{"id":232590,"date":"2023-05-23T22:36:09","date_gmt":"2023-05-23T17:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=232590"},"modified":"2023-06-04T17:08:57","modified_gmt":"2023-06-04T11:38:57","slug":"anniversary-angst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/anniversary-angst\/","title":{"rendered":"Anniversary Angst"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p3\"><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>By <a style=\"color: #ff6600;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Sachithanandam+Sathananthan\">Sachithanandam Sathananthan<\/a> &#8211;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_202551\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-202551\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-202551\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Dr.-Sachithanandam-Sathananthan-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Dr.-Sachithanandam-Sathananthan-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Dr.-Sachithanandam-Sathananthan-45x45.jpg 45w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-202551\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dr. Sachithanandam Sathananthan<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"p4\">The <span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><a style=\"color: #ff6600;\" href=\"http:\/\/slguardian.org\/14-years-after-the-end-of-ltte-sri-lankas-tragic-saga-of-manipulation-and-power\/\"><span class=\"s1\">Editorial<\/span><\/a><\/span> in a Sri Lankan web journal (<i>not<\/i> the Colombo Telegraph) claimed to have discovered the country\u2019s \u201cdark underbelly on the 14th anniversary of the LTTE leader&#8217;s death\u201d; it grieved that the \u201cpervasive culture of deceit poisons every interaction\u201d in society, resulting in multiple \u201ccrises\u201d, which belied \u201chopes\u201d that the \u201c(e)limination of his [Prabhakaran\u2019s] terror factory\u2026celebrated by the country\u2026would mark the beginning of a new era where social justice and human rights would prevail.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">Of course, most Malayaha and Ceylon Tamils, Muslims and Christians saw the \u201cunderbelly\u201d somewhat earlier.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">The vast majority of genuine Sinhalese people understandably believed the smooth talk of their nationalist Sinhalese intelligentsia, who alleged the following:<\/p>\n<p>a) Tamil nationalism and its cutting edge, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), are the font of almost all difficulties facing the Sinhalese people; and<\/p>\n<p>b) eliminating the LTTE and crushing the Tamils\u2019 challenge would usher in an era of prosperity and splendour.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">&#8220;Finish Prabhaharan and everything will be fine with the state of Sri Lanka&#8221; was the thinking among the political class, as Dharmaratnam Sivaram (Taraki) too had <span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><a style=\"color: #ff6600;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sundaytimes.lk\/961020\/taraki.html\"><span class=\"s1\">observed in 1996<\/span><\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">We <span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><a style=\"color: #ff6600;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/two-challenges-economic-recovery-political-devolution-v\/\"><span class=\"s1\">discussed<\/span><\/a><\/span> how the democratic content of national movements, led by non-State controlling elites, in the Dominion of India fundamentally transformed the ramshackle unitary State inherited from colonialism into the largest federated democracy in the world. We also outlined how the respective State controlling elite blocked similar progressive national forces and prevented the same transition to democracy in the Dominions of Pakistan and Ceylon. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">The promised prosperity and splendour the Sinhalese people hunger for is not visible even on the horizon after the LTTE\u2019s destruction 14 long years ago. The country in fact has gone from bad to worse by most accounts.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">Ceylon\/Sri Lanka\u2019s political class framed the <i>civil<\/i> war as an inter-State war against a <i>foreign<\/i> enemy; as then President Jayawardene famously quipped, \u201cduring wars, laws are silent\u201d. To suspend the normal operation of laws and accountability by the political class during civil wars is invariably disastrous; Latin American countries discovered the tragic fact during the so-called anti-communist military campaigns in the second half of the 20<span class=\"s2\"><sup>th<\/sup><\/span> Century and most of them have yet to recover. During civil wars of long duration, of more than five years, the perversion of legal and political institutions seeps deeper into society and becomes systemic.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">The very process of militarily eliminating the LTTE over the four-decade (1979-2009) long <i>civil<\/i> war in Sri Lanka has crushed the anticipated war dividends to pulp. Unsurprisingly the Editorial dismissed 18 May 2009 as \u201ca facade of false triumph\u201d. If the Struggle (<i>Aragalaya<\/i>) by sections of the Sinhalese middle classes is anything to go by, the coin seems to be dropping.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">Everywhere and always the job description of members of the pollical class requires habitual deception. Sri Lanka is no exception; so, it\u2019s ludicrous to fault the country\u2019s politicians for purveying their well-known stock in trade: \u201ccredibility gap\u201d. The Sinhalese intelligentsia is responsible for actively narrowing the \u201cgap\u201d; but they either uncritically echoed and amplified it or acquiesced by their silence and thereby helped to spread the \u201cculture of deceit\u201d across society.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><b>A culture of deceit<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">The long civil war of course is not the sole cause of the culture of deceit; rather, the major contributors arguably are the nationalist Sinhalese historians. Following their mentor-historians\u2019 lead in northern India, Sinhalese counterparts invented an ancient history for the 1833 political formation named Ceylon by chronologically aligning<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>fragments drawn from histories of historical nations; what\u2019s worse, more often than not they presented myths as truths. The inventions sailed through pushed along by tailwinds of State power.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">The Tamil intelligentsia confronted the nationalist historiography without the benefit of State patronage. While some historians succumbed to flights of fancy, the majority compensated for the lack of official backing by increasing the accuracy and ensuring veracity of their writings.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">The nationalist Sinhalese historians are of course entitled to construct history from their perspective. By the same token, they ought to take responsibility for the outcome: imbibing myth as truth blunted the cognitive capacity to distinguish between fiction and fact \u2013 a cognition deficit \u2013 among a majority of Sinhalese people; for instance, the <span class=\"s3\">Ayurvedic Department<\/span> reportedly registered <span class=\"s3\">Dhammika Bandara\u2019s<span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"> <a style=\"color: #ff6600;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymirror.lk\/opinion\/Eliminate-VIRUS-by-shutting-out-Politico-Religious-Intrusions\/172-202583\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>Kali Peniya<\/i><\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/span>(Syrup) to treat Covid-19; close behind the <i>Peniya <\/i>was King Ravana\u2019s mythical concoction. A further instance of the cognition deficit at the level of national policy is the<span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"> <a style=\"color: #ff6600;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2022\/1\/26\/sri-lanka-200-million-compensation-farmers-organic-crops-drive#:~:text=News%257CAgriculture-,Sri%2520Lanka%2520to%2520pay%2520%2524200m%2520compensation%2520for%2520failed%2520organic,farming%2520nation%2520will%2520be%2520compensated.\"><span class=\"s1\">order to farmers<\/span><\/a><\/span> to shift literally overnight to organic farming.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">The miseducation of history did not spare successive generations of Sinhalese intelligentsia either. Most of them internalised the misconceptions; so, they become apoplectic at the <span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><a style=\"color: #ff6600;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/how-have-i-provoked-anyone\/\"><span class=\"s1\">barest mention<\/span><\/a><\/span> of Tamil Buddhism. They invariably look the other way when one brings up the subject of the Tamil caste of Tank Builders (<i>Kulangkatti<\/i>), who constructed and maintained the ancient irrigation works; once, a Sinhalese \u201cintellectual\u201d tangentially asserted (to us) that they have become a Sinhalese caste.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">The cognition deficit has made the Sinhalese in general and their intelligentsia vulnerable to manipulation by the political class.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">We recollect an instance of manipulation in the early 1990s. When President Ranasinghe Premadasa\u2019s commander Gen. Denzil Kobbekaduwa was \u201cmopping up\u201d (a caring imagery, that) in the east and readying to sally up north, we ran into a Norway-returned Sinhalese peacenik who busily promoted Co-Existence between ethnics in Sri Lanka. We suggested the civil war is reducing his hopes to hardly more than a mirage. The co-existencer disagreed; and he parroted the political class\u2019 insinuation, that the President needs a military victory over the LTTE in order to strengthen his sword arm, reinforce his pro-peace credentials and beat back opposition from the nationalist Sinhalese (they seemingly made his nose twitch) who opposed peace overtures.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">In other words, Premadasa had to first spill copious Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim (Home Guard) blood, generate innumerable widows and orphans and cause widespread destruction of property in order to boost his political standing and then, and only then, he <b>may<\/b> be able to sue for peace.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">Of course, the dystopian twist seemed entirely beyond the ken of the co-existencer; and his cognition deficit limited his grasp of elementary <i>realpolitik<\/i>, that the nationalist Sinhalese forces, emboldened by a military victory, will fight tooth and nail against any move to concede to Tamils at the negotiating table what was won on the battlefield.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">After then President Chandrika Kumaratunga\u2019s army rolled into the Jaffna peninsula in 1995, the peace council\u2019s Sinhalese peace monger enthusiastically explained: \u201cmany prominent members of the local human rights and intellectual community have been given official positions within the PA governmental system. Therefore, ironical though it does sound, the human rights NGOs have to be given their share of \u2018credit\u2019 for the governmental victory in Jaffna.\u201d <span class=\"s4\">[1]<\/span><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">His cognition deficit and that of assorted peace mongers who zealously shared in the \u201cvictory\u201d then and later in 2009 made them \u2013 peace, conflict resolution and policy alternative \u201cspecialists\u201d \u2013 anticipate the government\u2019s invitation to craft a political settlement. Needless to add, they seemed to not grasp the psychology impelling a Victor\u2019s Justice; the invitation predictably never came.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">Another case (there are many) of a cognition deficit is the strident critique by a self-proclaimed political \u201crealist\u201d in the first flush of triumph in May, 2009. In the following month, he <span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><a style=\"color: #ff6600;\" href=\"https:\/\/groundviews.org\/2009\/06\/27\/the-politics-of-post-war-sri-lanka\/\"><span class=\"s1\">accused<\/span><\/a><\/span> \u201ccollaborators, the appeasers and the fence-sitters\u201d for not rising to support the ostensibly anti-LTTE military campaign when the country faced allegedly an \u201cexistential threat\u201d; and he declared, they \u201call forfeit the chance to place their values, ideas and programs as the leading ones of the social order that follows the great test.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">The people have experienced at first-hand the \u201cvalues, ideas and programs\u201d that the Victors, who he and his ilk resolutely backed, imposed during the past 14 years. The people now also know where the \u201cexistential threat\u201d is actually coming from and, to put it mildly, they are no longer impressed by the \u201cgreat test\u201d. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">The country is trapped in the tunnel of May 2009 \u201cvictory\u201d with no light at the end. No purpose is served by inventing scape-goats, whether it\u2019s President Ranil Wickremasinghe or the famous 225, for the parlous state of the economy or the festering national conflict. They are largely prisoners of institutions, laws and practices that the nationalist Sinhalese intelligentsia actively helped to build or passively brought about to the detriment of the country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">The fumbling political \u201crealist\u201d is hardly different from an <span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><a style=\"color: #ff6600;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.island.lk\/index.php?page_cat=article-details&amp;page=article-details&amp;code_title=214230\"><span class=\"s1\">acolyte<\/span><\/a><\/span> of former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. The latter confidently made the ahistorical assertion that Rajapaksa\u2019s 2019 election victory is \u201cthe reaction of a down trodden, persecuted, humiliated majority community\u2026used as a doormat by the minority communities\u201d. This perspective has been a justification for the <span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><a style=\"color: #ff6600;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/two-challenges-economic-recovery-political-devolution-iii\/\"><span class=\"s1\">systematic marginalisation<\/span><\/a><\/span> of sections of the population that dislocated the economy and society over the past more than seven decades.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">Those who misconstrue the past cannot construe a sound future.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">References:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"p6\">[1] Perera, Jehan, \u2018Why the PA succeeded where the UNP failed\u2019, <i>The Island<\/i>, Colombo, 10\/Dec\/95.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong><em>*Dr Sachithanandam Sathananthan is an independent scholar who read Political Economy for the Ph.D. degree at the University of Cambridge. He was Assistant Director, International Studies at the Marga Institute, Visiting Research Scholar at the Jawaharlal Nehru University School of International Studies and has taught World History at Karachi University\u2019s Institute of Business Administration. He is an award-winning filmmaker and may be reached at: <a style=\"color: #ff6600;\" href=\"mailto:commentaries.ss@gmail.com\"><span class=\"s1\">commentaries.ss@gmail.com<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":470,"featured_media":232593,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2186,46,8,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-232590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-featured-news","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Anniversary Angst - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/anniversary-angst\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Anniversary Angst - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/anniversary-angst\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-05-23T17:06:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-06-04T11:38:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/14th-anniversary-of-the-LTTE-PMD-pic.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"592\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sachithanandam Sathananthan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sachithanandam Sathananthan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"8 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/anniversary-angst\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/anniversary-angst\/\",\"name\":\"Anniversary Angst - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/anniversary-angst\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/anniversary-angst\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/14th-anniversary-of-the-LTTE-PMD-pic.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-05-23T17:06:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-06-04T11:38:57+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6594f3d3d293041f94af321cb53adb65\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/anniversary-angst\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/anniversary-angst\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/anniversary-angst\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/14th-anniversary-of-the-LTTE-PMD-pic.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/14th-anniversary-of-the-LTTE-PMD-pic.jpg\",\"width\":900,\"height\":592},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/anniversary-angst\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Anniversary Angst\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\",\"name\":\"Colombo Telegraph\",\"description\":\"In journalism truth is a process\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6594f3d3d293041f94af321cb53adb65\",\"name\":\"Sachithanandam Sathananthan\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7f713023c99c2bd4238e378a08c8b2bc536d0efff1ada473c48c5a59c6e96501?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7f713023c99c2bd4238e378a08c8b2bc536d0efff1ada473c48c5a59c6e96501?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Sachithanandam Sathananthan\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/sachithanandamsatha\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Anniversary Angst - Colombo Telegraph","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/anniversary-angst\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Anniversary Angst - Colombo Telegraph","og_description":"[&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/anniversary-angst\/","og_site_name":"Colombo Telegraph","article_published_time":"2023-05-23T17:06:09+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-06-04T11:38:57+00:00","og_image":[{"width":900,"height":592,"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/14th-anniversary-of-the-LTTE-PMD-pic.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Sachithanandam Sathananthan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sachithanandam Sathananthan","Est. reading time":"8 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/anniversary-angst\/","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/anniversary-angst\/","name":"Anniversary Angst - Colombo Telegraph","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/anniversary-angst\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/anniversary-angst\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/14th-anniversary-of-the-LTTE-PMD-pic.jpg","datePublished":"2023-05-23T17:06:09+00:00","dateModified":"2023-06-04T11:38:57+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6594f3d3d293041f94af321cb53adb65"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/anniversary-angst\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/anniversary-angst\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/anniversary-angst\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/14th-anniversary-of-the-LTTE-PMD-pic.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/14th-anniversary-of-the-LTTE-PMD-pic.jpg","width":900,"height":592},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/anniversary-angst\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Anniversary Angst"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/","name":"Colombo Telegraph","description":"In journalism truth is a process","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6594f3d3d293041f94af321cb53adb65","name":"Sachithanandam Sathananthan","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7f713023c99c2bd4238e378a08c8b2bc536d0efff1ada473c48c5a59c6e96501?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7f713023c99c2bd4238e378a08c8b2bc536d0efff1ada473c48c5a59c6e96501?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Sachithanandam Sathananthan"},"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/sachithanandamsatha\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/14th-anniversary-of-the-LTTE-PMD-pic.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/470"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232590"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":232592,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232590\/revisions\/232592"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}