Dr. Murali Vallipuranathan
Mr. Jonathan Alles
Chief Executive Officer
Hatton National Bank PLC
479, TB Jaya Mawatha, Colombo-10
Infringement of Fundamental Rights of Tamils and Insulting Tamil Culture
We are dismayed to learn that your bank had punished two employees of Kilinochchi Branch for commemorating the deaths of their relatives and beloved ones. Anniversary commemoration of the dead has been an important part of the culture of the Tamils and Sinhalese for several centuries. In fact one of the oldest Tamil moral text Thirukural dated 3000 years back in stanzas 42 and 43 stated the importance of humans to perform their duty towards manes. In this context we see your ill-conceived action against your employees who were involved in commemoration of their dead relatives as not only a grave insult to the Tamil culture but also a serious infringement of their fundamental rights.
Article 14 (1) (f) of the Constitution of Sri Lanka stated “Every citizen is entitled to the freedom by himself or in association with others to enjoy and promote his own culture”. Notably no restrictions are placed in this freedom by any other articles of the Constitution under any circumstances. From the medical point of view commemorating the dead is very important for a grieving person to recover and promote his mental health. In the Sri Lankan context this has become more important especially because neither compensation was given to most of the affected persons nor perpetrators responsible for the holocaust were brought to justice.
Kilinochchi is a place where very large number of residents belonging to this region suffered heavy causalities in 2009. Therefore your bank which intend to promote business relationships with Tamils in this area should have tried to understand the feelings of the people in the area and itself organized the cultural event of commemorating the dead anniversary on 18thMay. Instead of this goodwill action your bank along with irresponsible southern racist media had gone to the level of portraying the peaceful commemorative event as an event sympathizing with the LTTE. We strongly condemn this oppressive action by your bank. I am sure that you are fully aware for several decades Tamils had preferred Hatton National Bank to other state banks for obvious reasons. Now since your action against the Kilinochchi staff is published in the media several Tamils have started closing their accounts and your bank is rapidly losing popularity among Tamils.
Therefore if you wish to continue your business successfully with Tamils in future I suggest the following:
- Reinstate the interdicted officers without delay and pay compensation for the mental suffering and humiliation they have faced by the interdiction.
- Withdraw the statements in Facebook and other media portraying the commemorative event as an event threatening peace and harmony in the country.
- Open apology to all Tamils for your action which had insulted all the Tamils and assurance that your institution will not obstruct participation of your employees in the death anniversary commemoration of Tamil civilians in the years to come in.
If you agree with my suggestions please respond within 2 weeks so that I can publish your response in media and will try my best to minimize the damage to the bank. But if you fail to respond I am afraid that this issue will get escalated by spreading to all the branches in the North and East, local and international human rights organizations, media and become a strong campaign to defend the fundamental rights and the dignity of Tamils.
Anticipating your early response.
Thank you
Yours sincerely
Dr. Murali Vallipuranathan
MBBS, PGD (Population Studies), MSc, MD (Community Medicine), FCCP (SL), FRSPH (UK)
Board Certified Specialist Community Physician
23B4/4, Vanderwart Place
Dehiwela
(On behalf of all the citizens of this country believing in Fundamental Rights, Human Dignity and Equality between races)
Copies to:
- Leader of Opposition, Parliament of Sri Lanka
- Chief Minister, Northern Province
- Chairperson, Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka
Native Vedda / June 5, 2018
Choi Dharmadasa
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“it is not just Mallaiyuren there are heaps of Tamil racists in this forum,”
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Please name them.
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“not a single Sinhalese racist though”
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Please visit your local optician.
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Bineka Venurapolonnowita / June 5, 2018
Mallaiyuran,
Reginald Cooray is useless. He is wagging tail to the whims of racist Wigneswaran. Actually Reginald Wigneswaran’s lapdog. He is dead scared of Sambandhan and Sumanthiran.
Mallaiyuran,
We need a strong Governor who will keep the separatist under control. Unfortunately Sinhalese are cowards. They only know how to wag tail to racist Tamil leaders.
I’m sorry to say this, but this is the truth and I am saying this with utmost responsibility.
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Mallaiyuran / June 5, 2018
Bineka Venurapolonnowita,
I don’t know if Reginald Corey has tail or not to wag to CV, but my guess is Kandy Ayatollahs have a good chance of having their evolutionary tail customized by Mahanama.
Then, is there a chance you meant it was the Ayatollahs, who are wagging the tail because when Reginald try to escaped and run away to Kandy it was the Ayatollahs who captured him and returned to CV?
Did you read my comment, in which I quoted Reginald’s statement, where he had said only it was his wife was scared of CV’s people and even that was in the last assignment?
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Punchi Point / June 6, 2018
Commemorating the dead is a right all humans are entitled to and not specifically a fundamental Tamil right that only Tamils have.
What has happened at HNB is not a commemoration of the dead, but a commemoration of a genocide which never happened. Look at the pictures in the url below. This is not at all mourning the dead or any commemoration of the dead but a levelling of heinous and unfounded allegations against the innocent Sinhalese people and is nothing but an expression of agitation and provocation. This kind of behaviour is inflammatory and is meant to agitate and provoke unrest. The Tamil workers are supposed to have had a prayer and religious commemoration at the Hatton Nation Bank, but look at the first picture and see what they are lighting the lamps for! It is a picture of a woman and boy being killed by the Lion in our national flag. This is a criminal act of insulting a national symbol of a people and a nation. In all civilized countries there are laws against disrespect and abuse of national symbols. Its also against international laws. This Mr. Murali Vallipuranathan who has twisted the issue into a “infringement of Tamil rights ” is in his usual act of producing anti-Sinhalese propaganda. The Tamil fanatics are levelling allegations of genocide against the Sinhalese, but the most funniest thing is that calculating the growth rate since independence the Tamils show over 1.6 times the population growth rate as the Sinhalese, taking the number of Tamils in the asylum diaspora at a low figure of a 1.2 million!! What will be the growth rate if we add these spurious claims of 40,000 to 300,000 “genocided” Tamils? ! ??
Thirukural never said anything about commemorating the dead in this disgusting way. If anything this is also an abuse of the victims of the war and all who died in the war. Why can’t the Sri Lankan govt take action against these people?
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Native Vedda / June 6, 2018
Punchi Point with punchi brain
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Reference link has just stolen your avatar it is an identity theft.
Beware Reference link could steal your partner too.
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Try typing something sensible.
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Reference link / June 6, 2018
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