The last few weeks have seen increasing efforts on the part of the LTTE and its surrogates to disrupt the steady progress of the Eastern Province towards peace and multi-party multi-ethnic democracy.

Continuous complaints are made about the TMVP, one of the most remarkable examples in the world of a former terrorist group transformed into a democratic political force. Though anti-democratic NGOs wanted the local elections in Batticaloa District cancelled, even they had to concede that there was less violence there than previously, and that weapons were not much in evidence. The generally clean bill of health given the election by independent observers has now led to the two major opposition parties taking part in the Provincial Council election scheduled for May 10th.

Last week however saw the first election related death, the victim being a member of the TMVP, as were the only two persons killed during the local elections. Nevertheless, despite this clear evidence of relentless victimization of the TMVP, the LTTE and its fellow critics of the government insist that it is the TMVP that is violent.

Meanwhile the TNA, the political party that won maximum representation amongst Tamils in the North and East due to the election frauds noted by, amongst others, the EU observers at the 2004 General Election, continues to stay out of electoral politics, in line with general LTTE policy. Instead, whilst on the one hand claiming that the TMVP, which did remarkably well in the local elections, is terrorizing the East, they go on to claim that the Government has a mission ‘of continued Sinhalization of the east.’

The latest justification for this claim is the appointment of a Sinhalese, Upul Weerawardene, as Secretary to the Eastern Ministry of Education. TNA MP P Ariyanarenthiran claimed that this happened when the previous Secretary, R.Thiyagalingam, was ‘all of a sudden … moved out of his position.’ It is only much lower down in the prominent attack on the appointment in Tamilnet that it is revealed that ’Mr.Thiyagalingam has been appointed as the secretary of Eastern Provincial Council’, an important post in view of the forthcoming election and the establishment at last of Provincial government.

According to Mr Ariyanarenthiran’s logic, it would be wrong to have senior Tamil officials in Sinhala majority areas in the country, which is a lunatic claim, and does no service to the very able Tamil officials who have functioned in senior administrative positions all over the country. His criticism of Mr Weerawardene’s appointment is based, according to the article, on the fact that ‘More than ninety percent of the schools in the East are Tamil schools’, which ignores the distinction between Tamil and Muslim schools, and also the demography of the Province, which is about a quarter Sinhalese.

Such racism is unusual in Sri Lankans, who generally understand the need for pluralism. This was obvious for instance at the recent Conference on Peace and Reconciliation in Norway, when Mr Vaiko defended the ethnic cleansing by the LTTE of Muslims in the North on the grounds that they were collaborators with a Sinhalese government, whereas the Sri Lankan Tamils, to a man, regretted the action.

But the TNA now seems to be going on the Vaiko path, which would appear to conform with LTTE policy, of denying others any place in what is claimed to be the Tamil homeland, which would justify similar chauvinists denying Tamils any place in the rest of the country. This is an obnoxious position. Certainly governments in recent years can be faulted for not assuring enough Tamil recruitment into the public service; that deficiency can in no way be justified by the claims of counterparts to Mr Vaiko and the TNA that there was over-recruitment in colonial times that militated against the Sinhalese. But now that the current government has at last initiated a policy of conscious targeting of Tamils for recruitment in areas where deficiencies were most prominent and damaging, the argument of Mr Ariyanarenthiran should be repudiated by all those who want peace and justice in a united Sri Lanka.

Of course, given current sensitivities, the government should not seem to impose individuals unjustly. But it should be noted that Mr Weerawardene will be the only Sinhala Secretary now to a Provincial Ministry, one of six in the East, and he will in fact only be acting. Having been deputy previously, he continues in that substantive post, whilst having been appointed to cover the duties of the Secretary following Mr Thiyagalingam’s new responsibilities. Meanwhile the post of Chief Secretary, occupied last year by a Sinhalese who was killed, is now occupied by a Tamil.

Since efficiency and commitment to all citizens should be the criteria for appointments, rather than ethnicity, it may seem improper even to think of the latter quality. But sadly the deliberate misinformation the TNA propagates needs to be rebutted, and should be rejected forthwith, in particular by the leaders of his party that still functions in a multi-ethnic Sri Lankan parliament.


Prof Rajiva Wijesinha
Secretary-General
Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process