<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Sri Lanka there are 3 ethnic\ngroups \u2013 Sinhalese, Tamils & Muslims and 4 main religions \u2013 Sinhala\nBuddhists, Hindus, Islam, Christian\/Catholics. All Sinhalese were Buddhists\nuntil 1505 and all Tamils were Hindus till 1505 when arrival of European\ncolonial invaders resulted in conversions of Sinhalese & Tamils to\nChristianity\/Catholicism and the Burgher community. Sri Lanka has a recorded\nhistory of over 2600 years during no period of time has there been any records\nof ethnic animosities or disharmony. So what is this National problem? The\nproblem is not knowing what the problem is or not wanting to admit what the problem\nis because it will invariably lead to the disclosure of all those culpable for\nthe problems and ironically these are the players demanding to draft the solutions\nwhich spells doom & warrants caution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first question to be answered\nobviously is \u2013 how did communities that had not fought for thousands of years\nsuddenly develop animosities after the arrival of Europeans? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The answer to that is the divide\n& rule policy that resulted in rebranding our people into numerous\nnomenclatures that the Europeans could control by setting one group against the\nother. So if we are looking for the root cause of Sri Lanka\u2019s conflict vis a\nvis disharmony among communities the fingers must point to the 3 European\ninvaders who ruled Sri Lanka directly from 1505 to 1948, indirectly from 1948\nto 1972 and covertly\/overtly from there onwards to date via their local sepoys.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Essentially, anyone claiming Sri\nLanka\u2019s communities cannot live in peace must first explain how they lived in\npeace for thousands of years before the arrival of Westerners after which all\nthe troubles started. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are told that our national\nproblem is ethnic. All these nomenclatures mind you were christened by\ncolonials after they created the problem and claim they have the solutions too.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But is the National problem the same as articulated by the 74%\nSinhalese, 15% Tamils & 9% Muslims?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n If Sinhalese claim the National\nproblem is different to what the Tamils claim is the National problem while\nMuslims claim something else is the National problem \u2013 how do we arrive at what the National Problem is? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Sinhalese \u2013 what is\nthe National problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Tamils \u2013 what is the\nNational problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Muslims \u2013 what is\nthe National problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Burghers \u2013 what is\nthe National problem? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Then our next question is who should determine what the problem is?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Is it only the Sinhalese\nmajority? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Is it only the Tamil minority?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is it only the Muslim minority?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is it only the Burgher minority?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is it the UN?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is it the Foreign Envoys?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is it the INGOs\/NGOs?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is it the human rights activists?\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is it the politicians (Sinhala,\nTamil, Muslim)? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Is it only the elite of Sri Lanka\n(Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Or is it the ordinary PEOPLE who\naccount for the majority among the Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim & Burgher\ncommunity? <\/p>\n\n\n\n The more important question is in\nwhose interests & for whose benefit primarily must these solutions be\ndrawn?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is it the Sinhalese villages who\nwere attacked by terrorists & killed? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Is it the Sinhala families who\nlost family members killed by LTTE?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is it the families of the Sinhala\narmed forces\/police who sacrificed their lives on duty? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Is it the Tamils who were victims\nof LTTE (includes all forcibly conscripted, killed for refusing to obey LTTE\norders)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is it the Tamil LTTE families\nwhose LTTE child died during hostilities with armed forces? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Is it the Muslim villagers who\nwere attacked & killed by LTTE <\/p>\n\n\n\n Is it the Sinhala & Muslim\nfamilies chased out of their homes in the North? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Is it every victim of LTTE\nterror?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is it every victim who died as a\nresult of collateral damage by bombings of armed forces?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is it for the politicians &\nelite to enjoy power & privileges?<\/p>\n\n\n\n While the above are direct\nvictims \u2013 there are plenty of indirect victims too: the country\u2019s economy,\ndevelopment, infrastructure etc all were destroyed or damaged and require\nreconstruction. But Rome was not built in a day and these take time and\nplanning and of course funding. But, was Sri Lanka given even a breather after\nthe conflict ended in May 2009? Every day the country was hounded demanding\n\u2018accountability\u2019 when all those doing the demanding chose to sit pretty not\nmaking the same demands of LTTE who carried out over 300 suicide killings over\n30 years! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Among the plethora of solutions forwarded over the years repeated\ndemands have been for<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n But, if you look at the list of\nvictims can you fathom how far these solutions brandished over the years will\nactually solve their problems and are these solutions really to solve their\nproblems? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Have you noticed that these\nsolutions are also only for one community? How fair is that of 85% of the other\npopulace who also suffered? By offering solutions to only one community how\ninclusive is the outcome going to be? Is this \u2018reconciliation\u2019? <\/p>\n\n\n\n What do victims generally desire?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n If they\u2019ve lost a home \u2013 they\nwould want a home to live in, <\/p>\n\n\n\n if they\u2019ve lost the only person\nwho was providing them food \u2013 they would want some means of livelihood to keep\nthe family fed? <\/p>\n\n\n\n If they have children \u2013 they\nwould want schooling, means of employment <\/p>\n\n\n\n In what manner will devolving\npowers to politicians, giving land\/police powers etc solve their predicament \u2013\nhave they even asked for any of these? <\/p>\n\n\n\n They probably do not even know\nwhat self-determination is or heard the word devolution, they were crying when\na Colonel tasked to rehabilitate them had been transferred. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The simple things that they want,\nwho is there to give them and why are these not entertained first without\nwasting years on solutions that satisfy the politicians & international\ncommunity?<\/p>\n\n\n\n So for whom & whose benefit are these big \u2018solutions\u2019 being thrown at\nevery international negotiation table? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Politicians <\/strong>be they Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim want a \u2018solution\u2019 that\nwill sustain their power and role as politician, keep them in power &\nensure that they are in control. They have no qualms about transferring power\nto opposition so long as periodically they can sit in power. This game we have\nseen since 1948. <\/p>\n\n\n\n International players<\/strong> want \u2018solutions\u2019 that are within their\nperiphery of control too. So when they speak about mechanisms that are\n\u2018internationally acceptable\u2019 what they imply is they want solutions where they\ncan poke their nose in from time to time which generates & sustains their\nlivelihoods too (to this international list of players we can plug \u2013 UN, INGOs,\nNGOs, local NGOs, civil society, rights activists etc) foreign governments of\ncourse will insist on having a say either way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So what we need to understand is\nthat all these delays in formulating \u2018solutions\u2019 really is to find something\n\u2018acceptable\u2019 to all of them and not the ordinary people \u2013 something that\nsatisfies their lust for comfy positions, globe-trotting opportunities,\nenjoying perks of office, VVIP status etc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Lest, we have forgotten the media\n– in whatever role the media always has a place and if it doesn\u2019t it has all\nthe powers to create a place through sensationalism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So invariably, if we look at our\nlist of innocent victims, we ask ourselves, have they had a say in any of these\n\u2018supposed to be fantastic solutions\u2019, were they the one\u2019s that proposed these\nsolutions, will these \u2018solutions\u2019 benefit them? <\/p>\n\n\n\n We come back to the question\nwhich unfortunately remains unanswered <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2013 What is the National problem? <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2013 Who determines the national\nproblem<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2013 Who decides the solution? <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2013 for Whose benefit is the\nsolution(s)? <\/p>\n\n\n\n We also seem to be forgetting\nsome other major factors? What is this national problem or conflict? Was it\nbetween Sinhala people and Tamil people, if so then it can be termed \u2018ethnic\u2019\nbut wasn\u2019t, the conflict was between a non-state armed group & the Sri\nLankan Armed Forces & victims were Sinhalese, Muslims, Foreigners including\nTamils. So, there is no way that the conflict can be termed \u2018ethnic\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Who was this armed group? Well\nthere were several Tamil armed groups but LTTE emerged victor after killing the\nleaders of the other groups & scaring them off. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So what basically did LTTE demand? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n They demanded virtually what\nTamil extremist leaders had been demanding since 1949 (Tamil state party \u2013\nITAK) and 1976 (Vaddukoddai Resolution) seeking a separate Tamil state. <\/p>\n\n\n\n With LTTE no officially no more,\nLTTE\u2019s political arm formed in 2001 \u2013 the TNA is carrying the beacon. So how\ninclusive is TNA of Tamils. Well, the election results show TNA is not\nrepresentative of all Tamils and now growing resentment by Tamils has increased\nits unpopularity. So, what TNA demands which echoes what LTTE demands cannot be\ntaken as what majority of Tamils want. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So where do Tamil diaspora fit\nin. They make up the all-powerful propaganda lobby operating from western\nshores where they thrived during LTTE rule via nefarious illegal and legal\noperations that gave LTTE $300m annual profits. With no maintenance cost for\nLTTE combatants, procurement of arms & ammunition etc that annual profit\nmust now be far more and utilized for other influential purposes \u2013 retaining\ninternational lawyers, buying international personages to speak on their behalf\nare just some of the wonders the LTTE international kitty has been able to\nafford. When all things budge for money, LTTE diaspora know when to throw what\n& strike bingo. LTTE Diaspora is certainly a formidable force because of\nits propaganda & its kitty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Propaganda \u2013 power hungry\npoliticians \u2013 Geopolitics are impediments to bringing about political will\nbased on what the People want as solutions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Those presently drawing the solutions are parties and individuals who were part of the problem or creators of the problem or lived off the problem and these entities should be given no role in any solution making as the likelihood is that they would create bigger problems than the problem that ended because they were not allowed to be involved (otherwise Sri Lanka would never have seen the end of LTTE in May 2009) which is probably why they are determined not to be omitted from drawing solutions! <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Shenali D Waduge<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In Sri Lanka there are 3 ethnic groups \u2013 Sinhalese, Tamils & Muslims and 4 main religions \u2013 Sinhala Buddhists, Hindus, Islam, Christian\/Catholics. All Sinhalese were Buddhists until 1505 and all Tamils were Hindus till 1505 when arrival of European colonial invaders resulted in conversions of Sinhalese & Tamils to Christianity\/Catholicism and the Burgher community. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1498,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-shenali-waduge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91706","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\/1498"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91706\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}