Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka
Given the widespread and hardly unfounded perception of Sri Lanka’s tilt towards China, it is all the more important to carefully manage the other pillar of the Indo-Lanka relationship, i.e., that of the Tamil question.
Instead of doing so, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has resumed his project of chipping away at that pillar and thereby endangering the architecture of the bilateral relationship.
Axiomatic Facts
Given the ineluctable facts of geography, this island’s relationship with India is its most important single relationship; the one that has to be most carefully calibrated and curated.
Given the domestic geopolitics of both countries—the similar demography of Sri Lanka’s northern area abutting India and of India’s southern cone facing Sri Lanka—the Sri Lankan Tamil question is and will remain one of the two pillars of the Indo-Sri Lankan relationship.
The second pillar is Sri Lanka’s strategic relationship with any power perceived as an adversary, rival or competitor of India.
Both pillars frame the architecture of the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord (ISLA) of 1987. The 13th amendment is the child of the Accord, as enshrined in the ISLA’s clause referring to the implementation of the understandings reached in earlier (specified) negotiations between the two governments.
If the bilateral relationship is weakened or even if it remains at its present level instead of returning to its wartime dimensions, Sri Lanka will not have the benefit of India’s umbrella.
Wartime Diplomacy
In 2007-2009 Sri Lanka prudently positioned itself at the point of overlap of two big umbrellas, those of India and China. Nowhere was this more consciously constructed by Sri Lankan diplomacy than at the UNHRC in Geneva, where it contributed greatly to our success in May 2009 at the UNHRC’s special session.
In the postwar period, the hawks in the state machine and the cabinet pressurized President Mahinda Rajapaksa and moved us from under the twin Asian umbrellas, away from India and towards China, in a choice that was not forced upon us by China.
That choice was made by those ex-military personalities in the Sri Lankan state who had a traumatic memory of Indian intervention, the Indo-Lanka Accord of 1987 and the 13th amendment that issued from it.
Never once did they draw the correct lesson that had the understandings reached between the Sri Lankan and Indian Government between 1984 and January 1987 been turned into law before the Vadamaarachchi operation, there would not have been an Indian intrusion.
It must be said that they pretended that they understood, which is why the then Secretary/Defence Gotabaya Rajapaksa, as a member of the troika, repeatedly reiterated during wartime, President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s assurance to India that the 13th amendment would be fully implemented once the LTTE was defeated. This secured India’s support for the outcome or non-interruption of the outcome.
Gota Chinthanaya
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa looks set to renege on that promise and indeed to reverse it.
The statement issued by the Presidential Media Unit following the call paid on President GR by the visiting Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh V Shringla contains the following sentence:
“The President pointed out the urgent need to understand the weaknesses as well as the strengths of the 13th Amendment and act accordingly.”
It is a single sentence in a statement but has crucial implications for Sri Lanka’s most important external relationship and therefore Sri Lanka’s relations with the world as a whole.
This needs to be unpacked so as to understand its full meaning and implications.
Why is the “need to understand the weaknesses as well as the strengths of the 13th Amendment” quite so “urgent” and from whose point of view?
Who will “act accordingly” and how?
Still more substantively, what are the implications of “understand the weaknesses as well as the strengths of the 13th Amendment and act accordingly”? Does it mean the weakness will be eliminated and the strengths retained? Or does it mean that if the weaknesses are deemed to be greater than the strengths, the 13th amendment will be scrapped? Who will decide on “the weaknesses as well as the strengths of the 13th Amendment”, when and how?
Tamil Strategic Option
It appears that the ongoing process of drafting a new constitution and a new electoral law could be the agency for adventuristic, unilateral, majoritarian revisionism.
What then will the Tamil parties do? They cannot expect India to do for them what they will not do for themselves. They have to adopt a triadic strategy consisting of Unity, Realism and Alliance/Partnership.
- Unity: a broad united front and a united platform;
- Realism: a realist stand that is exactly coincident with India’s officially declared policy i.e., the full implementation of the provisions of 13A
Alliance/partnership: As Lord Soulbury advised C. Sundaralingam, the best option is to support the main democratic Opposition in Parliament (at the time in the 1960s, the UNP, now its successor). It can only be achieved on the basis of the defense of the 13th amendment and its full implementation. No less
Nathan / October 10, 2021
It is not just the ineluctable facts of geography but history as well that Sri Lanka is trying to disregard. The assurance that the 13th amendment would be fully implemented once the LTTE was defeated has to be remembered as a writing on stone, not on water.
It is diplomatic nuances that is preventing India from demonstrating its annoyance at how Sri Lanka-China cosyness is taking shape. It will be too late when China turns out to be just a fair-weather friend!
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soma / October 11, 2021
Nathan
13th amendment does not take into account the desire of +50% of Tamils who disfavour living in Tamil majority provinces and prefer to live among the Sinhalese.
If fully implemented including land and police powers these majority of Tamils who live outside NE will be subjected to severe discrimination in procuring land and facing legal justice process. Sinhala majority provinces will monopolize the natural resources within.
WHAT IS REQUIRED PRIOR TO FULL IMPLEMENTATION IS A PROGRAM TO RELOCATE THE TAMILS (all Tamil speaking people scattered across the island irrespective of their religion or the date of arrival) INTO THE NORTH EAST REGION.
TNA, Muslim Congress and contributors to popular media among the Tamils like Colombo Telegraph must prepare them for this eventuality.
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Soma
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Nathan / October 11, 2021
Soma,
You are a tireless exponent of theory no Tamil wants to buy. Take a rest.
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soma / October 12, 2021
Nathan
I know. Their inferiority complex.
Their subconscious desire to live among the Sinhalese.
.
Dear Nathan, explain me how Tamils (who are more than 50%) living in Sinhala majority provinces are going to be benefited with land and police powers.
.
Soma
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Nathan / October 12, 2021
Soma,
Why is the Government unwilling to give Police and Land powers to NorthEast. You tell me. When you answer that, you’ll get the the answer to your own question.
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soma / October 13, 2021
Nathan
I told you. That will entail police and land powers to Sinhala majority provinces. And the resulting mess. Cops out of control and discrimination in land entitlements to Tamils and scenarios like Mawil Aru.
.
Although I didn’t highlight there is a Muslim minority in Northern Province who will be at the receiving end with expanded Thesivalam style implementation.
Eastern province is a mess by very demographic composition. I can imagine a dog kennel with bones of land and police powers thrown into it!
Further Nathan, with land powers delegated to provinces the central government is heavily restricted in implementing of large scale infrastructure and agriculture projects , allocation and extraction of natural resources etc.
Cross border issues will be the order of the day.
What about freedom of relocation from province to province?
Lot of issues which need lot of space to discuss.
–
Soma
/
Nathan / October 14, 2021
Soma,
…. … with land powers delegated to provinces the central government is heavily restricted in implementing of large scale infrastructure and agriculture projects.
You want me believe that the central government is concerned that PCs would hinder its efforts to make Tamils happy.
Your deception has no limits!
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Pandi Kutti / October 14, 2021
Choma or Choman the Chingkalla racist, is very diabolical and cunning. Unlike Eagle Thaatha who openly spits out his racist Venom. Choma or Chomiah pretends to be very concerned about the plight of the island’s Thamizh but in reality, is not. Comes here to deliberately spread misinformation like 51% of the island’s Thamizh live outside the North and East and twist the truth. If all Thamizh has to relocate to the north and east which most will do and even to the north-west coast that is also Thamizh. The Chigkallams also will have to leave the northeast and north-west coast and relocate to the Chingkalla areas. Thamizh has been living in the south for centuries, however, Chingkallams only arrived in the north, east and north west coast after independence. Deliberately settled on ethnically cleansed Thamizh lands, especially in the east. This is why the east that was predominantly Thamizh until the early 196s become an ethnic nightmare due to this deliberate state-sponsored illegal Chingkalla settlements of Thamizh lands. Most of them only arrived within the last 30 years and should be asked to pack up immediately and return. As for Colombo and Nuwara Eliya districts both of which have a Thamizh speaking majority for centuries should also become part of the Thamizh homeland. Satisfied racist? What is good for the Chingkallams is good for the Thamizh too. You cannot have the cake and eat it.
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GATAM / October 11, 2021
I agree with the relocation but it has to be 100% and permanent. Sinhala people in the north and east including the army must also be permanently relocated.
Until then SL will be total hell.
It is better for Tamils to have Tamil Elam right now before Sinhala governments extract all economically valuable resources from Tamil Elam leaving it totally destroyed and barren.
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soma / October 13, 2021
Relocation NOW.
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Soma
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Native Vedda / October 11, 2021
soman
–
Has Dayan ever claimed to have met his dear friend Che Guevara, or riding with him on Che’s motorbike?
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leelagemalli / October 12, 2021
Gota s silly politics proved well that we the srilankens are today ” the soccer ball” of America, India and China. If Americans would kick, we would be thrown to China…. if the chinese would kick us… we would be thrown to India….. no choice but to rely on any kind of pressures being made on the nation…… there were times, that PARIPPU were thrown to us by indians….. in the days to come, not only parippu.. indian human excrements will be thrown to us in the form of “ORGANIC MANURE”.
Srilanken environmentalists – OVER to you- please
.
Just now srilanken accreditation offices regarding any hazaardous materials being imported to the country have totally disagreed with Chinese “ORGANIC MANURE containing “harmful bacteria in them for the second time.” There the chinese seem to be not respecting the statements of the srilanken authorities.
.
In this backdrop, INDIAN would force us to buy their ORGANIC manure instead…. meaning srilankens have become slaves of both…. thanks go to OUR leaderhsip.
.
And again, not being able to tolerate the situation escalting in indian ozean island Americans were compelled to show their pressure by thehri secretly signed and completed agreements….
.
Was that the case UNDER POLONNARUWE JOKER ? NO::::
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Dr. Gnana Sankaralingam / October 10, 2021
Dayan, these are excuses given by government for not going to implement 13th amendment fully. Milinda Moragoda an opponent of devolution has been hand picked and sent to Delhi to lobby anti-Tamil racists in Indian establishment to scuttle 13th amendment. India cannot go on just making statements to hoodwink Tamils. Indian policy of bending backwards to please Sinhalese is not working and stick needs to come. Mark my words, next attack on Sri Lanka will come from outside where Sinhalese can do nothing about.
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soma / October 11, 2021
Dr. G.S.
“Indian policy of bending backwards to please Sinhalese is not working and stick needs to come”.
This is a dangerous scenario.
At this stage the Sinhalese at street level may take their stick to their hands and that is why I always say:
.
WHAT IS REQUIRED PRIOR TO FULL IMPLEMENTATION IS A PROGRAM TO RELOCATE THE TAMILS (all Tamil speaking people scattered across the island irrespective of their religion or the date of arrival) INTO THE NORTH EAST REGION.
.
TNA, Muslim Congress and contributors to popular media among the Tamils like Colombo Telegraph must prepare them for this eventuality.
–
Soma
/
Native Vedda / October 11, 2021
soman
–
“At this stage the Sinhalese at street level may take their stick to their hands and that is why I always say:”
–
We know Gnanasara, Elle, Omalpe ….. will be leading the mob while you will be carrying Gnanasara’s B***s in your hands. I have been advising you to start a “mother of all riots” to deal with “TAMIL AND MUSLIM PROBLEM”.
You disappoint all of us.
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GATAM / October 11, 2021
GS,
13 amendment or PCs cannot save Tamil Elam from total plunder, etc.
Look what they are doing in Mannar seas now. Drilling for oil. If they find oil they will rob it all, leaving nothing to Tamil Elam. If they don’t find it, they will still destroy the ecosystem exploring it.
Same thing in Mulaitivu and Pulmoddai. Very soon they will be drilling lime stones in Jaffna. All economic resources will be plundered.
The only way out for Tamils is Tamil Elam an independent nation.
Don’t be fooled by 13 amendment. It is not the solution. It is a trap to keep Tamils as slaves under Sinhala masters.
Tamils must ask for permanent solutions not piecemeal solutions.
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Eagle Eye / October 12, 2021
GATAM,
“Tamils must ask for permanent solutions not piecemeal solutions.”
—–
The permanent solution for both Tamils and Muslims is to return to their ancestral Homelands without becoming a problem to Native Sinhalayo who accommodated them in their country. Hindu, Catholic and Muslim Tamils can go to Tamil Nadu and Arab Muslims can go to Saudi Arabia.
—
Native Sinhalayo did not invite foreigners to come and settle down in their country.
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SJ / October 11, 2021
“…next attack on Sri Lanka will come from outside where Sinhalese can do nothing about.”
From out of space?
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Native Vedda / October 12, 2021
SJ
–
“From out of space?”
–
In case if you haven’t followed what is happening outside this country and updated Chinese threat, here is a one that answers your stupid question.
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China’s Anti-Satellite Test: Worrisome Debris Cloud Circles Earth
By Leonard David February 02, 2007
https://www.space.com/3415-china-anti-satellite-test-worrisome-debris-cloud-circles-earth.html
/
Eagle Eye / October 11, 2021
Dr. Gnana Sankaralingam,
“Indian policy of bending backwards to please Sinhalese is not working and stick needs to come.”
—-
They took the stick once and dragged Tamils to Nandikadal. Do you want a repetition of that?
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Ajith / October 10, 2021
Yes. There is a challenge for Tamil political strategy. Tamils should have a political strategy whether it is India or China or UNHCR or West. India, China and West have their own agenda. Both the current rulers and the opposition also need the existence of Tamil problem and Sinhalese majoritarian problem. This unstable, unresolved Tamil problem is beneficial to India, China and our politicians but it is loss to the country and its people. In fact, the loss is more to the Sinhalese and more to the country. For example, when the cost of living increases it affects Sinhalese more. Unless Sinhalese understand that they are using them as a weapon to divide the communities. For example, Easter Bombing is a planned political bomb, not a community terror. Don’t forget that over 60000 Sinhalese were dumped under the soil by our Sinhalese political leadership. So, only hope to the future is realisation of using communities as a weapon by politicians has to be stopped.
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Eagle Eye / October 11, 2021
Ajith,
“This unstable, unresolved Tamil problem is beneficial to India, China and our politicians but it is loss to the country and its people.”
—-
Tamil problem was solved on 19 May 2009 at Nandikadal. No need to talk about that anymore.
Implementing the 13th Amendment, Ranil Wickramasinghe handed over almost one third of the country to a fascist terrorist and he ran a de facto State in that area. But he and the separatist Tamil politicians who were with him rejected 13th Amendment and wanted to fight to achieve their ‘Dreamland’ Eelam. The Government rejected their demand and eliminated Tamil terrorists who were fighting on behalf of separatist Tamil politicians who passed Vadukkodei Resolution to create a separate State and asked Tamils to fight until they get Eelam. That is the end of the Tamil Problem.
—-
Tamils who are not willing to accept that reality and do not like to live peacefully with Native Sinhalayo in a Unitary State are free to return to their ancestral Homeland. Native Sinhalayo did not invite Tamils to their country.
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GATAM / October 11, 2021
India changed.
Gota complies.
Tamilians unchanged – irrelevant.
This is what happens.
1. India is desperate to keep its only amicable neighbor and has dropped the Tamil demand in favor of Indian NATIONAL interests. SL has no problem with Indian NATIONAL interests. SL only hates Tamil aspirations.
2. Another reason is the death of firebrand Tamil Nadu politicians. Now BJP can take TN for granted and that’s what it does. Excellent plan by Modi.
3. BJP/NDA have more than 2/3 in India. They do not need any Congress like coalitions. TN is out.
4. India knows SL will somehow circumvent all power devolution deals with Tamils as it has done since 1987. Simply not going to happen. But India cannot wait for it to sort out its national interest matters.
Right thing to do.
This is why Gota is doing what he does. He is not going against India. He cannot. He is scared. India changed in SL’s favor!
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SJ / October 11, 2021
“Another reason is the death of firebrand Tamil Nadu politicians. Now BJP can take TN for granted and that’s what it does. Excellent plan by Modi.
*
Did Modi kill them as part of his plan?
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Dr. Gnana Sankaralingam / October 11, 2021
Gatam, I have been saying in these columns that China is in Sri Lanka not to do wonders here, but to destabilize and break up India. Did you hear that some Tamil expatriates approached China to help in getting their rights and that India on hearing this has gone into panic mode. I told some Tamil friends few years ago that Tamils should contact China through Chinese in Singapore, who have great regard for Ceylon Tamils. Recently Singapore government told some North Indian racists off, when they wanted to remove Tamil and replace it with Hindi as official language.India is in this sorry plight due to their foreign policy based on anti-Tamil racism. If India does not act fast to change this and stop using Tamils, but to empower Tamils in Sri Lanka and thereby bring the country under their control, they are going to lose out. Sri Lanka used India to defeat LTTE, and when it achieved it, dropped India off and India is not going to get any of its national interest met by ignoring Tamils. India demanded east terminal and now is accepting west terminal.
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GATAM / October 12, 2021
GS,
You are not 100% correct. China is in all Asian countries except South Korea and Japan. China is even in India itself. Poor SL is no exception.
Empowering Tamils in SL is very dangerous for India. If Tamils rule SL (or even powerful), India will be naturally worried about spreading the separatist virus back to India.
And historically Tamilakam had excellent relations with China! This is also worrying India.
Sinhalese had and still have excellent ties with North India (where almost all Indian PMs come from). Sinhala rule in SL is a safe bet for India.
This is why India never really support Tamil empowerment in SL. Just pretend to do so but nothing in substance. VP realized this late but when he did, he did the needful. India always wanted a lesser place for Tamils in SL, India and even Singapore (your observation about Singapore is correct).
It is very similar to India having a Tamil president but never a Tamil PM. The Indian president has no power! Just symbolic. All power remains with north Indians led by the PM.
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Eagle Eye / October 11, 2021
GATAM,
“…and has dropped the Tamil demand in favor of Indian NATIONAL interests.”
—
If so why the Foreign Secretary of India asked the President to implement 13th Amendment which was rejected by Tamils. Did Tamils told him ‘it is better to have something than nothing’?
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GATAM / October 12, 2021
EE,
India knows very well that over 50% of Tamils live outside the north and east and will be ruled by Sinhala provincial councils and India also knows that 13th amendment is just a sham – SL government can take back anything under provincial power any time without giving reasons (e.g. hospitals) and deny police and land powers to provinces forever. India also knows SL has split north from the east (Tamil Elam needs them merged).
If 13th amendment REALLY empowered Tamils, India will be worried sick of division within India itself!
Think!
India just wants to pretend to help Tamils (so TN Tamils will be kept tamed).
Ever wondered why India allows (and encourages) Indian fishermen plunder fishing fields of northern SL? Same reason.
India will be ecstatic if SL replaces Tamil language with Hindi as an official language!
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Siva Sankaran Sharma / October 13, 2021
Actually, as per Sri Lankan government statistics, 51% of the island’s Tamils live in the north and east. 90% of the Tamils living in the Sinhalese areas are the Indian origin estate Tamils and traders. They have always lived here. 70% of the island’s indigenous Tamils live in the north and east, their historic homeland and 90% of the remaining 30% live in the greater Colombo area, for work purposes and most of them still hold close ties with the north and east and will relocate there is they need to . Also, remember thousands of indigenous Tamils still live along the northwest, Puttlam, Chilaw, Negombo coasts, which was once part of the Tamil homeland, which the British transferred to the Sinhalese northwest province. Colombo was also part of this Tamil homeland . Now part of the Sinhalese homeland again thanks to the British. This means most Tamils still live within what was their ancient historic homeland. This is the reason the island’s Muslims when they originally migrated from South India moved to the then Tamil North West Coast
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soma / October 12, 2021
5. India knows that more than 50% of Tamils live outside North East and they wish to remain so.
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Soma
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Rohan25 / October 13, 2021
Good so you are also admitting the fact that India is only paying lip service to Tamil rights and federalism or semi federalism in the island but in reality, is in league and in bed with the Sri Lankan state and the Sinhalese racists to destroy the island’s Tamils
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Buddhist1 / October 11, 2021
Either Sri Lankan Govt or Tamil Political parties should never trust India. Indian political support to any party is entirely based on two factors – 1) No other country in South India should do better than India 2) Who throws a bigger bone, Indians will lick that bone and will agree on any issue supporting the party that threw the bone.
In the case of Sri Lanka, all India is interested in is licking the bone the Govt of SL throws at them from time to tim,e like the Port deal or the power projetIndia has no interest in supporting any settlement of the minority issues as it helps India to get newer bones thrown at them .
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GATAM / October 12, 2021
Correct.
This was clearly stated in India’s new opportunistic foreign policy. Right thing to do.
Now that TN has been silenced into submission (than before), India can freely engage with SL at the NATIONAL level.
What happened to TN is just tragic. Gradual collapse of political power.
…………………………………………
During Periyar’s time TN was EXTREMELY INFLUENTIAL.
During Annadurai’s time TN was VERY INFLUENTIAL.
During MGR’s time TN was INFLUENTIAL.
During Jaya/Karuna time TN was RELEVANT.
……………………………..
Now TN is totally weak and irrelevant.
Foolish Gota got that right (for a change).
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Siva Sankaran Sharma / October 11, 2021
From the time of so-called independence ( sic) as it was only independence for the Sinhalese but not for the Tamils, they fell from the frying pan to the fire, all Sinhalese leaders have been only fooling the Tamils about their rights. Each successive Sinhalese led government has been gradually whittling away Tamil people’s rights or what little that was enshrined in the so-called constitution, that this arrogant Lord Soulbury and the British provided for the island’s Tamils. Now there is no rights or nothing left. The Sinhalese used Tamil politicians like GG Ponambalam to colonise the Tamil east, as well as to make the Indian origin Tamils stateless. Gave him a cabinet position and then colonised Tamil Pattipalai Aru/Amparai with outside Sinhalese and changed the names to Galoya and Ampara. One million Indian origin Tamils were made stateless and this is how the rot started and now look at the current position. Who is this Lord Soulboury or the British to advise the Eelam Tamils, with their stupid arrogant solutions, when they were the architects of the Eelam Tamil genocide? Support the opposition Sinhalese party that is as racist as the government in power. What utter rubbish.
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Siva Sankaran Sharma / October 11, 2021
As for India, it is only taking the Eelam Tamils for a ride. Sri Lanka and India are only using the Eelam Tamils as a bargaining chip, to win more concessions from each other and are deliberately sacrificing their rights in the process. Currently, Sri Lanka and the Sinhalese are cunningly winning this diplomatic war, not only with India but also with the west and the UN. The Sinhalese are very good at this from ancient times. This is how they survived. The British gave them a golden opportunity in 1833 by annexing the Tamil lands to the Sinhalese lands down south, thereby making the Sinhalese who were confined to the south of the island, a majority in the whole of the island and the Tamils who were 100% majority in their land now a minority in the island and then handing power to the Sinhalese majority only in 1948, with no federalism or Tamil rights enshrined and the architect of this constitution, of course, was this Lord Soulboury. He was trying to cover up and defend his mistakes.
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Siva Sankaran Sharma / October 11, 2021
India has to do more than making statements about Tamil rights on the island. It has to show by action that it really means this, as from what can be seen it only using the Eelam Tamil rights to gain more advantage for itself in the island, as the west port terminal, etc and then overtly and covertly help the Sinhalese state to commit structural genocide and destroy the Eelam Tamils. We all know the part the Indians played in May 2009 in the Vanni to destroy the LTTE, and the atrocities that followed and the cover-up by India in the UN and internationally to protect the Sinhalese state. We also know the atrocities committed by the largely Sikh and North Indian IPKF on the Tamil population in the north and east of the island, that led to the assassination of the former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, who was inexperienced and was listening to the advice of a lot of anti-Tamils both in Delhi and Colombo. India will not help the Eelam Tamils nor will not allow others to help them, as most probably Delhi wants them to be destroyed.
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Siva Sankaran Sharma / October 11, 2021
Now the North and other Indians are happily dancing to the song of a Sinhalese rap dancer whom the Sinhalese are now proudly stating is the daughter of a Sri Lankan army officer and a May 2009 war hero. Says a lot about the Indian mentality towards all Tamils. Dance to the rap of someone, who the Sinhalese now proudly associated with the large scale killing of innocent Tamil civilians in May 2009. People in the west will never behave like this. They will appreciate genuine talent but not when it is associated with alleged war crimes and being boasted in national newspapers. The Sinhalese will take the Indians as well as the west for a ride use them to destroy the island’s Tamils and then give everything to China. So far the Sinhalese have won the diplomatic game. I am sorry to say I will never trust the Indians.
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Nathan / October 11, 2021
Siva Sankaran Sharma,
Tamils have never had a savvy political leader. We are demanding India to pull us out of the fire, we have fallen into. India is not obliged to help us in any way. It is when the flames start scorching India, India will step in. That time will come sooner than later.
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Siva Sankaran Sharma / October 11, 2021
Yes, India is not obliged to help us in any way. Then let it state this position openly instead of shedding crocodile tears about our plight, use us as bargaining chips to obtain trade concessions and contracts from the Sinhalese, then overtly and covertly help them to commit structural genocide on us and hinder other nations, especially from the west, who may genuinely want to help us to pull from the fire that the British and Lord Soulbury put us into. Yes, very soon the flames are going to scorch India’s southern shores, irrespective of them going out of their way to please the Sinhalese. Then they may pretend to come to our help and use us again and scorch us as they did in May 2009 and with the IPKF. We are just collateral damage in their power game. Many of their politicians even from Tamil Nadu stated the same
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SJ / October 11, 2021
Is a savvy political leader the deficiency?.
We were told that SJVC was a close approximation to Gandhi.
GGP supposedly outwitted any Sinhala politician in debate.
Amirthalingam’s identity was changed from Eelam’s Mujibur to Arafat.
Not savvy enough?
*
What about the late “Thalaivar” for whose return many still long for?
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Native Vedda / October 11, 2021
Nathan
–
“Tamils have never had a savvy political leader. “
–
What about Thiruvebgadam Velupillai Prabharan?
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Nathan / October 12, 2021
…. What about Thiruvebgadam Velupillai Prabharan?
Native Vedda, You make me laugh.
If he had had any political acumen, you and I won’t be exchanging views today!
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soma / October 12, 2021
NV
Even he didn’t ask Tamils in Sinhala majority provinces to move back to his designated Ealam.
A ‘savvy ‘ Tamil leader is the one who can persuade those trapped Tamils back into North East.
Will there ever be one?
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Soma
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Native Vedda / October 12, 2021
soman
–
“A ‘savvy ‘ Tamil leader is the one who can persuade those trapped Tamils back into North East.”
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Of course you right.
I am also looking for a wise man/woman who could persuade Tamil speaking Demalas and their brethren Sinhala speaking Demelas to relocate their residence to South India, as South India is doing well at the moment.
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Accommodating another 21 million is not a problem for Stalin. As the economy is growing they need a lot of human resources.
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Agnos / October 12, 2021
SSS, Nathan,
SL Tamils need an educated and clear-thinking political leader who can command respect from the people of Tamil Nadu and their politicians. Last year, I had a chance to talk to a BJP stalwart who is a Governor of a Northern Indian state. He said that even in states like West Bengal, where the plight of the Hindus in Bangladesh is advocated by some people, most people don’t care about it, but at least some people do. He said only TN’s Dravidian party politicians can mobilize support for SL Tamils in India, and it is a Herculean task to get support from the broader Indian populace or the BJP for SL Tamil issues, simply because it is human nature for them to focus on their own issues.
But first SL Tamils can’t seem to decide whether they want to focus on economic progress within SL, despite all the adversity they face, or want to get the support of TN and be closer to the Tamil culture in TN, which is quite a bit different from what we have among SL Tamils. Even people like CVW and Sumanthiran embody this indecision, living and working in Colombo, trying to get the attention of at least the forward-thinking segments of the Sinhalese polity, even as they appeal to India. I think SL Tamil leaders need to first articulate the right vision that has the support of a large majority of the Tamil population in SL, including the upcountry Tamils. They can do internal surveys to come up with the right strategy.
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Nathan / October 12, 2021
Agnos,
Our predicament is a complex one; no single strategy would work or yield result.
* There cannot be a solution without the support of the Indians. (Read, Delhi.)
* We should not antagonize TN, but TN itself will need Delhi support.
* There are Sinhalese who are reasonable. We have to help their number grow.
* Our problem is for us to solve. This is where a savvy political leader comes in.
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Native Vedda / October 12, 2021
soman
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“If I were that leader the first thing I would do is to encourage the Tamils living in Sinhala majority provinces to move into North East so that a ………………………..”
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So that a final solution can be found effectively, efficiently, …….. and expediently for the Tamils and Muslims problem.
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Please don’t rely on the West, Hindia, China, Cuba, Russia, ……. when push comes to shove they will not stand by their subcontracting genociders, for example Pol Pot, Mohammad Najibullah, Velupillai Prabaharan, Shah, Saddam, Marcos, Anastasio Somoza, Makarios, ………
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Can you explain to us how Sarath Fonseka, Gota, Bazil, …..obtained their green card?
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soma / October 12, 2021
Nathan
India cannot help so long as majority of Tamils live outside NE.
.
Your statement that Tamils never had a far thinking leader is correct.
If I were that leader the first thing I would do is to encourage the Tamils living in Sinhala majority provinces to move into North East so that a Tamil Homeland is automatically created. Additionally that will deprive the Sinhalese of valuable human resource.
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Soma
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GATAM / October 13, 2021
Soma
Sinhalas too did not have a leader. If they had one, that leader would have achieved it.
No need. Tea plantations are an environmental disaster and none of them make profit. Sinhalas lose nothing at all. Absolutely nothing.
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Eagle Eye / October 12, 2021
Siva Sankaran Sharma,
I have responded several times to rubbish that you keep on repeating.
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It is high time that Tamils come out of Batakotte (Vadukkodei) Resolution crap that they have got bogged down and face the truth.
Batakotte Resolution that Tamils consider as their history book in the absence of any other records of their history in Sinhale is full of fabricated stories and myths invented by racist separatist V Tamils who drafted it to justify their demand for a separate State using a bogus claim ‘Traditional Homeland’.
Tamils who have a desire to co-exist with Native Sinhalayo in a Unitary State should know the true history of Sinhale instead of believing what separatist Tamil politicians are bombarding on them depicting Sinhalayo as their enemy.
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Siva Sankaran Sharma / October 12, 2021
The only person who constantly posts rubbish you. No one else. Repeating the same lies and misinformation in the belief that a lie often told becomes the truth, especially to gullible misinformed people. This is what all Sinhalese politicians have done since independence. Lied and lied and the gullible Sinhalese masses believe their lies. There is no such thing called Native Sinhalayo. First of all the word, Sinhalese is derived from the ancient Tamil world for the island Chingkallam meaning red or copper coloured land. Originally the word Chingkallavar was used in Tamil to describe the island’s Tamil or Semi Tamil speaking Dravidian Naga and Yakka tribes. Later it got Prakritsed to Sinhala and was used to describe the new evolving identity and language in the south of the island, which started after the large scale conversion of the southern Dravidian Tamil Naga and Yakka tribes to Buddhism. n the manner of Christian missionaries converting Buddhists and Hindus to Christianity in the 16th century A.D., Arahat Mahinda converted the Hindu Tamil Naga King Thevanai Nambiya Theesan son of King Mootha Sivan and his Hindu subjects (Tamils), to the Buddhist faith in 246 B.C. The vehicles of the Dhamma were the Pali and Sanskrit languages. Sinhala evolved through the intermingling of the Tamil, Pali and Sanskrit languages.
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Siva Sankaran Sharma / October 12, 2021
Mahanama, a Buddhist monk, the younger son of King Dhathusena, observing two groups of people in the 5th century A.D. – Hindus, speaking Tamil and the converts (Buddhists) speaking the new language (Sinhala) – hatched the story of Vijaya and his 700 followers (Bengalis), about 1000 years after their alleged landing, with the motive of projecting the Buddhists as a separate ethnic group, the Sinhalese.
King Muthu Siva ruled for 60 years. His second son Thevanai Nambiya Theesan later Prakritised to Devanaam Piya Tissa succeeded him in 247 B.C. Devenampiya Tissa built the Thuparama and the Mihiyangana vihares and the vihare at Isurumuniya. Devanampiya Tissa’s brother Maha Nagan should have succeeded him, but because Maha Nagan was suspected of having poisoned Devenampiya Tissa’s son, Maha Nagan feared reprisals and fled to Ruhunu with his wife Anula. His other brothers, Uttiya, Maha Sivan and Sura Tissa, succeeded Devenampiya Tissa. Each of them reigned as king for ten years (207-177 B.C.).
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Svenson / October 12, 2021
Brilliant Sharma, you are quoting from the Mahavamsa, the very same book that all Tamils decry as fairy stories. You have a great future behind you.
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Siva Sankaran Sharma / October 12, 2021
Yes I know I am brilliant unlike you a pathetic card-carrying Sinhalese Buddhist fascist, who posts under a Scandinavian name. Very unhappy as Sinhalese love quoting the Mahavamsa as gospel truth and to justify their racism. Get very upset when it is quoted by Tamils, to prove what they quote is selective and rubbish. Yes, the Mahavamsa is full of fairy tales regarding the origin of the Sinhalese and is an anti-Tamil diatribe. However, by trying to prove that the island’s Hindu Tamils are outsiders, it only proved the opposite. It proved that they have been living on the island for a very long time, the north and east is their homeland and the genealogy of most of the so-called Southern Sinhalese kings us actually indigenous Dravidian Tamil Naga or South Indian. It is the story of the southern and central parts of the island, a mixture of facts and fiction. You have to be intelligent enough to read and ascertain what is fact and what is fiction and also read into it. Svenson the fake Scandinavian
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Svenson / October 12, 2021
SSS the Tamils have been taking rides for decades. Isn’t it time to dismount? But you have got so used to riding that horse of false promises. Coupled with two-timing corrupt Tamil leaders, you dare not dismount because it might be better next time. It won’t. It will be worse.
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GATAM / October 11, 2021
The island must be equitably divided into 3 mono ethnic nations of Tamil Elam, Muslim Elam and Sinhala Only Elam and people based on ethnicity must be relocated.
That is the only solution.
Everyone needs their own independent country.
Talking about unity 73 years of disunity, etc. is plain stupidity and slave mentality.
India has own problems that India has to resolve with or without Tamils. After all Tamils are just 5% of Indian population.
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soma / October 12, 2021
It will automatically happen if the Tamils (all Tamil speaking people scattered across the island irrespective of their religion or the date of arrival) living in Sinhala majority provinces can be persuaded to move into North East.
You think there will ever be Tamil leader who can do that?
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Soma
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GATAM / October 13, 2021
Soma
Not automatically. There should be carrots and sticks. And Sinhalas including the Sinhala army must leave the north and east too.
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Pandi Kutti / October 11, 2021
Recently Gotha Apaaym opened an army military playground in Aunradhapuram and the name boards were only in Chingkallam and English not in Thamizh which is an official language that is on par with Chingkallam. Shows his real intention for the Thamizh, destroy them, their language culture, heritage, steal their lands and then tell the UN, the west and Hindia that he needs lots of time and committees to reconcile and the UN, the west and Hindia will give him their blessing and more time so that he and the Chingkallams can complete their structural genocide. However, they will still keep on shedding crocodile tears about the plight of the Eezham Thamizh. The Indian foreign secretary came here shedding crocodile tears about the Eezham Thamizh, used them as a bargaining chip to win a tender for Gujrati Adani at the west dock at the Colombo port and now the Hindian Army chief has arrived to oversee the joint army exercise called Mitra something meaning friends, proving Hindia is Chingkalla friend and not Thamizh friend, held at once Thamizh Amparai. Speaks volumes of India’s real intentions. Just make statements about the rights of the Eezham Thamizh, then shed a few crocodile tears to appease the population in Thamizh Nadu. However do nothing concrete but ise the Eezham Thamizh as bargaining chips to win concessions from the Chingkallams, that the Chingkallams are happy to give, as long as India only sheds crocodile tears about the plight of the EEzham Thamizh but overtly and covertly help the Chingkallams to commit structural genocide on them.
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Pandi Kutti / October 11, 2021
In Thamizh funerals traditionally, village women are paid to come and wail beat their breasts and hug each other and start singing a song or verse in praise of the dead person. This is called ” Opari” in Thamizh. A very interesting sight to see and they beat their breasts and this poot illiterate or semi-literate village women sill start to sing in beautiful poetic high Thamizh praises of the recently departed one.
After all these wailing howling beating their breasts and singing praises of the dear departed person, you can see them returning home smiling and laughing with the pay they have received from the relatives of the departed person. Not genuine. This is what the Indian foreign secretary did, came here and shed crocodile tears, wailed and howled about the plight of the Thamizh in the island and implementation of the Indo Sri Lankan accord. He then went home smiling with an agreement for India or Gujarati Adani to service and look after the western dock of Colombo Port. Another ” Opari”. Come and cry howl and wail for a show about the plight of the island’s Tamils and what India wants and then go home smiling with rewards for North Indian Adani and the Indian government.
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Pandi Kutti / October 12, 2021
Hindian foreign secretary arrived crying about Eezham Thamizh but went home smiling after he got rewarded for his Opari, with the western terminal to be run by HIndia. Then came the Indin army chief to play war games with the Chingkallams on ethnically cleansed Eezham Thamizh land. Now we have the arrival of Choopira Mania Chamy , to suck lollies, for which he will be amply rewarded and to see how the structural genocide is progressing to report to the RSS.
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GATAM / October 11, 2021
Sinhalaya army is doing more than genocide against Demalayas. It must stop.
All Demalayas must demand Tamil Elam. No half solutions. No shortcuts. Full Tamil Elam.
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soma / October 12, 2021
Is the Tamil Nadu aware of the genocide of their people 20km down?
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Soma
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Native Vedda / October 12, 2021
soman
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“Is the Tamil Nadu aware of the genocide of their people 20km down?”
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Is the Sinhala/Buddhist majoritarian Demalas aware of their Tamil speaking brethren Demelas being subjected to Genocide by them?
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GATAM / October 13, 2021
Yes. But they do not care as long as they get their fish.
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Eagle Eye / October 12, 2021
Pandi Kutti,
Tamils worshipped Hindia when Hindians trained Tamil terrorists and provided arms and ammunition to massacre Native Sinhalayo. ‘Moda’ Tamils failed to understand that they were using Tamils to fulfil their objectives. In 1987 they came waving that flag ‘Peace in Sri Lanka’ to destabilize the country and grab the fish tanks in Tirikunamale.
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Pandi Kutti / October 12, 2021
Eagle Thaatha, please sing an Opari and dance to this song. I will be very happy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUXu76HzEZ4
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GATAM / October 12, 2021
During 1987-89 IPKF did a lot more than that in Jaffna!
Tamils saw the true colors of Indians then!
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Svenson / October 12, 2021
PK that is all you are left with, posting nonsense in cyberspace. The time will come when all Tamil owned land is classified as unoccupied Government property. It will be sold to US companies and the country as a whole will benefit as a result. There will be no more Tamils.
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Pandi Kutti / October 12, 2021
Hello Svenson. How is Viking s-gar daddy? Has he classified you as his movable or immovable chattel? How did he obtain you? On one of his Viking longboat raids on the southern Sri Lankan beaches? I see you are crying out here a lot. Hope your posterior is not in pain and you are crying for attention, as you often come here and become nasty and evil when you are hurt and need attention from us. Just pray that Norse daddy goes to Valhalla soon and his weapon will not hurt you anymore. Keep on dreaming about Tamil properties, as you can only dream when you yourself are have become property. No wonder so obsessed about chattels and properties. Just dance to the Youtube song I sent to Eagle Thatta and keep daddy happy and entertained.
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Rohan25 / October 11, 2021
In my opinion, India maybe even the west is really not genuine with regards to obtaining justice for the island’s Tamils. They helped the Sinhalese to win the war in May 2009, supposedly as the then, President Rajapakse had promised them, that if they helped them to defeat the LTTE, just Tamil rights will be granted and there will be a federal solution with not sec 13A but with Sec 13A plus. They gave him lots of help, especially India, especially the Sonia government, as they also wanted revenge on Pripakaran, even it costs the lives of thousands of innocent Tamil civilians. As usual the Sinhalese and the Rajapakse government had reneged on their promise, once the LTTE was defeated. They have cunningly brought China into the scene and equation. The Sinhalese are now outwitting and outmanoeuvring India, the west and the UN again with fake promises and stalling processes.
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Rohan25 / October 11, 2021
India also knows it has now been outfoxed and it is going out of its way to please the Sinhalese to obtains trade concessions and benefits and to keep China at bay. It is now only just showing fake concern for the island’s Tamils but helping the Sinhalese in every way to destroy them, thinking to score brownie points with them. Remember there are also lots of anti-Tamils amongst the Indians, some even call themselves Tamils. These people are happy at what is happening to the Tamils on the island. The recent appointment of the Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Delhi is to tap into these powerful anti-Tamils, for the benefit of the Sri Lankan state. . However much the Indians will dance to Sinhalese raps and bailas, China has gained ascendancy in the island and very soon will be lapping around the shores of South India. Then India again may show some fake concern towards the Sri Lankan Tamils like before and try to use them to teach the Sinhalese a lesson. We have to be careful and look for other allies. Do not spurn any help India but remember they are not a genuine friend. Their actions speak louder. They will use us and once our use-by date has finished will throw us in the rubbish dump. Unfortunately thanks to the British and then very unsavvy and selfish Tamil politicians and then due to some stupid actions of the LTTE leadership, the island’s Tamils now are in danger of losing their identity, land and heritage after living in the island for more than 2500 years.
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Eagle Eye / October 12, 2021
Rohan25,
“Tamils now are in danger of losing their identity, land and heritage after living in the island for more than 2500 years.”
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Living 2500 years as invaders, coolies to colonial rulers and ‘Kallathonis’ is not a qualification to demand separate State, Federal solution, Devolution of power and dictate how Native Sinhalayo rule their country.
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Eagle Eye / October 12, 2021
Rohan25,
Even V Tamils in Yapanaya wanted to eliminate LTTE terrorists after realizing that the campaign they launched to get Eelam controlled by V Tamils is backfiring on them. After LTTE consisted of D Tamils got an upper hand with their gun power, V Tamils had to behave like poodles in front of AK47s wielding D Tamils. If they challenged them, they knew the fate.
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Rohan25 / October 12, 2021
Mad racist Eagle, now living the good life somewhere in Canada or in Melbourne Australia, the Tamil people were forced to take cyanide capsules and guns, due to state-sponsored Sinhalese racism, ethnic cleansing and war crimes committed on them. This too after all other peaceful means to obtain their just rights in their own land failed. At that time India was the only country that came to our aid and help, no one else. It may have had a motive and we knew it but had no other option.
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Rohan25 / October 12, 2021
As for the rest of your post, it is plain stupid garbage. The Tamils have been on the island for over 2500 years and have lived in the north and east continuously and ruled these lands. Even your Mahavamsa fairly tales confirms this fact. The North and East of the island were never the lands of the Sinhalese, there is no history of Tamils from SouthIndia, coming either as invaders or as immigrants on a large scale and packing the Sinhalese from these areas to the south. However, there is enough and more evidence of Tamils living in the south and even ruling Sinhalese lands. 90% of the Tamil invaders, immigrants and indentured labourers who were brought to the island by the Portuguese and Dutch, settled in the Sinhalese south and they all over the centuries converted to the Sinhalese identity. In fact, half the so-called present-day Sinhalese are purely descended from these low caste Tamil South Indian indentured labour, who were imported into the island, by the Portuguese and Dutch to do menial service work and to work on the spice estates.
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Rohan25 / October 12, 2021
Until the British amalgamated the island’s Tamil north and east, that had always been separate lands and had even been ruled as a separate colony by the Portuguese and Dutch in 1833 to create Ceylon and then handed the entire island over the Sinhalese majority, with hardly any protection for the island’s Tamil speakers, in 1948, the Sinhalese had no peep into these ancient Tamil lands. Most times it was Tamil kings and dynasties from South India ruling them and not the other way around. This is why most of your upper castes and aristocracy are of South Indian origin. How can the Sinhalese now state the entire island now belongs to them and it is a Sinhalese Buddhist land only when it never was until they took power from the British due to their majority, which itself was a creating of the British in 1833. If the Sinhalese had been ruling the entire island from ancient times and the Tamils were their subjects, then or only arrived recently, then it can be justified but it is not. This is the Hindi speakers in India, claiming India, which is also another artificial creation of Britain, is their land-only and others are outsiders, as they are the largest individual linguistic group. Thank the British that the Sinhalese who until their arrival was being ruled by Tamil origin dynasties and was confined to the south of the island became the dominant ethnic group in the whole island and now using their majority to claim everything is theirs.
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GATAM / October 13, 2021
SL island must be divided equitably into Tamil Elam, Muslim Elam and Sinhala Only Elam and people must be relocated. (Tamil Elam and Muslim Elam can join together if both agree to join or Muslim Elam can join Sinhala Only Elam if both agree.)
That is the only solution for the future. Until then there will be riots, war crimes, terrorism, human rights abuses, etc.
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Rohan25 / October 13, 2021
There are only two ethnicities on the island. Sinhalese and Tamils and from ancient times there have been two nations and homelands on the island. Sinhalese and Tamil. The Sri Lankan Muslims are ethnic Tamil Dravidian immigrants from South India, some with a dash of Arab, who started arriving on the island from the late 14TH century onwards fleeing persecution in their South Indian Tamil homeland, after the fall of the Delhi Sultanate in Madurai. However, the bulk of them only migrated to the island during the early British rule. They have no history of ruling or having a homeland anywhere on the island. They lived and were spread amongst both the Sinhalese and Tamils. Now trying to claim an Islamic homeland in the name of Islam and a cooked up Arab origin, that they hardly have will not work. Strangely that too is only in the Tamil areas, where they share the same language and ethnicity as the Tamils. If you want to claim an Arab origin, that is alien and foreign go and claim your homeland in the Arabian Gulf and not on this island. Cannot have cake and eat it. If you are not an Arab and claim to be indigenous then you are a Tamil Dravidian convert to Islam and part of the Tamil nation and ethnicity.
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Karikalan S. Navaratnam / October 11, 2021
Dayan,
“…..the understandings reached between the Sri Lankan and Indian Government between 1984 and January 1987….” Could you kindly elaborate?
“It can only be achieved on the basis of the defense of the 13th amendment and its full implementation. NO LESS”. You imply, “NO MORE” as well. Don’t you?
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Plato / October 12, 2021
DJ WRITES….
………..That choice was made by those Military personalities in the Srilankan state who had a traumatic memory of Intervention, the Indian Accord of 1987 and the 13th amendment that issued from it……..
Was the Trauma due to the IPKF – LTTE confrontation within weeks of the arrival of the IPKF?
There could have been no trauma. They were comfortably in barracks watching the fun!
The IPKF was fighting the war of the srilankan armed forces.! How could this be traumatic?
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