{"id":100130,"date":"2013-08-13T05:25:55","date_gmt":"2013-08-12T23:55:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=100130"},"modified":"2020-05-07T15:47:52","modified_gmt":"2020-05-07T10:17:52","slug":"mahinda-rajapaksa-is-a-sinhalese-extremist-lee-kuan-yew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/mahinda-rajapaksa-is-a-sinhalese-extremist-lee-kuan-yew\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Mahinda Rajapaksa Is A Sinhalese Extremist&#8217; &#8211; Lee Kuan Yew"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Lee+Kuan+Yew&amp;x=9&amp;y=6\">Lee Kuan Yew<\/a><\/span>, \u00a0the\u00a0Father of Singapore\u00a0and father of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore has described Sri Lankan President <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Mahinda+Rajapaksa&amp;x=12&amp;y=7\">Mahinda Rajapaksa<\/a><\/span> as a <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Conversations-Lee-Kuan-Yew-Singapore\/dp\/9812616764\">Sinhalese Extremist and what happened in Sri Lanka in 2009 as ethnic cleansing<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_100132\" style=\"width: 215px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Lee-Kuan-Yew.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-100132\" class=\" wp-image-100132\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Lee-Kuan-Yew-215x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"205\" height=\"286\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Lee-Kuan-Yew-215x300.jpg 215w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Lee-Kuan-Yew.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 205px) 100vw, 205px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-100132\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lee Kuan Yew<\/p><\/div>\n<p>This statement of Lee is a matter with great import. All these years criticism from outside was dismissed by the Sri Lankan government as by colonialists. But this is by a respected Asian leader. After Singapore\u2019s Senior Minister has spoken thus, will Singapore feel free to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=CHOGM&amp;x=5&amp;y=5\">CHOGM<\/a><\/span>) in November?<\/p>\n<p>These comments were made during lengthy conversations with the author of the book\u00a0Prof. Thomas Plate<strong>, <\/strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Conversations-Lee-Kuan-Yew-Singapore\/dp\/9812616764\">Citizen Singapore: How To Build A Nation &#8211; Conversations with Lee Kwan Yew<\/a><\/em><\/span>, Marshall Cavendish, \u00a02011.<\/p>\n<p>Surprisingly such comments of great import in a 2011 book are making it into the public domain only 2 years later.<\/p>\n<p>Author Thomas Gordon Plate is an American journalist, internationally syndicated columnist and a Professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, CA as its Distinguished Scholar of Asian and Pacific Studies.<\/p>\n<p>Specifically Lee Kuan Yew has said of President Rajapaka and Sri Lanka, \u201c[Sri Lanka] is not a happy, united country. Yes, they have beaten the Tamil Tigers this time, but the Sinhalese who are less capable are putting down a minority of Jaffna Tamils who are more capable. They were squeezing them out. That\u2019s why the Tamils rebelled. But I do not see them ethnic cleansing all two million-plus Jaffna Tamils. The Jaffna Tamils have been in Sri Lanka as long as the Sinhalese.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Plate: \u201cSo what Asia saw was ethnic cleansing?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Lee: \u201cThat&#8217;s right.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Plate: \u201cThey [the Tigers] will come back, you think?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lee: \u201cI don&#8217;t think they are going to be submissive or go away. The present President of Sri Lanka believes he has settled the problem; Tamil Tigers are killed and that is that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Plate: \u201cSee, that&#8217;s really a fascinating point, because to the extent that we have any sense of who you are at all, we think of you as this hard-boiled force\u00ad first guy. But in fact your system of government is much softer, consensual and intelligent, whereas what the Sinhalese in Sri Lanka are doing is a caricature of an LKY who never existed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lee: \u201cI&#8217;ve read his speeches and I knew he was a Sinhalese extremist. I cannot change his mind.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/mahinda-rajapaksa-is-a-sinhalese-extremist-lee-kuan-yew\/lky\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-100144\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-100144\" title=\"LKY\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/LKY.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"583\" height=\"717\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/LKY.jpg 583w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/LKY-243x300.jpg 243w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 583px) 100vw, 583px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":100132,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2187,1,6969,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-most-popular","category-news","category-popular-stories","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>&#039;Mahinda Rajapaksa Is A Sinhalese Extremist&#039; 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