Categorising Sinhala politicians

Selected Writings by Sachi Sri Kantha

Categorising Sinhala politicians

1 April 1991

Disregarding the party affiliations, the Sinhalese politicians in Sri Lanka can be broadly categorized into four `S' types, with reference to their stand on the Tamil issue.

1) "Schemers" : This breed pretends to dispense justice to Tamils but practice only opportunistic politics. e.g. : all the past and present leaders of the UNP and the SLFP, who became the prime ministers and presidents of the island.

2) "Screamers" : This vocal breed (mostly originating from the non-Govigama castes among Sinhalese) pretends to be the patriots of the Sinhala nation. Since they could not aspire to the top echelons of power, they vented all their frustrations on the Tamils with demonic intensity, e.g. : K.M.P. Rajaratne, C.P.de Silva, I . M . R. A . Iriyagolle , Philip Gunawardene, Rohana Wijeweera, Cyril Mathew and Merril Kariyawasam.

3) "Sleepers" : More than 60% of the Sinhalese politicians belong to this breed. They do not care about the Tamil issue as such they are labelled as 'sleepers'. Many novices begin as `sleepers' and then graduate into either 'schemers' or 'screamers'.

4) "Sympathizers" : This is a rare breed (e.g. : Wilmot Perera, Edmund Samarakkody, Shelton Ranaraja and most of the leaders of the traditional Leftist parties till 1960), who sympathized with the Tamil aspirations but did not carry adequate political clout among the Sinhalese. They have been mostly obliterated now.

Minister Ranjan Wijeratne, who met an untimely death on March 2nd was the most recent addition to the `screamers' breed. He was an ambitious man and he departed this world before fulfilling so many of his stated ambitions. I will list below some of his utterances, as recorded in the Time and Newsweek magazines during the past year or, so.

"We will back the Tamils to the hilt. Our -first aim is to develop these neglected and devastated Tamil areas". (Time, Feb. 12, '990).
"Now we are going to annihilate them (LTTE). There is no turning back". (Newsweek, July 2, 1990).
"We will erase the LTTE from the earth". (Time, July 23, 1990).
"No one should call for a cease-fire. We will not capture them (LTTE); we will destroy them (LTTE)". (Time, Aug. 27, 1990).
"The battle will continue, for as long as we have ammunition". (Time, Sept. 17, 1990).