{"id":92137,"date":"2019-08-11T16:24:50","date_gmt":"2019-08-11T23:24:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=92137"},"modified":"2019-08-11T16:25:27","modified_gmt":"2019-08-11T23:25:27","slug":"is-this-our-mister-of-reconciliation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/08\/11\/is-this-our-mister-of-reconciliation\/","title":{"rendered":"IS THIS OUR MINISTER OF RECONCILIATION?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sugath Samarasinghe<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The Tamil Net recently carried a news item\nto the following effect concerning a statement reported to have made to Tamil\nnet by Mr. Mano Ganesan, our Minister of Reconciliation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SL Archaeology Department is the\nevil of all heritage related tensions in the North and East, and thirty-two\nSinhala only experts currently advise it. This \u2018Sinhala\u2019 Archaeology must be\nreconfigured, said SL Minister of \u2018National Integration\u2019 and Hindu Religious\nAffairs Mr. Mano Ganesan, in an exclusive interview to TamilNet on Monday. The\nconservation of the protected sites in the North-East, including the ancient\ntraces of the Tamil Buddhist heritage, must be carried out with the advice of\nTamil historians. Mr. Ganesan said he would be moving a cabinet paper to this\neffect. At least five Tamil experts must be assigned the specific task, he\nsaid. Ganesan also warned Tamils against falling prey to the heinous designs of\nthe anti-Muslim extremist monks who want to set the Tamils against the\nTamil-speaking Muslims. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can archaeology be \u2018reconfigured\u2019? one\nmight ask. As far as we know, archaeology can only preserve, conserve already\nexisting ancient ruins and whatever lies under the earth undiscovered. That is\nhow the lost city of Pompeii or Mayan civilization of South America, Pyramids\nof Egypt, Greece and Rome were rediscovered. So were the ruined cities of Mohenjo-Daro\nand Harappa. Nobody \u2018reconfigured\u2019 them as far as we know, nor can anyone\nlegitimately do that. History is history, period. Only new discoveries can\nthrow any new light on it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest effort to \u2018reconfigure\u2019 history\nwhen  the Mannar Mass grave was dug open\nended with egg on the face of all interested parties in the North and elsewhere\nand also the likes of the National Reconciliation Minster Mano Ganesan who\nanticipated to support the bogus claims of \u2018genocide\u2019 by the Armed Forces. The\nDNA tests done in the US showed that the skeletons found were over 500 years\nold confirming the contrary theory that they were probably the victims of\ngenocide of the Catholic Malabars of Mannar allegedly by Sankili. No wonder\nthat people like Ganesan are angry with the Archaeology Department who\nprofessionally did the excavation.          <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can anybody in sane mind say: The SL\nArchaeology Department is the evil of all heritage related tensions in the\nNorth and East,\u201d?  Is the fact that Sri\nMaha Bodhi sapling from India was brought to Jambukolapattana of the Northern\nPeninsula recorded in the Mahavansa be disputed when all the rest of the story\nis corroborated by physical evidence? Has the Archaeological Department\nconcocted when the Gold Plate of Wallipuram was unearthed there? It said that a\nrepresentative of King Vasabha reigned there on his behalf. When the\narchaeologists discovered an inscription in Kayts Island written in Tamil for\nthe benefit of the visiting foreign traders on customs regulations, was it a\nfabrication? One could go on and on, but why go that far? The majority of the\npeople living in the Jaffana Peninsula were called Malabars until Sir\nPonnambalam Arunachalam who was Director of the Census and Statistics\nDepartment named them as \u2018Ceylon Tamil\u2019 in his census report of 1911. There is\nof course the writings of British writers such as Emerson Tenant and others who\ndescribe the state of affairs and other artifacts found in the Northern\nProvince which may not to the liking of the likes of Mano Ganesan and the\n\u2018Tamil Historians\u2019 who are looking to \u2018configure\u2019 history to fit their present\nday ideology which is communal. I believe there are many like them who are\nlaboring to give a Tamil twist to the history of India too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then there is the very transparent Tamil\nplace names still found in Jaffna Peninsula like Walikaamam, Chunnakam etc.\nwhich are obviously corruption of original Sinhala village names. So what is\nthe \u2018transfiguration\u2019 that can be done? Mr. Ganesan\u2019s anger appears to be that\nsuch stand out instances could not be wiped out, to be consistent with the\nfictious history developed by Tamil Historians. The Archeological Department of\nthis country is one of the oldest Departments established by early British\nArchaeologists like H.C.P Bell, H.W Codrington and later continued in the same\ntradition by eminent local scholars like Prof. Paranavithana, Dr, C.E.\nGodakumbure and Prof Deraniyagala and currently Prof. Raj Somadeva who are internationally\naccepted.  Thus, this Department had been\nestablished quite long before the present Tamil project ever started. As the\nworld knows the discipline of archaeology is an empirical study corroborated by\nepigraphical and other recorded evidence, now further supported by DNA. Hence,\nwhere is the room for reconfiguration by anybody?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any one in sane mind would expect a\nMinister for National Integration and Reconciliation to be a man who is\nimpartial. Can this man be seen as an impartial judging by what he has told an\navowed Eelaam website? The very purpose of reconciliation is to bring about some\nkind of consensus and tolerance among disagreeing parties most of whom are\nwrought with emotion. This has to be done with a lot of sensitivity and\nunderstanding. It is natural that all parties involved have sensitive issues\nand grievances perceived or real. This Minister by his brash utterance seem to\nthink that only the Minorities have grievances. What about the grievances of\nthe Majority? They have many issues like the illegal encroachments by other\ncommunities in places like at Muhudu Maha viharaya in the Eastern Province,\nKurugala in Sabaragamuwa and Gurukanda Viharaya in the North which are all\nlawfully pronounced by the Archaeological Department to name a few. The latest\nis the resistance confronted by this Department in Kinniya hot water ponds by\nparties led by politicians and other extremists who lay claims to a latter day\nbuilt kovil on an archeologically declared cite. And they call from housetops\nthe lack of Rule of Law in the country!          <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The grievance of the majority community is\nthat the minorities could shamelessly engage in provocative activities at will.\nOne of the latest being the damages caused to Buddha statues in Mawanella. The\nmajority Sinhalese are not allowed to conserve any ancient places of worship in\nthe Northern and Eastern Provinces, though they have not objected to Hindu and\nMuslim places of worship in other provinces. In fact, the Secretary, Ministry\nof Muslim affairs has recently claimed that there are some sixty odd\nunauthorized mosques in the country already. It is common knowledge that\n\u2018church planting\u2019 as a policy is carried out throughout the country at will, by\nChristian Evangelical Movements. When these activities are resisted there are\ncries of lack of religious tolerance in this country, raised even in\ninternational publications. The assumption of the minorities and the likes of\nMano Ganesan that they are able to engage in such patent communal activities,\nthat they are entitles to do so since they are minorities, but the majority\ncommunity is not entitled to lodge their protests. Such provocative activities\nare taken as given but the impression seems to that the majority has no right\nto be provoked. It is this type of provocative activities that lead to the\neruption of communal and religious conflicts in this country. If one is unable\nto grasp this reality or is not willing to understand this reality, one does\nnot qualify to be a Minister of national Integration. So under such a\ndispensation communal and religious tensions will continue in this country\nsince such a minister or a twisted policy will lack credibility of all parties.\nTherefore, whoever becomes a Minister of Reconciliation has to be a man of\nbroad vision who can maintain a delicate balance between the competing\ninterests among all communities. This certainly a challenging task that cannot be\nexpected from its present incumbent. So we will never have communal harmony in\nthis country in the near future. Fork it is common knowledge that if you work a\nsum in the wrong way, you always get a wrong answer.               Sugath Samarasinghe<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sugath Samarasinghe The Tamil Net recently carried a news item to the following effect concerning a statement reported to have made to Tamil net by Mr. Mano Ganesan, our Minister of Reconciliation. The SL Archaeology Department is the evil of all heritage related tensions in the North and East, and thirty-two Sinhala only experts currently […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[128],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sugath-samarasinghe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92137","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=92137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92137\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}