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'Where is social justice?'

by Afreeha Jawad

Bala Tampoe - peace posers

How many of us live up to what we profess? - This then was exactly what CMU General Secretary P. Balendra Tampoe drove home to the small but enthusiastic audience that gathered at the SEDEC to listen to one in a series of lectures on Mother Teresa, organised by the Christian Alliance for Social Action.

"If President George Bush is a Christian would there be a war in Iraq? If Blair is a Christian would he join in that US invasion? This poses the question not of world peace but Christianity and world peace. The US and Europe are still dominantly Christian. "But what's the state of the world?" The people of Israel are supposedly God's chosen people. "Do they have peace. Do they contribute to peace?" he asked.

Conflicting and contrasting social placements and situations with high degrees of polarisation being contributory factors to the breach of peace were not missed out on by Tampoe who rather indignantly posed the question:

"Where is social justice? People talk so much of it but do we have social justice? The conditions under which people are born do not warrant social justice at all. Just look at this. A few yards from here is Cinnamon Gardens. Go to Maradana and you'll find the slums. So what is the kind of social justice you expect when you see the two residents in these two places? It's only too extreme poles. In India for instance Malabar Hill is a far cry from the slums in Bombay. Similar desparities one finds all over the world."

Describing such splendour and squalor as two extreme poles he said there was wealth at one end and misery at the other, giving rise to complexity.

Seeing the courts as places where it was not justice but judicial decisions that were delivered he once again questioned the bona fide of social justice implementation. A man convicted of murder has to be proved beyond reasonable doubt that he has committed the offence. Reasonable is one thing and to be just is another.

Reminiscing yet another instance of the breach of peace, Tampoe spoke of the infamous 'Sinhala only' bill that led the country into the blood strewn situation of contemporary Sri Lanka. Carrying highly chauvinistic opinions to immeasurable degree was an incident at the Chavakacheri police station where a Tamil man who came to lodge a complaint was impertinently told by the policeman to speak in Sinhala. This police station was razed to the ground later.

The defacto situation up there in the North though officially it comes under the Sri Lankan State has given rise to conflict.

A ceasefire does not mean total peace. So the very concept of peace is reflection worthy.

Terrorism - certainly a subject of national and international politics- overlooks the causes of such actions. It is only now that these are being looked into and the State of Palestine is in Bush's mind. Analysing Tampoe's delivery this writer was driven to understand that peace may be looked at from different perspectives.

Inasmuch as the status quo challenges innovation and a breach of peace is realised it also could be that innovation itself - particularly that sort of deviant innovation could lead to 'peacelessness' when it questions the 'imagined moral ground' of the system.

The war ravaged North

Jesus fell into the second category and was seen as a potential 'peace breaker' when he rode through the streets of Jerusalem sitting on his donkey followed by a large crowd carrying palm leaves. The political authorities of the times even sentenced him to death.

Workers are expected to be 'disciplined' and 'well behaved' for demonstrations and strikes are seen by employers as a breach of peace. So in employers' thinking peace is only for employers. Industrial peace in the government's context is a conforming workforce.

Inasmuch as a 'striking' workforce is a threat to employers' peace, the latter who dish employees' are seen by the workers as a disturbance to their (workers') peace. Peace indeed was a multifaceted diamond as it were to Tampoe, which indeed was a reflection of an elegant mind.

Getting off the daily, mundane, monotonous way of looking at peace, Tampoe was caught in rare mood when he described the peace that exuded from Mother Teresa. He struck the highest chord of spirituality when he described her as someone who could convey some calm and solace. "Even when she went into a hovel to see a sick person, her very presence, brought some sense of peace to the sufferer, he concluded.

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Idea Forum : Situation of North-East Muslims

The now evolving critical period for the Eastern Muslims, many discerning observers knew from the beginning, was in the coming from the day the Government commenced bilateral negotiations with the Tigers for the trilateral ethnic tangle.

The Memorandum of Understanding (Ceasefire Agreement - CFA) between the UNF Government and the Tigers completely ignoring the Eastern and Northern Muslims followed by the first Sattahip talks at the conclusion of which, in response to countrywide Muslim disappointment, the leader of the Government delegation successfully sought with the choice of vague words to kill the Muslims into believing that the next talks will have a Muslim delegation.

Subsequent talks went on and on through Thailand, Berlin, Oslo, Tokyo etc with no Muslim delegation materialising; even the much trumpeted Prime Minister's address to Parliament slipped the issue. The UNF Government-Tiger exercise had within itself the seeds of the present crisis, and, it took a prolonged period of 18 months to break out only because of the soothing effect of the token presence of the Muslim delegate among the Government representatives.

It is basic to realise that the Northern Province and the Eastern Province have been thought of as one only vis-a-vis Tamil homeland theory. As for as the Muslims are concerned the historical contact between the Northern Muslims, the majority of whom live in Mannar, and the Eastern Muslims has been minimal; in fact the Eastern Muslims' were more intertwined with the Muslims of the central regions, historical antecedents facilitated by satisfactory transport facilities.

The present Eastern Province, before the advent of the British, was part of the Kandyan kingdom. In seeking a solution to the problem it must be taken into account that the aspirations of the Muslims in the two provinces do not at all accord with those of the Tamils of those provinces. It fact the interests of the Muslims of the two provinces do not coincide. It is a core issue that modes and methods have to be consciously and conscientiously devised to enable the two communities to live together with dignity.

The Muslims of the Northern Province, inclusive of the nearly 100,000 displaced, constituted 5 per cent of the population of the province. But the Muslims of the Eastern Province, according to the latest official figures, constitute the provinces largest single community, and, also the non-Tamil population of the province exceeds two-thirds of the total population. No true solution could emerge without recognition of the latter fact. Only two common factors underline the 100,000 Northern Muslims and the 500,000 Eastern Muslims, namely:

(i) Since 1985 they have continued to be at the butt end of Tiger brutality, and,

(ii) They live among the Tamil people as distinct from the other 70 per cent Muslims who live in the South with the Sinhalese.

Besides, these two commonalities the problems the Eastern Muslims face are different from those of the Northern Muslims, and therefore the means to their ultimate solution are different. Many Muslims are convinced that it was largely the failure of Ampara District based M. H. M. Ashraf to appreciate this fact that contributed to the facilitation of the LTTE to find an excuse to ethnically cleanse the North of its 100,000 Muslims.

It is unimaginable that the Eastern Province could be handed over on a platter to an administration of sole Tiger hegemony; it has not ever been demonstrated that the Tamil Tigers command even a majority of Tamil opinion. The elected Tamil representatives in Parliament and local bodies are not Tiger, many old and authentic Tamil political formations who in their own right fought for decades for Tamil rights in various theatres are not only not Tigers but some continue to remain anti-Tigers inspite of continuing killing.

Both the LTTE, whose experts are presently in parley in Paris, and the Government should bear in mind that of the three districts in the Eastern Province, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Ampara, the Tamil heartland is the Batticaloa District. According to the 2001 census figures, Tamils in this district number 195,000, the Muslims 113,000 and the Sinhalese 2000. In this district in July 1990 the Tigers mercilessly massacred 103 Muslims in Kattankudy and 122 in Eravur during Jumma prayers on successive Fridays.

Even after the CFA of February 2002, in June the same year, the Tigers attacked the Muslims in Valaichenai, killing 12 and destroying 235 businesses. The situation in the Trincomalee District is not dissimilar. Here the Muslims number 137,000, Tamils 112,000 and the Sinhalese 104,000; the areas of Muslim preponderance being Kinniya and Muttur.

The LTTE attacked Muttur in 1986 and repeated it after the CFA in October 2002 and May 2003, and riots are continuing. In the Ampara District the Muslims are predominant with a population of 245,000 compared to 110,000 Tamils. Serious problems between the Muslims and Tamils presently, particularly in Sammanthurai and Akkaraipattu, have led the police to even declare curfew. It is well to remember that the Tigers first tested the Muslim resolve in the Eastern Province in 1985 in Akkaraipattu, Sammanthurai and Kalmunai which saw the birth of the continuing anti-Muslim violence by the LTTE. If in fact, as most suspect, the present problems in this region are inspired by the LTTE, it is the continuation of a consistent and calculated policy to damage the Muslims.

Both the distribution of the Muslims and their percentage in the Northern Province are more or less akin to that in the Southern Provinces. Except for substantial concentrations in places such as Mannar Island (34 per cent Muslim), the Musali Divisional Secretariat Division (62 per cent Muslim) and Manthai D/S Division (22 per cent Muslim), all in the Mannar District, and the large region referred to as Moor Street with 6 government schools and 75 mosques in Jaffna town, the rest of the Muslims in the Northern Province live in scattered pockets comprising 200 villages in the five Northern Districts of Jaffna, Mannar, Kilinochchi, Vavuniya and Mullaitivu.

In similar fashion, the just over 6 per cent Muslims in the Southern Provinces live in large concentrations in Akurana, Puttalam, Beruwala, Colombo and a few other places, and the vast majority of them live peacefully and with dignity among the rest Sinhala population. On the contrary the entire body of the 100,000 Muslims in the Northern Province were chased away openly by the LTTE within a matter of hours. These hapless people have been living the last 13 years mainly in the North Western Province utterly neglected, voiceless and 'housed' in nearly 200 locations conveniently classified as Internally Displaced Persons (IDP).

The LTTE who claim to be the sole representatives of the Tamil community, a community that has had a torrid time for at least the last twenty years, should come out statesmenlike with something acceptable to all, if not for any other reason, at least for the sake of their own community.

There are today 26 Muslim Members of Parliament in the House of 225 (8 per cent of 225 is 18) of whom two are from the North (one a Minister), and, thirteen from the East (one Minister and two Deputy Ministers). That makes up 15 out of the total of 26. This means 60 per cent of Muslim representation in Parliament are from the North and the East where only 30 per cent of the Muslims in the country live. This is as it should be given the special problems of the Muslims in the two provinces are facing today. It is this result that gave the Muslim community much hope and expectations for their brothers and sisters in the North and the East. Let history not say that Muslims hopes were in vain.

H. M. Mauroof, President, National Muslim Movement

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No holds barred by Prof.S.Ratnajeevan H.Hoole

History - whose story?

Last week, vacation time, saw the family driving through the homelands. Through Thinnavely of July 83, through once Tamil areas that were resettled in the 1980s, even as my colleagues wrote up histories as if at the request of the political establishment to justify the land grabbing and earned their professorships.

We Sri Lankans are unable to tell history from religious faith and ethnic self-images of who we are. Recent proposals to reintroduce history into the school curriculum therefore seem welcome. The science of reconstructing the past with so many variables is intellectually far more challenging than the dullness of science with its certainties. It indeed teaches students new skills in open-ended problem solving with multiple solutions.

But experience is that teaching history will not help discover our common heritage, but be used to poke the majoritarian view down minority throats. At present the little history that is taught is through Social Studies. The Grade 7 text for instance, tells my daughter that the Aryans settled in Jaffna, forgetting that it is long since Aryans were seen as a racial group. It implies that rice cultivation was introduced by the Aryans otherwise it would be a Dravidian thing. (Etymologically rice comes from the Tamil 'arisi'). It speaks of irrigation works as independently introduced with no reference to coeval South Indian achievements.

A student may not have a choice but I do not know how Tamil teachers go through teaching this?

The Ceylon Tamil Teachers Association has rightly protested with no effect. But their cause is weakened by similar shortcomings in portions of texts written by Tamil hands in the absence of Sinhalese interest. Thus in the government text Tamil Year Six, C.W. Thamotherampillai, the renowned Tamil scholar, is said to have been born a Hindu and pretended to be a Christian for privileges. The historical record, attested by postgraduate theses and baptismal records, is that he was born into the Christian Kingsbury family. Similarly in other histories, he is belittled and the Saivite leader Navalar credited with his achievements. In turn, it is claimed Navalar wrote the Bible whereas he knew no Hebrew or Greek and was only an assistant to missionary scholar-translators.

Tamil attitudes also show in the many statues of Valluvar, in all likelihood a Jain. His face is reconstructed with no foundation in history or tradition, each with a different likeness, and daubed with holy ash. In keeping with the faith that Tamil is Savism and Saivism is Tamil, both Thamotherampillai and Valluvar have to be made Saivite before their contributions to Tamil are acknowledged. Even the Tamil Bible needs a Saivite author.

Proper teaching of history must analyse the competing claims and not simply regurgitate received tradition. Today, even with so many ancient texts and the modern tools of archaeology, we know so little of what happened a millennium ago. Are we prepared to examine what language our people spoke before Sinhalese literature comes into evidence around the tenth century AD?

We lack maturity to engage truly with our past. We lack a critical mass of historians of integrity to lead us. Any history we teach would be story-telling by the majority. I would rather that my children stuck to science.

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Book Review : A story of freedom and selfless love

One More Sunrise by Maurice Perera, Athena Press, London (2003). 133 pp.

Reviewed by Jehan Perera

Joining the ranks of Sri Lanka-born writers who have had their books published internationally is Maurice Perera. In a compact novel, the author grapples with the civil war in Sri Lanka and its consequences to the lives of its people. He writes a gripping tale of freedom and selfless love that spans three countries and a generation. There is tragedy and sadness, and there is nobility and the hope of new life.

'One More Sunrise' is about the guerrilla war that pitted the militant Tamil separatist movement, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam against the Sri Lankan state. The story centres around a young Australian journalist who comes to Sri Lanka to cover one more story for her newspaper. But a destiny she does not foresee awaits her. She falls in love, not only with a courageous fellow journalist, but also with an orphaned child, and befriends a guerrilla fighter. Even at risk to her life, she seeks to promote their best interests.

Maurice Perera is a journalist with 42 years of experience. After working briefly in Sri Lanka, the United Kingdom, Yugoslavia, Malaysia and Singapore, he moved with his family to Australia where he settled down. With his wide experience of international life, and his writing skills honed as a professional communicator, Maurice Perera has been able to craft a story that is comprehensive in scope and is also concise.

While keenly aware of the discrimination practised against the Tamils by Sri Lankan governments of the past, the author is unsympathetic to the LTTE which he consistently describes as a terrorist organisation. Mainstream thinking in Sri Lanka has, however, evolved beyond this characterisation. The present Sri Lankan Government seeks to negotiate a solution with the LTTE which it describes as a partner in the peace process.

The author provides some of the historical background to the civil war and the ongoing peace process in an appendix. There is personal experience that the author relates as a member of the Sinhalese majority that would have shaped the contours of the book. In a prologue he writes, "My heart cries out for Devaraja (a Tamil friend) who was hit on the back with a rock hurled by a maniac (during an ethnic riot). And for the thousands of innocent victims of all races whose lives meant nothing to madmen of all political shades eyeing the spoils of war."

Short chapters that are bite size end with the promise of yet another tasty morsel that is to come. The reader feels impelled to keep turning the pages.

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