By Dayan Jayatilleka –
Sri Lankan civil society intellectuals and commentators who support the new dispensation are making the same mistake as Francis Fukuyama did, but in a far more facile and therefore far less forgivable form. When the Cold War ended, Fukuyama famously posited the End of History. It was crudely misunderstood to mean that history as a narrative had arrived at a terminus, which is not at all what he meant. Fukuyama had used a Hegelian flourish to indicate the liberal democratic capitalism has triumphed over all other competing ideologies as a paradigm of how society should be ordered.
While there was much more to what he said than what his ignorant critics thought, Fukuyama was wrong in his general prognosis, in his own terms too. Dr. Henry Kissinger’s latest book on World Order is precisely about the competing (regional) visions of how the world should be ordered, and how those competing visions stem from different historical, civilizational, cultural and ideological matrices, or what Dr. Kissinger calls in the volume’s subtitle, “The Character of Nations”.
In Sri Lanka today, cosmopolitan civil society is on a delusional high. Not for the first time it is going against the grain of ‘the character of the nation’. Its neoliberal ideologues and opinion makers are certain that the End of History has arrived and ‘liberal democratic pluralism’ has triumphed. The Sinhalese have reached a stage of enlightenment that has seen the back of the old Statism and is conducive to reaching out to the Northern Tamil nationalists in refashioning the Sri Lanka political order. The Southern nationalist-populists have been marginalized and their hero Mahinda Rajapaksa is strictly a has-been with a minor band of malcontents. The SLFP is safely in the hands of Chandrika and her proxies. The decades-old order of the strong Presidential state is about to end. A new liberal democratic capitalist order, with a quasi-Westminster model is about to be born. Accountability shall be achieved according to international standards. The UNP and the SLFP shall move hand in hand, under the joint auspices of Ranil and Chandrika, beyond the 13th amendment and towards federalism. China will be shown the door as we reincorporate ourselves as subordinate, peripheral unit in the Western-dominated world order and in an Indo-US dominated regional one.
In fairness it must be said though that Fukuyama was rather regretful about the defeat of the Communist challenge and the victory of liberal capitalism because the Nietzschean in him lamented the end of the age of the heroic ‘wars over ideas’ and the arrival of the individualist consumer; the flea-like last man. The Sri Lankan liberal optimists actually applaud the end of the heroic age and the exit of heroic personalities.
Sri Lankan civil society intelligentsia is suffering from a classic case of false consciousness, in which, as Marx said, “men and their circumstances appear upside down as in a camera obscura”. Its Fukuyama-ist fantasy has begun to come unstuck with the Northern Provincial Council’s political stridency beginning with the landmark Genocide resolution. This signaled the salience of the grim realism of Daniel P. Moynihan (‘Pandemonium’) and Samuel Huntington (‘The Clash of Civilizations’) in place of Fukuyama’s bittersweet optimism.
Three battles are looming over: (A) the 19th amendment and the hypertrophy of the Prime Ministership at the expense of the elected Presidency (B) the call to move beyond the 13th amendment towards federalism and (C) the Geneva OHCHR inquiry on Sri Lanka’s internal war, the new Foreign Minister’s ‘open door’ to the UN Working Group on Involuntary and Enforced Disappearances and his promises of externally “assisted” domestic mechanisms on accountability.
These are but expressions and reflections of contradictions over basics: (I) which political order for Sri Lanka, (II) which center-periphery relationship and Social Contract within the island nation (III) which placement within the world order. The coming parliamentary election is the crucial, but perhaps only the most visible battleground.
Judging by their silence, most neoliberal pluralist commentators think that the political discourse behavior of the Northern Provincial Council and its Chief Minister constitute no big deal; it all amounts to a molehill out of which a mountain shouldn’t be made. Let us, however, get things in perspective. A moderate mainstream Northern Chief Minister successfully moves an 11 page resolution alleging ‘historical and recent genocide’ against the Tamils, committed since 1948 by successive Lankan administrations, and continuing to date. He moves the resolution not against a populist administration of neoconservative bent but precisely on the watch of a new, more moderate Sri Lankan government, having studiedly refrained from doing so under its hawkish predecessor.
Thus a moderate Tamil leader moves an outrageously immoderate resolution under a moderate Government, alleging genocide under all previous governments including moderate ones– and Sri Lankan moderate commentators, here and overseas, do not think it means that something is seriously amiss about mainstream Tamil politics.
The sad truth is that the Sri Lankan moderate intelligentsia does not stand up against political immoderation when it comes from the North; from the Tamil nationalist side. They shriek blue murder from the rooftops when the immoderation or radicalism is sighted in the South. This is not a recipe for an alliance of moderates; it is the appeasement of extremism by moderates. This is no alliance of moderates; it is instead an alliance of ostriches with their heads buried in the sand or of the deaf, dumb and blind monkeys.
My liberal critics cannot understand where I am coming from. I belong to a very old theoretical tradition or more accurately a confluence of two old traditions, one, the Realist-Statist, extending at least from Thucydides, Kautilya and Sun Tzu through Hobbes to Lenin, the other, the Heroic-Messianic-Romantic, from Homer through the Old Testament through to Mao, Fidel and Che.
These two paradigms are akin to the dichotomy which Leo Strauss wrestled with: ‘Athens’ and ‘Jerusalem’. With Carl Schmitt as his wrestling partner, he would develop this idea into the twin paradigms of ‘political’ and ‘theological’.
To my mind both traditions are predicated on or yield as a composite, the assumptions that the world is a dangerous place, that communities and countries have threats based on geography and deducible from the long sweep of history; that there is such a thing as Evil; that existence is a struggle, battle, a war even; that there are causes worth fighting for.
These two great traditions are informed by the categories of ‘friends’ and ‘enemies’. These are not incidental or accidental but quite basic to the framework. It has nothing to do with conspiracy theory. In his World Order, Dr. Henry Kissinger condenses the perspective of Kautilya, the Asian founding father of one of the two traditions I belong to, that of Realism: “…Its moral basis is identical with that of Richelieu who lived nearly two thousand years later: the state is a fragile organization, and the statesman does not have the moral right to risk its survival on ethical restraint”. (p.195)
When Sun Tzu says “know yourself, know your enemy; a thousand battles, a thousand victories”, that is where he is coming from. When Lenin queries “Who-whom? Who prevails over whom? Who wins?” and Mao picks up Sun Tzu a millennium later, posing the question “Who are our friends? Who are our enemies?” and foregrounding the category of ‘antagonistic contradictions’, they are continuing in that same tradition.
Sri Lanka has real enemies. The core and majority of this island nation, the Sinhalese—let me say it again, the Sinhalese – have real enemies, and they aren’t the Tamils or the Muslims. (In fact had I been Muslim I would definitely have voted against Mahinda Rajapaksa.) But there is a (Pan) Tamil secessionist project and a Western geopolitical hegemonic project which are inimical to Sri Lanka and to the Sinhalese.
Given the geography and history of this island state, there are three fundamental challenges and one fundamental vulnerability from which the country has to be protected. The three fundamental challenges are:
- To protect the island from expansionist impulses from South India, the source of destructive invasions throughout its history.
- To prevent the breakup of the country through the breakaway of its North-Eastern periphery which is adjacent to South India and therefore subject to the gravitation pull of ethnic kinship.
- To safeguard the distinctive political identity and destiny, independence and sovereignty, of this island vis-a-vis its giant neighbor as well as from the global North, the source of three colonial incursions.
These three challenges must be seen against the backdrop of the basic vulnerability of this country, namely the combination of its island nature and its size, which makes for lack of defense in depth. It is this vulnerability that Prince Dutugemunu lamented when his mother Vihara Maha Devi asked him why he was sleeping curled up rather than comfortably relaxed. He replied that he could not do so because he felt hemmed in by the Indian Ocean at his back and the Tamil Kingdom before him. That is the quintessential statement of the existential situation of the Sri Lankan state—its lack of defense in depth and the complete unaffordability, especially given the ocean at its back, of permitting a separate, adversarial or potentially hostile Tamil power center in the North of the island.
The Sinhalese are the core and main force of resistance to the breakup of the island state as well as hegemony over it. It cannot be accidental that there wasn’t a single sword raised or shot fired in anger against the British colonialists in the North for one and a half centuries, by the Tamils—who had for millennia, no compunctions about going to war with their Sinhala neighbors and sacking their kingdoms, destroying a fine civilizations. The utter absence of Tamil rebellion against British colonialism is a point that Emeritus Professor KM de Silva, past President of the Association of the Historians of Asia, has made more than once in his scholarly writings. It is also not accidental that liberal-pluralists do not mention that fact in their potted revisionist histories.
It is the duty of the intellectual, most especially the political thinker, to man the watchtower, or less martially, the lighthouse. My perspective is not a search for enemies, still less an invention of them—it is merely recognition of their existence and the threat they pose. It is a refusal to be lulled or to purvey falsehoods and tranquilize the masses or the nation. It is a refusal to go along with the psychological warfare of the enemy; to play the game, however unwittingly of the enemy. It intersects with the task of the class of Guardians in Plato’s hierarchy, albeit transposed to the intellectual plane.
Plato’s allegory of the cave has the figure of the individual who escapes from the cave, sees the reality of the world outside but returns to the cave to inform the other prisoners in the cave of the way things really are. We may observe a distinction between those who never leave, never escape, and those who do but never return. The true intellectual is one who escapes and returns, even (as Plato points out) at the cost of a risk to one’s life. This is roughly analogous to Nietzsche’s figure of Zarathustra who has a cyclical movement of removing himself to his mountain cave and then leaving it and descending into the market place. In Sri Lanka, the crucial segment of the intelligentsia is not comprised either of Category I, namely those who never leave the cave, or Category II, namely those who were never inhabitants of it or who never come back, but precisely of Category III: those who escape and return. They are also those who make the Nietzschean climb to the solitude of the mountain top and then down to the crowded public square in the valley below.
simon / March 19, 2015
DJ instead of National why dont you call it Sinhalese intelletia ?
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Thiru / March 19, 2015
Exactly, there is no such thing as a Sri Lankan nation in the minds of people: There is a Sinhala nation, a Tamil nation, Muslims, Christians and others.
Did any political leader inculcate the notion of Sri Lanka to the different communities by agreeing on common norms?
DJ, we don’t need high flown rubbishy theories and writings of others: You can keep them with your academic circles for amusement.
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Off the Cuff / March 19, 2015
Dear Thiru,
I do not agree with most of the stuff that Dayan states but the following extract from his article is a home truth that cannot be ignored.
“A moderate mainstream Northern Chief Minister successfully moves an 11 page resolution alleging ‘historical and recent genocide’ against the Tamils, committed since 1948 by successive Lankan administrations, and continuing to date. He moves the resolution not against a populist administration of neoconservative bent but precisely on the watch of a new, more moderate Sri Lankan government, having studiedly refrained from doing so under its hawkish predecessor.
Thus a moderate Tamil leader moves an outrageously immoderate resolution under a moderate Government, alleging genocide under all previous governments including moderate ones– and Sri Lankan moderate commentators, here and overseas, do not think it means that something is seriously amiss about mainstream Tamil politics.”
What do you have to say about it?
Kind Regards,
OTC
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Anpu / March 19, 2015
OTC,
“A moderate mainstream Northern Chief Minister successfully …”
Tamil Genocide is a fact.
Have you watched the video?
http://nofirezone.org/sinhala-version https://vimeo.com/122325601
http://hrbrief.org/2015/01/the-legal-case-of-the-tamil-genocide/ and the report http://hrbrief.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Legal-Case-of-the-Tamil-Genocide_30-December-2014.pdf. “The Preamble to the Rome Statute provides that one of the core goals of the Statute is to end impunity for the perpetrators of the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole, which “must not go unpunished.”[92] The post-war situation in Sri Lanka cannot be called ‘post-conflict,’ as it reflects a deteriorating human rights situation with rampant government abuses. The very purpose of the Genocide Convention and later efforts after the Rwandan Genocide, are under threat so long as the international community fails to hold the perpetrators accountable for the bloody armed conflict in Sri Lanka. Impunity will inevitably breed further injustice, which has been demonstrated by recent assaults to the remaining Tamil population. Members of the international community have acknowledged that genocide took place in Sri Lanka and several have called for an independent investigation. Government officials from Australia,[93] Canada,[94] the United Kingdom,[95] and India,[96] as well as Tamil MPs in Sri Lanka[97] have requested an investigation into Sri Lanka’s genocide. International human rights advocates[98] and organizations[99] have similarly called for such an investigation. The obligation to prevent and punish genocide under the Genocide Convention is not a matter of political choice or calculation, but one of binding customary international law. The Office of the High Commission on Human Rights’ Investigation on Sri Lanka (OSIL) should investigate and report on the charge of genocide in its submission to the UN Human Rights Council in March 2015. The UN Security Council should refer the situation in Sri Lanka to the International Criminal Court for prosecutions based on war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Alternatively or concurrently, domestic courts in countries that may exercise universal jurisdiction over the alleged events and perpetrators, including but not limited to the United States, should prosecute these crimes. Top Sri Lankan officials, starting with President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, must be brought to justice.”
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Siva Sankaran Sarma / March 19, 2015
Oh dear! Has Callum and his dog & pony show fallen so low and grown so deperate for publicity that they need the likes of Anbu plugging them on CT :D
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Native Vedda / March 19, 2015
Wee Thamihz Senior Journalist D: Siva Sankaran Sarma Menon
Read David Blacker’s treatise on Muslims, Muslimness, …… etc. Now you have found a soldier turned philosopher. David has raised few philosophical questions and expects your answers. David needs you.
Does Islam Provide a Stronger Identity than Sri Lanka does?
Recently I’ve begun to notice once more a particular sort of post cropping up on my Facebook timeline, most often posted, “liked”, or shared by one of my FB friends. Almost all of these posts are by Sri Lankan Muslims (most of my Muslim friends are Sri Lankan); almost, I say, because the rest are by non-Muslim social workers or activists who are generally anyway more interested in this particular topic than most. The event that seems to have sparked this flurry of posts is the ongoing escalation of the conflict between the state of Israel and the Palestinians.
The posts are almost exclusively of a religious bent, lamenting the fate of Palestinian Muslims being brutally attacked (or ignored) by non-Muslims and calling on God to protect these people in particular, and Muslims all over the world in general. Earlier this year, and at various times last year, there was a storm of similar posts about Muslims in Syria. Of course, there were also posts about Aluthgama, but that is hardly something unusual since it was an event right here in Sri Lanka.
Now, I’m not going to get into the circumstances of what’s happening in Palestine and Syria; who is right or wrong, the three dead Israeli children, the fact that a significant minority of Palestinians are Christian, or that a lot of the killing being done in Syria is in fact by Muslims themselves. I have my own views on both conflicts (as do most of the people posting), but they are irrelevant to this post. One thing that is clear is that none of us really know much about what’s going on over there and aren’t really interested. So why are my Muslim friends posting about it?
A few years ago, it wasn’t unusual for Muslims in Colombo and elsewhere in Sri Lanka to be out on the streets in protest, or picketing a western embassy, whenever the US invaded Iraq or Afghanistan or bombed Libya or something like that. This has completely stopped of late, which is understandable given the threat Muslims face right here in the country; Sri Lankan Muslims no longer feel safe enough to show solidarity with other Muslims. Clearly, however, that isn’t true on the internet, and Sri Lankan Muslims feel more at ease giving their opinions and protesting certain things without the actual physical danger they would face on the street from nutjobs like the Bodhu Bala Sena (BBS).
Clearly, Sri Lankan Muslims don’t like the fact that other Muslims are being harmed. But they are more incensed by the fact that these people being endangered are Muslim than that they are Palestinian, Syrian, Iraqi, or whatever. We don’t see the same level of outrage when Muslims like Saddam Hussein kill Kuwaiti Muslims, or when Hizbollah or Islamic Jihad kill Israeli children, or when the Saudis execute Sri Lankan Muslims. Clearly, Sri Lankan Muslims identify with other Muslims worldwide, but mostly when they are in conflict with, or under attack by, non-Muslims.
So I think it is safe to say that Sri Lankan Muslims are identifying with the Muslimness of those people rather than the circumstances they find themselves in. I find this a bit annoying because it reminds me of the knee-jerk reactions of Tamils in Toronto and London who allowed their Tamilness to overrule other considerations. Sri Lankan Tamils in the diaspora certainly felt more Tamil than Canadian or British, and that led to their protests about what was happening in Sri Lanka. So do Muslims feel the same? Do they identify with a global Islam that has a stronger identity than that of being Sri Lankan? Certainly, Sri Lankan Christians (I mention them simply because they are the only other Sri Lankan ethnicity with a global presence) don’t view conflicts around the world through a religious lens or, if they do, identify enough with those warring parties to take any action. There were no Christian protests about the Yugoslavian conflict, or various wars in Africa. You don’t see Christian protests outside Arab embassies when an Islamic terror group targets a western (Christian) country.
Now, I want to ask my Muslim friends whether you realize that what you are doing is setting yourselves apart in the eyes of other Sri Lankans; it is making us feel as if you are more interested in what is happening on the other side of the world than what is happening right here; that you are immersed insomething the rest of Sri Lanka is not. At a time when it is important for Sri Lankan Muslims to reinforce their Sri Lankanness, and avoid being labelled outsiders, is this what you should be doing? Or do you feel that your solidarity with Muslims worldwide is more important, more identifying, than your Sri Lankanness? I’m not making a judgement here or suggesting what you are doing is right or wrong; I am simply looking for answers. I hope to hear from you soon. Thanks for reading.
https://blacklightarrow.wordpress.com/
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gamini / March 19, 2015
David Bl,
Why are you still hiding under Siva Sankaran’s Sarama? Get ready to accompany your Bosses to the Hague to face the charges come September. You can reveal what you stated on CT as to how you derived pleasure fornicating mutilated dead female bodies. Bloody SOD! you will get your just deserts. Assured!
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srilal / March 19, 2015
Gamini ,
Don’t forget David Blacker publicly admitted ( in Ground view) committing war crimes , it is on record ,so he can’t deny it now . only consolation he has now is , twisting & turning what he really meant !
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Leelawathie / March 19, 2015
He has lost his balls long back now. Now we are all clear he is behind SSS:
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sach / March 19, 2015
Native Vaddha who hides behind a neutral mask, picks up what Siva Sankaran sarma says but intentionally misses Anpu says…:) interesting isnt it?
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Siva Sankaran Sarma / March 20, 2015
Not sure why I would, but if I ever need a sample of LTTE We Thamizh whose arses have been kicked up & down by me and/or David over the past few years I can just look here :D Still braying and screeching in agony – must have been some hidings you got :D
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Native Vedda / March 20, 2015
Wee Thamihz Senior Journalists D: Siva Sankaran Sarma Menon
“We Thamizh whose arses have been kicked up & down by me and/or David over the past few years I can just look here :”
Hence David has turned himself into a philosopher king. The pain was too hurting. I am told pain is a liberating force. David has indeed realised (awakened) and liberated himself from mundane life of arse kicking.
Gone are the days he believed in
“To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first, and call whatever you hit the target.”
Ashleigh Brilliant (Ashley Brilliant)
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Native Vedda / March 20, 2015
Wee Thamihz Senior Journalists D: Siva Sankaran Sarma Menon
“We Thamizh whose arses have been kicked up & down by me and/or David over the past few years I can just look here”
Whaaaat, When, Where, How, Why, …………
Did you also kick yourself on your arse?
Interesting.
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Thiru / March 21, 2015
Shiva shiva shiva shambho mahadeva,
Siva Sankaran Sarma, you have earned your rating with all your rants .
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Off the Cuff / March 19, 2015
Dear Anpu,
Please don’t bring TRASH as evidence to a discussion.
CH4 showed the entire PTK Hospital, the ONLY hospital under the control of the LTTE, in their Trashy film.
Not a SINGLE LTTE Cadre Dead or Injured was seen in it.
Perhaps they were immune to SLA fire and only the Civilians got injured. Does not explain why they got annihilated and lost.
Re “The Preamble to the Rome Statute ….”
Please explain the following
Rome Statute, Article 8, War crimes
2(b)(xxiii) Utilizing the presence of a civilian or other protected person to render certain points, areas or military forces immune from military operations; (page 7)
This is what is known as a Human Shield
Please now refer to the UNSG’s POE report,
237. Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions: Credible allegations point to a violation of Common Article 3’s ban on the taking of hostages insofar as they forced thousands of civilians, often under threat of death, to remain in areas under their control during the last stages of the war and enforced this control by killing persons who attempted to leave that area. (With respect to the credible allegations of the LTTE’s refusal to allow civilians to leave the combat zone, the Panel believes that these actions did not, in law, amount to the use of human shields insofar as it did not find credible evidence of the LTTE deliberately moving civilians towards military targets to protect the latter from attacks as is required by the customary definition of that war crime (Rule 97, ICRC Study)
The Rome Statute does not require “MOVEMENT” where as Darusman and company does. The UNSG”S POE has CORRUPTED THE ICC LAW in order to EXONERATE the LTTE.
When the LTTE is exonerated those who financed the LTTE gets automatically exonerated.
Thus Mr. Darusman, Ms. Yasmin Sooka and Mr. Steven Ratner would have had a very compelling INCENTIVE in order to risk corrupting International Law.
Think about it.
Kind Regards,
OTC
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GamaKolla / March 19, 2015
OTC, If you have any reason to call the C4 evidence is ‘TRASH’ then let’s hear about them. Instead you shout about how evil LTTE was. The factor that LTTE was evil and used civilians as shields is included in the C4 documentary. So instead of shouting about LTTE how about trying to back up your ‘TRASH’ claim with facts?
Once you are done with it, let’s hear what facts you have to back up your ‘Compelling Incentive’ claim. Next time it might be worth checking your facts instead of making Off the Cuff remarks.
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Off the Cuff / March 19, 2015
Dear GamaKolla,
I have given one of the many reasons. Please read it and contest it.
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GamaKolla / March 20, 2015
Really? If so how about giving me the line numbers of the start and end of your ‘One of many reasons’ so that I can see which one of that huge body of irrelevent statements you believe to be a valid reason for your claim ? And since you are now claiming you have more than one reason feel free to add in the others as well. :-) By the way you seem to have ‘forgotten’ my second question about backing up your ‘‘Compelling Incentive’ claim as well. :-) (If that is also included already then please give me the line numbers of those too :-) Judging by the amount of typing your have done you can’t be too busy for that can you? Unless you are one of those people who love to make claims but start running scared if confronted with simple logical questions?
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Off the Cuff / March 20, 2015
Dear GamaKolla,
Perhaps you skipped the first two paragraphs!
Read it and come back with your observations. Since you seem to have problems even in understanding 4 lines of English, to prevent further confusion, I have deferred referring you to the rest of the reasons.
My post to Anpu MAINLY discusses the UNSG’s POE, who used the CH4 as evidence. If you plan to continue this discussion I will be referring to the POE report.
I have provided extracts from the Rome Statute and that of the UNSG’s POE report. Please study them carefully, compare them and let me know what your conclusions are.
Then we can discuss my conclusions and yours.
Re “Unless you are one of those people who love to make claims but start running scared if confronted with simple logical questions?”
I don’t see any logical questions that you claim to have made in you challenge to me.
Logic seems to have deserted you because you can’t see the significance of the absence of LTTE cadres from the only hospital that was under LTTE control in the War Zone.
Don’t count your chickens before they hatch. We will see who starts running for cover as time passes.
BTW you seem to be a firm believer in the CH4 Trash.
Since you are a man of Logic you would have your reasons.
Please state those reasons for record, before we proceed.
Kind Regards,
OTC
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GamaKolla / March 20, 2015
OK
Since I probably have less free time than you, I am going to focus the point and ignore all the irrelevant ‘noise’ coming from you
Here are the first two paragraphs
“Please don’t bring TRASH as evidence to a discussion. CH4 showed the entire PTK Hospital, the ONLY hospital under the control of the LTTE, in their Trashy film.”
“Not a SINGLE LTTE Cadre Dead or Injured was seen in it.”
Let’s see if I get your argument
A) The film does not show even one ‘LTTE Cadre’ in the ‘ONLY hospital under the control’
B) The film is ‘Trash’.
Is that your argument? If so and if “Logic hasn’t ‘deserted’ you”, how about trying to enlighten me by explaining your logical deduction from A to B? Giving me a direct answer unless you find the question too uncomfortable to deal with directly :-)
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Off the Cuff / March 21, 2015
Dear Gamakolla
I requested you to state your reasons as to why you find CH4 videos believable before we proceed.
You have not done so. Is it difficult to do?
Ha haa don’t rate yourself so high, you have not been able to pose any difficult questions to me yet. Perhaps you may be able to do so in the future.
Kind Regards,
OTC
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GamaKolla / March 23, 2015
OTC,
So you chose to run scared instead of facing my question.
I like your statement “you have not been able to pose any difficult questions to me yet.” :-)
Then I wonder what is stopping you from answering the question?. One reason the C4 seems believable to me is that people like yourself, who make desperate attempts to discredit it , run scared when faced with simple questions like this. If you can answer mine, then we can talk about any other question you want to ask me. But judging by the speed with which you are running scared, I don’t expect you to take up the challenge. Happy running!
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Off the Cuff / March 23, 2015
Dear Gamakolla,
If you cannot see the significance of the absence of LTTE casualties in the only hospital under LTTE control in a war zone you are obviously an idiot.
Though the significance has escaped your small mind it would not have escaped an intelligent reader.
Where were the LTTE injured treated and by whom?
In ditches by medical armatures when a hospital staffed with doctors and support staff were at their disposal?
Kind Regards,
OTC
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Siva Sankaran Sarma / March 20, 2015
OTC,
What you’ve been saying all this time has also just been confirmed by actual experts in international law. The UNSG’s panel of jokers has some explaining to do :D
“While a distinction may be drawn between the facts in Mladic, where the accused individuals were placing protected persons in strategic areas, and the instant case, where the LTTE were merely entering NFZs where civilians were already heavily concentrated, this distinction is not legally relevant. As Blaskic noted, Geneva Convention IV, Art. stands for the premise that even the mere presence of protected persons cannot be used to render a military target immune from attack. In other words, a belligerent who hides within an area with high concentrations of civilians is committing the crime of Human Shielding even if the belligerent party is not ‘actively placing them into a location. Furthermore, there are numerous reports of LTTE holding UN personnel and their families hostage in the NFZs in order to prevent or make difficult any counter attack by the SLA; facts which are nearly identical to those which the Mladic court relied upon in its determination of the sufficiency of the indictment against the defendants for the crime of Human Shielding.”
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Anpu / March 21, 2015
SSS,
“just been confirmed by actual experts in international law”
Who are these actual experts?
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Native Vedda / March 21, 2015
“Who are these actual experts?”
Professor David M. Crane
Sir Desmond de Silva, QC
Advisory Council of Experts
What the international experts say (3)
‘WAR CRIMES IN SRI LANKA’
March 18, 2015, 12:00 pm
Opinion to the Commission from Professor DM Crane and Sir Desmond de Silva, QC re.
http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-
details&page=article-details&code_title=121568
Please note it seems
Wee Thamihz Senior Journalist D: Siva Sankaran Sarma Menon is not part of the panel of experts. Or is he?
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Native Vedda / March 21, 2015
Wee Thamihz Senior Journalist D: Siva Sankaran Sarma Menon
I am sure you know that expert panel is not a good place to hide.
Is it your secret ambition to spin war criminals into believing the panel of experts report is the best place to hide, a sort of strategy to disarm the war criminals and charge them when they are least prepared.
Brilliant.
Why haven’t the Tamihzs thought about it? They are really stupid aren’t they?
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Off the Cuff / March 21, 2015
Thank you Siva I found the source. Glad to see my opinion vindicated by someone else.
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Off the Cuff / March 22, 2015
Dear Siva Sankaran Sharma,
I can see that you are having running battles with dogs snapping at your feet. Keep your cool and don’t allow them to drag you down to their level. They can only bark but not bite as they have lost their teeth. A hard hitting civil response is much better. The objective should be to expose the lies to the larger audience, to scuttle the propaganda these fools write.
You should know your opponent and the exchanges here would help you do that.
https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/honourable-prime-minister-of-bharath-we-seek-justice-fair-play-wigneswarans-full-speech/comment-page-1/#comment-1797420
https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/honourable-prime-minister-of-bharath-we-seek-justice-fair-play-wigneswarans-full-speech/comment-page-1/#comment-1797943
https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/honourable-prime-minister-of-bharath-we-seek-justice-fair-play-wigneswarans-full-speech/comment-page-1/#comment-1797952
https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/honourable-prime-minister-of-bharath-we-seek-justice-fair-play-wigneswarans-full-speech/comment-page-1/#comment-1796873
https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/the-great-neighbour-tilts-lessons-in-geopolitics/comment-page-1/#comment-1799156
https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/the-duty-tasks-of-the-national-intelligentsia/comment-page-1/#comment-1800142
Have fun.
Kind Regards,
OTC
/
justice / March 19, 2015
[Edited out]
Please write instead of posting web links – CT
/
Thiru / March 19, 2015
Off the Cuff,
Only truth shall set Tamils free:
Being at the mercy of a new president, who may or may not turn out to be another racist will not grantee Tamils freedom from Sinhala Buddhist oppression.
What happened to the surrendered LTTE carders begging for mercy from the Sri Lankan military commander Mahinda?
Maithri was Mahinda’s defense minister acting for Mahinda during the final stages of the war when most atrocities occurred.
Furthermore, Maitri has said that he will not remove the oppressive army from the north-East.
The learned justice Wiggie is only relying on the time-tested principle:
Truth shall set Tamils free:
/
Pena Kiyanna / March 19, 2015
“Only truth shall set Tamils free”, Moda Thiru says.
In that case, resign yourself to the eventuality that Tamils will never be free, for they lie about persecution and genocide!
/
Thiru / March 19, 2015
Give Tamils freedom or death – genocide of Tamils is not alien to you, is it?
/
Off the Cuff / March 20, 2015
Thiru
Re “Give Tamils freedom or death ”
How BRAVE!!!
Why did you run away when Prabahkaran was using Tamil children in the Fight to get that freedom?
You could have had your wish by serving Prabahkaran.
Too much of a COWARD to do what you are advocating now?
/
Off the Cuff / March 19, 2015
Dear Thiru,
Re “Only truth shall set Tamils free:”
But except for a handful of Tamils others don’t tell the Truth.
Re “Being at the mercy of a new president, who may or may not turn out to be another racist will not grantee Tamils freedom from Sinhala Buddhist oppression”
You have not proved the Sinhala Buddhist oppression. Please do so from the Time the Colonial govt oppressed the Sinhala by stealing their land and altering the demographic landscape of that land by settling Alien Tamils in numbers that exceeded the total Indigenous Tamil population of Lanka.
Today there are over a million Landless Sinhala peasants in penury due to that. Who stood in the way when they were being resettled in uninhabited Forrest Land developed for the purpose by the govt? Tamil Politicians or someone else?
Re “Furthermore, Maitri has said that he will not remove the oppressive army from the north-East”
He said that BEFORE the Tamils voted for him.
If that was a problem why did the Tamils vote for him?
Are you trying to imply that the North and East are not part of Sri Lanka and the SL security forces have no right to be there?
Re “What happened to the surrendered LTTE carders begging for mercy from the Sri Lankan military commander Mahinda?”
Those who surrendered are still alive including the female LTTE terrorist leader Tamilini. Former terrorist leaders Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan
Douglas Devananda and many others are all living because they gave up arms in time.
The question is why the Tamil Diaspora did not force Prabahkaran to release the Tamil Civilian Hostages that he held as a human shield? Why instead of doing that you guys went on death fasts while tucking into Fast Food on the sly, Blocked western highways waving a sea of Terrorist Flags encouraging Prabahkaran to play for time and wait for the Indian elections in the hope that Tamil Nadu will be the King Maker in Indian Politics?
Western countries pushed by their Tamil voters started pressurising the SL govt to please their Tamil vote bank. No one pressured Prabah to release the Tamil Civilians. No one pressured Prabah to lay down arms and surrender. All of you were waiting for Tamil Nadu to be a King Maker in India.
You knew that the SL govt could not wait that long and allow a repeat of the Parippu Bombing to give Prabahkaran another lease of life as in 1987. The only option available for Prabahkaran at that point of time was to lay down arms and surrender not bide time waiting for the deadline to pass. The deadline was not of Lanka’s choosing but not one that Lanka could allow to expire.
Yet you played Politics with the Lives of Tamil Civilians and is now questioning the deaths of Terrorists who were killed in the heat of battle because they are alleged to have been surrendering? Any proof of them doing this without waiting till the eleventh hour?
Re ” The learned justice Wiggie is only relying on the time-tested principle”
That principle that you are writing about is what the Tamil Politicians of old practiced, which led to a 30 year war.
The “Boys” of the TULF decimated the TULF leadership which postulated “Exclusively the Homeland of the Tamils” theory in this multicultural land.
Kind Regards,
OTC
/
Aia / March 20, 2015
Re “Only truth shall set Tamils free:” But except for a handful of Tamils others don’t tell the Truth.
The popular quote this week seems to be: The immediate Ex President says good governance must be reinstated.
And, the subjects follow what their king practices. If this saying is valid, a good number would lie, but not all. “Those who surrendered are still alive” doesn’t tell the whole truth that you know. Even some insiders have started relating as to what had happened for those surrendered with white flags. That might be the culmination of the necessary prove required for….the intent. I think you are defending the undependable. But, I admire your time and effort and sooner these matters sorted, we all in the island can have a fresh life.
/
Off the Cuff / March 20, 2015
Dear Aia,
Your argument is not clear.
If you are using anything that I have written please copy them within your comment and indicate that it is a quote from me.
I would prefer that you make clear references instead of parables and kings and queens.
Re “And, the subjects follow what their king practices. If this saying is valid, a good number would lie, but not all”
That is simply rhetoric.
You have to prove it is valid first.
You cannot come at conclusions assuming it is valid.
Kind regards,
OTC
/
Thiru / March 21, 2015
Off the Cuff,
You have given yourself a befitting name simply because you are always talking off the cuff: Facts, reasons or even common sense have parted with you long ago.
What a pity such individuals also belong to this world.
Animals are graceful because they don’t pretend to be rational!
/
Off the Cuff / March 22, 2015
Dear Thiru the self proclaimed rational scientist,
I decided on my pseudonym to allow dumb imbeciles like you to pick on it. It helps me to pick out the rare Rational thinkers from the dime a dozen, abundant and plentiful Morons who write to these blogs.
The Rational Thinker would focus attention on the subject matter because he/she will have facts at their command.
The irrational Morons would instead, focus on the Pseudonym as they are devoid of facts and have been checkmated by my comments.
Take you as an example. You have been reduced to the level of an ILLITERATE Prostitute, throwing obscene tantrums, raising their clothing to expose the genitalia on the street.
You have no counter to the Facts I have presented to the CT readership.
You are no match for ANYONE with access to Factual Information.
Now please retire and lick your wounds and take time to think things through BEFORE you decide to challenge anyone with tripe like what you have written in your previous comment.
Got it Thiru?
Kind Regards,
OTC
/
Burning Issue / March 19, 2015
OTC,
I understand as to why some people have issues with this contentious resolution. However, people must put themselves into the shoes of the Tamils and try to understand as to how they feel.
The struggle for the Tamil quest for recognition of their nation has been going on for 60 years with bloody episodes. We do not have to agree on as to what precipitated the ethnic polarisation between the Sinhala and Tamils. We have had endless discussions about this subject. Let’s leave this aside and view the issue logically.
The Tamils have seen and encountered policies and practices that have been directly impacting their lives and being thrust on them without consultations or due processes democratically speaking. Their manifold peaceful attempts to reconcile were met with contempt and ridicule. Basically the Tamils feel grossly wronged at the hands of the majority and being accused of insubordination.
The Tamils voted in numbers to dislodge the MR regime and this does not means that everything is rosy. As far as the tamils are concerned their struggle goes on regardless of who is in power until there is a meaningful and genuine dialogue between the protagonists. The genocide resolution is as a result of them wanting to express their deep feelings, and it should be taken as such and not to be construed as a devious plan for separation. I think that the current regime has played their cards right on this issue and rightly so. The Tamils are seeking help from outside because, they feel they have exhausted all avenues with the Sinhala. The Sinhala can put this right and it is in their hands!
/
Burning Issue / March 19, 2015
President Sirisena:
https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/despite-what-we-say-we-are-all-like-crabs-in-a-boiling-pot-of-water-president/
“The President, in a very strong and emotional speech criticized certain aggressive and racist statements made by some SLFP MPs in public rallies and to the media as he described them as ‘primitive statements’ and warned them to prevent Sri Lanka from being pushed into another war.”
So basically DJ is primitive! I completely agree with the president. In fact, in the history of Sri Lankan politics, no Sinhala leader has ever publicly made such a powerful statement. Bravo!
/
Off the Cuff / March 20, 2015
Dear Burning Issue,
Re “people must put themselves into the shoes of the Tamils and try to understand as to how they feel”
I was watching the World Cup quarter finals and I saw and heard the National Anthem being played. I had mixed feelings and felt the sadness of a Tamil who was witnessing the performance. It was certainly not inclusive and needed to be revised with a Verse in Tamil set to the same tune. That would then be Truly a National Anthem in the real sense of the word. A verse in English would make it better.
I wrote the above which was my feeling at that time to show you that most Sinhala are with the Minorities in a just struggle. Where humans are equal and not unequal, where your aspirations meet the others aspirations midway. where you do not encroach on the rights of the other, where what you ask is not denied the other.
Respecting the tone of your comment I have refrained from bringing up any issues.
Re “Basically the Tamils feel grossly wronged at the hands of the majority”
What the Tamils don’t realize is that the Sinhala feel the same way. They too fell aggrieved when demands are unjust.
Re “The Tamils voted in numbers to dislodge the MR regime” .
True and so did a minority of the majority despite the specter of separatism that was MR’s ONLY campaign platform.
If this genocide resolution came before the election, it would have guaranteed a 3rd term for MR. CM Wigs would be under a military governor and would be having running battles with the Tamil Lady Secretary of the NPC. Minister Douglas Devananda would be ruling the roost and that would have gone on for 8 years and 2 months.
Hence the Tamil politicians should have built the confidence of the Sinhala who kept faith with the Tamils and disregarded the Separatist cry of MR without spitting in their face by accusing them of Genocide which the Tamils know did not happen despite the riots and the 1983 pogrom that occurred due to short sighted politicians on both sides.
The background to the Genocide resolution is CM Wig’s NPC election campaign where he played to the Tamil gallery by hailing the Megalomaniac terrorist Prabahkaran as a Great Hero. While that short sightedness got him support from the previously critical Jaffna newspapers, Uthayan and Sudar Oli to achieve high preferential votes for himself, Wig’s concurrently increased MR’s following which enabled MR to get 5.8 million votes.
Thus the Tamils should have recognised the turning Sinhala Opinion that was moving away from the fear of separatism despite CM Wig’s antics and Mr’s Campaign of impending separatism.
This minority of the Majority was far greater in number than the Tamil vote and if 5% defected to MR, he would have won. The Genocide resolution would have already made more than the 5% to choose MR again. If MR comes at the next election and the Tamil politicians don’t change this confrontational course, we will have to deal with MR again.
Kind Regards,
OTC
/
Burning Issue / March 20, 2015
OTC,
The North and East regions are demarcated predicated on the original boundaries that delimit the regions. Hence, the population ratios are secondary to the equation. What needs to happen is to promote the envisioned trilingual concept vigorously. In time, it does not matter as to where people live, as languages will not inhibit their civic dealings. This should be the long-term objective with which we should view the devolution demands.
You mentioned about the National Anthem and your mixed feelings about the total exclusion of the Tamil language. It is not just the National Anthem but also many other premises where the Tamils Speaking people are contemptuously excluded. The Flag, the Anthem, The Police Force, The Armed Forces, The government correspondences to name a few. From the Tamil perspective, they simply swapped the colonial power from the English to Sinhala! The Sinhala justified their actions with contentious history and numerical superiority.
There is no denying that there were sovereign states within Sri Lanka pre-colonial period. Up until 1838, there were 3 administrative regions. Hence, the polorisation along the ethnic lines already existed with clearly demarcated boundaries. The single administration did not precipitate movement of peoples en-mass. There was no need for people to learn each other’s language because of the English language. So at the dawn of implementing the Language Policy Bill, there should have been mature consultations with consideration for the Tamil speaking people in the context of nation building. This did not take place; the Tamil speaking people were expected to take it or leave it. This is why we are in this situation. It is because of these type hegemonic unilateral approaches, the Tamils in particular cling onto their demography and language and feel as if they have been completely alienated.
I understand the need for the Sinhala to reinvent themselves and achieve a semblance of balance in terms state resources that was perceived to be inimical to the Sinhala due to lack of English speaking administrators. I understand all their grievances. It was the duty of the state to ensure that such matters are handled sensitively and justly. But contrary to democratic norms and in particular to common sense the successive governments cared two hoots about the insignificant minorities. This was because, SWRD, as MS pointed out, used the Language policy to establish a government solely on the votes of Sinhala Buddhists. Once the Sinhala Buddhists became the king makers, there was no chance for moderation and as a direct result, the minorities suffered.
The need of the hour is to establish good governance with a just Constitution and policies ensuring that all are stakeholders.
Genocide claim has indeed raffled some feathers among the Sinhala. Judging by what MS said in a recent meeting:
https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/despite-what-we-say-we-are-all-like-crabs-in-a-boiling-pot-of-water-president/
the OISL Report sounds extremely damaging to both SL and the previous regime. I will not be surprised that, the report deems the killings amount to Genocide! Whether the time was right or not, one has to think that the Tamil people feel their losses on each passing day with no closure in sight. We can debate about the mandate of the NPC and their audacious action to publish such a document. But what it manifests is that, they have gone past caring as to the reaction of the Sinhala people they are placing their entire weight on the International Community and India. What is conspicuous here is the total failure of Sri Lanka as a nation and nothing else. Intransigence is embodied within the psyche of the Sinhala leaders and people alike when it comes to the Tamil Question; this is what it shows load and clear.
The Tamil leaders have unambiguously and categorically stated many a time that they will settle within a united Sri Lanka. The west made it abundantly clear that, a solution must be found within the nation-state. The immediate neighbour, India echoed the same repeatedly. So, I see no inhibition to reaching consensus as to a viable solution. Hence, obviously, the stumbling block is the Sinhala nation; the Sinhala nation is not ready or unwilling to acknowledge that the Tamils in Sri Lanka constitute a nation that need to be accommodated equally with a democratic power sharing arrangement. So, I therefore conclude that the ball is at Sinhala side of the Sinhala to mull over!
/
Off the Cuff / March 23, 2015
Dear Burning Issue,
Re “The North and East regions are demarcated predicated on the original boundaries that delimit the regions”
Which “ORIGIN” are you writing about?
When Lanka had 3 Sinhala Kingdoms Ruhunu, Maya and Pihiti?
Or the period 1412–1597 when Lanka had only one Sinhala Kingdom, the Kingdom of Kotte?
Or the Time of the Portuguese when Lanka had 3 Kingdoms, Jaffna Tamil Kingdom and the two Sinhala Kingdoms Kandy and Kotte?
Burning, you are just making unsupported and unsupportable statements simply to avoid issues. I have no desire to disown Tamil Heritage but you should not disown Sinhala heritage either.
Let’s look at another Tamil View.
Quote
“It is widely accepted that there was an independent Jaffna Kingdom in Sri Lanka until 1619 when the Portuguese ended it for good. From the Portuguese, subject to a few complications, it went to the Dutch and thence to the British. Similarly there were two other independent kingdoms in the island, namely the Kotte Kingdom and the Kandy Kingdom.”
Unquote
Thomas Johnpulle writing to the Sri Lanka Guardian.
Writing further he says,
However, when Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) gained Independence in 1948, the recipient of Independence was one country.
What is strange about this is there was no significant movement to gain separate independence for the Jaffna Kingdom. There were very weak movements to demand it but these quickly died down. Had Tamil intellectuals from Jaffna demanded that the old Jaffna Kingdom be granted independence separately from the rest of the country, Britain would have considered it favourably. Apart from India and Pakistan, there are plenty of other examples.
On the other hand there were loud demands from Tamil politicians. The infamous 50:50 demand is one example which was outright rejected by the British as it would give Tamils (worded Tamil speaking people) an unfair advantage at the expense of the Sinhalas. It led to protests and the boycott of the first ever election in 1931 in some areas in the north.
So why wasn’t there a movement to gain independence for the Jaffna Kingdom?
The answer lies in economics!
The Jaffna Kingdom was a very small area that didn’t even cover the Northern Province by 1619. Trincomalee was under the Kandy Kingdom as per historical accounts. Given its worth for trade and shipping, the Portuguese and the Dutch tried various appeasement tactics aimed at the Kandy king hoping to use it but to little help. Robert Knox was arrested by the army of the Kandy Kingdom when he landed there. Therefore there is little doubt that Trincomalee was not part of the Jaffna Kingdom. There aren’t any contrary evidence anyway.
On the western part, it is on recorded history that the present Madhu church was located in the Maddu area at the mercy of the Kandy king. Obviously it was a substantial distance from the boundary of the Jaffna Kingdom. Otherwise Tamil Catholics would not have agreed to it as it would have been unsafe and it would not have survived Dutch hostility.
These facts leave only a small area apart from the Jaffna peninsula for the Jaffna Kingdom. That too was in most part heavily underdeveloped by the 20th century.
Unquote
The above read together with the Dutch record confirming that the Kandyan Kingdom’s Territory reached up to Elephant Pass (http://www.atlasofmutualheritage.nl/en/location/?id=813)on the Eastern Seaboard of the mainland leaves no doubt as to the smallness of the Tamil Kingdom.
Therefore, the “Original” boundaries are not the current provincial boundaries.
The narrative of Mr Johnpulle continues.
‘Even today apart from a few places, the rest remain hopelessly underdeveloped in Vanni. The total area of the then Jaffna district that included modern day Kilinochchi administrative district was 2,309 square kilometres. The rest of the old Jaffna Kingdom would have been a few more thousand square kilometres of vastly undeveloped area subject to a few townships. No one of the right mind was going to demand Independence for this area as it would be an economic calamity.
On the other hand, during the Dutch and British periods, Jaffna population grew fast. Rapid migration of Tamils from South India during the Dutch time for its plantation industry is considered a major reason. By 1953, just 5 years after Independence, the Jaffna (mainly Tamil) population was 492,000. This means a population density of 213 persons per square kilometre. This is extremely high as the country’s population density was just 123. In other words, Jaffna district population density in 1953 was 1.7 times higher than the island-wide density!
According to 1946 population data, it would have been 177 persons per square kilometre for the Jaffna District and 96 persons per square kilometre for the island. (Source- Census of Ceylon) Therefore it didn’t make sense to demand the returning back of the old Jaffna Kingdom to its “owners” as there would be a massive and calamitous resource crunch.
Also by 1948 Ceylon Tamils comprised 35% of the public service. Had the old Jaffna Kingdom were to gain independence, many of such opportunities would have been lost as it’s area only needed just a fraction of them. This would have been a disaster for the very high population depending on government jobs. Also there was a serious lack of other industries in the area aggravating the situation.
This led to the demand of “Tamil Homelands” which encompassed an area of 19,000 square kilometres. This is more than three (3) times larger than the Jaffna Kingdom! And it also included areas of very high commercial value such as Trincomalee, Mannar, Batticaloa and Ampara.
None of these was part of the Jaffna Kingdom when it fell to the Europeans. And hence an undoing of the taking of the Jaffna Kingdom would not have given them enough land which was essential for the economic survival of the people of Jaffna by the mid 1900s.
This is how the tiny Jaffna Kingdom grew exponentially to “Tamil Homelands”. And this is why the British were not agitated to undo the taking of the Jaffna Kingdom.
In 1922 the area encompassing the north and the east of the island was termed “Tamil Eelam” by Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam – undoubtedly one of the most educated Ceylonese at that time. The one island, two nations concept gathered momentum over the years in the guise of discrimination (although discrimination did take place to a significant extent). But most miraculously it was the Tamil Eelam demand that was (and is) seen as the solution to discrimination by those who promote it! This is bizarre. There is no logical connection between the “Tamil Homelands” concept and solving Tamil grievances.
The plan was not to make the demand from the British for the reestablishment of the status quo of the Jaffna Kingdom but to extort a much larger area from subsequent rulers based on a new set of “reasons” that can be applied and manipulated beyond the tiny old Jaffna Kingdom. This is how the tiny Jaffna Kingdom mysteriously grew to “Tamil Homelands”, a landmass more than three (3) times larger.
Had they demanded independence for the old Jaffna Kingdom instead, it may have been granted. But it would have been in total calamity as it lacked resources for its very large population and had heavily underdeveloped areas. However, the journey towards “Tamil Homelands” was a horrible mishap and it has reached its bloody end without it in sight. It was a wrong decision.
There is a third way which is about preserving the island nation of Sri Lanka in one unit where people of all races live in harmony and where there is neither a Jaffna Kingdom nor “Tamil Homelands”. We rejected the Jaffna Kingdom in favour of much larger “Tamil Eelam” in early 1900s. A century later, we must reject “Tamil Eelam” in favour of Sri Lanka which is more than three (3) times larger with ample room to roam. There is no other way.
End quote
Land is the source of life and sustenance. Eighty percent of Lanka is PUBLIC land. It is the Birthright of ALL of us. No single entity has the right to deprive the others of that Birthright.
What could be done is to excise unpopulated areas from the NP, EP and NCP to create a Territory governed by the Central Govt. There are such territories in India and the USA. There may be more in other countries.
This central govt territory can then can be used for development and if that development involves a scheme like Gal Oya then the irrigated Land so opened up should be used to settle the Landless first. Like the million plus landless Kandyan peasantry whose lands are now occupied by the plantations and the million Indian origin Tamils.
This will leave a NP with a Tamil majority and an EP with a Muslim Majority who will be in control of their own destinies politically and economically. And the Rest of Lanka will not feel Cheated as is the case now.
Lanka should be a place where humans are equal and not unequal, where your aspirations meet the others aspirations midway. where you do not encroach on the rights of the other, where what you ask is not denied the other.
Kind Regards,
OTC
/
K.A Sumanasekera / March 20, 2015
Wonder how Vellala Wiggie survived successive Genocides to become a Judge, not a Municipal but a High Court Judge?…
/
Burning Issue / March 20, 2015
K.A Sumanasekera,
Have you heard about Villala Banking System? I have not heard about this concept at all. Since you are an expert on everything about Villala I thought you would know. I ask this because one ramone theresa fanando claims that tamils use this system to.undermine the Sinhala Buddhists. Please help me out on this if you can.
/
Native Vedda / March 20, 2015
K.A Sumanasekera
Long time no see.
Are you alright?
I am worried about your mental state than your physical health.
Are you still looking for a job? Ask Ranil, he might fix you at a top bank.
/
backlash / March 19, 2015
Thiru,
If you will allow me, there were and are for millennia only two nations in this Island – of the Sinhala and the Tamil races. Muslims and Christians, you refer to, are religious dispensations although we are all aware that the enterprising Muslims, more in recent times, want it both ways.
Backlash
/
Off the Cuff / March 19, 2015
Dear Backlash,
Wise observation.
The Christians are Sinhala, Tamil and Euromix of them.
The Muslims are Sinhala and Tamil mixed with Arab traders.
Thus you are largely correct in your observation except for small populations of Malays etc.
Kind Regards,
OTC
/
mj / March 19, 2015
If this world is dangerous place to live, go to mass ! Spain doctor. People like you and MARA are the ones create all the trouble in the world.
/
Crazyoldmansl / March 19, 2015
Because this sick stuff has NOTHING to do with the sinhalese INTELLIGENTSIA or any INTELLIGENTSIA. No INTELLIGENTSIA will be party to this UGLY call to permanent war.
This DJ wants to be responsible for a continuous “Heroic” war against the “WEST”; which is a war against everything civilized and “good”. He wants a government of “Heros” and what do his “Heros” do? They kill, kill, kill,kill! and they steal, steal, steal, steal. And they allow torture, torture, torture, torture and the allow kidnapping and they allow rape.
These are the “Heros” he wants us to be ruled by and the old and dying know well from where comes this worship of “heroism” by which he has been fathered and to whom he continues to be a dutiful son. BUT there must be an end to this mongrel behavior that is based on the borrowing from books that have stirred up a fertile imagination fathered by the last “Heros” who seek immortality in their sons who sleepless are driven to drag on the wars of their fathers whose acknowledgement some say may lead them to rest.
Those who want peace and joy and happiness must mount the eagle of their delight and drive into the desert this jackal of the night,
/
Amarasiri / March 19, 2015
DJ,
“DJ instead of National why dont you call it Sinhalese intelletia ?”
Correction:
DJ instead of National why don’t you call it Para- Sinhalese intelligentsia, in the Land of Native Veddah Aethho.?
National IQ Scores – Country Rankings
http://www.photius.com/rankings/national_iq_scores_country_ranks.html
Countries are ranked highest to lowest national IQ score.
Rank
——– Country
———————– %
————-
1 Singapore 108
2 South Korea 106
3 Japan 105
28 Sri Lanka 79
The intelligence scores came from work carried out earlier this decade by Richard Lynn, a British psychologist, and Tatu Vanhanen, a Finnish political scientist, who analysed IQ studies from 113 countries, and from subsequent work by Jelte Wicherts, a Dutch psychologist.
/
Wickramasiri / March 19, 2015
Regardless of Fukuyama, Marx, Engels, Richlieu, Kissinger, Tsun Tzu, Kautilya, and so many others quoted to highlight the dangers of statecraft in the modern world, and criticize the present government, what did the previous dispensation under Mahinda Rajapaksa do? They enriched themselves at our expense, Mahinda Rajapaksa included. What was Mahinda Rajapaksa behind the mask of geniality? He was a cruel man, revengeful, had no sympathy for the poor, extravagant when it came to himself, his family and sycophants, ignorant, pompous, dishonest, manipulative, and a pretender of the first order. What did he do to safeguard Sri Lanka from all threats alluded to in this article? Nothing. Thankfully we the people are free of that monster.
/
Native Vedda / March 19, 2015
Wickramasiri
“They enriched themselves at our expense, Mahinda Rajapaksa included.”
You are being cruel to Mahinda.
As before whatever he inadvertently (as you say)grabbed from the state/people he will give it back to the people later.
Remember he not only vanquished LTTE but reclaimed the Sinhala/Buddhist ownership of the entire land.
Please stop insulting him.
/
Burning Issue / March 19, 2015
Wickramasiri,
I am sorry, you must be an disconnected expat to form such a view about the hero Mahinda Rajapaksa. If you have written an article in this theme of yours, DJ will respond with assassinating your character; he will ask questions to the effect, what do you know about SL?
On top of your assessment of the previous regime, which I completely agree with, do you see any credence in his portrayal of the so called Tamil Expansionism? Is this real? How can India entertain such an activity allowing Tamil Nadu to act unilaterally? Tamil Nadu is not at all interested in such an idea; there are only handful of insignificant individuals talk about Sri Lankan Tamil issues. Sri Lankan Tamil issues have never been a make or break political platform within the TN state dynamics. Moreover, the Tamils of Sri Lanka will not want such a union; it was never on the cards. The LTTE fought the Indian army; their aim was to create a sovereign state, which had been utterly decimated with help from primarily India and the rest of the capitalist countries that Dayan lament about.
So then one has to ask as to why Dayan is doing this; it is crystal clear that he loathes Ranil Wickramasinghe; he has made his contempt and hatred publicly liberally in the past. This is the only contention that is driving him expediently and recklessly using the Race Card! This mad is unscrupulous and dangerous; the paradox is that, he is utilising the freedom of expression that the current progressive government espouses to attack the liberal ideas by propping up the tyrant MR who curtailed freedom of speech wilfully under his watch! This is like Angim Chawdhry attaching the western values using the very concept of freedom of speech!
/
sach / March 19, 2015
As I always guessed this Burning Issue fellow is an extreme level idiot. He asks how can there be tamil expansionism when Indian gover does not allow TN to act unilaterally….
What an idiot!
/
Burning Issue / March 19, 2015
such,
I do not mind being classed as an idiot by you as I think you are a moron!
Tamil Nadu is a state within India and not a sovereign state. It cannot decide on the foreign policy of India. Do you have the mental capacity to understand this basic concept? Tamil expansionism if there is such a concept, it will be totally inimical to the security of India let alone Sri Lanka. Please grow up!
/
sach / March 19, 2015
I dont think you can understands…let me try again, creating false imaginative history and basing political strategy on it is tamil expansionism.
/
Burning Issue / March 20, 2015
such,
You have been caught with your pants down; you are just trying to brazen it out with uttering nonsense! Who is an idiot now?
Why don’t you ask DJ as to exactly what he meant by Tamil Expantionism? You are just a cheap bigot just like DJ!
/
Native Vedda / March 20, 2015
Burning Issue
What is the difference between an idiot and a moron?
/
rajjeeva / March 20, 2015
comparing the count of the thumps up and thumps down Both of you get, it is obvious what the general readership thinks. Sad!
/
Native Vedda / March 19, 2015
Burning Issue
“do you see any credence in his portrayal of the so called Tamil Expansionism?”
Dayan the war monger sees enemies in every nook and corner except over his pillow. He is probably confused with Hindian expansionism to that of Tamils prosperity in Tamil Nadu and elsewhere. Perhaps he is afraid of Hindians or still working for them, being proud of shaking their hands.
He has nothing constructive to say.
“its lack of defense in depth and the complete unaffordability, especially given the ocean at its back, of permitting a separate, adversarial or potentially hostile Tamil power center in the North of the island.”
Has he been appointed as a sales representative of global arms merchants/manufacturers?
/
Crazyoldmansl / March 19, 2015
Indian Expansionism not Tamil. Even if it is maintained that all Tamils are Indian – for which Piraphakaran will kill you – all Indians are certainly not Tamils.
/
sach / March 19, 2015
still he is better than traitor RW and MS
/
Native Vedda / March 21, 2015
sach
“still he is better than traitor RW and MS”
Did you mean VP is better than RW and MS?
However you wrote you voted for MS. If true why?
/
Kettikaran / March 19, 2015
I am afraid our friend Dayan J, having lost on all fronts, tries to keep his head above water in the political landscape by a valiant effort to confuse the readership and, simultaneously, be in the eye of the reading public so that he is not considered unworthy of the proximity and confidence of his former employers – the Rajapakse family. Is he readying himself in the unlikely event of a Rajapakse return. That it is beyond belief and the former King himself is fastly becoming irrelevant and a non-entity appears more likely with the prospect of not having even a Party to make his bid from.
DJ is now deep in that game usually resorted to by political and academic has-beens.He is engaged in confusing and befuddling the readership quoting from Thucydides, the Bible, Marx, Lenin, Mao, Gramsci to Che, Fidel and more. Here be brings in Fukuyama and Huntington to be in tune with the American scholarly brigade – just in case a Harvard stint may be in the cards as the fire-eating LSSPer Bala Tampoe was tempted with in his days.
Fukuyama’s End of History is not as puzzling as DJ tries to portray.
In explainin umpteen times on US television channels, Fukuyama said what he sought to convey was the democratic (or Republican system) is the last and best method by which people chose the government they want – as opposed to the previous one which was one in which Kings held sway. This, to a large extent is true, except in recent years and particularly in developing countries, we find those who come to political power on the popular votes are more diabolical. These thieves cannot be dislodged easily once they make it to the saddle “in the name of the people” Until recently we had a large dose of this in our own land. This is India’s tragedy. I single out India because she is the largest, fastest growing economy – now able to feed her billions – but burdened by a democratic system of a one-man-one-vote tragedy that is an obstacle to this giant country realising her true potential. In a recent comment I mentioned Fukuyama, in this background, will have to rethink what he called the End of History.
There is much the once-liberal Dayan can do to the country’s good – aided by his remarkable learning and analysis. But sadly, he disappoints us having deliberately chosen the extremist path. Does he, like the unabashed political animal, place his eggs in the basket of the 75% majority Sinhala Buddhists for this personal fortunes discarding ethics, morality and liberalism. That principled journalistic giant Mervyn de S will heave a deep sigh at the choice of some members of today’s academic community who clearly value their personal good to that of the wider community they should ideally be serving.
Kettiran
/
Jango / March 19, 2015
Wickramasiri – Poor Dayan has selective myopia, so don’t be so hard on him. He has yet to concede that MR was even one of those things you say he was. According to him, most of us are on a “delusional high”, but the recent statement of MR calling for “good governance to be reinstated(!!) and for revengeful politics to be done away with” must be the height of delusion on the part of his hero (having excelled in both areas)! Yet his myopia will not allow him to see that.
Have pity on the poor guy – he’s more delusional than he can ever imagine.
/
Buring Issue / March 19, 2015
It is sad that this guy has turned into conflation of Anagariga Dharmapala and Duttagammunu. He wants to be the champion of Sinhala Buddhist bigot of the 21st century!
The Tamil expansionism is a none starter and he knows that. His only real contention is prime minister RW; he is prepared to use the race card to strike a blow on the current progressive political force. He has convoluted anything and everything to make his cheap point.
In my view this man is a threat to national security and ethnic relations; if he is allowed to carry on like this and successfull we will revert to dark ages and see break of the state!
/
Sengodan. M / March 19, 2015
BI,
You are on the spot. In DJ’s imagination, South India is a separate country, which it will NEVER, ever be one! The second challenge that he lists above flows from the flawed first challenge. The so-called ‘threat’ from the giant neighbour and the global North are once again, nothing but figments of his imagination!
Sengodan. M
/
sach / March 19, 2015
Yes, when Modi intervene in SL affairs, it is a figment of imagination.
/
Javi. / March 21, 2015
“”when Modi intervene in SL affairs,$$$
Gobsmacked??
Ha Ha Ha ha ha ha,
the mm empire strikes back and hard at that.
Chk it out with gota he was trained MSc more sh*t at Nadu.
He got the latthi kaffi & She (Jai) got the moor_u 3 times a day.
Buru donkey eeelam (islanders) all immigrants by Genome.
The American President elect never rules but the Hidden Hand.
Sonia the Un_hidden ruled over India not Manmohan Singh the Pakistani born Surd.
Modi rules- with Martha Rule (accustomed to several PM’s (chiefs to the king in the Plateau as the Empire)
What can the eeelam (island kalla_thoni/hora_oru agro plantation boys do??
the tea first came from China then planted at Dargeling nusery and transfered to Lanka same as the tooth relic of Indian- you can’t spit at India and worship at the same time- the right wing government the Japanese will kick ar*e- they and Modi are buddies with cash- to kill.
You should do Nothing stay in your pen not the sea or air just cluck cluck kikkli sach and lay eggs. 46 C no to 21triple.
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sach / March 19, 2015
what is wrong with Anagarika Dharmapala and Dutugemunu? They were real heros that stood for their country fighting invaders? What is wrong with that? Isnt it a part of history that should shed light on our future? Just because Tamils in SL lack anybody that can be called a national leader who stood against enemies of SL we cannot forget ours.
There is nothing wrong in analysing and acknowleding the threats and challenges faced by one’s country. The wrong is in acting dumb and deaf at the face of such threats to appease the enemies.
/
Native Vedda / March 19, 2015
sach ooooooooooooo
Great history lesson.
Please update/educate us with stories of all your national leaders.
“There is nothing wrong in analysing and acknowleding the threats and challenges faced by one’s country.”
Ultimately you will find out that the stupid Sinhala/Buddhists are the real threat to this island. You don’t need enemy when this island is endowed with people (21 M of them who sit on their brain)like you.
/
sach / March 19, 2015
Idiot where are you racist tamil behind Vaddha face when the racist Tamils bring anti SLn resolutions, when tamil barbarians massacre sinhala kids? Then you lie low.
Sinhala are the real patriots in SL. It is ONLY them that defended SL against external threats. Go and learn history before asking others to learn it. You dont know a single thing about SL. SL has been unfortunate to have such traitors like you in her soil. Curse on your whole existence and your kids!
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Native Vedda / March 19, 2015
sach
“when tamil barbarians massacre sinhala kids?”
That is the kind of wisdom the stupid Tamils and the stupid Sinhalese/Buddhists share.
The Sinhala/Buddhist started it in 1958 and copied by Tamils later on. The JVP terrorists taught the LTTE terrorists how to terrorise the island in 1971. The LTTE followed their DNA sharing Sinhala brethren.
What is the problem? Perhaps Ponnambalam Arunachalam?
/
sach / March 19, 2015
So JVP terrorism justifies the LTTE kiddie terrorism! Isnt that what you say? Sinhalese killed SInhalese so it is ok for tamils to kill sinhalese even in the most barbaric manner!
So in the same way, Tamils killed Tamils and therefore it is totally ok for Sinhalese to kill tamils!
/
cholan / March 19, 2015
he he he Sinhalease are real patriots??????
Where are they when this land was occupied by forces from poverty India ?
All these cardboard patriots were hiding under the bed and hugging their wives….it was the Tamils who challenged the poverty Indian army can you deny this cardboard Patriot ????
Shame still dancing for the 2009 May fake,borrowed,artificial ,victory achieved with the help of 36 countries .under the help of poverty India .is this your patriotism?????
This DJ is in pathetic situation this is why he is flaming racism ..eventually going to burn himself..
/
Kettikaran / March 19, 2015
Sach,
During Thustagamini’s time, there wasn’t much difference between the so-called Sinhalese and Tamils. They had the wisdom to live in harmony, to a large extent, together. Inter-marriages were common and respected. Those wars at that time
within and outside the present boundaries of the island were those of conquests, pillage and what have you – which was the
norm by which rulers were changed.
Kettikaran
/
sach / March 19, 2015
The fact that you had to write meaningless sentences repeatedly shows you have no idea on SL history
/
Native Vedda / March 20, 2015
sach
“The fact that you had to write meaningless sentences repeatedly shows you have no idea on SL history”
Have you?
/
Vibhushana / March 19, 2015
Wingeswaran and others in the TNA is presently going ballistic concocting new Tamil grievances.
Sri Lanka used to take out the frustration of these “Tamil moderates” by bashing Tamils in Colombo. Although now I think people have begun to realise the reality. This is how the Tamil moderates behave when an election looms.
Tamil moderates actually do not do any work in their electorates. If they did and complain blue murder then there will be a cause for concern.
The NPC gets the largest allocation of funds from all the PCs. Although only 2% has been spent indicating they are just twiddling thumbs up there. They have nothing to show to get re-elected.
They probably also suffer from the same weakness Prabakarakan had. They behave like coffin makers. They only get business when there is conflict. The moment conflict stops they become redundant. That scares them most than anything else.
/
Anpu / March 19, 2015
Vibushana,
“The NPC gets the largest allocation of funds from all the PCs. Although only 2% has been spent indicating they are just twiddling thumbs up there.”
Could you please provide any evidence?
Thank you
/
Anpu / March 20, 2015
It looks like only 2% of Vibushana’s brain is working.
/
sach / March 19, 2015
There are no tamil grievances. only aspirations!
/
taraki / March 19, 2015
..and they are moderate in their moderation.
/
Native Vedda / March 19, 2015
taraki
“..and they are moderate in their moderation.”
They are stupid just as their stupid brethren and you are one among the 21 million of them.
/
Off the Cuff / March 19, 2015
yes unbelievably moderate to claim an EXCLUSIVE Tamil Homeland in their election manifesto.
/
sach / March 19, 2015
The so called Jaffna kingdom was started by Indian vassal state and demolished and taken by the Portugese. That is similar to Portugese parts in SL being taken away by the Dutch. But the Portugese did not stay in SL and demand a Portugese homeland in SL.
The Tamil claim is similar.
/
Native Vedda / March 21, 2015
sach
“The so called Jaffna kingdom was started by Indian vassal state and demolished and taken by the Portugese.”
Are you sure Jaffna Kingdom was not created by British for their Tobacco farmers whom they imported from South India? Its almost like Hashemite Kingdom, House of Saud, Zamindars of India, …. The British empire created House of Aryachakravarti …..
/
Vanguard / March 19, 2015
Dear Dayan
Before the usual rant of ‘racist-chauvanist-intellectual-pigmy’ rants start, let me comment:
The three Fundamental Challenges will be met, I believe by most if not all parties:
(1) Neither the UNP nor SLFP will allow the ‘expansionist’ actions, though the UNP may be more have a more their liberal like approach
(2) Neither the UNP or SLP will allow a breakup of the country to happen.
(3) Again I think we can safeguard our nation to some extent, unless under R2P which no longer applies.
People make mistakes and the powerful political forces involved are prone to even more mistakes. Powerful does not mean ‘all powerful’. You must be aware of the allegations against America for having tried ‘regime change’ in Israel? The world’s superpower could not pull that one off could they?
Let’s not forget that India and Sri Lanka fought for their independance, and made the Colonial Enterprise unprofitable.
We could fight again – maybe even India could be an ally against the muderous North?
/
Native Vedda / March 19, 2015
Vanguard
“Neither the UNP or SLP will allow a breakup of the country to happen”
Find out from Hindians whether they want two countries in one island. Hindians decide, Tamils and Sinhalese obey.
All because racists, crooks, criminals, …… have been allowed to rule this island since independence.
/
Vanguard / March 20, 2015
Native Veda:
No nation can fully subjugate another nation, not forever. Remember the India-Lanka accord? The IPKF?
If we come up with an acceptable solution, India will agree. Given what has gone on in Sri Lanka over the past 65 years you can understand why India, and the Diaspora Tamils are concerned.
The solution is for the JHU and the TNA to be able to come up with an agreement and shake hands on it – that is the solution.
One hope is that Extremists are honest about where they stand.
/
Alahakoon / March 19, 2015
This man announces that Sinhalese has Real enemies. Has this man ever thought the ugly possibility of “could Sinhalese be real enemy of some other group of people”.. how ugly is this man’s thinking.. I am glad that SL has only two of this class of people, DJ and Mahindapala.
/
Off the Cuff / March 19, 2015
Dear Alahakoon,
There are over a million landless in the hill country who lost their lands when the British confiscated the Lands they tiled. These Lands are now plantations and homes for just under a million Indian origin Tamils (aliens at one time).
How do you propose to solve that issue given the TULF’s “Exclusively the Homeland of the Tamils” claim?
Kind Regards,
OTC
/
Kettikaran / March 19, 2015
OTC,
Can it not be argued the British brought Indian labour, allegedly due to the unwillingness of Sinhala labour to face the arduous dawn to dusk work in the Tea hills. These men and women coolies
turned Wasteland in the hills to what they became over the last two centuries – verdant, profit-yielding Tea plantations that substantially contributed to the national exchequer for all developmental work then to now. It is also likely many of the native Sinhalese did not seek employment as they had their own land, adequate we learn, for sustainable cultivation.
Look at the example of Australia. If not for the white farmer the great Australian continent, where aborigines lived in small groups all over, would not have become the bread basket of the world. So is the story of the Americas – North and South. Isn’t this the process of history throughout earlier times and which should be understood in a wider context.
Kettikaran
/
Siva Sankaran Sarma / March 19, 2015
Well then, We Thamizh should not be complaining that land is being taken away for massive development projects – after all these projects do make a slightly bigger contribution to the economy compared to a We Thamizh catching a guppies from a watering hole for a traditional fry up or potting around on acres of wilderness growing a few gingelly plants :D
/
Native Vedda / March 20, 2015
Wee Thamihz Senior Journalists D:Siva Sankaran Sarma Menon.
The country needed large quantities of Thala Thell since Wimal Weerawansa started using it.
Great Quotes found in David Blacker’s blogg-Conscience. Wee Thamihz should appreciate David Blacker’s contribution to philosophy.
A professional soldier was a fool if he second guessed what he did in the heat of the moment. He was twice the fool if he permitted another person to act as his conscience. And he was an absolute idiot if he answered to that conscience.
— Henry Zeybel. Gunship
A soldier’s conscience which recognizes only the order and the exigencies of the moment…
— Michael Hoare. Mercenary
When you have a problem ask yourself two questions. First, can you do anything about it? Second, do you really care? If you can’t honestly answer yes to both questions, screw it.
— Henry Zeybel. Gunship
He’d vowed never to return… His time with the SAS had been one of the most challenging, and exciting, periods of his life, but it had also changed him forever. It was above and beyond being a soldier: the SAS had taught him to kill, and part of that training had been a dehumanizing programme which left him with a cold, hard place where his conscience used to be. It was only after he’d left the Regiment that he’d realized what he’d lost. What they’d taken away from him.
— Stephen Leather. The Long Shot
https://blacklightarrow.wordpress.com/conscience/
/
Javi. / March 21, 2015
[Edited out]
/
sach / March 19, 2015
It is the Sinhala people’s agricultural lands that was usurped by the British and brought in South Indian labour. They were paddy cultivations. Get educated on that. And by bringing Tamils they deliberately did demographic engineering.
The fact that they did this after the 1848 freedom struggle by kandyan sinhalese shows that.
Even Dutch practiced it. The Dutch brought Tamils from SI and settled them in coastal areas they got hold of. One reason was tobacco cultivation and of course other being building demographic defences against Kandyan king
/
Burning Issue / March 20, 2015
such
Yes you are right the british imported the Tamils and chased out the Sinhala from the north! Have you heard about daylight robbery? This is exactly what you endeavour to do with tamil history in Sri lanka! Read the book authored by Murugaser Gunesangham about the Tamil history. There is the web you go and search. It is astonishing that you recklessly subvert 18th century history just like that then what would you do to the earlier history. An absolute moron.
/
Native Vedda / March 20, 2015
sach
“It is the Sinhala people’s agricultural lands that was usurped by the British and brought in South Indian labour.”
British left this island in 1948. The Sinhala/Buddhists have had complete control over the island for 67 years. The state and its rulers should have returned the land to the descendants of those Sinhala peasants.
Why didn’t the successive governments redistribute the entire land to the landless farmers?
It is not too late.
/
Off the Cuff / March 20, 2015
Dear Kettikaran,
Re “Can it not be argued the British brought Indian labour, allegedly due to the unwillingness of Sinhala labour to face the arduous dawn to dusk work in the Tea hills”
Let me ask you a question, hope you can give a honest answer.
Someone takes your Land by force, the land you have lived on and made a living by farming for ages, then ask you to slave on it, to grow a crop which has no use for you but will make the Thief rich. What would you do if you valued your self respect?
Lanka had food security then, does she have it now?
What will happen if tea cannot be sold, are we to eat it then?
Re “It is also likely many of the native Sinhalese did not seek employment as they had their own land,”
Then you don’t know history.
“According to the 1946 census on population in the agricultural sector of the island, 40% of the agricultural peasant families found in the former Kandyan Kingdom were landless while there were 26% landless agricultural families recorded in the wet zone” (Herath 1995: 79).
That was the position two centuries later. Earlier it would have been worse.
Re “If not for the white farmer the great Australian continent, where aborigines lived in small groups all over, …
Wrong comparison Sri Lankans cannot be compared to Australian aborigines.
Re “…would not have become the bread basket of the world”
We were the granary of the East.
None of these arguments can circumvent the requirement to solve the problems of the million plus landless Sinhala Kandyan peasants, made landless by the British.
Kind Regards
OTC
/
Kettikaran / March 20, 2015
OTC,
I respect your views and hold on to mine. Tell me what brought
about the Wastelands Ordinance?
Kettikaran
/
Off the Cuff / March 20, 2015
Kettikaran,
That info is freely available on the Internet
/
Vanguard / March 20, 2015
Maybe the Sinhalese have been their own worst enemy? We all know we stand divided.
/
Sajith / March 19, 2015
Dayan are you intelligent enough to understand, it.is moralistic intelligent person like you who campaigned vigorously for separation and worked with so called terrorist separatist to promote them and kill them and continuously seeding poisonous immoderate intellectual interpretations, may be you learned from people like Kissinger, which indirectly contributing to separation and destruction,as west did in Iraq, promoted moderate person like wickneswaren to take preventive measures for what he foresee with your moderations. I am sure as everyone comment about you, you know what you are doing for own self interest. Feel sorry for you friend. As I told you in your meditations go back to peradeniya bus stand in kandy and see where you are now. Please let Srilankan live in peace united and happy without hatred.regard
/
Native Vedda / March 19, 2015
Sajith
“Dayan are you intelligent enough to understand,”
Intelligence and Sri Lankans don’t mix.
/
Riyas, Malwana / March 19, 2015
Sir Jayathillake , With all due respect to you sir, with all your licence as an educationist you have proved to be an opportunist when you shifted your allegiance with former regime during the election period. It is a common occurance in SL that most of the licenced educationist demonstrated their hypocracy in public. Be it public service, politics or acadamic area it is same.
With you comment repeated here your have proved that you succumbed to communal politics in Sri Lanka. During Jan 08, 2015 Presidential election you tried to ostensibly show that the sovereignty of the State is at a risk if MR was defeated.
“The Sinhalese have reached a stage of enlightenment that has seen the back of the old Statism and is conducive to reaching out to the Northern Tamil nationalists in refashioning the Sri Lanka political order. The Southern nationalist-populists have been marginalized and their hero Mahinda Rajapaksa is strictly a has-been with a minor band of malcontents. The SLFP is safely in the hands of Chandrika and her proxies.”
/
sach / March 19, 2015
Where has he shifted his allegiance? Has not his criticism been the same all these time?
/
Native Vedda / March 21, 2015
sach
“Has not his criticism been the same all these time?”
True, pointless as has been before. No change at all.
/
manisekaran / March 19, 2015
Stupid, born looser,
1.”To protect the island from expansionist impulses from South India, the source of destructive invasions throughout its history.”
Mark my word, nobody from TN /South India ever wanted this silly land for us. All we wanted was/is/ will be our brothers there in Island to live happy, prosperous life. Our aims are much higher than you stupid racists. We want to go global and show our abilities and intelligence Why whip false fear and paranoid DJ? Can you provide the source, after all I remeber you claimed that your wordcloud never had the word,”Conspiracy”, if you dont cite the source for the above claim, what you have written is nothing but conspiracy in the guise of political article. Grow-up man! You are no better than some LW conspiracy constipationed writers, RH was correct about you in his earlier article, a sign of madman or madmonkey!
Manisekaran Thangavelu
Salem
/
sach / March 19, 2015
Idiot, we know you street sh1tters cannot take our land. The so called fake Tamil homeland IS an expansion. That is what this learned man is saying.
/
manisekaran / March 19, 2015
Shit cleaning Sach,( Arab shit spring),
I tell you the open secret , If India is decided, you dont need Indian Army, just we TN enough.
/
sach / March 19, 2015
That is true not everyone can bear the smell of street sh1tters
/
Native Vedda / March 21, 2015
sach
“That is true not everyone can bear the smell of street sh1tters”
How do you manage?
Are you one of those 95,000 people who do not have access to toilets in this island?
We are sorry. Lets see if we can raise some fund to build you a permanent toilet, possibly an en-suite, ….
/
manisekaran / March 19, 2015
You aks others to comment on article,[Edited out]
/
Native Vedda / March 19, 2015
manisekaran
“If India is decided, you dont need Indian Army, just we TN enough. “
Is that why Thamil Nadu was awaiting orders from Hindians in Delhi enabling them to invade North East and protect the people between 1991 and 2009?
/
manisekaran / March 20, 2015
Correction, not to invade and occupy but to establish peace.
/
Native Vedda / March 20, 2015
manisekaran
“Correction, not to invade and occupy but to establish peace.”
Please read excerpt
25 years on, IPKF awaits a fitting tribute back home
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/
Jul 29, 2012
Then Tamil Nadu CM M Karunanidhi renamed the IPKF as ITKF — Indian Tamil Killing Force. That is the residual public perception of India’s first out-of-area military intervention and coercive diplomacy.
/
Crazyoldmansl / March 19, 2015
The choice is clear. War or peace. The DJ clearly wants perpetual war not peace. His deep state rallies all other perpetual warriors like himself who he sees as “Heros”
We do not need these murderous heros. We need human beings. It is as simple as that.
Viggies resolution was aimed at these heros. A warning that the true nature of their “heroism” stands exposed.
/
Native Vedda / March 20, 2015
Crazyoldmansl
“The DJ clearly wants perpetual war not peace.”
You are right. You know why he wants perpetual war? He is a self confessed war monger.
/
simon / March 19, 2015
I think uts tine for our DJ to join the Northern Provincial Council which he did when it was first set up by Indian Expansionist.
They definitley did not object to his appointment then and will not now.
A backbonless mutt for hire is alway of use, why else would thry invite him to meet Mr.Modi?
/
Sylvia Haik / March 19, 2015
The good [Edited out] has spoken. Besides dropping names like confetti, names supposedly important to us, let alone know who they are, it is difficult to fathom exactly what he is on about. There was one phrase that caught my eye. He said, the Tamils did not rebel against the British colonialists. It may be true of the Indians brought over, but the indigenous Tamils did rebel and there were instances they outdid the larger Sinhalese groups and the latter were indeed grateful. This Dostaraya does his level best to maintain a ‘Them and Us’ situation between the Tamils and the Sinhalese and any hint of assimilation must be getting at his throat.
/
Anpu / March 19, 2015
Refer Sri Lanka to International Criminal Court
We, the undersigned people from around the world, urge the United Nations to refer Sri Lanka to the International Criminal Court (ICC) or to establish a similar credible International Judicial Mechanism for investigation and prosecution of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed against the Tamil people by the Sri Lankan State.
According to the UN Internal Review Report on Sri Lanka, there were “credible estimates” of civilian casualties of 70,000 Tamils during the first six months in 2009. As the former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pointed out, Sri Lanka is one of the notable countries, along with Bosnia, Burma, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan and elsewhere, where rape was used as a tactic of war.
We firmly believe that neither a domestic mechanism nor a hybrid mechanism will mete out justice to the Tamil people. The call by the new Sri Lankan government for a domestic or hybrid mechanism to replace any international judicial process is an attempt to deflect the call for referral to the ICC and to delay other meaningful actions on accountability. Efforts to establish a domestic Truth and Reconciliation Commission isanother diversionary tactic to protect those who committed serious crimes against Tamils.
The current situation in Sri Lanka constitutes an ongoing “threat to the peace” under Chapter 7 Article 39 of the UN Charter, because there has been absolutely no accountability for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.
http://www.tgte-icc.org/
1) The Sri Lankan State is not ethnically neutral:
The Sri Lankan State conducted itself like a cultural warhead of the Sinhala-Buddhist majority community. The government of the State, in this case Sri Lanka, has not only committed international crimes against the Tamils but also failed to protect them for a long period of over sixty years, since independence in 1948.
In fact, most of the serious crimes in question were perpetrated by the state apparatus.
“Accountability also requires official acknowledgment by the state of its role and responsibility in violating the rights of its citizens when that has occurred.” UN Secretary General’s Panel of Expert’s Report on Accountability in Sri Lanka (March 31, 2011).
2) The Sri Lankan judiciary is not ethnically neutral:
The Sri Lankan judiciary is always subservient to political leadership when it comes to abuses against Tamils and that is in evidence in all of the past Commissions of Inquiry. Even under a Tamil Chief Justice in 1983, no prosecution was ever brought against anyone for the mass killings of Tamils in the 1983 pogrom.
“…based on a review of the (Justice) system’s past performance and current structure, the panel has little confidence that it will serve justice in the present political environment.”UN Secretary General’s Panel of Expert’s Report on Accountability in Sri Lanka (March 31, 2011).
From the mass killings of Tamils starting in 1958 to date, justice has not been served. The courts have proved inadequate and successive governments have appointed ineffective inquiries under international pressure that have not once led to the punishment of perpetrators. (Amnesty International, “Twenty Years of Make Believe: Sri Lanka’s Commissions of Inquiry,” 11 June 2009).
3) There is no political will in Sri Lanka to provide Justice for Tamils:
Former Defense Secretary Gotabhaya is safe as long as he is in Sri Lanka: Deputy Justice Minister of Sri Lanka.
4) The domestic 2010 Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) has not delivered Justice to Tamils:
“…the LLRC is deeply flawed, does not meet international standards for an effective accountability mechanism.” UN Secretary General’s Panel of Expert’s Report on Accountability in Sri Lanka (March 31, 2011).
The involvement of the international community in overseeing a domestic inquiry also ended up in failure, when the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP) resigned in March 2008. (Human Rights Watch – Sri Lanka: Domestic Inquiry into Abuses a Smokescreen – October 27, 2009).
Given our long experience with Sinhala Buddhist hegemonic institutions that dominate Sri Lanka’s politics, we have no faith that members of the Sri Lankan armed forces will ever be prosecuted locally for any wrong doing. International supervision of any domestic mechanism will only serve to waste time. (Jaffna University Professors in a memorandum to UN on February 24, 2015).
5) TheChange of Guard in Sri Lanka will not result in a Change of the Institutionalized Impunity:
Even though the President has been changed, the political environment vis-à-vis Tamils, has not changed.
Several former military personal, including the military commander at the end of the war General SarathFonseka, are in senior positions in the current government.
Except emergency regulations and the active use of paramilitary proxies, all of the factors, notably the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), are still in existence even after the change of guard in Colombo.
The fact that the military apparatus is still intact and the militarization of the NorthEast continues perpetuates fear among the Tamils, and has a deep impact on day to day activities there. Therefore, it is unlikely that victims/witnesses will be truly independent before a domestic or hybrid tribunal.
6) The Potential Culpability of the New PresidentSirisenawill not be Conducive for a Domestic or Hybrid Mechanism:
President Sirisena served as the acting Defense Minister during the period at the end of the war, when large numbers of Tamils were killed.
“Sirisena is hardly a beacon of hope for the Tamils: he was acting as defense minister in the nightmarish final fortnight of the war.” – Economist, January 3rd, 2015.
7) Sri Lanka does not have Criminal Provisions for War Crimes, Crimes against Humanity, and Genocide:
Because Norway did not have laws against certain Crimes against Humanity, the International Tribunal for Rwanda (ICIR) would not transfer Bagarasaga to Norway since prosecuting the defendant as a common criminal would trivialize his crimes.
8) The pursuit of Justice Versus the Pursuit of Peace is a False Choice.
“Those who committed the genocidal attacks during the Second World War are being traced and prosecuted even today. That shows that the world’s expectation and reflection is – Justice should not be denied at any cost.” Justice C.V. Vigneswaran –
Chief Minister, Northern Provincial Council. In conclusion, we strongly urge the United Nations to refer Sri Lanka to the International Criminal Court or to establish a similar credible International Judicial Mechanism for investigation and prosecution of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed against the Tamil people by the Sri Lankan State itself.
Thank you for your kind attention and immediate action.
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kali / March 19, 2015
Dayan the Catholic Lawbreaker:
The Medicine has worked but the damage has been done and despite your toning down of the Racist Rhetoric you are still a persona non grata to western countries.
The Duty & Tasks Of The National Intelligentsia:
Is to catch Ali Baba and the thieves who are still at large.
The list headed by
Mahintha
1) It was crudely misunderstood to mean that history as a narrative had arrived at a terminus, which is not at all what he meant. Fukuyama had used a Hegelian flourish to indicate the liberal democratic capitalism has triumphed over all other competing ideologies as a paradigm of how society should be ordered.
*** This is the problem in Sinhala Lanka. MR supporters like you who are in the majority are having a withdrawal symptom finding it difficult to adjust to New Sri Lankan order imposed by the Tamil Tsunami.
2) In Sri Lanka today, cosmopolitan civil society is on a delusional high. Not for the first time it is going against the grain of ‘the character of the nation’. Its neoliberal ideologues and opinion makers are certain that the End of History has arrived and ‘liberal democratic pluralism’ has triumphed.
*** The opinion makers are certainly correct “the end of 67 year long brutal history has ended replaced by consensus politics or shall I say succumbed to pressure.
3) The Sinhalese have reached a stage of enlightenment that has seen the back of the old Statism and is conducive to reaching out to the Northern Tamil nationalists in refashioning the Sri Lanka political order. The Southern nationalist-populists have been marginalized and their hero Mahinda Rajapaksa is strictly a has-been with a minor band of malcontents.
*** This is what I call the reincarnation of ” Lord Buddha” but the long arm of Buddha is yet to reach the Tamil Heartland.
4) The SLFP is safely in the hands of Chandrika and her proxies. The decades-old order of the strong Presidential state is about to end. A new liberal democratic capitalist order, with a quasi-Westminster model is about to be born.
*** You are right as CBK is now talking the same old SLFP language which is evident when she questions the right of UNHCR to conduct an inquiry into Genocide.
5) Accountability shall be achieved according to international standards. The UNP and the SLFP shall move hand in hand, under the joint auspices of Ranil and Chandrika, beyond the 13th amendment and towards federalism. China will be shown the door as we reincorporate ourselves as subordinate, peripheral unit in the Western-dominated world order and in an Indo-US dominated regional one.
*** The preferred option. If there is will there is a way.
6) Sri Lankan civil society intelligentsia is suffering from a classic case of false consciousness, in which, as Marx said, “men and their circumstances appear upside down as in a camera obscura”.
*** This is the morning after. When you are drunk on Tamil Blood ( intoxication) detoxication takes time.
7) Three battles are looming over: (A) the 19th amendment and the hypertrophy of the Prime Ministership at the expense of the elected Presidency (B) the call to move beyond the 13th amendment towards federalism and (C) the Geneva OHCHR inquiry on Sri Lanka’s internal war, the new Foreign Minister’s ‘open door’ to the UN Working Group on Involuntary and Enforced Disappearances and his promises of externally “assisted” domestic mechanisms on accountability.
***You are an intelligent individual ( I hope ) and are you saying the Cold war is not over. “Putin Syndrome”
8) These are but expressions and reflections of contradictions over basics: (I) which political order for Sri Lanka, (II) which center-periphery relationship and Social Contract within the island nation (III) which placement within the world order. The coming parliamentary election is the crucial, but perhaps only the most visible battleground.
*** I would say these are hopes and disappointments of the Racist Majority
9) Judging by their silence, most neoliberal pluralist commentators think that the political discourse behavior of the Northern Provincial Council and its Chief Minister constitute no big deal; it all amounts to a molehill out of which a mountain shouldn’t be made.
*** You are trying to have the cake and eat it. It was you lot who said that the NPC declaration asking for a Genocide Inquiry was Treacherous. Make your mind up mate.
11) Thus a moderate Tamil leader moves an outrageously immoderate resolution under a moderate Government, alleging genocide under all previous governments including moderate ones– and Sri Lankan moderate commentators, here and overseas, do not think it means that something is seriously amiss about mainstream Tamil politics.
*** The demand for a Genocide Inquiry is about what happened under the previous Brutal Regime headed by the Hambanthotta Thug. Are you suggesting that history is about to repeat under this present Government.
12) The sad truth is that the Sri Lankan moderate intelligentsia does not stand up against political immoderation when it comes from the North; from the Tamil nationalist side.
*** This is what you call might is right or Shall I say Right gives you Might.
13) My liberal critics cannot understand where I am coming from. I belong to a very old theoretical tradition or more accurately a confluence of two old traditions, one, the Realist-Statist, extending at least from Thucydides, Kautilya and Sun Tzu through Hobbes to Lenin, the other, the Heroic-Messianic-Romantic, from Homer through the Old Testament through to Mao, Fidel and Che.
*** I know where you come from. That is from the ” Gutter”
14) Sri Lanka has real enemies. The core and majority of this island nation, the Sinhalese—let me say it again, the Sinhalese – have real enemies, and they aren’t the Tamils or the Muslims.
*** You are right the real enemies of Sri Lanka are their Narrow mindedness and inward looking.
15) Given the geography and history of this island state, there are three fundamental challenges and one fundamental vulnerability from which the country has to be protected. The three fundamental challenges are:
1.To protect the island from expansionist impulses from South India, the source of destructive invasions throughout its history.
2.To prevent the breakup of the country through the breakaway of its North-Eastern periphery which is adjacent to South India and therefore subject to the gravitation pull of ethnic kinship.
3.To safeguard the distinctive political identity and destiny, independence and sovereignty, of this island vis-a-vis its giant neighbor as well as from the global North, the source of three colonial incursions.
*** You have gone mad. What you are prophesising hasn’t happened in thousands of years and why would it happen now.
16) The Sinhalese are the core and main force of resistance to the breakup of the island state as well as hegemony over it.
*** You are wrong my friend. It is your brutality that will be the cause of the Break up and you have no one but yourself to blame.
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son of commoner / March 19, 2015
To my sinhalese fellows who fail to see the reality and my Tamil friends who attack Dayan in the most virulent language (like vipers)
These are my basic questions which I like to put to you all for consideration:
Why do you think Mr Vigneswaran ,former supreme court judge who was born,bread and spent whole his life in Southern Part of Sri Lanka,who being a moderate Tamil gentleman ,who very well understand the meaning of genocide, under His tenure as Chief Minister, immediately after election of new Government ,for which Tamils made a substantial contribution, brought and unanimously Passed A Genocide Resolution alleging that “Sinhalese” Governments have been commiting genocide of Tamils since independence was given (1948);
Remember Mr Vigneswaran is no ordinary Tamil ,who had given his blessings for his two beloved Children to get married to /or given in marriage to “genocide”Sinhalese
Under the above mention situation and related details,Friends do you want us to be naive to believe that there is no hidden agenda in passing this resolution. and then handing over it the Guy from UN when he Visited Sri Lanka.
2. Second point is why guys like Thiru attack and has so much time to spent on Dayan’s articles ,threatening and denigrating in the most mean language.
Isn’t it because that Dayan’s telling the truth and fore-warning us of a possible grave situation and therefore it is extremely unpalatable to extremists.(more than 95% of Tamil persons do not have issues our extreme friends have and in fact, prefer to live with us Sinhalese rather than elite Tamils,they know very well how they were discriminated by elite Tamils and forced them to join LTTE ,while sending their own children abroad or to colombo ,and forced them to sacrifice the lives and future of their loved ones to achieve a kingdom to rule oppressed classes not like equal brothers and sisters but as slaves.
You may read articles by one of their own ,Mr DSB Devaraj to get some insight to this aspect,if any doubt.
Thirdly, if they want real reconciliation,and have given up their pet project,no only Sihalese but shouldn’t they also must change without blaming sinhalese as Murderers and who areout their to eliminate Tamil race from Sri Lanka.
Fourthly, more than 50% are living in the south with us Sinhalese and especially those guys who are clamouring and want something beyond 13 plus are in fact living in Colombo and some abroad ,in fact have no real problems living with genocide sinhale buggers (children attending prestigious schools and doing well paid jobs in Colombo),
fifthly, the main issues for 99% tamils, like we sinhalese commoners have, are mainly how to earn a living to keep them and their children fed ,clothed and sheltered and a good education to make their children future happy and bright.
lastly, I want to you all to carefully consider why LTTE guys tried to destroy “Dalada maligawa” ,and killed innocent buddhists who were worshiping at Sri Maha Bodhiya.
Does any sane mature sinhalese think that Tamil(Not even extremet LTTE guy) wanted destroy Buddhism is Sri Lanka.Absolutely no.Most Tamils being Hindus Worship Lord Buddha as a god,i have lot of Tamil hindu friends having studied and worked together.
However, LTTE leadership led by prabakaran knew, easiest way to rouse foolish and uneducated sinhalese was to rouse the religious feelings
and cause a backlash as happened in 1983, so that without fighting and sacrificing thousands of lives ( knowing sinhalese will also fight till the last man/woman is eliminated to safeguard the only country that we have a legitimate right to call our country (I do not call it is only our country but that of Tamils and muslims and others also),so that they can demand International guys, we tamils can no longer live with Sinhalese murderers who will not be satisfied until last Tamil is eliminated,pl demarcate 40% of Sri lanka and create our Tamil Ellam. you know i am sure you all will be a highest benificairy that you will have a highest demand for arms and all NGO guys also have a good time,they must have disputes to earn their bread and butter.
Due to highly unwarranted present action(genocide resolution) of Extremist Tamils led by NPC,CM vignesvan ,I although been not an extreme sinhalese have a reasonable ground to suspect ,is wherther another tactic is being used extremist tamils which they failed to achieve after paying a heavy price by them. They know very well through bitter experience that only alternative to achieve ,if they want to really achieve it , it is only through software and not with hardware (guns and with sacrrficing lives) .
Therefore, I will be pleased to be enlightened by my friends irrespective whether they are sinhala,tamil or muslim, as long as is he or she a Sri Lankan citizen who had live in Sri lanka during the last 40 years, on this issues.
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kali / March 20, 2015
Son of a Commoner;
With your attitude you will always be a commoner. You will never reach the shores Kings Palace.
But I want to comment on the following.
1) Thirdly, if they want real reconciliation,and have given up their pet project,no only Sihalese but shouldn’t they also must change without blaming sinhalese as Murderers and who areout their to eliminate Tamil race from Sri Lanka.
*** My friend ACCOUNTABILITY ( MR should be put behind bars. Hands tied and blind folded 24 hours.) first followed by RECONCILIATION.
2)Fourthly, more than 50% are living in the south with us Sinhalese and especially those guys who are clamouring and want something beyond 13 plus are in fact living in Colombo and some abroad ,in fact have no real problems living with genocide sinhale buggers (children attending prestigious schools and doing well paid jobs in Colombo).
*** This is another Nanthikadal situation. The 50% have been forced into safe heavens in the South as coolies through lack of Development and Investment in the North and then shelled by
Dayan
BBS
Raful Kakeem and the likes causing Carnage
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sajith / March 19, 2015
Dayan after having many years of your life cherishing the principles and practice of Castro and Che you have come down to use Dutugemmenu for your defence.What Che will be thinking of you in his Grave?Please leave srilankans live in peace and happy without hatred.
we only need common sense and love to look after people under our care. people call it parental way of administration. A state represent parents for all their citizens. we can have srong,weak and disable children. Good parents dont discriminate them and give every possible help and encouragement for them to grow to the best of their abilities. week and disable children need extra attention and care from parents and strong able children to protect them from their vulnerabilities. This is basic human way administration. we can understand,accept and promote this form of administration only if we remove the fear, creed and suspicion among us and learn to love all srilankans as brothers and sisters belong to one family. Now a days in a family even a 5year old demand independence and freedom to choose her/his basic needs. If we have parental way of thinking every thing become very clear. we can understand our childrens needs and provide them with what ever they need to grow better. we dont need to be jealous if some do better than the others. They can feel proud of each other and help each other in their needs.
we have been brought up with fear and suspicion as one is stealing another. Along the way we are gradually loosing our human values. The real thieves are living together happily ever after while we destroy our life and values.
If we are all Srilankans it doesnt matter who goveren which part of srilaka,as long as rule of law, justice and good governance prevail with respect to srilankan constitution. If there is any issues of contention all srilankans should have equal opportunity and rights to voice their concern and all virws should be taken into consideration to find an accommodative acceptable solution. This can be done only if we build trust among us and love each other to be family and friends.
Dayan dont betray our trust on you, you have every potential to promote peace. Please do encourage srilankan citizens to trust each other.regard.
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Jim softy / March 20, 2015
Some thing, that could have been told straight forward and clear, has become messy and complicated. Dayan Jayathilke tried to demonstrate his eruditeness, for some reason, far more than any thing else and he was less worried about readers understanding what he wants to say.
My opinion is that Tamil and muslim component of this so-called National inteligentita always promote Tamil tribalism or Islamic expansion. Others are also divided alone religion lines and are not united.
They can talk, but politicians take actions and what have politicians done for the last 100 years. They worsened the problem.
Because, Sri lanka has a genuine leadership vacuum. Present -politicians are not visionaries or leaders. It is their livelihood and only thing they learned is to manipulate and exploit, and others are not daring enough.
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Sriyani Mangalika / March 20, 2015
We were pushed towards a war against the severe group of terrorists, LTTE since we had no alternative for escaping from the brutality and establish peace among innocent citizens.Soon after the war we all should have taken steps to heal the hearts of concerned people, injurred by war which is an unavoidable result as such. But even today we are nations of considerably far a part mentality.Recently after the election different nationalities voluntarily extended their hands for piece as never before.But groups for whom they themselves call as Sinhala Buddhists critized the valuable turn up of other nationalities as a negative action towards destruction. I know the pathetic situation I faced recently while I was holding an Executive Post.I faced serious injustice for no fault of mine.Iwonder how minorities are faced with situations they are faced with.Therefore I personally think other nationalities would certainly lessen the autonomy of their demands if the situation is more equitable and justifiable.I have first hand experience how I suffered.I am not very clear about the idea forwarded here.I do not know whether he is trying to say Tamils are a sort of enemies.I think we the so called Sinhala Buddhists should change our attitude recalling Karaneeya Meththa Suthra in Buddhim regarding soft and kind tratment for others.Usual nature of our peolple today is to transfer the blame to somewhere possible.I feel we all should get together genuinely to solve our own problems.Today there is a tendency of media to search faults of our Great Characters like King Dutu Gumunu depicted in our History. I cannot imagine the real idea beind that. What I feel is people try to justify the short comings of today’s people by giving different interpretations to the History. I feel such inferiority complex of people would contribute to further deterioration of qualities of our community indirectly.Therefore it is my personal view if we are vigilent we could convince Tamils we play a fare role on them and there by making they review thier request for 13,13 A.
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K.A Sumanasekera / March 20, 2015
Are their any “Sinhala Intelligentsia among the Elite?….
Tiger Diaspora and their agents in Tamil Nadu and Singapore will use all their resources to get Eelaam in the North.
They have won the first leg of the Trifecta, which Dayan has clearly identified.
The next phase is to turn the brave Armed Forces in to a Dad’s Army, under the new Field Marshal.
After taking them out of the North and the East under “Federalism”..
It is a matter of when rather than whether it will, if Ranil becomes legit.
Sinhala majority wouldn’t have even Colombo to call their territory when the deal is done.
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Native Vedda / March 20, 2015
K.A Sumanasekera
“Tiger Diaspora and their agents in Tamil Nadu and Singapore will use all their resources to get Eelaam in the North.”
Stupid man/woman
The entire island was known as Eelam in old times.
“After taking them out of the North and the East under “Federalism”..”
Stupid man/woman
Even if the Sinhala/Buddhists are willing to part with Thamil Eelam they will have to get authorisation from Hindians. If you behind the back and satisfy the Thamil Eelam demand, you will be in deep trouble.
In the even of separation the rest of the island will become a new Sinhala state of Hindia and Thamil Eelam will be annexed to Tamil Nadu.
Make sure Sinhala/Buddhists don’t claim a Sinhala Eelam.
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Demetrius / March 20, 2015
Dayan you have ,probably conveniently, forgotten to mention the cultural and economic exchange between South India and Sri Lanka which itself is about two thousand five hundred years. You only talk about invasions…Why?
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Native Vedda / March 20, 2015
Demetrius
“You only talk about invasions…Why?”
When you run out of enough enemies within look for enemies outside. Scare mongering is another best tool to oppress the oppressed.
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michael don / March 20, 2015
I am surprised that people in fact are reading and responding to this old fascist [Edited out] who will simply not go away.
Please begin your response by saluting the truth. that this is a piece from the ‘Resident Fascist’ from CT. Writer in Residence (Gota’s residence)
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RP / March 20, 2015
I would like to know what Indian or SL Tamils have to say about the following:
“….It cannot be accidental that there wasn’t a single sword raised or shot fired in anger against the British colonialists in the North for one and a half centuries, by the Tamils—who had for millennia, no compunctions about going to war with their Sinhala neighbors and sacking their kingdoms, destroying a fine civilizations. The utter absence of Tamil rebellion against British colonialism is a point that Emeritus Professor KM de Silva, past President of the Association of the Historians of Asia, has made more than once in his scholarly writings. It is also not accidental that liberal-pluralists do not mention that fact in their potted revisionist histories…..”
Thanks.
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Ambedkhar Reborn / March 20, 2015
Can any one figure it out , why DJ an anti Western political scientist quoting Henry Kissinger ‘s latest book and praising Kissinger.?
I am ordinary person so I do not understand how can Smart Patriot DJ bring in Kissinger to support DJ’ s stand on Sinhala Nation/ Tamil Nation which are part and parcel of SL .
I am sure if DJ can quote the pages in that book and explain how those pages are relevant to SL issues, then there are younger Srilankans who have better IQ than DJ and holding high accademic pisitions or many political analysts and researchers will be able to enlighten the CT readers with their counter arguments.
If one takes D J ‘ s above analysis as a political stew made up of ingredients selected by Dayan IT STINGS. It looks like posionous too.
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Javi. / March 20, 2015
Ambedkhar Reborn,
DJ…because just that Kissinger in his memoir laments that he is unable to understand Indira (may be its the colour of her hair – part black and part white did not know what her next move would be)(DJ does not want to understand French, Hindi or Gujarati he is cat-O-lic alter boy drop out) and he stopped her continue the Free Bangladesh successful Indian Air Force from initiating the capture of west Pakistan in the next couple of days- having doused their main air power in the region. This war was fought mainly from Amaravati valley region take off of MIG’s aided by Russian observation in favour of Indian defense treaty with them.
Kissinger sent the 7th fleet in the vicinity of Japan on the 8th day to stop India and make India withdraw from Bangladesh giving the Muslim regime a nation they never won at battle- presently 2 women in a brawl to eternity like Lanka sending its sex slaves to medieval- same genes came during VOC Dutch entry from eastern coast.
What is important both Islam & christian are crusaders from the exact place so they favour one another to fight their own battle over Jerusalem along with the Zionist.
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Javi. / March 20, 2015
Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka,
Your intelligence isostentatious based on Kissinger memoir’s- they are best put aside
The Indian’s after a great deal of respect for a Palestine and none aligned with Tito’s concept stopped their women first going to medieval middle east as menials then saw rape been spread by the Muslim still an ongoing phenomenon.
So India has finally drawn a line in the sand- @ Israel the new friend of old with 32 synagogues still functioning from the roman period and the oldest at Cochin.
India and Modi still possess the highest value contracts in the Arab world. Same as USA and Saudi relationship- Saboot!! (Proof)
Greatness is measured by value.
bankers compound interest is the curse.-
India is seated on pots of gold like china. 4th richest world Ambani/ Gujarati
WHO TALKS OF BRICS BANKING NOW????
Germany, France, Italy to Join China-Backed Development Bank (exploitation of resources outside of humanness in protocol- supplier workshop to central hub china)
Germany, France and Italy have followed the U.K.’s lead in applying to join a China-led international development bank, despite U.S. opposition to the project.
Perhaps very soon, the U.S.-dominated world order will come to an end.”
U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew warned lawmakers on Tuesday that Congress was undermining U.S. interests by failing to approve governance overhauls at the IMF.
U.S. approval of the IMF governance reforms–which would increase China and other emerging market influence in the fund to a level more in line with their new economic heft in the world–“is critical to reinforcing the central position of the IMF, especially as others are establishing new and parallel financial institutions,” he said.
Change the policy not the system of banking for security and wealth.
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Javi. / March 20, 2015
Harry, harry Atkins Spence,
Look at what the present day greatest women’s rights, gay rights children’s rights warrior of the world had to say- private e-mail of 50,000 instead of state department is okay as much as tapping German chancellor Meckel is also okay. But the rest of the world must toe the line and be freedom, human right and information.
No wonder Facebook Mark speaks fluent Mandarin to the Bejin university students at question answer time.
P.S. All Hillary e-mail would be on display for public view under freedom of information act by end of year only after state department wets it for homeland security.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/03/10/us/politics/11hillary-clinton-questions.html?_r=0
Questions Regarding Hillary Clinton’s Personal Email Use
By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT MARCH 10, 2015
Hillary Rodham Clinton held a news conference on Tuesday to address questions about her exclusive use of a private email address while she was secretary of state. Here are some questions that she answered, and some that she did not.
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kali / March 20, 2015
The SLFP is safely in the hands of Chandrika and her proxies. The decades-old order of the strong Presidential state is about to end. A new liberal democratic capitalist order, with a quasi-Westminster model is about to be born. Accountability shall be achieved according to international standards.
*** I want to correct Dayans mis information about CBK and achieving Accountability according to international Standards.
My friend you are completely wrong and CBK is no cuddly toy when it comes to unmasking the Genocide under MR and her stance on defending previous GOSL in the International arena.
She supports an Internal Inquiry and is against the UNHCR role.
War Crimes in Sri Lanka: What the international experts say
Mar 19 (Island) Opinion to the Commission from Professor DM Crane and Sir Desmond de Silva, QC re. Legal Issues pertaining to the use of Human Shields and Hostage Taking by the LTTE by Professor David M Crane, Sir Desmond de Silva, QC and Advisory Council of Experts.
*** The involvement of Desmond De Silva is a Joke. He is someone who defended the killers of Stephen Lawrence the black teenager. For Desmond it is a day at the offices for money and he has no morals and he is not fit for the Job. He cannot be trusted to be Non Partisan from his origins and past record.
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Heretic / March 20, 2015
Amarasiri,
Is there any regional study that would estimate the IQ Score for the Northern Province? My guess is that the best have left and are leaving. Unfortunately the ones left here in Jaffna are pretty much the individuals who are unable to leave because of different disabilities.
There is also a serious lack of knowledge. Very few of our Jaffna politicians are able to communicate in English. It would be interesting to know what they have understood about, for instance, genocide.
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Heretic / March 20, 2015
OTC,
“What the Tamils don’t realize is that the Sinhala feel the same way. They too fell aggrieved when demands are unjust.”
I agree and the International Community seems to be interested mostly in Tamils and Muslims forgetting the majority.
“If this genocide resolution came before the election, it would have guaranteed a 3rd term for MR. CM Wigs would be under a military governor and would be having running battles with the Tamil Lady Secretary of the NPC. Minister Douglas Devananda would be ruling the roost and that would have gone on for 8 years and 2 months.”
Correct.
“The background to the Genocide resolution is CM Wig’s NPC election campaign where he played to the Tamil gallery by hailing the Megalomaniac terrorist Prabahkaran as a Great Hero. While that short sightedness got him support from the previously critical Jaffna newspapers, Uthayan and Sudar Oli to achieve high preferential votes for himself, Wig’s concurrently increased MR’s following which enabled MR to get 5.8 million votes.”
Correct again. My understanding is that Wig and the other TNA moderates are fighting against the rabid majority.
“Thus the Tamils should have recognised the turning Sinhala Opinion that was moving away from the fear of separatism despite CM Wig’s antics and Mr’s Campaign of impending separatism. This minority of the Majority was far greater in number than the Tamil vote and if 5% defected to MR, he would have won. The Genocide resolution would have already made more than the 5% to choose MR again. If MR comes at the next election and the Tamil politicians don’t change this confrontational course, we will have to deal with MR again.”
Agree again. Unfortunately Tamil politicians will continue.
Thanks.
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Off the Cuff / March 21, 2015
Dear Heretic,
Thank you for your honesty
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Burning Issue / March 21, 2015
Heretic,
CM Wiggie is not an idiot to release the genocide document before presidential election.
If you had listened to MS speaking to the SLFP members you would know that the UN report is indeed is very damaging to Sri Lanka and to the previous regime. You need to view the genocide document in conjunction with this report. I do not think that the Tamil people care as to what the Sinhala people think about them releasing the genocide report; they have basically gone past caring if you see what I mean. In effect, CM would not have released such a document without certain outside parties privy to it.
I do not think that CM, Sumanthiran and Sampanthan are fools; they act with guile and circumspect. Tamils cannot trust the Sinhala leadership anymore; there has to be pressures from multiple angles for tamils to get anything out of the Sinhala. This situation is a damning indictment of a failed state and the Sinhala need to take full responsibility squarely!
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Heretic / March 20, 2015
Thiru,
“Being at the mercy of a new president, who may or may not turn out to be another racist will not grantee Tamils freedom from Sinhala Buddhist oppression.”
I personally don’t know if Tamil Hindu oppression is any better.
Are Muslims, Christians and other dissidents like me welcome to live in a truly democratic “Northern One Party State”? Do the Muslims and Sinhalese in the East want to be part of this experiment despite being the majority there?
I don’t know your age or background but maybe you have no first hand experience of war and misery.
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Native Vedda / March 21, 2015
Heretic
“Are Muslims, Christians and other dissidents like me welcome to live in a truly democratic “Northern One Party State”?
Good question.
However the pertinent question should be are Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists,Tamils, Sinhalese, Burgers, …….. and my people allowed to live peacefully in this island which Sinhala/Buddhists claim exclusively theirs?
When the country consistently suffers from self inspired problems why do you ask those who never had any control over the state to answer your childish question?
Remember Sinhala/Buddhists vote and elect their MPs and President, man the bureaucracy, armed forces, judiciary, …….. rage 24/07/52 and rule and steal from people, yet complain about the state of the country.
Think about it.
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Heretic / March 20, 2015
Dr Daya,
“The sad truth is that the Sri Lankan moderate intelligentsia does not stand up against political immoderation when it comes from the North; from the Tamil nationalist side. They shriek blue murder from the rooftops when the immoderation or radicalism is sighted in the South. This is not a recipe for an alliance of moderates; it is the appeasement of extremism by moderates. This is no alliance of moderates; it is instead an alliance of ostriches with their heads buried in the sand or of the deaf, dumb and blind monkeys.”
Might be because there isn’t much intelligentsia left in Jaffna and thus little communication. The moderates in Jaffna are still afraid.
The Southern intelligentsia is also used to the strange ideas coming from the North.
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Burning Issue / March 21, 2015
Heretic,
Your assessment of the Jaffna people is too simplistic and basically pathetic. A community that went through 30 years of war, mayhem and sufferings of biblical proportions know their predicaments and options that are available to them. Once the LTTE had been decimated, the TNA acted immediately by disassociating them from LTTE. They made statements clearly stating that the Tamils will settle within one nation. At the NPC elections the Tamil congress that took the hardline realising that there was appetite for radical ideas among the Tamils withdrew their participation of the elections. Hence, it was obvious that the Tamils collectively acted responsibly within the northern region.
I do not know as to who you are but all indications point to you are probably an imposter. Your assessment of the Jaffna Tamils stinks so I suggest you refrain from uttering another word about their iq!
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Burning Issue / March 21, 2015
I meant to say that “…the Tamil congress that took the hardline realising that there was NO appetite…”
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