A large number of events were organized recently, to commemorate the Black July 1983. It is said to be the darkest incident in Sinhala Tamil relationship in this country, and many people cite it as the "nearest" reason for the ongoing Eelam war.
If it is the darkest incident in Sinhala Tamil relationship, what can we (Sinhalese and Tamils) gain by commemorating such a dark incident? How can the anniversary "celebrations" help to rebuild the trust between two communities?
I don't see a logical reasoning behind these "celebrations". In India, we have heard of a huge number of Hindu/Muslim riots. But do we hear anything about them (Indians) commemorating these riots every year? No. With the given political and religious environment in India at any given point of history, these riots took place. But, after everything cool down, the Hindus and Muslims live their daily life as usual.
But, ever since that ugly, dark incident (Powered by few power hungry politicians) took place in Sri Lanka, some organized set of people are rubbing these old wounds every year. What do they expect from these “celebrations” ?
One thing they are taking a message to the world that, Sri Lanka hasn’t change much from the situation in 1983. It’s a complete lie. By saying this lie to the world, these NGO dollar hunters beg for more donations for their “businesses”.
Other thing they do is, renewing the hatred in the heart of Tamils, against the Sinhalese. They don’t want to heal the pain in the hearts of the Tamils. They want to pinch it, renew it, and keep on chanting the same Mantra as in 1983. By doing so, they justify the existence of LTTE. Ultimately, these NGO mafias are empowering the terrorism more and more.
And as a matter of fact, we know that the 1983 anti Tamil riots was a pure political movement lead by the then government, and the minister Cyril Mathew (Who said to be a hard core Sinhalese racist) in particular. But, these NGO dumb asses are putting the entire blame of 83 riots, on the “Sinhalese as a community”. But, when talk about the Kandy Temple of Tooth attack, Pettah car bomb, Kebelithigollawa attack, these NGO idiots simply slip out from the problem saying “Those are just brutal attacks by a terrorist organization. But 83 was different”.
What is this double standard? If 83 riots was an injustice towards Tamils, from the Sinhalese majority (according to these people), why don’t they interpret the Dalada Maligawa attack, and Pettah car bomb attack as “Violence by TAMILS against Sinhalese” ?
On the other hand if these people interpret those attacks (Dalada mailgawa etc) were carried out on political reasons by LTTE, not on a racial basis, why don’t they apply the same logic for the 83 riots? Why don’t they accept the 1983 anti Tamil riots were simply a political movement by the then government?
In summary, I can see a huge bias in the way these people interpret the history of Tamil/Sinhala relationship in this country. These people are clearly trying to mislead the current and future young generation of this country, by projecting a wrong picture about the Sinhala Tamil clashes in the past. They simply discount the political motivations of these riots (Political motivations of both Sinhalese and Tamil politicians, including Bandaranayake, Chelva, Amirthalingam, JR, and Prabhakaran) and try to project a picture that the ongoing war is a result of only a racial grievances towards the Tamil by the Sinhalese majority.
10 People Had Something to Say about this post. Read them and add your thoughts....
Go and read the history from neutral news reports. The eelam situation was a result of sinhala chuvanism. It was culuminated in 1983. Let there be a split. Let there be a eelam. you will have peace and they will have peace. Look at singapore and malaysia. They had riots and split. today both groups are doing well.
do you think it was wrong to commemorate the aranthalawa massacre. in relation to 83, it was non state actors who commemorated the event. in realtion to aranthalawa, the govt spent public finances to put up a show... what are your views???
worldwide, events like this - because they are pivotal (this one started a civil war that still rages on today, for example) - are usually commemorated.
remembering the 1983 riots isn't an exception to this rule. americans mark pearl harbor, d-day, selma riots, things like that every year. they aren't pleasant events but they are part of our history (or more accurately the history of our minorities).
Adam,
I cannot see any similarity between D-Day/Pearl Harbor and Black July. I always like to compare it against Hindu/Muslim riots in India. Pearl Harbor and D-Day (And 9-11) are incidents between 2 countries, two nationalities. When US celebrate the Pearl harbor bombing or 9-11, every year it will re-inforce the unity among US citizens, and they take it as an occasion where they (US) stood on their feet as a one nation. Those events should definitely be celebrated.
But, incidents like Black July, or Arantalawa are dark incidents between two communities in a same country. (as many people see it, but I don't agree. I don't think it's a clash between two communities. I always insists, these incidents are politically motivated. Sinhalese politicians wanted get the "bulk of the votes" by arousing Sinhala racism, and Tamil politicians wanted to be a leader of their own country, by arousing the Tamil racism. Bandaranayake, Chelva, Amirtalingam, JR, they all are responsible. Prabhakaran is a product of all these politicians)
If we want a one country, and a one goal, we have to leave these things behind us and move forward. Living with the ghosts of the history will not take any one anywhere. Truth is, the organizers of these events use these incidents to re-inforce the racism. No one has done any constructive work to re-build the trust between two communities. I think CBK and Mangala tried to do that to a some extent with the "White Lotus" and the "Thawalama" movements. Those movements by Mangy and CBK, was purely targeted at rebuilding the trust between two communities, by taking the Black July as a core point.
But today, the people who commemorate the black July, infront of Fort railway station are not doing any such constructive thing. They simply arouse the Tamil racism.
First Anon,
Can you refer me some "neutral news reports" for me to cross check against my news sources? I have studied the Tamil/Sinhalese (conflict after independence), mainly through books written by M.R. Narayan Swamy, Prof: Rohan Gunaratne, and J.N.Dixit. And I have my own experiences after 1983 (The history I can remember). I am not some one who reside in Toranto, and write about the Tamil / Sinhalese relations. I live in it, and I live with it.
Second Anon,
You are in a very common misconception embraced by most Sri Lankans, especially the ones who are actively engaged in NGO activities (I don't say that you are a one). You think, when government doe a wrong thing, we should go on an uproar and criticize it. But when a non governmental body do the same thing, we ignore it saying "it was non state actors". For me, it doesn't matter who organize it. If it's wrong, it's wrong. Even the Aranthalawa incident, we have to come over it now and face today's reality. We have to make sure that it won't happen once again.
Now since I answered your question (Anon 2), I have to ask you one question.
1983 was a bloody mistake made by the Sinhalese and the then government. No doubt. CBK has apologized for that officially. And, ever since 1983 we haven't experienced such a bloody incident in this country. But think about your other example. Arantalawa. And add the Dalada maligawa bombing. Have some appologised for those incodents, even during the truce periods? And How many times simmilar type of incidents repeated over last 30 years? 1983 was a one off thing in that year. But there were many Arantalawa type masscure repeated all over the island during last 30 years.
I think the best that we could do for this country is to leave these incidents behind us, and assure it won't happen again in the future. To start that, we have to get rid of these blood thirst bunch fucking terrorists. (Bank robbers, drug smugglers, child abusers, murderers, rapists. what else can we say about the LTTE?) They are not clearly fighting for the rights of the Tamils. They fight for the dream of their leader.
commemorate might be the wrong word to use. The way I look at it we should mark black july, take a moment pay our respects to the dead, realize what was done was wrong and resolve that it should never happen again.
Its different to the dalada maligawa bombing, etc. We should stop and pay respect to the dead for those events (and doesn't this happen?) but we (the majority community) are not responsible for that, a fringe groupof nutters are. 1983 was however a watershed event, despite the political backing the Sinhalese share responsibility for those events.
Marking Black July should be a moment of hope and resolve, that such a thing will never happen again.
i have nothing to say. you said everything.
N,
I'm impressed with your POV. Definately we should pay respect for the ones who lost life, and lost their belongings. All I was saying was, we should not mark the day for renewing the hatred. That (Renewing hatred) was what exactly the underlined objective of the commoration held infront of fort railway station recently.
I have said many times, I was totally disapointed about the CBK's 12 years as the president. But, one good thing she did was re-building the trust between two communities. Until her first peace attempt in 1994, majority Sinhalese identified "Tamils" and "LTTE" as a one group. But, it was after her first term as the president, that people of south once again started to look at Tamils as friends. "Sudu Neluma" and "Thawalama" was subject to heavy criticism by the opposition. But, I strongly believe that was the best approach for re-building the trust. What most NGO peace entreprenuers are doing is, trying to "force" a one sided trust in the hearts of Sinhalese. They put the entire blame on Sinhalese and, expect Sinhalese to "rectify their errors". But the underlieng truth is, there is a Tamil racism in this country, as much as strong as the Sinhalese racism.
Sam,
Who said everything? Me or N ? :-)
you :)
Without NGOs your 'çountry' cannot even take care of the most basic services and will collapse like a house of cards.
Because of NGOs taking over your work your Govt is free to spend its money on en-masse eradication of Tamils, otherwise your soldiers would have been beaten to pulp by LTTE by now(ratio--1 ltte soldier for 15 sinhala soldier, what does this show about the sinhala soldier;)
So don't bite the hand that feeds you.
Sara,
I have listened to what you have to say. Recognising the past misdeed that happened, the sad events of days from July 23 1983 is important. It showed us what should not happen, it also showed us kindness, interconnected of us all. Majority of Sinahalese, sheltered the displaced, organized shelter for displaced and we should celebrate this while telling ourselves and our children, how tragic it was to us all. We need to celebrate the teaching it has given us. We are interconnected with a larger world, the world saw what happened and reacted(still reacting to this second) and that gave the momentum to a terrorist group that came to the current Status of LTTE. This is manipulation of Tamil and Sinhala alike. We are being manipulated to this date unless we recognise these, we can't really move forward.
But let us live in the present moment, and let us cultivate friendship amongst us all, respect the differences between us(Christian, Buddhist, sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Hindus, Europeans, youths, elders) but let us celebrate us as humans. Let the fear/hatred/anger of veil not cloud our minds to what is right and just again. Let us not react for the sake of reacting. Let us not be silent when we see what is wrong. Let us unite. Let us lead the lives we think and talk.
If we start such a movement, then we can see how the websites dedicated to Remembering Black day in a very negative way will disapear. But we need to create the positive movement.
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