From T.D.S.A. Dissanayaka's 'war or peace ....' : The Muslim factor

In June "The Sunday Observer" serialized Chapter I "Sri Lanka: What Went Wrong?" During that month T.D.S.A. Dissanayaka travelled intensively within the Eastern Province conducting research into Chapter II "Peace: At What Cost?" He is now writing Chapter II which will be completed in August and the book will go into print in September, simultaneously in Colombo and New Delhi.

We are pleased to announce that "The Sunday Observer" has obtained exclusive rights to serialize Chapter II as well. The Author has drawn our attention to the additional information he gathered in the Eastern Province last month, in respect of Chapter I. He has therefore offered us an additional installment in respect of Chapter I which we gladly publish as an Addendum.

(Continued from last week)

One of the amazing results of our Civil War is that Sri Lanka Tamils have migrated in huge numbers to Canada and are still doing so. As of 2002 there were over 350,000 Sri Lanka Tamils domiciled in Canada according to Canadian immigration authorities. The City of Toronto alone has about 250,000 Sri Lanka Tamils as against 200,000 in the City of Colombo, according to our Department of Census and Statistics. According to Canadian Immigration authorities in the calendar year 2002 a record 352,013 Sri Lankans, mostly Tamils, migrated to Canada as against an average of 25,000 in recent years.

The Muslims, not the Ceylon Tamils, are now the unquestioned majority in the Eastern Province. Such a transmigration has happened only once in Sri Lanka during the twentieth century prior to the Civil War. That was in the Eastern Province due to the land policy of D. S. Senanayake, initially as Minister of Agriculture and Lands and later as the first Prime Minister of Ceylon. As of now the Muslims are both vocal and strident in their new role as the majority in the Eastern Province. For example at the General Elections of 2000 and 2001, the Muslims accounted for five elected Members of Parliament as against four elected Tamils and three elected Sinhalese.

All these Muslims who were duly elected in 2001 are very vocal in expressing their opinion that the Muslims are now the majority in the Eastern Province. Indeed the Muslims are no longer willing to play second fiddle to the Sri Lanka Tamils as they have done since time immemorial. The LTTE knows that and they themselves told me so.

Thus as the nation moves inevitably towards a Federal solution, the present omens are a Northern Province for the Sri Lanka Tamil majority, an Eastern Province for the Muslim majority and the balance seven Provinces for the Sinhalese majority. That could happen in the next five or ten years.

To answer the question "Sri Lanka What went wrong?", basically the Sinhalese have been an unjust majority since independence and the Sri Lanka Tamils have been an unreasonable minority, always.

The Sri Lankan Tamils were a much favoured minority under the British. However, they forgot that with the departure of the British they would never enjoy such disproportionate privileges.

Much worse, the Sinhalese had their kingdoms for over 2000 years, yet they forgot that the Sri Lanka Tamils also had their kingdom for over 2000 years. (The Indian Tamils were at best indentured plantation labour brought in by the British).

The Sinhalese are more than aware of King Elara who is portrayed in the Mahavansa as King Dharmista Elara (Elara the Just). King Dutugemunu who killed King Elara in a duel in 160 BC himself referred to his slain rival as King Dharmista Elara. King Dutugemunu insisted on delivering the eulogy at the State Funeral he accorded King Dharmista Elara. In death King Elara was accorded every honour befitting a great King by King Dutugemunu himself. All of this is not only recorded in the Mahavansa but also well-known to almost every Sinhalese man, woman and child. Of course the well informed amongst the Sinhalese are more than aware that the last King of Yalpanam was King Sankill III, that he was captured by the Portuguese taken to Goa and hanged in public and many such details.

Notwithstanding these considerations the Sinhalese forgot that ever since Independence, the Sri Lanka Tamils (not the Indian Tamils) must be treated as a special entity. They were a separate race from a separate Kingdom which had existed for over 2000 years. In the modern world the descendants of the subjects in the Sinhalese Kingdoms and the descendants of the subjects in the Tamil Kingdom can conceivably live together only in a Federal State. Leaving behind a unitary State was the fatal mistake made by the British in general and the Soulbury Commission in particular. This was the doctrine preached by S. J. V. Chelvanayakam. I agree with him whole-heartedly. (End of serial on Chapter 1)