Language as bridge builder

The Ceylon Workers Congress says that the language issue has been at the core of communal disharmony. Giving evidence before the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission party stalwart and Deputy Minister Muththu Sivalingam called for the strengthening of administrative, legislative and institutional structures to ensure the average citizen can transact business with the state in his mother tongue.

The gist of his complaint is that estate Tamils are still being discriminated based on language. True, administrative functions are still carried out mostly in Sinhala in the predominantly Tamil plantation sector.

The estate Tamils cannot even make a complaint to the Police in their own mother tongue. There have been instances where complaints have been wrongly recorded due to this lapse. It is the same with other business involving the State where Tamils are placed at a disadvantage. Letters that are written in Tamil are replied in Sinhala or English. This is despite other bottlenecks stemming from ethnicity.

To the credit of the Government it has taken cognizance of this disparity and has now put in place the second language proficiency scheme whereby incentives are offered to public servants who gain competence in languages other than their own.

This though would take time to establish itself as it is still in a nascent state. Thus it is doubtful if the Government would be able to overcome this problem in the short-term.

But indeed there is a need to address this problem seriously if not for anything else but as part of the on going reconciliation process. The ideal situation would be integration by making all communities learn each other's languages.

Our education system should be suitably structured to achieve this objective. Attention should also be paid towards spreading the teaching of the English language in the estate sector. Competent teachers should be recruited to undertake this task.

A link langue no doubt would go a long away overcoming racial tensions while also cementing the bonds between the communities. First of all, though the plantation Tamils should be properly conditioned to adapt to the changes. For, their entire outlook will have to be changed if they are to be made more productive citizens. While fostering communal harmony through language links is to be welcomed, the estate Tamil community has to be encouraged to go beyond their limited existence and further their horizons.

Therefore the language issue should not be taken in isolation. What is needed is a holistic approach to ensure the emancipation of plantation Tamils.

Some of the politicians of the plantations should take the major portion of the blame for allowing their community to wallow in their present state.

No doubt it suited their political ambitions to keep the estate community in a permanent state of ignorance.

They feared enlightenment since this would have enabled them to see through the designs of their political masters. This way they were able to bargain with the administration at the centre to obtain for themselves all privileges and plums of office.

Therefore it is time the Government gets directly involved to improve the lot of the plantation Tamils instead of waiting for inputs from their so-called messiahs. This should encompass a wide area that includes education, improvement of health facilities, infrastructure development etc. Ways should be devised to rid them from the cycle of poverty which has been exploited by politicians for their own selfish ends. Today one hardly comes across a member of the estate community adorning high positions in the civil service or the professions.

This is in stark contrast to their brethren in the North. One needn't go far to grasp the reasons for this.

The Tamils in the North had always placed great store in education and upward mobility while their counterparts in the estates remained chained to poverty and ignorance and not allowed to progress. It is time they broke out from this siege mentality and seek out a new existence.

It is the responsibility of the Government to provide them with all the opportunities and the wherewithal to make this possible. They deserve to live in dignity as equals with the rest of the community not least for their contribution to the country's economy.