Sri Lanka’s language issue is not something recent. Its history goes back more than half a century, and it was one of the factors that resulted in a war that went on for almost three decades and claimed thousands of lives and destroyed millions worth in public property.
The troubles can be traced back to the short-sighted policies of the late S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike. The former prime minister and Oxford-educated intellectual and “silver-tongued orator” changed the course of Sri Lankan history within 24 hours of claiming political victory. He nationalised the Central Transport Board, the Colombo Harbour, the Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation, but worst of all, he made Sinhala the only official language of Sri Lanka.
This was a political stunt to win the General Election in 1956, after the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) was established in 1951.
The Jaffna Tamil community, under the leadership of the late S. J. V. Chelvanayagam and the late G. G. Ponnambalam, sought equal status for the Tamil language in Sri Lanka. The struggle for a separate homeland for the Tamil community has its roots in this language issue.
S. W. R. D. could not implement their request because of opposition from extreme Sinhala chauvinists and also the rival opposition party, the UNP. It was this failure to find a solution to the national question that eventually led to the armed struggle later on.
Fortunately for Sri Lanka, we have a pragmatic, bold and charismatic leader in the executive President of Sri Lanka. He has achieved victory in the separatist war.
It is now time to think about what should be done to prevent another war in the future in a multi-racial, pluralist society, where Tamils and Muslims represent 12 and 8 percent respectively of the population. Both communities speak the Tamil language and run Tamil-medium schools throughout the country. The medium of instruction in these schools is Tamil.
Tamil-speaking people experience much hardship when they visit government offices. It is time to appoint Tamil-speaking persons in state institutions to help Tamil-speaking people conduct their official work in their language. There are plenty of unemployed Tamil-speaking youth who could be employed for this purpose in the state institutions.
Doing this would help reduce unemployment in the Tamil and Muslim communities and reduce the problems arising from the language issue, and it would contribute towards communal harmony.
Zainul Abdeen Mohamed Shukoor, Aranayake |
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