By Rajan Hoole –
Rajan Hoole
The Rise and Fall of the Tamil Militancy and the International Legal Implications of the Government’s Counter-Insurgency – Part 5
Weli Oya was conceived as a northward expansion of the Padaviya Scheme with quasi-military motivation. The spirit in which the Padaviya settlement was done in 1957 and the secretive methods employed had some similarity to Weli Oya in 1984 (see T. Sabaratnam, The Murder of a Moderate, pp.52-60, 85-86). A part of Trincomalee District bordering the North Central Province came at the tail-end of the scheme where 400 allotments were to be given to Tamils who were losing their jobs at the Trincomalee Dockyard which was being ceded by the British Admiralty. A group of Sinhalese labourers at Padaviya led by a monk forcibly occupied this land and the Government did nothing. The ideological significance of the scheme was not lost on C.P. de Silva, then Minister of Lands, and his officials. At its very inception Padaviya, in 1958, had become a hot bed of communal violence. It was the first major scheme in which there were no Tamil beneficiaries.
The following testimonies of people in Padaviya are taken from Bulletin No.4 (1995):
“H.N. Somadasa of Walapane, Udapusselawa, came to Padaviya at the age of 21 in 1956 as an irrigation employee. Following the communal violence which sparked off [in 1958], he was remanded. Asked what led him to join in attacks on Tamils, he replied, “There were many Tamils employed on the scheme. A rumour was spread that Tamils were going to take-over the entire scheme. We became angry and attacked them. I later discovered that the rumour was false and felt ashamed.” Asked who spread the rumours, he replied “Why, the papers had them!” He, like the other employees of the scheme received land in Padaviya in lieu of gratuity.
“Asked about the impact of the war, Somadasa said that every year about two or three dead bodies of soldiers are brought for interment to his village of Siyawa, Padaviya. The village has about 200 families. Considering the ten years of war, the impact is quantitatively of the order of what an average Tamil village in the East would have suffered.
“Piyadasa (50), originally from Madawachiya, explained: “Many young boys from here have joined the forces because rains have failed for the last seven years and the reservoir does not store enough water. Consequently, the people are unable to make ends meet through cultivation. During the rainy season (Yala, October-December) our fields tend to flood. Cultivation at this time (rain-fed cultivation) thus tends to be unreliable. Our main crop is therefore during the summer (Maha, May-September) season. This depends on water from the reservoir.” Farmers questioned said they have cultivated about four times in the last three years. For families without an income apart from cultivation, life is hard.
“Gunawathie (40) originally from Madawachiya is unmarried. Her family derive their main income from helping two brothers who cultivate the family plot of 3 acres. They manage because of support from the state (e.g. dry rations) in the event of crop failure. That also means state patronage.”
For these people it had been a 40 year journey from poverty to poverty, leaving them more vulnerable to manipulation and their lives inextricably entwined with the war. The JVP too during its two rebellions had recruited from colonisation schemes, as does the Army.
With Padaviya being used as a spring-board for Weli Oya, in the wake of the July 1983 violence, it touched a raw nerve among the Tamils. It gave an added urgency to the words spoken by the late Tamil leader S.J.V. Chelvanayakam at the Federal Party convention in Trincomalee in April 1951:
“Some safeguards are essential for the continued existence of a minority race in a multi-racial state. The first is its numerical strength. The second is its territory. Both these pre-requisites are being attacked by the UNP government. Its disfranchisement of seven lakhs Indian Tamils had reduced the voting strength of the Tamils by almost half. It is now robbing the Tamils of their territory. …Today
it is Gal Oya, tomorrow it will be Kantalai, then Padaviya, Vavuniya, Mannar and so on. Gal Oya is the beginning of a process which will reduce the Tamils and Muslims to minority communities in the areas they live”. (See T. Sabaratnam, Murder of a moderate.)
Why did the Government of Jayewardene launch aggression of this kind in the months after July 1983 when the consequences were bound to be extremely grave? Jayewardene was not one who was blind to the dangers, but he had got into a way of trying to fortify himself where he allowed or even encouraged his subordinates to do what was reckless and utterly imprudent while trying to keep his own options open. The Jayewardene of post July 1983 appeared a weak and vacillating man reacting to circumstances. He seemed to lack the brash confidence of his earlier term, which brought about many changes in the country whether for the good or for the bad. It was in this context that Ravi Jayewardene was given an influential role.
In many quarters Ravi Jayewardene has left behind a favourable impression as a man who lives simply, is a good listener who does not impose himself, and is a good team leader. But apart from this, it is a tragedy that with his political and military inexperience he was given the power and the resources to drag the country into dangerous waters well beyond his depth. His fitness to tackle the intricacies of Sri Lanka’s reality are indicated by the following (p.211) from Gunaratne’s For a Sovereign State:
“I [Gunaratne] told Ravi everything I had in my mind. He listened carefully to my theory for the defence of Sri Lanka. He was later going
to implement all my suggestions. He was however not familiar with place names in Sri Lanka. Padaviya, Tantirimale, Morawewa, were explained to him in detail.”
This child of Colombo’s upper class with a passionate desire to defend the Buddha Sasana, was learning about the intricacies of this country from Mahaveli officials who believed that Tamil surveyors had surreptitiously changed Sinhalese place names to Tamil ones! It is, however, also a fact that it was during this period that the Army, which did not earlier have a reputation for corruption, became tremendously corrupt. In such a situation, and with such a corrupt government, Ravi Jayewardene as a man who put through several security deals would find it hard to get rid of the taint in public perception that rubs on by association. It still stands to his credit that he did not crave for the kind of power that would have been his for the asking.
To be continued..
*From Rajan Hoole‘s “Sri Lanka: Arrogance of Power – Myth, Decadence and Murder”. Thanks to Rajan for giving us permission to republish. To read earlier parts click here
Ravi Perera / November 30, 2013
Hoole,
Padaviya is in the North Central Province. This is an area even the eelamist don’t claim as traditional homeland. What is your issue then about sinhalese being settled in Padaviya.
/
Pirana / December 1, 2013
Padaviya was part of the North Central province which was cunningly transferd and annexed to the NCP by CP.de Silva the then Land minister.
/
Thondamanaru / November 30, 2013
It must have popped up in the eelam map.
That map hap had elasticated boundaries.
/
TheTool / November 30, 2013
Hello Saaar,
What is this meya? Tamils & Moslems given land in Weli Oya (Moneragala District) in 1952. You don’t know thing called geography?
/
ela kolla / November 30, 2013
This comment was removed by a moderator because it didn’t abide by our Comment policy.For more detail see our Comment policy https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/comments-policy-2/
/
ela kolla / November 30, 2013
This comment was removed by a moderator because it didn’t abide by our Comment policy.For more detail see our Comment policy https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/comments-policy-2/
/
J.Thavarajah. / November 30, 2013
Prof. C.Suntheralingam Ex.MP.Vavuniya in a letter dated 19th June 1957 to Hon.C.P.de Silva Minister of Lands and Land Development says My Dear C.P.you know the facts.The public do not.They are;Padawielkulam of the Tamils or Pathaviya,as it is now known,that is the tank itself,is today within the N.C.P.boundary.About 14,000 acres of irrigable lands under it fall under the Trincomalee Distict on the RightBank.According to Law as it stands, I repeat the alienation of these 14,000 acres as well as some highlands must be vested in the Goverment Agent.Trincomalee,who should hold the Land Kachcheri.It is he who should call for applicatins.It is he who should select the allottoees and he should carry out all the administration connected with the settling of the colonists.I CHARGE you that you have made a valuable part of the Trinco.Distict a part of the N.C.P.in a sly,sneaky and sly manner.
/
Dr. Rajasingham Narendran / December 2, 2013
Thavarajah,
‘Adangaaththamilan'( ‘A Tamil who cannot be enslaved’) Suntharalingam’s vast property on the approach to Vavuniya was donated by his eldest daughter to the Sri Lankan armed forces! The vast extents of land the ‘Lingam’ (Panchalngams) brothers owned in Mullaitivu are state property now. Where are the descendants of these great Tamil heroes who led the Tamils up the road to hell, now? How these lands came to be owned by such families is another question that will never be answered.
Dr.Rajasingham Narendran
/
Ravi Perera / December 1, 2013
Pirana,
“Padaviya was part of the North Central province which was cunningly transferd and annexed to the NCP “
What do you mean man, if it was already a part of North Central Province why does CP want to transfer it back to North Central Province ?
/
Pirana / December 1, 2013
sorry – it should have read ” Padaviya was part of the Northern Province which was —-“
error is regretted.
/
Dr. Rajasingham Narendran / December 1, 2013
An old coconut estate in Navatkuli, Jaffna. that had belonged to the S.P. Amarasingham family (who was the Editor of the now defunct weekly ‘The Tribune’) was divided into four parappu ( quarter acre) plots and sold in the early 1980s. Those who purchased these plots were middle class Tamil professionals. However, the events thereafter forced many to migrate/ seek exile and the land became a LTTE-Army battle ground. Since May’2009, many of the owners returned, identified their lands and fenced them. Many have yet not reclaimed their lands. However, recently. these privately owned lands are being occupied by intruders, who claim that the lands they occupy now have been allocated to them.
This is obviously illegal and defies even moral norms. The worst aspect is that this land is close to the new Provincial Council building and adjoins the Palmyra Development Board Reserach Centre (Under Minister Douglas Devananda)in Kaithady.
The land grab has now commenced with renewed vigour in the heart of the Jaffna peninsula. Whose hand is behind this new misadventure?
Dr.Rajasingham Narendran
/
Dr Param Mathialagan / December 1, 2013
Dear Dr Narendran
You are one of those fearless to speak the truth and the reality.
What you have quoted is a big scale scandal in the Tamil areas. There are plenty of rascals from politicians, para-military and rogue specialists involved in the terrible fraud. When I say politician, I refer to TNA’s Premachandran like. I read somewhere that he executed certain illegal land deals in the north. Para-military Douglas Devananda is not an angel. Wherever and whenever, he will make sure to press his thumb. Then the other rascals like a retired banker. His preoccupation is land fraud.
I feel government must empower the northern provincial government to deal with the scandal with the provision all the support it can give to the Chief Minister.
Look at this guy Douglas, he has not vacated the Sridhar theatre and that speaks of nefarious deeds.
TNA must make Premachandran likes to put their hands up and pack their bags.
It is unfortunately a big time corruption that is rotting our society.
/