Tamil unity: Will Keuneman's dream come true?

Prasad GUNEWARDENE

To begin with the welcome trend of fast-growing unity among Tamil political parties, it is appropriate to recall the national minded sentiments expressed a quarter century ago by a man from the microscopic minority in this country. He was the much-hailed Communist Party stalwart, Pieter Gerald Bartholomeusz Keuneman who visited Jaffna immediately after the burning of the historic Jaffna library by UNP sponsored hooligans. Keuneman reprimanded the security sentries at all checkpoints leading to the venue for being blind to the incident. Eyes glued at the remnants of that historic building with tears rolling down his chubby cheeks, as memories came afresh of the days he shared that library with S J V Chelvanayagam, Anil Moonesinghe, K BRatnayake, G G Ponnambalam and Dr Colvin R de Silva, the Communist Party leader told the Tamils, "Stand united as one community and one people to resurrect this building someday. As long as you are divided you will never find solutions to your grievances", he observed.

Tamil population

On his return to Colombo, Keuneman drove straight to the private residence of then President JR Jayewardene at Ward Place to brief the latter on the irreparable loss and damage caused to the knowledge of the Tamil population in the North by the burning of that historic library in South Asia. Great leftist leaders like Keuneman, Dr N M Perera, Dr Colvin R De Silva and Dr S A Wickremasinghe were free to drive into Ward Place at anytime, being close associates of JRJ who started his political career reading the Marxist ideology before turning a 'Democratic Capitalist'. Keuneman told his friend J R Jayewardene, "Dicky, you can reconstruct that building to its' former glory but you will never find those books that gave knowledge to us and our Tamil leaders". Before bidding goodbye to his friend, with one foot in the car, Keuneman said, "My wish is to see all countrymen live free without any torturing regrets". The features that resembled on President Jayewardene's face indicated that he was pushed into shame by the sentiments expressed by his life long friend.

Political party leaders

When the Cabinet of Ministers met that week, President Jayewardene, a man with a good memory repeated Peiter Keuneman's sentiments verbatim to his ministers when the issue of the burning of the Jaffna library surfaced for discussion after the routine papers was approved. "I had no words to respond to Peiter", President Jayewardene had lamented as the Cabinet maintained pin drop silence, explained Cabinet Spokesman, Dr Anandatissa de Alwis to scribes at the weekly Cabinet news briefing I regularly covered at that time for The Island newspaper. That was the shame of a cowardly and trivial past we've experienced as a nation.

Pieter Keuneman	Dr Colvin R de Silva
G G Ponnambalam	S J V Chelvanayagam

Though belated, Comrade Peiter Keuneman's call, a quarter century ago, now seems have been heard by our Tamil political party leaders. They now appear to walk in a positive direction to stand together. These leaders met President Mahinda Rajapaksa a few weeks ago to discuss issues facing the Tamil community. Now they have begun to meet each other at party level. The LTTE is buried and they will not face any obstacles on their path. In the current process one must not pull the other by the leg if they are truly keen to resolve the grievances of the Tamil-speaking people. Hence, Tamil leaders must give up the past practice of playing characters in Shakespeare's drama - 'Merchant of Venice' for one to get the credit to that never achievable extra ounce of flesh. Neither Anandasangaree nor Sampanthan could assume the role of Shylock, to treat smaller party leaders as Antonio.

The Tamil community over the years has been yearning a lasting solution to their problems. A lasting solution to that problem could only affirm the national character of our nation. Then we could identify ourselves as one people - Sri Lankans. All political party leaders who uphold the foundation and programs of democracy must work towards achieving that noble objective. Tamil political party leaders are shouldered with a heavy responsibility to tread towards that path. If they stand divided, as Keuneman said, a resolution to their crisis would stand at a distance. They should be greatly encouraged by the positive steps taken by President Rajapaksa to steadily move towards finding a lasting solution acceptable to all communities.

Terrorist war

President Rajapaksa, in meeting the Tamil leaders for discussion has moved in the right direction to find a solution to this issue which has destroyed life and property over the past three decades that was covered by a brutal terrorist war. The President while trying to forge a lasting solution has to safeguard the integrity and sovereignty of this island nation. The Tamil leaders must not forget the fact that all other communities stood to protect the Tamils from the blight of terrorist violence that also killed thousands of Tamils and reputed Tamil political leaders. Also, it must be remembered that the Tamils were divided by the Tamils, following the infamous Vadukkodai Resolution that sought division of this country.

Marxist politics

Finally that piece of paper caused mass destruction at national level as it gave birth to terrorism. Lessons from the past educate present day Tamil leaders never to dream of preparing such resolutions that will only divide the Tamil community and not the country.

No democratically elected legitimate government could offer nor find solutions to any aggrieved community, if that community stands divided. It cannot meet nor satisfy the demands of segments of a community that has grievances in a multi-ethnic society, as solutions need to be based on the willingness of all people. Therefore, Tamil unity is paramount at this juncture to find any solution to meet the aspirations of the Tamil-speaking people. It must also satisfy the future of all people. Like all Tamil political parties, the Southern political entities should also unite towards finding a lasting solution to the Tamil problem. The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) must educate itself on the theory of equality if they believe in the Marxist ideology.

The JVP should not go far back to read the history of a century of Marxist politics. There are recent lessons available from the Chinese Communist Party. In 1978 China abolished the people's commune system to start village committees to allow the villagers to run their own affairs. It became a tremendous success. If the JVP reads the history of Athens, it will further learn how democracy strengthened over there. In Athens, democracy first started in small communities and later it expanded to large States.

The decentralization of power to the periphery has never divided those nations. Instead it has further strengthened the character of those nations. Those are a few lessons for JVP study before they bark at any future solution to the ethnic problem. Unity among Tamils will help overcome petty voices that may bark without reason in the future.

Tamils must also remember the words Comrade Peiter Keuneman, who shed silent tears that fell on the soil of Jaffna, when he silently cried that day looking at the remnants of the burnt Jaffna library.