Gotabaya Rajapaksa Government Had Opened Another Battle Front Against Hindu Tamils

By Veluppillai Thangavelu –FEBRUARY 4, 2021

Veluppillai Thangavelu

When sorrows come, they come not in single spies, but in battalions was used by Claudius in Shakespeare play, Hamlet, Act IV Scene. What this means is that when disasters occur, they do not happen alone but many other calamities occur simultaneously to compound human tragedy. This is exactly the pathetic situation Sri Lanka government finds itself right now.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa government is engaged in fighting a do or die battle in multiple fronts. Firstly, the daunting battle to beat the COVID-19 virus which is playing havoc on all fronts. As of January 02, the number of infected cases stands at 64,983 and the dead at 826.

Secondly, the daunting task of repaying foreign loans amounting to USD 5 bn in 2021. Like the beggar with the begging bowl, the government is on a pilgrimage around the globe to look for lenders like the IMF, World Bank and other lending agencies. USD 5 bn is no small change when Sri Lanka’s foreign reserves stand at USD 5.5 bn now. Before the change of government in November 2019 the foreign reserves stood at USD 7.5 bn. Apparently, the government used the foreign reserves to settle foreign loans that fell due in 2020.  External Debt of Sri Lanka increased to USD 51.61 bn in the third quarter of 2020 from USD 50.81 bn in the second quarter of 2020. The country’s Nominal GDP was reported at USD 21.1 bn in Mar 2020. As of 30 November 2020, Sri Lanka with USD 4,549 bn in foreign reserves ranked at 96 out of 194 countries. Thus, the financial health of the country is in terrible shape like the Coronavirus.

The Rajapaksa government while fighting a do or die battle to contain pandemic COVID-19, has wittingly or unwittingly opened a second front against not against the Muslims but the Hindu Tamils living in the North East. Scores of Hindu Temples and places considered holy to the Hindus are under siege by the pan Sinhala–Buddhist Presidential Task Force and the archaeology Department.

The PTF was appointed by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa last June 2020 that comprised Buddhist monks and the head of the Derana media network. The Gazette notification claimed that “There is a growing danger that these heritages are becoming degraded with time due to natural and man-made action. Since many of the archaeology Heritages in the Eastern Province are based on the Buddhist religious background and associated with those places of worship, it has been recognized that the guidance and patronage of the Venerable Maha Sangha are still needed in the identification and management of those heritages”, The PTF was also asked to “identify sites of archaeological importance in the Eastern Province to the Buddhists in order to  “preserve the historical heritage of Sri Lanka” in the island’s eastern province. The gazette notification came after the President met with the Buddhist Maha Sanga in Kandy last year.

The Sri Lankan military sent a high-level delegation to the Eastern province last month, including the war crimes accused army head and Defence Secretary, where they pledged to establish a naval sub-unit to protect Buddhist sites.

The Eastern province, the traditional habitat of the Tamil speaking people has come under decades of intense Sinhalization and colonization from state-sponsored settlement schemes. In recent years, the state has used the guise of ‘archaeology’ to take over vast areas of lands in the North-East and mark them as ‘Buddhist sites’.

The US State Department’s International Religious Freedom Report for 2016 said that the construction of such sites and Buddhist statues in non-Buddhist areas in the North-East, despite objections from locals and leading civil society with the perception of “Buddhist Sinhalese religious and cultural imperialism”.

Tamils have also voiced fears about further appropriation of land by the state through the task force, as the gazette announced the body would be able to “identify the extent of land that should be allocated for such archaeological sites and take necessary measures to allocate them properly and legally”.

“The Presidential Task Force on Archaeological Heritage Management in the Eastern Province may issue instructions or request that all Government Officers and other persons requesting assistance in the provision of services comply with such instructions,” the gazette concluded.

The eleven members of the pan Sinhala-Buddhist Task Force on Archaeological Heritage Management in the Eastern Province include:

1. Archaeological Chakravarthi Ven. Ellawala Medhananda Thero

2. The Chief Prelate for the Northern and Eastern two Provinces, Chief Sanganayake of Thamankaduwa Direction, and Chief Incumbent of Arisimalai Aranya, Ven. Panamure Thilakawansha Thero

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