RAJAN HOOLE - In Sri Lanka, a Government in Denial About the Ramifications of a Long History of Violence
The crisis arising
from the Sinhala-Tamil student conflict at Jaffna University is
a part of the Sinhalese establishment’s absence of conviction on the cardinal
importance of secularism and the drift of the Tamil elite towards religious
obscurantism.
Conflicting
nationalist narratives – as adaptations of received history to explain the
present and direct the future – have, for each community, its inner logic. This
is evident in how the Sri Lankan media has treated the Jaffna University’s first
clash between Tamil and Sinhalese students.
In this regard, the
university has the opportunity of playing a constructive role in winning over
its Sinhalese students through mutual understanding and respect, and thereby
creating a base for demanding that other universities do likewise. That calls
for courage, foresight and empathy.
Unfortunately,
following the mores of its Sinhalese counterparts, today the Tamil cause is
being presented by extremists and is mired in meaningless symbols, purposeless
rituals and the exclusion of ‘others’ from particular spaces.
To understand the
transition, we go back to the Vaddukoddai Resolution of 1976 –
the definitive statement of Tamil separatism. The essential grievance in it is
that the Sri Lankan constitution of 1972 gave the foremost place to Buddhism
and obliged the state to foster it. These provisions were protected in the
second republican constitution of 1978 as well.
Whatever may be said
in mitigation – for example, that the constitution also guarantees religious
freedom to others – in effect, it is inequality and the denial of secularism.
This, invariably, leads to the other principal grievance in the resolution:
‘Denying the Tamils equality of opportunity in the spheres of education, land
alienation and economic life in general’.
Sri Lanka’s security
forces have erected Buddhist monuments in minority-dominated and war-devastated
areas as symbols of possession. This, it would seem, is their skewed
interpretation of the constitutional call to ‘foster Buddhism’. In 2005, under
the cover of darkness and the backing of a hardline Sinhalese-Buddhist
political party, the navy planted a massive Buddha statue in the Trincomalee bus
stand.
When the attorney
general sought court action for its removal, the country’s chief justice
arm-twisted him and the case was withdrawn. The events did nothing to ease the
climate of the eastern city which was already seething with ethnic tension. Hardly
any Sinhalese leader would dare to oppose such unlawful actions by the security
forces that assumes the colour of patriotism.
The proposed new
constitution is almost certain to uphold the primacy of Buddhism and there is
no consensus over the nature of the state – whether unitary or otherwise. As
such, the content and language of the Vaddukottai Resolution, would continue to
resonate with the Tamils.
The grievances stated
in the resolution are essentially about rights and inequality, and separatism follows
largely on the premise that the Sri Lankan government is incapable of a just
settlement. Devolution under provincial councils, that was offered grudgingly
under the Indian pressure in 1988, has proved to be a futile counter to
entrenched inequality.
One would, on this
reading, conclude that the most rational and painless first step for the
government is to zealously enforce secularism and its counterpart, equality. It
must be kept in mind that the Tamils long felt strongly about these grievances.
Their nonviolent protests were violently quenched.
As a community, they
have been through a ruinous armed struggle in the last thirty years, whatever
its rights, brutalities and follies. To ask them to accept the primacy of
Buddhism in the new constitution, the effects of which are far more than
symbolic, would make it rankle as a counterfeit made from base metal.
Imitating
oppressive mores: Once
culturally rooted, sectarian ideological claims become politically embedded and
are extremely hard to reverse. The disease extends divisively. What the
Sinhalese did with Buddhism, to their detriment, the Tamils are repeating. The
Tamil nationalists who passed the Vaddukoddai Resolution prided themselves as
being secular, and in word at least, tried to make common ground with the
Muslims, whose language is also Tamil.. read more:
http://thewire.in/55838/jaffna-university-swirled-in-the-eddies-of-lankas-contest-for-hegemonic-spaces/
