{"id":100255,"date":"2020-03-22T15:56:25","date_gmt":"2020-03-22T22:56:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=100255"},"modified":"2020-03-22T15:56:25","modified_gmt":"2020-03-22T22:56:25","slug":"why-tamils-do-not-contribute-proportionately-as-others-to-the-covid-19-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/03\/22\/why-tamils-do-not-contribute-proportionately-as-others-to-the-covid-19-battle\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Tamils Do Not Contribute Proportionately as Others to the COVID-19 Battle?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dilrook Kannangara<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Muslims and\nSinhalas have contributed heartily to the battle against COVID-19. Big and\nsmall hoteliers have given up their hotels to be used as quarantine centres,\netc. Other Sinhala and Muslim businessmen have contributed millions each\nfinancially. Yet others have distributed masks in tens of thousands free of\ncharge. It was reported that a smalltime Muslim tailor works around the clock\nto stitch masks and distribute them at no cost. Mostly Sinhala nurses have\ntaken to make masks in their precious spare time to distribute to patients and\ncaregivers. Buddhist monks stitch masks for the village and mostly Sinhala\npolice officers have donated their well-earned lunch packets to the needy. The\nalmost entirely Sinhala military is doing yeoman service to the nation. This is\nnot their usual duty but they have put their lives on the line to save the\nnation and people once again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a\nclear dearth of Tamil participation in comparison. Where are all the Tamil\nbusinessmen? Obviously, there are far more Tamil businessmen than Muslim\nbusinessmen. Have they gone into hiding?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is the\nsame and far worse when it comes to Tamil politicians who are hyper-active\ndemanding rights but not to be found when it comes to responsibilities.\n   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately,\nthis is not the first time such dearth of Tamil participation was seen at a\ntime of a national crisis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apart from\nTamil Christians, other Tamils did not meaningfully help armed forces fight\nTamil terrorism. In fact, they did everything possible to disrupt the good work\nof armed forces. An enormous amount of blood was needed to treat wounded\nsoldiers and civilians. Tamil participation in blood donation was (and still\nis) extremely low. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2004 tsunami\ncrisis also saw very little Tamil participation. If at all any participated\nthat was to help affected Tamil people. Instead they exploited the situation to\nmake devolution demands. A similar situation was seen following the 4\/21\ncrisis. Despite threat to their lives Sinhala and Muslim blood donors\nparticipated but Tamils didn\u2019t contribute their proportionate share.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No one can demand\nrights without shouldering equal responsibilities. And no one can claim\nownership of the island or part of the island if they don\u2019t defend it. The\nisland gains nothing from them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(A word of advice to those who find this factual revelation\noffensive \u2013 stop shooting the messenger, face ugly tribal facts within your own\ncommunity and do your proportionate share. Prove me wrong. Hopefully this will\nchange the bahaviour.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dilrook Kannangara Muslims and Sinhalas have contributed heartily to the battle against COVID-19. Big and small hoteliers have given up their hotels to be used as quarantine centres, etc. Other Sinhala and Muslim businessmen have contributed millions each financially. Yet others have distributed masks in tens of thousands free of charge. It was reported that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dilrook-kannangara"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100255\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}