Yet, the western politicians, the public and especially the press are so ready, willing, nay eager to condemn governments in countries like Sri Lanka that they fall into traps like this, very easily.
The "refugee" has to only use the word "discrimination" for everyone to fall over each other in the scramble to come to the refugee's rescue. This is a very powerful word that makes those who have first hand experience at discriminating feel very uncomfortable.
Down the passage of history we have read about the discrimination of the Europeans against anyone who was different, be it race, religion or anything else. The wiping out of many native American tribes, atrocities against the Jews, persecution of Protestants by Catholics and vice versa, the witch hunts in the middle ages as well as the more recent "communist" witch hunts, the treatment of homosexuals even today are a few examples of discrimination that spring to mind.
The powerful propaganda machine of the LTTE is fully aware of this psychology. They have, therefore, made maximum use of this. They played on the aversion of the westerners to this word with its connotations of the pogroms, atrocities, the most base qualities of humans, as a maestro plays on a violin. The allegations made against the Sinhala people and the government in Sri Lanka ranged from racist policies to actual genocide.
Let us take each of these allegations and examine them one by one in depth. Take the charge of Genocide.
Tamils consist of 12.6% of the total population of Sri Lanka or 2.6 million. Of this, only 400,000 live in the areas under the control of the LTTE. The balance live in the South: even so far down south as Galle and Matara. This means that 1.9 million Tamils live among Sinhalese who are supposed to be carrying out a systematic programme of genocide. If the charge of genocide is true, the Tamils living in the south are either very daring or extremely masochistic. If the charge is not true, it means they feel safer among the Sinhalese than they do with the LTTE.
Undeniably, there have been race riots in Sri Lanka, the worst of which was in 1983. We do not in any way condone violence against anyone. Yet, even in the much talked about '83 riots of "Black July" the death toll was less than 500 persons. How many have died at the hands of the LTTE's carefully planned, cold-bloodedly carried out programme of ethnic cleansing and bomb attacks. A fact that is never mentioned by any propagandist is that during the race riots many Sinhala families helped Tamils who had been victims of the mobs. Taking them into their homes, protecting their property and belongings, donating blood, finding safe passage for them if necessary and generally facing the wrath of the mob themselves, because a mob doesn't care whom they attack. Yet, no one mentions these things, not even those who have received this help.
Everyone remembers the riots of '83, but no one seems to remember the events that triggered them off. The 13 young men who died, blasted by a remote controlled mine. This was cold, calculated murder, not death in the heat of war - war had not been declared yet. The young soldiers were carrying out police duties to keep the peace. Rebels were attempting to create civil disorder against a legitimately, democratically elected government. No one condemned the blasting of the mine and no one, who points the finger of blame against the Sinhalese, cares to remember it.
The mine was blasted deliberately, knowingly to provoke a back lash against the Tamils living in the south. After breaking off the most recent peace talks, once again, the LTTE is attempting to provoke a back lash by setting of bombs in the south.
If genocide is killing of people of one race, the LTTE has been carrying out a very systematic programme of genocide against the Sinhalese and the Moors who are Muslims living in the north and east of Sri Lanka. Places like Trincomalee, Kantale, Seruwila, Batticaloa are a few that come to mind. These people who have been living on their own properties, inherited from the generations before them, have been massacred while they slept by LTTE gangs that slipped into the villages at dead of night, by stealth under cover of darkness.
Infants at arms thrown up in the air and caught on the tip of a bayonet as they fell, pregnant mothers run through the stomach with swords, men, women and children mutilated, hacked and even insulted in death. A generation of youngsters are growing up in Sri Lanka, who will never know who their parents were, who were traumatised by watching their parents being killed. Children who have no papers, birth certificates, to prove who they are. Not just missing children, but children disinherited by murderers. They and a few others who were lucky enough to escape unnoticed, are now refugees in their own land.
A visit to one of the many refugee camps that shelter these unfortunates will reveal the extent of the tragedy of real refugees who have no means to finance a journey even to Colombo to appeal to the foreign embassies and high commissions to grant them asylum.
Tamil terrorists who say they are championing the cause of a minority have committed the worst possible atrocities against the true minority in Sri Lanka, the Muslims. They have violated all known codes of conduct, committed crimes against humanity, shown a callous disregard for the freedom of worship and freedom of expression by their actions against the Muslims alone.
Another allegation is that there has been wide-spread and on-going discrimination against the Tamils. This is why they need a state of their own.
It may be true that since 1983 less companies are employing Tamils. This has become a necessary precaution to safe guard the businesses. Even Tamil owned companies follow this policy, not because it is a government directive, but for their own survival, to prevent LTTE sympathises infiltrating and carrying out terrorist activities under cover of business activities. That this is not government policy can be proved by a glance at the numbers of Tamils employed in government service, even today. Until recently, the most powerful civil servant in the country was a Tamil. The present Minister of Foreign Affairs is a Tamil, as are many other high ranking civil servants. Today the Minister for Foreign Affairs is a Tamil.
If statistics released by various government ministries are examined, a very interesting picture emerges. These figures reveal that there has been discrimination; but not against the Tamils. The discrimination has been against the Sinhalese themselves, and they have borne it without complaint even while they realised it. The following are figures taken from the last census that could be held in the country in 1981. The composition of the population is as follows:
(Sri Lankan Tamils are the descendants of migrants from India during the 13 and 14 centuries. They are and have always been citizens of Sri Lanka. Those who came prior to the 13 and 14 centuries as either armies or traders have merged and assimilated. Indian Tamils were brought in by the British as cheap, almost slave labour to work on the Estate plantations, which were carved out of lands wrested from Sinhala peasants and on which the peasantry refused to work as wage slaves. The Indian Tamils have been absorbed into the population as citizens by registration.)
The following two tables are very interesting: these give percentages of Tamils living in Sinhala areas and Sinhalese in predominantly "Tamil" areas:
In 1971: 29.2% of Tamils were living in Sinhala areas while the percentage of Sinhalese living in the Northern province was 4.5%. In 1981: there were 32.8% Tamils living in Sinhala areas while Sinhalese in the NP were 3%. Sinhalese living in Jaffna had dwindled from 2.9% in 1971 to 0.6% in 1981.
It has been alleged that young Tamils have resorted to arms because they are unemployed. This is a very popular theory that is acceptable to many in the west. A look at the following figures will give the lie to this allegation:
In 1981 in Sri Lanka there were 14.7% of Sinhala males and 37.1% of Sinhala females unemployed. Unemployment rate of Tamils in 1981 was males 8.8% and females 27.5%.
Of the number of doctors in public or government service, while 61.7 or 0.83% of the population were Sinhala, 35.1 or 2.78% of the population were Tamil. Accountants: 65.5 or 0.89% of the population were Sinhala and 33.1 or 2.63% of the population were Tamil. Engineers: Sinhala; 61.9 or 0.84% of the population, Tamil: 34.9 or 2.77% of the population.
Another charge is that Tamils have been deprived of education facilities and amenities. The following figures are revealing.
Provision of amenities to government schools:
In Matara education district, of the 417 government schools, 4.6% have instruction in the Tamil medium. In the Colombo education district, of the 251 schools, 18.7% have instruction in the Tamil medium and in Nuwara Eliya 57.3% have instruction in Tamil medium. These are predominantly Sinhala areas.
More facts can be quoted from the same source. Be it the PQLI, health services, education services, university admissions or any other service provided by the Sri Lanka government to its people, the "Tamil" areas are proportionately better off than the Sinhala areas. Yet the cry is "discrimination" and "Unfair treatment against the Tamils".
A fact to be remembered when comparing these statistics is that whereas the figures for the Southern regions, which are called "Sinhala" areas, include a considerable number of Tamils, in the figures for the so called Tamil areas, the numbers of Sinhalese are very low.
Another myth that is vociferously maintained by these propagandists is that these areas constitute traditional homelands of the Tamils who have been inhabiting them from time immemorial, that when the country was colonised by invaders the sovereignty of the Tamils was lost, and the British, when leaving the country, handed over the whole of the country to the Sinhalese illegally and with the abrogation of the 1948 Constitution, the Sinhalese have lost the power given to them by the British. Therefore, the Tamils should be given back their lands and the right of self-determination.
This fantasy is based on very flimsy, almost spurious evidence. It was a document known as "Mr. Cleghorn's Minute dated 1 June 1799". Until 1930 only a fragment of this document was available in Ceylon and this fragment was first published in the Ceylon Almanac and Annual Register in 1855, a government publication. This was published later in Cornelius Dickman's Civil Service Manual in 1883 and reprinted in the Ceylon Literary Register in 1891. Even though this document had appeared in print several times, the fact that it was not only fragmentary but also defective was known and accepted by all authorities. It is this defective and fragmentary document that the Eelamists are using as authenticated proof of their claim to a right that never existed. Very carefully, they do not quote the full document because this would expose their statement to be what it really is - a blatant lie. The Eelamists omit the last sentence when they quote this document. This in itself is suspicious - they know full well that they a propagating a lie to hood wink the world.
In this document Cleghorn states that two races have divided the possession of the island from ancient periods. Yet, he says the Sinhalese (Cingalese as he spells it) originated from Siam and profess the ancient religion of that land.
This in itself should be proof enough to show that Cleghorn was utterly ignorant of the true facts about the country and its people. Therefore, how could he make an authoritative statement about the heritage of the Tamil people?
Cleghorn visited the Island of Ceylon twice, once in 1796 for a period of six weeks and next in 1798 for a period of 14 months. The minute was compiled in the first eight months of his second stay. Never, at any stage in his acquaintance with Ceylon had he evinced any interest in its history, even though he was supposed to be a man of "solid academic credentials". He was interdicted from official duties on charges of corruption and sent home in disgrace in 1800. The charges of corruption was in connection with the Pearl Fishery in 1799.
The source of this famous Minute were from the documents of Dutch officials. From what we have learnt of the country's history, the Dutch left the administration of the local population to the local people. The fallacy that Roman Dutch Law (which is today the general law in Sri Lanka) was used by the Dutch on the Sinhalese was promulgated by the British. They laboured under this delusion, purely because this law was administered within the Dutch forts was Roman Dutch Law. This law applied only to the Dutch and their servants, whether native or not, living within the fort. The Sinhalese had a legal system, and a very good legal system, of their own, which was administered on the local popul ation living outside the Forts. The British did not know, nor cared less for that. To them all black nations were uncivilised so how could they have a legal system?
The Dutch knew a great deal about their Forts, a little less about the western maritime regions but less than little about the Kandyan kingdom and the eastern seaboard. The fantasy that the Sinhalese were of Siamese origin was believed in very firmly by the Dutch solely for one reason. When Buddhism all but vanished, in the 1760's the Sinhala King in Kandy sent a delegation to Siam in order to re-establish ordination for monks in the Island. The Dutch had provided the transport for the delegation in their ships. Naturally they assumed that there were close historical links between the Saimese and the Sinhalese. This misconception was repeated by the British and is reflected in Cleghorn's minute.
Cleghorn's contemporary, Robert Percival, had also written about the Island and its people. In his work there is little or no mention of the Tamils. He declares thus:
"Besides the native Ceylonese who live under the dominion of the Europeans and are distinguished by the name of Cingalese the coasts are chiefly inhabited by Dutch, Portuguese and Malays....When the Portuguese first arrived in the island, the whole of it...was possessed by one race....The Ceylonese under the dominion of Europeans retain their original appellation of Cingalese...."
Yet, even Percival errs in his assumptions on the origin of the Sinhalese: Chinese, Indian and Maldivian. However, he does not mention that Tamils even existed in Ceylon at that time.
This is proof enough to show that Cleghorn's authority and sources are seriously flawed and can never be used as historical proof that Tamils have a hereditary right to any part of Sri Lanka. A serious study of the events during Dutch and British periods will show that at no time did either of these two European nations concede that the Tamils had any right to any part of the land. At all times, they dealt with the Sinhala King and the Sinhala leaders.
The British divided the country into provinces for two reasons, ease of administration and to break the power of the Sinhala leaders. They feared that the people would rally round a leader and would raise rebellions against the British power. To prevent this, they effectively divided the country into provinces, not on an ethnic or any other basis. The division was arbitrary and was designed to erode the extent of Kandyan lands. They even divided the Sinhalese into two nations: the up country or Kandyan and the low country Sinhalese.
The separatists put forward different versions of this mythical claim to traditional homelands an apartheid term borrowed from South Africa. The election manifesto of the TULF, the separatist Tamil political party declares that this, the north and the east of the island, are the "exclusive" domain of Tamils. This is a fantastic claim: 30% of the land area and 2/3 of the coastline for a minority which constitute only 12.6% of the total population. And what of the Muslims who have been living in these areas as long as the Tamils have? No mention is made of them. The concerns the Muslims have raised regarding the claims obliged the separatists to throw a sop to Cerberus and change the claim slightly to the homeland of "Tamil speaking peoples". This still does not make their claim any more just or right.
The claim to an exclusive homeland does not mention the Tamils now living among the Sinhalese. At the 1981 census the figure was 32.8%, today it should be much more (including the 18,000 that never returned after they came to Colombo to see the Pope in 1995.)
Tamil politicians and writers protest vehemently and vociferously about the injustice of Sinhalese "encroachment" into "Tamil" areas, but none of them ever mention or even want to listen to the injustice done to the Kandyan Sinhala peasants whose rights to their traditional lands is being encroached on everyday by the massive Indian Tamil influx into the plantation areas. Today the danger is even greater as the Indian Tamils make ever bolder encroachments on rights of the Sinhalese, even denying them the right to burial grounds or the right to be re-settled after losing all they have due to landslides and earth slips.
In their brainwashing propaganda the LTTE teach their young recruits that the Sinhalese are oppressors and have denied the Tamils their rights and therefore they have to be killed so that Tamils can live in freedom and enjoy all privileges that have been denied them all these years. The young recruits believe this propaganda, because of their experiences in their own areas, not at the hands of the Sinhalese but at the hands of their own people. There are separate churches for Tamils of low and high castes. When travelling by public transport low castes have to occupy seats in the back and not sit if a high caste person is standing. They are not allowed to drink water from the well used by people of high caste.
It is not difficult for people who have been subject to such restrictions and regulations by their own people to believe that Sinhalese, who are considered "outsiders", to be worse and have a special unfavourable attitude to non-Sinhalese. They can believe that all Sinhalese go to the best equipped schools, while the Tamil children are denied even desks and chairs in their schools. They have never visited any of the rural Sinhala schools, where the Sinhala children cannot even afford to go as they do not have money for the required exercise books and writing implements.
Yet, those who do manage to leave and come South experience something entirely different.
They see that problems that are claimed as exclusive to the Tamil people because of the ethnicity are common to all the people of Sri Lanka. Entry to schools and universities are even more competitive in the South. The district based selection to universities applies even more strictly to Students in Colombo and other major Southern towns than they do to the Jaffna students. Tamils have two universities which are exclusively for them, while the Sinhalese have to share the other five with the Tamils, Muslims and other ethnic groups living in the south. Entry to these universities are not based on ethnicity but on marks and home district.
Jobs are scarce and difficult for everyone, not only the educated Tamil youth. The Sinhala youth revolt of 1971 and again in the eighty's was a result of these problems. Housing is a problem that is common to all, as is land. The Sinhala farmers do not get any better prices for their produce than do the Tamil farmers. None of these problems are exclusive to Tamils.
If this question of discrimination is studied in depth, it will reveal that the Sinhalese have been discriminated against by successive governments, who, in an effort to stay in power have pandered to the Tamil political parties. The rights of the Sinhala majority have been so eroded that today they do not even have the right to call themselves Sinhala without being accused of chauvinism and racism even by their own people and government.