“I remain a friend of the Sinhala people and of Buddhism”
An Exclusive Interview with Fr. Emmanuel
Interviewed by Nilantha Ilangamuwa
(November 23, 2012, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) Rev Fr Prof Dr S. J. Emmanuel is an eminent theologian and an academic who devoted much of his time for political upliftment of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka. The 78 pontiff is the President of the Global Tamil Forum (GTF) and even at his prime age is energetically campaigning for the just cause of the Tamil people.
 |
| File Photo:- Fr. Emmanuel |
NI. Even at your prime age, you are boldly campaigning for justice. It is because of your passion for Tamil people or your Christian mission?
SJE. I was born a Tamil and baptized as a Christian (1934). Birth as a Tamil and call to be a Christian are both God’s gifts and call to me.
My life is to live faithfully to my vocation, vision and mission – all from God. In the changing contexts and challenges of my life, I act according to existential identities derived from birth, faith and profession. Hence my campaigning for justice springs, not from a mere superficial passion for Tamil people, but from my existential identities and mission to fight injustices anywhere and for all peoples.
If I may be allowed to narrate from my own life, it is a conviction and sensibility,from my young age against all forms of injustice, that keeps me struggling for justice.
Already as a young man in my own family, I fought against my own father discriminating others on the basis of caste, as an undergraduate at the University of Colombo (1954-8), I lobbied people on the streets of Pettah against the Paddy Lands Bill of Philip Gunawardene, as a Mannar correspondent for Lake House, Colombo (1959-61), inviting Sinhala politicians from the South, I fought against the Take-over of catholic schools.
After I resigned from my teaching(1962)studied philosophy and theology and ordained in Rome(1962-67),I returned to Sri Lanka where I was Parish Priest, Professor of theology (Kandy,1976-86) Rector of St. FrancisXavier’s Seminary,Jaffna and Vicar General of the Jaffna Diocese till 1997.
As a young priest, I stood against a crowd of over 1000 people in Sillalai giving equal status to a so called “low caste” couple at their wedding in the church, as theologian I fought for the rights of lay people in the church and helped the Asian Bishops at the Roman Synod in 1987, stood in defense of theonce excommunicated Father TissaBalasuriyaomi, both inside and outside Sri Lanka.
I have always encouraged my colleagues and students- priests and bishops – to follow Jesus Christ, the true Liberator of the whole man.
Hence my speaking up for the victimized Tamils is only a part of my mission based on my Christian convictions. That is why I spoke out as Vicar General against the bombing of churches and schools and killing of innocent children.
People accused me as being political and supportive of the LTTE. But that does not stop me from condemning anyone who behaves unjustly against fellow human beings. Silence in the midst of such carnage is connivance and sinful.
I wish my sisters and brothers in Sri Lanka of all religions and races serve the island and its peoples by standing up for truth and justice.
In my view, vis a vis the long ethnic conflict and war, all the four religions have rendered mostly humanitarian services sure, but not done enough by way of courageous protest against evil, standing up for truth and justice to build up a peaceful island.
Religions have their share of blame in our country losing its moral values and standards. Sabbath is for man, not man for the Sabbath, said Jesus. Religions and governments are to serve man, not vice versa.
NI. The status quo has changed following defeat of the LTTE ( Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) . Do you still hold the objective of a separate state for Tamils to make life more difficult for them back home or is GTF you represent is willing to tone down the claim. Thestatus quo has changed, sure, but what is it now?
SJE. It is true that LTTE has been militarily and as an organization defeated.But the political aspirations and ideologies live on among the people.
LTTE, born after 1976, was not merely a terrorist or military outfit as the majority Sinhalese and their governments still make out to be. They fought for political aspirations and goals whichwere there before them. Hence those aspirations and goals do not die or get defeated, they still have much support among the people. And the new status quo as at present is strengthening them.
After May 2009, we see a victorious sand arrogant Government drunk with power, headed by a dictatorial family, executing its Mahinda Chinthanaya mainly against the Tamil people inside and outside the country.
Bulldozing cemeteries and memorials built by the LTTE, but were sacred places also for Tamil parents and people to venerate their sons and daughters are barbaric acts against a people.
Building new military bases on those places is an uncivilized way of showing anger against an enemy!
Are these forces truly descendants of a magnanimous Sinhalese Dutugemunu who built a memorial for a defeated Tamil Elara ?!
Now the Government and its military are eradicating the roots of Tamil claims for nationhood and homeland by militarization, sinhalisation and buddhistisation.
And this new status quo, with all these acts of hatred and anger,
a) further illustrates the hegemonic intentions of the government and of the majority supporting them,
b)further justify and strengthen the calls for separation which was never an arrogant claim of the Tamils but a helpless cry “leave us alone” for a survival free of oppression
and
c) shows how the majority have misunderstood the LTTE as mere separatists and terrorists and nothing beyond.
The majority Sinhalese and their governments seem to forget that LTTE was born 3 decades after the conflict started and was born as anti-state-terror outfit.
The birth of the LTTE is a military response of Tamil youth pushed to the wall, both by discriminatory laws passed by a Sinhala majoritarian democracy and executed with the help of a terrorizing military stationed in the Tamil provinces.
Hence “the objective of a separate state for Tamils” is not dead with the defeat of the LTTE. It will remainamong the Tamils as a last resort for survival. This objective is not our seeking, but thrust upon us and will remain with us allTamils inside and outside Sri Lanka, till a just and peaceful solution is found.
There is no question of the diaspora “toning it down for something lower to make life comfortable back at home”. It is up to the Governments of the majority to offer a political solution respecting the fundamental rights of the Tamils and make the objective of a separate state meaningless.
Let us not forget that a people fighting for their basic and fundamental rights and having suffered and sacrificed enormously during the last six decades will now give up their noble aspirations of freedom and human dignity just for a better looking or comfortable life.
 |
Fr. S J Emmanuel (right) with Canadian
Tamil MP, Rathika Sitsabaiesan
|
The Colombo government has succeeded, even now succeeds, in buying over some Tamils by offering petty gifts. But that will not truly win over the hearts and minds of the Tamils towards genuine reconciliation.
It is the Tamils in Sri Lanka along with their elected parliamentary representatives, who have the primary responsibility and right to decide and determine the final goal or solution of the struggle.
The Tamil diaspora, in so far as they were forced to leave their homeland, go through much suffering in exile and wanting to return,, are also stake-holders in reaching a solution. Hence the diaspora are called to play a supportive-role in the struggle. This they do in the context of their present living.
And GTF, being a network of diaspora Tamil organizations, is in contact with the Tamils and their representatives in Sri Lanka. In spite of the Sri Lankan Government’s continued propaganda and activities against the diaspora Tamils as terrorists or potential terrorists, we are lobbying support from the international community for a just and peaceful solution.
