The Ceylon News

Shivas letter to the Sinhalese can be read on yesterdays news.


Dear Shiva,
Thank you for your moving letter. When I read it, I felt it was written from your heart and I could feel your hurt and sorrow. I am deeply saddened for you, for myself and for all my fellow Sri Lankans that this tragedy is taking place. What binds us together is that we belong to that beautiful island. What effects one affects us all. The horrors of the Spanish civil war, where literally brothers killed brothers, fathers killed sons and where women were raped on both sides lasted but 3 years (even a minute is a minute too long). The horror of the civil war in Sri Lanka is now 25 years and still going on. What a terrible waste.

Only the arms manufacturers have gained from this war. Do you think they care that it’s a Sinhalese mother or a Tamil mother who has lost her beloved son or daughter or husband or father? They are precisely that, somebody’s mother or father, brother or sister, son or daughter, husband or lover who is being killed. When you see the person dead on the ground, his or her nationality is of no consequence. Death struck and didn’t ask for his or her passport.

You wrote about the past, about the killings in 1958. I was a small girl then living in Colombo and I listened in on adult conversation, children become invisible when adults talk together, I didn’t understand everything that was said but I remember everything that was said. They talked of the dreadful killings carried out by both the Sinhalese & the Tamils. They spoke with great sadness and compassion and they all worried about what was happening in the country. My memory of what came through at the time - for which I had no language to describe then, but can now - was their helplessness. They were powerless to do anything apart from protecting the individuals they knew who were at risk. Don’t forget that ordinary people with extraordinary courage did their best to protect Tamils despite risking being beaten or killed by the mobs during all of those terrible times. In times of terror, one must always remember the acts of compassion and selflessness.

When I went on a holiday to Trincomalee as a thirteen year old, I saw that the Sinhalese language on road signs and public notice boards were tarred over just like the Tamil language was tarred over in Colombo. The tarred signs in Colombo and Trincomalee were the only visible evidence left still standing after the carnage that took place 5 years earlier.

Thank you for raising the point about the battle between Prince Dutugamunu and King Elara. Different people understand or interpret history differently. As you know history is never written by the vanquished only by the victor. I remember the story being taught in class and my view even then as a child was: “why did we fight and kill each other when we could live in harmony, surely the choice to live, is the only choice”. Why did the just King Elara have to die? Why did the handsome Prince Dutugamunu feel threatened by the Tamils? Why was King Kavantissa portrayed as a coward? He was obviously an early conscientious objector. To be a conscientious objector, even for kings, takes tremendous courage and conviction, as one stands alone against the system. Looking back as an adult, I believe King Kavantissa was indeed a very intelligent and courageous man to stand up for his beliefs despite the ridicule he faced. History still ridicules King Kavantissa and interestingly King Elara is honoured, even by Prince Dutugamunu. Does King Kavantissa deserve ridicule? I don’t think so. Shiva please remember, alongside Prince Dutugamunu’s story is King Kavantissa’s story. It is up to us to read what we want in the story. The story of these two just & wise kings needs to be given recognition. Their part of the story needs to be told.

The Sri Lankan author Carl Muller wrote in his book titled “Colombo”, about the death squads who came for the youths and lasses of Sri Lanka during the early 1970s. I believe these young people were massacred or disappeared for wanting social justice, for wanting a society that treated people with dignity and equality. In your letter you didn’t mention this tragedy.

On 29 April 2009 I went to see the demonstration organized by the Tiger supporters in Parliament Square, London. The police and riot squad were very visible. The police had the demonstrators completely fenced in with only one narrow passage for entry and exit. The Tiger supporters were unapproachable not simply because they were physically fenced in but also because I could feel their tension and aggression. Even from across the road where I stood, their tension and aggression was palpable. I got the impression the demonstrators were entrenched in their ideologue, and that a dialogue that would differ from theirs would be impossible. I didn’t want to walk amongst them in case of mob reaction.

I walked around the outer perimeter of the square and watched the public reaction. Most of them were tourists. Some of them took photos as they did of the surrounding buildings and monuments. I then overheard one English man comment to another English man: “It’s good to know where the tax payers’ money is going!!!” I thought to myself “nobody cares for us; all they care about is the waste of tax payers’ money”. I know, and you too Shiva, must know, that to some people, a dead Tamil or a dead Sinhalese is just one more dead brown or black skinned person.

A tiny island divided is not the solution. The Sinhalese aren’t your enemy no more than the Tamils are theirs. Poverty and indifference is our enemy, and that is what we need to combat. I also know that Hindu Jaffna Tamils look down on their fellow Tamils who are Christians, on Tamils from Mannar, on Tamils known as Colombo Chettys, on Tamils who work as tea pluckers and Tamils you call Sakkilis etc. etc. I also know that the Tamils follow a rigid caste system where people are labelled as untouchables, how can one say or think that of a fellow human being? All these injustices need to be addressed.

Lastly Shiva, I hope that your pain and sorrow does not eventually make you bitter and want to seek revenge, but that it will help you to stand up for what is good in you. You are not alone Shiva. I know that the majority of the population of that tiny island believe in the innate goodness of all of its peoples, our voices must not be allowed to be drowned in the din. If you get the chance please do read the book “When memory dies” by A Sivanandan?

With kind regards
Rosemary