SANGAM.ORG
Ilankai Tamil Sangam, USA, Inc.
Association of Tamils of Sri Lanka in the USA
by Dr. S. Jayahanthan
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The Sri Lankan state from its conception has been afflicted with a genetic disorder that has continued to retard its growth. Throughout its development it lacked the integrity required for it to grow into a vibrant and virile state, now too late in its degeneration to remedy....Terrorism, intimidation and repressive legislation were not the only instruments of state oppression. The state sought to systematically destroy or consume the socio-economic and educational bases that sustained the fragile Tamil nation. For instance, the mainstay of the predominantly subsistence economy in the northeast of Sri Lanka, and central to agriculture, fisheries and cottage industries, was the self-reliant co-operative movement, comparable to any other in the world. This cooperative movement was built over years of hard work and dedication by volunteers. This system was downgraded and made moribund.
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Recent events in Sri Lanka lead to the indisputable conclusion that the Sri Lankan state has completely failed its people. The incidence of violence and repression is too numerous to mention within the scope of this paper; suffice it to say that murders, rape, disappearances, unauthorized arrests, torture and aerial bombardments against civilians have intensified in the last 6 months. These are phenomena not only of the recent past, but have been ongoing for the past 30 years. The intensity of these abuses has increased in recent times due to the complete breakdown of the State apparatus. The failure of the state to provide security to its ertzwhile citizens is compounded by its inability to deliver on its economic obligations, having become totally dependent on handouts from other nations even to run its day-to-day affairs. This situation has adversely affected the lives of the Sri Lankan people, more so the Tamils.
Hundreds of civilians, LTTE cadres and supporters, and military personnel have died since last November when Mahinda Rajapakse became President. Most of the atrocities are the acts of the Sri Lankan State or its allies, indeed, with the state's tacit approval. This paper seeks to briefly focus on the failure of the Sri Lankan State towards the Tamils.
The latest massacres at Alliapiddy and Pesalai and the destruction to the island's biggest Catholic church are recent cases in point of state failure. Churches and temples where helpless people congregate have for many years been convenient targets for the security forces for such massacres.
The open defiance of judicial orders by the security forces, including the police, with a helpless government just looking on, is a sign of the complete breakdown of the judicial system. These trends have come to destroy the very State that set them in motion.
The symptoms
Complete centralization of power in the hands of an executive President since 1978, the resultant dismantling of democracy, the subservience of the judiciary, and the increasing corruption within a servile and inefficient public service at all levels have in no small measure led to the state's failure in providing responsible government. Not only has the state failed to afford protection against the violence and destruction directed at a substantial section of the population, it has been the very perpetrator of these abuses. The blatant violation of human rights is an everyday occurrence and taken for granted. The island's democracy is just window dressing and within its structure there is no substance. Let alone the State not being able to safeguard its subjects from attacks, it cannot even protect the highest echelons of its security forces.[1]
The Sri Lankan State from its conception has been afflicted with a genetic disorder that has continued to retard its growth. Throughout its development it lacked the integrity required for it to grow into a vibrant and virile state, now too late in its degeneration to remedy. Further, it failed to engage the minorities in healthy democratic growth, but instead progressively alienated them, quite in contrast to a truly democratic state.
In November 1945 when D S Senanayake, the then leader of the State Council and the leader of the Ceylon National Congress later to become the United National Party leader and Prime Minister in the first government of independent Sri Lanka, in trying to allay any of the fears of the minority communities about accepting the new constitution for Sri Lanka, stated:
“……… On behalf of the Congress (Ceylon National Congress) and on my own behalf, I give the minority communities the sincere assurance that no harm need you fear at our hands in a free Lanka”
The Tamil members in the State Council believed this assurance and unanimously voted for the (Soulbury) constitution which ushered in the new independent Sovereign state of Sri Lanka in February 1948. Little did they suspect that Senanayake did not mean one word of what he said.
The Soulbury Constitution and its successors
The Soulbury Constitution was devoid of provisions for individual or group fundamental rights, citizenship and franchise. It was designed to be so. The meagre provisions contained in Section 29 relating to the enacting of any law, which would protect persons of any community or religionfrom 'liability or disability,' were to be removed in the succeeding constitution.
With the advent of the Constitution of 1972, Sri Lanka ceased to be a true democracy. The constitution destroyed even the few safeguards for the minorities which had been provided hitherto. Made under a state of emergency, and bestowed with religious sanctity by the high priests of the Dalada Maligawa to make up for its legal invalidity, it was unique in that it was the only constitution in the world that provided for its own repeal and replacement. It created a Sinhala Buddhist theocratic state. The judiciary was subjected to political control with the judges and other officers being appointed by the cabinet of ministers. The judges were compelled to take an oath which placed the question of the legality of the constitution outside the jurisdiction of the courts. With the concept of the separation of powers laid aside, judicial power was subordinated to political power. Further, through her ignorance of democratic principles, values and practices, the prime minister (Mrs Bandaranaike) went on to act far in excess of her prime ministerial office and assumed the role of a virtual dictator.
The current constitution, tailor-made in 1978 with little or no public debate to suit JR Jayewardene’s whims, went further in regularising the prime minister, Jayawardene, into a dictator, President Jayewardene. Again, contrary to any judicial conscience, the judiciary was compelled to take an oath to uphold and defend the constitution, an oath designed to place the question of the legality of the constitution outside judicial review. The notion of the Sinhala Buddhist theocratic state was further enhanced. The old despotic practice of the Head of government and state bowing to the wishes of the clergy with absolutely no accountability was restored, thus making the clergy a part of the state apparatus. The President is the Head of the State, the Executive of the Government and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. Following the 1972 Constitution, the new constitution vested the judicial power of the state in parliament, subjecting the judiciary to political control with no provision, in reality, for any checks and balances Not satisfied, Jayewardene continued to tinker with the constitution to secure himself firmly in power through a series of Acts. Executive action continues to erode the position of the Supreme Court.
Let us again briefly retrace our steps to the state's early days.
'Unpeopling' its own citizens
Within one year of independence, by an Act of Parliament, the Indian Tamils who were British subjects prior to 1947 were denied their citizenship. This also applied to their children, including those un born. This Act was soon followed by another which deprived them of their right to vote, which they had already exercised in the Parliamentary elections of 1947. Of a total population of 7 million people on the island, 1 million were disenfranchised. The most powerful section of the working class lost its political power. Not only were the Indian Tamils deprived of residential status they were also rendered stateless, a situation that defies perception. Having lost all opportunities of economic advancement, they had to continue to remain enslaved within the confines of the plantation sector as labourers. The State, by its action, shed all responsibility to protect them as citizens. They just became “unpeople.”[2]
Colonisation
Since 1948 the extent of the traditional homelands of the Tamils have been reduced by at least 3000 square miles by a conscious and systematic colonisation of these areas with Sinhalese families aided by the state. In addition, 'gerrymandering' of electoral districts to reduce Tamil political influence resulted in the carving out of another administrative Sinhalese district in Ampara and the Tamil districts of Batticaloa and Trincomalee were reduced in size and became isolated. Foreign aid that flowed from Western countries rarely reached these districts except to pay for further Sinhala settlements.
Sri Lankan Tamils become second class citizens
If, in 1949 one million Tamil citizens of Indian origin were disenfranchised, hardly seven years later, another million Tamils, those of Sri Lankan origin, who had lived in the island for more than 2000 years, were reduced to the status of second class citizens with the introduction of the Sinhala Only Act in 1956. Thereafter, it was birth and not merit that determined the opportunities for education and employment on the island. Such discrimination was carried further in the seventies by the introduction of a system of standardisation preventing a level playing field to tens of thousands of Tamil students to compete for university places.
Tamils under siege
Except in the LTTE-controlled areas, the Tamils in their own homeland are in an intensified state of siege in a virtual military state with their mobility restricted, children denied schooling and the trades of fishers, farmers and traders completely paralysed.
In February 1961 a non-violent civil disobedience campaign was used as a pretext to station a network of army and navy platoons in the various parts of the Tamil homeland in the guise of preventing illegal immigration, smuggling and later terrorism. This military occupation became a permanent feature. Every Tamil has been regarded an illegal immigrant, a potential protector of illegal immigrants, a smuggler or a terrorist in disguise. Tamils have been living in a state of insecurity and fear since 1961. It must be said, however, that the services of members of the security forces as couriers of contraband have been invaluable to real big time smugglers.
Tamils besieged by terrorism engineered by their own state
Pogroms against the Tamils sponsored by the State in 1956, 1958, 1977 1979, 1981 1983 saw murder rape, arson and looting in which tens of thousands were affected. The pogrom of 1979 was particularly directed against the Tamils in the plantation sector. In the pogrom of 1977 and in those thereafter the police and army personnel either watched or took an active part in the attacks on Tamils and their property. After every porgrom the country came under emergency regulations for protracted periods. During these periods terror unleashed by the security forces reigned. Since 1977 the security forces have had greater freedom under the emergency regulations to cause havoc and mayhem in unlawful arrests, torture, killings and disappearances with impunity. Just before the July 1983 pogrom, President Jayewardene betraying complicity, told a British journalist:
“I am not worried about the opinion of the Jaffna people…… Now we can’t think of them. Not about their lives or about their opinion about us.” [3]
Destruction of Tamil economic and social bases
Terrorism, intimidation and repressive legislation were not the only instruments of state oppression. The state sought to systematically destroy or consume the socio-economic and educational bases that sustained the fragile Tamil nation. For instance, the mainstay of the predominantly subsistence economy in the northeast of Sri Lanka, and central to agriculture, fisheries and cottage industries, was the self-reliant co-operative movement, comparable to any other in the world. This cooperative movement was built over years of hard work and dedication by volunteers. This system was downgraded and made moribund.
Further, two of the leading secondary schools were taken over to provide infra-structure for a University in the North. The notion was: “You are not going to get a University for nothing.” The library in Jaffna, which was burnt down by the security forces during the mayhem of 1981, was not a just a library books procured from bookshops. A repository of priceless originals, it contained irreplaceable manuscripts and rare works. Burning the library was an act of iconoclastic terrorism. It must be stated that the burning was carried out under the supervision of 3 state ministers. One of them, Gamini Dissanayake, a senior cabinet minister, was shortly to say in Parliament,in an attempt to dilute his responsibility:
“We do not wish to minimise in any way the gravity of what has been done…..I saw it and I was shocked…..these police officers have run berserk. I am sorry for the violence perpetrated in the Jaffna peninsula. I think we are all responsible.”[4]
An ineffective justice system
The wheels of the justice system have refused to move. The murders of Tamil and Sinhalese journalists, Tamil politicians including a Member of Parliament and the former foreign minister, not to mention the hundreds of others in the recent past remain uninvestigated and unsolved. Either the system is completely inefficient, there is state complicity, or it is convenient to keep crimes unsolved so that the Tamil leadership can be blamed.
Denial of humanitarian aid: Tsunami
More than sixty percent of those affected by the Boxing Day Tsunami were those in the Tamil-speaking areas and as of today little or no aid for their rehabilitation has reached them, despite the fact that the Sri Lankan state need not disburse one cent from its own pocket. International donations both in cash and kind worth millions of dollars are still to be handed out. Tamil victims of Tsunami are still languishing in makeshift shelters. If the aid is to be distributed in a fair and equitable manner, then a greater portion of it would go into the Tamil areas. This is what deters the state from acting. Even a humanitarian issue of such magnitude is being viewed from a purely sectarian angle and made political capital of.
Invoking the precepts of the various religions like compassion, the government talks of liberating the Tamils from LTTE leadership, providing a pluralist ethos and engaging them in economic development. All the while the Sri Lankan state has amply demonstrated that it lacks the will to help its people in dire distress needing immediate help, a contradiction that defies explanation.
Confessions of the Head of State and the Government
The recent statements of President Rajapakse to the security forces to assist the Human Rights Commission in performing its duties and to the Parliamentary Representative Committee on Constitutional Reforms and the Panel of Experts have been a series of pathetic confessions of the abject failure of the state. Talking in platitudes, he said:
"We will insist on democratic values, political pluralism and the tolerance of dissent being established within the shortest possible time throughout the country”
After fifty-eight years to provide 'democratic values, political pluralism and tolerance for dissent,' the State has failed on all of these counts towards its citizens. Rajapakse puts this failure down to the lack of political courage. Instead it has been a deliberate attempt to hold power and wealth within a circumscribed circle through attacks on the minorities.
[1] concept from Chomsky, Noam: Failed States, 2006
[2] concept from Curtis,Mark: Web of Deceit,2003
[3] Daily Telegraph London, 11 July 1983
[4] Tamil Times, London, Vol.0 No.1, September 1981
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