Tamil-Muslim Rapprochement Is The Need Of The Hour
By Aboobacker Rameez -October 14, 2013
Aboobacker Rameez
The recent months of Sri Lankan politics have witnessed Tamil National Alliance (TNA) sweeping overwhelmingly the Northern Provincial election (NPC) held for the first time in the history of Sri Lankan politics. Surprisingly, the new chief minister, CV Wigneswaran, recently taking oath before the president sent shockwaves to rabbles and those who opposed the NPC election in the South, while displaying a potent political gesture to the Southern political leaders, especially the government.
The appointment of Mr Azmin Ayoob, a member of People Movement for Good Governance’s (PMGG) party under the bonus seat of the TNA and his inclusion as an advisory council member of a ministry of NPC and the first visit that the NPC Chief Minster took along with his TNA delegation to Jaffna Mohammadiya Mosque yesterday underlines an unprecedented symbolic political gesture extended towards the Muslims by the TNA to build bridges between the Tamils and Muslims in the North and the East. It was reported that CM highlighted the urgent need of the Tamil Muslim rapprochement at the meeting. Violence against Muslims including their forceful eviction from Northern Province, the intermittent killings of Muslims even at the Mosques in the Eastern province committed by the Tamil armed rebels and the resultant reaction of Muslims with the support of government forces in1990s served to drive a wedge between the Tamils and Muslims during the height of the war. This has deepened the Tamil and Muslim political schism at the national and regional level. However, the latest turn of events that occurred in the post war era heralded a scenario that posited the renewal of Tamil and Muslim rapprochement in the North and East.
Becoming A Tamil Speaking Minority: Grease Devils, Muslims And The Sri Lankan State
Dr. Francesca Bremner
I was in Trincomalee. It was August of 2011, two years after the end of the war when Mary, the woman who provided lunch for me burst in.
“I did not sleep a wink last night” she said, “No one in our village did. They have dropped 750 grease devils in this area to attack women. Our men roamed around with sticks whilst the women prayed all night”
“Grease devils”? I was incredulous.
“Grease devils are not quite human” Mary explained, “they are after women of childbearing age, they want the blood from the breast of these women”
In the days that followed the story assumed extraordinary dimensions, created a mass panic, was even debated in the British Parliment and drew the state of Sri Lanka in as a major player.
The need for blood was located in the person of the President. Rumors circulated that the President needed to make a blood offering in exchange of the lives taken in the war, he needed the blood for a special ritual to remain in power, he needed blood to claim the crown of King Dutugemunu. Blood, Power and sometimes Redemption wrapped the Sri Lankan State in a layer of the supernatural.
The English newspapers dismissed the grease devils as an irrational fear psychosis. The police gave conflicting statements, first that grease devils did not exist, second that these non-existent grease devils were arrested and third that the Special Task Force of the military was now deployed to apprehend any non-arrested, non-existent grease devils. Thus also began renewed militarization of the northeast in the name of the grease devils.
