Do provide statistics for the number of Tamils displaced by the building of High Security Zones in the North and East. It will be interesting to see how this figure compares to the number of Muslims displaced by LTTE demographic alterations.

I hope I have answered your queries and my apologies once again for the late response.

I will get back to you on the issues raised. At the moment I am unable to sit down to respond – and have actually missed some of your responses of the past couple of days. I do want to engage with the issues you raise.

I do not have a problem with “anger” on this forum, but what I do have a problem with is when the “anger” that translates to pointless insults, and vicious attacks of a personal nature. As such I find it disturbing that even intellectuals of this country cannot steer away from such pointless attack at a time like this.

It is obvious that deep distrust, mistakes, violence, wrongs of the past will generate anger – and perhaps we should be able to understand and see past it. But anger in itself will get us no where.

It is perfectly possible to talk through differences – as long as we are aware that people want to genuinely want to engage and discuss the issues with the view of the justice of all people in the nation.

Thanks again.

I read your exchange with SomewhatDisgusted with interest.

Please correct me if I am wrong, I detect an angry (probably justifiably) Tamil but who basically is humane and rational. Even your nom de plume conveys such a “smoldering person”. I say this not with any sarcasm but in all honesty.

The need of the hour is building bridges not throwing wild accusations as some do. We have what we did not have many years ago, a medium through which we can exchange views in order to build bridges. But how many are using it constructively? Only a small minority do

Please allow me to quote from a discussion between me and Dr Devanesan Nesiah on this website but on a different thread. This is what he stated
“…….I agree that Sri Lankan society is not basically racist, but we have individuals and small groups that are racist ………” This is what ALL of us should remember and should try to build on.

The ground is fertile, but do we have the courage and the humility to build on it or to sow the seeds of harmony instead of that of hate?

The Tamils think that they were wronged and marginalized and the Sinhalese think that such is not the case, they think that they were the people who were at the receiving end of Tamil racists policies when the Tamils held the reins of the Govt Bureaucracy. This throwing the ball, about who did what first wont get us anywhere.

The Sinhalese are an overwhelming majority in SL, there is nothing anybody can do about it short of exterminating them the way Prabhakaran tried.

Racism and racists policies were rampant in the West. I have seen on TV, documentary films that depicted Police using batons as a battering ram on the genitalia of Black women who were participating in peaceful Civil Rights protests on the streets of America. What the Ku Klux gang did in America to the coloured people is well documented. The USA gives pride of place to Christianity. It advertises Christianity even on its currency. The UK even burnt people alive at the stake. Torture was used by the state and even machines were used for torture (still on display). Her National anthem is a prayer to God. The Head of State can only be a Christian even today. Anybody reading History will know what the Inquisition was. What Canada did to the indigenous population has to be read to be believed. Children were purposely exposed to TB and allowed to die a slow an agonizing death. France is not second to anyone in the above respect. In fact looking back at any western nation will show how barbaric they were before.

My point in all of this, is that these countries have moved on (although from time to time State Racist policies resurface when economic or strategic considerations give way to righteousness (Forcible removal of Chagosians, Iraq war, Afgan war, Abu Grhaib, Guantanamo etc are such manifestations)

Tamils living in the West do not worry about its past or what surfaces from time to time in the present.

True, July 83 was inhuman but its also true that thousands of Sinhalese harboured, fed and protected their Tamil friends at the risk of their own lives, the lives of their wives and children and their properties. Not many Tamils acknowledge this publicly. I have seen five Tamils acknowledging it, one was from Australia, another from Canada and three on DBS Jayaraj’s website.

Let’s exchange views and discuss problems based on the existing situation in SL and not keep harping back to the past (though references to it may be required to establish a point) where both communities have justifiable grievances.

I almost missed your previous reply.

You said: “For those living it, it might feel quite different. To some degree, how the “occupied” territory feels matters. Because if they feel threatened, fearful and nervous, then that matters.”

I understand what you’re trying to say and agree with you. Who in their right minds would like to live in any area occupied by people armed to the teeth? But that’s not usually the only reason people end up using words like “occupying army”, “Sinhala Nation”, “Tamil Nation” etc. There are too many ideologues on either side of the ethnic divide, who, as a part of their propaganda, try to subtly instill a dichotomous relationship between Sinhalese and Tamils in one’s mind by careful use of vocabulary that reinforces such (imagined) divisions. Slowly but surely, we too end up unconsciously using those words, further dehumanizing the “other”, and what’s subsumed in the process is our own humanity. For a stellar example of this kind of thing, read this old thread in groundviews and the resulting discussion: http://www.groundviews.org/2009/05/23/the-sinhala-conquest-of-the-tamil-nation/

At the end of the day, these epic battles between Sinhalese and Tamils are largely constructed as Pradeep Jeganathan highlights (http://www.pjeganathan.org/south-paw/2009/5/4/sri-lankas-conflict-an-interview-with-pact-part-i.html) and the reality is that all these ethnicities have co-existed in Sri Lanka for many many years.

You said: “how does one confront a situaiton where the majority want this to be a Sinhalese Buddhist nation, and expect Tamils (whether in the North or East, or central province or Colombo) to feel that they are equal”

I think there are two problems being conflated here. One created by Sinhalese nationalists who think this island “belongs to the Sinhalese” on account of them being a numerical majority. The other created by Tamil Nationalists who wish to be a majority in their own right and cannot accept the fact that the Sinhalese are indeed a majority. I hope you clearly see the distinction I’m making here. Both these types of thinking are in error and responsible for perpetuating the problem.

Let’s keep in mind that our post-colonial project is to somehow forge a multi-cultural nation in which all ethnicities can live in dignity and with equality. But when we talk about equality, two things need to be accepted. The Sinhalese must accept that all ethnicities living in this country have equal rights and that they must not mistakenly assume that what’s good for them is good for everyone else. The Tamils must accept that the Sinhalese are indeed a numerical majority and that the greater presence they have in day to day affairs is an inevitable consequence of them being more numerous. I think you will agree that this is reasonable?

So the failure of the “Sri Lanka project” so far is due to these two parties failing to accept these realities. The way forward must also be for both parties to correct their perspective distortions. We should not assume that all is lost however. Remember that slowly, (but bloodily), we’ve been making progress. Tamil is now a national language. There is no ethnicity based discrimination in the constitution, higher-level public officials are required to learn Tamil etc. etc. and to a large extent, we are on the way to a reasonably equitable society (You are welcome to point out serious cases of ethnic discrimination which are not a result of the LTTE). Not to say everything is hunky-dory, but there has been a lot of progress, despite the people who refuse to acknowledge and prefer to ignore it.

A significant stumbling block in the project so far has been the LTTE. This is the quintessential example of the Tamil racialism that has also been a significant problem throughout the “Sri Lanka” project. And just as the Sinhala nationalists had to yield slowly towards more just and equitable solutions, so too should the LTTE have yielded to more equitable solutions instead of promoting their own hideous racism. Ultimately, the LTTE too paid the price for its refusal to compromise. Nature has its own heartless way of correcting imbalances.

“Simple examples – a recent visit to Osu Sala pharmacy – the govt one – revealed that it has all its notices in Sinhalese, and all its staff speaking Sinhalese. If one is a Tamil then you are finished! ”

I assure you that were you to go to Jaffna, a Sinhalese person would encounter a similar problem. I agree with you that there *should* ideally have been signs in Tamil or maybe a Tamil speaking person but let’s not confuse this as discrimination on purpose. There are quite often, implementation problems, especially in a 3rd world country like Sri Lanka and are you sure you are not unrealistically expecting 1st world standards from a 3rd world nation? To my knowledge, it’s more or less mandatory for all govt. forms to be made available in all 3 languages, so I’d genuinely like to know what these forms are that were not made available in Tamil? I don’t intend to dismiss all the examples you cite as being invalid, I’m sure there are valid instances where it can be discriminatory in nature, but I don’t think we should interpret everything as being “purposefully” discriminatory in nature. Nevertheless, I would like to hear more instances of actions which are significantly discriminatory towards Tamils, just for my own information.

Fixing problems like this are not so hard when adequate resources can be funneled in for the purpose. That’s why I said, if the Tamil Diaspora were to take a positive role in promoting Tamil language and culture, we could see this kind of thing being fixed sooner. The $300 million per year formerly channeled to the LTTE could easily plaster boards in Tamil on every square inch of the country.

You say that there are “over 250,000 IDPs in Menik Farm and many more in other camps”.

Obviously you have access to reliable information. Assuming these figures are factual could you please provide the source?

In view of the above, would it sufficiently accurate to estimate the total number of IDP’s to be in the region of 300,000 from 70,000 families?

If that estimate is too high what could be the likely number of family units involved?

Do the authorities provide a housing unit (tent or similar) per family or are they required to share?

Sorry , the link is broken.

Tell me, is this severely malnourished old man from the concentration camp in Sri Lanka is equal to his Sinhalese counterpart?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/8297760.stm

This one should work
Mawatha Silva

“So there are no minorities then?”

Sri Lanka Government, as always, is vomiting worms of lies. Please don’t forget the infamous SL President Mahinda Rajapakse statement “ZERO civil casualties in the civil war”

Tell me, is this severely malnourished old man from the concentration camp in Sri Lanka is equal to his Sinhalese counterpart?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/8297760.st

smoulderingjin , a bit worrying for me this cruel reshuffle of Tamils (like cattle) from one to concentration camp to another. It looks like; it will become a norm – rampant colonization, resettlement-but not to the native villages, ridiculous and un-ending “security clearances” even for 1 year old orphan- child and the vile enslavement of all Tamils.

What do you think about the Islets of Jaffna Tragedy?

Because the modus operandi of the Sinhalese Colonial Masters is cruelly unfolding right there. In my opinion, this is the future for the NE Tamils, period

http://www.tamilnet.com/search.html?string=islets+of+Jaffna

Can you look it over and give an input on this ? Thanks
Mawatha Silva

Gulag states…? Bit difficult to dismiss the possibility after hearing things like this!

Or maybe its all a bad dream, and we might all wake up and have a good laugh!