Reading The Island newspaper report on the Chief Minister of the Northern Province, C. V. Wigneswaran’s call to the Tamils to join the ‘Ezhuha Tamil!’ or ‘Tamils Rise’ rally in Jaffna today is disturbing, given the brazen attempt to mobilize the University students (Sept. 24).

The Chief Minister stated that they have called the rally mainly to demand the legitimate rights of the Tamils and protest against militarization and Sinhala colonization in the Tamil homeland of the Northeast. But the details of his extremist ethno-phobic claptrap at the rally have gone much beyond. While every group has the right to demand legitimate entitlements, which are reasonable, and which do not militate against similar needs and wants of others, none will begrudge the issue. They are the essential ingredients of the politics of autonomy and freedom. Such demands should not be repressed for they are testimony to our democratic way of life. Sadly, identity politics beyond a certain point becomes irritable in the manner that some Northern politicians present the demands. In a racially jumbled nation as ours, ‘good’ leaders ought to be mindful that the demands made and more importantly the implied motives underneath, should not suggest regimentation of the entitlements of others.

The super sensitivity of ethnic groups in this country, coming out of an era of brutality about which some of today’s politicians had gone cold turkey, ought to realize that identity politics can give rise to angry, hate driven demagogues from all sides. Mr. Wigneswaran’s comments at the rally are forebodings likely to be received by others as demands to strangle freedom and autonomy for other ethnic groups in the country. The likely consequences of such extremism remind us of the kind of society described in the Anthony Burgess’ novel “Clockwork Orange” immortalized by Stanley Kubrick on the celluloid screen. 

The writer is aware of the delicateness of the issue and the possibility of seeing one as politically incorrect; but the darker shenanigans of some of the politicians who lead ordinary people up the tragic blind alley need to be countenanced. Upright citizens need to stand up for those who want a peaceful country for future generations. Accusing the majority community of predatory inclinations, when more than half the Tamils live outside the so called homeland boundaries, is bound to rattle the Sinhalese and the thought of reconciliation at the empathic level will become more and more difficult. The implied inferences in Wigneswaran’s plea for ethnic ghettoes are offensive and insulting to intelligent people. In Sri Lanka, minorities have all along been accepted without rancour in the Sinhala dominated areas, so much so that the demographic changes that accompanied these people’s movements have become afait accompli. The Sinhalese people are getting used to a cosmopolitan metropolis in Colombo, which will be a mix of all ethnic groups and that is the future trajectory. Calling for ethnic homelands is tantamount to asking the Tamils in other areas to pack their bags and come home. This stance, surprisingly, is a new pseudo-liberal authoritarianism once decried as majoritarianism. Wigneswaran is proposing a dramatic shift from the politics for freedom and autonomy to politics of identity and separatism. 

Recalcitrant politicians, who define citizenship solely by race, ethnicity, biological quirks or some such innate characteristic, rather than by our shared human capacity to be free, can bring about no reconciliation worth its name. What we want to see is the right to live free anywhere, socialize with anyone freely without state sanction or harassment by the majority in whatever locality they choose to live. Ordinary people do not want the officialdom to validate only selected groups based on identity only, to inhabit some places. Reconciliation does not mean the enforcement of pass laws in this free land. 

The problem with nations with mixed population groups is the lack of political leaders who are both great and good. As an American political scientist recently pointed out, great leadership and good leadership have distinctly different characteristics and paths. While great leadership can be powerful, dominating, and often overwhelming it can fall short in the moral compass. Interestingly, great leadership has accounted for much of humanity’s progress, but also in equal proportion to its suffering. Sri Lanka badly needs leaders who can combine great and good in equal proportion, because good can be compassionate but impotent. The coexistence of the two is the best hope for leadership — without good, we should fear. 

Dr. D. Chandraratna

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