Lets Publicize “The Role Of Higher Education In Reconciliation”
Posted on June 10th, 2013
Janaka Yagirala
The UGC has organized a conference in Jaffna titled “The Role of Higher Education in Reconciliation” from June 13-14th, 2013. I consider it to be my solemn duty to publicize this conference.
Of course its not the kind of conference where academics will submit and discuss their research with the intent of getting a few more points for their next promotion. So lets focus on some worthwhile topics to discuss in this conference; to make sure the taxpayer money spent on it does not go to waste.
- Academics from archeology departments can discuss the non-existence of archeological evidence of the mythical Tamil homeland in North and East of Sri Lanka. A good place to start is Prof. Karthigesu Indrapala’s (a Tamil) PhD thesis.
- Dissociating the “OM” sign with cheating at exams.
- Allowing the Sinhalese to enjoy fair access to the virtually monoethnic Jaffna and Eastern Universities, that is the same free and fair access Tamils enjoy in all universities in majority Sinhalese areas.
- Putting an end to the hypocrisy of not having any problem with English being the national language prior to 1956 but throwing tantrums after Hon. S. W. R. D Bandaranayaka rightfully made Sinhalese (the national language of our nation for 2500 years) the national language in 1956.
- Another topic of utmost interest is how the Malay people ended up well integrated into Sri Lankan society while preserving their language, religion and cultural identity when the Tamils ended up segragated, loyal to India (instead of the country that feeds them) and trapped in a prehistoric Casteist mentality.
- It should be taken as an opportunity to critically analyze Black July. I have myself on numerous occasions (and will always) unequivocally condemned the vile acts that took place. I can also confidently say that only a minuscule minority of Sinhalese people will ever justify violence on innocent unarmed civilians. However, reconciliation should work both ways.
(i) Condemnation of the violence on Sinhalese civilians who lived in the North and East prior to 1983 is completely lacking. In fact, the report of the Sansoni Commission which implicated numerous Tamil politicians with violence against ethnic Sinhalese is all but forgotten.
(ii) The role of the then IG of police Rudra Rajasingham (coincidentally a Tamil!) in Black July is conveniently ignored.
(iii) Any gratitude to the numerous Sinhalese people who risked their lives to protect innocent Tamils during the pogrom is virtually non-existent.
(iv) There is also a hardly any condemnation of the violence inflicted by the LTTE on innocent Sinhalese civilians from bomb blasts to cold blooded massacres from the Tamil community.
- Last but not least lets hope the delegates are able to come up with at least one genuine Tamil grievance!
Had these topics been openly discussed long ago, Sri Lanka wouldn’t have had to go through the pain and sorrow of a 30 year terrorist scourge!
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June 10th, 2013 at 6:20 pm
Extremely imperative issue.
Cheating exams is THE MAIN ISSUE. This must be stopped. What happened to recent cheating by Muslims to entre Law College ?
June 11th, 2013 at 5:46 am
Janaka,
Thank you ! You have written an extremely important article here.
The majority Sinhela Buddhists have been so thwarted & threatened for some 500 yrs of Colonial rule, that they have lost the art of identifying and addressing the salient points in self defense. They have become the group at which blame is thrown and expected to, as Buddhists, to absorb it all and keep mum. All this at International level – forced to eat crow and humble pie for no real fault. Accused of trumped up crimes too. Not only keep mum, but die for other peoples’ causes ! There is the Tamil Cause, the Church cause, the Muslim cause, the ex-Colonists cause etc. – anything but the Cause of the Citizens of Sri Lanka or the Sinhela Buddhist Cause, the over 70% majority community of this island nation. In fact, it has gotten so bad that I sometimes wonder if Lanka is expected to ‘live merely to relieve Tamils of their misbegotten/outdated ancient Caste cause’, and ‘satisfy east/west fears’ plus greed of some for resources, land & power.
By all means open the can of worms that is the trumped up 1983 Riots (Black July). That was the time of the Cold War (1945-1991) and these Riots were carefully crafted via the anger causing Tamil Separatism. This was the starting point of the pummeling of the Sinhela Nation.
Till the 1983 Riots ghosts are laid to rest and the Truth of Matters exposed via the Parliament itself and the public informed as well as the International Community, there will be no real lasting sense of peace for Sri Lankans. At the very least, a book ought to be published of an new inquiry made without fear or favor. It is time for the Sinhela people to raise their heads once more with true self respect.
June 11th, 2013 at 5:49 am
ead as : ‘ ….a new inquiry …”
June 11th, 2013 at 6:08 am
Truth of Matters out first for all communities of Sri Lanka, and Reconciliation & Self Resepct will follow automatically.
June 11th, 2013 at 6:33 pm
Large scale cheating by Tamils at the Advanced Level exam was the main reason to snap standardisation again under the Jayawardena regime. However, it cannot be stopped by policing or filtering. The symbols and phrases used by Tamils as identifiers of a group are religious ones many Tamils use in their daily notes as well. Besides, the identifying markers can be changed regularly and authorities cannot be on top of it forever.
The only effective way to allocate an equitable percentage of taxpayer funded university opportunities to everyone is by having an ethnicity based university standardisations scheme. Sinhalese, Sri Lankan Tamils, Muslims and Indian Tamils & Others (as per their census record) must get 75%, 11%, 9% and 5% of university opportunities. Then it is fair by all and this formula can be defended in international forums.
In such a case each ethnic community will ensure their students don’t cheat as it disadvantages their own community. At the moment Tamils’ cheating only disadvantages the Sinhalese which is the promoted ‘right conduct’ for ‘oppressed’ Tamils according to TNA, TULF, Tamil community leaders, Tamil Nadu leaders, Indian leaders and NGOs.
Without delay the government must introduce an ethnicity based university standardisation scheme.
Its drawback is the cut-off marks for each community (island-wide) will be different. This difference is the price of fairness and equity. However, as cheating gradually drops, the marks will level off and become similar for all. No community is more intelligent than the other and therefore there cannot be any lasting differences in marks when a fair system of allocation is introduced. Under an unfair system as now, cheating is encouraged and cheaters are rewarded.
June 11th, 2013 at 6:57 pm
Apparently the UGC has been stumped big time because…… surprise! surprise!
FUTA and University of Jaffna have decided to boycott the event!
The message is simple, trying to appease minority racists is useless. They will not be satisfied unless they get their pound of flesh. Now its time to discuss the real issues highlighted in this article.
June 11th, 2013 at 7:03 pm
Had these issues been discussed in an open forum, Tamil racists (and boru-Moderates) will never come because they know that they are living a lie. They know that they are alien parasites living off the sustenance and welfare of Sri Lanka.
The first and foremost step to get rid of these parasites is to ABOLISH THE 13TH AMENDMENT.