Britain accountable for causing genocide through unitary discourse: Political Analyst

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 February 2018, 22:40 GMT]
The two initial European powers to colonise the island, the Portuguese and the Dutch, only introduced some changes in the customary laws and religious practices. They didn't impose upon us any major political or economic change disturbing the parity that prevailed among the ethnic identities. It was the colonial British, since they seized the control of the island in 1796 and enforced a single administrative unit in 1833, who were behind the political reforms starting from Colebrooke-Cameron commission disturbing the parity between the ethnic identities in the island. The British were the ones who brought the constitutional discourse of unitary character and they should bear the responsibility for creating conditions for the annihilation of Tamils as a nation in the island, commented Jaffna based Tamil political analyst S.A. Jothilingam in an interview to TamilNet on Sunday.

First of all, the British [government] should admit accountability and apologize to the Tamils. And then comes the responsibility to end the injustice committed against Tamils for decades through reconfiguring the political system in the island, the veteran political analyst and writer said on the occasion of Tamils boycotting the so-called 70th anniversary of ‘Independence’ on Sunday, the 04th February.

All that followed from the introduction of Colebrooke commission [in 1829] until the 1972 Republican constitution of ‘Sri Lanka’ were only steps that strengthened the unitary discourse, he said.



The Tamil people completely ignored the so-called ‘Independence’ day celebrations while the commanders of the occupying SL military and Reginald Cooray, the colonial Governor to North, were ceremonially marking the day in Jaffna. The event was fully boycotted by the elected Tamil councillors and political leaders of Tamil parties.

While all the political parties were locked in the ‘Sri Lankan’ electoral politics of local elections, the uprooted people and the kith and kin of Eezham Tamils subjected to enforced disappearance at the hands of the occupying military, staged protests wearing black robes on the so-called ‘Independence’ day at Keappaa-pulavu in Mullaiththeevu, Ki'linochchi and in Vavuniyaa.



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