BETA

The Sri Lankan nation state is only for the Sinhalese, more specifically Sinhalese Buddhists. The foundation for this ideal was seeded in the minds of the Sinhalese well before the dawn of independence by their democratically elected politicians. If you are a non-Sinhalese-Buddhist you may live in Sri Lanka but without equal rights! That was the subtle message then.

The first democratically elected government of independent Sri Lanka was led by D.S Senanayake, an England trained lawyer. This government initiated Sinhala domination straight away by various mechanisms, both legal and illegal.

It withdrew citizenship rights of hundreds of thousands of Tamils because their great grandfathers were not born in Sri Lanka. Most of these so called Tamils of Indian origin lived in the central part of Sri Lanka. By doing so in one stroke it reduced parliamentary representation of Tamils in the newly independent Sri Lanka.

The Northeast of Sri Lanka is the historical homeland and Tamils were the majority community there when Sri Lanka was granted freedom by the UK. They understood what would be in store for them in an independent Sri Lanka dominated by the majority Sinhalese. Thus they organised themselves accordingly and resisted the government peacefully. Their peaceful protests were ignored.

The Sinhalese politicians wanted to make the Tamils politically, economically and culturally impotent thus decided to make the Tamils a minority in their own land. In order to do so they started Sinhalese only state-sponsored colonisations of Gal Oya and Amparai in the Tamil East and Padaviya in the Tamil North. The bulk of these Sinhala colonists were convicted criminals and they were backed by the army and the police. Within a short period they violently drove out the local Tamils who had lived in these areas for generations. This was the beginning of the making Tamils a minority in their own land policy.

In 1956 S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike came to power. The most important manifesto pledge of this Oxford University educated gentleman was to make the Sinhala language the only official language of the Sri Lankan nation state. He promised to do so within 24 hours of him coming to office. An overwhelming majority of Sinhalese people voted for him and he did exactly what he promised.

This democratic act effectively made the Tamil Language, which was the mother tongue of millions of Tamils and Muslims, useless in their dealings with the state. Thus the communication of the non-Sinhalese with the all powerful government machinery was cut off in one day.

All peaceful protests by Tamils against this legislation were ignored and some times they were violently crushed.

Further, this act closed the door for young Tamils who wanted to enter the Sri Lankan Civil Service. For those Tamils who were already in the service, this act blocked their promotions thus forcing them to seek premature retirement.

Again Tamils protested in peaceful means and demanded equal rights.

In response anti Tamil violence was sponsored by the state with the police and armed services ignoring these violations and in some cases actively taking part in looting, burning and killing innocent Tamil civilians.

Tamil members of parliament, who performed non-violent protests, were brutally assaulted by Sinhalese thugs opposite the parliament buildings, while the state security forces looked on.

In 1958 the government brought out the introduction of the Sinhala letter ‘Sri’ to all vehicle number plates. The Tamils correctly understood this as a symbolism of their subjugation and resisted this act peacefully. This act of resistance spawned even more violence against the Tamils. The Buddhist clergy gave this bloody enterprise active support. They even led the Sinhala mobs reading out from electoral lists, names of Tamil householders and Tamil businesses.

At this juncture many Tamils viewed their peaceful protests as impotent. They advocated an independent homeland so they could live safely and mind their own business peacefully. They promised to achieve this by all means necessary.

In 1975 the then Prime Minister Srimavo Bandaranaike (the wife of Mr S.W.R.D Bandaranaike) sent the army for the first time to the Tamil North to suppress the Tamils’ demand of a recognised homeland.

In 1977 Mr Jayewardene came to power with a five-sixth majority promising to make every one equal. But within a few months his regime organised more anti Tamil legislations and anti-Tamil violence than any other regime of the past. The draconian prevention of Terrorism Act was brought into action during this time. The infamous anti Tamil pogrom of July 1983 was orchestrated by this democratically elected government. Thousands of young Tamils were arrested by the armed forces and later disappeared. Economic sanctions were brought in. Huge areas of Tamil land were colonised by Sinhala settlers while Tamils of these areas were killed and the remaining were made to become internally displaced. Indiscriminate aerial bombardments were started during the life of this democratically elected government.

In 1994 Mrs Kumaratunge, Paris educated, daughter of two democratically elected prime ministers (S.W.R.D Bandaranaike and Mrs Srimao Bandaranaike) came to power promising peace and reconciliation. Within a year her government embarked on a war against the Tamils. Her infamous ‘War for peace’ is the worst war the Tamil people had known until now.

We do not need to elaborate what Mr Rajapakse led government is doing to the Tamils. ‘I was elected primarily by a Sinhala constituency’ Mr Rajapakse recently said.
Even after all this the international community still wants the Tamils to trust in the Sri Lankan democracy and the leaders of Sri Lanka.

Should we?