BY CHRIS SLEE
Father S. Guy de Fontgalland, a Sri Lankan Catholic priest and author of Social Development and Poverty in the Plantation in Sri Lanka, recently visited Melbourne. He spoke to Green Left Weekly about the situation faced by Tamil plantation workers.
Tamil plantation workers account for 8% of Sri Lanka's population. Their ancestors were brought to the island from India by the British in the 19th Century to work in the tea, coffee and rubber estates. Today, de Fontgalland said, they live in "semi-slavery", being unable to get jobs outside the plantations due to lack of education. They are the lowest paid sector of the work force, receiving a basic wage of 121 rupees (about A$2) per day.
There are 68 unions in the plantation sector, but most are "yellow" unions, "bribed" by the government, according to de Fontgalland. However, a new "red" union, the Workers Development Society, has 3000 members. The new union has called a number of strikes and pickets.
Around 52% of plantation workers are women. As policy, 50% of WDS executive members must be women, unlike other unions which are male dominated.
One of the key issues for plantation workers is housing, de Fontgalland told GLW. Most live in "lines" — rows of small rooms, which each house a family. Colombo has proposed to build new two-storey houses, but people will have to pay 356 rupees per month for 60 years, meaning that the workers' children will inherit their parents' debts.
Of Sri Lanka's 1.5 million Tamil plantation workers, 300,000 have been denied citizenship even though they were born in the country. When Sri Lanka became independent in 1948, the parliament, which was dominated by racist politicians of the dominant Sinhalese nationality, deprived the Tamil plantation workers of the voting rights they exercised under British rule.
Subsequently, an agreement reached between the Indian and Sri Lankan governments granted some of the workers Sri Lankan citizenship, while others were pressured to "return" to India. The government promised to give citizenship to all those remaining in Sri Lanka, but has not done so.
In the 1948 elections, the plantation workers voted for the left-wing parties which promised to defend their rights. By 1972, de Fontgalland explained, the two main left parties had "betrayed" the Tamil workers by forming an alliance with one of the racist Sinhalese parties and joining the government.
De Fontgalland also spoke about the peace process which last year resulted in a ceasefire between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the newly elected United National Party government. For 20 years the LTTE had been fighting for self-determination for the Tamil population of the north and east of Sri Lanka. Tamil communities in these areas, unlike the plantation workers brought from India, have lived in Sri Lanka for thousands of years.
"There are no guns being fired and no bombs exploding, and the economic embargo against the north and east has largely been lifted (except for bans on fishing in certain areas). But 40,000 Sri Lankan troops remain in Jaffna, 52 schools in Jaffna are occupied by the army and 'high security zones' have been created that prevent displaced people returning to their homes. There are more than 200,000 internally displaced people still living in camps. The government is ignoring the memorandum of understanding that required them to remove the troops", De Fontgalland said.
De Fontgalland told GLW that about 70% of the people of Sri Lanka want peace. However, the army is opposed to peace, because it depends on plunder to make up for the low salaries of the soldiers.
De Fontgalland said that the Buddhist clergy is divided, with some speaking out for peace while others are pro-war. The Catholic Church has also been divided, on ethnic lines, with the Sinhala section of the church supporting the government side in the war. The People's Liberation Front (JVP), which claims to be a left-wing party, is also opposed to the peace agreement.
[Social Development and Poverty in the Plantation in Sri Lanka is published by Leo Marga Ashram, Bandarawela, Sri Lanka.]
From Green Left Weekly, May 28, 2003.
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