It was Louis Fischer who in the 1940s wrote about
Konstradt. The draconian Soviet suppression of the
sailor's revolt on the island of Konstradt near
Petrograd during the revolution in 1917, served to turn
many socialist sympathisers away from the Soviet Union.
Louis Fischer commented:
''What counts decisively is the 'Konstradt'. Until
its advent, one may waver emotionally or doubt
intellectually or even reject the cause altogether in
one's mind and yet refuse to attack it. I had no
'Konstradt' for many years.''
The burning of
the Jaffna Public Library by the Sinhala police on
the night of the 1st of June 1981 served as a Konstradt
for many thousands of Tamils who until then had
wishfully thought that they would be able to live with
dignity and self respect with the Sinhala people and
that despite everything, answers to problems of
discrimination would be found through the Parliamentary
process.
It was not simply that these Tamils were unable to
dismiss the attack on the library as the action of
looters and arsonists who had gone out of control. It
was not simply that they knew that looters and
arsonists do not usually attack libraries. It was also
that these Tamils knew that the attack was launched by
large numbers of Sinhala policemen whilst senior
Government Ministers were in Jaffna, on a special
visit, together with a contingent of high ranking
Sinhala security personnel.
Again, though on the previous night i.e. the 31st of
May, the policemen had attacked the Jaffna Market
buildings and the house of the Jaffna Member of
Parliament, emergency was not declared. Curfew was not
imposed. Strange actions indeed, if, as the Sinhala
Ministers sought to make out later, the Sinhala police
had 'mutinied' and were 'out of control.' Emergency was
not declared till after the Library was burnt on the
following night. Furthermore, despite the protestations
of the Sinhala Ministers that the police had gone on a
frolic of their own, no inquiry was ever held into the
events of the 31st May and the 1st of June. No effort
was made to bring the guilty to justice.
And when the Tamil leader of the opposition sought
to bring a motion of no confidence against the Sinhala
Ministers who had been present in Jaffna on those
fateful days, the ruling Sinhala political party pre
empted the move by bringing a motion of no confidence
on the Leader of the Opposition! It was reportedly the
first and only time that a motion of no confidence had
been moved by a ruling party, on the leader of the
opposition in any parliament, anywhere in the world. A
point of order raised against the no confidence motion
was overruled by the Speaker.
And, the debate on the motion was used to launch a
well orchestrated campaign of vitriolic abuse and
threats, intended to insult and intimidate the Tamil
people, and subdue their reaction to the events of the
nights of the 31st May and 1st June. If the burning of
the Jaffna library was the pre meditated injury that
was inflicted on the Tamil people on the 1st of June,
eleven years ago, then the
parliamentary debate on the no confidence motion
was the calculated insult that was added to the
injury.
But that was not all. As Nancy Murray writes in 'The
State against the Tamils in Sri Lanka - Racism and the
Authoritarian State ':
'While Sinhalese MPs discussed in parliament how
to best kill (the Tamil parliamentary leaders), Tamil
peasants were actually being murdered by organised
gangs in the border areas of Batticaloa and Amparai.
During July and August (1981), Tamils in the East and
South, including the hill country plantation workers,
were terrorised and made homeless. Women were raped
and at least twenty five people perished. The
attacks, many by well organised goon squads, were
widely believed to be directed by members of the
ruling UNP, among them close friends of the
President.''
Thousands of Tamils, both young and old, were
compelled to recognise that the Sri Lanka Parliament
was no place for a Tamil with self respect. They were
compelled to face upto the political reality that the
Sinhala government was bent on subjugating the Tamil
people and bending them to its will. Yes, thousands of
Tamils, both young and old, had their 'Konstradt' in
the burning of the Jaffna Public Library. And I count
myself as one of them.
