i disagree with you. I have spoken to many sinhalas and tamils and also read newspapers owned by sinhalas and it seems like Tamil is official language only by name. Remember, in India, all languages have equal status, since all these ethnic groups in india bumiputras. In SL, tamils are bhumiputras and hence should have parity. Besides being national language, the language board of SL always complains that Tamil is never implemented.
Imagine, how it would be if we had to go to a village in TN or Kerala or anywhere in india and all the official letters from police etc are in hindi, people would go beserk. I was told by liberal sinhalas that this is the case in Tamil areas where tamils are often cheated out by Sinhala policemen by issuing statement/letters in sinhala.
you seemed to have also forgotten that Sinhalease killed thousands of tamils in 1983/84 riots and your govt stood by doing nothing for four days. surely the least you can do is to give guarantee to tamils that this will not happen and no laws have been passed to guarantee that.
Finally, i was told that tamils live in colombo not because they want to live there but because the govt will bomb the north and east, so they are only safe from the govt by living in colombo. They always fear that 83/84 riots can happen again in colombo. U say SL Govt intersted in federalism but SLFP and all the parties have put forward proposals that has no federal structure in nature and in fact tightens the noose on tamils.
