‘It’s a small request on behalf of the Sinhala and Tamil brotherhood’ - Sinhala brother Cries for the people of Jaffna

Read in Sinhala Medium of this article

(April 28, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Tamil town of Jaffna is facing unprecedented influx of Sinhala masses going on holiday since the defeat of the LTTE in May 2009. A Sinhala brother (name withheld for personal safety) was very depressed when he saw the difficulties faced by the Jaffna people by the worrying influx. He wrote his feelings and his writing was translated by a Sinhala mother who then forwarded it to her Tamil friend in Singapore. The Tamil translation of the letter in English is produced herein together with the letter in Sinhala.

‘The title says ‘its a small request on behalf of the Sinhala and Tamil brotherhood’ and goes on to say that it is a result of several conversations that the author had with several students from Jaffna. Many people in Jaffna are having a hard time because their lives have been totally disrupted due to the influx of Sinhala visitors and people who go to worship and they (Jaffna) don't have the facilities to support such a vast number of visitors.

‘It then talks about the mistakes people make in etiquette in the temples and he's trying to make them aware of the mistakes they are making because offence like bathing and washing their clothes at the wells in the temples and walking the wrong way with your left hand towards the Gods in the temple. He tries to show how offensive it is to Hindus by pointing out things that will be offensive to Buddhists like walking into a temple wearing a hat and shoes as an example and also saying that Akon wasn't allowed in the country because he "offended" the Buddhists and now they are doing similar things in Jaffna... etc i.e., being offensive to Hinduism.

‘The 4th paragraph talks about t the soldiers asking people to let their relatives to stay in their houses. And he/ she says they wrote this because an army soldier told one of his Tamil friend's aged parents to get their house ready for his relatives and his friend was very hurt and angry because of this... and one of that person's Sinhala friends told him to go to courts because this is a breach of human rights but he said no, if we go to do things like that then we will be split apart more so what we must do is speak to the Sinhala people, explain the situation and allow only a certain number of people who the Jaffna peninsula can support without people having to give up their houses till better arrangements can be made.

‘This is a heartfelt plea to all Sinhalese people to be considerate to the people of Jaffna and what they are going through right now, that is why its in Sinhala, so more Sinhala people can read it and understand it. It also says that whoever reads this must take up a certain amount of responsibility and educate their own people and spread awareness about the issue.