From:  (Soundranayagam)
Subject: RE:fair representation
Followup-To: soc.culture.sri-lanka
Organization: SSC
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 21:43:57 GMT

This is to clerify few things said by Subash.

************************************************************
* My point is that if "we" (JVP, LTTE or evrn the UNP) eliminate the people
* who want to be a part of the government through the democratic process,
* then how can we expect a fair representation in the Parliament?
* Since the original article was so anti-Sinhalese, I used only the name of
* Thuraiappa, whom may be the first Tamilian victim got killed because he
* worked with the government.

* USA has a highly centralized system. I agree. But, it is not divided in
line
* with the different races. It happened to consist of so many states mainly
* because it grew slowly from a union of about 13 states at the beginning.
* People migrate a lot, due to many reasons, within this country, unlike in
* Sri Lanka.  Though there are some places I personally don't want to live 
* in USA, if I am willing to face the consequences, I can move anywhere 
* in this country to live in. I am talking about the racial/religious
* intolerance.

* And please don't forget that the Federeal Government and the Supreme
* Court did most of the work to bring down the racial intolerance in this 
* country. Many Southern states had to be forced to comply with those
* steps. If the Federal government did not play its part at that time, I
* don't think this would be a country I want even to visit. So, in my
* opinion, the more decentralized the system is, there will be much more
* discrimination towards the minorities. There are Tamil speaking people
* outside the North and the East!

*************************************************************************

It is my understanding that a government's primary function is to protect
every citizen from those who can harm them in many ways like murder, rape,
physical abuse, slavery, child labor, financial exploitation, etc.

Thus the governments and the constitution under which it governs the nation
or community should rise above all races, religions and languages.  Untill
this is achieved in Sri Lanka and the people are convinced that they can
get equal justice either through political process or judiciary system,
killing will continue in Sri Lanka. As Subash implied, it is not confined
to Tamils.

Subash is right in stating that the federal government and the supreme
court did most of the work. But one should realize that it was only
possible
because of the constitution. It is still possible for Sri Lanka to have a
constitution that guarantee equal rights to all and to have a federal
government (not a singhalese government) that uphold and adhere to the
constitution setting an example to the state governments, district
governments, municipal governments etc.

A citizen should have the right to live in any part of the country.
Singhalese, Muslims, Tamils and others should have equal right to live
in the north, east and other provinces as they have lived in the past.

*****************************************************************
* If you are talking about 1983 or 1987 riots, I have to correct you. Both
of
* them started not because of "a minor dispute between a Tamil or Muslim
and
* a Singhalese". In '83, the riots followed the killing of 13 members of
* the army, which was the highest number got murdered in a single ambush,
* up to that date. In '87, the riots followed the Indo-Lanka pact, which
* was not welcome by many of the groups.

* Before you take me wrong, I am not justifying what happened in '83 or
'87.
* I didn't like it. I still don't like it. I don't think I will ever like
it.

* I don't think anybody is safe in Sri Lanka tooday, because of the
* present war and/or the police state we have. (Prasad's modified Bill of
* Right
* speaks of the second, very well).
*****************************************************************

We have had riots before 1983.  I do not remember the year or other
details.
Our experience is that the Tamils were under the mercy of the Singhalese
in the present system.  No protection from constitution, government,
security forces, police force etc.

***********************************************************
* If the politicians really wanted the people in North and East to be
usefully
* represented, they should have joined one of the two major parties of the
* country. They didn't do that, because then there would be  no assuarance
* that
* they will get re-elected almost automatically. Instead, they promoted
* political
* parties with highly localized political agenda and thus alienaed the
people
* from the North and East. That's why we don't have a fair (and useful - to
* the
* people in the North -) representation of the North in the Parliament.
*
* (Being a part of a party is not to endorse all of it's policies. If one
* really wants, he or she can work towards changing the unacceptable
* policies).
************************************************************

All the major parties were preaching racism. How can you expect the Tamils
to vote for them?  TULF tried over 15 years to work with the various
governments, mostly with the SLFP, to bring federel system.  The very
first agreement, Banda-Selva pact, failed because of JRJ and the Budhist
monks. It was and is the government policies that pushed the Tamils to
bear arms.  Thanks to the Bhudist monks and racist Singhalese leaders.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.sri-lanka,soc.culture.tamil