This refers to the comments of Mr. Izeth Hussain(IH) on my letter of 12/3/13. Certainly IH’s comments are well taken though I disagree with some points made by him as shown below.
That speech of JRJ made in Parliament which I heard over the radio, was eloquent and balanced as might have been his speech made in San Francisco on behalf of Japan in 1946. In his days at Law College he had won the gold medal for oratory. A cousin of mine, a senior medical doctor, sadly no more with us, made the same comment about this eloquence packed speech as a timely warning to the Tamil leaders to desist from instigating their otherwise gentle folk into armed revolt. One of their leaders had even been using extremely provocative language to the effect that (horresco referens- I shudder to refer to it) from human skins … shoes would be manufactured. Perhaps the report of the Sansoni Commission will offer more evidence on this matter.
I agree that the goons of 1983 enjoyed immunity till, belatedly JRJ, as happened in 1958 under PM SWRDB, enforced law and order. In the immediate aftermath of the killing of the 13 soldiers it would have looked as a gross act of ingratitude for the soldiers and the police to shoot down goons of the mob who were avenging the murders of their comrades although in fact they were causing destruction and death. JRJ wanted to teach their leaders a lesson as reported in a news report given by an Australian diplomat for refusing to heed his official warning made in Parliament. But the killings did not have the hallmarks of a state sponsored genocide. One often hears of calls to Jihad in Islamist countries at the slightest provocation. The label genocide belongs to the same strain of disproportionate overreaction.The JRJ government had some Tamil cabinet ministers like S. Thondaman and K. W. Devanayagam, may be a few others, and if genocide was the case they would have resigned if they had any honour in them. The Tamil families living in the metropolis and suburbs some of whom took refuge in the houses of Sinhalese and Muslims would not have returned to their homes unlike the Muslims who could not return to their homes in the North after they were evicted. Never an admirer of JRJ, let me say that he was never racist and anti Tamil nor did he promote anti Tamil pogroms. If I am not mistaken his daughter-in-law was of Tamil extraction.
I was not aware of the scale of the violence unleashed in the immediate 1977 post election anti Tamil riots. I believe the Sansoni Commission was appointed to report on those events. Those familiar with the findings of this Commission might be able to shed further light confirming or contradicting the remarks of IH. But, I did not notice any anti government or anti Sinhala feelings of hostility or bitterness when I visited the Jaffna Kachcheri in 1978 or 1979 to perform a management audit along with a Chartered Accountant and a Tamil public officer of the Ministry of Public Administration. When I had to disclose the findings of the audit at a meeting of all MPs of the North, Jaffna GA Lionel Fernando, Secretary Mr. D. B. I. Siriwardena and the Minister of Public Administration Montague Jayawickreme one or two MPs found it amusing to hear (indicated by their guffaws) when I said that the revenue of the Kachcheri from sources like toddy, fees, licences, tolls etc had plunged to record levels. I must add that we enjoyed the hospitality of our fellow brother public officer of Jaffna. My wife and I were guests of a private medical practitioner and his wife who was a friend and batch mate of my wife in Peradeniya.
It must be remembered that after the unfortunate spontaneous incidents of 1983, there have been no events of such devastating proportions despite a multitude of provocations caused by the militant freedom fighters at the beginning who later turned out to be brutal terrorists responsible for massacring innocent devotees, monks inside temples and mosques and the most terrible thing of all on innocent children and infants.
There can be many interpretations of historical events. In my view the racial riots of 1983 were spontaneous and not state sponsored. But the JRJ government has to take the responsibility for the unfortunate tragedy. It did this partly by paying compensation though "multitudinous seas incarnadine would not wash" off the stains left behind.
Finally, let me say that in the interests of reconciliation, forgetting and forgiving the sins of the past. I do not wish to write more on this subject adding salt to old wounds.
Leo Fernando
Pelawatte
island.lk