Wiggy complains of systemic racism against Tamils, Muslims

by Saman Indrajith

Thamizh Makkal Thesiya Kootani (TMTK) leader and Jaffna District MP C.V. Wigneswaran says that the government continues to treat Tamil people in the North as the vanquished, and not as fellow humans in the same country.

Participating in the budget debate under the expenditure heads of the Ministry of Justice on Wednesday (9) MP Wigneswaran said that the government had not indicated any genuine interest in achieving a permanent peace. “Is the present government interested in working for peace and therefore justice? I doubt it. If you had the slightest feeling for your co- citizens you would not expropriate the lands of indigent Tamils as done even today. You would not destroy the archaeological sites and heritage symbols of the Tamils. You would not be gathering and accumulating such large numbers of the Sinhala Military amidst the Tamil speaking denizens of the North and East. If this Government has feelings for the affected and the downtrodden they would not try to grab from them but give them instead help and solace. If this Government has feelings for their fellow human brethren they would treat them with love and respect. But you are interested in grabbing from us our land, our traditional way of life and our freedom. You continue to treat our people as the vanquished not as co- humans in this Isle. None of us have been vanquished. We still carry the torch of freedom in our hearts.”

The TMTK leader said: “Speaking of Justice I like to point out that in this country we appear to be on the side of the wrongdoers rather than the innocents. Have we punished one single person who was involved in the torture, murder, arson and rape committed during the 1956, 1958,1961,1977,1981 and 1983 pogroms? ” Have we punished one single person involved in the burning of the Jaffna Public Library which housed 97,000 rare books and manuscripts? It was the best Library in South East Asia at that time. Have we punished one single person involved in the crimes against the Muslims in recent times? At least has there been an attempt at accountability in this regard? Have we enforced the recommendations of several Reports of Commissioners submitted to the successive Governments? They have all been conveniently shelved!

“Despite a Muslim Minister and a Tamil Minister in authority let us not forget that power is in the hands of the majority community. It is they who decide what is best for us all even in areas where we are in the majority. Since Independence that has been the case. We have no inclusive Justice in Sri Lanka. We have only selective Justice. Nowadays, it is a justice selected for the wellbeing of Sinhala Buddhists only.

“We have a peculiar political culture growing up here now. Rewards and high governmental positions are today lavishly distributed only on the basis of how much suffering such individuals have brought to the minorities in this country. This culture is prevalent in this House too. That is why learned parliamentarians are today vying with each other to provoke their minority colleagues to shut them up from speaking and bringing out facts about themselves and the government.

“There is systemic racism now being promoted in the country against the Muslims and the Tamils. Racism has become an ideology. It is now being sowed freely in the far corners of this blessed Isle. Government departments have been made the instruments to promote such ideology. Parliamentarians behaving indecently in this august Assembly are carriers of this ideology. Even the press is being made into an instrument to sow the seeds of racism. Such racism is not going to take us anywhere. On the contrary this country is soon going to suffer by such propagation of negative and vituperative ideas and ideology.

“Let us not forget the Tamil youth took up arms not against the Sinhalese and their sovereignty. They took up arms because there was danger to their sovereignty in their areas in the same country. They wanted to protect their identity. But they were called terrorists and brutally dealt with getting help from no less than twenty other countries.

“Let us remember it is the sovereignty of the people which is paramount not of the State. That is the International take on this at present. Let us not deceive ourselves that we could take shelter under state sovereignty and destroy the people’s sovereignty. The concept of state sovereignty which prevailed in the 18th century is no more accepted by the international community. When human rights of people in a country are violated it is possible to disregard the state sovereignty of that country. This is the modern concept.”