I am writing here my point of view on the so called ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. I hope this saves my time explaining my overseas friends "What is this conflict". These are the typical questions that people had so far asked me and my answers as of my knowledge.
1. What is the Demography of Sri Lanka Sri Lankan population comprises of 74% Sinhalese, 13% Native Tamils, 5.5% Indian Tamils,Moors 7.1% and rest other minorities. Please see
ICTA for details.
2. When and why this conflict started? This is purely an aftermath of imperialism though it wasn't intentional.
3. How do you justify that?After independence of every country all systems in the country are adjusted to assure to be fair to majority of people irrespective of cast, creed or ethnicity. So Tamils got annoyed by changes to,
- Official language change
- Political system change
- Education system change
- Economic model change
- New colonies created by development projects.
Following is my point of view on how each of these aspects.
Official language changeSri Lanka got independence in 1948 from Britain. By that time government official language was English and percentage of Tamils who worked in government service and administration was more than 50%. Because of low English literacy among Sinhalese they always felt the system is unfair for them. The reason for Tamils having better English literacy is because Tamils allowed to open up Christian missionary schools in the north and they attended those schools while most Sinhalese attended their own schools where Buddhism was taught.
Because of this unfairness majority of Sinhalese wanted to make Sinhala an state official language. Then shortly after independence a democratically elected prime minister
S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike made Sinhala an official language in 1956. This was a must and was part of the independance. However Tamils were against the move and after few discussions, protests and riots Tamil language also was made an official language of Sri Lanka. Few Sinhalese in Jaffna were got killed in the riots in 1956.
Political system changeShortly after independence Tamil representation in the parliament and politics was significant due to two basic reasons,
- English being the primary language in administration
- Most of the politicians came out of densely populated districts. So the ratio of Tamils and Sinhalese in politics based on the population ratio of the densely populated districts such as Colombo and Jaffna.
This was not fair for the majority of people because there was no equal opportunity to reperesent in politics. But later constitution changes ensured that there is representation from every part of the country. The representation was made to depend on the population of each district. Though these constitutional changes ensured equal political opportunities to all parts of the country this brought down tamil representation closed to theoretical 18%.
Education system changeEducation in Sri Lanka is totally free. But Sri Lanka is not yet a rich country to provide higher education for everyone. There is a huge competition among students to get selected for university education.
Before 1948 and shortly after Sri Lankan universities were operated in English medium and entrance was limited English speaking elite class. After independence and adoption of Sinhala as an official language the universities became available to non English speaking students. But even in 1970s more than 50% of engineering and medicine graduates were Tamils. This was not because of the Tamils are smarter than others in Sri Lanka. But because of unavailability of proper education system and facilities to most remote parts of the country.
The university entrance was based on island wide common threshold of marks in grade 12 G.C.E advanced level examination. This system was so unfair to students in districts with less facilities in education.
Followed by the equal representation in politics from all over the country the university entrance too became based on a district quota system. This district quota was based on population of each district. This quota is subjected to change every year depending on the improvement of education of each district. With this quota system and free text books/cloths from government education became fair to everyone.
But most people in urban areas were not happy about this quota system because it effectively decreased the chances of getting selected for university entrance. Similarly the Tamils were affected greatly because the quota system decides the number of students entering to the universities irrespective of skill level.
But I believe this was one of the best decisions by the government to give equal opportunities to students with less education facilities. But it would have been better if the government introduced the quota system gradually while increasing university facilities. http://countrystudies.us/sri-lanka/46.htm
Economic model changeThe free economic policies brought in by then government in 1980 affected almost every industry in Sri Lanka. Farmers in Jaffna got affected due to government's move to import food from india and let the prices float with global market prices. The same thing happened to textile industry and several other industries. In my opinion this is a bad decision by the government in 1980. But affect on the people was equal to both sinhalese and tamils.
New colonies created by development projects Specially the tamils say the Mahweli project benefitted only Sinhalese. This is because majority of people settled in new colonies are sinhalese. This happened because those who were displaced by the hydro power project got priority. And tamils claim the land of new colonies belong to Tamils historically. But this claim is a total lie. The land used as new farms/colonies are vastly unpopulated land belonged to the government. But there several other development project that totally benefitted tamil farmers. Some projects implemented and some proposed project was not implemented due to the armed conflict started by the separatists.
4. When was this conflict started?The conflict started in 1956 with Sinhala was made an official language in Sri Lanka. But the real armed struggle was started in 1983 when LTTE killed 13 Sri Lanka military personnel in Jaffna. During this period then government was afraid of the emergence of leftist party JVP. And the ruling party UNP was finding a way to suppress this movement. Taking advantage of arousal of racism consequent to killing in Jaffa by LTTE, some ruling party members launched a struggle against Tamils all over the country.
Eventually the ruling party banned the leftist party JVP and arrested its leaders charging them for organizing the struggle against Tamils. But it was the ruling party who persuaded Sinhalese to rob and kill Tamils all over the country.
In this incident around 2500 Tamils were got killed throught out the country and Many others were robbed and chased away by Sinhalese. This was an stupid outrage of people backed by government. Read more on the Black July on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_July.
However in this riots lots of Tamils were protected by Sinhalese in many cities. I am not in anyway justifying this incident.
End results of this riot were,
- Separatists got rationale for the conflict. This was the aim of their killing of 13 military personnel.
- Lots of Tamils expatriated taking political asylum mostly in European countries and determined to assist separatist movements for taking revenge.
- The leftist party JVP (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janatha_Vimukthi_Peramuna) got strong in 1988 and struggled against government. Thousands of young men and women were killed in this struggle.
- Separatists got strong with the help of expatriated Tamils(So called Tamil diaspora)
5. What is happening nowThis is the most important question to which I cannot answer without explaining the above background. What Happens now,
- Tamil diaspora provides assistance to Separatists just because they are taking revenge on their behalf. Diaspora has no intention of returning home ever. They don't care who suffers by the struggle. They know for sure that they are not going to win the a separate land in Sri Lanka for another hundreds of years. So it is clear why they are helping Separatists. It is only hatred and taking revenge.
- Separatist leaders too having the same mindset as the diaspora even if they live in Sri Lanka. They drive the struggle while having a good life inside their controlled area. They don't care who suffers and when they win a separate land and peace. In a way they are trapped by the on going system driven by diaspora. They promote suicide bombers, child soldiers and keep blasting bombs and attacking Sinhalese as long as they can.
- Separatists claim for a land that they don't historically deserve. There is absolutely no logic behind the claim. This is considered by Sinhalese as endless craving of Separatist Tamils.
5. Bottom line- Separatist Tamils are struggling for something unachievable in the near future. Only way of achieving a separate land in Sri Lanka is to make Sinhalese a minority by growth of Tamils in the Island through reproduction.
- If the conflict wasn't there in the past 25 years, Sri Lanka would be a well developed proud nation of the whole world. When the economy grows people tend to ignore petty differences.
- Hatred of diaspora may be justifiable but the suffering of Sri Lankans (Tamils than Sinhalese) is not in any means justifiable. All suffering Sri Lankans should understand the hatred and intention of diaspora and their supporters. Then intend not be pawns for ever.
- It is time to enjoy the achievements of the 25 year conflict. The government and Sinhalese have become so flexible and have brought rules and regulation to minimize any possible discrimination now. It is time to put an end to hatred however it began in the first place.
