Saturday ,19 July 2008( Posted : 05:07:22GMT)
By Latheef Farook This is in response to the July 7, 2008 opinion column of Mr. Janaka Perera under the title 'Ethnic enclaves versus national unity'. With regard to objections raised to building 500 houses for Muslim tsunami victims in Norochcholai I wish to bring the following facts to the notice of your discerning readership:
The Muslim community lost almost one percent of its population in the Tsunami with the worst affected areas being in the east coast. Yet the government, state agencies, politicians and even foreign donors were indifferent to their unprecedented sufferings. They managed to overcome the early days only due to Muslim organizations and it was the JVP which helped them clear the debris.
They asked "what happened to the almost three billion dollar aid which flowed into the country. A report by the Auditor-General, S.C. Mayadunne, disclosed how the politicians and the bureaucracy misspent or misappropriated hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of tsunami aid and, in one incident, though only 599 families were affected, around 16,000 families were paid Rs. 73.395 million ($723,460) worth of aid in the divisional secretariat of Negombo which was relatively unscathed by the tsunami.
But until then no action was initiated against the culprits despite clear evidence forcing Japanese special envoy Yasushi Akashi to emphasize the need to distribute aid in an equitable, transparent and accountable manner while the World Bank coordinator in the reconstruction process, Alastair McKechnie "insisted on the need for equitable distribution of aid".
It was to resettle 4,700 Muslim tsunami victims rendered homeless in the coastal areas of Akkaraipattu, Sainthamaruthu, Kalmunai and Maruthamunai and undergoing untold misery and hardships in 54 refugee camps for the past four and a half years that the Saudi government came forward to build 500 houses.They were built on a 40 acre land, once acquired by Hingurana Sugar Industries and was abandoned for more than 30 years as being unsuitable for cultivation, approved by the President and the Government Task Force to Rebuild the Nation, TAFREN, for building houses for Muslim tsunami victims.
This is a humanitarian project .The obvious question is "aren't the Muslim tsunami victims entitled to assistance and why were there no objections at its planning stage by those dreaming with a destructive ideology to send the island's Muslim community to Saudi Arabia and Tamils to South India. The planning and the building has gone on for over 3 to 4 years in full view and within the full knowledge of everyone- why is anyone creating this needless racial crisis at this critical time of the nation's history- except perhaps to add more fuel to the crisis and create more chaos.
The Sinhalese and the Muslims have a very harmonious relationship in those areas (as in the rest of the island) and do not view the building of these houses as any interference with the sacred Deegavapiya vihare or as a threat to it but as a humanitarian act of giving shelter to the homeless and the destitute . This can be independently verified. It can also be verified from the respected members of the Sangha that it was the Muslims who nurtured the sacred area and the sacred Chaitya at the time when it was in a state of disrepair and abandoned and there were no Sinhalese then.
Perhaps Mr. Janaka Perera may not be aware that around 70 percent of Muslims in the country live below poverty line and around ten percent of the Muslims driven out from their homes and lands in the North languish in the refugee camps in and around Putttalam in appalling conditions. With callous respect to the lives and property of Muslims both the government and the LTTE fought their battle, over the Mavilaru water dispute, by bombing the residential areas of Mutur where the entire population of around 60,000 had to flee to refugee camps in Kantale while their properties were destroyed and around 200 innocent Muslims slaughtered by the LTTE.
Today Muslim fishermen in and around Mutur are prevented from fishing in the deep sea depriving them of their livelihood with reports of their children fainting in schools from hunger. Obstacles were placed for Muslim farmers from cultivating their agricultural lands and carrying out their routine livestock industry. Muslim traders in the east complain of drop in business due to the current tense situation. Their lands were grabbed under various pretexts. Thus their question is one of survival.
Contrary to the organized propaganda, no Muslim ever wanted to grab an inch of land from any one. All what they want is to be left alone to live in peace in their own lands with members of other communities as they have lived for centuries.
Mr. Perera suggested that the land policy in the East has to be formulated on the basis of the 1981 census. But what he failed to state was that, according to 1921 census the Sinhalese population of the combined Ampara and Batiicaloa districts was less then 5 percent. After the Gal Oya settlements, the 1971 census recorded that Ampara had 126,033 Muslims, constituting 46.2 percent, out of the total population of 272,605. The same census showed that the Sinhalese population was 82,868 or 30.39 percent of the total population. Therefore even by the process of natural increase at 2 percent per annum one would expect the number to reach 101,105 by 1981. But their number increased to 146,371 according to 1981 census showing that 45,356 Sinhalese have been brought into Ampara after the Gal Oya settlements without any land Kachcheri.
This reduced the Muslim population from 46.2 percent to 41.6 percent and increased Sinhalese population from 30.39 to 37.6 percent. Thus his suggestion to formulate the land policy on the basis of 1981 census, makes one wonder whether he represents the neo nationalists who have already prepared the ground work for 'Sinhalisation' of the east. According to local media these neo nationalists are in the driving seat of the government and the administration in the east has been systematically militarized with people of like minded ideology. They have the police, army, navy and the STF with them .Finally they managed to install pro government TMVP leader Pillaiyan as the chief minister of the east, despite all the promises to the Muslims, setting the stage for the smooth implementation of their land grabbing and 'Sinhalisation' policies.
The frightened Muslims in the east, let down by their own politicians, do not know what to do.
It was under these circumstances that a subtle media campaign had been underway describing Muslims in the east as jihadists, wahabis, terrorists in their drive to project Muslims as villains as usually done by Israel and its western supporters before they commit their crimes. This is a classic case of propagandist scare-mongering which we encounter in the Western media on a regular basis.
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