Not Just Two Communities: Response To Wigneswaran
Ameer M. Faaiz
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) secured a landslide victory in the Northern Provincial Council Elections with over 78% of the popular vote. Following this momentous win, retired Supreme Court Justice, C. V. Wigneswaran took his oaths as Chief Minister before President Mahinda Rajapaksa at Temple Trees on Monday 7th October 2013. Elected officials only need to take oaths before a Justice of the Peace. Thus the TNA’s decision to take oaths before President Rajapaksa was a symbolic and accommodative gesture, a public demonstration of a willingness to engage with the centre; a move that the government would do well to reciprocate.
In a statement released after his oaths, the Chief Minister expressed his hope that Sri Lankans would learn from past experiences and struggles, and that misunderstandings and mistrust between communities should be eliminated. It was in this spirit that the decision to be sworn in before the President was made. The Chief Minister went on to say that he sincerely hoped that the Sinhalese people would empathise with the Tamil-speaking people’s love of their own language and culture.
Finally, in a rather curious closing statement, he expressed his wish that the TNA’s symbolic gesture would‘pave the way for the unity of the people of the two communities in our Island.’
This statement and his references to “Tamil Speaking People”, in the singular rather than the plural, as “Peoples”, appears to indicate a sentiment that only two linguistically and ethnically distinct communities, one Sinhalese-speaking and the other Tamil-speaking, inhabit the island of Sri Lanka. He hopes these two communities will mutually respect each other and forge ahead towards reconciliation. While there is no doubt that reconciliation may be particularly challenging between the Sinhalese and Tamils, a pertinent question can be raised regarding this particular conception of ‘our Island’. Where in this land of two communities does Justice Wigneswaran believe the Muslims belong? Isn’t Sri Lanka made of multiple ethnic communities?
The Muslim community of Sri Lanka, which currently constitutes 9.7% of the country’s population, is scattered across the island. Tamil is the native language of a majority of Muslims. However, Muslims are adept at being multilingual and they generally function well in any linguistic surroundings, whether they inhabit a Tamil majority or Sinhalese majority area. The tendency (perhaps a unique one) of the Sri Lankan Muslims has been to identify themselves as a distinct community based on religious and cultural identity rather than on language. Attempts to assimilate the Muslim community into the wider Tamil community have been vehemently objected to in the past; Sir Razeek Fareed once even referred to such moves as ‘political genocide’.[1] Confrontations during the conflict between the two communities (including the cleansing of the Muslims from the Northern Province in October 1990 and targeted attacks on Muslims, by the LTTE) have led to serious ethnic tensions despite a shared linguistic identity. The challenges of reconciliation, therefore, is certainly not a matter to be addressed only between Tamils and Sinhalese. Meanwhile, the Muslim political leadership while supporting demands for regional autonomy has remained circumspect. This is because the threat of assimilation looms as long as demands are made from within a Tamil nationalist frame. Read More