A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Sunday, June 18, 2017
Sri Lanka: Past Experiences and Current Trends
Following
article based on the speech delivered by the writer at the Darebin
Intercultural Centre in Melbourne on the topic Sri Lanka: Past
Experiences and Current Trend, recently.
( June 18, 2017, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) First let me thank the Darebin Ethnic Communities Council and Darebin Intercultural Centre for inviting me to speak at this Pop-Up Art Studio event.
The biography Rebellion, Repression and the Struggle for Justice in Sri Lanka: The Lionel Bopage Story,
which Michael Colin Cooke authored, came into being during the time of
my association with the Darebin Ethnic Communities Council. The story
presented was based on a series of discussions that Gaetano Greco,
Nalliah Suriyakumaran, Michael, Chitra and I had about Sri Lankan
politics as practiced currently and in the past. There were strong
arguments as Suri came from a LSSP background, Gaetano from Labour Left
and Michael from a left trade union background. These discussions
signified an alternative view of Sri Lanka’s history that was
unavailable at the time. In depicting this alternative view, writing
this biography was considered worthwhile.
Sri Lanka’s big mess was not mainly the result of the activities of the
JVP, the LTTE, trade unions, working people, Tamils, Muslims or
expatriates. It is due to the socio-economic policies, and political
strategies and tactics successive regimes have followed since 1948.
Those policies were formulated discriminatively based on peoples’
background such as class, ethnicity, caste, religion and sex. Thus, Sri
Lanka’s body politic was unable to develop a wider nationalism that
transcended ethnicity. It is such policy calculus that destroyed the
country’s social fabric and continues to destroy it even today.
After coming to power, all regimes even those with red appendages broke
most of the pledges they had made during elections. As successive
regimes imposed more and more economic burdens, people found it
increasingly more difficult. During my university days, most
undergraduates holding Arts degrees were unemployed. Ironically, even
some of those who had medical degrees could not find work. Cost of
living pressures, the rights of workers being curtailed by structural
reforms as prescribed by the World Bank and IMF; lack of water and land
for peasants etc. had been and still are prominent issues in the south.
Hence, socio-economic and political context is paramount in
understanding the evolution of the political program of the JVP.
The era we live in today is totally different from the environment that
existed in the seventies with the introduction of neo-liberalism by the
likes of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, and in Sri Lanka by J R
Jayawardena. Capitalist globalisation intensified allowing free flow of
capital across national borders for investment, and regulated flow of
labour to satisfy production needs of such investment and domestic needs
overseas such as in the Middle-East.
The fundamental social changes the Sinhala youth expected in May 1970
from the SLFP led coalition did not materialise. So, the youth set about
organizing to implement that radical program for social justice. This
flared into the April 1971 Uprising. Whatever the limitations of that
uprising, reasons for the conflict point to major flaws in Sri Lankan
institutions. Several analysts, historians and academics simply present
this uprising as an isolated revolt by misguided youth or the work of a
confused guy called Rohana Wijeweera. They place the responsibility for
deaths and impairment during the uprising entirely on JVP.
However, the Criminal Justice Commission records show that the JVP was
responsible for 41 civilian deaths, killing 63 members of the armed
forces and wounding 305 security personnel. In retaliation, the state
killed between 5,000 and 10,000 JVP cadre and sympathisers and
arbitrarily detained about 25,000 JVP supporters. Many JVP cadre and
civilians were extra-judicially murdered not at armed confrontations,
but after arrest. Immaterial of the politics we pursued at the time, the
capitalist state convicted us for the role we played against the
imperial state and the neo-imperial CIA plots. Yet, the criminal
nefarious role the state armed forces played during that time had never
been subjected to public scrutiny. The story Michael has written
portrays my life within that socio-economic and political context.
With state complicity, Tamils in the south were at regular intervals,
brutally attacked and tortured, with thousands massacred, women raped
and properties destroyed, simply because they were Tamils. Some were
burnt alive. So, it was not surprising that the gun rather than the
ballot became the tool in their struggle. Since the eighties, reprisals
of Tamil militants were similarly brutal and inhumane, engaging in
torture, abduction and detention of adversaries, arbitrary arrests,
disappearances and killings. Many Sinhala and Muslim civilians including
women and children were hacked to death. The conflict grew in intensity
and ruthlessness and was militarily defeated. Yet the political
conflict that gave rise to that bloodshed continues.
Without talking about the current situation in Sri Lanka, a discussion
of the biography Michael wrote will be incomplete. The situation in Sri
Lanka appears to be deteriorating rapidly. Obviously, a destabilisation
exercise is on aimed at transforming or overthrowing the current regime
to bring back those who were previously in power. Ordinary people seems
to argue along the lines: ‘this lot is worse than the previous lot. They
were corrupt, but did something for the country. This lot is more
corrupt, but does not do anything much for the country’.
People sent the previous mob home wanting to achieve good governance
through constitutional reforms, reconciliation, controlling corruption,
ensuring rule of law and creating conditions for a better economic
environment. Yet, everything seems to be stuck in a power game where the
focus is either on gaining control of the SLFP, or on providing perks
to school mates and friends. Reconciliation can move forward only when
the mindset of certain politicians and bureaucrats seeing dissent as
unpatriotic is changed; the rule of law becomes paramount; impunity
granted to perpetrators of human rights abuses is rescinded and organs
of the state are reformed.
The greatest threat to economy is endemic corruption. In Sri Lanka too,
corruption has become a way of life undermining the rule of law,
impeding development and promoting mis-governance. The political will at
the highest levels to rectify the situation appears to have disappeared
or diminished. Corruption appears to have also influenced law
enforcement and judicial mechanisms. Many governments have come to power
promising to eradicate corruption, but it has penetrated almost all
political and bureaucratic strata. Ordinary people cannot survive
without giving and/or accepting bribes. Charges of corruption, even if
laid, usually do not withstand the legal process, and more often never
lead to convictions.
The current regime does not seem to have the needed strength due to
issues of balance of power. Additionally, it lacks courage due to the
indecisive nature of its leaders to act against culprits. When the
regime has no conviction, courage or strength to control corruption
among politicians and bureaucrats, what could one expect? Having talk
shops and issuing grand statements are not enough. They need to be
followed through by action. Unless the regime walks its talk, it will be
like the previous regimes, who promised good governance and
reconciliation, but made democratic spaces even more slim. When we see
that the same old cycle unfolding all over again, we need to be
concerned and troubled.
Manoeuvres for destabilisation to capture, maintain or consolidate power
have affected the Muslim community in Sri Lanka. The Muslim community
must be going through the same mental agony that the Tamils have been
during the riots launched against them. This hatred, attacks and
violence can easily spin out of control leading to another major
catastrophe. It may be that the inaction of the current regime points to
a political necessity to maintain a tense social environment for
diverting the attention of people away from the country’s prevailing
socio-economic issues.
We also need to consider the Islamic fundamentalist currents working for
an Islamic Caliphate utilising mass fear and mass violence. We need to
vehemently condemn such violence and terror. At the same time, we need
to understand that the neo-liberal push to get hold of fossil fuel
resources in the Middle-East and elsewhere by inciting religious hatred
among Islamic sects and arming each against the other gave rise to this
cycle of violence and terror. Certain extremely conservative sects
appear to influence and abet some Islamic fundamentalists.
Successive governments bear a heavy responsibility for the scantest
attention they paid for protecting the human and democratic rights of
the people. They were elected to govern on behalf of all people
regardless of their diverse backgrounds, but they did not. We need to
recognize the common suffering, the stresses and challenges all people
are faced with. Communities become desensitised and the value of
humanity become diminished when hatred and conflicts condition their
living environment. Propagandists of nationalism use such
desensitisation to arouse and exploit complex emotions for their
nefarious ends. We encounter many, who have become mentally blinded to
adamantly believe that their views are inviolate.
Considering the experiences outlined in the biography Michael authored,
we need broader perspectives to understand the complexity of this
situation and develop sustainable solutions. Everyone concerned about
this situation need to raise their voices against building up this
racial and religious hatred, intolerance and violence. We need to build
an environment where barriers to communication can be constructively
undone.
Thank you very much for your attention.