STOP DISINFORMATION NOW,
Say Tamils in Colombo

The reactions to our last statement published in The Island, The Sunday Times and Virakesari on 8th May and in the Divaina on 9th May 1994 came from a cross-section of Sri Lankans. AGOTIC was complemented in particular by many progressive Sinhalese who applauded the initiative. Indeed a group of Sinhalese professionals even proposed that a sustained dialogue should be carried out between themselves and AGOTIC.

But the vast majority of responses, both verbal and written, from Sinhalese fellow Sri Lankans ranged from bemused tolerance to outright hostility. Because they shared the following common but grossly erroneous assumptions:

That the Government has sincerely sought to solve the Tamil problem.

That considerable progress has been made and many Tamil grievances have been redressed. Here the almost universal belief among Sinhalese is that the Constitutional Amendment making Tamil the second official language of the country has solved the language question.

That, although there may be room for some further improvement, Tamils have nothing really to complain about.

In fact members of AGOTIC were asked by many Sinhalese: "What are the grievances of Tamils?" This question at first seemed like a callous and flippant come back to the May Statement. But it was soon evident that the Sinhalese posed this question in all seriousness.

The only conclusion possible here is that many Sinhalese are simply ignorant of the existence and dimensions of the Tamil problem today.

This appalling situation cannot be an accident. The Tamil problem has been at the centre of a political storm for decades and matured into armed conflict in the North-East Province (NEP). It is inconceivable that a Sri Lankan could be unaware of the details of the central political issue today.

But the ignorance on the part of many Sinhalese is real. Because, firstly, Sinhalese have largely abdicated their civic responsibility in respect of the Tamil problem and prefer to blame the politicians. The near universal cry is: "the politicians are the cause of everything". AGOTIC deplores this passing-the-buck syndrome and calls upon Sinhalese people to take responsibility for the actions of their elected representatIves.

Secondly, the ignorance is partly due to the systematic disinformation carried on by the Sinhalese political leadership among the Sinhalese people.

Examples of disinformation are many.

1. Recently the Minister of Foreign Affairs (Mr ACS Hameed) returned from a visit to New Delhi and mischievously asserted that New Delhi favoured the de-merger of the NEP. This was far from the truth because the Indian High Commission in Colombo categorically denied the Minister's claim.

The Minister's visit also exposes the hollowness of Governmental demands for non-intervention by outside forces. An intelligent reading of news reports shows that the Minister submitted a "progress report" of sorts to New Delhi on the Tamil problem. It is time that the Sri Lankan Government came clean and informed its people about the sub-continental implications of the Tamil problem.

2. It was alleged that Sri Lanka attempted to induce the German Government to close down a television broadcasting station located in Berlin and managed by Tamil in Europe. In itself it was an unwarranted interference in Germany's internal affairs. But more to the point, the intention of the Sri Lanka Government was to propagate the myth that Tamil nationalism is manufactured primarily by the "foreign hand" of Tamils abroad and that there is really no Tamil problem in the country.

3. The ongoing signature campaign conducted together by sections of the Buddhist clergy and extreme Sinhalese chauvinists is a further example of disinformation. They propose to collect one million signatures of (Sinhalese) Sri Lankans in support of a seven-point manifesto which celebrates Sinhalese chauvinIsm and obscurantism.

AGOTIC strongly condemns these and other acts of disinformation. They encourage the abdication of civic responsibility. They also place conceptual and psychological obstacles in the minds of Sinhalese people and prevent a resolution of the Tamil problem.

Dr K Velauthapillai (President)
Dr S Sathananthan (Secretary)
Action Group of Tamils in Colombo (AGOTIC)
19 June 1994