Conflict resolution Lessons for Sri Lanka

Reviewed by Mallika Wanigasundara

BOOK REVIEW: The majority Sinhalese have been accused of discrimination and oppression of the Tamils for many years. Year after year their noses have been rubbed in the dust, particularly during the CBK regime for the inexcusable and tragic events of 1983. Classified as racists and oppressors of the Tamils these same Sinhalese now live amicably in the south with half the Tamil population of Sri Lanka.

Even after the gravest provocations by the LTTE through gruesome acts of violence against the Sinhalese they have not retaliated. These are facts which are seldom mentioned by the pro-Eelam lobbies here and abroad. Only undefined grievances which have transmogrified themselves into unfathomable aspirations are spoken of.

Brainwashed

The Sri Lankan public has been brainwashed into thinking that the pro-separatist propaganda is the right picture and it has acquiesced in the demonising of particularly the Sinhala Buddhists. G D C Weerasinghe in this slim, albeit controversial book on Conflict resolution Lessons for Sri Lanka attempts to correct this view by defining what real discrimination is and draws parallels with other countries.

But first he looks at Sri Lanka. The real oppressors of the Tamils have been just outside our doorstep up in the North.

Weerasinghe highlights emphatically the centuries old oppression of the so-called lower castes by the Vellalas of Jaffna in the most despicable and humiliating fashion unknown in the treatment of Tamils by the Sinhalese. Weerasinghe classifies this caste friction as the root cause of the conflict which exploded in the North, and which in time targeted the Sinhalese as the enemy.

Weerasinghe writes at length on the gruesome treatment of the non-vellalas - apartheid and isolation in schools public transport, and in every sphere of society even in the eighties.

Weerasinghe mentions many instances: the domination of Parliament by Vellalas, the inferior status assigned to Eastern province Tamils, the violence and arson over attempts at integration and particular instances where coconut shells are offered for a drink of water, to avoid defilement, if at all; of non-Vellalas sitting on the floor of vehicles, of the debarring of entry into temples or the drawing of water from Vellala owned wells.

He quotes scholars like Jane Russel and Prof. Ratnajeevan Hoole who has written that the treatment meted out to the so-called low castes in Jaffna was far worse than the treatment of Tamils by the Sinhalese.

The point Weerasinghe is trying to make is that leaders did not have the vision to spot the caste friction in Jaffna and evolve a strategy to unify Sri Lanka. Instead shortsightedly they helped the non-Vellalas to integrate with the Vellalas and rise up against the elected Government of Sri Lanka.

It was the ingeniously effective propaganda spin which floated the Eelam myth to ‘liberate’ the Tamils. The writer sees the Education Department circular of the 1960s which stipulated that Sinhala children should study in the Sinhala medium and Tamil children in the Tamil medium as a most pernicious order. The Federal party partners of the Dudley Senanayake government threatened to leave the government unless the circular was enforced.

Major blow

This was the first major blow which the Tamil racists struck to divide the two communities. It was so engineered that children of the two communities stayed apart in the classrooms and lost the opportunity to understand each other and develop friendships. Weerasinghe urges that this circular be withdrawn and parents be given the right to choose the medium of instruction as they do in countries like Switzerland.

Of course the affluent have no such problems because the circular does not seem to apply to children in the International schools. The government meekly complied when the foundation for Eelam was laid in the schools.

He sees the need for the emergence of statesmen in place of opportunistic politicians. Weerasinghe offers a historical perspective- the World wars, the break-up of the Ottoman and the British empires, and their consequences on the world; the critical role of Russia in wiping out the Nazis.

He draws parallels with other countries, how they have acted in times of war and turmoil; how they have treated their minorities and insurgents and the strategies and instruments they have employed to unify nations.

This book is a presentation for the average reader and is a very personal viewpoint of a patriot who is deeply disturbed by the events which are seriously eroding the sovereignty, the territorial integrity, the economy, the whole social fabric and the psyche of the nation.

He takes a look at the racist agenda of the Tamil Eelamists, and the opportunities lost by successive governments. He exposes the dubious peace agendas and the real nature of Prabhakaran who spurns a peaceful solution which would be fatal for him. Weerasinghe urges that the leadership should realise that Prabhakaran would never agree to a settlement through negotiation.

He writes of the multi-pronged struggle that former colonies have had to wage against the strategies of the former colonial powers to establish neo- colonialism.

Foremost among them the World Bank and the IMF with their conditionalities for the granting of loans and their skewed development and poverty alleviation projects; the NGOs which influence people’s minds, the media and interfere in both internal and external affairs; and Evangelisation which corrodes the very heart of a culture.

Brilliant idea

NGOs, he says were a brilliant idea for infiltration by the neo-colonialists. Who funds the NGOs? At whose behest are they functioning spending millions of dollars, at what they call the preservation of fundamental democratic and human rights, monitoring elections, formulating alternative policies for governments and resolving conflicts. To suit whom -us or the funders.

Weerasinghe quotes T S Eliot who says in ‘Towards a definition of culture’ that a culture of a people is an incarnation of its religion.It can be said with equal justification that religion is the incarnation of the culture of a people who speak an independent language.

Some of the strategies have cogent lessons for us. Others we should know but eschew. Take Britain. When the United Kingdom was eventually established with the union with Scotland, Wales, Cornwall and Ireland language became the casualty. The UK which preaches to us, suppressed or restricted the use of Welsh, Cornish, Gaelic.

Erase

The Sinhalese have never attempted to erase the Tamil language and in fact it is an official language whatever the shortcomings of its implementation, due to practical difficulties.

Weerasinghe points to the fact that there has been very serious discrimination against various ethnic groups around the world. This does not mean that we should follow suit or excuse ourselves, but it does appear in comparison that discrimination against the Tamils have been very much less serious.

How parties behaved in Britain during World War 11 is held up for emulation. Political parties set aside their own interests and united in a national government for the sake of the survival of the nation.

The writer does not quibble about war. We are in a war situation and the country should be placed on a war footing, he says. In Britain at that dangerous moment power was consolidated in the hands of the leader-Churchill.

In ‘The Second World War’ Churchill has said that there was no legal or constitutional change for this. It was assumed that he should take over the general direction of the war, subject to the support of the War Cabinet and Parliament.

What Weerasinghe is saying is that parties should put aside their narrow parochial interests and unite under one leader for the sake of the country. And that leader is right when he assumes virtually unlimited powers to win the war.

The Kurds of Syria and Iraq have suffered the most horrendous disabilities. Beaten and looted they have had no rights to a passport, official employment, ownership of property. Nor could they be Ministers or Generals. Slowly it is now changing. The writer refers to the Basques of Spain and the Ibos of Nigeria.

We know what happened to the Chinese the most affluent community which controlled the economy in Malaysia in 1969. It far exceeded the violence of 1983, says the writer. The bhoomiputra policy is racist and it is discriminatory. Would the nine percent of Tamils in Malaysia dare to call it discriminiation? the writer asks. A coalition of the three communities has brought about stability and prosperity.

acknowledge

There is a lesson to be learned from the fact that geography is important in formulating a country’s policies.

It is important that we acknowledge that India is the regional power and what we do should not adversely affect her strategic and security interests.We cannot ignore world opinion but we have to formulate policies to protect our interests.

The writer does nor favour a Federal set-up or a merger of the North and East. It is his view that the present Sri Lankan constitution devolves adequate powers to the Provincial Councils. Prabhakaran who has captured power will never voluntarily relinquish power. But whatever legitimate grievances the Tamils have must be addressed.

The government must work out a suitable formula to satisfy the moderates among the Tamils, and ensure that all communities can live in harmony. You may not agree with everything Weerasinghe says, but he draws attention to many matters of interest in our present situation.