Robert Frost
(The Death of the Hired Man)

Last week, the government blundered badly by trying to forcibly remove some Tamil people from Colombo lodges. Under different circumstances, in 1983, when the Tamil people were being killed and their houses burnt in the southern cities by the Sinhala mobs, the UNP government, while encouraging the rampaging mobs, also sent the victims to the North and the East.

Robert Frost has given a very interesting definition of home. It is as incisive and accurate as it is lyrical: ‘Home is the place where, when you have to go there,/they have to take you in.’ By this definition, Sri Lankan governments and politicians, irrespective of their political leanings, seem to recognise instinctively and intuitively, that the North-East of Sri Lanka is home to the Tamil population of the country, and the South of Sri Lanka is not.

This kind of thinking seems to underpin large-scale anti-Tamil mob-violence and killings such as in 1958, 1977 and 1983 and the recent evictions ofTamil lodgers from Colombo.

The LTTE is also being driven by a similar belief, as evident from its policy of ethnic cleansing. It is on a campaign to rid the North and the East of the Muslims and the Sinhalese.

Ironically, the LTTEand the government seem to agree on this matter.

Mistrust between the Tamil and the Sinhala communities has led to the present day problems which should be solved through devolution of power.

Under no circumstances should anyone be allowed to segregate Sri Lankans and confine them to certain parts of the country.

Let the whole of Sri Lanka be the home to all communities and Frost should be followed in defining what a home is.