
By Vishwamithra –
“Impatience is the mark of independence, not of bondage.” ~ Marianne Moore
In 1948, on February 4th Ceylon gained Independence from the British colonial powers. DS Senanayake, our first Prime Minister, clothed in the decadent tailcoat and hat brought down the Union Jack, the British flag, and raised the Lion Flag, the design of which was only completed just a couple of months before the so-called Independence Day. When one ponders about our Independence, how far we have come to arrive at financial bankruptcy, cultural decay and ethnic discrimination? The symbolism itself was quite bizarre and tells a story based on mythology and racial hallucination.
A vast majority of the subject people are poor; their preoccupation with earning enough to put food on the table has overwhelmed all other socioeconomic demands of a nation. Cultural creation has come to a dead halt; embracing whatever that arrives at our shores from the economically advanced West has become a second culture; that tendency has pave the way for indigenous enhancement of life. No more sculpture in style, vastness and magnificence of the Awukana Buddha Statue; no more paintings to be compared with the fine lines and serene murals of the Sigiriya Frescoes. Neither the generations that followed nor the current one that is breathing with certain uncertainty in the twenty first century could hold a proverbial candle to the great masters of ancient Ceylon.
Ancient Ceylon was a totally different story; her mastery in cultural manifestations and somber expression of life well lived is still astounding many a historian and academic. In the sphere of literature, only Ediriweera Sarathchandra in Sinhala theater and drama, Mahagama Sekara in the purity of lyrical masterpieces and Joe Abeywickrema on celluloid may be comparable with the composure of those who penned Salalihini Sandeshaya, Guttila Kaavya, Saddarmalankaraya and Poojavaliya. Even Valmiki the ancient author of Ramayana, albeit not of Ceylonese origin, stands like a colossus in the presence of our modern-day pygmies of vernacular literature.
Seventy seven years of ‘Independence’ has been a blur; it has suppressed our intellectual curiosity, evaded our inquiring minds and substituted our originality with imitation and flattery. The ancients had traveled much farther than our lightening-fast social media; an IT-savvy generation that is glued to a Smartphone or a Smart TV looks already out of date. Instead of creating originals, they have chosen to imitate the modern literature and culture that does not seem to present itself as bona fide indigenous and authentic human phenomenon. Where have all the flowers gone?
A lamenting people ask the same question; their stamina for inquiry is slowly fading; their breath has become uncertain and short-winded. Dulled by repetition of foreign-born, mediocre products of rap music and hallucinated by Sci-fi movies, the present generation is pursuing a mirage that recedes before them before they take their first step; the whole country was praying and hoping for salvation when the monstrosity of bankruptcy engulfed the whole land.
Seventy seven years of Independence has carried the whole nation to an abyss of existential proportions. What do we have to celebrate? Catacombs of ill-run state-owned enterprises, half-baked intellectual fraudsters and avaricious and corrupt political leaders are awaiting at the edge of the abyss. If this is what seventy seven years of Independence portrays, please don’t tell me how an inglorious path to hell would look like.
Skeletons of all substance and a band of well-fed moving obesity are looking at a meandering people whose aspirations have been crushed and hopes dashed. They made every attempt to trudge along, but the negativity of the human condition drags them further back on a reverse gear. It was in this terrifying context Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD) and his NPP once again appeared on the boundary of horizon.
AKD may not have the experience of governing a country that has in itself all elements of fast-destroying mechanisms. But he seems to have the foresight to the extent of being clairvoyant and yet calm and collected about the purpose of his journey. When others around him shrieked from the depths of their throats, AKD articulated the country’s ailments succinctly and forcefully. He traveled the country’s breadth and length like an teenager eager to show his prowess and stamina to his would be coaches waiting to select him or reject him. When his arguments failed to impress the older generation, he displayed his sincerity of purpose and doggedness to see an end, whatever that end might be.
One might ascribe the fault of the system to its creators; some may do the same to its executives; others to the legislators, bureaucracy and private sector that are as corrupt and greedy as any branch of our society is. AKD has to deal with all these actors. Whether they are willing partners of an awakening process or unwilling spectators of a dying community, AKD and his government will discover, not at the end of the voyage, but after a very few nautical miles on these stormy seas.
Therefore, when the country is preparing herself to celebrate her Independence on February 4th, 2025, we all must ask the question: are we really independent? If yes, in what sphere are we independent and in what provinces we have been bound by varied manacles of economic downturns? There are no easy answers. If the government or AKD hesitates, even one hundredth of a second, they must go back to the proverbial drawing board and begin sketching again. They seem to have the will; but will alone will not get you from A to B. You need the wherewithal, the means and also they must create the opportunities, so that the whole drama that is being choreographed before our eyes would reach a magnificent climax. Anything less is not an option.
The emotional appeal, the otherworldly entreaties and profoundly intellectual approach should be all part and parcel of the governing strategy. Would AKD and his government be willing to confront the challenge and challenge the challenge itself with self-assurance and wisdom. If AKD is planning to address the nation on February 4th, 2025, in another two weeks, what is his tone? What is his style and what is his substance. Style and tone should take a secondary level. Substance, the meat and flesh of the address should be reinforced. His style is intrinsically genuine. His appeal is off-the-cuff and utterly impromptu, unscripted and unrehearsed. Yet when words cascade from his lips, it rings so frank, so earnest and profound.
We have the right man at the right time and at the right place. The masses responded to his appeal and once again, they will show that they have not lost that trust and confidence; not blind faith and reliance in a superficial sense. Cry for change of date for celebration of our Independence is a false cry. Whether one likes it or not, Ceylon freed herself from the colonial powers on February 4th, 1948. Peripheral demands for change of dates of our Independence are narrow, cosmetic and shallow.
But any failure to mention the Tamil question and the prospective resolution of the burning issues facing the Northern community would be unpardonable. It’s not the optics that matter in our celebrations of Independence. It’s the substance, material and the very fabric of Sri Lanka, the complete mosaic of a nation that could be visibly grasped at the core of our celebrations. Is Sri Lanka ready, is our vast segment of Sinhalese Buddhist population ready to concede land and police powers to our Tamil brethren in the North and East? How easily and how conveniently such a policy could be adopted by the majority in Sri Lanka is a separate question altogether. One cannot deny that the existing structures, the prevailing Sinhalese mindset and its susceptible makeup has to change. That change, that fresh technique of addressing national issues in an entirely new and outside-the-box perspective needs to be addressed in a wholehearted manner and fashion. If it flows from the country’s President, the people would accept it. The fabric of our national life should not suffer any more fissures, rips, slashes or slits.
Celebration of Independence should be a well choreographed ballet; not a carnival of pomp and pageantry. A civilization that gave birth to the great poets and sculptors, the great writers and dramatists, the great builders of ocean-like lakes and marvelous irrigation systems is not a product of small minds. Nor were they lazy, listless and sluggish. Great men and women must have spent endless sleepless nights so that their succeeding generations could see the light of day after deep slumber the night before.
*The writer can be reached at vishwamithra1984@gmail.com
SebastianSR / January 18, 2025
The writer uses superficial arguments based on “Presentiesm” and accusses DSSenanyake and his associates of launching a failed state wearing decadant tailcoates. Would it have been less decadant if they had worn the so-called “national dress”, or worn a verti and went bearbodied like pious Hindus entering the inner sanctum of a temple? Or, should they have dressed like the Adigars of Kandy, wrapping 6 feet of cloath around their bellies? Even today the speaker of the house, and legal men of the bench wear wigs in a country where the average temperature is over 30 Celcius! The ceremony of 4th Feb. 1948 was for the consumption of the leaders of the international community, still dominated by the British Raj as well as for the local public. The local public respected the “Tie coat”, and paid no respect to the common man’s dress. Even SWRDBandaranike, who would come home after politicing in “national dress”, would change to his impacably British costume or black-tie and DJ for his evening events. How did our Tamil leaders of the day, living in Colombo 7 and knowing only a smattering of Tamil behave or dress? If Viswamitra had been living then, and if he had been the “protocol officer” or “dress officer” in charge of Ceremonial events, he too would have prescribed the sort of dresses that the VIPs wore on Feb.4th 1948.
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SebastianSR / January 18, 2025
But any failure to mention the Tamil question and the prospective resolution of the burning issues facing the Northern community would be unpardonable. It’s not the optics that matter in our celebrations of Independence.
Visvamitra should note that a Tamil version of the National Anthem was sung at the 4th Feb. 1948 event. By giving GGPonnambalam the full stage in front of Soulbury, and by preventing Sinhala firebrands of the time from addressing the Soulbury commission (SC), DSSenanayake let the “Tamil Question” fully into the hands of the British. GGP complained to SC that the British discriminated against the Tamils, that the universal franchize of Donoughmore discriminated against the Tamils, and proposed 50-50 equally between the Sinhalese and the Tamils, etc. Other tamils had wanted the caste system included in the constitution. That was the Tamil question then. Soulbury’s answer, and DSSenanayke’s answer are in the history books and Visvamitra should read them.
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Nathan / January 18, 2025
… the Lion Flag, the design of which was only completed just a couple of months before the so-called Independence Day.
The Lion Flag was ominous!
The Tamils were made to feel unwelcome that very moment.
The rest is history
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old codger / January 18, 2025
“No more sculpture in style, vastness and magnificence of the Awukana Buddha Statue; no more paintings to be compared with the fine lines and serene murals of the Sigiriya Frescoes. Neither the generations that followed nor the current one that is breathing with certain uncertainty in the twenty first century could hold a proverbial candle to the great masters of ancient Ceylon.”
The sort of vacuous statement one has come to expect from Vishwamitra. Does anyone know the names of these great masters? We only know the names of the kings who commissioned them. Rather like Magampura Rajapaksa International Port. In contrast, we know who Chanakya, Sun-Tzu or Rembrandt were. We need a forward- looking culture, not one that is stuck in a feudal past.
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Lester / January 19, 2025
Those who hide their ethnicity and talk about a “forward-looking culture”, that’s a good one!
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old codger / January 19, 2025
“Those who hide their ethnicity “
Hardly comparable to those dementia sufferers who can’t even remember what they themselves wrote a few months ago:
“Muslims like “Old Codger” never criticize Wahhabi Islam, they criticize the SHIA while their Sunni leaders do secret deals with Jews”
Those who object to my depiction of feudal SB culture are free to mention the name of at least one ancient SB scientist, mathematician, or philosopher comparable to the others I mentioned.
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LankaScot / January 19, 2025
Hello Lester,
On the last Census in the UK, I was asked to give my Ethnicity. I find these questions as either irrelevant or obtrusive. So I answered Pict, which is partly true. I could have answered Viking, Anglo Saxon, Bell Beaker or Breton.
It is like the persistent questions I get about my Religion. My answer of “None” is met with a blank stare, as if that is incomprehensible.
In the Limburg area of the Netherlands it is the norm to keep your teaspoon inside your cup as you drink your tea. So my ethnicity is “teaspoon non retainer”.
Are you any the wiser now?
Best regards
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old codger / January 20, 2025
LS,
Lester is losing his onions. He can’t remember what he wrote yesterday, let alone six months ago.
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Lester / January 20, 2025
Scot,
Yet “Scot” is in your moniker. And you have gone to great lengths to detail your family history here (little of which I can remember, unfortunately). Anyway, unless you are a chameleon like Mel Gibson, who can transform from Highlander to Jew within the span of a decade, ethnicity has some value. A little nationalism is good, else you become the Syrian Army, defecting at the 11th hour with head choppers at the doorstep. Dare I say, Ranil W, who could never win an election in his life?
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old codger / January 21, 2025
“A little nationalism is good, else you become the Syrian Army, defecting at the 11th hour”
What about those who run away at the 9th hour, and write from a safe distance about patriotism?
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leelagemalli / January 21, 2025
“What about those who run away at the 9th hour, and write from a safe distance about patriotism?”.
.
The kind of bastards don’t seem to know 😒 anything. Truth may be something else about
the plumber. Said to be rich but not married yet. What made him a life long lonely wolf? 🙁
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Lester / January 22, 2025
Babalawathie/Leela,
I write facts here. You just spam in broken English. I have been saying for a while, the primary sponsor of Islamic extremism is Saudi Arabia. Italian PM Meloni (brilliant lady) just confirmed what I said: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgumF9ni8HY&ab_channel=Traveller.
“And I think there is a compatibility problem between Islamic culture or a certain interpretation of Islamic culture and the rights and values of our civilization. To me it does not escape that most of the Islamic cultural centers in Italy are funded by Saudi Arabia and Saudi Arabia is a nation that at home applies the Sharia. The Sharia means stoning for adultery, death penalty for apostasy, death penalty for homosexuality.”
BBS also noted these things. Foolish Ranil should have listened to BBS and cut the funding from Saudi Arabia.
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Lester / January 22, 2025
It was Saudi Arabia that funded the extremist mosques in East Sri Lanka which led to the Easter Attacks. If this kind of funding for Wahhabi ideology continues, there will be more attacks, e.g. Arugam Bay.
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leelagemalli / January 22, 2025
The creation of BBS by installing that “Dadoriya aka Ghanasara” monk thug was purely based on Rajapakshe tactics to keep the stupid Sinhala Buddhists loyal. If it had been wrapped in Sinhala-Buddhist narratives, dung would have been the most favorite chocolate for them.
–
It was all about their political dynasty.
However, I do not respect AKD or such crooks for putting undue pressure on any of the former presidents.
Almost every president has done a good job as president. This is the truth about them. AKD’s brutal speech to the nation in Kaluthara two days ago proved that he should not be the leader and is not yet mature enough for it at all.
His choice of words was totally uncharacteristic of the caliber of a president.
Perhaps the inexperienced man was pressured by fears of all kinds because he could not see that his team is not doing anything right so far. Thanks to former president RW, the CURRENT government is once again fooling the stupid people by misusing what RW achieved for the nation. But for how long?
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leelagemalli / January 22, 2025
“BBS also noted these things. Foolish Ranil should have listened to BBS and cut the funding from Saudi Arabia”
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If anyone says Mr Ranil W is a fool, he or she must be double-blind…. Plumbers or similar lowlifes will never realize it, because they are born fools.
–
Even the poorest countries (somalia, sudan, ethiopia etc)have their own intelligence services, but the Rajapaksas allowing rascal/racial monks to live up their hidden propensities in the guise of intelligence work was like giving a weapon to mad soldiers.
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That was a step to promote a culture that is crime-friendly. Maharjaa shold be responsible for the total social erosion of this country. That is the culture that the Rajapaksas have finally introduced to this nation. whole lot of people of our country will do anything and everything that spread through their media houses. They don’t think twice. We have known it for the past few years studying how they acted with “a panacea hand-mixed by a schizophrenic and a psychotic who introduced fake relics to the Kelaniya temple”. Kelaniya temple authorities dared to say that over 6 millions of worsihppers came to worship those “fake relics”.
So, RW or similar wise leaders foresaw any future damage to Sri Lanka and its economy, which is why he always told Sri Lankans to go to the IMF long before bankruptcy was achieved.
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old codger / January 22, 2025
“I write facts here. “
Ah yes. Facts such as:
1. Turkey is an Arab country, because Turks are Muslims.
2. Sinhalese are 89% of our population.
Many more can be supplied on request.
“death penalty for homosexuality.” – is that why some geniasses have never visited Saudi Arabia?
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SJ / January 22, 2025
“I write facts here. “
Is that why some people feel obliged to declare that what they say is a ‘true’ fact?
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leelagemalli / January 22, 2025
OC,
did you know that we have afro community in SL ?
.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uZo5rOkp20
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old codger / January 22, 2025
LM,
Yes, their ancestors were brought over by the Portuguese/Dutch. Rohini Lane in Pettah was known as “Kaapiri Mudukkuwa” in the past.
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leelagemalli / January 22, 2025
Thanks OC. Looking back, I think our people behaved like racists without knowing the harm they were doing to the minorities. For me, the word Kapiri itself is a repulsive word because my best colleagues are from Ghana, Cameroon and Nigeria. Some of them are professors of pharmacology and radiology. World renowned experts. We in the pharmaceutical industry are totally dependent on experts in pharmacy and biochemistry. Even our Tamil Sri Lankans were equally racial to their own people. They would have imitated our elders. The caste system is even stronger among them than among the Sinhalese.Even today, high caste/class Tamils are distancing themselves from their own lower castes before my eyes. Some Tamil friends asked me not to chat with some of their Tamils on the grounds that they were fishermen in northern Sri Lanka. All this became clear to me after meeting our own minorities in Europe (Germany, Holland and Switzerland). Our grandparents were then even more primitive than tribal africans, they even treated domestic pets (dogs and cats) like thrash. It is all based on lack of information.. The flow of information makes everyone aware of this and today. Sri Lankans are more kind to their domestic pets ( dogs) today.
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leelagemalli / January 22, 2025
Cont.
Some Tamil friends asked me not to chat with some of their Tamils on the grounds that they were fishermen in northern Sri Lanka. All this became clear to me after meeting our own minorities in Europe (Germany, Holland and Switzerland). Our grandparents were then even more primitive than tribal africans, they even treated domestic pets (dogs and cats) like thrash. It is all based on lack of information.. The flow of information makes everyone aware of this and today. Sri Lankans are more kind to their domestic pets ( dogs) today. Back then, it was considered a good thing to lock up a dog, but today people have become more civilized thanks to the information technology revolution. However, there are quite a few Sri Lankans who behave like our Lester, who tries everything to attract attention with his wealth and education (plumber training). My elders repeated: “Empty vessels make more noise.”
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SJ / January 22, 2025
oc
Even the name Slave Island has links to African slave presence I think.
The Africans were brought mostly from the East coast of Africa.
I have read about a small African community north of Trincomalee.
20 years ago there was a female engineering student of African descent (not from Trincomalee) with strong African features (complexion, curly hair etc.) at Peradeniya.
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SJ / January 22, 2025
BTW
They arrived much earlier than certain Sinhalese and Tamil caste groups.
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LankaScot / January 22, 2025
Hello Lester,
Actors are, by their very profession, quite capable of portraying many roles. A little Nationalism led to Nazi Germany. In a Colonial setting Nationalism was a force for emancipation (not always successful).
So please tell me what my Ethnicity is Oh Great ChatGPT Guru?
I disagree fundamentally with States carrying out the Death Penalty. Trump will carry out his share of killings at home in the US and support the Israelis in the decimation/destruction of Gaza and the West Bank.
By the way Qatar is a Wahabi Islamic Country and in the 11 years that I lived there I never heard of a single Public Execution, unlike my 2 year stay in Saudi where they took place regularly. In 2020 Qatar executed Nepali Anil Chaudhary, by Firing Squad for murder. This was after a 17 year Moratorium.
Best regards
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davidthegood / January 22, 2025
LankaScot, it is because of some trauma you suffered that you become so irritable like this. Why not state the truth and move on like saying your age is 88 years. Your ethnicity is “Scot”. If they ask for the name of your spouse, say “not yet married”
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Native Vedda / January 19, 2025
Lester
–
“Those who hide their ethnicity and talk about a “forward-looking culture”, that’s a good one!”
–
How about the majority which hide its ethnicity behind charade and make unreasonable claim to disproportionate share of power, privilege, positions, property, …………………… … and the voters who fall for it?
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Lester / January 20, 2025
Native,
Majority did its part and elected Mahinda to save the country from separatists and Ranil in 2005. That was the mandate which MaRa executed. Most people don’t know how close the country came to division. The wheels were turning, the swindlers had meetings, everything was in place: https://bmkltsly13vb.compat.objectstorage.ap-mumbai-1.oraclecloud.com/cdn.dailymirror.lk/assets/uploads/image_ecbce378ce.jpg. Sri Lanka’s “Neville Chamberlain Moment.”
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davidthegood / January 21, 2025
Lester, elected to save the country, Mahinda robbed it from Tsunami funds onwards to become a billionair. No swindlers can match that.
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leelagemalli / January 21, 2025
And Lester or the like became rich thanks UK social funds.
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leelagemalli / January 22, 2025
thanks to UK social funds.
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Lester / January 21, 2025
davidthegood,
Mahinda did not rob the country, some of his associates and family members did. One of the sons already went to jail. All tsunami funds were returned.
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leelagemalli / January 22, 2025
“All tsunami funds were returned.”. OMG?
.
Why do u always make efforts to defend MaRa? 😒.
.
Everyone knows the truth about MaRa but u? .
.
EVEN OUR GOOD LS KNOWS THE TRUTH ABOUT MLECHCHA POLITICS OF MARA AKA SLANKEN “MUGABE”. BUT U THE KIND OF REAL SLAVES?
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davidthegood / January 22, 2025
Lester, did you receive the Tsunami funds, as those who were flooded out, did not receive them.
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old codger / January 22, 2025
“One of the sons already went to jail. “
Really? Which one? How many days did he serve?
“All tsunami funds were returned.”
Wow, so if you rob a bank and get caught, all you have to do is return the money and you’re scot free.
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leelagemalli / January 23, 2025
He may be blood related to ” Asoka Ranwala[Formerly Dr Ranwala]” who is now searching for his own doctoral qualifications.🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔
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LankaScot / January 22, 2025
Hello Lester,
Yoshitha and Namal were arrested in 2016, but as far as I can tell it was for Money Laundering. Where is your evidence of a Prison Sentence for any of the Mahinda Rajapaksa’s sons? Who returned the Tsunami Money, how much, Dates and Location and who were they returned to?
Best regards
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SJ / January 22, 2025
L
The point is that he stole, and returned the loot when matters threatened to became public.
Not a thief? I will not buy that.
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Native Vedda / January 21, 2025
Lester
–
“Majority did its part and elected Mahinda to save the country from separatists and Ranil in 2005.”
–
Mahinda bribed his favourite Thamby Thiruvengadam Velupillai Prabaharan to enforce election boycott in the North and partially East. The voters who normally vote for the UNP (votes that Ranil should have received) were never been cast. In return Thamby received a lot of cash in hand.
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Why is AKD reluctant to take the clan to courts, where did they get the money from, bribing for perverting election process, funding terrorists, …. …,
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Hope you remember the past and you don’t want old codger to remind you the sequence of events.
By the way how come the war winning defense secretary and the (6.9) president was chased out of the island?
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Where is he now?
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“Most people don’t know how close the country came to division”
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Hindians knew hence they helped your favorite Thamby Thiruvengadam Velupillai Prabaharan to win the war for Mahinda.
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Lester / January 21, 2025
Native,
If what you are saying is true, then India should be investigated for war crimes. India needs to pay hundreds of millions of rupees to Tamil war victims as compensation. Where are the lawsuits from the Liaspora and the UN HR reports?
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Native Vedda / January 22, 2025
Lester
–
“If what you are saying is true, then India should be investigated for war crimes.”
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That is the responsibility of the responsibility of the sovereign(?) state Sri Lanka. Who partly financed the war between LTTE and Hindia. It was the Sri Lankan state (including its armed forces and intelligent agencies) which supported LTTE during the war.
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First you take the Sri Lankan state and its armed forces and its functionaries to courts for funding terrorists. Then tell the NPP/JVP to challenge the Hindians at International Criminal Court, that is if you have b***s.
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Lester / January 22, 2025
Native,
“It was the Sri Lankan state (including its armed forces and intelligent agencies) which supported LTTE during the war.”
It was India which militarily intervened to save the Tigers in 1987. It was RAW which armed and trained the Tigers until they assassinated R Gandhi. Sri Lanka was simply defending its sovereignty against an illegal terrorist outfit. Geneva Convention protections do not apply to terrorists.
“The conclusion that unlawful combatants, including terrorist organizations and organizations that harbor them, are not subject to Geneva Convention protection also has other important consequences besides national security and the collection of life-saving military intelligence.”
https://lawcat.berkeley.edu/record/1119491/files/fulltext.pdf
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LankaScot / January 22, 2025
Hello Lester,
I see you don’t apply your “Sri Lanka’s “Neville Chamberlain Moment” to Russia.
“as aggressors see appeasement as weakness. Putin, like Hitler, is well aware of this and is betting Europe will fold” – https://www.jurist.org/commentary/2023/09/avoiding-the-mistakes-of-world-war-ii-why-democracies-cannot-afford-to-appease-putin/
So what is your ChatGPT solution for Trump and Ukraine, which you call a “fake State”?
Best regards
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Lester / January 22, 2025
Native,
For your viewing pleasure: https://media.licdn.com/dms/image/v2/D4D12AQGGacKHJt618A/article-cover_image-shrink_720_1280/article-cover_image-shrink_720_1280/0/1699194265616?e=1743033600&v=beta&t=KcMubvmqnyNxy-Gm6HSYLS25R9Wuwnp55blfgtYprDI.
Subhas Chandra Bose with Hitler. It’s a good thing no SB met with that guy. Entire books would be written about it. Movies would be filmed, peelam.net would write about it every day. Anyway, Hindians are the biggest opportunists on the planet. They will sell the mother and bribe the father. In my opinion, Solheim may have been a RAW agent. It’s an open secret that he met with RAW numerous times while “negotiating” with Fat Pig.
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LankaScot / January 22, 2025
Hello Lester,
I think your source of information is Falk Rune Rovik, a convicted murderer. Are you still a member of “Norwegians Against Terrorism”? Are you good friends with the very honest Sri Lankan Politician from Kandy Keheliya Rambukwella? How many Bank Accounts did he have?
Best regards
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old codger / January 22, 2025
OK, if we are going to fault Subash Chandra Bose for meeting Hitler, what about this great saviour of the Sinhala Buddhists?
“In 1914, the Sinhalese Buddhist Anagarika Dharmapala described the Buddha as “the great Aryan Savior,” while explaining that “the life of the Nazarene Jew was not of cosmic usefulness.”
https://pressblog.uchicago.edu/2008/11/25/six-things-you-may-not-know-about-buddhism-and-science.html
The same article contains a lot about Buddhist claims to be consistent with science.
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Native Vedda / January 19, 2025
old codger
–
“We need a forward- looking culture, not one that is stuck in a feudal past.”
–
We also know the name of the project director of Brihadishvara Temple (Thanjai Periya Kovil ), Kunjara Mallan Rajaraja Perunthachchan.
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old codger / January 20, 2025
Native,
I can hear Lester frantically fabricating names of ancient Sinhalese aircraft engineers.
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chiv / January 21, 2025
Native, “we also know the name of project director of Brihadishvara Temple “. I take it as , you read the recent article on BBC, “The astonishing legacy of India’s Chola Dynasty” .
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LankaScot / January 22, 2025
Hello Chiv,
Talking to one of my Philippino friends in Doha I discovered that they had an old Script called Baybayin. I realised that it was an Abugida and had more than likely come from India and resembled Brahmi.
He was having none of it, asserting that it was indigenous to the Philippines. However on investigation we did discover ancient Hindu artifacts (Garuda etc.) in the Philipines and links to sites that claimed a Brahmi source for Baybayin. Bali has similar links to Hinduism. Maybe the Cholas reached as far as the Philipines, if not peoples from further back in History. https://globalhinduism.wordpress.com/2012/08/11/phiilippines-ancient-vedic-heritage/
Best regards
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old codger / January 22, 2025
Chiv,
The Aukana Buddha is a work of art to be sure, but those who think it is world-beating must go see the Ellora Caves at least.
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Native Vedda / January 22, 2025
chiv
–
“I take it as , you read the recent article on BBC, “The astonishing legacy of India’s Chola Dynasty” .”
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Actually I read it in the Tamil Nadu tourism guide to Thanchavur Periya Govil, a gift from a friend of mine.
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Native Vedda / January 19, 2025
Nathan
–
“The Lion Flag was ominous! The Tamils were made to feel unwelcome that very moment.”
–
There is no evidence to support the assertion lion or tiger ever lived on this island.
Two very stupid people got very stupid idea of their own heritage without any basis.
–
Panthera leo sinhaleyus was not a lion at all.
/
LankaScot / January 21, 2025
Hello Native,
I reckon they stole the idea for the Sri Lankan Flag from the Scottish Lion Rampant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Banner_of_Scotland
Even the colours are the same. They just stuck in a sword for good measure. To be fair there are others that have used similar motifs like Richard the Lionheart of England in the 12th Century.
Yes you are right a sub-species of Lions (Panthera leo persica) were native to North India and now mostly Gujarat. There might have been a small population around 50,000 years ago, but not in Vijaya’s lifetime.
Best regards
/
RBH59 / January 18, 2025
February 4th, Our Independence: For Whom & For What?
This year marks independence from corruption, aiming for a cleaner city. India, China, Japan, and the US recognize it as an honest party.
/
Ajith / January 18, 2025
“When one ponders about our Independence, how far we have come to arrive at financial bankruptcy, cultural decay and ethnic discrimination? “
The question is whether AKD/NPP understands that a group of people were discriminated because of their ethnicity for past 77 years and that should be sorted out with priority?
/
Captain Morgan / January 18, 2025
Generally speaking, the Sinhalese are enjoying greater independence and sovereignty after February 4, 1948 than they did prior to that date. However, that has not been the case with Tamils who were liberated from the yoke of colonial rule only to fall under the yoke of Sinhalese majoritarianism and tyranny. I see no reason or justification for the Tamils to “celebrate” the so-called “Independence Day” on fourth of February.
/
leelagemalli / January 18, 2025
CM,
.
While Tamils in Sri Lanka had certain privileges and positions in society under British colonial rule, particularly in the civil service, the shift to independence marked the beginning of increasing political and social challenges.
After independence, the political power of the Sinhalese majority grew, and the Tamil community faced discrimination in several areas, especially in language policy and employment. While they might have had certain freedoms or opportunities during the colonial era, these were eroded after independence, leading to long-term tensions that would eventually result in civil conflict.
So, in short, the idea of “more freedom” for Tamils prior to 1948 is relative and depends on which aspects of life you are considering, but politically and socially, Tamils started to face more significant challenges post-independence.
/
Nathan / January 18, 2025
… Tamils in Sri Lanka had certain privileges and positions in society under British colonial rule.
There is truth in this statement.
Though true, that was not something that the Tamils had manipulated to their advantage. It was part and parcel of the British divide and rule tactics, to ease their burden on governing an occupied land.
Punishing Tamils for something they have not designed, articulated or employed was evil.
/
Native Vedda / January 19, 2025
Nathan
–
” … Tamils in Sri Lanka had certain privileges and positions in society under British colonial rule.”
–
If true could you cite reference.
/
Nathan / January 20, 2025
… If true could you cite reference.
Anton Muttukumaru was the first native Ceylonese to serve as the Commander of the Ceylon Army.
/
Rohan25 / January 21, 2025
Anton r Muttukumaru got this post solely on his merit and not because he was a Tamil. He definitely would have proudly identified himself as a Tamil but not his grandchildren and great grandchildren now living on the island. They deny their actual Tamil identity but strangely use their Tamil caste name Chetty, to identify themselves. Their caste has become their ethnicity. Very soon from Tamil Chetty they will become Sinhalese Hetti, who themselves were once Tamil Chetties. Also to enter the then Ceylon Administrative Service., you had to pass an extremely competitive exam and only a certain percentage who passed were selected on their scores and later interviewed and selected. Therefore the Sinhalese elite and politicians stating Tamils were favoured and selected by the British on their ethnicity is utter bullshit. Tamils were selected on Merit, just like the university entrances until language and ethnic based standardization came it. British never did this they selected solely on merit.
/
SJ / January 22, 2025
Anton Muttukumaru served as commander of the Ceylon Army between 1955 and 1959. (That was much after the British left the shores.)
His mother was a Colombo Chetty and his father was a Jaffna Tamil. So his caste identity cannot be a Colombo Chetty.
He served in the Ceylon Light Infantry which was disbanded in 1947 and until 1949 when he joined the Ceylon Army, he served as a lawyer (or which he qualified before joining the forces)
So where the “Ceylon Administrative Service” (not Civil Service?) entered the fiction is anybody’s guess.
Clearly the R25 BS is, not unusually, founded on serious (wilful?) misunderstandings.
*
The Colombo Chetty community count Major General AM among their lot, although the link is only matrimonial. (I guess that the Colombo Chetty website has misled our poor con-man.)
I wonder why his search for the descendants of Major General AM did not take him afar to Australia where AM passed away in 2001 or other parts of the globe. (Absence of DNA samples ma have led to the flawed findings.)
/
Native Vedda / January 21, 2025
Nathan
–
“Anton Muttukumaru was the first native Ceylonese to serve as the Commander of the Ceylon Army.”
–
Was it a privilege or was he appointed on the basis of merit?
Perhaps the usual Sinhala/Tamil understanding of Colonial Conspiracies, DIVIDE and RULE.
/
old codger / January 22, 2025
Native,
The next Tamil to head any service branch was Travis Chinniah, who lasted all of three months as Navy chief.
/
Rohan25 / January 19, 2025
If the British favoured the Tamils, then why are we in such a horrible predicament now. They only used the Tamils for their hard work. The British favouring the Tamils and giving them certain privileges and positions, was a story that was created by the Sinhalese elite and politicians soon after independence to justify their state sponsored marginalization and discrimination of the island’s Tamils, soon after independence. Unlike in the Sinhalese South, the British hardly opened any schools in the Tamil north and east. The schools were largely opened by Americal Missionaries and later Hindu after the Hindu revival by Hindu organisations.
/
Rohan25 / January 19, 2025
Unlike the Sinhalese areas the Tamil areas are less fertile and more arid, and the fight for survival, intense. Therefore, Tamils took up to western English education, on a far larger scale than the Sinhalese down south, to escape poverty and get lucrative government jobs. The Tamils were also far less feudal that the Sinhalese in their social setup. There were no huge landlords and feudal aristocratic families holding thousands of acres, who had a vested interest in keeping the average Sinhalese peasant under their thumbs, therefore discouraged, western education amongst them, knowing that this will open their eyes. There were also aided in this by the Buddhist monks, who had a stranglehold on the Sinhalese population. They went about falsely informing, western education will corrupt them, and it is a trap to Christianize them. T
/
Rohan25 / January 19, 2025
Tamils were not averse to Christianity, Christian influence, as it had been with them from the time of St. Thomas, further an average Tamil despite respecting the Brahmin priest, will not allow them to dictate, how to run their lives. Because of all these factors other than the aristocratic feudal Sinhalese upper and upper middle classes and the Sinhalese Christians, largely living in the western province and the Catholic belt the rest of the Sinhalese hardly took up to western education or even bothered to learn English, which the Tamils did in numbers to survive and were very successful. The British to be fair recruited on merit and not based on ethnicity or religion and for most parts other than the Sinhalese Christians, and a few western educated upper classes, it was the Tamils who fulfilled this criterion.
/
Rohan25 / January 19, 2025
Lastly the British also had to compensate the Tamils for what they did to them. As they amalgamated the once separate and independent Tamil northeast and northwest coast) with the Sinhalese homeland down south and created a new colony called Ceylon in 1833. Thereby making the Tamils who were 100% majority in their own land a minority in this new colony with the capital Colombo in the heart of the Sinhalese homeland. The one act of the British for their own administrative and economic convenience, greatly disadvantaged the island’s Tamils and to further exacerbate this, they handed over the island and hapless Tamil minority to largely racist Sinhalese majority, who had already cheated the Colombo Tamil elite friends to vote for a unitary state, promising equality for all but in reality, have secretly made plans to destroy the island’s Tamils.
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Rohan25 / January 19, 2025
The British had no right to have done this, they should have either divided the country into its Tamil and Sinhalese parts like the found or created a federal form of government. They did neither or cared. Listening to a small amount of highly westernised Sinhalised Colombo 7 Tamil elite, most of whom hardly spoke Tamil, and were the close relatives and allies of the British and the Sinhalese ruling classes, is not listening to the Tamils. They just listened to what they wanted.
/
SJ / January 22, 2025
“Unlike the Sinhalese areas the Tamil areas are less fertile and more arid, “
How come that the Eastern Province leads in paddy production?
*
“The Tamils were also far less feudal that the Sinhalese in their social setup.”
So admirably non-feudal that they clung on to untouchability in Jaffna until the communists put an end to it in public places. (But in private caste hierarchy survives.)
*
Some honest research may help the poor sod but the researcher has to be intellectually honest.
/
a14455 / January 20, 2025
Err, pumpkin. When you serve one master and the master is replaced by one you don’t like and refuse to adapt, you end up in a predicament.
and voting in the most rabid racists is not going to change any of that.
/
SJ / January 20, 2025
“voting in the most rabid racists is not going to change any of that.”
Not exactly. You end up in the worst imaginable predicament.
/
Siva Sankaran Sharma / January 19, 2025
The British knew what they were doing, they recruited the Tamils because they were hardworking and efficient not for any other reason and they were the only ones who were largely qualified and meet all the recruitment criteria not the others. How can you recruit Sinhalese only a large scale when most of then refused to learn English or obtain a western education on the advice of their feudal masters and pirivena monks. Other than their aristocrats, upper classes and Christians, the rest of the Sinhalese hardly took up to western education. Most of these people were not interested in government jobs at that time but were largely interested in business and looking after their huge land holdings. Why blame the British or the Tamils for this. Another Mahavamsa tale created by Sinhalese politicians. Because the Tamils were good hones hardworking administrators, the British recruited many of them and sent to their other colonies like Singapore and Malaysia.
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Siva Sankaran Sharma / January 19, 2025
You can see how well and efficiently the Tamils and the Burghers ran the Celyon public service pre independence and immediately after that. Until both people were chased out and 99% of the public service armed forces and police now only has Sinhalese despite the Sinhalese being only 74% thanks to large scale ethnic cleansing and structural genocide of the island’s Tamils. Yes, the Sinhalese are running is so efficiently that the island is bankrupt.
/
Siva Sankaran Sharma / January 19, 2025
The British knew what they were doing. Strictly speaking the public service armed forces and police should have 70% Sinhalese 20% Tamils and 10% Sri Lankan Muslims or Muslim Tamils and wherever the Tamils and Muslims predominate the public servants and police should reflect the population, not 99% Sinhalese police armed forces and public servants with no knowledge of Tamil in Tamil/Muslim areas. All public servants, including the police and armed forces should be fluent in both languages not just Sinhalese only with a smattering of Tamil. Both languages are official so why only prominence given to Sinhalese
/
SJ / January 22, 2025
BTW
What was the ethnic composition of the Army under the Brits?
/
Ajith / January 19, 2025
“While Tamils in Sri Lanka had certain privileges and positions in society under British colonial rule, particularly in the civil service, the shift to independence marked the beginning of increasing political and social challenges.”
Most of the Sinhalese Leaders from UNP in 1948 were somewhat change their religion from Buddhism to Christianity and changed again from Christianity to Buddhism. These changes are purely to get benefits from the religion. Ceylon National Council which formed for independence from British was headed by a Hindu Sir Pon Arunachchalam.
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Rohan25 / January 20, 2025
Ajith it is these Sinhalese upper classes and feudal aristocrats and not the Tamils who were actually in bed, literally in many cases with all European colonials, especially the British and as a reward for faithful service, were given large amounts of lands hundreds sometimes thousands of acres and lots of privileges. Even the Rajapakse family. Go and read their history, as to how this family were given a lot of land ( Medamulla) by the British in the 1800s for their help in putting down a Karawa rebellion and using this land become part of the low country Sinhalese Govigamma elite. The Tamils largely prospered due to their hard work and industry. This is the reason the British handed over the entire island to their, highly westernized coattail wearing faithful Sinhalese acolytes, to continue the good work of being faithful to then King and the British empire and their good life and feudal ways.
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Rohan25 / January 20, 2025
90% of them both the low country and Kandyan varieties are all of recent post 16TH century South Indian Tamil ancestry. Chetties, Mudaliars, Pillais, Naickers, Konar Like Neela Perumal, Thambi Mudaliar, Pandara Naickan and other Naickers and many others like the ancestor of Tamil hating late Athulath Mudaliar. Now all waving the Aryan Sinhalese Buddhist flag, quoting the Mahavamsa part history but largely fairy tale, (even the Rajapaksas are now part of the Mahavamsa as Sinhalese saviours who saved the island from the Tamil outsiders (sic) most probably no mention of the horrific war crimes, looting and India and west’s dirty part in this) and spitting out anti Tamil rhetoric against the island’s native Tamils, who have much older history on the island than the Sinhalese, and blaming them for everything that the Sinhalese now face, be it economic, education, employment, etc, for problems that have been largely caused by them by their greed and wealth
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Rohan25 / January 20, 2025
British favoured the Tamils(sic) not us poor us, when in reality it was the British favouring these Sinhalese aristocrats and upper classes who were in bed with them and bestowing large amount of wealth on them as reward for faithful service. You want land? Go to the Tamil Northeast as there is lots of land and this rightfully belongs to us, just like the way the Mahavamsa fairy tale promised. Just like the way Jewish extremist quote Old Testament. Our families have lots of land but we do not want to give it, go and take Tamil people’s lands, we will allow this and use all the power of the state and armed forces for this. Employment? Tamils are the cause of unemployment; the British favoured them. It is not because of our inefficiency, it is the crafty Tamils.
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Rohan25 / January 20, 2025
The British have left now more than 75 years and most of the employment is in the hand of Sinhalese, state and private but this lies and fairy tale is still repeated, even by the ones living in the west and should know better , You can see how brain washed they are with this anti Tamil rhetoric by recently Sinhalized South Indian Tamil origin Sinhalese aristocrats and upper classes. Everything is because of the Tamils and now the Muslims, another recent South Indian Tamil immigrant community, now claiming to be Arab, who until recently were the allies of the Sinhalese in their anti-Tamil genocidal dance
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Rohan25 / January 20, 2025
They caused everything, the racial, economic and political crises with immense suffering to everyone else but themselves but always lay the blame on the Tamils to brainwashed Sinhalese masses. Even the JVP insurrection in the 1970s and the 30-year civil war with the Tamils, was largely due these largely immigrant post 16Th century South Indian Tamil origin, Sinhalese upper classes and aristocrats, trying to supress the Sinhalese lower classes and castes and Tamils. They cunningly scapegoat the Tamils, as the source of all problems to brainwashed gullible Singhalese masses and also use the Buddhist monks and even some racist Sinhalese Catholic priests to spread this anti Tamil hatred.
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Rohan25 / January 20, 2025
You can see how opportunistic and cunning these people have been, Minor Tamil aristocrats and upper and middle castes from South India, who came into the island post 16Th century to the Sinhalese areas with almost next to nothing and worked their way up, to become powerful Sinhalese aristocrats and feudal landlords and the upper castes. Came as Hindu Tamils and then became Christian Tamils, depending on the type of Christianity that the ruling European colonial power, then gradually became Sinhalese Christians, especially during the British era and was in bed them and after Independence, other than a few all have become ardent Sinhalese Buddhists, quoting the Mahavamsa and spitting out hatred against their own fairly recent Tamil ancestry and origin.
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Rohan25 / January 20, 2025
After the fall of the Kandyan kingdom or even just before that many of these so called aristocratic and upper caste families down south, decided to switch their ethnic identity from Tamil to Sinhalese in order to safeguard their immense wealth. They knew that they now cannot rely on their close Tamil relatives across the sea for anything. Economic, political or even to obtain Tamil brides and grooms for their children. Their story is like the Normans in England giving up their French identity and becoming English, once they knew they cannot keep up with it. The only difference is these people once they became Sinhalese, in order to safeguard this identity and wealth turned on the native Tamils from the north and east and even the poor estate Tamils of Indian origin.
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davidthegood / January 21, 2025
Rohan25, the British favoured the education system and the roads, mainly to the hill country.
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SJ / January 22, 2025
“The Tamils largely prospered due to their hard work and industry.”
No Tamil was a boot licker of the Brits, am I to believe? How did titles like Vanniyar, Mudaliyar etc. come abut? Hard work kicking down the low castes?
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SJ / January 19, 2025
But Sampanthan and Sumanthiran celebrated it in broad daylight in 2016, didn’t they?
*
Race is not the only factor.
What independence does one have without money?
/
Rohan25 / January 20, 2025
Did they? Sampanthan was old and gaga. Hope Sumanthiran is now celebrating his large-scale rejection by most Tamils, for sanitizing what happened to the Tamils and being an apologist for the Sinhalese and Muslims. This is why they love him, for he was carefully and cunningly undermining the TNA and the Tamil cause. Are you celebrating as you are big Tamil hater and love Sinhalese Buddhism. You thrive on the misery of your fellow Tamils for your advancement.
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SJ / January 20, 2025
“Did they? “
Some things that are best left to amnesia.
*
Someone who “was old and gaga” led the TNA and in effect the FP for a good 8 years since the celebration, and to his credit held both the TNA and FP intact without breaking apart. Months after his death, one died and the other is dying.
How pathetic can some people be!
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SJ / January 20, 2025
The first is a most embarrassing observation I suppose.
/
davidthegood / January 21, 2025
SJ, don’t you know, that those who see money rob it. Sad they can’t see God and all his acts.
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old codger / January 22, 2025
DTG,
“those who see money rob it. Sad they can’t see God and all his acts.”
So, those who can see God will rob him?
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davidthegood / January 22, 2025
old codger, you have become an idiot. How can you rob God? You have to serve and obey him. He is God Almighty who created you
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SJ / January 22, 2025
Do not people steal from their masters?
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davidthegood / January 23, 2025
SJ, difference here is this is not a human master but his own Creator God, creator of you and me too. Imagining an impossibility.
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old codger / January 22, 2025
DTG,
You are the one who wrote “Those who see money rob it”. So, by your own logic, those who see God will rob him.
/
Native Vedda / January 21, 2025
“What independence does one have without money?”
–
Perhaps the condition needed to import free rice from moon using Chang’e Project.
Even better if China could invest $3.7 billion in oil refinery as a gift rather than holding on to sovereign(?) land and future stream of income in order to prove its nice/lovely foreign policy towards its friendly neighbour.
–
I wonder why trade unions, guardians of sovereignty,heritage, culture, politicians, FSA, Mao’s b**** carriers, ….. the Saffronistas are keeping a deadly silence on this matter. Have they all been amply rewarded by ……..?
/
Naman / January 18, 2025
“clothed in the decadent tailcoat and hat”
The above is the description of our First PM. It is NOT the attire that matters,but what was going through is far important. Was he and others had thought of on how to disposses the MINORITIES
PLACES in the Government apparatuses/Educational superiority etc.
+ disenfranchising the UPCOUNTRY Tamils+ on how to colonise the North and East by STATE SPONSORED settlements. DSS was planning on how to pass on the PM post to his son resulted in SWRD B to win the elections by promising SINHALA ONLY & giving Buddhism preferrence over other religions. This is HOW the DECLINE of CEYLON started. The ISSUE OF Sinhala Buddhists SUPREMACY has not gone away. Real change would be if there was NO CLERGY were seated on the STAGE of the independent celebrations and National anthem sung in both Tamil and Sinhala.
SL emancipation will ONLY come by going along with India and NOT BY ANTAGONISING them.
I am not for the PROVINCIAL COUNCILS as it is waste of TAX payers money.
/
Native Vedda / January 19, 2025
Naman
–
“I am not for the PROVINCIAL COUNCILS as it is waste of TAX payers money.”
–
Could you define “waste of money”.
Have you looked into rest of the state machinery and those functionaries who warm their own chair?
–
/
Rohan25 / January 19, 2025
The provincial councils are now a drain on taxpayers’ money, because there 9 provincial councils, instead of the two. The agreement was for only a Tamil Northeast Provincial council with land and police powers (to stop further out of area Sinhalese and Muslim colonisation of Tamil lands and to recognize these two provinces as the ancient homeland of the native Eelam Tamils. The former Jaffna kingdom and the eastern Tamil Vannimai chiefdoms) and powers to obtain foreign funds like an Indian state for its development. The rest of the island which was basically the Sinhalese homeland the other unit. However, from JR to all other Sinhalese leaders who came after him to deliberately scuttle this and to reduce the power of the Tamil Northeast council, created a further seven provincial councils in the Sinhalese south which was not needed and not part of the agreement, later made to 9 by the Mahida/JVP regime by delinking the Tamil north and east with the idea of further colonizing the east and not granting any police or land powers to any of the councils, especially to the Tamil north eastern councils as signed and legislated by an international agreement.
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Rohan25 / January 19, 2025
This racist move to further deny the Tamils any rights, even after signing an international agreement by all successive Sinhalese led governments, did not achieve anything. No Tamil rights, a semi federated homeland with land and police rights but a bureaucratic nightmare of 9 toothless councils, still controlled by the central Sinhalese government and a drain on the taxpayer. Like everything else what did the Sinhalese achieve as usual trying to deny the Tamils their land and rights. Nothing. Short sighted Prapakaran is also to blame for this by opposing it instead of allowing it to work by joining hands with Sinhalese racist leaders to scuttle it and chase the IPKF, who were there to guarantee its working and making them an enemy of the Tamils. Now to safeguard the island’s Tamils even the Muslim Tamils of the northeast we need a federated form of government, which should be guaranteed by the international community. Especially Britain the last colonial power.
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Cicero / January 19, 2025
Pity that V’s excellent piece moves out of bring the first article so quickly. It deserves detailed comment from all readers. He is right in highlighting the fact that the Tamil question has to be solved. It is at the root of the present malaise. It is because of it that we have mad hats among the Sinhalese becoming leaders simply by beating the Sinhala/Buddhist drum.. Tamils cannot and do not celebrate independence. They will not until an adequate solution is found for them to rule over their homelands. A large aniount of devolution of power is the way forward. But, the Government has to be careful as the Buddhist priests will be brought onto the streets by the Sinhala rump which has lost out and is in danger of having its loot by way of bribery being recovered.
So, it is a difficult situation to manoeuvre but an effort must be made while there is goodwill for the JVP.
/
SebastianSR / January 20, 2025
our first Prime Minister, clothed in the decadent tailcoat and hat brought down the Union Jack, the British flag, and raised the Lion Flag, the design of which was only completed just a couple of months before the so-called Independence Day
The flag had met the approval of the Cabinet that consisted of many Tamil speakers.
And, if the Tamils had been given a much longer time to deliberate on the flag, would they have come to a consensus? Remember how long our leaders took to decide on a University for the North? Tamils were dominant in the academic world, in the University College., and in Univ. of Ceylon. 40-49% of Engineering admissions were upper-class Tamils until standardization. Our leaders talked about a University in the North since the 1930s, and well into 1970s, when Bad-Ud-Din Mohammed “cut the cackle” and decided on Jaffna for the University. Remember how long it took to decide where to locate an engineering faculty? Every MP wanted it in his electorate. How many committee of all-Tamil academics sat, since 1979? Several committees recommended opening it in Jaffna, but it was opened in Killinochchi, under the LTTE; finally, it was in 2015 that the UGC took it over.
/
a14455 / January 20, 2025
I find all this wailing and weeping about how terribly Sri Lanka has done a little bit obtuse and foolish. I wasnt born the time of the English but if anything the country has gotten better. I suppose if you still pine over the privileges one had at the time of the British you will not be able to see that. I spent nearly 25 years growing up in Sri Lanka and have spent nearly 35 years abroad.
The changes I see are enormous . and most of these things have changed for the better. not worse. I remember going to school in the 70s and poor people collecting food in the garbage dump next to the Kandy bus stand. you would be hard pressed to see that today.
As for vishamitras lament of the time of the Sinhala kings as great as those stories are I think the average people lived under the boot of the aristocrats then and the colonials after the kings. I dont think anyone today wants to lay prostrate in front of any aristocrats today.
and according to Rohan25’s stories all the Sinhala Aristocrats are tamils . So I suppose we can all agree that both communities are being held back by the same people or of similar origins.
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Rohan25 / January 21, 2025
Yes, my father described these incidents to me. These poor people collecting food in the garbage dumps in Kandy were not Sinhalese but largely the estate Tamils, who were deliberately chased out of the estates by the Srima regime’s land reform and were more or less left to starve. Sinhalese peasants, (in fact everyone) faced hardship during her misrule in the 1970s but she really targeted the Tamils, especially the poor estate Tamils. At least the Sinhalese villagers were able to produce some sort of food in their villagers and she did not want them to face starvation, but she did not care about the Tamils, especially the poor estate Tamils. Many in desperation ran to the north and east, but this evil person sent the armed forces and forcibly brought them back to the hill country., as she did not want the Tamil population to increase in the north and east. Especially in the strategic Trincomalee district.
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Rohan25 / January 21, 2025
It was during her era that Sinhalese colonisation, in the east especially in Trincomalee, increased. They used to just come in droves, set up camp, install a Buddha statue under some village Bo tree and then claim the entire area as Sinhalese. The Sinhalese armed forces and police facilitated this and protected them. Whilst the poor estate Tamils thrown out of their estates and starving fleeing the Tamil north and east in desperation for a living and some land, were forcibly put on trucks and returned back to starve. What an evil anti Tamil racist woman. Her great grandfather signed the Kandyan convention in Tamil and this woman and her entire recent South Indian origin family were anti Tamil to the core. She once walked out of function in the north and returned because the sand the national anthem in Tamil, shows her evil racist mindset.
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Rohan25 / January 21, 2025
She made life hell for Tamils., whilst her Muslim education minister was denying Tamils any form of meaningful higher education. It was during her era in the 1970s that Muslims, another immigrant population from South India, who were then only around 5-7% of the population were made very important, especially in the east and the Tamils who were then around 20% of the population, with a very ancient history on the island and homeland, were fast becoming third rates and not wanted. Now all the racist evil these people sowed is not coming to bite them.
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SJ / January 21, 2025
Any more b** ***t?
Make it readable if you can.
/
Rohan25 / January 22, 2025
I know you love Srima and the entire Tamil hating Pandaranaickan/Ravathai clan and will leap to their defence, as you are one self hating Tamil yourself.
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SJ / January 22, 2025
Any more b** ***t?
Make it readable if you can.
/
a14455 / January 22, 2025
its unfortunate that CT strategically removes parts of what we write but I had answered you which they took out
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a14455 / January 22, 2025
nah those were not estate tamils. I was there.
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SJ / January 22, 2025
“who were deliberately chased out of the estates by the Srima regime’s land reform and were more or less left to starve.”
It is time that you stopped lying.
There was no land reform of any kind in the tea plantations. Large estates were nationalized. No plantation was closed.
The two drought years in the country in the 1970s meant no work in many plantations, and families that never left the estate generally went to town to find food and even beg if necessary. There was also a shortage of wheat flour on which the plantation workers relied heavily for their morning’s roti meal.
*
The drought also hurt the Sinhalese across the country, and that is not something that would interest a Tamil-Hindu chauvinist.
/
old codger / January 21, 2025
A14455,
“I find all this wailing and weeping about how terribly Sri Lanka has done………..”
Rather ironic, given that much of it is done on social media, which didn’t exist even 20 years ago. A bit before that, there was a years-long queue to get a telephone, whilst having to pay for the poles as well.
/
a14455 / January 22, 2025
yes I remember those waiting for a telephone days.
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davidthegood / January 22, 2025
old codger, you have had it really bad getting a telephone. We had to go and pay the deposit and they came and fitted the phone
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old codger / January 22, 2025
DTG,
Did you really get an SLT phone in a day? When?
Or were you born yesterday?
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SJ / January 22, 2025
Not always and not everywhere.
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