By Veluppillai Thangavelu –

Veluppillai Thangavelu

Malinda Seneviratne is very sophisticated in camouflaging his racism and majoritarian mindset.  He takes refuge under semantics to play with words, to hide his racism. I want to salute House Leader Lakshman Kiriella for his human kindness and calling for an apology by the Sinhalese knowing well he will be roasted as a ‘traitor among Sinhalese Buddhists’ by the likes of Malinda.

Malinda is accusing the government of harassing and vilifying the intelligent service. He, of course, is referring to the army intelligence unit that operated directly under the former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya’s jurisdiction. The Unit took orders directly from him. And this was the intelligence unit was engaged in abduction, ransom, white-vans and gruesome murders.  It is now in the open that this army intelligence unit was responsible, inter-alia, for the abduction and killing of 11 youths in Colombo and also for the dastardly murder of Lasantha Wickrematunga in broad daylight. Therefore, it comes as no surprise Malinda is crying foul over the arrest of members of the army intelligence unit for crimes committed by them.

Not surprisingly, Malinda takes offense for referring to only Sinhalese extremism and not other extremism of Tamils and Muslims. Anyone with a modicum of intelligence will admit the fact that Sinhala extremism is not the same as Tamil and Muslim racism. Sinhala extremism is unleashed against the numerical minority Tamils and Muslims out of jealousy and imaginary fears. The majority community is led to believe that their prosperity lies in destroying the economic base of the minorities. They ruined the economic base of Tamils through pogroms in 1958, 1977, 1979, 1981 and 1983. They succeeded in their mission. Having finished off the Tamils, their attention is now turned against the Muslims.

It should be noted that there were no attacks against the Muslims during the war against LTTE. The attacks commenced only after the war ended in May, 2009. The reason or reasons are too obvious. Deal with your enemy one at a time.

Malinda thinks he is super clever by drawing a parallel between Sinhala Only with English Only. Is Malinda telling us that the Sinhalese have replaced the foreign Anglo-Saxons invaders? There was English only because both the Sinhalese and Tamils/Muslims were under colonial occupation by the Englishmen.  In a free country, both Sinhala and Tamil should have been declared as official languages instead of Sinhala Only. That is where the racism of the majority Sinhalese comes into play.

Malinda is plain wrong in comparing conditions under foreign occupation with conditions under a free country. Ceylon would not have gained independence if the Tamils and Muslims did not vote for the Soulbury constitution.

Malinda is claiming that there are more holidays for Muslims than for Buddhists and that the number of Christian holidays is four times more than that of the Buddhists. According to him Sundays are working days for the Buddhists and holidays for the Christians! Is there no limit for insanity and paranoia? When we are discussing seriously about the fundamental rights of citizens in a democratic polity, Malinda is displaying petty mindedness and parochialism.

Malinda talks about the contribution of majority Sinhalese verses Tamils and Muslims contribution in achieving independence. This is revision of history with a vengeance.  While the Sinhalese ceded their kingdoms to foreign powers, the Tamils lost their kingdom by fighting the Portuguese on the battlefield. It was none other than the Ponnambalam brothers who pioneered the Ceylon independence movement. It was the Jaffna Tamils who demanded ‘poorana Swaraj’ (Total independence) in 1930.

Even it is conceded for argument sake, the contribution of the majority Sinhalese outweighed the contribution of the Tamils and Sinhalese that is no reason why the majority community should now lord over the minority communities.

In a democracy there is no majority or minority communities, all citizens are equal before law notwithstanding their ethnicity, religion or language. This is not the case with Sri Lanka. That explains why there was a violent war and violent clashes.

Malinda suffers from chronic racism by claiming the superiority of the majority Sinhalese in all facets of life.  I have a question for him. How come you have to wage a protracted and destructive war in a Buddhist country? Is not the LTTE a creation of Sinhala racism? Is not Prabhakaran a war hero for the majority of Tamils even now? Is it not a fact that the Tamils hate the presence of the ‘victorious Sinhala army’ who continue to occupy their lands and exploit their resources? Soon after the war was over, Mahinda Rajapaksa proclaimed that he had liberated the Tamils from the clutches of the LTTE terrorists. If this is indeed true, why did the Tamils vote en masse against Mahinda Rajapaksa ending in his ignominious defeat?

When Nazi Germany was liberated by the allied forces the German people thronged the streets to welcome the allied forces with flowers, bouquets, and garlands! But where are the flowers, bouquets, and garlands for the liberated Sinhala army in the North and East?

Of course, there is a border between the North/East and South. The government itself spoke of protecting Sinhalese border villages from attacks by the LTTE like Manal Aru (Weli Oya) in the Vanni district.

There is no comparison between Wijeweera who wanted to capture power by assembling a rag-tag and ill-equipped and untrained armed men, whereas Prabhakaran raised a conventional army and fought a conventional war. He fought to regain the Kingdom his forefathers ruled. He, in fact, ruled 80% of the North/East for well over 26 years!

Finally, after playing with words and twisted arguments he boldly or pathetically claims he want apologise as wanted by Kiriella. That comes as no surprise at all knowing his past.

Yes, he want apologize like Kiriella because you suffer from Mahavamsa mindset the superiority of Sinhala race.

As a flag bearer of Sinhalese racism, he will continue to treat the Muslims as men of evil life, not more to be deemed than beasts. A typical Mahavamsa mindset of the likes of Malinda.