{"id":41612,"date":"2015-02-17T19:45:10","date_gmt":"2015-02-18T01:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=41612"},"modified":"2015-02-17T04:31:46","modified_gmt":"2015-02-17T11:31:46","slug":"the-secessionists-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2015\/02\/17\/the-secessionists-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"The Secessionist\u2019s Mission"},"content":{"rendered":"

H.W<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

If we believe that we are a nation, then we must start behaving like a nation\u201d.<\/p>\n

The question is whether we can mobilise it to a point where we create sufficient leverage so that the Sri Lankan State also takes us seriously. I think that is the key. I believe that they will have to take us seriously, if we are prepared to actually take ourselves seriously with regards to the fact that we are a nation.\u201d\u00a0\u2013 Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam recently stated in an interview with TamilNet-Palaka\u2019ni in respect to the Tamil Eazham cause.<\/p>\n

I am a strong advocate for an equal society and mutual respect for all ethnicities in Sri Lanka. I believe it\u2019s essential for prominent figures in minority groups to bring adverse issues facing those groups into light. As well as this we need members in government to be a voice for minority groups and represent their matters at the state level. We should have open dialogue between all groups to come up with better ways that Sri Lanka as a country can represent all communities and their needs.<\/p>\n

However, I strongly reject and request from our government to also reject any person or group that promotes secessionist agenda.<\/p>\n

I find it disturbing for one to be labelled as racist or \u2018Jathi Wadi\u2019 if they start this conversation. We must not forget that we are all Sri Lankan, all of us should identify with it and be attached to it. It should be the desire of all Sri Lankans to live in ONE country that is safe and equal.<\/p>\n

Sadly there are persevering separatist groups that keep rearing their ugly heard. They have many faces and come in the guise<\/span><\/strong> of \u2018human rights\u2019, \u2018democracy\u2019 and \u2018equality\u2019 but the true underlying intention is its secessionist national campaign. Many have started to ridicule people like Dr Dayan Jayathilleka for voicing their fears and dismiss them as out-of-touch or insane. However this interview cements the fact that these groups not only exist but are also spreading the germ of separatism to the general Tamil public.<\/p>\n

I recently read \u2018The Dr DJ Syndrome\u2019 by V Kanthaiya in the Opinions section of the Colombo Telegraph. Upon reading the article, my opinion of the writer was that he\/she though very intelligent and reasonable was also naive. He\/she failed to consider some crucial elements and complexities in the Sri Lankan ethnic problem.<\/p>\n

Kanthaiya states \u2018The solution is simple. Give the autonomy that the Tamils ask for. DJ\u2019s problem is that giving such power to the NPC would lead to the proclamation of an independent state by C.V. Wigneswaran. Suppose DJs argument is correct, then India wouldn\u2019t be a country, instead there would be 35 countries. There will not be a country the United States of America; instead there would be 50 countries at that geographical location. There would not be a country called Australia, instead there would be countries called Northern Territory, Western Australia, Southern Australia, Victoria, Queens Land, New South Wales and Tasmania.\u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

I personally guarantee that the central government doesn\u2019t need to fear the possible secession of NPC from the country, no such thing will ever happen. The present Tamil youth in the country are more willing to fight on \u2018Facebook\u2019 with their comments, rather than in jungles with semi-automatic rifles. The new generation is more concerned with integrating with the global community, rather than fighting in the name of race and religion, which have become irrelevant concepts in our present life dominated by information communication technology. <\/em>(V. Kantaiya \u2013 Colombo Telegraph)<\/p>\n

In normal circumstances I too would agree with V Kanthaiya and say that giving autonomy to the NPC is a reasonable solution to the Tamil ethnic problem. However, Sri Lanka\u2019s history has been far from normal. Up till 2009 we were in the midst of a 30 year long civil conflict during which both Tamils and Sinhalese committed atrocities.<\/p>\n

Although I am happy that the war is now over, I wish it could have ended under different circumstances where lives of many Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims could have been saved. Sri Lanka has had a bloody past and I believe 6 years isn\u2019t long enough for the wounds to heal properly. The same extremists that supported the LTTE and the Ealam cause are still prominent members within some Tamil groups in Sri Lanka and overseas.<\/p>\n

From what I could fathom, V Kanithaiya like many ordinary citizens of Sri Lanka sounds like an intelligent, level headed and reasonable person. There are probably more of such moderate people within Tamil groups that most likely share the same vision as V Kanithaiya. However if you examine History, you will also see that there were moderate Tamil groups during the early 80\u2019s when LTTE was still in its infancy, all of which Prabahakaran eventually destroyed. History proves that you only need a few rotten apples to spoil the barrel. This is true for all ethnicities and the BBS is a recent example.<\/p>\n

Kanithaiya also states that the new generation is not interested in fighting in the name of race and religion and they have become \u2018irrelevant concepts\u2019 since our lives are now \u2018dominated by information communication technology\u2019. In response, I ask this \u2013 Were our lives not dominated by ICT between the years 2005-2009?\u201d Were there no young people who fought in the LTTE during these years? Therefore the concept that the youth will not fight for race and religion in the present day, I believe is incorrect.<\/p>\n

In fact, Facebook and Info Communication Technologies were used in the recent coup and ousting of the Ukrainian president as well as the Arab Spring. ISIS have also been known to use ICT and other modern technologies to recruit and spread their message. Therefore we must not dismiss or underestimate the probability of Tamil and Sinhalese youth to fight in the name of race and religion again if misdirected by lunatics like Gajendrakumar and BBS.<\/p>\n

Another incident which further proved extremist or separatist behaviour within Tamil groups is the rift caused in the TNA party due to R. Sampanthan\u2019s and M.A. Sumanthiran\u2019s attendance at the recent Independence day celebrations. This noble and diplomatic move by the two M.P\u2019s were rejected by the Party as a whole. If Tamil groups don\u2019t believe in secession, then the independence of our country from the British should be symbolic to all citizens. Suppose that certain disagreements with the Rajapaksa government prevented TNA members from attending in the past, surely attending this year\u2019s celebrations would have been a step in the right direction for the interest of all people in the country, especially Tamils. Sadly even the most moderate of members within the party like M.A Sumanthiran have stated that they \u2018will seek to go beyond the 13th Amendment and make it meaningful\u2019 and that the full implementation of the 13th<\/sup> Amendment is only the \u2018first step\u2019. (Sunday Observer, 2015)<\/p>\n

To summarize, the ethnic problems in Sri Lanka whether it is Tamil, Muslim, or Sinhala are very complex. I\u2019m afraid that Sri Lanka needs a much longer time to heal and gain each other\u2019s trust than 6 years. It took us 30 long years to come out of the war and it may well take another 30 years to move on from it. The ethnic and indigenous problems still affect countries like United States, Australia and New Zealand even after 100\u2019s of years. However, similarly to what Kanithaiya said, we need to look at these countries and perhaps learn something from them. Although there are unresolved ethnic issues in these countries, ultimately they all have a unitary vision. I believe that the full implementation of the 13th<\/sup> Amendment is necessary at some point later down the road. However the combination of a powerless presidency along with a fully autonomous NPC if done too quickly may increase the risk of the formation and uprising of secessionist groups within the country.<\/p>\n

References:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.tamilnet.com\/art.html?catid=79&artid=37636<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.sundayobserver.lk\/2015\/01\/25\/fea01.asp<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-dr-d-j-syndrome\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

H.W If we believe that we are a nation, then we must start behaving like a nation\u201d. The question is whether we can mobilise it to a point where we create sufficient leverage so that the Sri Lankan State also takes us seriously. I think that is the key. I believe that they will have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41612","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=41612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41612\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}