An unwarranted call

The call made by Western People's Front Parliamentarian to Tamils living in the North and East to keep out of Colombo is highly irresponsible and smacks of a sinister design to sow the seeds of discord between the Tamils and Sinhalese at a time when the President and the Government are pursuing all steps to build bridges between the two communities.

The MP who is often seen on TV in the forefront of demonstrations on behalf the Tamil community would be doing just the opposite by utterances that would lead to the isolation of the Tamil community from the national mainstream.

For by such conduct he is wittingly or unwittingly trying to whip up communal sentiments at a time when the majority community has put behind the dark chapters of communalism that blighted the country from time to time in its post-Independence history.

It could well be a conspiracy at a time when conciliatory measures are being pursued to redress past mistakes and integrate the Tamils in the North and the East into the national polity. Extensive power devolution that is now being pursued in all earnest is among the measures taken to recognise the rights of minorities.

The establishment of the Eastern Provincial Council with a former LTTEer as Chief Minister is another step taken to give a place in the sun to the minorities and dismantle the edifice of communalism in the country.

Perhaps Ganesan may be fearing that a solid rapproachment of the two communities may put him of out of business as a so-called standard bearer of the Tamil cause.

The Presidential Secretariat meanwhile has challenged the statement of the MP that the State media are pursuing a hate campaign against the Tamils, implying that this was being done at the instance of the Government.

It has debunked this thesis by citing the President's oft repeated calls to the majority not to consider every Tamil as an LTTEer and not to give into provocation amidst the brutality unleashed by the outfit on innocent civilians in the South.

It has also made the salient point that the large majority of Tamils outside the North and the East were living in harmony with the majority community.

Barring the regrettable abberation in July '83 the majority Sinhalese to their eternal credit had not risen to the bait of the LTTE which is angling for a communal backlash. Its taking of soft targets like civilian bus passengers is ample testimony to this.

Even the massacres of a busload of Buddhist monks at Arantalawa and the carnage at sacred Jaya Sri Ma Bodhi failed to ignite the backlash the outfit desired.

It is therefore laughable that the MP should assume that the Tamils in the North and the East would be at the receiving end due to "hate and doubt" entertained against Tamils coming to Colombo.

This is more or less a calculated attempt to blacken the image of the country before the international community and is obviously another thread in the insidious fabric designed to have foreign intervention in the country.

The majority Sinhalese for their part should be commended for their unlimited restraint amidst the gravest of provocation. That there are had been no attacks on anyone even in the wake of the recent spate of bomb attacks against civilians speaks volumes for their forbearance.

This should be obvious to the international community and it is hoped that the young MP's calls to "save the Tamil community" would only be a cry in the wilderness.

Besides, Sri Lanka's Constitution guarantees freedom of movement for all individuals and it would be unfair for anyone to suggest that people living in the North and the East should not come to Colombo or for that matter, to any other part of the country.

What Sri Lanka needs now are moves and statements that point towards peace and amity, not discord and rancour. Unity among all communities will help the Government in its quest to contain LTTE terrorism. Any statements that negate this objective will be detrimental to Lanka's cause and the desire for peace.