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Supreme Court verdict – Legacy from Fifty years of Majoritarian Supremacy

Sinhala Supremacist hegemony has again struck; a deadly strike at that. The baby has been killed while in the womb. What remains to be done is to utilise the time allocated for festivity, fun and frolic celebrating the ‘victory’. What type of idiosyncrasy it is to reverse this country into a bloody war again after fifty years of blood letting and what type of chauvinism it is, that wants to enjoy and celebrate the ‘victory’ contained in the verdict ?

It is important first to analyse critically the incidents and incitement that preceded the verdict and formed the background, before talking about the Supreme Court’s verdict per se. The draft relating to Post-Tsunami Joint Mechanism for humanitarian delivery is not a blue print for resolution of the political conflict in this island. Nor is it a document to address the humanitarian crisis caused by twenty years of a bloody war.

It is only a pragmatic methodology contemplated to address the humanitarian crisis faced by the people who survived an unprecedented natural catastrophe that took away everything that they had, save their lives

Are the extremist race haters in the south unaware of the travails left behind by tsunami from Hambantota to Mullaittivu in one and the same deadly strike? Are they not actually aware of the plight of this unfortunate lot in restoring a semblance of normalcy in their life? Do these elements that, from dawn to dusk, see for themselves the plight of the unfortunates in the refugee camps, struggling to exist under tragic circumstances and squalid conditions in the south, need further enlightenment or lessons on empathy, on the fate of a similar population in Batticaloa in the East or Mullaittivu and Point Pedro in the North?

But that is what supremacist and majoritarian thinking is all about. It is nothing but a modus operandi to continue with the supremacist mode. Even after knowing for sure that tsunami devastation is extensive in the North-East where Tamils and Muslims live predominantly, these extremist elements are working overtime to prevent reasonable humanitarian delivery, thus exhibiting shamelessly their naked supremacist thinking. Tsunami aid is reportedly flowing into the country in an unprecedented manner and it is also reported that relief is not provided effectively and equitably in the south too due to malpractices; One expects these racist elements that rushed to the Supreme Court, crying foul to the Joint Structure, to have first filed a public interest petition in the Supreme Court on behalf of the Sinhalese people in the south. They did not do that. Why? That is how Supremacist and Majoritarian machination works in this country.

One should think about the confounded nature of tragedy the people of the North-East were subject to when tsunami struck; a people who have, during the past two decades been subject to aerial bombing, devastation of infrastructure and displacement more than a dozen times, were hit by Mother Nature’s Fury too. The Sri Lankan Supreme Court, by its ‘historically important verdict’, has not ruled against any special concession to the Tamil and Muslim citizenry, rather it has ruled against the right to live for a people who had fallen victims to an unprecedented natural disaster. It is true that this is not the first time the Supreme Judiciary in Sri Lanka has trampled under its feet the rights of people belonging to ‘other’ nationalities or ‘other’ religions. Nor is it the last of such verdicts. The ruling elite has, at least during the last fifty years, made use of, most importantly, judicial power in addition to constitution, executive and military power to violate the collective rights of the Tamil people. It is therefore no surprise that a community of people, when denied their inalienable collective democratic rights, that denial being made legal on a regular and systematic basis, would begin to think about alternative power formations.

What is the truth that lies behind the use of constitutional, executive, judicial and more so the military power against the Tamil people in the past history? It is the bitter truth: “our establishment will not guarantee you justice, fair play and freedom; seek alternative remedy in any way you can”. That and that alone, is the message successive governments offered to the Tamil people. At every juncture in the process of consolidating the freedom struggle, the Tamil people have, with studied circumspection, formed their own judiciary and police and progressively built their own ‘liberation army’ against the ‘occupying’ military because the ‘message’ was clear and they took it seriously. It is pertinent to ask whether there is one rationally thinking Sinhalese person who can stand up and say that the Tamil people will have faith and confidence in the Sri Lankan Judiciary

04 August 2005

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