Rajpal's Column

9th August 1998

Of Veddas and democracy

By Rajpal Abeynayake

Vedda community : kept alive by machine of civilisation

Never put off for tomorrow something that can be done the day after. Did the government postpone the provincial council elections in that prevaricating, I mean procrastinating, spirit?

Maybe so. We are told categorically that the postponement of PC elections was due to logistical and security problems. At least that's the drift of the explanation. Notwithstanding the true intent of the government, postponing the PC elections would not contribute to the government's stated position that it is committed to democracy.

If democracy was a matter of relative merits, and if the government is saying that it is more democratic than the UNP, then it should be clear that it is a relative position and a relative position only.

Being more democratic than the UNP does not exactly qualify any government for the democratic hall of fame. And so the government has necessarily impugned its stated image as a committed democratic dispensation.

It would have been far better for the government to have stated candidly that "yes postponing elections is a transgression of the democratic principle." Having said that, the President could have added that sometimes democracy is not the most important matter in the equation. Hypothetically, if we assume that there is some grain of truth to the argument that the situation in the north and east does not allow for elections, there would be some merit in suspending democracy until the situation improves?

But, what we have here instead is a scenario of a battalion of government ministers insisting that the PA is the upholder of democracy, and that the government has indeed upheld democracy even in this instance. Ergo, the ushering in of the islandwide emergency in order that parliament would have to review the matter of the election every thirty days.

Even this drastic move would have been a constitutional imperative.

But that still makes it a transgression of democratic principle, because it is clear that there is no real sudden need for an islandwide emergency when the country has managed quite well with a restricted one.

No matter how you cut it, it is apparent that the democratic process has been suspended, and if it is on account of the war, the government can afford to say so.

Instead we have the whole caboodle of government MPs saying that the democratic process has been saved by the PA government, while postponing the elections also, and of course if we are total chumps we would believe that ..

Tailpeice: Are the Veddas under threat of 'assimilation'? The ainu of Japan are virtually unheard of because the community has assimilated to the point of non-existence.

For all aboriginal communities, 'assimilation' with the usurper community has equated to 'extinction.''

In the United States, there is some pride shown among the whites that native Hispanics have assimilated by inter-marriage, and a great deal of derring do has been made about the welfare measures that have been launched by the state towards the uplift of the aboriginal communities. But in most cases such welfare measures have had adverse impacts on the communities meant to be helped.

Its almost too well known that the aboriginal community in Australia is besieged with a major problem of rampant alcoholism. Aborigines have died by the score in Australian jails, and most have been victims of police beatings.

In this context, the state's efforts to 'civilise' the Vedda community, or what is left of it may finish off what is left of them.

An interesting debate was seen recently between a state-run newspaper and a contributor to a privately- owned newspaper about the authenticity of those who pass off as the Sri Lankan aborigines today.

The contributor lambasted the dead Vedda chief as an impostor and actor who really was a Sinhalese villager who had uprooted himself from the south. He had proceeded to act out Veddahood in Mahiyangana, according to this writer.

But for some reason that cannot be fathomed instantly, it appears that the state (or the PA political dispensation to be precise) takes a possessive interest in the current crop of Veddas, genuine or ersatz.

A deeply hurt Vedda defender in a state-run newspaper wrote a rejoinder to the contributors piece and claimed that it is in poor form to denigrate the dead, even though the writer conceded that some journalists had visited Dambana in the past when Tisahamy was alive and discovered that there were discarded salmon tin cans, among the items of garbage disposed of by the tribe.

There is some element of patronising associated with attempts to protect Veddas from 'civilisation.'

It is as if the Veddas are not even allowed to go into extinction peacefully. The cabinet has decided to allow the Veddas to hunt in the jungles without been pounced on by wildlife authorities, but Tisahamy may have had the last laugh if he was alive, especially if he actually was a transplanted southerner.

As far as almost all the aboriginal communities of the world are concerned, it is just about apparent that they have not survived civilisation, save maybe some among the maoris of New Zealand and the dayaks.

As for the Veddas, they are more or less assimilated (re salmon tins) or they are at worst of dubious authenticity. So there doesn't seem to be much point pretending that the Veddas are about to be saved from civilisation by civilisation taking some last ditch measures, like training teachers from among the Wannialatho community.

Maybe the Veddas should not be showboated any longer, and if they are indeed authentic Veddas, the remnants among them would surely like to be left alone, not kept artificially alive by the machine of civilisation.

The only thing that's worse than an aboriginal community that is moving towards extinction is an aboriginal community kept by the state as an artefact.

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