Friday September 9th 2011

Naming of streets in Jaffna

September 8, 2011, 12:00 pm

At the moment, when readers are writing in to protest the re-naming of roads in Colombo without any regard for the residents’ wishes, it seems appropriate to bring up the matter of new street names that have been arbitarily put up in the North. What I’m writing is not new – I am harking back to news items that appeared in some of our national newspapers in June this year and I do so on behalf of the Tamil people in the North who – with good reason – are too scared to protest publicly at what they very naturally perceive as the "Sinhalisation " of Jaffna, Official statements about peace and reconciliation are not matched by actions. How insensitive can the government and army be to the feelings of the Tamil people when, for instance, Omanthai is re-named "Omantha" according to the new name board at the railway station which was opened some months ago? In the heart of Kilinochchi town, a name board identifies a street as Mahinda Rakapaksa Mawatha and another street has been given the name of Aluth Mawatha.

Some streets in Kilinochchi and the Wanni have been named after soldiers of the Sri Lankan Army who lost their lives in the war against the LTTE. An un-named Tamil resident was quoted as saying, "Granted that they fought and won the war, but Tamil people don’t feel it right to name roads here after Sinhala soldiers."

A columnist in this paper drew attention to the fact that a new school established in Kopay jointly by the Provincial Council and the SL Army, had been given a Sinhala name despite it’s being in an area where the population is 100% Tamil. Banks stick with Sinhala terminology used in the South, which is Greek to the Tamils. No attempt is made to adopt terms that would be more acceptable in a predominantly Tamil-speaking part of the country. Another anonymous resident was quoted as saying that "The Govt. may have restored an uneasy peace, but that’s far from restoring human dignity to the people in the North". Also, the people don’t feel "liberated" in any real sense in view of the ubiquitous Army presence.

If we are ever to forge an united Sri Lankan nation, there has to be equal concern shown by all of us for the rights and the feelings of the "other", whether they be Tamils, Muslims, Burghers or whatevever.

Anne Abayasekara

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