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1.1 The reaction of the process
1.3 Peace makers and their lack of grasp
1.4 Reaction of Sinhala extreme forces
1.5.2 The Government and the NGO
Bluffing has become a fine art in our political discourse
and rhetoric is the order of the day. If we see the Government’s public relations
activities regarding human rights issues, one wonders whether we are on the
threshold of a breakthrough in the human endeavour to institutionalise human
rights to such an extent that we may become the leading light for others in
the world. If we remove all those veils and take stock of the situation, we
see that what has been done so far will end up as mere window dressing. Yes,
of course, even for tactical reasons if the state can respond to certain demands
from the International and local community and show some changes, at least
in the form itself, in the first instance, it can lead to changes in the content,
provided there is a concerted effort mounted by the democratic forces with
a clear perspective.
Recently, there has been much talk about peace proposals
and negotiations to solve the ethnic crisis. Suddenly out of the blue Minister
Thondaman put forward a proposal and claimed that he had the key to the solution
and if allowed he could bring peace to this country. Following this came an
offensive, from the Buddhist clergy and various individuals, which ended up
with scores of articles raising a hue and cry and the formation of various
groups. Then some individuals who are concerned about the plight of the people
and bitter about narrow political perceptions, defended Thondaman and pleaded
for peace to be given a chance. There were peace appeals and demands to stop
the war and to start negotiations. The LTTE stated that if anybody was interested
in peaceful resolution they needed to begin now and they would come for negotiations
without any pre- conditions. The President, meeting after meeting, preaches
of consultation, compromise and consensus as the only method to solve the
burning problems. But he is evasive on any concrete proposals. Bodhi Poojas
conducted all over Sri Lanka asking for blessings for the President, the armed
forces and the peace loving people in Sri Lanka (in the assumption that the
first two do not belong to the third category) up to now have not yielded
the desired results. [Top]
As soon as Thondaman’s proposals came to light there
was a concerted effort made by the leading papers in English and Sinhala to
question his legitimacy, and there were articles dealing with various aspects
of his proposals. The selective way in which
“political analysts” and “historians” were resurrected and called upon
to give the verdict on the concept of the traditional homeland of Tamils has
left the Tamil people bewildered.
Many mainstream Sinhala papers came out mainly with articles
to rouse the passion of the Sinhala people, after all the inexplicable and
unwanted tragedies of the past. Yes, there were also articles trying to turn
the discourse into a more rational
one. The state-controlled papers managed to
come out with sober editorials
and views expressed on this matter, but their weakness as a result of their
being a mouthpiece of the government and their concerted mudslinging journalist
approach have left the people cynical.
But the weekly and monthly papers like “Ravaya”, “Yukthiya”
and a few others are playing a positive role in promoting a rational discourse.
Their contribution to the internal process of self evaluation is a healthy
one and it is refreshing. [Top]
It is wrong to give a negative picture about everything
and be pessimistic about the future, as there have also been strong opinions
expressed in several quarters to dampen the rhetoric. The doubts aired by
raising questions about the feasibility and possible future developments
of Thondaman’s proposal at this juncture cannot be termed and branded
simply as an outcome of Sinhala chauvinism alone. The people in this country
have their bitter experiences with all the political parties. As Tamils have
their mistrust of the Sinhala polity the ordinary Sinhalese also have their
fear and mistrust in the Tamil polity. The acts of the LTTE during the last
10 years and the experience of the outcome of the famous peace negotiations
with the Government also have created legitimate fear among the ordinary people
and different sections of the society. In such an environment the Minister
came out with a set of proposals only to negotiate with the Tigers, without
developing any mechanism to see that the past won’t be repeated; brushed aside
all legitimate concern expressed about the trustworthiness of the LTTE and
the Sri Lankan government, and the sorry state of the basic human and democratic
rights of the ordinary people. Without any of the possible safeguards to ensure
that he can achieve the desired results, he has come up with a proposal trying
merely to legitimise a force which has shown its brutality and its sheer destructive
capacity. His naivety as well as the lack of commitment he had from the Government
when he launched his peace initiative have thus led him to play into the hands
of the extreme elements in the South. His inconsistent stands on the LTTE,
on the one hand declaring that the LTTE is the only group fighting (forgetting
that they have ruthlessly denied the right to others to fight for the same
cause), and that it is the representative of the Tamil people, and on the
other hand claiming that the Tamil people have no leaders, shows his insensitivity
to the tragic reality. [Top]
The other peace makers involved in these types of approaches
to bring the two parties to the negotiating table also do not understand this:
that if these two parties do not have any concern for the ordinary people
and are only concerned in preserving their own power, then the natural outcome
will again be a continuing tragedy for the people. Their inability to grasp
this fact has allowed them to concentrate only on asking the LTTE what they
want and then reporting back to the other side, and releasing empty statements
which repeat the LTTE pronouncements, such as the one that they are prepared
to talk without any preconditions and so on. Suppression of all democratic
alternatives, prisoners being kept in inhuman conditions, continuous arrests
and detention of ordinary civilians, massacres of Sinhalese and Muslim people,
recruitment of children for military service as well as to act as torturers,
are all continuing in the North and East. Deliberate attempts to create clashes
between the Muslims and Tamils are on the increase. But these organisations,
which go and meet the LTTE never want to put pressure on them to make them
accept at least a minimum human norm. It has become an art among the apologists
of the LTTE and the spokespersons
of the LTTE, to con these type of people. Even the people in the South who
really have sincere concerns and who are crying at the plight of the Tamil
people, have not spent the time and energy necessary to understand the reality
in the North and East, the distorted development of its political culture,
and its stranglehold on the people. They need to support the people in their
struggle for ethnic justice, and at the same time they should avoid legitimising
the imposition of an unjust regime in the name of ethnic struggle. It is a
very difficult task indeed! But fighting for justice is always a difficult
struggle.
Peace makers from abroad, on their flying visits here,
some times express the opinion that if the Tigers are not there, then there
would be nobody to defend the Tamil people, or that the Tigers are the only
people who are fighting, and so on. They don’t realise the harm they are doing
to the whole Tamil community by perceiving things in this way. Legitimising
unhealthy forces just because they have the most destructive power, and do
not have any inhibition in directing it against any one (whether they are
from their own community or from any other community), is against the interest
of humanity at large, and therefore against the Tamil people. How on earth
can a group ‘defend’ them by destroying every aspect of human values - by
trying to crush the sprit of independent thinking and action, by terrorising
the people into dumb obedience and servility, by making a supreme virtue out
of violence, brutality and death-dealing - and by negating the Tamil people’s
broader interests in a culturally diverse, non-authoritarian society, free
of racism, gender oppression, national subjection and arbitrary rule?. Is
it imagined that for the Tamils their identity, liberation, happiness, and
fullness of life can be realised in an extremely violent, xenophobic, fear-stricken
and undemocratic regime provided that the dictatorship to which they must
submit is exclusively Tamil?. When such individuals and peace organisations
claim that they can deliver the goods (if their role is accepted), they show
very clearly their naivety and the contempt they have for the people here.
If they can consistently and courageously expose the unhealthy tendencies
among the protagonists, namely the state, the LTTE, other armed groups and
extreme forces in the south, as well as spend some time to understand the
real issues and the complexities, then they can do much more to achieve peace
in this land. The people in this country cannot suffer further by reinforcement
of the unhealthy forces for the sake of individuals’ ego trips and their naivety. [Top]
Reacting to Thondaman’s proposal, extreme elements have
gone to the extent of forming an organisation called Sinhala Arakshaka Sanvidanya (Sinhala Defence League) headed by the
former minister Gamini Jayasooriya.
A pressure group in the SLFP has
been formed called “Hela Urumaya” (National
Heritage). The existence of these groups is dependent on anti Thondaman - anti Tamil sentiments
and on the call to defend the rights of the Sinhala race. Recently they openly
declared their agenda as removing Thondaman and fighting against racism. In
Sri Lanka the only problem is a “Frankenstein”
called Thondaman; by an involuntary removal of him, these “patriots” are going
to achieve peace!. When such people say that they are going to fight racism,
we wonder whether they want to take cyanide and commit suicide!
By showing
Thondaman as a bogey man, they have gone to the extent of covering up the
injustices which had been done to
the estate workers who are still living and
working under very poor conditions. At the same time they can fool the Sinhala
peasants who are also equally in a disadvantageous position by not allowing
them to see the real issues. This Thondaman bashing has reached such a hysterical
level that anybody who has never been to the estates will think that those
workers are living in paradise, thanks to the dedication of Mr.Thondaman.
The behaviour of some SLFP parliamentarians today shows the repetition of the stupid way
in which the party had handled the early stages of the resistance of the Tamil
youths in the Northern province, and how they had forced large number of youths
into the wings of the armed struggle.
Another general theme is that Sinhala people are not
united and only because of that the country is facing the crisis. The same
theme was used by the Tamil leadership to suppress differing opinions among
Tamils; and as a result of that today they are facing the consequences of
not having asked the pertinent questions during that time, such as behind
what values we unite, and so on. There are intellectuals writing articles
about the betrayal by the Sinhala leaders, and so on. Today they come out
with the simple argument that since the Tamils are living in the South and
the language problems have been solved what is there to complain about. They
do not want to understand, the way in which the state evolved exclusively
as a Sinhala state and how Tamils were forced to feel alienated. The state
can pass resolutions by a stroke of the pen, which affects a whole community
on an ethnic basis. The standardisation based on ethnic ratio is a case in
point. Any “National party” could take a decision without any just basis which
is detrimental to one ethnic community and use its vast Government machinery
to justify it’s acts and cut off the desperate voices for social justice.
There was no avenue for any redress, either.
When that type of power is poised over it’s neck, an ethnic community which
is forever beyond the political, economic possibility of self-determining,
equally with all others, faces a highly insecure future. Worse still: when
the nature of the present state is a hegemonistic one dominated by an ideology
which in a short-sighted way tries to represent the sectarian and narrow interest
of the sinhalese community in the name of “Sinhala - Buddhist ‘ideology”,
then all other Sri Lankan communities are permanently condemed to the humiliating
status of colonial subjects of the master-race. Such a regime is not conducive
to developing in the 1990’s, a national identity encompassing the diverse
ingredients of actually existing cultural, social, religious and linguistic
variations rooted in history in Sri Lankan soil.
There are arguments put forward that the ‘Sinhala-Buddhist’ ideology should be
the core of this country’s ideology. The whole weakness of these
arguments is that we can artificially impose
an ideology by declaring it as the dominant one. From this point of view it becomes difficult to envisage
a solution to the ethnic problem through any form of arrangement which will
give security in the full meaning of the term to the people whose ideology
it is not or cannot be. They include the large numbers who belong to minority communities. They include
also many Sinhalese and Buddhists, too, in the different communities. Such an ideology negates the basic rights
of “others” by abstracting concepts such as “Sinhala” and “Buddhist” in isolation.
Other communities become mere appendages rather than citizens with equal (social,
economic, cultural..) rights when the ‘ Sinhala-
Buddhist’ ideology is prioritized in the national ideology in such an manner.
The tragedy of Burma, which is a Buddhist country in its performance of rituals
is that in concrete reality it negates all aspects of Buddhism and the people
are living under most gruesome conditions. Closer home, by abstracting the
concept of “Tamil”, the Tamil people is living in the North and East in a
sanitized environment and in lies, specially in the North. If these intellectuals
in the South just spare a few minutes and stretch their imagination, they
would undoubtedly see to how much trouble they would have gone to get the
post which Mr.Anton Balasingam is holding dear to his heart, if they had been
born as Tamils in the North.
If any
group of politicians claim that they are trying to save their race and are
calling others to unite under their banner without considering the various
complexities, then we need to look into their activities with serious suspicion.
The Tamil community has learnt from its bitter experience
the fallacy of uniting under one leadership slogan based on race and the consequences
of it. In certain circumstances if
these simple slogans take some legitimacy by purely appealing to the national
or ethnic aspects, they will trap the people before the people can realise
the danger, into a mental prison from which only a narrow authoritarian
politics will emerge. We have enough experiences in world history and from
our own history. But ironically we can see again that in the South an intellectual
base is being laid by certain politicians
and intellectuals, which is getting a wide currency. Yes, they are also raising
issues, some of which are legitimate. But the final analysis and the panacea
they propose has all the ingredients of an authoritarian social order.
Why does
a country like Sri Lanka with so much potential again and again desperately
choose a suicidal path?. Unless this question is squarely faced we will continue
to live in a cycle of cynicism, desperate moves to destroy the system, natural
tendencies of more authoritarianism, reinforcement of the status quo, and so on.
We just give a humble conversation an ordinary civilian
from Jaffna had with an army officer at the Vavunia check point to enlighten
our learned friends in the South, who write articles, letters and organise
meetings to save the Sinhala race:
Recently a visitor on his way from Jaffna to Colombo
got held up at the Vavuniya check point and he was staying in the shade. An
army officer came and began a conversation with him. He was in the Elephant
Pass camp when the LTTE attack took place and he was telling his experience,
how they all were taken aback by that attack and for the first two days they
almost lost control of the situation as well as how on the third day they
managed to raise the moral of the soldiers to stay put and fight back. A few
officers also came and joined in the conversation. Then he inquired about
the situation in Jaffna. Our friend told the sufferings the people are going
through and how they all are really scared about the entry of the army into
the Jaffna peninsula, as well as the uncertain future, which they are facing.
The officer nodded approvingly and said he could understand that and tried
to console the visitor by saying how difficult it was to control the boys
who have been given a few months training,
and how they are now trying
to educate them not to harm the civilians and that they are making all efforts
to avoid those type of acts which alienate them from the people.
Then suddenly, pointing towards the people in the queue
he said “Look around, how the ordinary people are suffering. And we and the cream of our youth from both sides
are giving our lives. Those who are in the South who use a lot of rhetoric
should come and see the real plight of these people. Yes, we have to bring
sense into the LTTE and if necessary destroy them, but more than that we need
to bring sense into the extreme forces in the South also, who are using
Sinhala Chauvinism to become heroes. They are making our task more
difficult by rousing a false passion”.
May be Buddha’s teaching has had some impact on this
officer, enabling him to see the reality and allowing him to ponder what is
happening around us! [Top]
In August 1990
“ Operation Major” was carried out in the Islands adjacent to the Jaffna
Peninsula. In our Special Report number 2, we brought out some details about
that operation. Although we were able to bring out approximate casualties
in many of those islands, the death toll in Mandaithevu was put as high as
50 on the information of the people who fled from that area. Since the army
was controlling that island and civilians were unable to visit, we had to
rely on the information of the civilians who had fled from there to gauge
the situation. Until recently people did not have access to that island and
were unaware of the fate of those who had been left behind. A few months back
it came to be known that people have found large number of bodies inside wells
and under heaps of cow dung. Nearly 70 decayed bodies were uncovered. As we
mentioned in our Special Report no 2, about 49 newly inducted LTTE cadres were trapped in Mandaithevu and
when they asked for reinforcement from the mainland it was not sent and they
were told not to leave the island by the LTTE leadership in Jaffna. Eventually
all of them took cyanide and killed themselves. It seems that those bodies
are also included among the above total. Apart from them, some youths who
had been arrested by the army in Mandaitheevu and other Islands were even
used as manual labourers by the army. A few of them were released later. It
seems now that most of them have been killed by the
army. The recoveries of these bodies conform to that suspicion. Will the Human Rights task force visit and
inquire into this? Will immediate
action be taken against those who are responsible for these type of activities?.
In the South, recently, the case of 31 schoolboys from
Embilipitiya, reported missing between August 1989 and January 1990, has been
highlighted. The parents have demanded an inquiry into this, and they are
prepared to give evidence to identify the culprits. But the Government has
shown its callousness by ignoring the demands of the bereaved parents. A similar
appeal was brought when Richard de Soyza, a well known journalist, was gruesomely
killed on the fateful day 17th of Febraury,1990. The Government
ignored the appeal and no external pressure could force it to unravel the
mystery. [Top]
Yes, today due to external pressure the Government is
involved in “Human Rights Rituals”
to charm the “Aid Goddess”. Will
they go beyond mere rituals for which they have found some “High priests” who are well versed in “ Marxist” jargon as well as the “Human Rights” vocabulary. “If
the international community demands rituals, we will perform them to perfection”;
that is the motto of the present Government.
The World Bank and the IMF don’t demand rituals but concrete actions regarding
economic management, which take away so many hard won rights of the workers
as well as other sections of this country. But to stop the people becoming
aware of the direction in which the country is moving, once again the ritualistic
condemnation of the IMF and the World Bank are performed by the
high priests. Then, in the same vein, they will boast about the World Bank’s
commendation of our economic performance and beg them to recommend us for
aid. This pathetic state of affairs will go on
until we become aware of our weaknesses and take steps which we feel are right
and necessary to rectify and strengthen our society by keeping the government
open to the people. The present reality is the reverse, where the government
is open to the international power structures but closed to the people. Pacifying
the people and the international conscience
by ritualistic rhetoric and totally surrendering to the International
power structures is what is happening at present in our country. Even
the religious rituals performed all over the country fall into this category.
Some of the NGOs have played a valuable role in defending
human rights. But there is a tendency for the present activities of the NGO’s
in the field of human rights to concentrate
primarily on meeting and talking to the international lobby. Although
that is a necessary activity, in the present situation, the intensive activities
of various NGOs end up most of the time with having meetings and conferences
most of which are becoming superfluous. It is also slowly and steadily absorbing
the individuals who are involved in these activities into continuous involvement in attending conferences,
writing reports at a conceptual level, and writing project proposals with
little relevance and meaning to the concrete reality. These individuals also
get trapped unknowingly into a form of “ritual” where they never have the time or energy to revaluate their
role. They get involved in so many organisations with different names, and
the activities of these organisations have become so much dependent upon impressing
the “funding organisations”,
that there is little effective contribution made by these various organisations
to the needs of the community, though on paper the portrayals of the activities
are very impressive.
The reality of the present day international situation
and the rapid development of information technology demand an effective campaign network to counter the
vast resources of the Governments and other International organisations (such
as Multinationals, etc) which make the people powerless. Although the world is becoming smaller and smaller to the people who
possess the resources, it is becoming remoter for the people who live in poverty
or who are silenced by terror, etc. In this environment, those who are concerned
about the plight of the ordinary people also need to utilise the above resources
to highlight the injustices done to the people who have no power. Those
in the “developed world” who believe in humanity and who share the same vision
try to link up with the people in the “Third World” through NGO’s that succeed
in getting their attention. But the objective reality of the economical disparity between these countries,
continuous unequal power relationships and conscious activities of various
intelligence agencies of the “developed states” that want to keep the status
quo, distort these type of links. It is a long drawn out struggle, indeed.
It requires continuous vigilance from the activists from both the Third World
and the other part of the world.
This paradox cannot be solved by simply taking an anti
NGO stand or by ignoring them. There is no simple answer for this reality.
But it is essential that the activists themselves should develop some ethics
to constrain themselves and develop some checks and balances to enable them
to continuously represent the interests of the people. They have to fight against activism becoming careerism, and try to find
ways and means to effectively influence the different segments of the people
here without merely having “ritual” conferences among the converted. The
internalisation of the reality in its fullness is essential to keep ourselves
conscious and to communicate our ideas in meaningful terms to the ordinary
people. The danger of conceptualisation and abstraction, which is essential
for theoretical development, sometimes leads us to a situation where we, by
becoming mere interpreters of the reality at the Global level, lose any confidence
or belief in the role of the people in determining history. We become simply
worshippers of the objective forces and ignore the subjective role of the
people as those who must transform the present death-dealing conditions. Issues
of ethics and morality affect people and we need to take them into account
to promote a new value system. Their existential crisis in a world of growing
powerlessness can be utilised by narrow political forces such as ethno-nationalists,
religious fundamentalists and others in a destructive way. Unless the NGOs
concerned about human and democratic rights take a courageous stand and use
their resources fully in assisting and spearheading the development of an
internal process which will unleash the internal forces to play a role in
determining the future of our country, the whole exercise of human rights
activities will be again utilised by the powers whose interests are directly
opposed to the vast majority of the masses in this and other third world countries.
Our country is in a crucial period and there is cynicism all around.
If we want to challenge the rituals of the Government or force it to go beyond
rituals, we need to have some confidence in the people and prioritise
our objectives, and put energy into activities which will inform and
inspire it the masses rather than indulge in activities which will only benefit
us financially and emotionally. This is a challenge that has to be faced squarely
if we want to have an impact in our community and want to create a healthy
environment. [Top]
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