Dr. Noel Nadesan tells LLRC:

Divisive politics not communal bitterness, cause of conflict

By Shanika SRIYANANDA

Ven. Walpola Piyananda Thera	Dr. Noel Nadesan

"I want to be a Sri Lankan as well as a Tamilian. I don't want to lose my Sri Lankan identity and become a Tamilian or vice versa" quoting Prof. K. Sivathamby, a prominent academic of the Jaffna University, Dr. Noel Nadesan told the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission LLRC that an independent Tamil Eelam within the island is virtually dead and buried and those who are still trying to pursue it are living in a world of fantasy.

"Those who are still actively scheming to resurrect Tamil Eelam should be aware that they are also simultaneously digging a mass grave for the Tamils in Sri Lanka", he said in his testimony to the LLRC, based on 'Reject the past, invest only in the future'.

Dr. Nadesan, a veterinarian had witnessed the 83 riots while working in Medawachchiya and migrated to Australia said he was reluctant to leave his own country, but the experiences had forced him to do so.

Testifying before the eight-member Commission headed by former Attorney General C.R. de Silva, he said that Tamils in the North and the East were made to believe they were second class citizens in Sri Lanka by Tamil politicians since 1948 and they held not only the Sri Lankan government, but the Sinhalese also responsible for that.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa had appointed the LLRC to look into the failure of the Norwegian-brokered Ceasefire Agreement, the root causes of the conflict and measures to prevent future conflicts.

Dr. Nadesan said the Tamil problem was twofold - real and perceived. The real problem, as he cited, was making Tamil the second language in 1956, thus denying Tamils the privilege of functioning or interacting with the State in their mother tongue overnight.

"The introduction of language-based admission to universities in 1972 further alienated the Tamils and led to militancy among the Tamil youth. The present Government has understood this problem and is trying to rectify the issue", he said.

Dr. Nadesan, who is a member of the Tamil Diaspora dialogue team working towards reconciliation, peace and rehabilitation, said communal riots during 1958, 1977 and 1983 were not caused by bitter rivalry among the two communities, but due to the failure of the governments of the day to maintain law and order.

"The fact that there were no communal riots after 1983 proves that government action and vigilance are necessary for the maintenance of law and order. Most of the violence was politically motivated and driven from the top rather than from the bottom. The 30-year conflict was waged from both sides based more on divisive politics than on communal bitterness", he said.

He said the task for both the Sinhalese and Tamils was to leave the past behind and handle the new challenges. He said any degree of devolution, grudgingly accepted because of external pressure, was likely to be meaningless as the 13th Amendment.

Separate State

"Seeking Indian pressure to force the Sri Lankan Government on issues relating to devolution and power sharing will definitely prove counter-productive for the Tamils", he said adding that the Tamils or those who claimed to represent them waged a prolonged war for a separate state, which ended with no gains, but debilitated the Tamils to an unimaginable extent.

Dr. Nadesan said the time has come to define clearly the political objectives of Tamils. "Do the Tamils want power for the sake of grabbing political power and territory or for the sake of improving the quality of lives, living in harmony and peace in a multi-cultural society?", he questioned.

He told the LLRC panel that recent history when Tamils threw all their might into carving out a separate state has failed, and only those who refuse to see the grim consequences caused to the Tamils will boast of going down that disastrous path again. "Our future political course must first take into consideration the lessons learnt from the total failure of our leaders who took the Tamils to the lowest depths in their history", he said.

Dr. Nadesan said he doesn't want future generations of Tamils to go through what he and his fellow Tamils had gone through for over 30 years, ending in Nanthikadal. "The Tamils are sick of violence", he said.

He said it was clear that 2010 was not the same as 1983 and the need was for all Tamils to be like Murali - a team player fighting shoulder to shoulder with other communities for common goals.

Explaining what Tamils need to recover from the devastation of the decades old conflict, he said rather than language, culture, religion and concepts of homeland, the Tamils now need day-to-day survival. "There are Tamils who have yet failed to understand the situation in Sri Lanka. The Tamils have been debilitated to an extent that day-to-day survival has become a priority to a large number. The need to find food, shelter, health-care, livelihood and other basics of plain existence far outweigh the need to exercise power over their affairs as articulated by their so-called leaders. The hunger for power left by their so-called leaders and leadership aspirants does not reflect the sentiments of the Tamils at large", he said.

Quoting Prof. Sivathamby he said over 90 percent of the Tamils do not want Eelam.

Change of attitude

"The Tamils yet persisting with the demands of yesteryear do not understand that the attitude of the Sinhalese towards the minorities have changed. The other welcome development is that the shift from 1956 to 2010 has brought about a new realisation among the enlightened Sinhala community that the Tamil grievances need to be addressed within the framework, of a unitary Sri Lanka", he pointed out.

"Having experienced the war and seen the aftermath, they empathise with the Tamils. The Rajapaksa Government has shown all signs of moving in this direction. When the Rajapaksa government talks of a homespun solution, it is articulating a desire to find a solution that will address the aspirations of all communities. Models of devolution imposed from outside may not satisfy these criteria. But I believe that a new model of nation-building has begun. The window of opportunity that has opened for all minorities including the Tamils should not be missed this time", he stressed.

Dr. Nadesan said Tamils had to compromise and move away from their failed past to achieve attainable goals. The Tamils cannot talk the language of a minority with a majority complex any more. "In my opinion, the best solution to resolve minority - majority issues is not through confrontation, but through cooperation and consensual politics", he said.

"If we look back, we can see we have gained most by being in mainstream politics than in finding new routes to Nanthikadal. I think all communities have a bright future if they abandon their bleak past", he said spelling out his suggestions for all communities to feel equal.

Dr. Nadesan said under no circumstances should Tamils resort to violence; they need to find a new leadership that would guide the Tamils into mainstream democratic politics.

"Any other course of action would drag us further back into a place worse than Nanthikadal", he said.

The Chief Sangha Nayake of America and President of the Sri Lanka Sangha Council of America and Canada Ven. Walpola Piyananda Thera, in his testimony to the LLRC, proposed to all citizens of Sri Lanka to identify themselves as 'Sri Lankans' and not by their ethnicity.

Ven. Piyananda Thera accused the pro-LTTE Tamil Diaspora of raising funds - not only for the LTTE's armed conflict, but for financing very sophisticated public relations campaigns against Sri Lanka.

"A perfect example is the hiring of Bruce Fein, a former US Deputy Attorney based in Washington DC. Various LTTE front organisations in the US and Canada used him and are still using him, paying him large monthly retainers. Pro-LTTEers engaged and are still engaged in writing and publishing articles against the Government, filing lawsuits against key members of the government leadership and lobbing influential members of the US Congress", he said.

World media arena

The Thera said the Government was not effective in defending itself in the crucial world media arena. "Neglecting to hire professional media strategists and experts to manage their "spin", they instead relied on Sri Lankan embassy staff around the world who had little, if any, experienced or expertise to be able to generate positive counter-messages. When the embassies did hire "media professionals" these were usually Sri Lankan expatriates who lived in that country. These individuals did not have the experience, credentials, or contacts with the media companies of those countries that shaped world opinion - even though they may be highly qualified in Sri Lanka. The results were completely ineffective", he said.

Ven. Piyananda Thera said there were some politicians from Opposition parties who travel abroad, spreading negative or false information - rumours - about Sri Lanka. "The information disseminated against Sri Lanka by these self-serving individuals has severely hurt Sri Lanka's image overseas", he said.

He said there had been numerous cases of Sri Lankan Tamils - as well as Sri Lankan Sinhalese - seeking political asylum in foreign countries by claiming persecution and brutality by the Government. "To obtain asylum and permanent refugee resident status in these countries, many of them told false, greatly exaggerated negative stories about their treatment back home. These horror stories have influenced the official policy of these countries with regard to Sri Lanka - as well as public opinion and the media - in a variety of deleterious ways", he said.

The Thera recommended the development of a standardised non-religious program for all public schools, in which loving-kindness is practised as a group at the beginning of each day, developing an exchange student program between the North and South during school holidays order to promote better understanding between ethnic groups, issuing important documents such as birth certificates all three languages so that no one feels left out, giving Tamils who are interested in becoming Buddhist Monks and Nuns the opportunity to do so. NGOs should be licensed and regulated, and adhere to a strict policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of the State, he said.