RECOGNITION OF TAMILS = POWER SHARING + AUTONOMY!!!

Reconfiguring the colours of Lanka from our disaster

By Jeevan Thiagarajah

The current developments in the Wanni will result in civilians from Mullaitivu and Kilinochchi having to escape death injury and destruction. For now, close upon 32,000 persons have made the journey. A great many more are expected. The country has experience in dealing with disasters primarily caused by human hands as well as the calamitous Tsunami.

It is understood that any disaster leads to shock, losses and grief. Every single person who makes it to safety requires bedding, sanitary provisions, clothing, food and water. When this occurs in large numbers enumerations by sex, age competencies and locations and able-ness and infirmity needs to be known rapidly. Conversely, emerging disasters draw responses from the Government, inter-governmental non-profit and even the profit sector. These need to be also recognized systematically. Needs, supplies and the reconciliation of this data is a necessity to ensure effectiveness of disaster response, as well as non-duplication and optimum utilization. These are matters which are now being actively considered but needs rapid implementation. The coordination is fundamental. We occasionally call on exiting administrative structures to bear the extra load. This is wrong. It is important to bring online extra human resources to manage the disaster response. The country is not short of those trained to do so in addition to those who can be called on from our provincial services.The managers of the process and the people who are to benefit must have a close rapport. The conditions provided for those in need must take into consideration issues of needs of age, sex and families.The larger context of the displacement is a psychological dimension. The current developments have drawn different public responses. Sri Lankans overseas who are from the areas in the North are anxious, anguished, and angry and are also seeking to lend a hand spiritually, materially and physically. We must recognize this resource. It is equally important to relate to their emotions. Some of which read as:

‘From what I read of the govt's plan it seems like they want to keep the IDPs in a concentration camp prison for 3 years to mop up the vanni... so, we'll have 1) these concentration camps, 2) Jaffna an open prison, 3) the east in the process of finishing the colonization and making the Tamils 12% population...’ or ‘Eelam war 4 has JUST begun... and will last another 2- generations... the only solution is a two state solution or perpetual war in one form or the other...’ or ‘most Tamil Diaspora don't think of themselves as "Sri Lankan"... they are Eelam Tamils or Tamil Americans, Tamil Canadians, British Tamils etc... the there is just not RAGE in the Tamil diaspora it goes beyond that... and it is bringing people together like nothing else could do...’. These are the angry Sri Lankans. It is not possible for us to dismiss them easily. If we are to bring a lasting peace to this country, we must address many of the issues raised in this writing and look to reconcile these competing needs, claims and demands.

This writer is fond of passages from the inauguration benediction for President Obama by Rev. Lowery. To quote: ‘Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labours rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around -- when yellow will be mellow -- when the red man can get ahead, man -- and when white will embrace what is right.’ The analogy to this quote are the perceptions that the roots to our current disaster lie in polices and practices from soon after our independence which have led to alienations, dissent, violence, counter-violence and conflict. It is possible to re-phrase it to our context and link it to references to our intelligence earlier if we are to nation-build communities which constitute colours of this country. It is only by recognizing our colours and giving due importance to them we would have a painting which lasts for long. To express it differently, Jayadeva Uyangoda in his article, “Power Sharing and Autonomy of ‘Minority’ communities in Sri Lanka” states, ‘The recognition of minorities as political communities with an inalienable right to equality and equal treatment is fundamental for marginal minorities to experience a sense of belonging to the larger collective of political communities which we call the polity. Secondly, the political recognition can be institutionalized through guaranteed representation at appropriate levels of regional, municipal and local assemblies. Recognition then should lead to entitlements of citizenship, which many marginal minorities do not enjoy, yet do not complain about. Recognition should also put an end to minority exclusion in a majoritarian democracy.’
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