VERY BRIEF HISTORY OF THE ETHNIC PROBLEM
I am a Tamil and a Sri Lankan, 74 years old and with more than a five decade involvement in democratic politics. I was a Member of Parliament for 17 years out of which 14 were spent representing the electorate of Killinochchi – where the LTTE headquarters is currently located. I know through experience the immense suffering of the Tamil people and have done my utmost to increase the awareness of the outside world, of the true situation in the North East. For this effort I have earned the undying enmity of the LTTE and the UNESCO’s Madanjeet Singh Prize for the Promotion of Tolerance and Non-violence (2006).
Over the years many solutions have been proposed to solve the ethnic problem; none has been successful in allaying the fears and fulfilling the aspirations of the minorities. I believe that this failure is partly caused by the incorrect understanding of the history of our ethnic problem. Therefore I have tried to trace the history of Sri Lanka’s ethnic problem, for the benefit of both Sri Lankans and the international community. Since the Sinhala Only Act of 1956 was a landmark in the history of the ethnic problem, it requires special clarification.
Sri Lanka gained independence from the British in 1948; until 1956 English remained the official language in Ceylon – as this country was known then. In 1956 the newly formed alliance Mahajana Eksath Peramuna, led by Hon. S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike adopted a new language policy, promising to make Sinhala the sole official language in 24 hours; contested the election on this platform and won.
This move came as an unpleasant shock to the absolute majority of Tamils who regarded themselves as equal citizens of this country and trusted the country’s leaders to protect their rights. This trust was such that upon independence Tamil politicians did not make a serious effort to win from the British the due special safeguards for themselves. The Tamils could have asked for regional autonomy, federalism and even separation. They did not. When one Tamil leader asked for equal representation for the majority community and the minority communities, most Tamils remained uninterested. If the minorities had made a strong demand for special consideration, the British would have been responsive; in fact independence itself may have been delayed in order to accommodate such a request. But the minorities trusted the majority to treat them with justice. When a majority of the majority community backed the Sinhala Only demand, the Tamil speaking minorities were disappointed and alarmed.
Many right thinking members of the majority community were embarrassed by this development. They backed the minority leaders in the efforts to win some recognition for the Tamil language. As a result Prime Minister Bandaranaike came into an understanding with SJV Chelvanayagam; the Banda-Chelva Pact gave a degree of regional autonomy to the Tamil majority provinces and granted some recognition to the Tamil language. Sadly some Lankan politicians, for their narrow partisan gains, opposed this pact and organised a march to the Dalada Maligawa in Kandy in protest. A section of the Prime Minister’s own coalition opposed the Pact as well. The outcome of this opposition was the abrogation of the Pact by the PM. An opportunity to settle the grievances of the Tamil people was lost. A similar fate befell the next attempt to solve the language problem – the Pact between Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake and SJV Chelvanayagam.
Both Pacts gave certain undertakings to the Tamil people; any successful attempt to solve the ethnic problem will have to begin by accepting these undertakings. These included a provision for North-Eastern merger (by dividing the Eastern province into two or more regions and permitting the Northern province to merge with one or more of these regions) and a promise to make Tamil the language of administration and record in the Northern and Eastern provinces, with adequate safeguards for non-Tamil speaking minorities within these provinces. Therefore the acceptance of the province as the unit of devolution and the acceptance of the merger of the North with Tamil majority areas of the East are nothing new. Can the Tamil people be faulted for demanding that any political solution should include these early concessions? Is it reasonable to expect the Tamil people to be satisfied with less than what they were promised more than four decades ago?
Annexed are two letters, one addressed to patriotic citizens of Sri Lanka and the other addressed to the LTTE leader, Mr. V Prabaharan. Both letters contain very vital information about the ground situation in the North East. The letter to Mr. Prabaharan sets out how he has brought the entire Tamil race to the verge of complete ruination. The letter to the patriotic Lankans detail the history of the ethnic conflict – as no solution can be found without the knowledge of the history of the conflict and a solution acceptable to minorities can be found only in the history of the conflict. This is the only path to peace. And it is the responsibility of those of us who lived through the tragic events of the past fifty years to educate and advise the present generation.
The country is fully aware of the risk that I face for taking this stand. The repeated threats and intimidations I get from various quarters could not deter me from doing so. I could not even concede to the request of my close friends and relations to retire from politics or to keep silent on controversial issues, because I love my country more than anything else. I want the present generation of Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims to mix up and know each other. The Yarldevi and Utharadevi must run once again to and from Jaffna and take children of Sinhalese parents to their Tamil friend’s homes in Jaffna, to enjoy a bath in the historical Keerimalai Tank, visit Nagadeepa etc. The Tamil children in turn must make friendship with Sinhalese and Muslim children of the friends of their parents and enjoy the hospitality of each other. This is what we did and how we lived in the good old days and exactly what we want to happen again in the future.
V.Anandasangaree, 30/1B, Alwis Place,
President, Colombo - 03
Tamil United Liberation Front. 25-06-2007.
