Read my entry; correct the english
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i am (a) human
Yvonne Goh, student of ChongBoon Secondary
In the class of Integrity One
A proudly claimed Netballer and Chongboonite !
There's (no) need in probing about my age.

Badah and Shasa, though of different races were childhood sweethearts. They were bonded like a child refusing to leave its mother’s side on the first day of school. Never did they think that they would ever be separated until the day the war broke out.

The relatively affluent boy whom ancestor were from India, grew up in an English educated Tamil family while Shasa, the beautiful Sinhalese maiden who was brought up in a family spoke little English yet more Sinhala. Both their families had no objection to their relationship and were even keen on them getting married.

When the British colonized Sri Lanka, they favoured the Tamils to the Sinhalese minority in terms of jobs and education as the Tamils could speak better English. That made the Sinhalese feel demoralized. Therefore, when Sri Lanka became independent in 1948, the government body whom mainly consist of Sinhalese, introduced policies that were bias and had favoured their own race. This henceforth, made the once favoured Tamils by the British face discrimination. These problems raised into a conflict between the Tamils and Sinhalese.

The Sri Lanka government only granted citizenship rights to those who were born in Sri Lanka or those whose ancestors were from Sri Lanka. This issue was the beginning of how the two childhood sweethearts were to be separated. Since Badah had no roots in Sri Lanka, he was then found stateless. Not only Badah was found stateless, the many other Indian Tamils who contributed greatly to the society also found themselves stateless, denied of basic rights such as education, jobs and voting.

Other policies that the government implemented were the ‘Sinhala Only’ policy, the change in university admission criteria and resettlement of population. Just the ‘Sinhala Only’ policy, could escalate the tension between the two races. The Sri Lanka government made Sinhalese the official language of administration in 1965 and decreed that the Tamils were given three years to learn the language or get displace.

As time passes, Badah and his family members were still unable to pick up the Sinhala language easily. They were only left with a month before they would be kicked out of their jobs. That moment for them was critical, without jobs, their means of survival would soon be nothing. The Sinhalese detested the Indian Tamils and was anticipating the time when the Indian Tamils would flee Sri Lanka.

Regardless of how bad the circumstances were, Badah and Shasa relationship stood strong. However, their families were beginning to have doubts on whether their relationship should be carried on during this period of conflict.