By Muttukrishna Sarvananthan –
Dr. Muttukrishna Saravananthan
This is the second part of the op-ed entitled “D.B.S.Jeyaraj and the bogey of the reincarnation of the Tiger: Battle of the Fourth Estate in Post Civil War Sri Lanka”. I have undertaken my own investigation about the information (or misinformation) repeatedly churned out by DBSJ in the Daily Mirror (daily newspaper of Sri Lanka) in the past six weeks.
In the case of the alleged gunshot fired at police officers in or around the house of Jeyakumari in Tharmapuram, Kilinochchi, to date the authorities have not revealed the name/s of the police personnel who were shot at or injured in the shooting and the hospital in which they had undergone treatment. There is no record of anyone receiving treatment for gunshot injury in any of the hospitals in the region during March 2014 according to my information. Only information we have is that Jeyakumari is a person who jumped in front of the motorcade carrying British Prime Minister David Cameroon in Jaffna in November 2013 to draw his attention to the plight of parents and spouses whose child/ren or spouse had gone missing during the last phase of the civil war or earlier. It is also reported that Jeyakumari had appeared in the latest Channel 4 programme on Sri Lanka telecasted in November 2013. The arrest and continued detention of Jeyakumari is suspected to be retaliation for democratic protest by an aggrieved mother. Is it a crime to engage in peaceful demonstration or talk to the international media?
DBS
There are also allegations about some persons (including some elderly) receiving unusually large amount of remittances from abroad through official banking channels to revive the LTTE. The information we have is that many individuals from abroad (including former combatants living abroad) on behalf of themselves or on behalf of certain Diaspora organisations (suspected by the Government of Sri Lanka) have been helping destitute people in the East and North, mostly ex-combatants, by way of periodic remittances for their livelihood through their contacts in the North. To allege that these remittances were meant to revive the LTTE is a concoction.
Firstly, if at all the former combatants now residing abroad or any others from abroad wish to send money to local people to revive the LTTE or political violence they would certainly use informal channels (undiyal or hawala), which they have been so accustomed to over the past three decades, rather than the official banking channels. Secondly, as I highlighted in my previous op-ed, there appears to be no need or incentive for the Tamil Diaspora to revive the LTTE or political violence in any part of Sri Lanka because their pursuit of vengeance against the GoSL appear to be bearing fruit with the latest resolution at the UNHRC in March 2014.
I am also informed that Kumaran Pathmanathan (KP for short – former primary arms procurer for the LTTE) has been attempting to persuade few individuals, including former combatants, who have been sending money from abroad to the needy to channel that money through his NGO, North East Rehabilitation and Development Organisation (NERDO). However, his attempts seem to have thus far failed. It is suspected that the arrests of one or two elderly persons for having received large amounts of money from abroad is a retaliation to the failure of NERDO to capture that flow of foreign funds. DBSJ by his own admission has met Kumaran Pathmanathan during his visit to Sri Lanka in late 2013, which indicates one of the sources of information to DBSJ about suspected foreign remittances to few people in the North.
NERDO appears to be in a desperate situation so much so that it has entered into the business of selling sand to the construction industry excavated along the coast of Vadamarachchi East in the Jaffna peninsula under the business name Neithal (knitting). Until recently Maheshwari Foundation (a front business of the EPDP – Eelam People’s Democratic Party) held the monopoly of this lucrative sand business in the peninsula which is now shared by NERDO as well; with the patronage of the national government of course. In an ironic twist of history, a kingpin of an organisation that projected its armed struggle as mun meetpu porattam (struggle to recover the earth/land) has begun selling the very same earth for his physical survival.
DBSJ also alludes to few incidences in the North whereby some youths are alleged to have attempted to put-up posters extolling the LTTE or advocating revival of the separatist armed struggle. This could be possibly true, but is it a crime or subversive to put-up posters of this nature? There are hundreds of thousands of destitute and desperate persons in the North even five years after the end of the civil war. Few of them could be easily tempted with foreign money to put-up provocative (but not necessarily illegal) posters. These survival attempts could and should not be criminalised. Where is the equal application of law?; while publicly pistol brandishing Mayor and politicians go scot free and finger wagging, tongue lashing religious bigots run amock in the city of Colombo without any hindrance or reprimand, few destitute youths in the North are arrested on suspicion of revival of terrorism when putting-up posters. What on earth is this partisan justice?
The spectacular claims of the reincarnation of the Tiger five years after the end of the civil war in Sri Lanka is not only an overtly politico-military retaliation to the resolution passed against Sri Lanka at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva and aimed at warding-off potential witnesses to the impending international inquiry into allegations of war crimes and human rights violations committed by both sides of the civil war, it is also a strategically orchestrated commencement of the campaign to re-elect the incumbent President and the Government at the upcoming elections due within the next twenty-months.
It appears that the magic-wand of the Rajapaksa cannot continue to perform without the reinvention of the Tigers. Publicly funded mega infrastructure projects in the East, North, and South (particularly in the home district of the President, viz. Hambantota) have not reaped political dividends to the self-proclaimed “people’s dynasty” as reflected in the provincial council elections held in the East in May 2012, North in September 2013 and in the South in March 2014. While in the North the ruling dynasty was routed, in the East it had to depend on the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) to form the government, and in the South its support was considerably dented; ten percent drop in the share of votes received by the ruling party in the Hambantota district in March 2014 compared to the previous provincial council elections in late 2009. Whilst the purported economic dividends have not trickled-down to political dividends, the bogey of the reincarnation of the Tiger becomes handy to potentially win the upcoming elections by hook or crook.
Already a new wave of fear psychosis has been unleashed by way of registration of youth population in the North (a gift to northern youths to mark the World Conference on Youth being held in Sri Lanka between 6th and 10th May 2014), re-introduction of the registration of fisherpersons when going-out for fishing and returning after fishing in the Northern sea, re-commencement of foot and bicycle patrolling in the interior parts of the Jaffna peninsula by uniformed army personnel, re-enactment of the sentry points along the Vadamarachchi coast, etc. Rajapaksas appear to have realised that only under a militarised and securitised electoral environment could they manipulate and win the upcoming national elections as and when it is called, especially in the East and North.
Under the fast changing electoral mood of the people in the East and North and gradually changing electoral mood of the people in the South, lapdog journalists such as David Buell Sabapathy Jeyaraj from the Diaspora, a group of former combatants who write fairytale columns in Thinappuyal (daily hurricane) for their supper [a weekly Tamil newspaper published in Vavuniya and marketed in the North, suspected to be at the behest of the state intelligence services and the government but reported to be owned by Kumaran Pathmanathan and run by Sivanathan Kishore – a former arms trafficker for the LTTE from the Vanni to the South via Vavuniya and former TNA member of parliament], et al, have been entrusted to revive the ghost of the Tiger.
All in all this government seems to be shooting at its own foot. In the post-civil war period the government has been touting the economic success as its primary achievement and setting ambitious targets to achieve 2.5 million tourist arrivals per annum and $4,000 per capita income by 2016. The bogey of the reincarnation of the Tiger and the religious bigotry championed by proxy ultra nationalist groups of the ruling dynasty, inter alia, could undermine the achievement of set targets and are antithesis to the government’s avowed goal to make Sri Lanka the wonder of Asia.
To the best of my knowledge, the Tamil population does not have the appetite, capacity, or necessity to revive the LTTE or political violence in any part of the country in the foreseeable future.
*Muttukrishna Sarvananthan (Ph.D. Wales, M.Sc. Bristol, M.Sc. Salford, B.A. Hons. Delhi) is the Principal Researcher of the Point Pedro Institute of Development, Point Pedro, Northern Province, Sri Lanka, and the author of “In Pursuit of a Mythical State of Tamil Eelam……”
Off the Cuff / May 8, 2014
Dear Dr Muttukrishna Sarvananthan,
Congratulations on your excellent detective work!
On your own admission you have an unparallelled investigative an information gathering capacity as underlined by the following statements.
“I have undertaken my own investigation about the information (or misinformation) repeatedly churned out by DBSJ in the Daily Mirror (daily newspaper of Sri Lanka) in the past six weeks ……… Only information we have is that Jeyakumari is a person who jumped in front of the motorcade carrying British Prime Minister David Cameroon in Jaffna in November 2013 to draw his attention to the plight of parents and spouses whose child/ren or spouse had gone missing during the last phase of the civil war or earlier”
Immediately after the war a large number of child soldiers captured/surrendered underwent rehabilitation at the Hindu College in Colombo. Javier Aguilar of UNICEF was interviewed in Colombo by BBC correspondent Stephen Sackur (Video 3:28 onwards http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gXbFPoDWSI).
He says they have reports of about 8000 missing children. He also states that this is just a minute fraction of what went on (4:20 onwards). He also state that during the last 6 months at least 200 children per month were taken from their parents for the war effort including 9 year olds (4:38 onwards)
Going by the information extracted by the BBC from the UN’s Mr. Javier Aguilar, there should be at least 2400 parents whose children were abducted by the LTTE (200×6=1200) for their war effort during the LAST SIX months of the war alone. If the period before that is also taken into account that number would increase by at least 10 times (vide Mr Aguilar’s claim that 8000 child soldiers were minute in comparison).
Hence we have
a) 2400 parents who lost their children, 6 months preceding May ’09
b) 24,000 parents who lost their children during the 30 years
Is it not strange that only ONE woman wanted to focus International attention to this unfortunate situation?
Re “Firstly, if at all the former combatants now residing abroad or any others from abroad wish to send money to local people to revive the LTTE or political violence they would certainly use informal channels (undiyal or hawala), which they have been so accustomed to over the past three decades, rather than the official banking channels. “
Is it not possible that formal channels are used as a cover for larger sums of money coming in from informal channels? Isn’t it naive for you to assume that the State’s information is limited to the official remittances? Is Undiyal and Hawala untraceable? Isn’t these unofficial channels illegal and intensely investigated, subsequent to 9/11, even at the originating end? Your assumption that unofficial channels are untraceable is also naive.
Re ”Secondly, as I highlighted in my previous op-ed, there appears to be no need or incentive for the Tamil Diaspora to revive the LTTE or political violence in any part of Sri Lanka because their pursuit of vengeance against the GoSL appear to be bearing fruit with the latest resolution at the UNHRC in March 2014”
Appearances can be deceptive. The govt never thought the assassination of Mayor Alfred Duraiappha by a rag tag terror gang in the 1980s would escalate to what it was later. Decisive action at the start would have spared Lanka all this heartburn. The Tamil Diaspora is not homogenous and the extortionists, credit card scammers, fraudsters, human smugglers, dope peddlers and purveyors of terror who gained monetarily by such acts for 30 years are still living. Isn’t it naive to assume that they would give up their lucrative trades without a fight?
Re “DBSJ also alludes to few incidences in the North whereby some youths are alleged to have attempted to put-up posters extolling the LTTE or advocating revival of the separatist armed struggle. This could be possibly true, but is it a crime or subversive to put-up posters of this nature?”
When you say “could be possibly true” it means that you are clueless as to whether it’s true or false and you did not really investigate given your self proclaimed investigative powers. If those posters appeared in India it would have been treason. But this is Lanka and if it is not classified as a subversive act and is not illegal then the govt is foolish not to enact subversion laws in Lanka in line with those in India or the Patriots Act in the USA.
Re “finger wagging, tongue lashing religious bigots run amock in the city of Colombo without any hindrance or reprimand”
I agree with you that impunity reigns. But you are looking at a symptom and not at the cause. In 1912 such religious bigotry surfaced culminating in a riot in 1915 where lives and property were lost.
The current trend started with Religious Conversions by Religious zealots.
The first reaction came with the JHU sponsored Anti Conversion Bill and that failed due to pressure from many quarters local and overseas.
Next came religious extremism in the form of the BBS and similar organisations.
The inability of the govt to enact Laws such as those prevailing in the Indian States of Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and Gujarat in order to throw water on smoldering embers even though they have a steam roller majority is foolish. We certainly don’t want a repeat of 1915.
The Indian Supreme Court has ruled as follows in the case Stainislaus v. State of Madhya Pradesh (1977) (1) SCC 677.
The Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice A.N. Ray interpreted the word `propagate’ used in Article 25(1) of the Constitution as `defined’ in the Shorter Oxford Dictionary – “to spread from person to person, or from place to place, to disseminate, diffuse (a statement, belief, practice etc.)” and in the Century Dictionary (which is an Encyclopaedic Lexicon of the English Language) Vol. VI – “to transmit or spread from person to person or from place to place; carry forward or onward; diffuse; extend; as `propagate’ a report; `propagate’ the Christian religion.” The Bench observed: “We have no doubt that it is in this sense that the word `propagate’ has been used in Article 25 (1), for what the Article grants is not the right to convert another person to one’s own religion, but to transmit or spread one’s religion by an exposition of its tenets.”
Referring to Article 25(1), Chief Justice Ray, writing for the Court, held: What the Article grants is not the right to convert another person to one’s own religion, but to transmit or spread one’s religion by an exposition of its tenets. It has to be remembered that Article 25(1) guarantees A freedom of conscious to every citizen, and not merely to the followers of one particular religion and that, in turn, postulates that there is no fundamental right to convert another person to one’s own religion because if a person purposely undertakes the conversion of another person to his religion, as distinguished from his effort to transmit or spread the tenets of his religion, that would impinge on the “freedom of conscience” guaranteed to all the citizens of the country alike. (wiki)
Wise words indeed!
Re “All in all this government seems to be shooting at its own foot”
That of course is an astute observation but not necessarily for all the reasons that you have detailed.
Kind Regards,
OTC
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Rajash / May 8, 2014
“…Is it not strange that only ONE woman wanted to focus International attention to this unfortunate situation”
OTC – off the cuff and over the counter as well and missing the point.
The ONLY one woman is looking for her son who surrendered to the army, both the mother and sister, were present. Photos of her son taken by the army in the rehbilitation centre was showcased to the world by the army.
He was then murdered in cold blood by the army?
/
Off the Cuff / May 8, 2014
Dear Rajash,
I addressed my post to the author of this article Dr Muttukrishna Sarvananthan who I expect to be more intelligent than you. Let’s hope that he can explain his assumptions.
I note that your concern is ONLY for ONE woman’s pain and just like the LTTE, ignores the pain of the parents of the child soldiers. Hence that professed pain, is more like propaganda than real feeling.
I was conservative in my estimate. The UN says that 8000 is only a minute fraction (watch the linked video for first hand evidence). Then what would the real number be? Ten times that? I hope you can do the maths to estimate how many mother’s, fathers, sister’s and brother’s that will work out to be.
Perhaps you do not have children of your own to understand the pain of a parent who is torn from the clutches of a Mother/Father. Perhaps you and your children were safely cocooned overseas and insulated from the LTTE. Perhaps you are the reason for the child soldiers.
These children replaced the cowardly adults who ran away deserting the fight for Eelam.
Did you fight for the LTTE or did you hide from them?
The moment you focused on my pseudonym instead of the contents of my comment, you proved the type of intelligence you possess.
Kind Regards,
OTC
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Rajash / May 9, 2014
Dear OTC
Indeed Dr Muttukrishna Sarvananthan is very intelligent, look at his qualifications which he proudly display in his signature and good for him. From the Tamil perspective, we had intellectuals leading us since independence but we never had a leader a visionary. Even today we Tamils have intellectual all over the world doing analysis etch but no leader worth his salt. We will never have a leader in the mould of VP. He held the Sinhala Govt to ransom for 30 years.
Now from the Sinhala people’s perspective it’s the other way around any one can lead them. Depends who bash the Tamils more. Muslims do not count, they are here not there.
So what is the impact on Sri Lanka as a whole? We are yet to have a leader.
Now let’s talk about this single mother. You quote from my posting “I note that your concern is ONLY for ONE woman’s pain”
On the contrary you are the one picking on this woman and I quote form your posting and you have stated this in bold letters as well. “Is it not strange that only ONE woman wanted to focus International attention to this unfortunate situation?”
Dr Sarva never used the phrase “only ONE woman”, he stated and I quote “Only information we have is that Jeyakumari is a person who jumped in front of the motorcade carrying British Prime Minister David Cameroon in Jaffna in November 2013 to draw his attention “
This brave woman on behalf of Tamil, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, decided to be in the fore front of demonstration. And what does Gota do? He invents Gobi hide him under her bed and arrest her.
Now you give all kinds of statistics on how many children were forcible recruited by LTTE.
You and the whole world brand LTTE as the world’s ruthless terrorist organisation. At the same time you expect the Tamil mothers to protest when the world’s ruthless terrorist organisation comes knocking on you door.
The Sinhala people all accept the BBS is a bunch of thugs. But the Sinhala public or the police can’t do anything and when they walk about in Colombo upmarket store and cause havoc. But you expect the Tamil mother to fight the world’s ruthless terrorist organisation
I will ask you a final question. How many Sinhala mother down south willingly gave their sons to liberate the Tamils form the clutches of LTTE terrorism?
How many poor Sinhala mothers in the rural south were forced to let their sons join the army to fight and die. Do you know how many baby faced Sinhala children were sent to the front line.
Just because LTTE, listed as one of the world’s ruthless terrorist organisation, forcibly recited Children, that does not mean the all the Tamils supported war. That does not give the Sinhala army the right to kill all combatants who surrendered.
Your argument is well well LTTE the terrorist organisation forcibly recruited children, so the Govt of Sri Lanka can forcibly drag Tamil children and kill them.
I may not be as intellectual as you are as you imply.
The need of the hour is for a national leader not intellectuals, who can lead and command the respect of all Sri Lankans and lead the country to the prosperity of all Sri Lankans and develop the country not just the south.
But that is a dream not for this generation but for the next as well. Arm chair critics of CT carry on posting until you hit the grave.
/
Off the Cuff / May 10, 2014
Dear Rajash,
Intelligence and paper qualifications are two separate things.
They do not always go hand in hand.
I have called in to question the “Assumptions” that Dr DS has made. If he is unable to explain the basis of his “Assumptions” then his intelligence is a question mark. In fairness to him, I did not expect him to reply in just one day. Let’s wait and see whether he can explain the “Assumptions”.
Now to what you have written.
RE ” We will never have a leader in the mould of VP. He held the Sinhala Govt to ransom for 30
years”
So you are one of those separatists cowards who sent Lankan Tamil children to fight a man’s war while you hid yourself from VP with your spouse and children overseas! Your statement above and you studied avoidance of my direct question “Did you fight for the LTTE or did you hide from them?” is confirmation.
Your braggadocio is misguided and indicates a very short memory.
VP and the LTTE would have been history in June 1987, 22 years before it happened in 2009. Read about Operation Poomalali or Eagle Mission 4, to educate yourself.
Lanka with a 75% Sinhala electorate will always have a Sinhala majority govt. India with an overwhelming Non Tamil electorate will always have a NON Tamil Govt. That is a fact of life under a democracy. Tamils of the world are a minority everywhere. You don’t have a govt that can issue an International Travel document or a Passport anywhere in the world. You have to learn to accept reality.
This majoritarian mindset of the Tamil minority (anywhere in the world) is the cause of strife wherever the majoritarian mindset surfaces. Canada, USA, UK, Australia etc won’t be exceptions.
Re “You and the whole world brand LTTE as the world’s ruthless terrorist organisation. At the same time you expect the Tamil mothers to protest when the world’s ruthless terrorist organisation comes knocking on you door”
What prevented you and the million cowards who went to the West and Australia from doing so?
You and your children were safely out of reach of Prabahkaran and the LTTE, so why did you not protest this massive and heartless use of Children as Cannon Fodder? The answer strips you naked
doesn’t it? ALL of you turned a blind eye because it was not your children who were facing bullets!
Re “Dr Sarva never used the phrase “only ONE woman”,..”
Did I say he did? You are confused due to a Language comprehension issue.
Re “I will ask you a final question. How many Sinhala mother down south willingly gave their sons to liberate the Tamils form the clutches of LTTE terrorism?”
All of them. Sri Lanka does not practice Conscription unlike in the West. I am surprised at your lack of knowledge.
Re “Just because LTTE, listed as one of the world’s ruthless terrorist organisation, forcibly recited Children, that does not mean the all the Tamils supported war”
Who said that all Tamils supported the war?
The Tamil Diaspora did not campaign against Child Conscription that went on for 30 long years though you campaigned to save Prabahkaran with Death Fasts, Blockading highways and street parades waving the terrorist flag!
You turned a Nelsonian eye to the fate of the children of the Vanni because your families were safe. You calculatedly allowed the use of children as Cannon Fodder without as much as a murmur for 30 long years. The complete indifference you exhibited points to your complicity.
“…. That does not give the Sinhala army the right to kill all combatants who surrendered”
Rajash, the BBC Hard Talk Video that I linked to, calls you a propagandist Liar.
All those children in that video were given back their childhood (which you and the indifferent Tamil Diaspora stole from them) and cared for, by the Army that you call the “Sinhala Army”.
All that you gave them was a gun and certain death. Can you name anything else that you gave them?
Despite the LTTE’s death threats on any Tamil who joined the SL Forces many Tamils served in the forces and fought the LTTE. So did the Muslims and the Burghers. The second in command when SF commanded the Jaffna forces was a Tamil. He was under constant death threats from the LTTE but that did not deter him. The ONLY ethnically pure armed group in the War was your LTTE.
The first commander of Sri Lanka’s first Military Intelligence Unit was Colonel Tuan Nizam Muthaliff RWP, a Muslim. He commanded the Deep Penetration Unit of the Army, that was feared by the LTTE. Here are some of the victims.
Head of the LTTE air wing Colonel Shankar
senior sea tiger commander Lt. Col. Gangai Amaran
Head of the LTTE military intelligence Col. Charles
Artillery specialist Major Sathiyaseelan
Deputy leader of the Sea Tigers Cheliyan.
Thamil Selvam, Karuna, Jayem, Balraj and Prabahkaran escaped assassination attempts.
Hence your Propaganda about the SL Armed Forces is baseless.
Re “Your argument is well well LTTE the terrorist organisation forcibly recruited children, so the Govt of Sri Lanka can forcibly drag Tamil children and kill them”
That interpretation is due to your poor command of the Language of this discussion.
Re “The need of the hour is for a national leader not intellectuals, who can lead and command the respect of all Sri Lankans and lead the country to the prosperity of all Sri Lankans…”
Unfortunately you don’t identify with Sri Lanka as you identify with a mythical Eelam. The Leader you praise is Prabahkaran and anyone cut in that mold would be anathema to ALL Sri Lankans but the separatists.
“….and develop the country not just the south”
You need to remove those Blinkers you wear and take a hard look at the North and the East. The development in these areas is unprecedented at any time since independence. Who pays for that development? 75% of development costs is borne by the Sinhalese. What have they got in return? Nothing, you claim it is an exclusive Tamil Homeland!
You want the Sinhalese to Pay 75% of developing the areas you claim as an exclusive “Tamil Homeland” and give nothing in return!
Re “But that is a dream not for this generation but for the next as well. Arm chair critics of CT carry on posting until you hit the grave”
It is not a dream if you learn to share Lanka’s resources equally and equitably. Just look at the posts at the beginning of this article. How many of them have been impartially critical? You find my posts a problem because you cannot contest factual information. You have been used to getting by with rhetoric, intended to pull the wool over uninformed readers. You position yourself as the underdog and the cunning beneath the pretense is hidden from view. That is until you are questioned in depth.
Kind Regards,
OTC
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Rajash / May 10, 2014
Dear OTC
You are well and truly brain washed.!
Like all the Sri Lankan politicians and the mouth piese of the regime you are in a state of denial and have ready to serve over the counter statements.
/
Off the Cuff / May 10, 2014
Dear Rajash,
Does that mean you have no answer to my questions?
When you praise the murderous Prabakaran as the greatest and irreplaceable leader that the Tamils ever had, despite what he did to generations of Tamils, who has been brainwashed is patently clear.
Kind Regards
OTC
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Rajash / May 12, 2014
Not just Tamils I mean he is the best leader Sri Lanka ever had
/
Off the Cuff / May 14, 2014
Shows that you support Child Soldering as long as they are not your own children.
I do hope Lanka will be spared another megalomaniac like him.
Kind Regards,
OTC
/
shankar / May 9, 2014
Off the Cuff and in the bluff,you have meticulously taken out excerpts of the article and successfully bluffed,sorry cuffed them,but you have missed the most important one of all which is
“In the case of the alleged gunshot fired at police officers in or around the house of Jeyakumari in Tharmapuram, Kilinochchi, to date the authorities have not revealed the name/s of the police personnel who were shot at or injured in the shooting and the hospital in which they had undergone treatment. There is no record of anyone receiving treatment for gunshot injury in any of the hospitals in the region during March 2014 according to my information.”
can you give us some bluff,sorry cuff on this because it goes to the heart of the matter.I thought that the government would have very much publicised this incident of alleged LTTE revival with their paid stooges media going to the injured policeman’s bedside at the hospital, who was said to be hit in the groin and thigh by two bullets and photos,videos etc would be available of him talking to the press.Where are they?Off the Bluff you now must do your part of the investigation and produce this for us before loading us with some more reams and reams of bluff,sorry cuff.
/
Off the Cuff / May 10, 2014
Dear Shankar,
If Dr DS’s article contains rhetoric and inaccuracies anywhere within it, irrespective of the writer’s educational credentials and claim of carrying out an investigation, the article boils down to Propaganda, plain and simple.
The emphasized text in what he had authored has no other explanation than the absence of investigation which he claimed to have done in his very first paragraph.
Dr DS himself admits to not doing a proper investigation when he wrote “DBSJ also alludes to few incidences in the North whereby some youths are alleged to have attempted to put-up posters extolling the LTTE or advocating revival of the separatist armed struggle. This could be possibly true, but is it a crime or subversive to put-up posters of this nature?”
Since you seem to be adept at unmasking bluff, please explain how Dr DS can claim to have done any investigation worth a tuppence after admitting what he has inadvertently admitted above. Was he Bluffing his way through using his Educational Credentials?
It is advisable to think things through before you decide putting your foot in your big mouth.
Kind Regards,
OTC
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shankar / May 10, 2014
Dear off the bluff
i’am talking of an incident of shooting and you are talking of posters,without even a single word about the shooting.The shooting is the crux of the matter.When the author brought out his last article lambasting DBSJ for whom i have some affection because he is a great writer,i defended him by saying first we have to get to the bottom of this alleged shooting before shooting the messenger DBSJ. The author has taken that on board and done some investigation of his own and given it here.I was hoping that you who has taken such an interest in this article minutely arguing every point except the most important,would shed some light on it.Instead you lead us by the nose somewhere else.
Kindly do your own investigation to refute the authors findings and give it to us or piss off
Thank you and god bless you.May you attain nirvana soon. GROBR.
/
Off the Cuff / May 10, 2014
Dear Shankar and Dr Muttukrishna Sarvananthan,
My post was addressed to Dr Muttukrishna Sarvananthan and it addressed issues relating to his article.
Certain inconsistencies of the article made me suspect the whole article as a cunning attempt at Separatist Propaganda. I did not say so in my first post because in fairness to Dr. MS, I had to give him a chance to explain his assumptions and statements.
Since up to the time of my writing this comment he has not ventured an explanation, the probability that he was spinning a yarn around Jayakumari is high.
Attacking Tamils who don’t tow the separatist propaganda line is standard separatist practice. Even the illustrious Lakshman Kadirgama was not immune from that.
1. I have established that though Dr MS claims he made his own investigations, it is a FALSE claim. You yourself have side stepped the issue and has given no explanation to my question.
2. Since he starts with a LIE the rest of what he says is worthless as he has compromised himself.
3. He makes assumptions that cannot be maintained and hence his argument based on those assumptions fails.
4. He uses the Jayakumari incident and says “Only information we have is that Jeyakumari is a person who jumped in front of the motorcade carrying British Prime Minister David Cameroon in Jaffna in November 2013 to draw his attention to the plight of parents and spouses whose child/ren or spouse had gone missing during the last phase of the civil war or earlier”
The purpose of that statement is clear. But when I ask about the parents numbering at least 25,000 who lost their children to LTTE (which is within the scope of his statement) He is silent.
You are silent.
Rajash, Navajeevan Kingsley, Kali, S. Selvaraj, manel fonseka, Kumar David, J.Ramon, Daya, Rohan Siriwardena, aratai, Bensen Burner, oopla, bganendra, burt, Piranha, Park, justice, punchinilame, Ainslee Robert, Sampson midi, Sengodan. M, Pandaranayagam, Diogenes, paragon and others on the cheer squad have nothing to say.
You say “The author has taken that on board and done some investigation of his own and given it here”
That of course is a Lie. He has not done an investigation. The author’s Faux Pas which I quoted earlier proves it.
You say “Kindly do your own investigation to refute the authors findings and give it to us or piss off”
For me to question the author’s claims I only have to analyze what he has written. Which is what I have done. When I want to urinate I use a toilet not walls, lamp posts and bushes that you are used to.
You say “The shooting is the crux of the matter”
You believe so, as Dr MS has successfully led you by the nose to do so.
To me, the Crux of the Matter is the Author’s integrity.
Is he telling the Truth or spinning a Propagandist yarn?
I believe he has compromised his integrity by spinning a propagandist yarn.
Kind Regards,
OTC
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shankar / May 11, 2014
“You say “The shooting is the crux of the matter” You believe so, as Dr MS has successfully led you by the nose to do so.”
dear Off the cuff
He did not lead me by the nose as you claim,but if you read his last article comments section,i’am the one who pinpointed it.I have said there that if that incident did take place then it is unfair to blame DBSJ for stating that someone is trying to create a LTTE resurgence because he is merely the messenger.If that incident indeed did not take place DBSJ’s credibility will be in tatters.It is to clear DBSJ’s name that i highlighted the incident.The articles of the author are not all about seperatist propaganda as you claim,but is a vicious personal attack on DBSJ.
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Off the Cuff / May 11, 2014
Dear Shankar,
My original post on this thread questioned Dr Muttukrishna Sarvananthan’s Integrity by pointing out misleading statements that he has made. Dr Muttukrishna Sarvananthan has not defended himself to date.
Any Tamil (not just DBSJ) who does not tow the separatist line, is viciously attacked. That is the Separatist Strategy. It was so with the LTTE (sole representative of Tamils) and it is so with the separatists amongst the Tamil Diaspora and here in Lanka. The only difference is the method employed, one used the bullet the other uses the pen. They do not want a Tamil Voice challenging their voice.
1. Dr MS Lied in claiming he did his own investigations.
2. He was wrong about informal channels of money transfer being untraceable. I believe that he knew it was traceable but used it as a cunning ploy.
Re “He did not lead me by the nose as you claim,but if you read his last article comments section,i’am the one who pinpointed it”
I didn’t read his earlier article but I saw what he was doing in this one.
Re “It is to clear DBSJ’s name that i highlighted the incident.The articles of the author are not all about seperatist propaganda as you claim,but is a vicious personal attack on DBSJ”
As you yourself has noted Dr Muttukrishna Sarvananthan has attacked DBSJ. Attacking a Tamil who does not see eye to eye with separatist ideology is common strategy of the separatists. They don’t want a Tamil critique of their ideology. Hence they will try their utmost to silence such criticism. Sebastian Rasalingam is always at the receiving end of such slander. Lakshman Kadiragama was always slandered. Dr Rajasingham Narendran, who writes to CT and Groundviews was also actively attacked. Dr Noel Nadesan former Editor of the Australian Tamil newspaper “Uthayan” is also at the receiving end. Virulent personal attacks are aimed at any Tamil who dares to challenge the separatists. It is not specific to DBSJ.
It is sad to note members of the Tamil Intelligentsia continuing with the old racist policies of GG Ponnambalam, the Father of 20th century Political Racism in Sri Lanka.
I was not defending DBSJ but unmasking a Separatist propagandist.
Kind Regards,
OTC
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Navajeevan Kingsley / May 8, 2014
What OTC suggests is that even that ONE woman who dared should have been prudent enough to keep quiet. If she did or had later recanted, as the Mullivaikal doctors had subsequently done when taken into custody by Gotabhaya goons. Though professionals, they were prudent. I recall an episode involving Nikita Khurushchev, the Russian leader. While he was castigating Stalin at a meeting in Moscow during his de-Stalinization period, one anonymous person in the crowd interrupted him: “Why did you keep quiet and not speak out when Stalin was there?” Khurushchev paused, looked into the crowd and asked: ” Who is that?”,”Who is that?” There was not even a murmur in response. Kurushchev quipped, ” Yes, I kept quiet for the same reason which makes you to keep mum”. As OTC expects, when every other victim was terrorized into silence, why ONE foolish woman speaks out. Anonymous apologists for Rajapakses like OTC and others who sing for their supper , like DBSJ, are on same board.
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Off the Cuff / May 9, 2014
Dear Navajeevan Kingsley,
I feel sorry for the predicament you find yourself in. You are no better than Rajash. Please read my reply to him, most of it is applicable to you as well. I do hope that the author of this article is far more intelligent than both of you as his credentials suggest.
Your interpretation of my comment indicates that you have a serious problem in comprehending the English Language.
Propagandists have a habit of sidestepping issues when faced with irrefutable truths.
Sadly you have sidestepped all the issues I have raised.
Kind Regards,
OTC
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Off the Cuff / May 9, 2014
Dear Navajeevan Kingsley,
Re “Anonymous apologists for Rajapakses like OTC”
You are too ignorant to realise that when you spit while looking up, the spit will fall on your own face.
You are as anonymous as I am. The only difference is that I am honest about it and you are not. Imbeciles think that using a real sounding name puts them above a name that conveys the fact that it is a pseudonym.
Aacharya is a pseudonym of a Tamil Lecturer in Law. He also uses several other pseudonyms. He is a member of the so called “Tamil Civil Society” headed by Fr Rayappu Joseph.
The name you use cannot be used to trace you. For all we know, you could be hiding behind a real sounding name. As far as the CT readership is concerned you could be Ms Usha or Mr Rudra or Mr Ahmed or Ms Fatima or Ms Niromi de Soyza (of Tamil Tigress fame) or Ryappu Joseph writing under the pseudonym “Navajeevan Kingsley”.
Now please wipe that spit off your face and prove that you are who you claim to be.
Re “If she did or had later recanted, as the Mullivaikal doctors had subsequently done when taken into custody by Gotabhaya goons”
What made you forget that they were under LTTE goons when they said what they said!
Your expertise in looking up and spitting is unparalleled.
Kind Regards,
OTC
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Robert.R / May 9, 2014
Wonderfully put. OTC sits abroad and talks big!
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mal or mahuchandran spencer / May 9, 2014
My Response To, DBS Jeyaraj And The Bogey Of The Reincarnation Of The Tiger: Part 2 May 7, 2014 | Filed under: Colombo Telegraph,Opinion | Posted by: COLOMBO_TELEGRAPH By Muttukrishna Sarvananthan
Whilst DBSJ’s chicanery is not all that new what’s irking me is the concern for the life and limbs of Dr Sarvi; that I am herein repeating as a synopsis of a synopsis and would like him too to be tested quantitatively and qualitatively for Toxoplasma organism in his brain as:-
. “A not so recent discovery akin to the discovery of the Americas and Australia is that in addition to our genes and memes there is 3rd member to this modern trinity called the microbiome that comprises of nine tenths of us humans whilst our human cells are only a tenth of whole human cellular body mass in the totality of all organs. Hence not only MR and his gangs but whatever is left of VP and his minions along with the rest of citizenry of Lanka should be tested for this parasitic organism called Toxoplasma which is a microscopic protozoan organism that lives as a parasite in the organs of vertebrates, especially birds and mammals. When the brain is affected by an overwhelming multiplicity of this organism the host take risks and do dangerous things that people not having these organisms would not do. The outcome would may fall between looking like an accident and/or suicide and or even drive them to get to murder as well as get murdered.
In a random sampling in France around 52% had this Toxoplasma in their brains. I have seen in the two part documentary “Life on Us” which should in reality be called or mean to be entitled “Life in, on and through us”; A mouse with Toxoplasma would playing and teasing a cat that makes it easier for the mouse to be eaten by the cat with great relish.”
So Sarvi my real repeat question to you and your wife is even as when we met in person in Melbourne is, with the contacts that you have already developed and enhanced since, is it impossible for you to do these exposes and renderings as authentically and wonderfully from outside of another “Perishing Mahinda Rajapakse dangly, gangly wonderland of this planet!?”.
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Cough it out / May 9, 2014
The cheer leaders of DBS Jeyaraj are at it again. Their
jaundiced arguments are far too transparent to be
believed. Keep trying boys. The fact is that DBSJ is
[Edited out] . [Edited out] business
class ticket to visit Sri Lanka for briefings and
met (you know who?)
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Srinath Gunaratne / May 9, 2014
Nice article to hoodwink the Rajapakse haters, I will trust DBS over thousand of this Johny type. DBS is someone who had the human decency to look at the suffering of all the people and who like to promote a harmonious system to both Sinhalese and Tamils.
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kali / May 10, 2014
Dr:
First things first. I have always maintained that Sri Lanka is an Indian Colony and the latest news confirms this. Acting in response to the threat from Muslim Extremists trained by Pakistan India has dispatched 3 Warships to patrol Sri Lankan waters.
As for the reincarantion of the LTTE I have my own sources and the following is what happened. There are two theories and both are true.
1) The killing of the two police officers was true and it was a retaliatory action by the locals who have had enough and killed the officers who were on their daily prowl lookinng for victims to rape.
2) The Reincarnation was a cooked up story as a revenge for the killing of the police officers. The other reason was to coincide with the UNHCR vote to influence the outcome and Gobi who was working with GOSL was sacrificed.
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Tam / May 10, 2014
If Tamils have dignity they should LEAVE SL.
Only Tamils without dignity live in SL.
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Rajash / May 12, 2014
Absolutely right
The country is not fir dignified people anymore
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Gota the hero / June 16, 2014
Hey people this is this fool fathsitma fukushitma who is pretending to be Tam. Bloody joker.
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kumar / May 11, 2014
DBS Jeyaraj has always been a dubious character – a double-agent, quite adept at double-crossing, now working for Gotabhaya. The deal was arranged by KP. His assignment is to fabricate news stories to reinforce Rajapakse’s theory of LTTE revival. The theory would help to justify the militarization and army repression in the North, to intimidate into silence the potential witnesses at UNHRC inquiry (the likes of Jeyakumary ) , to hoodwink the international community, dent the demands for international inquiry etc. etc. DBSJ role is quite valuable.
Even before Rajapakse’s time, he had been an informant for the Sri Lankan govt. and also for LTTE. True to his double-role, from Canada he was writing for
LTTE Tamil paper ( “Ulaga Thamilar” ) and had edited LTTE English paper (Voice of Tigers” ). It seems that LTTE had found out his double-deals.. He was waylaid and attacked by some LTTE goons. The attack was unfortunate. But then, he should have known that double-dealing was dangerous.
When Rajiv Gandhi was killed in India in early 1991, DBS Jeyaraj wrote a story in the Indian journal “Frontline”. When everyone suspected that it was the work of LTTE, DBSJ wrote that through his investigations he had found out that the LTTE was not at all involved in the killing. So much for investigative journalism !.
It may be that he was working for LTTE at that time and was given a cover-up
assignment by LTTE. Indeed, it required lot of journalistic skills (!) to work for both Sri Lankan govt and LTTE.
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Thanga / May 12, 2014
Taking refuge under a pseudonym, Off the Cuff writes arrant nonsense about the LTTE. It betrays his ignorance. For his information, the LTTE and its leader remain popular with the Thamil people even today. Prabhakaran was like Moses wanted to liberate the Thamil people from the yoke of Sinhala imperialism that is out to destroy the identity of the Thamil people through structural genocide. The brazen land grab by the army (14 divisions out of 22) deployed in the North is structural genocide of the Thamil people. The armed forces are aiding and abetting Sinhala colonization of the North and East. In Valikamam North 7,500 families totalling 25,000 persons are rotting inside cattle sheds while their lands (6,382 acres) have been forcibly occupied by the army and navy. If OTC believes that the LTTE never commanded popular support, he should ask Mahinda Rajapaksa/DBSJ to hold a referendum among Thamils of the Northeast. In the good old days, DBSJ used the subterfuge that the LTTE had no popular support and the “silent majority” was opposed to it! This silent majority remained to the end a figment of his imagination and nothing more. As a matter of fact he was a loner then and a loaner now in his abode in Toronto. As someone pointed out he will get on the bed with the LTTE whenever it suited him. When he arrived as a refugee to Canada in the mid-eighties, it is the World Thamil Movement which sheltered him for nearly a year!
As for OTC’s tall claim that “about the parents numbering at least 25,000 lost their children to LTTE” is a BIG canard. Even Dr. Goebbels will be turning in his grave if he hears OTC’s concoction. When the LTTE laid down their arms and surrendered on May 18, 2009 their number accounted for less than 12,000. During the 30 years war they lost about 20,000 of their cadres. That works out to 25,000 out of 32,000 were child soldiers! And it is an insult to the Sinhala army that it defeated not a well equipped, well trained formidable army but child solders. I admire his fertile mind that invents such fancy stories. I repeat what I stated above. Hold a referendum to find out the real will of the people like in Crimea, Kosovo, East Timor and South Sudan. On September 14, 2014 in Scotland.
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M.A. Kailasapillai / May 14, 2014
Dear Thanga and Rajash,
Re “Taking refuge under a pseudonym,”
Is Thanga your REAL name?
If so Prove it please.
You see “Thanga” you are a fraud who uses a real looking name as a pseudonym, while I tell the readers that I am using a pseudonym. If you had the “Intelligence” you would have realised that I could have written as a Tamil, M.A. Kailasapillai, as I have done in this post and yet be more anonymous than Off the Cuff.
If you did know my real name will it make any difference to what I have written? The only thing that you could do in the event you succeeded in tracing me, is to send your goons after me, nothing else.
Fools always focus on a pseudonym when they cannot address the contents of a comment.
Re “Off the Cuff writes arrant nonsense about the LTTE. It betrays his ignorance. For his information, the LTTE and its leader remain popular with the Thamil people even today”
Tell that to the Tamil parents whose children were abducted and used as cannon fodder. Tell that to the Tamils whose Legs were Chopped Off when they tried to escape the Human Shield. Tell that to the Tamil people who saw attempted escapees from the Human Shield being shot in the back. Tell that to the Tamil people, who were suicide bombed after they escaped the Human Shield and reached safety.
With such a Popular and Loved Tamil leader at the helm, why was it necessary to force Tamil Children (even 9 year olds) to fight a Man’s war? Why was it necessary to FORCE anyone to fight for Eelam? Shouldn’t the Tamil People have followed that beloved leader spontaneously and willingly?
Defies Logic.
You are simply a group of Cowards who have no shame in using other people and their Children as a Cat’s Paw to achieve an Eelam that you were not willing to fight for.
You and your families stayed safely cocooned out of reach of that “BELOVED” Prabahkaran. While you were partying and feasting in affluent countries, the Tamils in Lanka’s North and East were dying and starving.
Re “As for OTC’s tall claim that “about the parents numbering at least 25,000 lost their children to LTTE” is a BIG canard”
Thanga, I did not expect anyone to be that foolish to say what you said after listening an watching UN’s Mr Aguilar saying what he said. But I was wrong, there are fools who will do so.
Javier Aguilar of UNICEF was interviewed in Colombo by BBC correspondent Stephen Sackur (Video 3:28 onwards http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gXbFPoDWSI).
Did you even Listen to what Mr Aguilar said?
He says they have reports of about 8000 missing children. He also states that this is just a minute fraction of what went on (4:20 onwards). He also stated that during the last 6 months at least 200 children per month were taken from their parents for the war effort including 9 year olds (4:38 onwards)
Let me walk you through my estimate.
Each family had to give up one member for the war effort. That was LTTE Policy. UN says 8000 was a small fraction of the children who were taken by the LTTE.
Half is not a small fraction but if Mr Aguilar was dumb enough to call half of a population a small fraction then there would be 16,000 child soldiers. But I doubt Mr Aguilar was dumb. If Mr Aguilar was referring to one third as a small fraction, then the number of child soldiers would be 8000×3=24000.
Get the Picture?
In our part of the world a child has two parents (not sure how it is in your part of the world though). Hence the Number of parents is 48,000. I used a conservative estimate of half that number.
Are you sitting on that intelligence of yours?
It is embarrassing to see the magnitude of the War Crime that you are complicit in isn’t it?
Why were they fighting a Man’s War?
Isn’t it because the Cowardly Adults Ran and Hid from their “beloved” Prabahkaran? If he was so popular why did a Million “Thamil” Cowards ABANDON him and flee from the North?
Why did you abandon your Moses and the fight for Eelam?
Your educated answer would be very interesting indeed.
“Sinhala Imperialism” or Tamil Imperialism?
There are 2 broad classes of Tamils in Lanka.
1. The Ruling Class, who owns all Land and means of production.
2. The Servile Class, who are destitute and confined to specific Ghettos.
The servile class consists of 81.5% of the Tamil population of Lanka.
The ruling class is the balance 18.5%
Ponnambalam Ramanathan representing the 18.5%, was a Traitor to the Tamil cause. He forsook the Tamil Polity to advance the narrow objectives of the Tamil Ruling class. He argued that the caste system was the very foundation of the Hindu society and wanted it CODIFIED in the Ceylon Constitution! If that cunning attempt succeeded, 81.5% of the Tamil polity would have been enslaved in perpetuity by a small group of Imperialist Thamils.
Dr. Jane Russell in her book “Communal politics under the Donoughmore Constitution, 1931-1947”, observes, “The learned legislator (Ramanathan) led two delegations during the late 1920s demanding the Colonial Office in London that Caste be encoded into the legislative enactments of Ceylon.
The FIRST Ethnic based Party in Lanka is the Ceylon Tamil League formed by Sir Ponnambalam Arunachelem in 1922, twenty six years before independence!
His vision as expressed in one of his speeches, was to establish a Tamil Akam (Kingdom) that embraced South India, Tamil Colonies and Lanka. The Grand design of a Great Tamil Kingdom was not knew and spanned International borders even in 1922. Lanka’s Tamil ruling class was a Minority within a Minority with an Elephantine Majority complex. Your leaders did not want to fit in with reality. They knew what the Universal Franchise would do to their position at or near the centers of colonial power. Hence instead of building an inclusive state they connived to create a cross border Tamil Kingdom where Tamils would form the overwhelming majority.
Please explain why there were Tamil/Tamil Riots in 1871, 1923, 1929 and 1931 when peace existed between Tamils and Sinhalese? The first Tamil/Sinhala riots of the 20th century occurred in 1939 when the Father of Racist Politics and founder of the Tamil political party, the All Ceylon Tamil Congress, Tamil Lawyer G. G. Ponnambalam delivered a Hate Speech attacking the Sinhalese at a public meeting in Nawalapitiya. His aim was to oust the Ramanathan’s from political power in the North which he succeeded in doing. Prior to 1939, Casteism was the cause of Arson and Riots. In 1939 your erstwhile leader, GGP changed it to Racism for political expediency. He ousted the Ramanathans but created a fiery dragon in the process. That was the turning point which destroyed the Ethnic harmony which existed for centuries.
Your leaders before Prabahkaran were Slave drivers. They kept the Tamil peasantry as uneducated Slaves, in order to safeguard their privileged position. They used what ever was available to them from time to time. First it was Cast then it was Racism. With Prabahkaran it was Murder and the annihilation of generations of Tamils. Yet the foolish separatists are still led by their noses by the current leadership. The ruling class will party while the servile class will pay for that revelry.
You may fool the ill informed Tamil Servile Class who were denied an Education by the Tamil ruling class. You may also fool Foreigners. But your rhetoric won’t be able to contest facts.
In order to keep this short as possible I have discussed only the main issues. But if you want to continue further I am ready to meet your arguments
Kind Regards,
OTC
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a clown / June 16, 2014
I just want to warn everyone on this fellow called muthukrishna sarvananthan. [Edited out] Niromi DeSoysa and when things backfired on the garbage he was throwing at legitimate people and charities, he retreated. He presented all the stuff based on speculations and assumptions as facts. Now he has popped his ugly head again. This damn fool has the arrogance to talk about DBSJ. I know DBSJ. His work is very good. I am not sure how CT let this dumb arse to write things in a great website.
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