By Rajan Hoole –
Dr. Rajan Hoole
Revisiting Tamil Self Determination – Part IV
The advent of communalism in politics, for which the Tamils’ ill-considered demand for communal representation in the 1930s acted as a catalyst, led to the progressive corruption of our political life. Our politics allowed scant room for persons with integrity. Jane Russell gives the case of Francis de Zoysa, who on a note of resignation rebuked his co-speaker S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike at a Balapitiya meeting in 1939:
“Not only do I deprecate the policy of Ceylon for the Sinhalese, but had I known that this meeting had any connection with the Sinhala Maha Sabha, I would not have been present. If I joined the Sinhala Maha Sabha, and raised the communal cry, I might stand to score at the State Council elections, but one has a greater duty – to work for the welfare of the country.”
The degradation of our political life progressively eroded quality in education and institutions crucial to our well-being. Justice became a costly luxury, ill affordable to most.
The Formation of the Federal Party
The core of the Federal Party (FP) in 1949 comprised MPs S. J. V. Chelvanayakam and C. Vanniasingam, with Senator E.M.V. Naganathan, who parted ways with the Tamil Congress over the latter’s volte-face on the citizenship rights of Indian Tamils. Ponnambalam, in 1948, ditched the Indian Tamils whose impugned citizenship rights his Tamil Congress had pledged to defend and performed obeisance at Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake’s feet for a place in the cabinet (J.L. Fernando, Three Prime Ministers of Ceylon).
Another issue the Federal Party took up early was colonisation. Its use of the terms ‘Tamil speaking people,’ and the ‘Tamil Nation’ after Chelvanayakam’s by-election victory in 1975, would have had no basis but for the Youth Congress’ mobilisation of Tamils as a political entity who could discuss political ideas; and be part of a robust Ceylonese Nation.
The Federal Party leaders’ principal handicap was a political outlook moulded under the shadow of Ponnamalam which portrayed the Sinhalese people negatively. A critical but sympathetic commentary on the Federal Party in 1963 came from the veteran Trotskyite V. Karalasingam in his “The Way Out for the Tamil-speaking People”; which said that in spite of an apparently resolute leadership and the widest support of the people, the Tamil-speaking people have paradoxically faced defeat and humiliation, leading to despair and rage. He identifies the main reason for the failure as the Federal Party’s belief that in the fight for their rights the Tamil-speaking people must go it alone. On how to remedy this, Karalasingam says in a subsequent chapter on ‘The Superiority of Marxist Leadership’:
“The close inter-relationship, indeed the organic unity, of the socialist struggle of the working class and the struggle of the Tamil-speaking people for their just rights, must convince all honest elements among the latter of the deep and abiding interest of the Marxist Left in their fight for equality and against discrimination.”
The very next year (1964) the Left (with notable exceptions like Edmund Samarakkody and Meryl Fernando) formed an alliance with the SLFP and became complicit in its communal policies. The Left completely ditched the disenfranchised Hill Country Tamils whom it championed in the 1940s. This desertion invited entrenchment of extreme Tamil nationalism.
An Ominous Break in Ceylon’s Parliamentary Consensus
Mrs. Bandaranaike’s left coalition government which swept the polls in 1970 moved for a constituent assembly. While Mrs. Bandaranaike wanted no major departure from the existing Soulbury Constitution, Dr. Colvin R. de Silva, the Trotskyite Minister of Constitutional Affairs, took a doctrinaire approach. His constitution, while further centralising power, almost denied independent checks on its exercise except by a parliamentary majority, removed Section 29 which afforded the minorities symbolic protection and impaired secularism by giving Buddhism the foremost place.
Handy Perinpanayagam, who sent a memorandum to the Constituent Assembly in 1972, was in no doubt that the Tamils were still on moral high ground: “When Sinhala Only was made the law of the land, not the slightest effort was made to temper the wind to the shorn Tamil lamb. The self-esteem of the Tamil speaking community was trampled underfoot. The law was stark, blunt and without any recognition of the fact that there was in Ceylon another sizeable linguistic group to whom their language was just as vital and precious as Sinhala to the Sinhalese.”
He explained the enormity of the injustice in the simplest terms: “Any indignity imposed upon the Tamils’ mother tongue is an indignity to his Tamilness… One accepted definition of democracy is ‘Government with the consent of the governed’. Not a single Tamil speaker consented to be governed in Sinhala. This fact makes this vote a mockery of democracy.”
Handy Perinpanayagam still hoped that the Left would revive the aborted Regional Councils Bill of the previous government, which Dr. N.M. Perera said they had opposed because it originated from the UNP: “Now that the Left is in power, why not reconsider it? I am not thinking of Regional Councils only, [but of] a comprehensive scheme of decentralisation [where the citizen] – the proles – will not always and at all levels be at the receiving end, but will be able to speak and be spoken to as a person entitled to speak and to be heard.”
Chelvanayagam: When Anger and Despair Trump Goodwill and Hope
Dr. Jayampathy Wickremaratne (The 1972 Constitution in Retrospect) is moved by the poignancy in Chelvanayakam’s announcement of the FP’s withdrawal from the Constituent Assembly proceedings on 28th June 1971: “We mean no offence to anybody. We only want to safeguard the dignity of our people.” Wickremaratne points to the tragic irony ‘that Dr. Colvin R. de Silva who prophetically roared in 1955, “one language, two countries; two languages, one country,” should go so far as to upgrade the then existing language provisions to constitutional status.’ Chelvanayakam had till then held the moral high ground.
On 3rd October 1972, Chelvanayakam resigned his parliamentary seat and forced the Government into an electoral contest on its claim that the Tamils accepted the 1972 Constitution. The Government delaying the KKS by-election by 2½ years, an unconscionably long time for a very sickly man, soured the atmosphere further. Chelvanayakam’s statement upon winning handsomely the by-election on 7th February 1975, pushed up the emotional and political stakes to dizzying heights: “I wish to announce to my people and to the country that I consider the verdict at this election as a mandate that the Tamil Eelam nation should exercise the sovereignty already vested in the Tamil people and become free.”
The Federal Party could no longer control events without political help from the Government, which was itself stymied in a heated dispute over extending its term of office for more than the mandatory five years which ended in May 1975. The country was on a roller coaster and the Federal Party’s 1976 Vaddukkottai resolution followed by default from Chelvanayakam’s February 1975 victory address.
The 1970 parliamentary elections had found the Federal Party in deep crisis. Its stalwarts Naganathan and Amirthalingam lost to minor political figures. Although the defeats very likely owed to the stalwarts’ lack of attention to their constituencies, it led to anger against opponents whom they alleged were betraying the Tamils for government favours. May 1972 saw the leaders ‘burning themselves out in impotent rage’ (Karalasingam). Traitors, supposedly worthy of death at the hands of the youth, including Jaffna Mayor Alfred Duraiappah, were then named from a Federal Party platform. The inflammatory line was supported by Suthanthiran, the paper owned by the Chelvanayakam family.
The Federal Party won the 1977 elections handsomely. But the Tamil cause had fallen precipitously from the moral high ground it once occupied.
The lives of Handy Perinpanayagam and Chelvanayakam spanned almost the same years 1898 – 1977; the difference, one might judge from their positions respectively, as that between moral sensibility guided by an earthy common-sense and one toughened by the skirmishes of legal encounters; one often adduces persuasive reasons why something, say the Citizenship Acts, is morally obnoxious, only to find that experienced lawyers dismiss them as irrelevant, as two courts did. Chelvanayakam’s sincerity and earnestness in opposing the Citizenship Acts in Parliament and the Supreme Court are beyond doubt. But he said little on the subject after the Supreme Court defeat in 1951. He simply lost faith in the polity and institutions under the Sinhalese elite. In the wake of the 1956 Sinhala Only Act, K. Nesiah related a conversation, where Chelvanayakam held that a handful of cow dung thrown on Prime Minister Bandaranaike’s back would do far more good than incisive appeals to reason.
By 1972, Chelvanayakam appears to have become very pessimistic about a settlement with the Sinhalese political class. The Bangladesh precedent had been voiced by the Federal Party, notably at the rousing meeting in Jaffna Town Hall that January. The 1975 by-election victory statement suggests the Federal Party’s populistic probing of the untested waters of international law. Underlying it was the presumption of congenital incompatibility between the Sinhalese and Tamils, which the Youth Congress constantly decried. If one judges by his failure – despite his profession of Gandhian non-violence – to condemn the murder of Alfred Duraiappah and his garlanding of the statue of Sivakumaran who committed suicide when apprehended in an attempt to kill a policeman, Chelvanayakam ended his days a bitter man,
Handy Perinpanayagam, in contrast to the Federal Party, never despaired of appealing to the humanity of the Sinhalese. He wrote in his 1972 Memorandum, “I happen to know the leaders [of the Left] fairly closely. I also know that they too were subject to rough treatment when they supported bilingualism. They have also now adopted the ambiguous formula, ‘Reasonable use of Tamil’.” His repartee couched in humour was as deadly as it was effective: “What puzzles me about this formula is that it presumes there are also unreasonable uses of Tamil which are forbidden.”
Some of the legal arguments the Federal Party was to develop as justification for separation were anticipated by Handy Perinpanayagam. In the Memorandum cited, he pointed out that not one Tamil speaking member voted for Sinhala Only, which raised the issue of admissibility of governance without the consent of the governed. He also wrote, particularly in reference to Sinhala Only that “A law is effective only in so far as those whom it binds accept it or at least acquiesce in it. Mere passing does not make it effective.” He made these observations only to warn and to caution: “Ceylon has become a warning. Under the façade of unity and accommodation there lay hidden hatred and mistrust. Has the blood bath of 1958 been a catharsis? I am inclined to share [Howard] Wriggins’ cautious hope that things will mend…”
sekara / April 21, 2016
“The very next year (1964) the Left (with notable exceptions like Edmund Samarakkody and Meryl Fernando) formed an alliance with the SLFP and became complicit in its communal policies. The Left completely ditched the disenfranchised Hill Country Tamils whom it championed in the 1940s.”
A MINOR CORRECTION: the CP, despite the split in that year, did not enter government with the LSSP. He CP joined the UF alliance only in 1969 to contest the elections in 1970.
“Handy Perinpanayagam, who sent a memorandum to the Constituent Assembly in 1972, was in no doubt that the Tamils were still on moral high ground….”
What moral high ground could the FP have after being partners with the UNP? The FP was more reactionary that the UNP in many ways. It opposed every progressive move of the SLFP regimes. While in the 7-Party Alliance (the Hath Havula) it denounced the Vietnamese struggle against US aggression as well as the struggle against caste oppression.”
I CAN GIVE A LONG LIST of events that expose the hypocrisy of the FP under SJVC. But the little said here is enough to assess the “moral high ground” of the FP in 1971.
“If one judges by his failure – despite his profession of Gandhian non-violence – to condemn the murder of Alfred Duraiappah….”
REALLY, Chelvanayakam was at best a parody of Gandhi. (G’s flaws alienated Ambedkar and Periyaar EVR, but there was consistency in his non-violence.) SJVC’s lieutenant Amirthaingam was emotionally involved in that murder (I will skip the details) and publicly endorsed that criminal act. SJVC was a victim of circumstances of his own creation.
A foonote
In 1955 Handy Perinpanayagam, though well meaning, was not sharp enough in his political judgment. Handy presiding a public meeting held at the Kokkuvil Hindu College, Jaffna, appealed to prime minister Sir John Kotelawala that Sinhala and Tamil should be written into the constitution as the official languages. Sir John, already intoxicated with the flattery he received throughout his visit, agreed to the proposal.
What followed was history.
Despite the UNP rushing to reverse Sir John’s position, Sir John led the UNP to a very bad defeat in 1956– not because of Sinhala Only alone.
The FP, like the TC, was not a mass political party. Like TC, it believed in horse trading and not mass politics. (That was why its two mass campaigns flopped.) Handy was naive to expect much of he parliamentary left in 1972. They had gone a step too far after their anti-Tamil demo in 1966 January.They were bitter after what the FP did to he SLFP government in 1964 and joined he UNP-led regime in 1965.
The FP never thought in terms of the Sinhalese masses. Had he FP spoken about their problems and supported their struggles, a sizable section of the Sinhalese public would have seen its reason. (The FP did support the Hartal of 1953, but that was because it owed the CP a favour in 1952, where the CP defended he FP against TC hooligans.)
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Uthungan / April 21, 2016
.”…the FP was more reactionary than the UNP…”.
A very keen observation by sekara.
Despite the fact that it was the UNP that was largely responsible for tormenting the Communal Riots of 1958. PM SWRD had tried tried to somehow deal with the fall out of abrogation of the BC pact. He knew that the UNP was collaborating with right wing reactionary elements in the Bikhu Perumuna after JR’s Kandy march was nipped in the bud, thanks to SDB at Gampaha.
But there is no record of the FP making it’s views known during political climate then prevailing in the island. It preferred to remain unconcerned and insular.
The FP was always ready to ally with the right wing UNP reactionaries and oppose when any progressive people friendly bill was introduced in parliament those days.
The best examples are the Paddy Lands Ceiling Act and even the bill to create the People’s Bank to break the monopoly of the private banking sector.
Even during the period of 1970to 1977 when the SLFP was in power the FP was very much more pro UNP largely because the old left supported it.
The FP’ would resort to mass action only whenever the SLFP was in power. The 1961 Satyagraha campaign and the bill to establish the Jaffna University are good examples. A more recent example is the CBK proposals in1995 which was opposed by Ranil’s UNP and was dismissed by the FP as ‘not enough’ on the orders of the LTTE.
I can remember the headline story emblazoned in the Suthantiran with a quote from Chandrahasan when news gripped to world about the US ordering troop evacuation from Vietnam ” what will happen to the small Tamil chetty trading community there now, who will look after their interests now?”
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Native Vedda / April 24, 2016
Uthungan
” A more recent example is the CBK proposals in1995 which was opposed by Ranil’s UNP and was dismissed by the FP as ‘not enough’ on the orders of the LTTE. “
You right, however the CBK original draft which was one of best ever had already been watered down as the SLFP grandees would not agree to changes.
I have read the original draft constitution and subsequent final draft. I know how it was mangled into unworkable unreasonable document.
In the mean time the country as a whole and Tamils in particular need to review what happened under LTTE rule(?) of which SJ/sekere is maintaining deafening silence. Possibly he is a secret admirer of little Polpot VP.
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Pistachio / April 24, 2016
Native Vedda, hope SJ/Sekeran (no entiendo) seeks
“”Possibly he is a secret admirer of little Polpot VP. “
he has a one meter chai cat seated on his head.
After all communism and socialism are parasites that thrive on a liberal democracy- today’s world is illiberal democracy.
take the cat away and he would join the flock of mynas but these mynas should perform as one in flight in a straight line not V because that is war. stepping exact sequence front or rear.
tamils are like a bundle of firewood: If one is taken off the bundle becomes disarrayed singles that goes to the fire.
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Dr.Rajasingham Narendran / April 21, 2016
History, with its bitter experiences, has failed to teach our politicians and political aspirants the lessons that had to be learned. Silver tongued, emotive, stupid and shortsighted, but ultimately destructive politics has unfortunately mesmerized an otherwise a very pragmatic and rational people, into putting on the saddle the most unsuitable politicians,for decades. This has been the chink in the armor of the Tamils. It continues to be so today. The political machinery ensures that like begets like and the rot is perpetuated. This is also true of Sinhala politics, with the exception that occasional flashes appear in the pan, who represent hope for the Tamils and the Sinhalese. Tamil politics however works overtime to ensure that this hope is smothered and killed. The Standard Sinhala politics then joins the fray and becomes the partner in the crime, though both appear to be at the far ends of the spectrum. When I use the term Tamil politics, it includes the decades long militant politics. Both the civilian and militant politics have proved to be gravely destructive to the Tamils. I hope the Tamil people find a way to teach the lesson that politicians have to learn and never forget.
What is unfolding after the last war, which I among many hoped would be a catharsis, to the contrary appears to be heading towards a repeat play of history instead, unless this government takes bold initiatives to bring back sanity to the politics of all peoples in this country.
Can the thinking Tamil youth of the north, east , the hill country and the rest of the island who have the vision and intelligence similar to those who formed and led the Jaffna Youth League of the past, come forward to provide a pragmatic , practical, astute, honorable and able, alternate leadership? The Tamils urgently need such an alternative. They are a choiceless people now. However, those who come forward to do so, should have the courage to withstand the machinations of the well anchored Tamil political establishment, which can turn quite lethal.
Dr.Rajasingham Narendran
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Amarasiri / April 21, 2016
Dr.Rajasingham Narendran
“History, with its bitter experiences, has failed to teach our politicians and political aspirants the lessons that had to be learned. Silver tongued, emotive, stupid and shortsighted, but ultimately destructive politics has unfortunately mesmerized an otherwise a very pragmatic and rational people, into putting on the saddle the most unsuitable politicians,for decades. This has been the chink in the armor of the Tamils. It continues to be so today..”
If you have a corrected or better version of the Truth, please let us know. Amarasiri has never been to Jaffna, so far, but would like to check out the onion prices in the peninsula, and compare that to some of the Tamil Politicians. Are they much different from the Sinhala Politicians?
There is a traditional cure by the Tamil Polititians. Go and poison, some poor non-Vellala Tamil wells, and put some fences around the Temples to keep them out, and getting too close to the Vellahala Gods.
Now getting a better understanding of the bimodal IQ distribution of the Tamil Politicians, as published in CT. Is it true for the Tamils as well?
The Story Of Two Graphs drawn by A Tamil Man: By Mahesan Niranjan.
Onion Prices and Tamil IQ Distributions
https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/the-story-of-two-graphs-drawn-by-a-tamil-man/onioniqdistributions/
https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/the-story-of-two-graphs-drawn-by-a-tamil-man/
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Dr.Rajasingham Narendran / April 21, 2016
Amarasiri,
The bimodal curve you have started referring to frequently with reference to Tamils only shows that they are extremely intelligent or extremely stupid and that those of average intelligence are few! This is statistically and biologically untenable. The possibility of a major calamity that devastated a section of people with average intelligence can be contemplated. Even if such a catastrophe transpired, the IQ distrubution will yet be a normal bell curve with the mean being of a lower height.
Further, desist from making nasty comments about the Tamils before interacting with them in both the north and east, by living with them. You have made much of the caste system without understanding its intricacies. The caste that was required to erase their footsteps is not a recognized group any more. Do you know that at one time in Jaffna, if the priest was not available the barber or the dhoby were permitted to lead the ceremony! Do you know so-called lower castes called Kudi Makkal had rights in the household of the Vellahlas. Please read the Salasalappu website today, referring to this through reminiscences of Jaffna Tamils who migrated to Singapore.
‘Incidentally, Dr. Mahesan Nirmalan’s essay was sattire and meant to entertain. It was not based on any scientific data. Your comments are becoming nastier by the day and have crossed the line into the realm of the absurd!
Dr. RN
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Amarasiri / April 21, 2016
Dr.Rajasingham Narendran
“Incidentally, Dr. Mahesan Nirmalan’s essay was satire and meant to entertain. It was not based on any scientific data”
Probably, Dr. Mahesan Nirmalan’s essay was satire, but that satire must have had truth in it, especially taking that “satire” and your comment together.
Amarasiri would put those Tamil “Politicians” and “Leaders” who failed the Tamils and Sri Lanka, in the mode that is closer to the origin. Unfortunately, that is the sad truth.
G. G. Ponnnambalam’s, 50/50, shows greed or stupidity, and everybody suffered, Tamils most of all.
Does G. G. stand for Gon Goma? Just curious.
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Sinhala_Man / April 23, 2016
Some guys (including Dr. Rajasingham Narendran) get confused about the Hoole brothers. And now they it’s Prof. Mahesan Niranjan vs Prof. Mahesan Nirmalan.
Warning: Facts herein are correct, but may be trivial!
You guys are getting confused about the three sons of Mr Mahesan who was an English teacher (of Karainagar origin), who taught at the government-run St Joseph’s College, Bandarawela, for five years or so, around 1975. The school dates from before the First War and educated both Sinhalese and Tamils, and up to about 1981 continued to be the only place where Tamil Medium students could do A. Level Science. I don’t think that I ever met Mr Mahesan. Mrs Mahesan taught at St Mary’s which was already a Tamils only school; she passed away only about two years ago, and I had the pleasure of meeting her when the entire extended “Mahesan family” had gathered for one of their regular annual get-togethers about three years ago at “Cranford Bungalow” in Diyatalawa. They come from all over the world, and have sing-songs!
The Tamil students from St Joseph’s were moved step by step to St Mary’s, which is now known as Tamil Madya Maha Vidyalayam. We all knew what was happening, but the Tamils were helpless, and the few Sinhalese who realised what tragic long-term effects there were going to be didn’t know how to counter the Sinhalese parents and politicians.
There were three Mahesan brothers; I don’t know much about the youngest. What I do know is that they all schooled (up to the O. Levels) in the private, Anglican-run S. Thomas’ Collegiate School, Bandarawela, which had students from all ethnic and religious backgrounds, but at that time had no A. Level classes. It was a school that had moved up from Kollupitiya in January 1942, owing to the Second World War. Owned by Mr W.T. Keble, the schools were sold to S. Thomas’ in 1956. These S. Thomas’ schools were unaffected by the schools’ takeover of 1961.
The Mahesan brothers were quiet but brilliant; they were given private tuition in only one subject: Sinhala. The eldest was kept at S. Thomas’ as long as possible, then did his Maths-based A. Levels at St Joseph’s, entered Peradeniya E-fac, and is now a Professor of Computing at Southampton University. He is Niranjan, the guy who has written many entertaining but thought-provoking “story-articles” that you will find in the CT archives. Amarasiri may be over-using them, but he’s not abusing them! I have NOT had direct contact with Niranjan.
Nirmalan is a capital fellow, whom I’ve got to know very well. He entered the Colombo Medical Faculty from Hindu College, Jaffna, the parents having been allowed to get back to the Jaffna Peninsula about that time. He makes an occasional “comment” on Colombo Telegraph, but I don’t think that he’s written any full articles. Hence, you wouldn’t have seen a photograph of him, but the resemblance to Niranjan is marked. Nirmalan is “Reader” in Anaesthetics at Manchester University. “Reader” in English Universities is the equivalent of “Associate Professor” here and Manchester University is around No. 30 in the World. I don’t think that there is a single Sri Lankan University in the top 2,000. Nirmalan’s wife is also a Medical Academic; she’s half Sinhalese, half Tamil, from Trincomalee. Their son decided not to enter the father’s Uni, so he’s in Nottingham Uni, also studying Medicine.
Nirmalan visits Sri Lanka regularly and teaches for free in almost ALL the Medical Faculties in the country. He makes an annual trip to Africa: it used to be Egypt, but I think it is Uganda now. Always does some teaching.
He will be doing a workshop at S. Thomas’, Bandarawela on the 9th of May 2016; that’s the school whose administration I’ve been critical of:
https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/the-whited-thomian-sepulchres-the-pharisees-who-cheat/
I think it’ll be possible for me to sit in on that session – although you will understand why I say so with a degree of dubiety if you examine that blog and its comments carefully. Some people appear to be afraid to comment because “The Church” is involved; others because they think that there is a family problem involved. And so, a situation that is, objectively, horrendous, goes with too few comments.
On the 10th he’s to do another workshop in the old St Mary’s College, now Bandarawela Madya Maha Vidyalayam. I will definitely sit in on that, but it is likely that Nirmalan will be using Tamil, which is a language that I know nothing of. Some guys have an aptitude for learning languages – but I’m not among those fortunate guys!
It doesn’t look as though the Hooles and the Mahesans know each other at all; I’ll try to put Nirmalan in telephone contact with Rajan Hoole in May. It is very important that the good people in this world get in touch with one another!
I don’t think that I know the third Mahesan brother at all. I’ll see if I can get some gen on him from Nirmalan; if I do, I’ll put it right below this comment – so look out for it about the 12th of May.
Now, I brace myself to hear guys saying that I’m mad to have written all this!
Intention: “Please, let us have a peaceful and happy country!”
https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/the-whited-thomian-sepulchres-the-pharisees-who-cheat/
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SJ / April 26, 2016
Sinhala_Man
“Now, I brace myself to hear guys saying that I’m mad to have written all this!”
It takes a lot of madness to be sane today. Carry on.
Truly, although a digression, it was interesting stuff.
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ramona therese fernando / April 21, 2016
How much more are we to hear about these embarrassing charades?!
It was all so intricately played out by Chelvanayakam et al.,- the part of the castist-elitists, who couldn’t see beyond anything beyond their own importance, such that the dignity of the Tamil and Sinhalese masses were compromised severely.
When once belongs to such a caste-system, one then unnecessarily play-acts the whole way through. (When one holds oneself up as a castist-elitist, normal human-interactions are an impossibility, and there is nowhere else to go in terms of personal importance).
“…….sizeable linguistic group to whom their language was just as vital and precious as Sinhala to the Sinhalese.” Just Unbelievable! When the exact same language was spoken just 27 miles away by 70-oddd million people.
So, are people to read these intricate play-acts, and ohh and ahh about the skillful performances of these Tamilians, thus forget rationality and commitment towards nation and the struggling masses?!!!
Let’s hope that the true Tamils of Lanka would have seen through the charade, and will strive to look after they very own people with some dignity, at last.
As per “ Under the façade of unity and accommodation there lay hidden hatred and mistrust,” we hope it is remembered that the Sinhalese turned on each other in the midst of their misery (the result of colonial displacement), and killed even more of their numbers during the insurgencies. It’s quite a different economic system these days, of which we will TAX the egomaniacal case-elitists!
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Dr.Rajasingham Narendran / April 21, 2016
“…….sizeable linguistic group to whom their language was just as vital and precious as Sinhala to the Sinhalese.” Just Unbelievable! When the exact same language was spoken just 27 miles away by 70-oddd million people.
ref,
What an insensitive and boorish statement , in response to a quote from a great Lankan, who thought beyond the confines of his birth affiliations.
Sekera, thanks for your comment. Has what is for all intents and purposes the successor to the FP- the TNA- regained the long lost moral high ground for the Tamils after the war? It is yet a formation like the hired professional chest beating funeral lamentors of old. It is playing a game that has become a congenital disease. You seem to very familiar with both Tamil and left politics in this country. For the record, can you cite instances where the FP or its successors have achieved something meaningful for the Tamils? I don’t!
Why did the Tamils repeatedly vote for them, despite many able men being available to lead them with progressive and visionary politics? The Tamils had reasons to grouse and groan, but was that reason enough for them to lose their senses?
Dr.RN
Dr.RN
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Sinhala_Man / April 21, 2016
Could you please refrain from commenting, RTF.
This is much too important a subject to have you messing about. stick to discussing Kishani Jayasinghe’s rendition of Danno Budunge, and such like subjects – which are worthy enough, but the damage caused will not be long term.
I shudder t think what would happen to poor, serious Dr Rajan Hoole if he tried to understand your views.
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Zorro / April 25, 2016
“How much more are we to hear about these embarrassing charades?”
Yes we have heard yours too. Your nose must be touching the ceiling.
Take the 1/2 burger BS butt away and have a shampoo or jump in the sea as you said you do when you need a mouth was.
the subject is not for you since you have never been to Jaffna and if you say yes I doubt its before 2009.
Remember you are living off the western dole.
Stupid HEGEL EGGHEAD.
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sekara / April 21, 2016
“The core of the Federal Party (FP) in 1949 comprised MPs S. J. V. Chelvanayakam and C. Vanniasingam, with Senator E.M.V. Naganathan, who parted ways with the Tamil Congress over the latter’s volte-face on the citizenship rights of Indian Tamils. Ponnambalam, in 1948, ditched the Indian Tamils whose impugned citizenship rights his Tamil Congress had pledged to defend and performed obeisance at Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake’s feet for a place in the cabinet.”
How do 2 out of 7 ACTC MPs who left left the ACTC constitute its ‘core’?
GGP was cleverer than what the text suggests.
He voted against the Citizenship Act of 1948.
It was in the “Indian and Pakistani Residents (Citizenship) Act No.3 of 1949” that he voted with the government in which he was then part of.
His claim is that the FP voted against an Act designed to restore citizenship to India (Hill Country) Tamils. That the 1949 Act was a clever act of deception is another mater to comment in detail and expose.
But on paper GGP is ‘clean’.
There are other shady matters. I understand that C. Vanniasingam did not vote in 1948. I was told many years ago by sources in the FP that only GGP & SJVC voted against the 1948 Act. I wonder how the other four TC MPs voted.
the Hansard may give us some insights.
There was also the alleged claim by GGP that SJVC resented his not being offered a cabinet post by DSS, who said no more than one post for the TC.
SJVC’s claim was he left becaus GGP let down he Indian Tamils.
On paper both have clean chits.
The FP stopped pushing the citizenship issue after the B-C pact of 1957.
Where do we go from there?
/
Dr.Rajasingham Narendran / April 21, 2016
Sekara,
The story I have heard is the DSS refused to have SJV in his cabinet saying that he did trust a lean and hungry looking man.
Dr.RN
/
Dr.Rajasingham Narendran / April 21, 2016
Correction: — he did not trust–
Dr.RN
/
sekara / April 21, 2016
Dear Dr RN
That is unfair by both DSS and SJVC.
DSS knew GGP well, but not SJVC. He was too cunning to be unduly nasty.
The pro-GGP version of events is that DSS offered only one cabinet post for the TC, with no strings attached (so that GGP voted according to his freewill), and that GGP tried his best to secure a second post but failed. Had SJVC stuck with him something could have been worked out. The Ciizenship Act was water under the bridge, and GGP persuaded DSS to rectify the injustice by the 1949 Act, and SJVC deliberately misinterpreted his intentions.
The pro-SJVC story is that DSS offered a cabinet post for the TC on condition that the TC did not oppose the Citizenship Act. GGP said that he cannot face the Tamils if he did voted against it, but assured that none else from the TC will oppose it. He tried to persuade SJVC to abstain but SJVC was stubborn. He returned to DSS with the position of SJVC, and DSS agreed to two against but no more.
Then Vanniyasingam stirred trouble and the story goes that he was prevented from being there at division bell.
That is why I would like someone to verify the voting on the Bill.
If it was only GGP and SJVC against the Bill, the prospect of a DSS-GGP deal are high, irrespective of the precision of either narrative.
Another note:
Many do not know that the unofficial newspaper of the FP, Suthanthiran, including the press was jointly owned by GGP and SJVC. Suthanthiran was abusive of GGP all along since the split. But GGP did not pull out or do anything to disturb Suthanthiran.
(The explanation was that Suthanthiran was always running at a loss, and GGP, by letting Suthanthiran survive, only punished SJVC.
I am inclined to believe this explanation but it is hard to verify unlike the matter of ownership.)
/
amal perera / April 25, 2016
sekara,
Sorry to barge in SJ. On CT I have been reading continuously that The former DIG was responsible in a way of burning the Jaffna Library.
Who helped Chandra Hasan SJVC son to have his clients (some of the toughest cases) released at Colombo Courts but the same man who was Magistrate at Colombo – Chandra is alive please ask him. GGP was clean had a command of the language that none could match so he won 99% of his cases and that made folk jealous.
/
Native Vedda / April 21, 2016
SJ/sekara
“The FP stopped pushing the citizenship issue after the B-C pact of 1957. Where do we go from there?”
The Siri Mao admirers should have raised this question when the weeping widow was bent on enforcing repatriation of hard working up country Tamils back to India.
JR was forced by Hindians to grant citizenship to remaining stateless people hence made it a non issue.
Please read the paper
Citizenship law, nationalism and the theft of enjoyment: a post-colonial narrative
Roshan De Silva Wijeyeratne
http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/
viewcontent.cgi?article=
1234&context=ltc
Read it when you got few minutes. Hope this paper won’t undermine your reverence and loyalty to the weeping widow.
/
SJ / April 21, 2016
NV, the La Mancha kid
This is for grown-ups.
Please return to the play pen.
MTF, IH, HLDM and the likes must be missing you.
Se amable. No sea una molestia.
/
SJ / April 21, 2016
Little NV,
Please read on this page the following feedback:
Sinhala_Man
April 21, 2016 at 7:30 pm
It could just as well have been addressed to you.
/
Plato. / April 21, 2016
Just one comment.
S.J.V.Chelvanayagam Q.C.devilled in the Chambers of Sir.Francis de.Zoysa K.C.
/
Mano Ratwatte / April 21, 2016
Sir, if you read the comments will you please help clarify or comment on a short list of issues?
1. During the 1970s; possibly in 1973 or 74, there was an incident at a big Hindu temple in Jaffna. The government dispatched troops to open the temple doors/gates to so called lower castes who were protesting their Brahmin or high Caste peopke who apparently prevented the lesser privileged people from worshipping. Or was it the opposite? Was the government helping the upper castes to chase the protesters?what really happened?
2. Did in fact Mrs. B Actually open Jaffna Uni? When was it started?
3. Have you read up on findings of the Kandyan Commission about the massive disenfranchisement of peasants in the Kandyan provinces by our colonial lords the christian white British to make way for plantations? Why is that ignored ib any serious discussion on land issues?
4. Have you studied the upheavals in Fiji where the Lord and master sent Indentured S.indian labour to plant sugar cane as well? Indigenous vs. Indian Fijians?
5. Was the boom the Jaffna farmer felt with chili and onion prices the reason Late Hector Kobbekaduwa got more votes than Late JR Jayawardene in the 1982 Presidential election? Could that be why he allowed the heinous targeted ethnic cleansing of innocent Tamik people during Black July 1983? (I saw a parallel in the black October 31, 1984 instigated riots by Cong I Hindu murderer thugs like our sinhala thugs against innocent Sikhs )
My view is sinhalese and Tamils and tamil speaking Muslims look alike and we are grnotypically and phenotypically the same people. Shades of brown skin, thick lips and thicker noses. No way in hell are we indo Aryan or Aryan.
We’re not superior or inferior to another by virtue of our birth, caste, or religion. We are inferior or superior only and only by our actions.
I’ve a simplistic view. If LTTE can justify suicide bombs and terrorism, then African Americans had far greater justification to strap bombs on and go to war.
Respectfully,
Mano Ratwatte
Yankeestan
/
Sinhala_Man / April 25, 2016
Dear Mr Mano Ratwatte,
Let my class-mate, Rajan, answer your questions.
I have found that you always talk sense. I believe you studied at Trinity College, Kandy, which is morphing out of the chaos it had plunged in to. I believe your Uncle Clifford was on the BoG of our schools. Would you be able to suggest some way out of the miasma that has our schools in its grip?
https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/the-whited-thomian-sepulchres-the-pharisees-who-cheat/
My immediate memory is what you had to say about the storm in a bra-cup!
/
Gajen Ponnambalam / April 21, 2016
Dear Dr. Hoole,
I refer to the below para:-
“The core of the Federal Party (FP) in 1949 comprised MPs S. J. V. Chelvanayakam and C. Vanniasingam, with Senator E.M.V. Naganathan, who parted ways with the Tamil Congress over the latter’s volte-face on the citizenship rights of Indian Tamils. Ponnambalam, in 1948, ditched the Indian Tamils whose impugned citizenship rights his Tamil Congress had pledged to defend and performed obeisance at Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake’s feet for a place in the cabinet (J.L. Fernando, Three Prime Ministers of Ceylon).”
Can you kindly elaborate on how GG did a “volte-face” and “ditched” the Up Country Tamils?
Many thanks
Gajen
/
Agnos / April 22, 2016
Gajen,
That GG voted with the majority to deprive citizenship for the up country Tamils and that SJV left TC to form the FP citing that as the main reason, has been a staple of Tamil nationalist discourse for several decades.
The only people who have questioned that info about your grandfather are your late father and yourself. So if that is in fact a canard, it is up to you to write in detail and dispel it for once and all. I don’t think Rajan Hoole needs to say anything more on that issue.
/
sekara / April 23, 2016
Agnos
“I don’t think Rajan Hoole needs to say anything more on that issue.”
That is not being objective, and this is serious business.
You need not project Rajan Hoole.
He is the author and is man enough to give his source.
Can anyone cite a reliable source about how the voting went?
After all there are parliamentary records which will give at least a clue.
/
Agnos / April 24, 2016
Prof. Sivasekaram aka Sekara aka SJ (aka Colgate?),
I am not sure if Rajan Hoole is also active on CT as a reader; but I am just trying to tell Gajen that if he has concerns about the version of events presented by Rajan Hoole–which is the same version I have seen from others, including Taraki Sivaram and Velupillai Thangavelu–then he shouldn’t just ask marginal questions in the comment pages of CT; why can’t he write an article giving full details, rebutting Hoole and others, and set the record straight, once and for all?
I have also seen Kumar Ponnambalam questioning the same, but I don’t think he ever set the record straight.
/
Azhvar K. Adiyan / April 24, 2016
Aiyo, aiyo! Angoose, why do you try to guess who an anonymous commentator is — while you yourself remain anonymous? Showing off you are smart, huh!
/
Agnos / April 24, 2016
I know who calls me Angoose, and who asked me whether engineering education is like cutting hair under his own article; plenty of hints; also, SJ and Sekara had the same gravatar in case you forgot. As for my anonymity, I don’t use multiple avatars, and use my alias consistently.
/
sekara / April 24, 2016
Hold it mate, Agnos.
If you have a bee in your bonnet about something that is your problem.
Kindly leave me out of your bickering.
/
sekara / April 24, 2016
Agnos (April 24, 2016 at 6:56 am)
I am a bit slow on the uptake these days, must be the heat.
I realized what you were bitching about, and it took me a while to figure it out on the Internet.
The comment that tormented you was by Olympus (January 17, 2016 at 2:28 am).
Now I know why you made the nasty uncalled for remark about Peradeniya.
That remark alone should have revealed to me your identity. But I did not bother to investigate and I am not in the least interested. What matter to me in this space are views and not persons who express them. I will stick with that.
You are pathetic! To relieve you of your misery:
I hereby authorize CT to tell you or anyone else that cares if “Olympus” and I have the same or even similar identity.
I wonder what you found that was common between me and Colgate.
/
Agnos / April 25, 2016
Sekara,
“That remark alone should have revealed to me your identity. But I did not bother to investigate and I am not in the least interested.”
Whatever guess you can make of me is likely to be wrong; as I have told you elsewhere on CT, I am several decades junior to you. If you think I have any connection to Jeevan Hoole, you should know that I was the one who outed Ahithyan Ratnam as Jeevan Hoole.
When I entered Peradeniya for my 1st degree in engineering, you had left for Imperial College, and I only heard about you from some senior students. But as an EE graduate who is familiar with both academia and the industry in the US, I tend to agree with Jeevan Hoole on certain issues about the engineering curriculum at Peradeniya. I was critical of it even while an undergrad there. Why should anyone take that as nasty and uncalled for? My interest is only in making the university more competitive globally so that graduates will have more respect and better opportunities.
Someone with changing aliases has been shadowing me and calling me Angoose, especially whenever my views happened to be in agreement with the Hooles’; I initially supported Jeevan Hoole for the VC post in Jaffna. That person seems to be an academic with an engineering background, dislikes Jeevan Hoole for VC, is in Jaffna, etc. So from that profile, I suspected you.
As for Colgate, he/she interjected a conversation between you and NV and said, ‘SJ’s admiration for China has nothing to do with it.’ I thought not many people would grasp your ‘admiration for China’ so quickly, so I had some suspicions that it was just another avatar by you, and it became stronger after seeing both you and Colgate used phrases like ‘that is not fair’, ‘ man enough’, etc.
In both cases, if I am wrong, my apologies. I recognize that my reasoned guesses are not always right. We don’t need to make this a distraction. I have always had a lot of respect for you even though I disagreed with you on the way engineering education should happen in SL, your pro-China Marxist positions, etc.
/
take_that / April 25, 2016
“”But as an EE graduate who is familiar with both academia and the industry in the US, I tend to agree with Jeevan Hoole on certain issues about the engineering curriculum at Peradeniya.””
porriki passan-
Your standard is British and low- `land of associations` its neither high European or american
I can tell you now – stop bragging moron- you are next to nothing to us.
answer his question than calling him names.
You junior We have junior too who topped US presently. In the US we are right on the top at GEC.
from what I understand is Hoole is structural Engg.- am I right.
Now tell me why the Island had to call ANS Kulasingha to repair the damage to your electrics by Balfour Beatty.
/
sekara / April 25, 2016
Dear Agnos
Thank you for the apology, although halfhearted.
I have never allowed my views of individuals to interfere with issues and trust that it will remain so.
I have not indulged in personal attacks in these columns, although harsh in responses to stupidly provocative and intentionally offensive remarks.
Now that you say that I have guessed you wrongly, I do not know who any is among the vast number here but those who declare their true names. (I do not even know what “angoose” is supposed to mean unless you care to explain.) To me all that is irrelevant, and it is views that matter.
I hate sitting in judgment of people.
You have got me wrong about my “admiration for China”. I have defended China only against unfair criticism, especially by middle class Tamils with an irrational Sinophobia.
My political stand is as firm as it was. Thus there is nothing to admire about capitalist China.
I appreciate positions that China has not yet abandoned, especially in foreign relations and attitude towards weaker countries.
That is important in the context of growing imperialist racism and aggression.
All that can change if China becomes the leading capitalist power.
But that is for the future.
Good luck.
/
amal perera / April 25, 2016
“”All that can change if China becomes the leading capitalist power. “
Its a dream even the Chinese don’t believe in- they are an objective people.
They are bracing to be flattened by USA and have over 1500 kilometers of nuclear underground shelters.
Think of something better and democratic because even china and russia live off it.
/
sekara / April 24, 2016
Dear Agonos
from Sekera (…aka Palmolive, aka Lever Bros…aka Fukushima…??)
If Rajan Hoole is the author and his views are challenged I think that it is good for him to respond. Awareness of dissent will help when he publishes theses essays as a book.
His response directly or otherwise is more valuable than any on his behalf.
An error in this matter is serious, but will not seriously dent his credibility. But knowingly propagating a falsehood will.
Thus any true friend among CT readers should inform him on such matters and get his response.
I am surprised to know that Kumar Ponnambalam has questioned too.
Who resurrected him?
If he has not followed it up that is his look out.
I have kept a distance from all Tamil nationalist outfits after 1965, when the FP joined the UNP. So I am sorry that I cannot answer on his behalf.
The story about GGP voting for the Act was propagated by people who took for granted the FP version. Why has AJ Wilson in any of his writings not made this claim? Taraki is not the most accurate historian that I know and I have not read much of Thangavelu to comment.
There were 7 TC MPs and a Senator. Then there is the hansard. The latter is accessible.
I too believed the story for long. Later I was corrected by senior FP leader, who nevertheless held that GGP did wrong.
/
Native Vedda / April 25, 2016
sekara
“The story about GGP voting for the Act was propagated by people who took for granted the FP version.”
You could be right on this issue and this issue alone.
About a couple of years ago Sumanthitran categorically said GGP didn’t vote for the Act.
You will find him saying this on the record if you chose to check youtube.
/
sekara / April 25, 2016
NV
“About a couple of years ago Sumanthitran categorically said GGP didn’t vote for the Act.”
You could have had the decency to say this much earlier at the right time.
Perhaps too much to expect of you.
/
Native Vedda / April 26, 2016
SJ/sekara
“You could have had the decency to say this much earlier at the right time.”
So do you want me to start every comment with “GGP didn’t vote for the citizenship Act 1948”?
So do you want to decide when I write, what I write, …..?
“Perhaps too much to expect of you.”
Please don’t expect anything from me and our fellow commentators don’t.
/
SJ / April 26, 2016
“Please don’t expect anything from me and our fellow commentators don’t.”
I know what one can expect of you– but one invariably hopes for better, until reality dawns, like now.
Sorry to have even imagined that you may have done the decent thing to avert unwanted acrimony on a fairly serious subject.
/
Native Vedda / April 24, 2016
Agnos
“Prof. Sivasekaram aka Sekara aka SJ (aka Colgate?),”
If a commentator chose a forum name we should respect him/her and deal with the content of comments.
Who is this Prof. Sivasekaram and what is his contribution to humanity? I am just curious.
/
SJ / April 24, 2016
Little NV
Any more news on the “1974 massacre”?
/
Native Vedda / April 25, 2016
SJ/sekere
“Any more news on the “1974 massacre”?”
Look up where you first raised this question.
/
SJ / April 25, 2016
Litte NV
Has someone read Alice in Wonderland to you by now?
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master –- that’s all.”
So much for the meaning of “massacre”. In case you miss the point,
Me Alice you Humpty Dumpty, as in ” Me Tarzan you Jane”.
/
Agnos / April 25, 2016
NV,
Under a recent article on CT where Jeevan Hoole did some muckraking about caste, there was a lot of discussion that ensued, and SJ gave enough info about his Peradeniya connections and his relationship with Prof. Thurairajah, current relationship with Jaffna University, etc.; since there weren’t too many Tamil engineering professors, it was obvious to anyone with any connection to Peradeniya and Jaffna who SJ was. SJ himself recognized that such details would reveal his identity but since it was “among friends,” he was not bothered.
Prof. Sivasekaram was a well-known Mechanical Engineering professor at Peradeniya who later left for Imperial college and was there for more than a decade. He returned to Peradeniya later, and after retiring from Peradeniya, teaches part-time at Jaffna Univ’s new engineering faculty. Even 4 or 5 decades ago, he was well-known for his pro-China Marxist leanings. He was known to write articles in Tamil publications and newspapers with an unrepentant Marxist viewpoint. Even while he was in the UK, he used to send his Tamil articles to his friend, one Subramaniam, who was a communist party leader/theoretician in Jaffna, to send out for local publications.
/
Native Vedda / April 25, 2016
Agnos
“Prof. Sivasekaram was a well-known Mechanical Engineering professor at Peradeniya who later left for Imperial college and was there for more than a decade.”
Now come on, do you think a learned Professor of Mechanical Engineering would lower his dignity to the level of comical Ali by typing cheap jibes, holding on to failed Maoism and Siri Maoism and her saree, being a self-hating Tamil …. and mostly wrong.
One expects higher standards, intellectual honesty, a sense of justice, … knowing right from wrong, ……………
I won’t believe that SJ/sekere and Prof. Sivasekaram are one and the same.
Do you have any other evidence to prove your assertion?
Lets forget about SJ/sekere, colgate, …. intellectual gymnast for a moment.
Has Prof. Sivasekaram contributed to humanity?
/
Agnos / April 26, 2016
NV,
I suggest you go back into the comments section of the last article on caste and Jaffna Univ. by Jeevan Hoole on CT. I have no doubt about the identity I am speaking of. It seems to me that lots of retired/semi-retired people are having a little fun in the comment pages, taking up different POV’s; I will leave it at that and let others answer your questions if they want.
/
sekara / April 22, 2016
Agnos
GGP voted against the Citizenship Act of 1948. Senior members of the FP have told me so.
(But he backed the 1949 Bill which SJVC & CV opposed. There was mutual criticism on that matter.)
The story that he voted for the 1948 Act was spread by the FP and repeated ad nauseam to this day.
That there was a betrayal I am inclined to agree.
There are missing details. The picture will be clearer if facts of the voting in 1948 are made available.
See my earlier comment: sekara April 21, 2016 at 3:28 pm
/
Cyclist / April 23, 2016
My dear Gajen,
Why don’t you do a bit of reading in your grandfather’s library. I am sure the Queen’s Road residence is quite comfortable despite the heat outside. Your party TNPF is out of action for at least another 4-years. There’s plenty of time left for some thorough research on the matter. I am suggesting this despite knowing for a fact that you are not intellectually inclined as your forefathers.
Here’s a bit of help, your grandfather contributed nothing to the citizenship act debate. He was absent during the vote, even though the Tamil Congress’ position was to oppose it. He later became minister in the government and voted in favour of the third bill in 1949.
Good luck with the rest of the research!
/
Zorro / April 25, 2016
keep cycling, keep on it, perhaps the wind will teach you that your proposal is besides the point.
/
Rajan Hoole / April 24, 2016
Dear Mr. Gajen Ponnambalam,
I am surprised that you should ask me to clarify what is widely known and documented. Since the original documents are now hard to obtain and there is a good deal of confusion and myth-making about what really happened, I will in the public interest write a comprehensive article to clarify the issue, but not immediately. You may usefully look at my Palmyra Fallen. You are fully entitled to tell the story from your standpoint, and you should.
Yours sincerely,
Rajan Hoole
/
Zorro / April 25, 2016
“”are now hard to obtain “”
without the seal of the authority your statement is null and void- Don’t you write it would haunt you more than your pen.
/
Zorro / April 25, 2016
Whence the real troubles started from an insult to a people.
As a child of six whilst cleaning my dad’s books Greek, Latin, and English.He did never speak much but he told me that crazy Tamil minister of public administration told the house of parliament `how educated and intelligent the Tamils were because they held most government positions in the civil service and foreign service. It was in the Hansard but being small I did not read it so I shall not comment about it.
/
sekara / April 26, 2016
Anyone has the right to question anything at any time.
Why Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam chose to question is not an issue. I think that he has only challenged a popular myth, which did not seriously affect how the Tamils of the North voted.
I believe that the Hill Country Tamils were badly let down. But the version that you offer seems incorrect: GGP, did not vote for the act according to Sumanthiran MP, as a contributor to this page recently said. I have read AJ Wilson on the subject and cannot remember his saying anywhere that GGP voted for the 1948 Act. I too once believed the FP version of events, which probably were based on the vote on the 1949 Act, but intentionally or otherwise distored to mean the 1948 Act by the FP medium (the Suthanthiran) as well as FP orators on many a platform.
Joining the UNP government after the passage of the Act of 1948 was wrong and GGP deserves to be criticized for that. the 1949 Act was a deceptive move by the regime and GGP should be criticized as a partner in government.
Any version of the betrayal had no impact on the N&E Tamil electorate in 1952. The FP rose on the language issue in 1956 which served it well until 1965 but not after. ‘Sinhala Only’ made Chelvanayakam a ‘prophet’ for life (and after life) in FP circles.
The Tamil electorate and he FP, especially after B-C talks quietly dropped the citizenship issue, except for the meek protest against the Sirima-Shastri pact in 1964, which was strongly condemned by the ‘Peking Wing’ communists.
SJVC’s less famous prophecy was in 1970: “Only God can save the Tamils now”. That was in response to the electoral success of the SLFP. The Tamils trusted that the TULF will deliver, and then the ‘Boys’.
God must have been rather disappointed or even annoyed with them.
Jokes apart, you are trying to write history. If any statement is questioned it is as much your responsibility to research the truth as that of the questioner.
Mistakes in such matters can always be corrected.
I wonder why how the TC voted in 1948 has not been stated to this day by any Tamil nationalist historian.
/
Native Vedda / April 26, 2016
Rajan Hoole
Can you not locate the relevant gazette to verify how each party voted on this important ACT?
/
Plato. / April 21, 2016
Mano Ratwatte.
Just one comment again.
Sir.Ivor Jennings,famously remarked…
The Sinhalese and Tamils are essentially Language groups.
What he meant was that they are not racial groups.
But they are at each others throats,since Independence!!!
/
Zorro / April 25, 2016
“”What he meant was that they are not racial groups.””
muttal paku toma,
Have you heard of the Americans and how the the Anglo Saxons had to have addendums to the constitution to let other whites in??
Refer the meaning of Ethnicity and Race in the USA constitution.
Both Socrates and Francois Bacon must be rolling in their grave listening to your `educated discussion` of what they had to say.
/
Plato. / April 21, 2016
Dr.RN.
What you mean is Caesars famous quote….
Let me have men about me that are fat,
Sleek headed men and such as sleep-a nights.
Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look,
He thinks too much;such men are dangerous.
Excepting DSS-who was a bit of a Fatso,the others in that cabinet were slim men.
How come SWRD was taken on Board?
He too had a Lean and hungry look!
The story that SJV formed the FP,since he was not given a Portfolio,was a canard of the over zealous supporters of the Tamil Congress.
/
Dr.Rajasingham Narendran / April 22, 2016
Plato,
Thanks. Yes, it was a quote from Shakespeare’s Julius Caessar. No one in DSS’s cabinet was lean and hungry looking as SJV, though many were slim.
The story I heard was that GGP, when offered a portfolio, he had suggested SJV instead, as he was his senior. The lean and hungry comment from DSS was supposed to have been made in this context.
The source I heard this story from is very reliable, though the person who related it to him-GGP-may have been spinning a tale.
As an aside, Gamini Luxshman Pieris is another lean and hungry looking man, whose performance is yet unfolding for us and which affirms Shakespear’s insight!
Dr.RN
/
owlish / April 22, 2016
Same old, same old stories. When will Tamils forget the past and move on. Can they never be happy being citizens of SL, while taking all the freebies available to them? They have the best and the most number of schools, best hospitals, can study at any university they wish, set up home or business anywhere. All provided by the earnings of the entire population mostly Sinhalese. Is there no gratitude, no principle of ‘live and let live; in their hearts. Separatism stinks, serves no purpose other than hatred of those who are different albeit superficially.
/
Plato. / April 24, 2016
Native.
I am just curious,perhaps like Alice; Is there a relationship between Sekera and
SJ.?
/
Pistachio / April 25, 2016
similar is Rip Van Winkle – nothing as close as it.-Time Travel.
/
Native Vedda / April 26, 2016
Plato.
“I am just curious,perhaps like Alice; Is there a relationship between Sekera and SJ.?”
He once typed under the name sekere and signed off as SJ.
Please look at the both Avatar (icon) next to his names SJ and sekere, both same.
I noticed these similarities about three weeks ago and since then I have been addressing him as SJ/sekere.
I suspect he is suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder (Multiple Personality Disorder).
/
SJ / April 26, 2016
Little NV
You should have discovered it much earlier, when I made a slip. But perhaps you were not that sharp. Never mind, you will improve with time.
You have not read Alice, I am sure. It is not easy at your mental age.
Get some help from the play pen minder.
But don’t play the shrink there. There are some nasty kids around.
/
Native Vedda / April 26, 2016
Agnos
Do you still believe SJ/sekere is the professor?
Professors do not stoop to this level as they are supposed to be dignified, learned and intellectually honest.
Here you see a pathetic man who is desperate to say things that amounts to baby talk.
Please find more evidence to prove who this man is.
How old is the professor? If you say he is in his second childhood then of course there is a slim chance I might buy your story.
/
Agnos / April 27, 2016
NV,
I still do. I don’t have time to read the back and forth between you and him. But serious people also have their funny or lighter sides. And FYI, the person who addresses me “Aiyo Angoose” is most likely Mahesan Niranjan. Serious people can behave in a silly way on forums like this.
/
Plato. / April 25, 2016
Zorro.
Your line…
It was in the Hansard but being small i did not read it so I shall not comment about it…
Now,perhaps you are big; Could you condescend to read it and comment?
/
Zorro / April 25, 2016
My expired long ago and I am not in his profession.
So understandably, I don’t carry his books.
Even my engineering books from college are in the bin because I update to the latest.
I am not an historian either to retain.
cheers
/
sekara / April 26, 2016
Good ol’ Plato
Whenever Alice had to clear a doubt she had many besides Humpty Dumpty. I will come to your rescue, if your curiosity is killing you: it is more or less like between Tweedledum and Tweedledee; certainly not a Jekyll and Hyde situation.
Also since Agnos spilled the beans out of irrational fury, there is nothing to pretend. One mostly appears in frivolous situations– the other in more serious ones. But with interruption there is a smudge in the borderline on this count. They do not, however, interact.
You may have noticed almost identical remarks by one used to get more thumbs up and the other more thumbs down.
Have you recognized comments popping up with two thumbs up almost as they appear?
It is a good study in website psychology.
It is a mad mad mad space out here.
To survive one needs a dose of insanity or a sense of good humor or a mix of both.
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Plato. / April 25, 2016
Zorro.
So you are not inclined to enter into a debate with muttal paku toma-whatever that means!
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Native Vedda / April 26, 2016
Plato.
You asked me a question earlier:
“I am just curious,perhaps like Alice; Is there a relationship between Sekera and SJ.?”
He once typed under the name sekere and signed off as SJ.
Please look at the both Avatar (icon) next to his names SJ and sekere, both same.
I noticed these similarities about three weeks ago and since then I have been addressing him as SJ/sekere.
I suspect he is suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder (Multiple Personality Disorder).
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Zorro / April 26, 2016
I don’t debate on what the learned said its for the stupid.
your pop was friend of ladies man dudley so why don’t you find out.
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Zorro / April 26, 2016
historically the men of definitions are Socrates and Francois Bacon.
Plato in his hippias minor and major. In minor after winning Socrates admits that he was wrong but won because he had the verbal virtuosity.
think about it (I have said it before on CT many a time)
toma means take this.
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Plato. / April 26, 2016
Zorro.
Francois Bacon?
Was/Is he an Avatar of Francis Bacon?
You seem to be having more indignation than you can possibly contain!
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Zorro / April 26, 2016
faulty towers!!
read not to contradict and confute nor ….but to weigh and consider.
I never look back (i copied and pasted the first mistake; your side show was irrelevant) though I knew it was not an English first name but french.
you really get a bee in your bonnet when the native veddha goes for his honey.
you have to be born again perhaps 2 generations.
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Plato. / April 26, 2016
Native; Sekara:
Tweedledum & Tweedledee were terms first used by George Bernard Shaw.
Would this be of any help to unravel this mysterious mystery!
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Zorro / April 26, 2016
If you have no idea of the knowledge both possess and who they are you belong to the idiot box; `sex appeal`
If a message posted is understood that is the main thing on these forums-and anyone who can merely highlight spelling mistakes and highlight grammatical errors needs to get a life.
Go by self to the cinema its called socialising.
It’s a good thing to be booby once in a while.
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sekara / April 26, 2016
It was by Lewis Carroll in ‘Through the Looking-Glas’s the sequel to ‘Alice in Wonderland’.
The characters come briefly and the lines below are popular as nursery rhyme.
GBS took it from that tradition.
It is an uncomplimentary reference to two people who think and act similarly.
Tweedledum and Tweedledee
Agreed to have a battle;
For Tweedledum said Tweedledee
Had spoiled his nice new rattle.
Just then flew down a monstrous crow,
As black as a tar-barrel;
Which frightened both the heroes so,
They quite forgot their quarrel.
/