| Home > South-East Asia >> Malaysia | |
Statement On Sri Lanka
Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) - May 27, 2009
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa declared victory over Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) as the last LTTE strongpoints crumbled. The victory is for no one but only the chauvinistic nationalist Sinhalese government led by Mahinda Rajapaksa, which has launched a brutal, merciless and cold-blooded military offensive against Tamil population for several months, inflicted nothing but death, destruction and misery. The victory which proclaimed by Rajapaksa, will not put an end to the conflict that has lasted for several decades, but signals new assault on working people in Sri Lanka - Tamil, Sinhalese and Muslim.
The 26-year protracted civil war was not to eradicate “terrorism” as claimed by the Sri Lankan government but to defend the power and privileges of the ruling Sinhalese elites. While the LTTE’s separatist program, which included attacks on Sinhalese civilians and ruthless suppression of Tamil opponents certainly deepened the communal divide and played into the hands of the most reactionary elements of the Colombo establishment. But responsibility for the war rests squarely on successive Sri Lankan governments, which exploited anti-Tamil chauvinism to divide and rule the working population on the island-nation.
Since the independence of Sri Lanka in 1948, Tamil minority have suffered systematic discrimination linguistically, culturally and economically. Until 1970s, the Tamils of the North and the East of the island repeatedly demanded the respect of their culture and fundamental rights, but all were unsuccessful because of the chauvinist attitude of Colombo establishment. This has led to political radicalisation of Tamils and emergence of a militant armed struggle and finally escalated into a civil war.
While we condemn any terrorist attack on civilian, but we must also denounce all kinds of state terrorism like what Sri Lankan government has done over the last 26 years in the protracted civil war. State terrorism fuels individual terrorism, when a class-based revolutionary movement is absent.
Like all other oppressed ethnic minority around the world, the Tamils in Sri Lanka has every right to self-determination, and the struggle for the respect for Tamil rights and culture are pertinent. There will be no real democracy and sustained peace if there is no respect for rights of ethnic minorities.
For the last 26 years, the war in Sri Lanka caused significant hardship for the population, environment and economy of the country, with over 80,000 people officially listed as killed during its course. The Colombo regime had ruthlessly bombarded Tamil rebels and civilians. In the first five month of 2009, it was estimated 7000-8000 civilians killed.
Hundreds of thousands Tamil population were forcibly moved and placed in detention camps where they were not allowed to leave. Even after the “end” of the war, the Colombo government has refused to provide unrestricted access to its detention camps where at least 280,000 Tamil civilians are now being held in appalling conditions.
The so-called “war against terrorism” against the LTTE has served as a pretext to chauvinist Raksapaksa regime to trample democratic freedoms not only for the ethnic minorities in the country but for all citizens. There have been massive discrimination, racialisation of everything, massive censorship, the murder of journalists in the south and anybody else who speaks up against Colombo’s war policy.
The genocidal crime committed by chauvinist government against Tamil population has been condoned and supported by western imperialist powers like the United States and United Kingdom as well as regional powers like India and China, which all of them interested to gain more influence and control over Indian Ocean.
US has provided the Sri Lankan government with direct military aid through International Military Education and Training Program (IMET) and Foreign Military Financing (FMF), as well as financial aid that enabled Sri Lankan government to increase its military budget. US government also provided intelligence service to the Sri Lankan government in order to fight the so-called “war on terrorism”.
India has been assisting the chauvinist Colombo regime in suppressing Tamil rebels and civilians all the while. China also served as accomplice in the crime against humanity committed by chauvinist Colombo government, by becoming the largest arm supplier. The Chinese government even gave Rajapaksa’s government 6 Jian-7 jet fighters “free of charge”, to use in the cold-blooded assault against Tamil population. Beijing and Moscow repeatedly blocked discussion or any binding motion in the UN Security Council over Sri Lanka, like what Washington did about on Palestine. China and Russia also have tabled a counter-resolution in praising Colombo for winning a war against a “terrorist group” and calling for international funding for Sri Lanka.
It has shown again that all the imperialist powers and pro-capitalist governments care more about the interest and profit of the ruling class, than the life of ordinary people like the Tamils in Sri Lanka. They only interested in keeping the “stability” in the expense of the life and democratic freedom of ordinary people.
Only the people movement from below can reverse such policies in all these countries and put an end to the genocidal violence committed by chauvinist government like the one in Sri Lanka.
Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) calls for:
PSM extend its solidarity to the Tamils in Sri Lanka as well as all the oppressed working people in Sri Lanka in their struggle against chauvinistic nationalist regime.
Released by Choo Chon Kai
International Bureau
Socialist Party of Malaysia/Parti
Sosialis Malaysia (PSM)
See also:
 |