By R.A.Ratwatte –
R.A.Ratwatte
A guilty Tamil “Diaspora” (incidentally a name they have given themselves and originating from the Jewish cause) is doing a great deal of harm to the cause of the Tamil People of Sri Lanka. The ongoing agitation and the open statements about achieving their own separate country within Sri Lanka are leading only in one direction. It is going to turn the small minority of “rational” Sinhalese people against the Tamil cause.
The Tamil people form a minority in this country. At last census the percentage was around 11% and now due to the mass exodus sponsored by Countries such as Canada and Australia it would most probably be much lower. What are they asking for? Equal rights? Equal rights in what sphere of activity?
If it is education we all know what happened to the University examinations held in Tamil and corrected by Tamil teachers and the subsequent students in Tamil curriculum in Tamil Universities. The story when it comes to business and Government service is more of the same and the subject has been flogged to death elsewhere and by much more learned people then me.
What has happened now is that there is a “Diaspora” who has gained entry to first world countries by using the excuse of “seeking asylum”, asylum from discrimination and of course the war. The discrimination if it existed or not was a matter of opinion but the war is fortunately (or is it unfortunately) OVER now. So what of the comfortable lifestyles, the rap music and the fast cars, the latest fashions and the escape from the cast system of Jaffna? Can these people really go back to Jaffna and the Wanni? Can they stand the baking heat, the calcified water and the ultra conservatism of the traditional Tamil lifestyle? The answer is a resounding NO.
The Diaspora is guilty of enjoying the above while the poor hardworking subsistence farmer who forms the backbone of Jaffna and the Wanni now languishes in refugee camps. Did the average citizen of the Wanni ever get a chance to apply for refugee status in any one of the aforementioned countries? If you analyze the background and origins of the Diaspora you may be in for a shock. You may find that Wellawatte and Kotahena (suburbs of Colombo the capital city)feature much more often in the address of origin that Mullativu or Paranthan(towns in the Wanni). This Diaspora who has basically gone to the west under false pretences is now guilty or is it something more (fearful?) that they will have to consider going back. For what is the excuse now? They love their motherland so much and have been denied access by the fascist Sri Lankan Government and the war. Now that the war is over and the “Fascist” Government has invited them back…do they really want to go?
So what do they do? They try to exacerbate the problem. They try their best to create a backlash..Note that there was not a single incident involving any damage to a Tamil person during the “celebrations” held by the Sinhalese. This is better that the average celebrations held when a team wins a football match in the West! They continue to rake up situations from the past, the “83 riots being a favourite item on the agenda. It is over 25 years since that black day and God knows there has been much more provocation by the LTTE (Central Bank bombing, innumerable bombs in passenger trains and busses to name but a few) with absolutely no response from the Sinhala “MONSTER”.
So get real “Diaspora” and put a stop to this nonsense. If you think you will achieve anything but a negative position by continuing to rant on about how you will form you own separate country within Sri Lanka, forget it. If you can’t live in Jaffna and the Wanni under the stringent conditions that most of your children don’t even know about…continue to enjoy your Western lifestyles and face the facts that you ran away because you saw an opportunity ( a good Jaffna trait) an opportunity for freedom from the constraints of the traditional lifestyle, not to mention hard currency incomes and not for any other reason.
Remember the other side has now WON and removed the excuse for your existence. Even the UNHRC says that now !
Thaheer \ / July 4, 2013
Diaspora does more harm to Tamil people and to all nationals in Sri Lanka, let the fate of this country decided by the elected members in Sri Lanka.
There will be no consensus and agreement on partial amendment and dilutions to the 13th amendment. Dilution will never be successful, many constituent parties do not agree. UNP also do not agree to dilution of 13th amendment. JVP does not support dilution, they support only complete repealing of the 13th amendment.
Partial amendment creates more separatist Tamil Elam demands in the future. Only solution to the political means of reestablishment of Tamil Elam in the future is complete repelling of thirteenth amendment.
Government minister Champika Ranawaka has said. We ask this Bill to repeal the 13th Amendment to be brought to parliament soon and we will ensure that the necessary 150 votes will be there. It is not only the president’s responsibility, but it is also the responsibility of the government and the opposition too, to correct this historical error called the 13th Amendment,” Minister Ranawaka said.
Most probably 150 and more votes could be secured for complete repealing of 13th amendment. Dilution and removal of certain powers and giving the Northern Province to the TNA to govern and Thamilan Day master as the opposition supporters will never be achieved. JVP and smaller parties and the faction of UNP will not vote for partially dilution.
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Samantha B / July 4, 2013
Complete abolition of the only way out of separatist agenda, removal of certain powers and establishment of TNA council pave the way for Tamil Elam.
Once they get a council they demand every thing. Never trust TNA and ex LTTE carder .
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Senguttuvan / July 4, 2013
With the false or ignorant statement “Mass exodus SPONSORED by Canada and Australia” Mr Ratwatte shows his comments are written more in anger and prejudice rather than structured for the purpose of objective debate and discussion. Both countries mentioned, in terms of their obligations to UN and other Covenants on the rights of fleeing people affected by adverse conditions in their own home States scrupulously provide safe haven, often against much opposition in their own countries, to people escaping injustice at the hands of brutal regimes, natural disaster, war and other forms of conflict forcing them to leave their homeland. The process of entry into both countries, in normal instances, is a long and arduous legal process involving years. Those who have been granted entry into both countries includes a fair number of Sinhalese as well. Therefore, instead of both these friendly countries being called names, common decency demands we show a degree of respect and gratitude to both countries.
As to “Tamils form a minority in the country” political leaders like Suresh P and others maintain they were and are a majority in their own
natural and ancient habitats of the North-East Province. They left their traditional homeland to Colombo and the South to help the cash crop economy introduced by the British – about a hundred years ago. What they now ask for is the restoration of the Status Quo prior to the arrival of the Portugese (about 1505) However, due to the realities of the times and political evolution, they are now agreeable to a reasonable arrangement to be part of an undivided Sri Lanka. This is substantially different to the LTTE’s obstinate insistence of “Separate State or Armed resistance” position. Not only this just demand has been denied from the 1950s but innocent Tamils (women, children, the old and infirm) have been set upon by Sinhala thugs in 1958, 1977 and so on until some of them decided to hit back while the Police looked virtually the other way. That is the crux of the problem of which Mr Ratwatte cannot be unaware of.
Senguttuvan
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Davidson Panabokke / July 4, 2013
Thank you, Senguttuvan. What you said is what some conscientious Sinhalese told LLRC and keep saying on this website and a few others.
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Don Quixote / July 4, 2013
They are being called “Economic Migrants’ now by Australia albeit long after the damage has been done.
So you have lived through it all and you know everything ? May I inquire as to where you live now and for how long you have lived there ?
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ONE / July 4, 2013
Southern Sinhala Nazi Buddhist so you are the gate keeper to the white van?
Get out of my country you kallathoni and let the folk who live in amity live there irrespective of race religion etc.
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Bedrock Barney / July 4, 2013
Well said. No one should be the punching bag of the other. It is the state’s responsibility to protect all its citizens. Atrocities committed by state forces have been largely shielded from the Sinhala south( not that Mr Ratwatte isn’t aware of the facts). Thangathurai’s speech at his trial where he said “We are neither lovers of violence nor victims of mental disorders.” should be taken in that context.
Things like the upcoming Central provincial elections must have prompted this lame attempt to redirect the blame from those who really deserve it.
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NAK / July 4, 2013
If it was not sponsored mass exodus and it was only their obligations to UN and other international charters as you claim,can you show these two countries extending to any other country anywhere in the world the same curtesy that they extended to the Tamils. Serbians?Albanians? Hutu’s?Tutsis? Iraquis?Afghans? some obligation isnt it? how very convenient!
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Mama lanka daruwek / July 6, 2013
Nak:
Why are you DELIBERATELY lying?
Canada and Australia have accepted MANY refugees from the countries you have listed in addition to other places such as Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Vietnam, Cambodia etc. etc.
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Thaheer \ / July 4, 2013
Elam province , (diluted Elam province) will never be achieved, TNA to govern and Thamilan, Daya master as the opposition supporters will never be achieved. JVP and smaller parties and the faction of UNP will not vote for partially dilution. Only option now available is complete repealing of 13th amendment. Failing that Elam will be established politically.
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ONE / July 4, 2013
Gas gemba India wont let you or rajapassa reject 13th A that’s your problem not LTTE anymore.
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Dissa N / July 4, 2013
There are no Indian MPs in the parliament . Two third majority is assured for complete removal of 13A.
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Native Vedda / July 4, 2013
Dissa N
“Two third majority is assured for complete removal of 13A.”
The two third majority may not last long if Hindians decide to bank roll the acquisition of a few parliamentary seats.
Oh there was a precedent in the past when Hindians bank rolled Rajabaksas in 2005 presidential elections to prevent Vanni people voting against him. The clan paid a small fee and VP obliged.
Gota, his army, his former LTTE brothers, his police, …his BBS, his thugs cannot use Mafia tactics to prevent MP’s crossing over to opposition.
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Rajakantha / July 5, 2013
13A will be repealed.Champika will become a national hero. UPFA will get 150 or more votes.
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Native Vedda / July 5, 2013
Rajakantha
“Champika will become a national hero.”
All what is wrong with electricity supply and price will be blamed on him.
That is the end of him.
Therefore I welcome his rise.
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justice / July 4, 2013
The “diaspora” meaning “tamils abroad”,who fled abroad, are in contact with their kith & kin back home and ae aware of their plight.
Many sinhalese too fled abroad and claimed asylum at the same time.
Tamil students’ marks altered upwards by tamil teachers never happened.
Tamils valued education and pursued it and got proportionally more places in universities,employment & business.They are not at fault.
Equal rights in what sphere of activity? – IN ALL SPHERES – to live without harassment by the army,police and paramilitries,to pursue their lives and livelihoods peacefully,without having to obtain “permission” for family events and even to bury their dead,to go back to their homes in “high security” areas,for their homes & lands to be not arbitarily taken over by the army under various pretexts,to worship in temples without pooja times being regulated,for temples be free of boot wearing armymen entering & assaulting and even shooting priests who object,for temples not be looted,desecrated and demolished,for Buddha statues NOT to be planted in front of temples,boundaries of municipalities,playgrounds & bus stands,for statues of their leadres and even those of Mahatma Ghandi not to be ‘beheaded’,for persons arrested & remanded & NOT to be beaten to death,for students not to be arrested and held in secret army camps incommunicado without judicial orders,for lonely women and war widows not to be molested/raped,to be able to protest against injustice peacefully without being assaulted,to be able to vote in elections peacefully, etc.,etc.
1983 riots were the islandwide pogrom, after periodical massacres of tamils from 1951 onwards,and the cause of tamils taking up arms.
These “backlashes” without any excuses or provocations, happened regularly since independence.
All the ongoing atrocities ARE the reasons for tamils abroad requesting their kith & kin to be left alone,to live peacefully, in sri lanka in areas where they have lived,for generations.
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Davidson Panabokke / July 4, 2013
Bodu Bala Sena and Gotabaya’s call for repeal of 13A seem to have prompted the author to say something equally inappropriate to counteract Time Magazine’s “Buddhist Terror” Issue
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ONE / July 4, 2013
Ratwatta’s are dim wits so they traditionally play the emotional patriotic nationalistic card to mislead the ignorant create civil unrest and take power.
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Samantha B / July 4, 2013
What about the LTTE terror after winning the northern provincial councils.
Complete abolition of the only way out of separatist agenda, removal of certain powers and establishment of TNA council pave the way for Tamil Elam. Once they get a council they demand every thing.
Never trust TNA and ex LTTE carder . Diaspora will demarcate a Tamil Elam on top of northern provincial council.
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Dissa N / July 4, 2013
This is the easiest way to get Tamil Elam. Provincial councils need to be completely abolished. Hard earned war victory will be reversed overnight. Enough is enough.
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Native Vedda / July 6, 2013
Dissa N
“This is the easiest way to get Tamil Elam. Provincial councils need to be completely abolished”
Why?
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Anura / July 4, 2013
We shouldn’t waste our time responding to these sort of articles written by people with surnames like Ratwatte. I know it is not logical go after names, but I belive in generic inheritance which is roughly 50% of human brain nural connections that lead to common thinking and beliefs.
These Ratwatte’s are recently migrated rich, Hindu DEWALA related South Indians. They don’t understand how an ordinary Tamil ( or Sinhala) guy feels when he sees Tamil houses along main roads in Mulative, Nadumkarni areas. Every undemolished house I saw in that area had lot of 2-3 inches large bullets holes on every walls.
How can Tamils enjoy roast chicken and chips in western countries after seeing these poor mens’ houses or ar least photos? What should they do ? I don’t know ..
Ratwatte claims that every Sinhalese (?) knows Tamils were favored in Uni education. Bullshit!! In my batch in Pera, 50% were Tamils and I know their calibre.
I know one ugly Sinhala thing. Sinhalese education ministry forcefully translated Dutugamunu story in Tamil school text books (young prince couldn’t sleep because of Tamil presence in north) Can you imagine how ugly it is to teach this to 10 year old Tamil boys by their Tamil teacher. This Dutugamunu was believed to lived about 2000 years back, how relavent is his racist feeling 2000 years later to school children !!!
Anura
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K.A Sumanasekera / July 4, 2013
They may be refugees from Wellawatta and Kotahena, But don’t underestimate their clout.
LTTE proxy TNA’s Whizz Kid, Sumnathiran was summoned to London by the German NGO which was requested to leave Srilanaka for its closeness to Prabakaran.
It was a two day workshop ( Boot Camp) organized with the help of the GTF of B T Reverand Emmanuel.
Mr Sumanathiran’s other delegate members were Suresh Premachandra, who already has told the inhabitants that they won’t be going to Nagadeepa on a new Expressway.
He even gave notice to the # 2 World power China that they won’t be allowed in any part of the Homeland.
And the other was Ponnambalam whose credentials are well known
Immedeately following this meet, another German NGO organized a another Two day Boot Camp in the heart of Colombo.
It was organized by the Christian heavies of Ranil’s faction lead by big Karu.
Again it was Sumnathiran who lead the TNA and attended the workshop on how to roll Rajappaksa.
The chief instructor mind you was a German gentleman.
It was so secretive and strategic that even the official occupier of the premises didn’t seem to know it was held there?.
Not bad for a Guilty Bunch of Refugees.
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Peace Lover / July 4, 2013
cheekeya earlier you were lusting after Sambandan and Ranil and now you seem to prefer Sumanthiran,your well and trully a sick homo Leela ( K A Sumansekera)
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Chandra / July 4, 2013
The author seems to have said it all. The truth in a nutshell.
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NAK / July 4, 2013
Who is fooling whom here? The so called diaspora and the TNA are continueing this unending but never be realisied Eealm stuggle is at the behest of their colonial masters for their own benefit and not for the Tamils in Jaffna or Wanni.
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Anpu / July 4, 2013
“If it is education we all know what happened to the University examinations held in Tamil and corrected by Tamil teachers and the subsequent students in Tamil curriculum in Tamil Universities.
” What a bullshit? Tamils are doing well in USA, UK, .. universities – is it because TAMILS are marking the papers?????????????
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j.muthu / July 4, 2013
Anpu you will go mad soon if you answer all these Sinhala modays. they all live in their own world. I believe this ratwatte from kandyan. these guys continuously fool their own people. this bugger thinks .. If it is education we all know what happened to the University examinations held in Tamil and corrected by Tamil teachers and the subsequent students in Tamil curriculum in Tamil Universities . what damn brainless dump he is. I believe this guy live in his fool world. does he know how our kids performing in all over the world. Modayas allways modayas nothing else…
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Anpu / July 4, 2013
Thanks Muthu. I am already mad. He does not know how the Rajapakse son passed the law exam. Does he know how much nepotism in rajapaksa family? https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/infographic-rajapaksa-family-and-nepotism/ Thanks CT & SLC.
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CKPrahalad / July 4, 2013
No BBS protest about it though….
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CKPrahalad / July 4, 2013
You have to accept Tamils are brilliant..it is a fact that they give more priority for education than any other communities….
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Native Vedda / July 6, 2013
CKPrahalad
“You have to accept Tamils are brilliant..it is a fact that they give more priority for education than any other communities….”
Could we see any comparative studies to support your above observation.
Tamils are equally stupid as their Sinhala/Buddhist brethren.
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Simhi / July 4, 2013
Cyril Mathew risen from the grave!
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Ajith / July 4, 2013
The question is what this small minority of “rational Sinhalese people can achieve when a large majority of “irrational” Sinhalese people are against the “rational” Tamil cause.
The “minority” or “majority” concept is a relative term and you cannot apply that in all circumstances. If you take Sri Lanka as a single Nation Tamils are minority. If you consider distribution of the ethnicity within the island of Sri Lanka Tamils are “majority” and Sinhalese are “minority” in in the North East of Sri Lanka.
According to 1881 population census (I think this is the first census in Sri Lankan history) over 95% of the population in the North East are Tamil speaking people (Tamils and Muslims). You must understand that the distribution change of population within Sri Lanka happened only after the regions were merged for administration purpose by British and after the handing over of power to Sinhalese by British.
There was no majority/minority issue before British. The change in population happened only under Sinhalese rule since independence and it is not a voluntary migration, It is a forced migration. This is the fundamental issue to the problem. The majority/minority concept lead to so much of trouble and suffering to the people over the six decades in this Nation. Tamils are not asking anything from Sinhalese? Why should they ask Sinhalese? Who are they? It is their right to choose what they want. We don’t want you to dictate us what we eat and drink?
There is no sense in what Mr Ratwatte has written. I think he is in a confused state and nobody understands what he is telling. Let the people of North East to live free of Sinhala occupation and allow them to make their own decision about who rules them. It is a matter for Tamil Diaspora and Tamils of North East to resolve their development issues. Mr Ratwatte, you have lot to do in the South where people have lost their fundamental rights and there are majority of Sinhalese live under poverty.
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Senguttuvan / July 4, 2013
To reader Ajith I must add Tamils in the NEP welcome their Sinhala brothers who lived with them earlier – until radical Tamil politics
intervened. Also, those Sinhalese who want to live in the NEP for specific personal reasons too will be welcome provided it is outside the forced Colonisation plan or the present State’s strategy of rendering Tamils in their own areas as minorities. The present generation should be reminded up to about the 1970s Sinhala middle class families in the Anuradhapura/Polonnaruwa areas sent their children for English education to Jaffna. I recall names like the late Senior Minister Maitripala Senanayake, K.B. Ratnayake,
Minister ELB Hurulle who spent many years of their student days living with the Tamils eventually to carry pleasant memories. To me, it was always a great pleasure to speak to the giant KBR in Tamil that he preferred to talk to me in – so well and in such elan. There could be hundreds more.
Senguttuvan
Senguttuvan
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punchinilame / July 4, 2013
If the intelligent Sinhala man can be reasonable in his outlook, any
thing can be solved. The Diaspora cannot be blamed, as it was a
willy-nilly creation of Sinhala politics and has to be tolerated within
reason. They will grow stronger the more the Political heads here
fight them. They are duty bound to watch and assist their Community,
whether a Ratwatte or a Gota likes it or not.
A local matter has been Internationalized and therefore can be solved only through them – India. Playing China-card is not going to benefit us in the long-term?
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Lankan / July 4, 2013
Diaspora does not constitute of Tamils alone. Further, all the members of the Tamil Diaspora do not support the carrying of LTTE flags and call for separate state. It is important for Ratwatte to understand this point very clearly. He also should know that he has Tamil blood in him! All Tamils are not Tiger supporters. However, even where one community is a minority, the minority rights have to be protected by the majority. If equal rights (religious and civil) are given to all citizens of the country no other country or Diaspora can find fault with the Government of Sri Lanka. If the majority believes in the lies of the government for the ruling clan’s benefit then Sri Lanka will continue to be a failed state. One other point has to be considered by Ratwatte, last few years most of those who left Sri Lanka to developed nations are not Tamils, its Sinhalese.
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Anpu / July 4, 2013
Some one mentioned Ratwatte is a Tamil descendant. So I wanted to find out more and found many links and one of them – http://tamilwritersguild.com/overseas-exploits-tamil.htm
“Of the four who signed in Tamil one was RATWATTE Disawe of Matale. To subscribe a signature to such an important document in Tamil would give one an impression that either he was a Portuguese married to a Tamil, a Tamil or of Tamil extraction. The Ratwatte’s of Sri Lanka are well known by their fair complexion, perhaps the mingling of foreign blood. The present President Chandrika Bandraranaike belongs to the Ratwatte clan. As reported in the Sunday Leader newspaper of 18.10.98 the present Bandaranaikes trace their ancestry to a SUSANNE SCHARFF daughter of Lieutenant Jan Christoffel Scharff, who served in the Dutch East India Company and hailed from Sangerhausen, Upper Saxony Thuringia, Germany. He married one Elizabeth de Saram in Colombo on 21st March 1734. An extract of the said Newspaper is given below:
‘Our prime minister’s (S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike) direct male ancestor, of whose connection some members of his family used to take pride (see Twentieth Century Impressions of Ceylon edited by Arnold Wright, (1907) p,525) was NILAPERUMAL, a Tamil from south India who arrived in Ceylon in the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century. He was described as a ‘high priest’ of a temple in Ceylon. He was the first kapurala in his family of the Nawagomuwe dewale, with the fortunes of which the Bandaranayakes were long associated. Kalukapuge was a name which the family used to effect in the past. It is the Sinhalese version of the Nilaperumalge, the ge name of the Bandaranayakes’.
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Native Vedda / July 4, 2013
Anpu
Sinhala/Buddhists and Tamils are genetically related their brethren in Tamilnadu according to my elders who have seen the studies.
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Lanka Muslim, UK / July 5, 2013
The talk of the Diaspora being the main obstacle to finding solutions to the problems of the Tamil people is only a publicity gimmick/ If the Govt. and the Sinhala politics is honest it they should honestly come out with the proposals to solve the problems. Only commissions are appointed from time to time, numerous of them starting from the Banda-Chelva Pact to the LLRC recommendations, and no recommendation is implemented. To make the situation worse a partially represented Select Committee has been appointed with the intention of diluting the provision of the 13th Amendment which provides some opportunity to Tamils in the North and Tamils and Muslims in the East to participate in Provincial administration. If the Southern politics shows sincerity in coming out with constructive proposals the majority of the Tamils, both in the country and outside, will welcome the move and any negative Diaspora moves will not be effective.
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Don Quixote / July 5, 2013
So the DIASPORA outnumbers everyone else on this forum.
Insulting the Author, his intelligence and his family is the last resort of those who see no grounds to argue on !
PATHETIC !
In a nutshell indeed Chandra, probably too hard a nut for these Diaspora monkeys to crack or swallow.
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Park / July 6, 2013
Once again every one who opposed the views of the writer is branded as a member of the Diaspora! What a shame. If we re-read whats written it is very clear that there are so many points brought out to say that the writer of this article is wrong and bias. Without accepting it, Don accusing that all opinions as diaspora opinions shows that how the government propaganda has been working and how foolish we SRi Lankans are.
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Kiri Yakka / July 6, 2013
Agreed, the that Tamil Diaspora has its own interest that works again those Tamils in Sri Lanka.
But now it is the Sinhalese that need help – as they join the global list of disappearing cultures unable to underhand contemporary civilization. So now my friend you are in direct competition with the Tamil Diaspora – who unlike you will continue to flourish, while pissing on their Sinhalese counterparts, enjoyed at the same time the great comforts of the west and a secure future for their children.
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Subramaniam Masilamany / July 6, 2013
It is very difficult to communicate with an ignorant man. Then there is limit to ignorance beyond which it is evolution.So then Is Mr,Ratwatte an ignorant man or belong to the Neanderthals?
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Suni Perera Montreal / July 7, 2013
A well compiled document which of course is unacceptable to those who find it a bitter pill to swallow or acknowledge the salient truth about the Diaspora as the facts presented here are quite stubborn and undeniably accurate.
To insult the writer is cowardly and apathetical. Shoot the message if you must, not the messenger!
There are classy Tamils who still live in Sri Lanka and love the country where much of the dissent has been instigated by seditious political leaders and disgruntled Eelam seekers.
The undertones here towards secession (in some of the comments) are quite visible and to those Tamils who have sought greener pastures overseas unless they are willing to merge into mainstream Sri Lankan society today and accept the laws of the land collectively towards its development, do not thrown incendiaries from your foreign domains.
Thank you for your insights R.A.R.
Shades of Trinity (in all probabilities) visible.
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