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Sinhalese denigrating the just struggle

All of the Tamil Members of Parliament have joined together to demonstrate their strength in the parliament.

They have brought to a halt the functioning of the parliament for the whole month and have clearly expressed their unity in doing so. Not only the four political parties who are members of Tamil National Alliance (TNA), but also the Ceylon Workers Congress, the Upcountry People’s Front, the Western People’s Front and the only Tamil member of parliament for UNP, Mr Maheswaran, have come together to bring to a halt the Sri Lankan parliament.

We need to take note of two aspects of this event. First, why was this protest held that brought the parliament to a halt? Second, what is the use of this protest? The main goal of this protest was to bring to the attention of the political leadership of Colombo and to the international community the terror that has been let loose on the entire civilian population in Northeast.

This protest might have raised the international community’s awareness of the plight of the Tamil people. Perhaps, it may not have. But, in south Sri Lanka, Sinhala people certainly have not received the message.

The south Sri Lankan media, both Sinhala and English media, handled this protest in such a way that the truth about this protest and the background to it has not reached the Sinhala people.

All of these media commented about this protest by denigrating it as a ridiculous joke. They did not make any effort to look into the background of this protest, the just reasons for it, and the terror let loose on the people. They did not make any effort to bring this out.

For a trivial reason, a respectable Buddhist monk was humiliated in the middle of parliament when he was pushed to the ground and he was prevented from taking the oath. And another respectable Buddhist monk’s private parts was rough-handled in the middle of parliament. This happened within the last one and half years. The media has forgotten this and is now commenting and denigrating a protest carried out to bring to the attention international community and south Sri Lanka, the tragic plight of a people facing unlimited terror.

It is certain that if the southern media continues in this style of Sinhala chauvinism, the southern people will never understand the basic causes of the Tamils’ just struggle. This means the Sinhala society immersed in chauvinistic thought and arrogant in its majoritarian attitude, is not going to allow a just solution to the Tamil problem.

As a result, a peaceful resolution will become an unreachable dream and the Tamil side will be pushed into a situation of finding justice through military means.

20 January 2006

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