By Kumar David –
Prof. Kumar David
Here is a message that I sent a few days ago by email to about 25 friends and comrades;
“The matter I was getting excited about in my last (20 Aug.) Sunday Island/Colombo Telegraph column is, I think, very important. I reckoned that there was a possibility that a section of the Buddhist clergy would come out into the open and say: “This shit must stop! Tamils and Sinhalese who want to live in peace side by side must be allowed to do so. We will go out among the people and ensure that it happens”. If several monks take this stand it will be a game-changer. They can achieve things that state-power alone cannot. The lesson of history is that the Buddhist clergy (a moderately large section of it) is the only power that can change the history of Lanka. At this time it can be the vanguard of a solution to the racial divide, our perennial curse for decades. On the Tamil side, the Tamils must declare “Eelam is all bullshit. We too stand for an undivided Sri Lanka; political arrangements can be negotiated”.
Imagine if riots breakout somewhere in the country and the monk from the neighbourhood temple comes to the scene and tells the hooligans “F-OFF!” the riots will stop in minutes. This is all that is required for Sinhalese bystanders, who are now cowed down by thugs and hooligans, to intervene and stop rape, murder and arson.
The effect on Tamils, across the country, will be electric. If they know that the Buddhist clergy is their protector, it will do more to electrify Tamil sentiment than our corrupt and dysfunctional bloody state. It is in this context that I opined that the Buddhist-Tamil dialogue that started a few weeks ago when a group of monks travelled overseas and participated in a dialogue with Tamil groups in Europe and the USA, is the most important Good News I have heard in a long time.
Kumar”
Now imagine my disappointment when every response but one (Prof Eich, Emeritus of Open U) said this would never happen, that I was hallucinating, a nut case baying at the moon, that such a thing was impossible. The politest was “I wish you were right Kumar, but no significant section of the Buddhist clergy is going to play the role you envisage of taking a brave stand to address the national question”.
However, on further reflection I am NOT prepared to throw in the towel. I persist in my view that something will come out these initiatives. Why did a substantial body of monks go all the way to Europe and the US, engage in discussions with Tamil groups and show great determination, unless they mean business?
Formal statements from both sides will of course greatly help the process to move forward. The left (NPP/JVP) has put its tail between its legs and run. It is terrified to comment on its dismal record on the National Question. It has declined to even comment on 13A. It is caught by the balls: That is whether to continue to support Wijeweera-Somawansa racism or to admit that it made a huge blender that cost some 60,000 live in 1989-91 and must now change?
Champa / August 27, 2023
Prof. Kumar David
You say, “Tamils and Sinhalese who want to live in peace side by side must be allowed to do so.” Seriously? Where were you all this time? Don’t Sinhalese and Tamils live in peace side by side everywhere in Sri Lanka? Oh, I forgot. You may be referring to North and East. I agree. Sinhalese Buddhists are not allowed to live there.
There is an easy solution. Let us take Colombo and Jaffna cities as an example.
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– The population in the COLOMBO city is 648,034 (2023)
Tamils: 457,820 (70.7%)
Muslims: 126,000
Sinhalese: 64,214
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– The population in the Jaffna city is 184,416 (2023).
I couldn’t find the exact number of Sinhalese living in the Jaffna city. May be zero. (There are only 3,366 Sinhalese in the entire Jaffna District.)
As Prof. Kumar David have suggested, in order for Tamils and Sinhalese to live in peace side by side in Jaffna, 130,382 Sinhalese should be resettled in the Jaffna city. And, I fully support Prof. David’s decision to invite Buddhist monks to take the lead.
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Ajith / August 27, 2023
Champa,
Why don’t you expand your population analysis to the Districts or Provinces? Why you restricted to Colombo city only?
Are you happy to move the Capital to Jaffna instead of Colombo?
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Ajith / August 28, 2023
Champa,
I know you are racist and wants to get rid of Tamils from Sri Lanka with all lies suited to you. Some Colombo district figures from Sri Lanka census 2012.
Colombo district: Sinhalese(Buddhists) – 70%
Sri Lankan Tamils – 10%
It is same proportion as 1946 census in the Colombo district before Independence.
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leelagemalli / August 28, 2023
Ajith, it is just because sinhala fundementalist- Champa is blind folded when it comes to tackle with ” truths”. Psychologists see it as a health problem though.
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These persons are thousand time more dangerous than german and austrian nazists. This person is one of the best examples as to why we cant find sustainable solutions to minority issue in our hell. The person does not seem to care little about anything regarding the alarming issues.
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It is believed, that this woman or man is voluntarily locked up forever in a capsule near to Panadura (not far from colombo), and comes with unbelievable thoughts similar to “super dreams” being perflexed.
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Person ‘s thoughts are fully against “real buddhism” even if the person makes every effort to be branded as buddhist. It is like sky-earth differences.
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I dont hope that the kind of human- beasts are significantly high in our country. You dont need to think of cobras, if the kind of typus that one finds everywhere in this country.
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This woman, man or transe has no whatsoever ideas in big picture whatever being spoken by his /her historical studies. Once s/he speaks about hapankam of Putin, then again something about Rajapakshe family or sinhala-buddhism which is becoming pervert to the eyes of masses, above all to the Z-genzers than to others today.
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Raj-UK / August 27, 2023
The statistics are an eye opener. Wonder how many Buddhist temples exists in Colombo for the benefit of Sinhala Buddhists in the area. In fact, as statistics are concerned, the number of monks per Buddhist in Colombo would also be interesting in comparison with churches, kovils, mosques & those ordained in them for the service of those faiths. Such a study would help Premadasa jnr. to focus on areas where more temples are needed.
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leelagemalli / August 27, 2023
Raj-UK,
Why do we need to increase temples in Colombo?Until two decades ago or so, the temple guided society. But today it has become a place where thugs hang out and a place to rescue thugs. Kotuwe, fake monk, by name ” Kotuwe ganaya” forced people to vote for GOTABAYA, if oppose, he dare to say ” we will cut the hand”. Remember, this was the level of stupidity misled the stupid lay people also surburbs of colombo city.
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I think there are too many temples not only in Colombo but everywhere. The time has come for the Sinhala Buddhist monks to admonish themselves not to harass any layman for their alms and other needs. With the unaffordable cost of living today, how can laymen be obliged to offer free food to Thakkadiyas wrapped around by robes ? why cant Those monks contribute their knowledge and sweat to earn their living as in some other Buddhist countries (some part of Thailand, Myanmar) ? In china for example, they were thrown to paddy fields to help ploughing the fields for the cultivation, that was the days of Maoism.
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tbc
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Mahila / August 28, 2023
Why not include, Tanamalwila, Balapitiya, Elpitiya, Galle, Trincomalee and Matara!!!????
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R Kaz / August 28, 2023
It is this kind of simplistic thinking and ‘smart ass’ comments that ensures Sri Lanka will remain a divided and backward country!
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Native Vedda / August 28, 2023
Champa………………………
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“– The population in the COLOMBO city is 648,034 (2023)
Tamils: 457,820 (70.7%)
Muslims: 126,000
Sinhalese: 64,214″
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Please define the area of Colombo and cite evidence for your extraordinary claim.
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Champa / August 29, 2023
Keyboard Vedda
What extraordinary claim? The data is available in the public domain. My sources are the Department of Census and Statistics, Sri Lanka, and the World Population Review. The other sources I don’t remember because I didn’t save them.
There should be at least another 100,000 more Tamils living in the city of Colombo now as the current population in the city has reached 752,993.
According to the Department of Census and Statistics, Sri Lanka, there were only 187,456 Tamils in the city of Colombo in 1981.
Re: your other question. The city of Colombo has 15 divisions from Colombo 1 to Colombo 15.
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Ajith / August 29, 2023
Champa,
What happened to the Sinhalese who lived in Colombo city? Are they all murdered by you?
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Native Vedda / August 29, 2023
Champa………………………
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“The data is available in the public domain. My sources are the Department of Census and Statistics, Sri Lanka, and the World Population Review.”
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Where is the link?
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“The city of Colombo has 15 divisions from Colombo 1 to Colombo 15.”
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Census does not give divisional population count.
It is clear you have no knowledge of population census. Hence we are forced to conclude that you have just bull sh***ed once again.
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Champa / August 30, 2023
Keyboard Vedda
You asked for evidence. I provided.
You asked me to define what “Colombo city” is. I did. Next time, don’t ask questions if you don’t like the answers.
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old codger / August 29, 2023
Native,
Champa, being very clever, has given the Tamil population in 2021, the Muslim population in 1960, and the Sinhala numbers from 1914.
Don’t ask me for sources, because, like Champa, I didn’t save them.
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Ajith / August 27, 2023
” On the Tamil side, the Tamils must declare “Eelam is all bullshit. We too stand for an undivided Sri Lanka; political arrangements can be negotiated”.”
Tamil side never ever declared that “Eelam is the only solution to Sri Lanka’s political crisis. Even the recent all party process during the period proposal accepted a federalsolution in an undivided country. Tamils always stand for a undivided Sri Lanka. Undivided only possible when the rule of law and justice is justified. So far after independence this is not the case and it is completely one sided and reached maximum corruption.
You cannot deny the fact that North East Sri Lanka was populated with Tamil speaking people in majority for many centuries and that is why the Banda-Chelva, Dudley- Chelva agreements reached before the armed struggle of LTTE. Does the Buddhists agree that The riots against Tamils 1958, 1962, 1977, 1981 and 1983 by Sinhalese are right? If wrong, what is the solution for that?
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Champa / August 29, 2023
Ajith
You say, “……solution to Sri Lanka’s political crisis.” What exactly is Sri Lanka’s political crisis? I don’t see any.
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Ajith / August 29, 2023
Champa,
Do you live in another planet?
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Champa / August 30, 2023
Ajith
Keyboard Vedda
Your answers prove that there is no political crisis in Sri Lanka. Thank you.
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Native Vedda / August 29, 2023
Champa……………………..
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“What exactly is Sri Lanka’s political crisis? I don’t see any.”
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If you for some unexplained reasons allow H.L.D M to sit on your head all your life it is indeed difficult to see what is happening outside.
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RAVI PERERA / August 31, 2023
Ajith,
“You cannot deny the fact that North East Sri Lanka was populated with Tamil speaking people in majority for many centuries “
If you are refering to present provincial boundaries, i like to remind you that these provincial boundaries did not exist before 2019.
The present eastern province was created by annexing sparsely populated purana sinhala villages with relatively thickly populated Tamil (Tamil speaking) coastal areas to create an illusionary Tamil majority area. Even the short lived tamil kingdom was smaller than the present northern province majority of the 300 yrs.
You can still keep talking about North east being traditional Tamil homeland etc etc.
You will be lucky if you can include majority of vanni under a tamil adminstration. There will be more and more places like kurundah viharaya that may spring up in time to come.
About Banda Chelva pact, well the very fact they did not get implemented is evidence enough where the public opinion (Sinhala) lies.Banda did not get a mandate from the sinhala people to hand over 1/3 rd of the country to Tamils.
Disenfranchising the estate tamils and packing them out of the country had the support of the sinhala people.
Remember what JR said. “If I strave the tamils Sinhalese will be the happiest”.
He is correct
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Buddhist1 / August 27, 2023
The Deputy Minister in charge of Defense tells the Parliament that the CID has confirmed that there are moves to create racial tension in the country to win elections and does nothing about it is shocking. We have not learned anything from the 1983 riots, the LTTE war, or even the Easter Sunday attack. We still have the Prevention of Terrorism Act in our books, so why not arrest those who are instigating racial tensions? Is PTA applied only against minorities, why not apply it to arrest Gammanpilla, Buddhist Monks, Gajendrakumar, Weerawansa, Sarath Weerasekera, Tissa Kutti, Mervy Silva, Chanakkiyan, and others?
It’s time the President as the Minister of Defence or the Deputy Minister or the Minister in charge of Police Tiran Alles should act under PTA. Unfortunately, I will not trust Tiran Alles to do anything, under his watch Drugs are moving into the country in large quantities and the killings have increased like never before.
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RBH59 / August 28, 2023
Political arrangements can be negotiated.
The politicians cannot negotiate sri lanka from bankruptcy so how can save trusted to be in front line.
Politicians use religion (Provoke Violence) to help them win elections Check the history so how politicians can arrange mediate negotiations no trust
If you want others to understand your viewpoint negotiations are friendliness, not force.
When people don’t respect one another seldom is there honesty.
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pilimathalawa / August 28, 2023
// On the Tamil side, the Tamils must declare “Eelam is all bullshit. We too stand for an undivided Sri Lanka; political arrangements can be negotiated”.//
Tamil Tigers defeated in 2009 and passed a decade.what solution has put on table by the Sinhala government?
Until Mahawamsa mentality live any solution impossible in Sri Lanka.
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Sinhala_Man / August 28, 2023
That is the crux of the matter, dear pilimathalawa.
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Many of us Sinhalese are prejudiced and don’t think deeply, but, although not racists ourselves, we keep electing racist politicians. Now I must hurry across to Dr Ameer Ali’s latest article:
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https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/the-economy-politics-a-reality-check/
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Wonderful man, but see for yourself (from my comments) how shabbily he has been treated even by people who mean well. Ameer doesn’t complain about his suffering.
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Kumar David will be happy to hear that at last the NPP supporters of Perth know of Ameer’s existence. The problem: one of languages. Whose fault? I prefer not to judge.
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Panini Edirisinhe
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nimal fernando / August 30, 2023
What is this I hear about AKD’s holiday home in Ireland?
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Ireland is a wonderful place for a vacation ……. as lush and green as Bandarawela.
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Mallaiyuran / August 31, 2023
“If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.”
– Fake Lao Tzu Quote
If that is aimed at the Evil Monsters Sanctuary, RavanaLE, Lankawe, then it is terrible. Scarier than any possible nightmare. Pray to your Buddha that you may not end up where you are heading!
“On the Tamil side, the Tamils must declare “Eelam is all bullshit. We too stand for an undivided Sri Lanka; political arrangements can be negotiated”
This was the experience of an “unlearned” (please note it is not uneducated or not learned, this the history of an erudite person who willfully withdrawing from all of his past years of his this life) professor’s life of 75 years gone wasted and became Zilch. Professor Kumar very eloquently demonstrates his inability to define the Ceylon Tamils problem, after he has been a member of that demographic for all these 75 years. Is he arguing that the problem started only after Tamils came up with that cow dung thing called Peelam? Does he know the history of the problem, which started when Don Stephen was saved by Tamils from the Colonialists’ prison?
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Mallaiyuran / August 31, 2023
That is why previously we wrote that “Please don’t’ argue that a mindlessly guilty Tamil woman wearing the Thalikodi only provoking the rapist army soldier to go for Thalikodi snatching.” The solution, these erudite suggest for Tamil women wearing Thalikodi is “be a RavanaLE Sinhala woman, so no need to wear Thalikodi. The culture from where you have come out of is creating the deprived reactionary behaviors in our society’s males.” How else can you explain when (1970s) the Sinhala boys and girls played sex addicted games in the juggles and came to examination hall and failed on the national tests the standardization was enforced on Tamils. Fakely, Prof. Kumar is dreaming that if Tamils call the Tamil Eelam as Peelam, then in the dried rivers of South, milk and honey will start to overflow. When the Sinhala Buddhists deprived Tamils students, they felt they had solved the Tamil problem at their school level, but what kind of labor they produced and where did their economy go? What is pressing the Sinhala Buddhists and why Tamils have to call the Eelam as Peelam? Without analyzing the parallels on this matter, Professor Kumar insisted that the Tamils should just take the Sinhala Buddhists imposed standardization without wiggling, (here, give up the Eelam call) it will solve all the problems. That is nothing but mental retarded-ness.
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Mallaiyuran / August 31, 2023
Instead of naturalization in standardization, if the Sinhala Buddhist rulers had devised a solution for Sinhala youths wasting their time in the jungle, their productivity now might have made the rivers to flow milk and honey, instead paying the price of $400B for the Sinhala Buddhist Rapist Army. The misunderstanding of the people who think that they are genuinely fair to victims and balanced in judgment to the perpetrator when they describe it as if the thief had stolen a $100 from Mr. X, they prescribe Mr. X to share a $50 from the recovered money and make it justified to them both. Could one create a democracy by insisting Mr. X give a pound of flesh from his thigh to the thief and settle the thief’s demand. One of the serious problems Tamils are facing is that they cannot talk in front of the Rapist Army, backed by governments of UNP-SLFP. In that condition, our communist intellectual, Professor Kumar is delivering his judgment as Tamils should keep their back and front holes shut. What is wrong with calling for a Singapore- Malaysia relationship. Is that because both countries are going to become rich, or that when Buddha flies back home, the most-wide-built body Buddha would not have a place to lie in Ceylon, if Tamils too live there?
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Mallaiyuran / August 31, 2023
Can the erudite prof explain how the Sinhala Buddhist are losing if the Tamils live in their ancestral land & eat their own rice, not going to Colombo? While Sinhala Buddhist are begging in the capitals of the world, why is this communist professor insisting on Tamils begging in the Colombo Streets? At least, should we be able to go in the same plane to the world capitals with Sinhala Buddhist and, for our share, we beg on our own? Why does this professor insist that all Tamils hang on Siri MaO’s Munthanai like Peter Kenuman and N.M. Perera? Why should Tamils not put forward their wish of living on their ancestral land & minding their own business? For the Sinhala Buddhists, deporting Tamils to India did not help; Going for Sinhala Only did not work, but now has ended in studying Korean, Arabic, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Hindi…..; declaring in the constitution that Buddhism in the only religion of the country did not work; passing 6A did not work; standardization of Tamils’ education did not work; sending the SuperSAT to moon to bring rice did not work; Genociding the Tamils did not work; Selling the assets of the country did not work, instead loans multiplied; Now professor Kumar is saying that if the Tamils call the Tamil Eelam as Peelam, Sinhala Buddhist can turn Langkang as the wonder of Asia
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Mallaiyuran / August 31, 2023
Unless the Sinhala Buddhist are willing to change direction, I fear they are heading to the pig’s cesspool with slogans like SinhaLE or RavanaLE. The past 75 years have delivered the un-contestable wisdom, that unless they are willing to change their direction, Tamils calling their Eelam as Peelam is not going make any difference on the destiny the RavanaLE Sinhala Buddhists are heading, that is they are going to become the Ram Raj citizens. Where in the world does a section of a democracy have to give up their freedom of speech if they want to hang in their customary residence? There is a supreme court verdict in Langkang that Internal Self Determination is not separation. But the Sinhala Buddhist always use their own definitions for everything, like in UN’s ICCPR. When India came in, Old Fox, JR convinced India that Tamils are demanding separation by Federalism, so India created a compromised solution, that is 13A. 13A and 6A are both in the constitution. But Racist Aanduwa implemented only 6A. It is a piece of law described by the International Jurist Commission as a draconian one, violating the Tamils’ freedom of speech and self-determination. Where was Professor Kumar when ICJ opined that?
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Mallaiyuran / August 31, 2023
The only insult Sinhala Buddhist can be conceiving in recognizing Tamils’ ancestrula land North East is from their Mahavamsa mythology, that is the grandson of unrespectable woman’s and lion’s grandchild, Vijayan came to Ceylon before anyone else and created the Ceylon Island’s government or Kingdom. Is that an honorable or reasonable concern as per our Communist professor? If you compare this bestiality tale with Singapore, where the Chinese and Tamils were settled within last 200 years by British Colonialist, but for the mutual benefits and peace they separated from Malaysia. Let me ask, when Lee Kwan Yew was asking for Singapore, did Prof Kumar tell him “Singapore is all bullshit “? Then why is he now talking about this big talk when it is about Tamils? Didn’t Tamil government servants and Upcountry Tamils float a country that was comparable in the direction to Switzerland, long before even Singapore was born? South Africa did not call for separation, but the majority Blacks voluntarily accommodated the settled European races, only to maintain peace and prosperity. Further, a recognizable call for separation did not arise there as a solution for the problem of minority ruling the majority.
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Mallaiyuran / August 31, 2023
Because of the ridiculous, foul lies the Sinhala Buddhist extremists have loaded on them as their 2500 years of history, by themselves, now feel shy to call them that they have Lion blood in their veins, so changed their talk & telling they have only Ravana, the demon’s blood in their body. Do Professor Kumar think that Tamils too can with such ease reject their ancestral Mother Land Eelam and call it a Bull shit? What is the level of maturity of the person who calls for such a silly thing? Is that for this baby play, Professor Kumar seriously suggesting that the Tamils should give up their fundamental right of “freedom of speech” to be free from the SinhaLE and RavanaLE, the beasts and monsters hybrids’ tyranny? Sir, please change yourself as a realist; The Sinhala Buddhists, who so easily hopped from SinhaLE to RavanaLE, will not be able to find another lie to invoke another pogrom, another black July 83 or even another Mullivaikkal if Tamils go ahead and deny that North East as not their land and they will be ever ready to be begging in the roads of Colombo and be looted, raped and murdered?
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Mallaiyuran / August 31, 2023
This statement is only Prof Kumar’s kitchen made; there was never any backup from any sector of the Sinhala Buddhists to recognize Tamils as equal to Sinhalese. It was not there when Tamils were asking only for a federal state, when Solomon West Ridgeway and Junius Richard got together and tore off the Banda-Chelva pact. That is what Evil did when he was in CBK’s government as Prime Minister; that is what happened in his Yahapalanaya time, Secret Solution negotiation. After all, there is every evidence in the new Evil’s administration, same as it was in Yahapalanaya, of this tricky demand is only to fraudulently capture the Tamils’ self-determination rights and rule over the Tamils with a legally binding pact like Kandy Accord. Thank God, when the 1972, & 1978 constitutions were being drafted, (even before leader Pirapaharan,) Tamils had an enlightened leader, who refused to sell Tamil’s eyes in order to pay for the price of the Art piece on sale in market. It is called “Kan Vidhu Chithiram Vaankuthal”. India brought the 13A and had it passed in the parliament to be annexed to the constitution. Now Prof Kumar is saying to Tamils to give all what the Tamils have to have this implemented? What will be the use of the art piece bought after you have plucked and sold your eye?
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Mallaiyuran / August 31, 2023
I had mentioned Catalonia a couple of times here, but it was on different aspects. Catalonians asked for a special status provincial government for them, pointing out the fact they were not Spaniards. Spain said if they were willing to give up their self-determination rights and would never ask for independence from Spain, it could give them special rights. Well, that was done at that time. But later Catalonian saw things were not going as they thought. They came back and asked for separation. Spain crushed them; leaders fled to European countries. The special status pact was reversed by Spain, one sided. Weda Ivarai! Remember what the price Ukraine is paying now? After having secured its self-determination right, but never willing to surrender it back to the tyrant Putin! We don’t want Professor Kumar dreaming of a pact, we want a UN recognized solution!
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