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Selected Writings
Brian Senewiratne, Australia
Mahinda Rajapakse - the Road to Disaster
31 October 2005
"..The upcoming election is to elect a
Sinhala President and that is a problem for the Sinhala people. It is
not a problem for the Tamils. If the Sinhala people want crooks who may
have had their hand in the Tsunami till as their President, that is
their problem. If they want hoodlums who have wrecked the South in armed
uprisings (in 1971 and again in 1989) with the murder of thousands of
civilians who included University professors, leading professionals and
charismatic Sinhala leaders such as President Kumaratunga’s husband, and
an extensive destruction of infrastructure which included much-needed
agricultural equipment, which be described as “the vandalisation of a
country”, that is a choice for the Sinhalese. If they want Buddhist
“monks” who are more comfortable preaching violence than the doctrine of
Buddha, that is a problem for the Buddhists..."
The manifesto of Mahinda Rajapakse, presidential candidate of
the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA), is an endorsement that a leopard
(Sinhala political leaders) does not change its spots (the supremacy of the
Sinhalese). It is instructive to know that despite the loss of more than 65,000
lives, a devastation of the country and serious questions about its future, the
thinking of Sinhalese politicians has not changed. If such people are elected to
power, neither has the thinking of the Sinhalese majority changed. It is not
“instructive” for us, who have known this for years, but it is instructive for
the international community which is still hallucinating that there is a genuine
desire of the Sinhala leadership to reach a political settlement with the Tamil
‘minority’.
Rajapakse’s manifesto titled “Mahinda Chintana” (Mahinda’s thoughts) in the
setting of agreements signed by him with so-called Marxists” (read political
opportunists) in the JVP, and the extreme Sinhala chauvinists among the
politically active Buddhist clergy (the JHU), is the clearest indication that
the concept of multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-religious Sri Lanka as
a
Sinhala-Buddhist nation, is alive and well. If that is the score, there is
no alternative to the establishment of a Tamil Nation, Tamil Eelam.
In other pronouncements of “Mahinda’s thoughts”, he has said that the ongoing
Ceasefire Agreement between the government and the LTTE will have to be
‘revised’ i.e. scrapped. The concept of self determination for the Tamils will
have to be abandoned and with it, Federalism as a basis of a negotiated
settlement. Mr Rajapakse does not seem to realise that the bottom line in the
struggle to free the Tamil people from Sinhalese domination is the
right of a people
to self-determination. He should note that it is this same right of
self-determination that enabled his ancestors to free themselves from British
domination. By rejecting this right, he is effectively closing the door to a
negotiated settlement.
Rajapakse’s ‘thoughts’ and their inevitable consequence (war) is reminiscent of
another Sinhala political ‘leader’ J.R.Jayawardene, from the other side of the
Sinhala political divide, the UNP. In the wake of the 1977 post-election
massacre of Tamils, the newly elected Prime Minister Jayawardene told the
devastated Tamils “If you want a fight, let there be a fight”, and went on to
attribute this to the Sinhala people - “It is not what I am saying. The people
of Sri Lanka say that”. Perhaps we should ask the people of Sri Lanka whether
they did say “that”.
The comparison between Jayawardene (UNP) and Rajapakse (SLFP, now in an expanded
group the UPFA), is important. What it means is that Sinhala politicians from
the Green or Blue (and now even the Red) camp, are the same. They are Sinhala
chauvinists with whom the Tamils cannot negotiate. That is not pessimism, it is
realism based on historical fact.
Since Rajapakse has effectively closed the door to a negotiated settlement that
will accommodate the aspirations of the Tamil people, he leaves no alternative
to the Tamils other than to achieve this by force. If Rajapakse (and his
bedfellows in the JVP and JHU) want war, (and it seems so), then war is what
will occur – now or in the not-too-distant future. If/when it does, it will be a
war for which Rajapakse will be responsible making. Let us be clear about that.
Let this be made known to the International community, in particular the crucial
aid-givers who are the Godfathers who enable the Sri Lankan government to buy
the necessary weapons to destroy part of the population of that country.
The manifesto is replete with glorious words : “I am dedicated to building a
….just state…..”. What? Another “Just State”? I thought Jayawardene built one in
1977 when his election campaign promised a “dharmista” (just and righteous)
society. When demagoguery was replaced by realpolitic in 1983, it meant the
genocidal massacre of some 3,000 Tamil civilians in the Sinhala South. This was
presumably was a pre-requisite to the establishment of a ‘Just” Sinhala nation.
Jayawardene, by then the self-appointed President, told Ian Ward of the London
Daily Telegraph “I am not worried about the opinion of the Jaffna people
now…..Now we cannot think of them, nor about their lives or their opinion about
us”. These are the Sinhala ‘leaders’ with whom the Tamils are expected to
negotiate.
Rajapakse dedicates himself to achieving an undivided country. If that is so, a
prerequisite would be the removal of the Constitutional provision which
effectively spells out a Sinhala-Buddhist nation. Will he do that? Not likely.
He goes on to ensure that the people will be free to practise their respective
religions. Well, they already can do this - give or take the burning of many
Christian churches, and the destruction of even more Hindu temples, some filled
with refugees. However, the fact remains that the people have been free to
practise their religions. Rajapakse need not “dedicate” himself to this. What he
has to do is to ensure that the Tamil people can live with equality, dignity and
safety in the country of their birth and this, Rajapakse he has carefully
avoided mentioning.
He also carefully avoids mentioning anything about addressing corruption - just
as well, after dipping into the Tsunami funds to the tune of Rs.83 million
(which he graciously returned in an attempt to avoid being prosecuted for
fraud!). If the Sinhala people want crooks as their leaders, that is their
problem. Why saddle the Tamil people with such leaders.
When Rajapakse “dedicates” himself to moulding a new Sri Lanka and creating a
“prosperous peaceful country”, he will have to front up to some basic realities.
1. The Tamil people in the North and East have long since
realised that they can never expect a fair deal under a unitary set-up where
administrative and developmental power are entrenched in the hands of the
numerically superior Sinhalese majority. If the deciding factor is the mere
counting of heads and not equality of all its citizens, then a change is
mandatory. A manifestation of this realization is the overwhelming mandate
the Tamil people in the North and East gave their parliamentarians in 1977
to pursue the establishment of a Separate Tamil State. The brutality
unleashed on these people (civilians) by a succession of Sinhala governments
since 1977, in a determined attempt to crush them, has only hardened their
resolve. So when Mr.Rajapakse “dedicates himself” to ensuring an undivided
country, he is living in fantasy-land.
2. The Tamils have, in fact, established a Separate State in the Wanni which
has its own administration, its own police, legal system and military. What
is more, it seems to be far less corrupt and a far more efficient and
organized administration than anything the Sinhala South has had for a
quarter of a century or more. When the Sinhala South and their politicians
finally wake up, they will find to their astonishment that a Tamil State has
been functioning for years. What is left is for the Sinhala South to accept
this reality and not fool themselves that a denial will make the reality of
a Tamil State go away. It will not.
As for Mr Rajapakse and the Sinhala extremists and political
opportunists in the JVP and JHU, they can hallucinate about an undivided
country. If they plunge the country into war, they will be held responsible by
the Sinhala people (whom they claim to represent) and the international
community. He will also have to explain to the Sinhalese people why the bodies
of rural youths, who will be called up to fight this war, are returning in
body-bags.
What of the other side of the political divide - Ranil Wickremesinghe and his
UNP? What if he becomes the next President? The Tamils do not need imagine that
there will be a fundamental change. As I have said, a leopard does not change
its spots. In 1983, when the Tamils were being butchered in Colombo, it was a
young Minister in Jayawardene’s government who appeared on TV to say that Tamil
businessmen deserved what they got. The Tamils would do well to identify that
person. It is also worth remembering that after half a dozen non-productive
Peace Talks and no peace–dividend for the Tamil people, the LTTE decided to
abandon further peace talks “for the time being”, because Ranil Wickremesinghe
(and his UNP) were dragging their feet in the implementation of what was agreed
to.
What of the possibility of a so-called “National Government” (Wickremesinghe’s
UNP and the Bandaranaike-Kumaratunga SLFP)? It is merely the amalgamation of two
parties that have, for years, adopted more and more anti-Tamil measures to win
the electoral support of the Sinhala majority. It was a combination of similar
people who, in 1948, disenfranchised a million Plantation Tamils in one of the
worst acts of political savagery the world has known. So let us not have any
illusions that a “National Government” (read National Sinhala Government) is the
answer.
The upcoming election is to elect a Sinhala President and that is a problem for
the Sinhala people. It is not a problem for the Tamils. If the Sinhala people
want crooks who may have had their hand in the Tsunami till as their President,
that is their problem. If they want hoodlums who have wrecked the South in armed
uprisings (in 1971 and again in 1989) with the murder of thousands of civilians
who included University professors, leading professionals and charismatic
Sinhala leaders such as President Kumaratunga’s husband, and an extensive
destruction of infrastructure which included much-needed agricultural equipment,
which be described as “the vandalisation of a country”, that is a choice for the
Sinhalese. If they want Buddhist “monks” who are more comfortable preaching
violence than the doctrine of Buddha, that is a problem for the Buddhists.
The Tamils have a problem. This is to develop the area under their control and
carry this forward. The role of the international community is to assist this
commendable activity. It is the role of the expatriate Tamil community to stop
dreaming about a Tamil State and help in its building.
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