{"id":140254,"date":"2015-03-01T02:59:39","date_gmt":"2015-02-28T21:29:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=140254"},"modified":"2015-03-07T15:54:26","modified_gmt":"2015-03-07T10:24:26","slug":"sirisena-govt-must-sensibly-engage-with-non-resident-tamils","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sirisena-govt-must-sensibly-engage-with-non-resident-tamils\/","title":{"rendered":"Sirisena Govt Must Sensibly Engage With Non-Resident Tamils"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Rajasingham Jayadevan<\/span><\/a> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Rajasingham<\/a>

Rajasingham Jayadevan<\/p><\/div>\n

The new government of President Maithiripala Sirisena<\/span><\/a> has taken heartening steps to deal with serious issues such as good governance, accountability and to bring an end to the autocratic governance of familial rules embodied in deep rooted hate feelings.<\/p>\n

This encouraging process must be strengthened to deal with wider issues and the government that is in the transitional process with the 100 day good governance programme must transit into a much more stable government after the parliamentary elections soon to deal with further fundamental issues.<\/p>\n

The government needs to undertake positive and serious steps to engage with the Non Resident Tamils (NRT) with the sincere intention to deal with the issues affecting them and Sri Lanka. Instead of taking the hostile path of clobbering all the fair minded NRTs to the agitating and screaming Tamil groups, the government must seek to give wider focus to listen to the silent voices of the majority NRTs.<\/p>\n

\"Tamil<\/a><\/p>\n

*Tamil diaspora in UK – File photo\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Of the successive governments, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa<\/span><\/a>\u2019s government wholly alienated the NRTs and kept on oxygenating the hard-core Tamil groups to such a scale that it polarised the much needed relationship into crisis point and to the scale of no return. The former Foreign Minister Prof G L Peiris<\/span><\/a> was a god given professorial clump to diabolically harp on the NRTs on the whole to market the government\u2019s anti-NRT feelings down south in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

The You Tube display (below of November 2014) of the conditioned minds like that undermined the will of the fair minded wider expatriate Tamils was melody for the Mahinda Rajapaksa government. The government\u2019s measurement of the NRTs based on such displays is canard and only alienated the resourceful and intelligent NRT community. The unemployed, a funeral orator, a charity thief (under investigation) and those extensively benefitted from the extension of the war are not the true projection of the wider NRTs.The new government must expand its scope to engage with the wider NRTs and move away from the rots that are rotting the very meaning of the Tamil Diaspora. Any sincere engagement must not be conditioned upon focussing on the branded Tamil groups. Far reaching efforts must be made to listen to the wider NRT views and to address their needs and issues honestly.<\/p>\n