With the independence, under the pretext of freedom and democracy, the governance of the island was handed over by the British to the majority Sinhala people paving a way for Buddhist Sinhala chauvinism to dominate over the minorities.

It was the estate Tamils, not the Sri Lankan Tamils, who were initially targeted by the Sinhala racist regime. The estate Tamil population that had been shedding their sweat labouring for the prosperity of the Sri Lankan people for more than 100 years were disfranchised and made stateless people by the first act of the first Sri Lankan government. The doors of the Parliament were closed to the estate Tamil community.

Although the successive governments enacted certain amendments to appease the estate workers, no concrete measures were implemented by the Sri Lankan governments to improve their economic conditions. The Sri Lankan governments not only suppressed the political rights of the estate labour population but also exploited them economically. It is a bitter truth that the plantation workers are compelled to live as an oppressed community.

The present agitations by the plantation work force demanding a wage increase is an index of their rising against the oppression. It is interesting to note that the working class in the plantation sector is clamouring for their wage increase for the last week even rejecting the appeals and guarantee by their trade union leaders.

It is unfortunate that these estate workers have to take up the struggle on their own without the guidance of their trade union leaders since they had committed irresponsibly and without forethought in the past in their agreement with the Employers’ Federation.

The estate workers have lost faith in their leadership that they could win their wage increase through negotiations. For the last two weeks, they have been steering their struggle for wage increase in different forms to pressurize the management to agree to their reasonable demands. The leadership of the Ceylon Workers Congress, who claim exclusive rights for leadership among them, must bear full responsibility for making the estate people fall a prey to the exploitation by the capitalist class.

This is the unfortunate destiny of the estate work force.

An English translation of the Editorial in Uthayan, a Tamil daily, based in Jaffna

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