MR urges people to be wary of sinister plans to divide country

MR urges people to be wary of sinister plans to divide counntry

article_image

Mahinda

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday warned that some sinister forces, bent on destabilising the country, were trying to engineer another 1983 style conflagration to drum up international support for their constitutional reforms, aimed at dividing the country into several semi-independent states.

Rajapaksa said the gravitation of a section of the Muslim population towards communal political parties had made it easy for the siniser forces to create tensions between the Sinhalese and Muslims by using agent provocateurs.

“I call on citizens belonging to all communities to reflect intelligently on what has been happening and to refrain from all acts of violence”, he said.

Following is the text of the ex-President’s statement:

Several violent incidents have taken place in Digana after a Sinhala truck driver died in hospital following an assault by a group of Muslim men. The police have made some arrests, but they are yet to be formally identified as the perpetrators of this murder. The full severity of the law should be brought to bear on those responsible. The government should provide adequate compensation to the family of the victim. Following the violent incidents that occurred in Digana, the body of a Muslim youth has been found in a damaged house. Thus two murders have now taken place. The government has imposed a state of emergency in the country. However, even at the time of issuing this statement, tensions have not abated completely. This is the second clash between the Sinhala and Muslim communities within a week. Just days ago there was an incident in Ampara. A few months earlier, there was the Gintota incident and several other incidents in 2017 as well.

The only one way to prevent these clashes is the strict enforcement of the law. Unrest is often generated by real or perceived police inaction in relation to a complaint. The police should respond to disputes or conflicts between different communal groups promptly and decisively. Above all, mob violence and collective punishments against uninvolved persons should be prevented at all costs. It is the task of the government to direct the police properly in handling such situations. The local and foreign forces seeking to destabilise this country are trying to engineer another 1983 style conflagration to drum up support for their constitutional reforms which seek to divide this country into several semi-independent states. I call on citizens belonging to all communities to reflect intelligently on what has been happening and to refrain from all acts of violence.

In the first few years after independence, Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim leaders ruled this country together as partners. G.G. Ponnabalam had a warm and cordial relationship with the Senanayakes. That era ended in the mid-1950s as communalism and separatism came into Northern Tamil politics. In the past, the two main political parties had Muslim leaders like A.C.S. Hameed, M.H. Mohamed, Badiudin Mohamed and Alavi Moulana who were elected to Parliament not only by Muslims but also by Sinhalese voters. During those decades, tensions between the Sinhalese and the Muslims were virtually non-existent.

But since the late 1980 s a section of the Muslim population has gravitated towards communal political parties. This has made it easy for conspiratorial forces both local and foreign to inflame tensions between the Sinhalese and the Muslims by using agents provocateurs. The tension that we see now between the Sinhalese and the Muslims is a fairly recent phenomenon. Everyone will remember that such tensions did not exist until about 2012. What was started by conspirators who are now in the yahapalana government, for the purpose of dislodging my government, now appears to have taken on a life of its own and mistrust between the communities is growing by the day.

Even though there are large numbers of Tamils in the north and east, the majority of the Tamil population permanently resides outside the north and east, among the majority Sinhalese. Similarly , hough there is a significant concentration of Muslims in the east, the vast majority of the Muslims permanently live outside the east, among Sinhalese and Tamils. What we are now experiencing is the mismatch between this demographic reality and communalist politics. The very logic of communal politics requires the portrayal of other ethnic and religious groups as enemies or rivals. Today, the situation is such that a dispute or clash between individuals belonging to different religions or ethnicities, automatically leads to a communal riot that spreads throughout the area.

Obviously this is not a situation that can be allowed to continue. There is a need to create in this country a nationalistic alliance comprising Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim leaders resembling the first post-independence government. This is not going to be an easy task given the poisonous contagion of communalism that has spread in this country over the past several decades. However on the basis of the recently concluded local government elections, I have reason to be cautiously optimistic that a window of opportunity exists to be able to turn back the tide of communalism. I intend initiating a dialogue in this regard with national minded Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim individuals and organisations in due course.

http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=181086


 

 

About editor 2979 Articles
Writer and Journalist living in Canada since 1987. Tamil activist.

2 Comments

  1. Rajapaksa is hiding his own racism and majoritarianism by blaming the Muslims and Tamils of indulging in communalism. He glosses over the fact that Tamils started speaking about the existence of a Tamil Nation after a million Hill Country Tamils were stripped of their citizenship and franchise rights in 1948/1949. Thereafter, in 1956 the then government of SWRD Bandaranaike pushed the Tamils to the wall by enacting the Sinhala Only Act and the Standardization Act in 1971. All these discriminatory legislation based on the superiority of the majority Sinhalese pushed the government in a down the hill journey ever since. Rajapaksa is trying to portray himself as a saint when he is part of the problem. His triumphalism, his parading the victorious army on the streets of Colombo as great war victory for the majority Sinhalese have helped to stoke the flames of racism to new heights.

    According to him sharing of power in an undivided and indivisible country is division of the country! Not that he is ignorant of the difference between a quasi-federal provincial government and an independent state; he is deliberately massaging facts to further his racism!

    These riots are taking place from 1946 onwards since the Sinhalese have been led to think they are the chosen people of the state. That they are first – class citizens and they are above the law.

    It is he who blatantly claimed that he is a Sinhalese; this country belongs to the majority Sinhalese and Tamils must listen to him.

    He is now desperate to stage a comeback and the shortcut is to blame the Tamils/Muslims instead of blaming himself and the Sinhalese people.

Leave a Reply