The following is an excerpted free translation of a speech made by Anura Kumara Dissanayake the Leader of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) . On invitation, he delivered this Key Note Address at the All Ceylon Muslim League Youth Front Federation, at the Auditorium of the Postal Department in Colombo, recently.
“Today, I started my journey to arrive here from the Vesak Zone at Borella. As I reached Maradana I heard the Bangu call at Zahira Mosque. At Slave Island I heard the soothing Christian Hymns emanating from the Catholic Church. I also heard thereafter, the clanging bells of the nearby Kabiriwatta Kovil. As I came further up to the Lake House Circus, the Pirith Chanting sound wafted in the air, from Sambuddhaloka Pirivena. Today, before you commenced this meeting, we all stood up to hear our National Anthem. This is the reality of our country. This is Sri Lanka.
In a country like this, it is unfortunate that we have to stress, once again today, of the challenges of building national unity. Different people have different views on these matters. Present even here, there are persons with different views. So, when I express my views here, some may oppose and criticize. Yet, I hope any such opponents of my views will understand that I state them without hypocrisy and without anger.
In about the 6th Century B.C. the building up of the Sri Lankan Nationality commenced with the mixing of some Northern Indian and Sri Lankan tribal communities . Later, during the period of King Dharmasoka, Buddhism arrived in Sri Lanka, the Sinhala Community became a historic tribe who followed Buddhism. Similarly, from time to time, and in different contexts, sections of communities from Tamil, Muslim, Burgher and Malay etc., arrived and continued to live in Sri Lanka. At times they came as traders and at times they came as invaders, sometimes, they came to our country for marriage purposes. All these peoples and their descendants are now born in this country, they enrich the economy and finally, they die here, enriching its soil.
Our country is a multi-ethnic country. It was the British who completely subjugated us in 1833. Under the Caulbrooke Cameron reforms our country received a new type of Administration. The Monarchical state was changed. Thereafter, the entire country had one administrative structure, one system of taxation, one judicial system, and one State Council, one economic system. Yet, the British failed to foster national unity among the Sinhala , Tamil and Muslim population. The policy they followed in every territory that they subjugated militarily the world over, was the policy of divide and rule. They manoeuvered contradictions to surface among the different communities. In appointing members to the State Council, allocations were on a communal basis. They strategically estranged the relationship that existed priorly, among these communities.
History shows that we failed to oppose British Imperialism in a common National Front. In 1919 the National Council was inaugurated, but collapsed in 1921. Thereafter , the Sinhala Maha Sabha, the Tamil Union and the Malay Union were born, In 1947, the United National Party commenced , but in 1949, Chelvanayakam departed on the Citizenship Act.
After 1948, not a single leader of our country has stood strongly for a united Sri Lanka. The 1983 Black July was a special incident arising from13 soldiers being murdered in Jaffna. Instead of taking their mortal remains to their respective villages, it was decided to have a mass funeral in Colombo. The protests mounted, firstly against the Government, But the government directed the anger against sections of the public.
In regard to the economy , the government spends for Imports, dollars 20,000 million. Our export earnings are only dollars 10,000 million. That means there is a trade deficit of 100 per cent. How does this government bridge this deficit. They earn dollars billion 1.3 from Tourism. We earn dollars 7 million only from earnings of our workers abroad. Last year, about 293,000 persons have emigrated. 93 per cent of them are in Middle-east countries. Out of about 5 million households in Sri Lanka, about 2 million house holds totally depend on these foreign earnings. You can imagine what kind of an economy our country is having.
On the other hand, there are serious questions that have arisen now, about democracy and freedom.
According to the Central Bank Reports, 20 percent of our population who are in the top income bracket consume 54 per cent of the country’s total earnings. The lowest 20 per cent of the population receive only 3.4 per cent of the total earnings of the country. Is this situation justified? The government says that by 2016, the single individual income will be increased to US 4000 dollars. But, about 42% of our entire population earn only an income of less than 2 dollars per day. Will not this low income 42% fight against the government? They can not be suppressed by beautiful promises made by the government.
Recently the National Savings Bank (NSB) obtained a foreign loan of 750 million dollars ie. Rs. 1500 billion. The total assets of the NSB are only Rs. 650 billion. Today , the entire state banking sector has been mortgaged to obtain foreign dollar loans.
In the educational sector, there are many problems. Large numbers of students leave school before the 5th year or before the 10th year. Will not these school leavers who thereafter become frustrated and line up against the government? The economic problems that J.R. faced in his time, this government is also facing now. To divert public protests, the government is raising the spectre of communalism, racism.
We have witnessed the tragic consequences of communal conflict, in our life-time. If our country continues in this direction, soon our children will all get involved in a war against each other. We faced a violent war for 30 years. Several lakhs of our lives have been lost. Property worth many millions have been destroyed. But the persons who paid the price for this cataclysmic disaster were the people of the lower classes, the workers, peasents and the poor. But, the people of the upper classes who used. communalism as a weapon to secure its class-based political power, did not have to pay any price at all, in this national disaster. The situation has not changed even now. Those who suffer from communalism, are the lower strata of our society, the common people.
Therefore , the task of building national unity and brotherhood has to be done by us. The rulers of this country will never work for national unity. We must reject all forms of communalism and racism. One extremism will engender another extremism. Therefore , we must build a political front that rejects wholesale, communalism in any form. This is not sufficient. There are three categories of people in our country. They speak two main languages. Therefore, it has to be accepted that they have a right to transact in their mother tongue. This policy must not only be upheld, it must be made a practical reality, in the administration of the country. If you send a letter in Tamil to a District Secretariat, what will be the result? Either, you will receive a reply in Sinhala or English and in most instances , you will not receive a reply at all ! When a complaint is made to the police,the Tamil complainant is made to sign the statement recorded in Sinhala. This language problem has to be solved. Every citizen should be given the facility to be educated in one’s own mother tongue and to deal with the government in that language. Then only can all citizens truly say, this is our motherland.
We have four main religions. The Buddha preached the nobility of Karuna and Metta. Jesus Christ exhorted, love thy neighbor as thy self. Prophet Mohamed set out in six thousand six hundred and sixty six sentences, how a man should live his life from birth to death, in peace with others. From among the Hindu Gods, Lord Shiva preaches, “Anne Sivam” meaning Love is God. All these religions discipline our people. Their doctrines shed enmity and cements unity and brotherhood. Therefore, equal rights for all religions should be upheld. Every nationality has its own traditions and culture.
The Purdah of the Muslim girl, the Mukku Thodu of the Tamil girl, the Lama Sari of the Sinhala girl, is our culture. These are the beautiful features that adorn the Sri Lankan culture. That is our tradition. The diversity of our traditions relieves the monotony of a single tradition and makes national life more diversely beautiful. Shouldn’t we respect this beautiful diversity. National unity has to be built on this premise”.
Anura Kumara’s speech is considered as a new milestone in the onward journey of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna. Progressive minded people have hailed this speech as a significant turning point in national politics. The JVP as a party has been put back on a solid national political track, to re-commence its disrupted political journey to achieve social justice for the discriminated, the alienated and the down-trodden masses of our country.
We offer a bouquet of flowers to Comrade Anura Kumara for his valuable words and earnestly await the translation of his words into deeds.
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