamil voter. Hope that good sense will prevail.
At last, an analytical approach and lucid thinking. A truly commendable perspective, even when one disagrees with this or that aspect, as I do.
Yes Sir,even if all the Tamils vote for SF
(intriguing,isn't it?)Mahinda will win.These educated fools have underestimated the strength of his vote base and his appeal to the masses-in spite of his short-comings.
There was an ‘end of history’ some time ago too, when all the peaceful parliamentary maneuverings of Tamil parties came to a hopeless end. Then another history was begun by the North East Tamils of another strata, which is the singular ‘end of history’ Somasunderam uses as the mid air base of his article . That is why the ‘ Fresh beginning’ he writes of has a stale smell, and the article may even be considered really baseless.
My comment may appear negative, only if one takes seriously and unimaginatively Somasunderam’s assertion that Thondaman had no “diaspora.”
{quote}
....should enable the NE Tamils to abandon emotional orthodoxies and vainglorious ideas of their past (no one cares a damn for them) and take a hard, inward, pragmatic look at themselves. {unquote}
Slowly but surely Tamils are learning to think like Sri Lankans and engaging more positively in Sri Lankan politics.
As a start Tamils should drop the "We Tamil" notion and work towards the development of this country.
And always remember, as the majority it is Sinhalese who should rule the nation. The days of the British Raj are long gone. So get over it. Or else plan to stay in those refugee camps forever.
A society that finds itself at the cross-roads in her history such as our own war-weary variety gains when the more initiated in the country speak out. How one wishes many more would come out of their own voluntary “closets” to offer solutions that we so badly need. Jolly (JS) embellishes his interesting piece with his depth both in language and literature where the old Civil service excelled…”position of first minority has been ceded to the Muslims” he laments. But I demur. Describing Tamils as “a minority” an academic friend reminds me, is a description that entered the Ceylon political lexicon in later. Prior to which we were identified as “Tamils” in a nascent nationalistic identity effort between two nations of the pre-Portugese reality.In introducing the "minority" label into the political lexicon those behind the project – either by omission or commission – were trying to emphasise on an imagined irrelevance to Tamil national status here. This, in recent times, one semi-literate took upon himself and expanded it to say “minorities must remember not to make too many demands”…
To say “Tamils have no friends in S.E.Asia” is to over-emphasise the present Jaffna Tamil complaint against India in general and Tamilnadu in particular. The fact is no one State/ethnic group took to the streets for days on, made the supreme sacrifice on multiple occaions, brought that populous state to a grind, created massive consciousness for the suffering Lankans than those Tamils across the Straits and pressured Delhi for intervention etc. How, except out of some peculiar prejudice, did our friend miss this point and thus fail to extend gratitude where it is due?
He angrily dismisses going into history “nobody gives a damn about the past” But the fact is in matters such as that have roots in both ancient history and geography the past cannot be ignored. In the Palestine,Kashmiri, Yugoslav, Soviet Republic experiences the past is/was at centre stage. The past in our case is relevant to the present and is necessary to define the future. As William Faulkner would say “the past has not died. It is not even past (It will never die)”……JS quite rightly condemns the treachery of past leaders in the dichotomy between promises and their redemption. He remembers CBK somewhat kindly. But it was she, inter alia, who came with the populist promise of bread at Rs.3/50 which went upto over Rs.15 (and then to Rs.30) and allowed “the robber barons to plunder” with some being allowed to use the address and the infra-structure of Temple Trees – no less. One wonders where was the spirit of justice in this once buxom-lass who who drank deep in the fountains of wisdom and social justice from that great land that gave the world Voltaire, Victor Hugo, Jean-Paul Sartre and even Danny the Red.
He warns “politics is about power – the acquisition and the retention of it” and reminds the man with the 40-day experience of it. Perhaps the General knows more from Mao’s little Red Book “Power flows from the barrel of the gun” which is probably why he did a little bit of excessive ordering when he was in uniform – that sensational Arms order that now has no parentage.
JS is yet another Tamil scholar who now openly praises the vision and wisdom of the late S. Thondaman and quite rightly states the wise TU-CWC supremo used pragmatism and empirical wisdom to improve the lot of his own depressed people by shrewdly bargaining with the Sinhala governments in power. So there we are. The erudite Constitutional scientists-pundits GGP and SJV and friends got it all wrong. Thonda was more Indian than his highly literate cousins in the North but had the savvy to know - as the motto of the now bankrupt CWE states “one for each and each for all”
He was not swayed by the senthamil eloquence of the giants of the DMK. He knew a time will come “when we have to answer to our own people as their leaders” (as he used to tell me) He said the hard political reality in times of trouble is you are youronly friend
and the rest merely fair-weather friends. It is not only thevery successful and learned Queen’s Counsel who made colossal historical ill-judgements - but VP himself - the more destructive to be sure. Due to VPs miscalculations Tamils are now dispersed everywhere – except where they should be of their right. January 26 will hardly bring the answers to all the problems of Lankan Tamils. It is only their capacity to unite and speak in one voice hopefull in the near future – here and from the diaspora – that will bring them the peace and wherewithal for their future in the land of their ancestors.
ISS
One person write
''Prior to which we were identified as “Tamils” in a nascent nationalistic identity effort between two nations of the pre-Portugese reality.''
You were called Malabars during early British period.Suddenly they embraced Tamil a new identity.
My friend PP,
Even you will learn, with little researching, Tamils were in the present North-East long, long before the Dutch arrived here. Referring to Tamils in Sri Lanka as Malabaris was a clerical/administrative guffaw by a British official who obviously had difficulty in learning North Ceylon and Kerala were in two different countries.
The old boy was right in that both belonged to the Brits at that time. But that bizarre Sinhala supremacist
and twister of historical events Nalin de Silva, in his usual practise of falsifying history to suit his Agenda, tells his vulnerable students (the JVP type) that Tamils were brought here by the Dutch to plant tobacco only 400 years ago. Some gullible students really believe this utter stupidity to this day. If you want to believe that garbage go right ahead, pal, its a free country - still. Its in no way going to alter historical reality.
But if you know Nalin de S take him along on a trip to the Thiruketheeswaram Temple in Mannar and learn something of the history of the land. The temple there has books referring to the acient Port of Mantota (Mannar now)and the history of the temple going beyond 3,000 years from now. Dr. Paul Peiris - a Sinhalese I think - certifies to this.
For god's sake if you want to know your history here don't go to that lot of "history makers" Kingsley de Silva, Michael Roberts,Kamalika Peiris and the like. They will all tell you Tamils came here only recently - some even would say with Thondaman's people under 200 yrs ago to keep the large Sinhala vote bank happy.
For history and archeology go to educated schoars like Sudarshan Seneviratne and Shiran Deraniyagala - both would be historians, archeologists and academics who will bring dignity and pride to any nation in the world privileged to call them their own. Sadly for all of us Dr. Senarath Paranavithana is no more with us.
ISS
Dear ISS
You may be right or Nalin may be right.But both can not be right at the same time.However,I am not a follower of Nalin.
OK Lets do it this way.You can initiate this as a prominent respectable and a senior citizen.You initiate to have a open and public debate to find out the truth about Tamils and Sinhalese origin,and whether there was a tamil kingdom encompassing both Noth East.
You can have your best historians including you and Sinhalese can have thier best at present like Ven.Ellawala thero and Mandis Rohanadeera and perhaps Nalin de Silva.
Arrange to telecast this over TV of your choice may be Sirasa or all chanells
Then we will know the truth.
Would you take the challenge?
Dear PP,
Thank you. Have you heard the idiom "trying to re-invent the wheel?"
This applies here. The histrocity and antiquity of the Tamil presence in Sri Lanka needs no canvassing.
The mere long-engineered burning of a priceless library and the irreplaceable material it contains to erase for all time a people's legacy did not result in that people denied their ancient heritage - is a lesson this country has learnt at the expense of much harm to its image.
What needs repairs and adjustments are those books of reference written many centuries after the events and which fall under the category of "manufactured history" and which are the sources of friction massaged by contemporary pseudo-nationalists to fit into their programmes for political upward mobility.
Epoch-making events such as this are never set right by a single or a series of debates before a highly-charged audience in a country where pluralism and democratic discourse was killed many moons ago.
Look at the two main candidates you are asked to vote for - both with oozing blood-splattered hands where the flowing has not even dried sufficiently and yet both invoking religion, race, compassion and righteousness - no less. Good friend, the world is watching and laughing.
ISS
The main reason of Thondaman's success is due to the economic dependence on tea in the country and not because of his political smartness. Other reason being the laziness of the sinhalese to work in the tea estate. May be Jaffna Tamils shoud have started working in the tea plantation in order to be indispensable.
In any case the living condition of the estate workers still remain very pathetic. As a people they still remain vulnerable to violence and exploitation by the majority sinhalese. They are exploited by their "so called leaders" too.
As long as we have politicians who nurture nepotism, thuggery, human rights violations as we have now,there is no hope for the average citizen.
NE Tamils : The writer has unwittingly, in an effort to be less political – in an analysis that is political, reduced a people to a regional identity; never in our history we have heard of a people known as NE Tamils. There are no NE Tamils, only Ceylon Tamils.
There are well established basic identities of the people and no need to bring new definitions. No politics here; just the facts.
The following is especially for the younger generation: There are two groups of Tamil people in Lanka – Ceylon Tamils and the Upcountry Tamils, Malaiyaga Thamilar, who are mostly known as Indian Tamils.
CEYLON TAMILS – People who have been in Lanka prior to the time of King Ellala; two thousand years ago. The last Ceylon (Jaffna) Tamil king was taken as a prisoner by the Portuguese for refusing to cooperate with them to be colonized and hanged in Goa, India 500 years ago.
Ceylon Tamils are people who inhabited or roots in the north and eastern part of Ceylon/Sri Lanka; be they Jaffna Tamils or Batticoloa Tamils or they live in Colombo or Galle, or Toronto, Sydney or London.
[Lanka was synonymously and always known as Eelam in Tamil language right from the ancient time. That may have been the reason why ALL the militant groups for independence mapped out Tamil portion of the Eelam in the 1970s as Tamil Eelam recognizing that there is always a Sinhala Eelam in Sri Lanka.]
UPCOUNTRY TAMILS – Brought in by the British to Ceylon from 1827 onwards for tea cultivation in the upcountry, a far away area from Jaffna at that time. They did not have the opportunity to mingle or mix with the Ceylon Tamil people and quite literally divided by a common language.
Upcountry Tamils (UPT) did not take part in the post-independence struggle of Ceylon Tamils; quite rightly they shouldn’t have and couldn’t have. It does not help them an iota. In any event the Ceylon Tamils in power prior to independence in 1948 did a job on them for a price with the Sinhalese leaders. Thus came the split in Ceylon Tamils politics. IT is this group (UPT) that most people in India are aware of, and hence their qualms about how could Tamils demand for independence.
In Sri Lanka, we have: SRI LANKAN TAMILS = CEYLON TAMILS + UPCOUNTRY TAMILS. Different politics and different life experience.
Nandasena repeats something that is well known from the turn of the
19th century "the laziness of the Sinhalese to work in the tea estates" This is exactly why the Brits turned to the more costly
and cumbersome option of bringing workers from nearby South India.
But many Sinhala historians and scholars take offence to this and maintain the whole idea was the usual suspicion of the Brits wanting to "divide and rule" As to your comments on the late Thondaman, while you are entitled to your views - the entire political leadership here when he died and the Indians had a different set of thoughts - judging by what they said paying tribute to him all of which is in record (including that of then President CBK)Mahinda Rajapakse has personally told me more than once "Thonda wage apita kennek hitiyoth kochchara loku deyakda"
(What a wonderful thing will it be if we had a leader like Thonda)
ISS
Dear Mr.ISS
Your last comment raises serious doubt about your knowledge about history.Either you do not know nothing at all or you have jumped the badwagon of distorting the history.
See at the Udarata Kerelle(Rebellion) in 1818 sinhalese were murdered in thousands,their land,paddyfields and cattles were burned down.Their land were forcibly confiscated and then granted to British planters for Coffee and Tea.
So how can sinhalese become labourours in thier own land? They were reluctant to work.Thats why Tamils were brought in.
I thought your comments are constructive but what is clear is your are one of the many racial minded tamils.
Thats why u use words like "gullible sinhala voters" mean to say Sinahalaya Modaya.And here you jump into the conclusion that they are lazy also.
Dear PP,
My comments were in response to Nandisena’s admission - and, I stand by them. If you are suggesting the Brits threw out Sinhala farmers only from their well developed land, a little more reading may do you good. It was not more than subsistency farming at that time - that included paddy farming as well. For the thousands of acreage of contiguous land required for Coffee/Tea the British decided to turn to the vast shrub and jungle land that remained
untilled. Workers from nearby S.India had to trek all the way from Talaimannar by foot to the Central Hills because the British concluded – as Nandisena states - local labour was not upto the rigours that came to play. Many of these Indian workers perished on their way due to exhaustion, malaria, snake bites and so on. Over a period of time through British capital and industry plus Indian labour. the verdant greenery we now see was created. That is history. Like many here, if you want to alter history to suit your present nationalist agendas there is very little I can do to stop you. As to your comments I know nothing at all - you are not far too wrong. Though I am a humble nothing compared to them, you may
know Gautama the Buddha "what I know is like the fingers in my palm and what I do not know is like the leaves in the trees in the forest" or Socrates at his death bed "All I know is I know nothing"
If you secure any sadistic pleasure in denigrating me with illusionary accusations, go right ahead and have a good time. You are not the first and you will not be the last.
ISS