By S. Ratnajeevan Hoole –
Prof S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole
The President virtually exploded a bomb on Independence Day when he said there will be no devolution but “equal rights to all communities.”
An example of his equal rights regime is the shocks he delivered to the Tamil community just this past week. The damaged Hindu temple in Kokkilai-Muhathuvaaram under a bo-tree is being demolished to make way for a Buddhist temple. Originally displaced from Kokkilai-Muhathuvaaram in 1984 and in minority now, Tamils can only watch as their houses and lands are seized.
In Valigamam North the armed forces are erecting a security fence stretching from Valalai to Maviddapuram. To make a path by the fence, houses in the so called high security zone are being demolished. Subsequent to complaints that these demolitions have been halted, GA Sundaram Aruminayagam confirmed these allegations.
Having taken over the Tamil village of Kokilai, attempts are being made to colonize Puthumadalan in the Mullaitheevu District. Sinhalese settlers hidden away in the army camp were brought out, settled, and provided with an army guard just after the Tamil fishermen had sailed out to work.
In Navatkuli just out of Jaffna town, it is reported that 135 Sinhalese families are being settled under the command and protection of the Navatkuli Army Camp Commander without the necessary permissions from the Chavakachcheri Local Government Authority.
Tamil village names are being given Sinhalese names. Indeed, in the name of reclaiming European street names, even Ananda Coomaraswamy Mawatte is being renamed “Nelum Pokuna Mawatha” as if he was not a Tamil. It is pandering to vanity to draw attention to the Nelum Pokuna Mahinda Rajapaksa Performing Arts Theatre which was established down the street.
War Crimes Inquiry for Hope
Tamils generally have no confidence in this President who uses ethnic chauvinism and the name of equal rights to practice narrow self-interests . His actions have led to a strong case for Sri Lanka will be investigated for war-crimes.
Vasudeva Nanayakkara, the Minister of National Languages, Ethnic Affairs and Social Integration, in an interview with Chamitha Kuruppu (31.01.2013) makes a key point: Certain exercises in military conflict are not desirable. Therefore, we must not let them go un-investigated, and we need to take steps arising out of such investigations.
Here Nanayakkara was clearly arguing for war crimes investigations. It is not a happy thing to call for outsiders to police us and I do not do it lightly. But it really is time.
But what of our sovereignty? Although many Sinhalese like Nanayakkara have their heads on their shoulders, and know what is wrong with this country and that war crimes inquiries are necessary at least for closure if not vengeance, they do not matter.
Going along with this regime for so long has made them effete and ineffective. After expressing themselves, as the impeachment saga shows, they will fall in line with the regime. They will continue. Tamils will die off.
What is left of our Sovereignty?
As thinking persons, our LSSP and CP friends lying in bed with this regime must be asking how our politicians have the money to buy Pajeros and Intercoolers on their salaries. Even if given a permit, most of us would not have the cash to buy one. But our President on his government salary has the money to send his sons to St. Thomas’ and one to Cardiff and City University London.
The most ingenious arrangement is Namal Rajapaksa’s and his brother Yoshitha’s NGO, “A Tomorrow for Youth,” established as their father became President. According to Transparency International this youth organization received large sums from the Bank of Ceylon and the Lotteries Board, both under the control of their father, following which this organization pumped back Rs. 172 million promoting their father and the UPFA during the 2010 elections.
No wonder some MPs can afford five star hotels and racing cars. Surely our Leftist elders must be asking why China gave an unrestricted grant of US$200 mn to the President. Not out of goodwill, surely? Did they ask if there was a connexion between that and two occurrences this past fortnight? First President Rajapaksa as Minister of Finance waived two key provisions of the Finance Act applying to the purchase of 122 perches of land by the Chinese in Horton Place. Accordingly they may purchase the land below the value specified by the Chief Valuer and the 100% tax applicable to purchases by foreigners would be waived. And second, Rajapaksa as Minister of Ports and Highways awarded the contract to build the third phase of the Colombo Outer Circular Highway, consisting of 9.2 km from Kadawatha to Kerawalapitiya, to China’s Metallurgical Group for Rs. 66.69 billion. Reports did not mention tendering. (Xinhua datelined Feb. 1 speaks of the entire project being handed over).
Challenge to Leftists in Government
By Leftists I do not mean the new fangled communalists in red shirts but the old guard of the CP and LSSP whom many respect. You have ministerships, directorships and chairmanships. I know that you live within your means; at most you get a government salary and a car for official use. Except for you almost everyone in your government is a crook or at best of questionable character. As such your presence gives respectability to the others and to cabinet decisions like for the Chinese award. This creates a blot on all that is good in the Left movement.
My challenge to you is this: either quit your positions so that you do not serve as the laundry machine for white-washing these unsavoury characters or explain to us in public how these life styles – e.g., using your positions to donate to NGOs outside the purview of the Auditor General and then using it for personal use, getting unrestricted money from China and then using government power to do favours to China, opulent lifestyles on a government salary etc. – are legitimate.
Call for Foreign Inquiry by UN and Commonwealth
Any hope for Tamils and indeed for Sri Lanka is for international players to take over where we are powerless to help ourselves. We have no sovereignty as a people when crooks are in charge. So let us not speak of sovereignty. Let the UN and the Commonwealth do whatever is necessary to make ours the blessed land it once was, before we messed it up.
It is especially important for Tamils at this important time that our own commitment to justice and human rights is unwavering and exemplary.
punchinilame / February 9, 2013
Destroying by way of Wastage & Corruption is easily forgotten by us
Lankans:(in billion SL Rs.)
Hedging deal .. 230 B, Air Lanka 10 B,
Mihin Air 5 B, MIG deal .4 B, Weerawila Airport .5 B, VAT Scam 35 B,
Safari Park 16 B, Kerawalapitiya 23 B, Uma Oya Project 28 B, Computers
for Divisionals 1.2 B, Gantry Purchase 24 B, Kerawalapitia addtnl.losses
25.5 B, North Road Development 28 B,
Totalling 430.3 B
(Source Transcurrents.com)
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Jayantha / February 9, 2013
Divineguma 15 Billion loss with expired Malaysian seeds (eta paha packets) given to people.
Hambanthota desserted sport complex for next youth games.at rupees 15 billion.
Norochcholai always breakdown 12 times in the first year losses 6.5 Billion rupees.
Embilipitiya paper company (operated only for 6 month) loss 450 million to a leading bank.
Free trade and BOI 200 factories and related businesses colosed during last three months with 5000 job losses.
CHOGM 2013 expenses unknown……but we know that after 1976 Non Align Movement summit country went bankrupt and people had to stay in long lines and curbed all imports.
Central Bank Gold 8 tons and Foreign Currency 7.5 Billion US Dollars reserve……..unknown…
Queen Victoria cruise liner with 2000 passengers arriving at Colombo harbour for 4 hours cannot be counted as tourists. These short stay cruise lines come to caribbean countries on daily basis and they are not counted as tourists. Mere visitors.
Rolls Royce Ghosts are imported while 50,000 Rupee bail imposed on a school girl for robbing 8 coconuts to raise money to paint school.
WHAT IS NEXT………ANOTHER RESPECTABLE ROBBERY……WHEN CJ SHIRANI BANDARANAYAKE WAS KICKED OUT FOR OBTAINING 1.5 Million rupee discount on a house her sister bought.
Any body’s guess.
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WK Costa / February 9, 2013
Dear Prof
I think oridnery tamils do not listen to your lies as they are not paid from western NGOs. Sri Lankan Tamils now enjoy the most basic human right of living which they were denied by VP under the goose of the western NGOs. If the corruptions are taken place the free media in the country can bring them to light and challenged in any court as the courts are now free from NGOs and LTTE helper cylinco crooks. North and East are being rebuilt using billions of public funds and any body can see the difference. Few like you are jelous as they loose the grip they had on tamils only with false properganda.
There are no indipendent bodies. So are the UN and CW. People should decide what to do. Devolution of power will be done on the peoples wish not as westerns think or the 13 ammendent which was forced on us stated.
Please keep writing the lies as that is only what you can do. Anyway still Sri Lanka gets $s reqired to pay our oil debts incured due to huge oil and power subsidies provided to people.
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Jim softy / February 10, 2013
There is lot of proof in this writer’s articles that he is taking the revenge from the Sri Lankan govt for his personal defeat.
Because he is side lined among Tamils for reasons that he is aware of and he is not used to his potential as he is living in the USA. So, he thinks that every thing is Sri Lankan govt’s fault.
But, he never accept the practical truth which is that Tamils themselves digged the hole.
Otherwise, what is written in this article is just BS and is difficult to conclude that an intelligent and a REASONABLE person would write it.
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Buvanes / February 10, 2013
dear costa, me as ordinary tamil listen what Hoole says. If ordinary Tamils do not listen, we would have voted for MR, not TNA. Don’t try to be smart Costa.
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Piranha / February 10, 2013
Tamils listen to Prof Hoole’s “lies”?
Tamils who have lost their houses, properties and temples to the government sponsored and military protected Sinhala colonisers don’t have to listen to Prof Hoole. They know what’s happening to them and their fellow tamils in these areas.
Wake up man, Rajapaksa is destroying not just the tamils but the sinhalas too!
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Panda / February 12, 2013
You had better think long and hard before accusing other’s of lies. Everything the writer says can be checked and double checked. It may be hard for you to accept facts, and dismiss everything as propaganda by the Tamils. We should not forget that many Tamils not only suffered from the hands of the LTTE, but they have had to face the wrath of the Sri Lankan troops, and now systematically perhaps being purged from their areas, in the most undemocratic ways. The government’s master plan to integrate the Sinhalese and Tamils in the North and East is one thing, but to destroy Hindu temples and replacing it with Buddhist temples, is once again an example of the arrogance displayed by the government on behalf of the majority.
Not all Tamil writers are pro LTTE and lie. There are many moderates who only speak out of their people.
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Maamanithar / February 10, 2013
Dear WK Costa! I agree with you that Tamils were denied even basic rights by the LTTE. They have had a long 30 years of miseries under their (LTTE’s) iron fist. But when looking at your suggestions about independent media and judiciary, I think – according to your initial in front of your name (W) , you are related to Wimal Veerawansa !!? Modawansas of your calibre only could claim such back scratching claims. Are you DB !!? D B stands for not Dingiribanda Wijetunge but for Deaf and Blind towards a favourite side (of your nature).
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WK Costa / February 11, 2013
My dear
Please do not shoot the messenger. Read the message and reply in decent manner. I ment we are moving forward with some benefits to all the Sri Lankans in great difficulties under immence western pressure. Do not take the side of some who are trying to destroy the available democracy in the country. It will be the real end of all.
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Safa / February 10, 2013
There is a huge credibility gap between what the president says and what his brother gotabhaya does. The words of the president are couched in ambiguous terms which leaves leeway for extremist to do the needfull. Present strategy of changing the demography of the north is apparent to any person. Military rule will continue until the work is complete notwithstanding the concillatory tone of the president.
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Senguttuvan / February 10, 2013
It is good to agree with Hoole – once in a while. Jehan P is hardly Holy Gospel in any matter. While personally, he is a calm and polite man, he plays it extra-careful when he reports on The Family – and more particularly the Boss and No.2. In the process often objectivity is sacrificed and news is “managed” and opinion downplayed. One cannot blame him. The cash-rich NPC is a goldmine for a man who was travelling by bus to his employer – the Sarvodaya – only a few years ago.
Hoole’s comments on India are in perspective. It is time India stepped on the gas. Geneve provides the right wicket and, as Kumar David writes, “the Rajapakses find themselves boxed in” If the Rajapakses are not forced upon to honour their obligations they will have no further regard or respect to the muscle of the UN and the international community. R2P will become a joke. A united, reconciled, robust and prosperous Sri Lanka – with or without the Rajapakses – will be in the interests of India, the region and global stability.
Senguttuvan
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Naga / February 10, 2013
Professor Hoole says:
” Let the UN and the Commonwealth do whatever is necessary to make ours the blessed land it once was, before we messed it up.”
What does he mean by “whatever is necessary”?
Is he calling for military intervention in Sri Lanka?
Professor, I believe you are either retired or jobless now because it appears you find enough time to collect all these statistics to write your column for CT. If that is the case why don’t you study international law and international relations? That will help you understand how the world political system works.
Professor, UN and Commonwelath cannot interfere in the internal affairs of Sri Lanka however bad it is governed. Under the iternational law, no state or international body can interfere in the internal affairs of another state. Universally accepted principle of ‘sovereignty of states’ ensures non-interference in the internal affairs of a state.
Only the United Nations Security Council is vested with authority under Chapter VII of the UN Charter to take action against a state. The Security Council can act under the provisions of this chapter only when there is a threat to international peace and security; not otherwise. Even under Chapter VII the Security Council is first required to apply measures such as economic embargo before approving armed intervention. The only other occasion when a state can take military action against another state or states is in self defence when a stae’s own security is threatened. Article 51 of the UN Charter permits such military action. Israel uses this principle to justify its attacks on Arab states and Arab and Palestinian terrorist groups. US relied on the same principle to justify its invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan. Any other use of force against a state is outlawed by jus cogens of the UN Charter.
Outside these, the NATO intervention in Kosovo without a proper UN Security Councilo resolution stands out as a unique occasion of international military intervention in contemporary world history. It happened in the context of genocide carried out on Kosovar Albanians by the majority Serbs in former Yugoslavia. NATO justified it as a humanitarian intervention under a newly emerging principle called “Responsibility to Protet” (RP). It is yet to gain universal acceptance as a principle of international law. However, as a matter of established and universwally accepted principle such humanitarian intervention is a breach of international law.
I do know that a lot of Tamils are thinking aloud about getting US and the EU nations to interfere in Sri Lanka on behalf of Tamils under this “Right to Protect” principle. The problem here is there is no genocide happening in Sri Lanka. What happened in April-May 2009 happened in the context of a war between a recognised government of a state and a non-state party. War crimes might have been committed but it is doubtful whether international jurists will classify those incidents as genocide justifying armed intervention in Sri Lanka.
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Lasantha Pethiyagoda / February 10, 2013
Ordinary members of minorities (without hidden agendas or vested interests)would generally feel small and insignificant, or indignant and violated, when they are discriminated against, by a powerful majority group.
In a country like Sri Lanka, this should not happen, as in the past decades under civil war conditions, all communities suffered immensely. All peoples’ dignity must be respected, their right of worship, expression and habitat preserved etc if they are to genuinely feel accepted and included with full participation in mainstream society.
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