Karmic Twist in Taprobane
Will Sri Lankans Unite, Make Peace With Minorities and Create an Equitable Society
For the first time since post-independence, ALL Sri Lankans have come together to throw out the Prime Minister and the President.
The Prime Minister’s house was set alight.
The sweet irony!
In 1983, orchestrated by the government, Sinhalese thugs attacked and burned many Tamil homes and massacred over 3000 people in a Pogrom — where one group wants to harm another based on race.
This event is known as the Black July riots.
I was seven years old.
My father didn’t go to work that day, and we lived on a long street with one entrance.
An angry mob entered the top of the street.
We could see the houses being set on fire and hear the carnage.
We had no place to go.
Thankfully, the Indian High Commission staff living above our space protected us. We hid in the outside toilet.
I would hear the breaking of glass, strangers screaming, our car being torched and the smell of burnt rubber.
My father towered over us, holding us so tight.
I was so scared.
A military truck came to the rescue…
For the Indian High Commission staff only.
To protect their child, my parents handed me over to the Singh Family.
They looked after me in a hotel where I met an Indian reporter, Anita Pratap.
She captured our story and many others from war-torn areas in a book titled Island of Blood.
After the riots settled down, I was reunited with my family again.
We were asked to pack our things and take a refugee ship back to the North.
Where we would be safe.
The world sickened by the racial injustice opened its doors to Tamils, and many fled.
Including my family to the warm bosom of Australia.
The Black July riots fed recruits to the Tamil Tigers and started the civil war that raged for 30 years, killing hundreds of thousands of people and displacing millions.
The seeds of inequality and injustice were planted in a colony and post-independence.
Like many post-colonial nations, a few had, and many did not.
Crony politicians know their masters will not appreciate issues being addressed.
Commonwealth remember?
Instead, they use the ‘race’ card to win the many.
How?
In Sri Lanka’s case, fanning the fire of hate against the minority (Tamil & Hindu). And elevating the majority (Sinhala & Buddhist).
Or simply, blame a minority group for ills and rally the other.
Ironically, the first major political assassination in Sri Lanka was that of the Sinhala Prime Minister, who used the race card to win power.
And later he wanted to make peace.
A Buddhist monk shot him.
What started in the 1950s kept erupting periodically until 1983, when a fully-fledged war began.
In this insidious and yet powerful fashion the Sinhala part subsumes the Sri Lankan whole and provides one of the foundations for Sinhala domination. This attitude can be discerned in Anagarika Dharmapala’s writings. It underpinned the surge of political forces that effected the political transformation of 1956, challenged the primacy of English, made Sinhalese the language of administration and in the process placed the Tamil vernacular in a secondary position.
The 1956 ideology underpinned the triumph of the SLFP-led forces that brought Mahinda Rajapakse to power in late 2005. So, the recent defeat of the LTTE raises the possibility that the merger of whole within the dominant part of the population could poison the prospects of reconciliation.” — The Sinhala Mindset
The war ravaged the country for 30 years, killing the brown sons and daughters — irrespective of race.
And spewing more hate.
I have dear friends that are Tamils and Sinhalese. We have intermarriage in our family of all faiths.
I hoped one day the Tamil- Sinhala war would end like the Irish — With arms laying down.
Numerous peace efforts failed.
There’s too much money being made in war…all wars — even today!
Then a Sinhala political family, the Rajapaksa’s, saw their opportunity.
They came to power and installed their family in all the key positions.
And the Sinhala public remained silent…
They became bolder…
They kidnapped anyone who went against them in white vans — declared ‘missing’.
And the Sinhala public remained silent…
Like the pied piper, they knew tunes to play to win the masses over.
They became bolder and bolder.
They kept promising to end the war — not through negotiation, but war.
The public cheered…
Forgetting the theft and atrocities, the Rajapaksa’s were administering to their own.
They became bolder still…
They made deals with foreign governments — Courting China, India and the West.
They played the game beautifully.
The War did end… with the genocide of thousands of innocent Tamils.
No BBC, CNN or Facebook coverage.
No one to report. No one to witness, no one to write this history.
Sinhala Sri Lankans cheered.
Tamils cried.
The world chose to be blind to this end.
One UN Staff member could no longer remain silent.
Gordon Weiss wrote about what he saw in the book -The Cage.
Thanks to his bravery — we have a record of what happened.
The UN could no longer be silent.
With giddiness and post-war celebrations, the Rajapaksa’s promised to ‘investigate’ the final days.
How could a perpetrator also be the judge?
The slow machinations of Human Rights and justice are still being worked through.
The Rajapaksa’s in the meantime managed to take even more power.
But they ended the war?! Right?
Rajapaksa’s and their allies built a large fortune, costing the country everything, with poor, unskilled management.
Today, Sri Lanka is bankrupt with USD$58 Billion in debt.
The country is virtually at a standstill.
No money for public service.
No money for electricity.
No money for transport.
No money for food.
No money for essentials.
For the last six months, all Sri Lankans, Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim and Burgher have been rising to say enough is enough — it’s time for a change. The hashtag #gohomegota has been used to send the message loud and clear.
Like a wolf in Little Red Riding hood, the wily Rajapaksa’s thought they could manipulate the situation by changing just the Prime Minister and leaving a Rajapaksa in charge.
Like a volcano erupting, the public rage could not be contained anymore.
Hundreds of thousands descended on Colombo to take back the country this weekend.
The Prime minister’s home was set ablaze.
The protestors are occupying the President’s residence.
The President has agreed to resign on the 13th of July 2022.
The 23rd of July marks the 39th commemoration of the Black July Riots.
The sweet irony
Sri Lankan island people have a rare chance to shape the nation for generations.
Will they follow the same patterns of yesterday?
Or will they show the world what is possible when they acknowledge the hurt to find a new vision?
Time will tell.
