http://www.dailynews.lk/2012/03/17/fea02.asp

The perceptions of the Diaspora

Half a century ago,
the Israeli secret service Mossad abducted from Argentina Adolf Eichmann, a
notorious former officer of Hitler's SS. The former commandant of the Auschwitz
concentration camp was tried (and executed) on several counts, including war
crimes and crimes against the Jewish people.
The Jewish political scientist Hannah Arendt reported on the trial for the
New Yorker magazine. A supporter of the Zionist state (and refugee from Nazi
Germany), she nevertheless criticised the proceedings for being a politicisation
of justice.
Arendt was subsequently pilloried by the Zionist establishment because her
critique - springing from her understanding that the Nazi Holocaust was
systemic, and that the Jewishness of the victims was a mere detail - embodied a
truth which undermines the very basis of Zionism.
Human rights violations
The core premise of Zionism is that Jews required a separate homeland
(originally in Uganda) for protection from the 'universal hatred' of all other
peoples. Anti-Semitism was elevated from being one of many chauvinisms to become
'The' bigotry. Even worse, anti-Zionism was equated to anti-Semitism - even
Jewish critics of Zionism are labelled 'anti-Semites'.
Norman Finkelstein, whose parents were Holocaust survivors, argues that “The
Holocaust' is an ideological representation of the Nazi holocaust': it provided
justification for Zionist violations of Human Rights.
'The Holocaust' (originally a term which meant a generalised massacre, the
capitalisation of the definite article making it Jewish-specific) became a
crime, not by the Nazis against Jews, Gypsies, Slavs and even Germans, but
exclusively by Gentiles against Jews.
Senior MinisterD.E.W. Gunasekera
MinisterVasudeva Nanyakkara
Sir PonnambalamRamanathan
It was the dispersal of the Jewish people all over the world which was
originally called the 'Diaspora'. The Jewish model was adopted by the hegemonic
ultra-nationalist ideology among expatriate Sri Lankan Tamils, who began calling
themselves the 'Tamil Diaspora', an evocative term which has now come into
general use.
However, it was not just the vocabulary that was taken over. So was that
chilling belief in 'universal hatred'. The Tamils were portrayed as the victims
of the Sinhalese, not as co-sufferers under an oppressive imperialist system.
The very inception of the Diaspora is seen as a reaction to 'Sinhalese
oppression' - not that it was part of the flow, which began in the 1950s, of
middle-class Sri Lankans of all communities to more prosperous climes.
This attitude can be seen it respect to the 1983 anti-Tamil pogrom.
Ultra-nationalist Diasporic Tamils see it as the work, not of fascist elements
among the Sinhalese, but of the Sinhalese as a whole: it is the 'Sinhala
Pogrom'. Notwithstanding the fact that many Sinhalese risked their lives to save
their Tamil neighbours. The parallels to 'The Holocaust' are clear.
Collective condemnation
The Sinhalese are the villains; and not just the Sinhalese. Former BBC
correspondent Sam Rajappa, writing in the Chennai-based 'Weekend Leader',
demonises what he calls the 'anti-Tamil Mallu axis' - 'Mallu' meaning Malayali.
'Anthropologically', says Rajappa, 'the Sinhalese share common traits with the
people of Kerala who share a congenital hatred for the Tamil race.'
And discussion with many prominent 'human rights' activists from the Diaspora
about the rights of Muslims (whom separatists subsume under the 'Tamil-speaking'
category) will elicit many a racist epithet and collective condemnation.
The Muslims are representative victims of the hegemonic Diasporic ideology -
the 'Tamil-as-victim' thesis was used to justify the Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam (LTTE) in their 'ethnic cleansing' of the Northern Muslims.
The hegemonic ideologues within the Diaspora remain stunningly silent on this
and the other crimes - often against Tamils - committed in the name of the Tamil
people by the LTTE.
Yet the Diaspora as a whole is surprisingly sensitive to criticism by others.
In March Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe, Sri Lanka's High Commissioner in
Australia, told Australian Parliamentarians and officials that he was concerned
that 'certain elements in the Diaspora in Australia' were continuing a
separatist campaign and were trying to destroy the reconciliation process.
He was pointing out that there were concerted efforts on Australian soil to
collect funds, none of which is going to go to Sri Lanka for rehabilitation. He
was warning against a revival of the system whereby a small minority of
separatist forces within the Diaspora, brutally, expropriated a tithe from every
expatriate Tamil as 'donations'. This system ended with the LTTE defeat and the
consequent collapse of its systemised extortion racket.
War crimes
The High Commissioner in no way blamed the entire expatriate Tamil community
in Australia or elsewhere. Neither did Rohan Gunaratna of Nanyang Technological
University, who also addressed the gathering, saying that 'there is a very small
fringe group that is in Australia, that is still supporting the ideology of the
Tamil Tigers.'
However, Samarasinghe was deprecated in a rumour campaign among the Sri
Lankan community in Australia, for tarring the entire Diaspora with the LTTE
brush. This is symptomatic of the treatment received by the government of Sri
Lanka and its officials at the hands of the Diasporic hegemons.
The concerns of the Diaspora with regard to possible war crimes and human
rights abuses in the last stages of the war are legitimate. That legitimacy has
been confirmed not only by the Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission
(LLRC) but by the government of Sri Lanka, which has affirmed its intention to
implement the LLRC recommendations.
However, the Diaspora should be wary of the racist ideology of hatred of the
'Other'. It should especially beware of efforts by the LTTE-rump to use these
sentiments draw them into support of the misguided resolution against Sri Lanka
at the Human Rights Council.
Today we find a government ready and able to address the legitimate concerns
of Tamils, whether Diasporic or domestic. Specialised ministries, headed by
veteran ethnic egalitarians, D.E.W. Gunasekera and Vasudeva Nanyakkara, have
been set up to deal with ethnic problems.
The Diaspora should do its part. Tamils everywhere should remember the
example of Ponnambalam Ramanathan, who spoke not just for Tamils and Hindus but
for all Sri Lankans - probably why Shaw based on him his 'Cingalese' gentleman,
Jafna Pandranath.