Discrimination in Sri Lanka: Myth or truth? A response to K. Anga

This makes reference to the above article written by K. Anga responding to a speech made by

Nalaka Godahewa in the UN, appearing in the Daily FT on 6 October.

All the references made by either parties may not be the truth. None could determine or ascertained reading through them, if the facts relating are either myth or the truth. Perhaps, it can be a combination of myth and truth given the agenda or the mission they were on in.

Nevertheless, it should be of paramount importance to note that, neither majority of Sinhalese nor the Tamils are of with racial feelings and animosity with one another. Both people in person of either communities are not with hatred racial feeling or animosities against each other.

If so, none of the Tamils would have been able to live amongst the majority Sinhalese, maintaining such tranquility as of not only today, but even during the yester years, since independence and prior. If the majority were racial, there would have been blood bath recurring over the years on a very frequent basis.

The majority Tamil people of this country are very sincere and warm people. I have a fairly long history from the time of my parents, associating Tamil friends and also them and me working with Tamil people in our adult lives. They have been amazingly sincere. So much so, I opted to keep my son during his education in Singapore with a Tamil family friend of ours though I would have done otherwise. They were near and dear to my son. They treated him the same way they treated their own two sons.

Similarly, I know of lot Sinhalese who came to the forefront to safeguard innocent Tamil people during the black history in July 1983 and I myself did so yet, again there were two sides to the story which is unworthy of discussing. There is no point discussing the implicit damaged done to either parties during the dark days of dating back to over 30 years. We Sinhalese were affected the most. This is so, since we were the majority. 

If the Sinhalese were the minority and the Tamil people the majority, we would have inflicted the most damage to them. That’s indeed the myth and the truth.

It is sad that deceptions and lies have become order of the day.

Tell me which human being would keep numb if someone else try to rub him on the wrong side? It so happen not only between races but also within the races, be it Sinhalese, Tamils and rarely Muslims.

Then who created the dissension? It is the politicians who are supposed to be the guardians of the nation who have created this.

We Sinhalese and Tamils said to be of high literacy rate have been blindfolded by the stupid guardians. Shame, we have fallen into it. We have been taken for a great ride by this stupidity and we continue to go on the same ride now though our eyes un-folded now, after experiencing so much of destructions. 

The myth and truth is that there is a faction of society who are either scapegoats of people with personal agendas or we are lunatics.

The myth and truth is that we are sitting on our brains unable to have in the rightful place the brains deserved to be. In and by all means it’s indeed a shame, shame and shame on us to have been caught in between the myth and truth.

The irony of it all is that we are supposed to be descendants of the same country and we share the same Sinhala and Tamil New Year on 13/14 April whilst we are worshiping the same god in Kataragama. 

Then whom are we fooling? Aren’t we fooling ourselves?

Wake up Sinhalese and Tamils. Don’t be fools yourselves. This is one country for all. There is no way it can be divided for the whims and fancies of people with idiotic and non-realisable dreams. 

Dear Anga, it appears nothing is right for you. Everything has gone against the noble Tamil people of this country. Please remember, nowhere and not even in Tamil Nadu you will have tranquility as ours.

Dear Dr. Godahewa, you did good by defending majority interests and downplaying deceptions and lies if any. Yet, we need to be gracious enough to acknowledge any error on our part as elder brother and truthfully invite the younger brother to place confidence in a view to be in harmony.

By such action we could have better credibility at UNHCR or anywhere else for that matter. 

Ravi Dahanayake

Battaramulla