By Dayan Jayatilleka –
Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka
The Deadly Ignorance Of Sinhala Alt-Right – Part II
“May God defend me from my friends; I can defend myself from my enemies.”—Voltaire
Gotabaya is perhaps the most able person in public life today; one capable of replicating in Sri Lanka, a Mahathirian Malaysia. I have worked with President Premadasa and not only have no doubt that he would have warmly commended Gota for the latter’s urban development, but am also certain that ‘GR’ could be his 21st century successor in the domain of national development and modernization.
Arresting Gotabaya Rajapaksa who played a decisive, indispensable role in liberating us all, while allowing those in the North who salute the separatist-fascist Prabhakaran and his LTTE storm troopers to roam free, not to mention permitting Northern Education (!) Minister Sarveshwaran who renounced the National Flag, to remain in office, is symbolic of UNP arrogance, CBK ‘reconciliation’ and Yahapalana folly.
Detaining Gota would be so polarizing an act, triggering such a social backlash even if subterranean, that it is probably the single most imbecilic mistake the Govt. can make, and could not only mark the beginning of its end, with both the official SLFP and the Government fracturing, but could ensure that Yahapalana has a hard landing rather than a soft one.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa must be defended and saved from his enemies, domestic and foreign: those who want to jail him on trumped up charges amounting to no more than petty administrative mistakes, as a prelude to Geneva-driven war crimes charges. The motivation behind the Government’s commitment to the Geneva resolution of 2015, the reason that the Ranil-Mangala-CBK troika does not wish to renegotiate it on the basis of Paranagama report and Lord Naseby’s discoveries, and the impulse behind the erection of the apparatus for the implementation of the Geneva resolution (OMP-Special Courts-Special Counsel), is the need to frame Gotabaya and eliminate him from politics, offering him as a human sacrifice to the revenge-seeking hardline Tamil nationalist voters in Sri Lanka and the Diaspora.
But Gotabaya must also, and equally, be defended and saved from the folly of his obscurantist, socially destructive Sinhala Alt-Right friends and allies. His current supporters obliterate his technocratic profile and obstruct his meritocratic modernist potential as a second JR or Premadasa, with their backward ideology. They paint a target on his back, misdirecting him away from the mainstream and the moderate center into the ‘kill-zone’ of the Far Right, making the job of his enemies easier by isolating him from the progressives, pluralists and moderates (JO, SLFP) as well as the discontented center-right UNP voters, and of course the minorities.
The CIA operating through proxies, couldn’t do a better job of setting GR up. By locking him in to a hardline Sinhala Diaspora driven project, and extreme positions and discourse, these false friends and dangerous allies make Gotabaya the target of powerful regional and global forces for whom a political settlement with and for the Tamils is a bottom-line and will always remain so. The Indo-US axis will ‘neutralize’ or destabilize any leader who is perceived as hostile to, or who is reliant on a movement that is hostile to, a political settlement with the Tamils, based on political reforms.
The Alt-Right ideology represents the collective consciousness of the character “Jinadasa” of the great Siri Gunasinghe’s path-breaking novel Hevanella, a masterpiece of modern Sinhala literature, whereas the Sinhalese and Sri Lanka have long needed and urgently need now, the collective consciousness of his counterpoint character “Wijepala”.
The Sinhala Alt-Right ideologues do not know the difference between secession, federalism and devolution within a unitary state. For them, any devolution is tantamount to federalism which is tantamount to secession. Not once do they look to any successful devolution of power/regional autonomy within a unitary state. For them, the full implementation of the 13th amendment is automatically federalism. It is one thing to argue, correctly, that the abolition of the executive presidency and/or the abolition of the concurrent list would turn even the existing 13th amendment into federalism, but quite another to say that the full implementation of 13A within the present system– unitary, Executive Presidential and with a Concurrent list—would still be federalism!
In Sinhala Alt-Right discourse, the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 is absurdly trotted out as evidence of the dangers of ‘power sharing” (devolution)! Jinnah and the Muslim League, supported by the British, never agreed to “power sharing” even on a federal basis, with Gandhi, Nehru and the Congress. They wanted to secede and the Congress had to reluctantly agree, or else the British wouldn’t leave. If the debate is about devolution i.e. “power sharing”, then logically, the example presented in the critique should not be about secession i.e. the Partition of India/Pakistan!
The Sinhala Alt-Right must really not know that President Putin held an election to the autonomous republic of Chechnya and secured the election of his young ally President Ramzan Kadyrov, before he launched the victorious final offensive in Chechnya. The Sinhala Alt-Right also does not know how seriously the Chinese take their state structure, as enshrined in their Constitution, of ethnic regional autonomy i.e. autonomous ethnic regions and smaller autonomous areas within them, within the framework of a unitary state.
For the Alt-Right, Provincial devolution in the form of the 13th amendment was forced upon us by the Indians, and therefore it should be rolled back or observed only in the breach. If the Indians forced it on us for certain compulsions of a strategic nature (and these were spelled out in JN Dixit’s famous lecture to the United Services Institute) there is no reason to assume that any attempt by Sri Lanka to roll it back or dismantle it will not reactivate the same strategic compulsions (of keeping India together by keeping Tamil Nadu on-side), with the same coercive behavior, which once again we shall be unable to deter or defeat. This time the intrusion maybe permanent, and backstopped by India’s recent strategic partner, the US. Devolution to the tune of the 13th amendment is the cheapest price Sri Lanka just may be able to get away with paying, because the next stop will be the fullest federalism just short of separation, if not a separate state itself.
An Alt–Right ideologue recently argued that President Rajapaksa’s declaration in a joint communiques with India and the UN Sec-Gen, of his “firm resolve…to implement the 13th amendment” was NOT a “commitment” to do so because a declaration of firm resolve and a commitment were two different things. Now the problem here is that the Sinhala Alt-Right understanding and usage of the English language, in which a “firm resolve to implement” supposedly does not signal a “commitment” to do so, is not exactly the universal understanding of the English language! Clearly the Sinhala Alt-Right needs to invite Prof Rajiva Wijesinha to conduct some evening classes in the use and abuse of the English language.
No State or diplomat or court or newspaper editor anywhere in the world would understand a declaration of “firm resolve” by a President as anything other than a commitment. When “firm resolve to implement” is followed up by a categorical statement by President Rajapaksa in late May 2009 (source: Wiki Leaks) to the outgoing US Ambassador Bob Blake reaffirming his intention to implement the 13th amendment adding a US-style Senate, while stating that he is cautiously undecided on police powers, then that is a reiteration of a standing commitment.
Having made such a promise to a giant neighbor, and to the world’s sole superpower, in exchange for securing their support or neutrality in winning the war, then that becomes a debt owed and to be repaid. Or else consequences follow, which we cannot withstand because we have neither the hard power nor the soft power to do so.
The Alt-Right response to the UNHRC Resolution 30/1 of 2015 is neither to renegotiate it nor to construct a broad majority (as we did in 2009) needed to repeal it, but to ignore it because it “is illegal”! UNHRC resolutions are not primarily about legality but legitimacy—and they do not understand the difference.
The Alt-Right argues that Sri Lanka, and more especially the Sinhalese, should and can imitate Israel. Israel has an unlimited commitment from the world’s sole superpower, based on the electoral influence of the Jewish lobby in the US, the Bible (Old Testament) based Christian-Jewish religio-cultural axis, and Western guilt over the Holocaust. The Jews are part of the Western elite, while Israel itself is militarily the most powerful state in the Middle East and is a covert nuclear power. None of these factors operate in the case of Sri Lanka and the Sinhalese, or are feasible goals. If anyone has the potential to remotely approximate Israel and the Jews, it is the Tamils, with their high achievement, high profile Diaspora.
As for the supposed example of Richard Goldstone’s report and his recantation, there is absolutely no similarity with anything Sri Lanka can emulate or aspire to. South African judge Richard Goldstone is Jewish, but he was not the kind of moral-ethical giant that Richard Falk– also Jewish– is. Emeritus Prof of International Law at Princeton and UN Special Rapporteur on Occupied Palestinian Territories, Richard Falk (whom I am proud to able to call a friend) could never be intimidated or pressured. Goldstone was successfully influenced to change his Gaza report by family, friends, and community, when he attended his niece’s bar mitzvah back home in South Africa. There are no Sinhalese, still less Sinhala Buddhists, on the various UN probes into Sri Lanka. Neither Darusman nor Zeid al Hussein are Sinhalese –so, no, we can’t threaten them with treason trials and death sentences when the patriots come to power, or disallow funeral rituals once they are executed.
The three characteristic components of the Sinhala Alt-Right are ignorance, irrationality and backwardness, but what are their three sources? The wisdom of the greatest US President, Thomas Jefferson point to one: “History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance, of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes.” (Letter to Von Humboldt, 1813)
A second is contained in the conclusion about Diaspora communities and their political role and influence, drawn by Fred Halliday, Emeritus Professor of International Relations at the LSE:
“Emigrant ethnic communities almost always play a negative, backward, at once hysterical and obstructive, role in resolving the conflicts of their countries of origin…” (Halliday, ‘Conclusions: The World’s Twelve Worst Ideas’, Political Journeys, pp. 259-262)
The third and deepest root is the factor unearthed by one of the most influential figures in the history of philosophy, Friedrich Nietzsche:
“History teaches us that the part of a people maintains itself best whose members generally share a vital public spirit, due to the similarity of their long-standing incontrovertible principles, that is, of their common faith. In their case, good, sound custom strengthens them; they are taught to subordinate the individual, and their character is given solidity, at first innately and later through education. The danger in these strong communities, founded on similar, steadfast individual members, is an increasing, inherited stupidity, which follows all stability like a shadow.” (Friedrich Nietzsche, ‘Signs of Higher and Lower Culture’, Human, All Too Human, aphorism 224)
In his lucid speech to the Constitutional Assembly, Dr. Sarath Amunugama, a genuine scholar- intellectual well above social, cultural or intellectual resentment, unlike the Sinhala Alt-Rightists, recalled that the late Philip Gunawardena warned the Sinhala majority in a famous Parliamentary speech that “we cannot be Neanderthals!” The Sinhala Alt-Right ideologues with their “WTF is the Tamils’ problem?” discourse, come across like neo-Neanderthals. They are citizens of a state of collective denial; of “denialism”. Gotabaya must be saved from them too.
Manu / November 28, 2017
Dayan Jayatilleke
Are you trying to be in the good books of Gotabaya Rajapaksa while preserving your image as a moderate? That’s not possible. Either jump the Sinhala alt-right bandwagon whose godfather is Gotabaya and shed your pseudo-progressive shell or be a true progressive who challenges the racist Joint Opposition, Mahinda Rajapaksa, his family and other Sinhala Buddhist chauvinists. Don’t underestimate CT readers’ intelligence.
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nimal fernando / November 28, 2017
“we cannot be Neanderthals!” —- says the Neanderthal
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Samuel Jayaweera / November 28, 2017
In the high days of Gotabaya, there had been only fears and fear waves treamoring the country.
People of this country are suffering from amnesia of rarity nature.
They just would do anything even strip for their selfish gains.
Number one examples are Weerawanse and Jayathilalka.
Can anybody argue other way around would be offered 5000 dollars.
I have been reading and studying the articles of Jayathilaka for the last 3 years. Mostly he has been making every effort to be supportive to the abusive cultures and abusive men.
There are enough examples.
Why the bugger has been made to do so is easily answered, when thinking about the nature of JVP born WEERANASE s rhetorics.
Like people have been tamed by JATHAKA stories of Buddhism prevaling in the country, Wimal weerawanse as the trained monkey for an entertainment show, has been abused by Rajapakshe clan.
The man who is born in an educated family too, Jayathilaka has been doing the same.
Both should have checked their psychology ::: Verbal diahrea the both drop down are like the impact of BOMB blasts … that destroy the physical structures but here, mind sets have been manipulated.
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Taraki / November 28, 2017
Arresting Gota will result in riots and the fall of the Government, perhaps even a military coup. It would be a very foolhardy thing to do. If Yahapalanaya had been clean and just in their dealings these last couple of years they might have got away with it, for people would have seen a new political force in them. Yahapalanaya by their own crimes and corruption have made Gota’s arrest impossible.
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Native Vedda / November 28, 2017
Taraki
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Previous riots did not bring the governments down.
Why its different this time?
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By the way somass, Hela, …………… quite a few other fascists are awaiting to start another riots, they feel its been a long time that the minorities haven’t had a good beating up by them. Please feel free to join them.
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I will not be surprised at all if there is to be a military coup. Then of course the ordinary people will learn how to live under boots on the ground, come to term with occupying force besieged from all sides.
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Isn’t it why Sirisena dishonestly playing it safe? He on the record expressed his anger when top officials of the armed forces were brought to courts.
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Rajash / November 28, 2017
Taraki -It was supposed to an imaginary post from Dayan. I should have signed off PP Dayan J.But prematurely pressed the post button. But if you read my post again ….you may detect that….
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Kumar R. / November 28, 2017
Dayan,
The fact that Gota needs your rationalization and defense says a lot about how vulnerable he and the Rajapaksa’s feel. Gota surely will soon see the need to scream to save himself from his erring friends like you!
Just as MR announced through AlJazeera, there is no doubt about your proclivity to stoop to please any paymasters, especially now that the potential paymaster list has been stripped down almost solely to the Rajapaksa clan!!
Still yearning for wine and roses opportunities to escape from the rose-pang and sambol extravaganza of the current existence, aren’t you?!.
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Secular / November 28, 2017
Based on Dayan’s recent writings, this is a psychoanalysis of the man:
1. He hates CBK and RW because they are English-speaking and can make independent decisions and know how to deal with the international community without others’ support. Dayan knows they will not give him any job or treat him as their political adviser. (this does not mean CBK and RW are great leaders. They are representatives of neoliberalism but they are willing to challenge Sinhala chauvinism to some extent, CBK more than RW)
2. Dayan knows MR and GR will mess up in the international arena. They will mess up and then they will ask Dayan to help them prop up their image internationally. So he like to say good things about them despite knowing very well MR and GR have no progressive economic vision for the downtrodden masses of the country and that they are both Sinhala Buddhist racists.
3. Dayan’s inner self is still suffering from his previous affiliations with Left wing politics and prevents him from joining the Sinhala alt-right.
4. His articles capture the above psychological processes well: 1. Oppose CBK, RW, Mangala, Jayampathi, Sumanthiran (the English-speaking liberal left politicians) ferociously 2. In order to reconcile his desire for perks and privileges that he would get with the help of GR and MR with his slowly disappearing but still powerful Marxist self, Dayan indulges in an imaginative exercise: MR is good but Sinhala alt-right is bad; GR needs to be saved from Sinaha alt-right; MR can become minority-friendly; GR is a techonocrat and modernist who needs to be separated from his alt-right friends. However much Dayan tries to create fiction about MR and GR, people like Jim Softy will remind us MR and GR are part of the Sinhala alt-right.
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Justice & Fairplay / November 28, 2017
Secular, this is a brilliant analysis!
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Native Vedda / November 28, 2017
Secular
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Thanks for your attempt to deconstruct Dayan’s intentions:
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1. Essentially he is a self confessed war monger and hates democracy. Look at his past associations with Premadasa & Rajapaksas who were not known for their democratic credentials.
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2. Propping up their image, Dr Mahinda (LLD) and DR Gota (DSc) could out source their PR work to foreigners as they did in 2010 hiring Bell Pottinger to cover up their share of war crimes.
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3. Heart to heart he has never been a leftist. Its only a marriage of convenience, necessary for a prolific name dropper, a sociopath, a public racist, war crime denier, …….
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4. Dayan takes 64 positions all at the same time. He doesn’t understand why.
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However I enjoyed reading your comments.
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sach / December 2, 2017
LOL! DJ is a brilliant political scientist who needs no reviews from the likes of you. As far as I know DJ is one of the rare political minds who have understood the NEED for a middle ground in SL politics.
He knows the geopolitical realities of the SL state and what sort of international forces affect us. He is clearly sensitive for the feelings of all the ethnicities in SL and tries to come for a middle ground in answering the aspirations of all the people in SL.
RW or CBK are simply incompetent fools who are nothing but colonial residue. They know nothing about engaging international community except appeasing them
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Jim softy / November 28, 2017
DJ: Who approved your PhD thesis ? Was it one like this ?
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Amarasiri / November 28, 2017
Dr. Dayan Jayatillake,
RE: Defending Gotabaya,
Of course it will come cronies and shills of Gotabaya, like you.
Ask General Sarath Fonseka, now Field Marshall, who was crucial in winning the war, if he would defend Gotabaya?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6UMvrt0AXQ
Rajapaksa government’s disturbed defence secretary Gotabaya says ‘Sarath Fonseka will be hung”
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Bern Hurling / November 28, 2017
Oh my DJ!
Gotabaya should be charged, tried & punished severely. NOT SAVED. From your imaginary friends, enemies, Geneva , The Hague or CIA. Gotabaya will be punished by GOSL. Not by outsiders. For gruesome crimes committed against Sri Lankans. Such as the horrific Welikada massacre. Tip of the Iceberg. Anything wrong with that DJ? Gotabaya is an uneducated, psychopathic, fascist. From a criminal, political, family clan. He hould be treated likewise. Laws of Sri Lanka must be enforced. There is no reasoin to wait. Evdence is overwhelming. ARREST GOTABAYA!
Cheers!
PS: Have you no shame DJ? Even by your standards, there’s got to be a limit to this kind of repulsive spin-doctoring.
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sach / December 2, 2017
Punished for what? Welikada? What happened in Welikada? How is Gota guilty for that? LOL
UNP gono, your incompetent ponna government will fall the day it touched Gota.
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Saro / December 4, 2017
Well said, Bern Hurling. GR is alleged to have committed many murders, white van abductions and money laundering. GR must be investigated and politicians and ordinary people must be informed that those in power cannot escape justice just because they have friends like DJ or military forces. DJ lists many false or thumped up stereo type cheap charges against this government and dare not touch any of the serious accusations made against GR as being the reason for his arrest and trial. GR is no moderate in anything but an extremist who wanted to marginalise the ethnic minorities by promoting racist monsters of the person like Gnanasara Thero.
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Singhalese pundit / November 28, 2017
Do not we have good intelligent professionals to lead Sri Lanka into next phase of development and progress.
Look how much public money his family has looted. Your do not have any shame to promote this family and how many unqualified people have been given jobs by his family…sri Lanka would have been next Somalia had they been in power for next 5 years ..
How loan and interest Sri Lanka has to pay to China for wrong mega projects initiated by MR and co ..
Do you think Sri Lanka economists would have advised such projects go ahead..
Most of academics and economists opposed his projects.
But MR misusded his power ..
I strongly believed that politicians must seek advice of experts on all issues ..
Some army officials you want to promote..
Some business people without any qualification you want promote into politics..
You have been many European countries and accumulate some Wealth of knowledge and experience but it seems that you are politically idiot and do not any common sense in politics.
All evidence tell us how MR and family mis led Sri Lanka in many economic policy..
Now Sri Lanka need a honest and true leader not corrupted one.
Anyway what about internal dispute of family of M R.
You do all this to get a post from them …
Now you are too old be honest
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Rajash / November 28, 2017
Dear CT Readers today I got off the bed from the Gota side of the bed. So Apologies I have to rejig the title of my blog. I agree with Rajash’s post on Part 1 of my blog. Who knows tomorrow my wife may be more open to my suggestion..(not political)…then Tamil Ealm is definitely viable.
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Taraki / November 28, 2017
Rajash, what were you doing sleeping with Gota?
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Native Vedda / November 28, 2017
Taraki
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Are you sure it was Rajash? No it can’t be him. It must have been Pottu Amman,
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Rajash / November 28, 2017
Gota slept with Pootu Amman, Karuna, KP, Pillyan you name it ..
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maalumiris / November 28, 2017
End justifies the Means ..
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Rajash / November 28, 2017
End Justifies the means ……you mean spreading HIV?
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Rajash / November 28, 2017
I should have signed off as pp Dayan. I forgot
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K.Pillai / November 28, 2017
Dayan
No need to say “Defending Gotabaya”. Just say “Gota” and we will know that you will be ‘defending Gotabaya’.
Attributed to Voltaire ~ ” May God defend me from my friends; I can defend myself from my enemies”.
Dayan. How close are you to Gota? Voltaire meant ‘very close friends’.
Tell me again. How did Gota defend himself from Frederica Jansz’s pen?
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Jim softy / November 28, 2017
You say any hardliner who doe snot give Tamils the what they want will be neutralized by the INDIAN _ US AXIS. that is like prostituting in Politics. In another place you talk about how US is behind ISRAEL and supporting every way a 6.5 regional minority to be a powerful force against the oil rich countries which is a regional majority and a powerful force of about 2 billion in the world. Sri lankan politicians, particularly the majority, need to understand the secret and engage in politics. Now, china has become a strogner country see how Myanmar is handling their problems. Sri lankan politicians are just a useless lot and only the voters make them useful. You say Tamils are a powerful force.Yes, but, they were there for how many centuries if not for millinia. but, they could not do it. CBK had to go Franc in order to study even near a university. Avamangala wanted to study only lingerie. Ranil has some inferiority complex which comes from his own home and he is trying to be an Academic and that has has not worked yet. So, CBK-RANil-Avamagnala Axis will not work. IF MAtara voters are intelligent and vigilent he should lose this time.
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Gema / November 28, 2017
Excellent and timely article! I don’t think the government is foolish to arrest Gota at this time or even later. However, it is better to warn Yahapalana leaders and their foolhardy supporters in Sri Lanka and abroad about foolish eventualities and myopic adventures they have planned without much thinking about the repercussions. They should learn a good lesson from the Central Bank bond scam! If you do something with a wicket intention it definitely backfires killing almost everyone who get involved. The results are right their in front of our own eyes!!
That’s a universal truth!
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Native Vedda / November 28, 2017
Gema
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Its not the universal truth but a b***s carriers death wish.
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The Universal truth is “Bricks are horrible to carry” however someone has to carry them if one desperately wants complete the building.
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Kshenuka / November 28, 2017
[Edited out]
Obviously DJ does not care.Otherwise would he have supported Varatharaja Perumal’s call for the Unilateral Declaration of Independence of the North East Province in the 1980s?
As for Sri Lankans rising in rebellion if Gota was arrested,its poppy cock! In case he does not know , we are a cool people with a very short memory.The services of icons have been swiftly forgotten in the past.Gota is a fly in comparison.So Dayan don’t have any high expectation of going back to Geneva.
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RajanS / November 28, 2017
The ultra-racist DJ is loosing sleep to save another racist Gotta.
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Saimon Saparamadu / November 28, 2017
What is this man about? While shining the boots of the new leader of what he calls Alt-Right, Gota, he is criticising their opposition to the separatist constitution proposal. Not surprising because the man has sided with everyone from the radical left to being a vassal of R. Premadasa (for saving his life), through Varatharajah Perumal the Indian spy and separatist. What better is to be expected from a man who helped Perumal raise the separatist flag in the Northeast in 1990? He tries in this article to split hairs about federalism and charges that the Alt-Right do not know the difference between secession, federalism and devolution within a unitary state. These differences exist only in his muddled thought process. A federal state with no central control through a governor or a concurrent list, no matter what you call it, is a separatist enclave. Sugarcoating this structure by historically compromised political prostitutes will not change this reality. As to fears about Indian invasion a la 1987, patriots say bring it on! The good thing about this man;s waffle is that the Sri Lankan people take no notice of his brain farts arising from his frustration about losing relevance. He is a man with a hidden agenda similar to Jehan Perera’s. Buddhist know it!
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AVB / November 28, 2017
How fortunate nation are we? This husband and wife De Silvas now very regularly enlightening us using CT… We are blessed people…Aren’t we?? I notice that Mrs. De Silva stepped into old DJ role and shows her stupidity trying to teach us bit lower grade of issues … She is not even understand the meaning of “Terrorism”…. It looks like Mr. De Silva has jumped in to higher role showing his stupidity quoting great thinkers in the world…
An example of DJ stupidity:::: Thomas Jefferson quote “History furnishes no example of priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government …… ” There is no doubt that Jefferson was a great man and great thinker… But he said the above in year 1813 referring to his history.. I searched couple of web pages showing Jefferson’s famous quotes.. Non of those intelligent people reprint the above quote which only our SB greatest thinker believe as very important truth useful today in 2017..
See we Siri Lankans are blessed with this great political scientist De Silva couple…. God save Siri Lanka..
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nalmen / November 28, 2017
sociailst dayan defending capitalist gota wow
if he has commited financial crimes he cannot be an exception to the rule whatever his past
achievements
just as he helped to destroy ltte terrorist with sarath fonsekas assistance we have to thank ranjan wijeratne not premadasa for destroying jvp terrorists
if gota is a smart patriotas he is made out to be then he must first renounce his american citizenship since acc to dayan America is interfering in our domestic affairs through cia agents
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jansee / November 28, 2017
Dayan:
This has been the perennial problem with the Sinhalese like forever. They won’t live and neither would they allow others to live. For heaven sake, why can’t you people fight among yourselves and leave the Tamils alone. For even another thousand years, there is practically no hope that the Sinhalese will ever find peace with themselves. The rapes and murders of Tamils – all for what – to fly the ego and greed to scramble for position and wealth. Let me challenge you Dayan – show that the Sinhalese can survive without the Tamils. Without the Tamils, practically there is no way the Sinhalese will have a political life. And you are very wrong in expecting the Tamils to settle for the 13A. A myopic Sinhalese view that they can decide what is good or can be given to the Tamils – that moment in time has long gone, thanks to the recalcitrant attitude of the Sinhalese. To the Tamils 13A is an archive piece of garbage and settling this issue will take another 60 years. Wish you all the best.
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Upali / November 28, 2017
Would like to know DJ’s views on arrest and imprisonment of General Sarath Fonseka who said that he will not leave the war to another General. Rule of Law should prevail. Whatever good you do is not a license to rob or kill. Laws are very clear.
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rbh / November 28, 2017
What is the reason of minorities to be discontented.
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Estate Labourer / November 28, 2017
There are none so blind as those who refuse to see!
1. Lasantha Wickremathunga’s murder
2. War Crimes
3. MIG Deal
4. Welikade Massacre
5. Mass graves in Matale
6. White van disappearances
7. Putting up memorial to the father using state funds
8. Avant Garde racket
9. Countless other crimes and infractions
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Gema / November 28, 2017
to Estate guy who is in labor!
Gota purchased and used 4 MIGs to finish the war; unfortunately your distant brothers and sisters got killed. That’s unfortunate but your next generation can live without fear. No one will come to kidnap them from schools to join the murderous LTTE, not any more. Therefore, thank Gota and let him take all the MIGs as souvenirs with him. He can park them in his back yard or in the four corners of the country. The majority Sri Lankans are ok with that deal.
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Anpu / November 28, 2017
Should read it as mass murderer.
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Anpu / November 28, 2017
Should read as Defending A Mass Murderer
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shevan / November 28, 2017
Dr.Jayatilleke,
If it pleases you ,Believe whatever you want,.write whatever fancy you depending on the times and tide.But please dont take us for fools.You have exposed yourself so much that though you may not have the capacity to realize you stand naked before the whole world.There excist so many adjectives in the English Language to aptly describe your charachter and nature.
For you Premadasa & Gota may be Demi Gods but for most of us they are nothing but two individuals with self serving interests.
Obviously you are not gainfully employed these days so therefore you have all the time in the world to pen these Articles which means nothing to the public in general
You appear to be frozen in Dreamland.Anyway keep dreaming if you so wish
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Buramphisincho / November 28, 2017
[Edited out]
Lankens in general should be made aware about the ground realities .. that is the only way ou tto come out of the pit the people have been fallen deep.
Jayathilakayays, Weerawanses are born devious and malcious people. Their communications have made the nation clear for what they have been capable of.
The educated communities would not stand next to Jayathilaka, knowing that the boy has been smeared all the Kakka of Rajapakshe clan.
But I question, not 5 years ago Maharaja himself put Jayathilaka in a very uneasy situation calling him should have been a NGO boy. All in all, nevertheless Jayathilaka to [Edited out] of Rajapakshes … should be very pathological .. to my healthy mind set.
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Ananda / November 28, 2017
Mederers are free to go in Sri Lanka protected by characters rejected by the people
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Sunil / November 28, 2017
Dayan , you seem to be suffering from a minority complex because you are not a Sinhala Buddhist and that is why you raise racism in your articles and speeches. Either you must convert to Buddhism or take a university job overseas. We know your father’s brother Neville De Silva who was on the Sunday Obeserver and now UK Citizen is also very racist. All in Lake House know about it. Is it any caste issue (Karawa) or not being a sinhala buddhist is the cause for this madness.
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Upali / November 28, 2017
Gota should be ashamed that he is allowing suppoters to use Buddhists clergy to cover his sins.We would like to know why Gota left the army prematurely. Come on be brave like Maddumabandara face the law like the poor people of Hambantota who the Buddhist monks don’t care of.Hambantota man stealing a kilo of Maniyok will definitely go to jail and no Buddhist monk will defend them. PAHATH THANIN YAI GALA JALE. Don’t be a covered.DJ is destroying Gota by trying to subvert the law.
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Chandra / November 28, 2017
In the muddy waters of dirty politics of to-day Dayan Jayatilleke seems trying hard to secure a position of ‘I told you so’ in the event the country turns ugly due to the blatent and unprecendented sbuse of justice, and power manupulation of the Yahapalanaya regime. ‘ Sinhal Utra Right’ seems to be his latest pet jargon. Afflicted by the ‘know all’ mentality his reference to partition of India is beyond absurdity; he says that the British would not have left India if not the Congress reluctantly aggreed on secession. That is besides the irrelevent BS he has written.
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Native Vedda / November 28, 2017
Chandra
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Dayan the public racist takes 64 positions all at the same time making it easy for him to claim “I told you so”. However an intellectually dishonest person cannot be right all the time nor can he be morally right.
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Don’t you thing its good fun bashing a morally corrupt public racist?
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Keynes! / November 28, 2017
Dayan,
Nice article except for the silly reference to how seriously the Chinese take their state structure.
Let’s take a closer look. Here’s the size of the Han population in the five autonomous regions of China.
Tibet – 6.1%
Xinjiang – 40.58%
Ningxia – 65.5%
Guangxi – 62%
Inner Mongolia – 79.17%
Tibet and Xinjiang are important since they are the only two regions where the Han Chinese are not a majority.
Let’s examine Tibet first. The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader and personification of Tibet, is in exile in India! The diasporic number of Tibetans is significant! Each and every governor of Tibet, since its founding, has been an ethnic Han Chinese! Each and every governor of Tibet has been recognized for developing new methods to strengthen the Chinese Communist Party’s control over Tibetans! Despite most Chairpersons of the Tibet Autonomous Region being Tibetans, they have all been subordinate to the Governor!
Let’s examine Xinjiang. Although the majority are Uyghurs, a protracted war has been in place since the Kumul Rebellion of 1931. Even the Bangkok bombings of 2015 were nothing but an extension of this conflict in Xinjiang. In March 2017, Chinese president Xi Jinping issued a traditional military rallying call to erect a Great Wall of Steel in Xinjiang.
Ningxia is a no-brainer since the Hui are ethnically and linguistically similar to Han Chinese. Despite 90% of the Hui adhering to the Islamic faith, it is important to keep in mind that they are considered as “Muslim Han Chinese.” It’s a bit like Dayan being “Catholic Sinhala Sri Lankan.” Get the point?
Guangxi is also a no-brainer since the Zhuang follow Moism.
The most important are the Manchu. Despite being the second largest majority in China, they have no autonomous region!
Holding up the Chinese autonomous model as an exemplary form of devolution for Sri Lanka is a non-starter and at best misguided. I also get the feeling that Dayan prefers to invoke China since many Sinhalese look up to China today as their saviour – a problem referred to as the Double Israeli Vision and coined by Dayan himself.
The only option now is to fall back on the Indian model? Perhaps so, since it is India that brought devolution to Sri Lanka and fashioned the 13th Amendment with things like the Concurrent List that are an everyday part and parcel of the Indian Constitution.
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rbh / November 28, 2017
After the war why was the new kind of minorities disturbance not controlled by the able persons and the minorities felt dispersed from the population the cause of discontent simmer at that period
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Keynes! / November 28, 2017
Don’t distep.
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Upali / November 28, 2017
I am trying to find my fathers grave who was buried in an unmarked grave because we were poor. There are millions in Srilanka in my position. Will the government allow us 15 Rupees each to buy an engraved brick to mark their graves so that we could visit them once a year to thank them for what they have done to us. Although Rajapakses spent millions of poor peoples money to build a monument for their father SWRD did not consider him worth a ministry. Also why didn’t Rajapakse’s build a monument to their father immediately after his death.Possibly no financial clout.Why are we having independent commissions if they are not working independently. What is the independent police commission doing. Why should they allow the police to seek Presidents/PMs permission to arrest a criminal.I am ashamed to hear from leading Buddhist clergy that the govt. should consider the service done by Gota before arresting him. Where is the rule of law. Does it apply only to the poor. Can we set a Ranavirua free caught raping a young girl considering his contribution in winning the war. Rajapskses did not consider that when they jailed Sarath Fonseka.Courts did not consider Somaramas service to Buddha sasana when we hanged him for killing a national leader.
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