Media Release The National Peace Council

The government has announced the second phase of its plantation reform programme, aimed at attracting private and corporate investment by opening underutilised land and assets to investment, modernising the sector and generating new employment. The National Peace Council supports these objectives. However, we urge the government to ensure that economic transformation is accompanied by social justice. An Amnesty International report on Malaiyaha Tamil workers released last week documents wage withholding, debt dependency and restrictions on movement in private tea estates. It is a reminder that reform is being proposed against a backdrop of active, ongoing abuse and not merely historical grievance. Economic transformation without social justice will repeat a pattern Sri Lanka must not repeat in which productivity gains and investment profits bypass the very workers whose labour made them possible. NPC urges that pattern must not be repeated.

Inclusion and rights-based empowerment are especially relevant to the longstanding challenges faced by the Malaiyaha Tamil community, many of whom continue to experience economic hardship and social marginalisation that are a legacy of the denial of their citizenship rights in 1948. The National Peace Council calls on the government to recognise Malaiyaha Tamil plantation workers not merely as a labour force but as rights-bearing stakeholders with a legitimate claim to share in the benefits of development. Housing ownership, secure land tenure, quality education, vocational and entrepreneurship training need to be built into the reform process from the outset. We especially call on the government to establish an independent national land commission, inclusive of representatives from all ethnic and religious communities, to develop transparent principles for land allocation and provide a credible mechanism for dispute resolution.

Sri Lanka is approaching eight decades of independence. In that time, the Malaiyaha Tamil community has contributed more than any other to the plantation economy but received the least in return. Therefore, we see the second phase of plantation reform as not simply being a commercial opportunity but rather as a test of whether Sri Lanka will be correcting a structural injustice that has persisted across generations. The government has both the opportunity and the obligation to ensure that this reform delivers genuine dignity and economic security to those who have earned it most. The correction of the historic injustice to the Malaiyaha Tamil people must not be seen as a concession just to them but as an investment in the national unity and social cohesion that Sri Lanka urgently needs.

Governing Council

The National Peace Council is an independent and non partisan organization that works towards a negotiated political solution to the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. It has a vision of a peaceful and prosperous Sri Lanka in which the freedom, human rights and democratic rights of all the communities are respected. The policy of the National Peace Council is determined by its Governing Council of 20 members who are drawn from diverse walks of life and belong to all the main ethnic and religious communities in the country.