Saying sorry is hard

By Prasanna Hettiarachchi

reporting from Sydney

 Sri Lankans living outside the country are now returning back to the island since the 30 years long war ended last year in a military victory. Though the Sinhalese majority are happy with the victory, it is a question to raise whether the Tamils living overseas are being taken into consideration. Many Tamils living in overseas either directly or indirectly support a Tamil home land in Sri Lanka.

Here in Australia, some Sri Lankan Tamils get-together to fight for their dream that the LTTE leader Valupille Prabhakaran left behind with his assassination. Not all Tamils are Eelam supporters but a considerable number of them are. Most of the Sri Lankan Tamils in Australia have come out to join the public reconciliation activities to get back to their relationships with Sinhalese by putting aside their differences. One such kicked off in Sydney recently naming it the “Reconciliation forum”.

Reconciliation forum is an arena where people can express their feelings to develop harmony among Sri Lankans living in Australia. The Sri Lankan social activists including both Sinhalese and Tamils in this forum say that this would help to heal the wounds of Sinhalese and Tamil people living in Australia. 

The forum invites for all age group Sri Lankan origin people living in Australia to participate and come up with a better solution to address the ethnic issues that the country was facing for many years. I was personally invited to one of the meetings that were held in Sydney a month ago.

The reconciliation forum consists of a considerable number of Sri Lankan community activists. They are coming from different backgrounds and with different experiences. Not all of the participants were directly affected by war, but there was something that was common within them to share with the others.

Tamils and Sinhalese in this forum are very much face to face, talking the inequalities and the differences they experienced during the past. They bring their thoughts together to build this idea of peace and harmony. The Reconciliation Forum believes that this will help to develop a good relationship with Sinhalese and Tamil people and the generations to come.

But some of the members of the Tamil community, who are still not willing to give up their fight for a separate independent land concept, continue to create activities in Australia. The participants of the ‘Reconciliation Forum’ are of the view that majority of Sri Lankan diaspora will support the forum.

Meanwhile LTTE supporting activities are deteriorating in Australia. As the chairperson for the Australian Federation of Tamil Associations Dr. S Ragavan pointed out once, ‘LTTE activities will be scattered without a leadership’. But Dr. Ragavan went onto say that Tamils will never stop fighting for a separate independent land. Speaking to me before the end of the war in 2009, Dr Ragavan said that internationally Tamils will get together to fight for their rights. He was of the view that Australian Tamils are as strong as Tamils in other parts of the world.    

However, Tamils around Australia have started changing their attitude towards the ethnic issue and are now forwarding to liaise with Sinhalese community, but of course except few of extremists.