By Sena Thoradeniya 

On 24 July, 2023 Julie Chung the American Ambassador, on the anniversary of Black July”, attended a special exhibit” of the sculptor (who moved the Court of Appeal against Gotabhaya Rajapaksa’s candidature that he had not renounced his US citizenship), to see the powerful and moving stories expressed through art that reveal past wounds & hope to create a future that is just for all Sri Lankans”. Her message shows that she is fond of revealing past wounds, not healing past wounds. This may be the task of art she advocates, revealing – exposing the darker side, not the brighter side and continue fanning flames of discord.  Hope to create a future that is just for all Sri Lankans” is only a façade. 

It is well known that these bourgeois and petit-bourgeois artists (and writers) have never discovered the bright side. Their works only expose the dark side, which is full of pessimism.  

The Curatorial Note displayed at the exhibition site says about state instigated pogrom against the Tamils in July 1983” and killings, kidnappings, disappearances, threats and all kinds of human rights violations” in the next thirty years. The Note forgets to mention the atrocities committed by the Tamil Tiger terrorists which are well known to all which do not need any elaboration. Only people who do not remember these atrocities are foreign-funded NGO cabal in Sri Lanka and its offshoot NGO artists.

This validates the point we raised earlier about exposure. They are good in exposing government goons unleashed by the then UNP government under a powerful Minister as Sinhala -Buddhist mobs and paint the Tamil terrorists as saints, extolling all the crimes committed by them, reversing the dark as bright.

These artists nourished the LTTE when it brought death and destruction, defeating government’s war efforts by painting barrels (Barrelism”) depicting road blocks in the cities erected to check free moving vehicles bringing bombs, arms and suicide bombers and painting household utensils such as manna knives as tools of domestic violence (against women). Barrelism” was a continuation of CBK and Mangala Samaraweera duo’s Sudu Neluma” and Thavalama” initiatives which discouraged youth joining armed forces.

This is the second time Chung met this artist in less than a year. Soon after ousting GR, Chung felicitated a group of visual artists which included this person. In our previous articles we have described how foreign-funded visual artists played a major role at the Galle Face protest site.

Lately it has become fashionable to NGO attached politicians, academics, professionals, artists, art critics and others to use the term Malaiyaha Tamil” to describe Plantation Tamils. The above-mentioned Curatorial note” also mentions about lives and struggles of the Malaiyaha Tamils”.

In my recent publication, Galle Face Protest: Systems Change or Anarchy? Politics, Religion and Culture in a Time of Terror in Sri Lanka” I have dealt with this subject, how Julie Chung and USAID Deputy Mission Director for Sri Lanka and Maldives Debra Mosel interfere with the affairs in the plantations igniting sparks that can start a prairie fire in the plantations in future.

Recently a body of academics, around 116 – some serving – some faded away a long time ago – some who served in foreign universities – opposing the proposed labour reforms also cried copiously about Malaiyaha Tamils”. The economy of the plantations is on the cusp of change and the Malaiyaha worker is staring into future of fragmentation of community, job insecurity and lack of land. They have been long fighting for a living wage and basic citizenship, namely decent living conditions, safety at work, the right to land, decent housing and accessible schooling”. It is laughable to go through the list of names of these signatories. Where were they when Agency Houses were playing their shots?  Have they negotiated with the plantation companies on behalf of the workers to get them a living wage”?  Do they propose to fragment plantations to solve right to land”? Can anyone of these signatories vouch that they have not employed a male or a female from plantations as a domestic aid?  

How all these people began to use the term Malaiyaha Tamils” as the gospel truth suddenly, instead of Plantation Tamils, the term they used in all their Research Reports which included demography, income levels, education, literacy, health and nutrition not so long ago is the biggest question. That shows that there are hidden Gods to bring money sacks when you pay homage to Maanbumigu Malaiyaham” (Honourable Hill Country) now!