If UK can appoint a British Military officer to be Governor of Australia why can’t Sri Lanka appoint a military Governor?
Posted on March 29th, 2014
Shenali D Waduge
The Queen of England, Queen Elizabeth 2 has made her choice. She has picked General Peter Cosgrove as the Governor General of Australia. Peter Cosgrove is incidentally a former defence forces chief. Though the appointment was officially endorsed by the Queen the appointment in fact was made by David Cameron’s Conservative Party. Was it not David Cameron who found it unpalatable that Sri Lanka had chosen a military officer to be the Governor of Sri Lanka’s Northern Province and continues to send diatribe from the UK that military personnel should not be Sri Lanka’s Governor? Our question is if it is ok for UK to appoint a military Governor why can’t Sri Lanka. The only interpretation we can take from this is nothing other than racism where UK feels it is ok for them to appoint a military official but Sri Lanka cannot.
Unlike Sri Lanka which is a sovereign nation, Australia is a constitutional monarchy with the Queen as Sovereign.
The appointment of a Governor General for Australia by the UK is a customary one. In this instance the UK has appointed a retired general who was Australia’s defence chief in 2005 and commanded the International Peace Keeping force in East Timor and had also been a platoon commander in Vietnam.
Maj. Gen. Chandrasiri was appointed as Governor Northern Province in 2010 by the Government of Sri Lanka. There is no person who knows the terrain of North Sri Lanka than General Chandrasiri and if the Queen can describe Cosgrove as one who had ‘dedicated his life to serving and supporting the Australian community’ why can’t Sri Lanka say the same thing about General Chandrasiri. If Tony Abbot can declare that Cosgrove ‘throughout his life he has demonstrated a commitment to our country and a commitment to service. He has given service of the very highest order to our country’ why is it unpalatable when Sri Lanka praises General Chandrasiri with similar sentiments?
The racism shown against General Chandrasiri by UK and the West is totally uncalled for. Such type of racist sentiments need to stop. It is totally unfair and uncalled for and the public of Sri Lanka denounces the manner in which there is a surge in racism by Western governments of late and shows that the West needs to realize that we no longer live in colonial times when nations can be treated as slaves and they as slave masters.
There is a growing necessity to link the behavior of Western nations with an inclination to view the rest of the world on racist terms no different to how they treated nations not so long ago and we are wondering whether the current spate of incursions followed by illegal occupation of sovereign lands is aligned to a larger plan to recreate the colonial agenda. If so, nations of the Third World need to now close ranks.
As for General Chandrasiri, the Governor of the Northern Province, it is upto the GOSL to ensure that no foreign government or NGOs & Human Rights Activists on payroll and sponsored by foreign nations can question or ridicule him. The public of Sri Lanka place a lot of faith in General Chandrasiri and regard him with respect.
What needs to be said is that if UK can appoint a General as Governor so can Sri Lanka.
March 29th, 2014 at 4:59 pm
Boy Cameron, you asked for this. Sri Lankans are now calling you a monkey bought over by Tamil voters for a couple bananas. Bloody shameless idiot barking like a rabid dog. Monkeys are fond of bananas, so as camerun. The bum bring disgrace to true British citizens.
March 30th, 2014 at 5:07 am
A very cunning move by the King of Machiavellian cunning Political strategy. The UK. Or more Specifically the British Oligarchy known as the Crown that leads it and most commonwealth nations behind the scenes. Australia didn’t join the rest of the chorus against Sri Lanka. So the Oligarchy headed by the Queen moved in and by Royal decree appoints a Governer General. This is not over folks. Sri Lanka can expect more pain therefore in the coming months and years headed of course by the epicentre of evil control in the world the UK. US is only a poodle of British Colonial Foreign policy and that is the truth. So is Isreal a country set up by the Rothschild Banking establishment that the country of Isreal is harped on so much likes of Lorenzo and Bernard Wijesinghe. Also Sri Lankans should investigate prominent people in Sri Lanka who in media and politics who have strong connections to London and British Oligarchy headed by the Queen of England. These prominent Sri Lankans could be double agents working against Sri Lanka. Its time Sri Lankans get serious and started investigations if Sri Lanka is truly to be free from British Colonial rule in the commonwealth. No wonder David Cameron behaves the way he does.
March 30th, 2014 at 1:14 pm
Intelligence units on high alert:
Three wanted suspects at large:
Signs of LTTE regrouping in North and East
By Kurulu Kariyakarawana
SundayObserver.lk
March 30, 2014
While the Government and its diplomatic wing is effectively handling the recently passed UN resolution against the country, security intelligence units have been ordered to be on high alert against a potential threat of the LTTE regrouping in the North and the East following a series of events that have taken place during the last few weeks.
The security forces cleaned the least potential terrorist element from the soils of the North and East almost five years ago, making it a safe place for civilians are once again faced with a grave responsibility of maintaining that security with certain incidents reported showing signs of regrouping of the almost eliminated terror outfit.
This came to light with Police Headquarters publicising descriptions and photographs of three absconding high profile LTTE members last week with a reward of one million rupees for successful information relating to their arrest. They were identified as Gopi, Appan and Thevian.
Kajeepan Ponniah Selvanayagam alias Kasian alias Gopi is a 31-year-old six foot cadre with a dark complexion and a scar on his upper lip. According to police Gopi is known to be one of the remaining aides of the LTTE intelligence wing chief Shanmugalingam Sivashankar alias Pottu Amman. The police decided to publicise Gopi’s details, who was already in the most wanted list, with a price on his head when he was confronted by a group of Police Terrorist Intelligence Division (TID) officials went to search a house in Dharmapuram in Kilinochchi District a few weeks ago.
Amidst credible information collected from ground level that a series of events taking place throughout the past months showing signs of regrouping was confirmed, with the arrest of two individuals pasting anti-government posters in Pallai in the Jaffna District several weeks ago. The duo who were reportedly from Silawathura area were pasting posters condemning the government asking for a Geneva intervention in the alleged human rights violations in the country. Having interrogated them the police learnt that they were instructed to carry out the job by a man called Gopi. A remaining LTTE operative who is secretly engaged in regrouping and reorganising atrocities. By then the intelligence agencies have recovered more information about this individual who is reported to have buried a cache of ammunitions in an unknown location in the remote North.
Shanmugalingam Sivashankar
alias Pottu Amman
They also learnt that Gopi was assisted by another cadre identified as Appan. Navaratnam Navaneedan alias Appan is a 36-year-old LTTE cadre with a height of 5’ 2” and a brown complexion. Credible information revealed that Gopi and Appan were reportedly leading the regrouping program of the terrorist outfit in the North.
The TID having received information of a house suspected to be of sheltering Appan in Dharmapuram went on a search mission a few weeks ago. When the sleuths went inside the house to search an armed man hiding under a bed had fired several rounds at the approaching officials and fled the scene. Sub Inspector Ratnakumara who was among the search party received injuries after being shot in the leg. The suspect fled in the melee was identified as Gopi, whom the TID was looking for. Although there was insufficient information leading to prove the presence of Appan at the time of the confrontation, the police took the woman who was in charge of the house into custody along with her daughter.
The arrested woman has been identified as Balendran Jeyakumari who was reportedly having a close relationship with Appan. Although she was not married to Appan, she had been facilitating accommodation to him. When the police questioned Jeyakumari they learnt that Appan was visiting her house intermittently. They also found records of a number of overseas calls on her mobile phone in the recent past, which the police suspect them to be of calls between the members of the LTTE international diaspora who have a vested interest in sending funds through local money transferring facilities.
Arrest and detention of Balendran Jeyakumari and her daughter caused an uproar in the international arena after it was reported to the UN sessions in Geneva by TNA Northern Provincial Councillor Ananthi Sasitharan.
TNA Northern Provincial
Councillor Ananthi Sasitharan
The Provincial Councillor complained that the Government is violating human rights by arresting an under-aged child. Sri Lanka issuing a statement in response to the accusations levelled by certain member countries stated that “interested parties were attempting to stigmatise the action of the authorities as an infringement when they were only carrying out their duties for the purpose of national security”.
Although Jeyakumari is reportedly being detained at the Boossa Detention Centre under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, her daughter has been transferred to a childcare and probation home as no legal guardian came forward as her custodian.
Also the arrest and detention of human rights activists Father Praveen and Ruki Fernando couple of weeks ago attracted much attention from the international arena again complaining the Sri Lankan government is violating the rights of its people. Intelligence agencies had to arrest the activists who were visiting the houses of Jeyakumari and Gopi in Dharmapuram and Kilinochchi as it provided sufficient need for an investigation to be launched into the nature of their involvement with the suspects wanted by the police.
The duo were however released following the due judicial process. The police charge that the activists were sent on a mission to study and report the situation following the Dharmapuram incident by the interested parties in Switzerland.
According to intelligence agencies the first signs of resurrection of the terror outfit was observed in 2012 where a Tamil national was killed in Kuchchaweli in Trincomalee by another Tamil national who is reported to have arrived from South India. The victim who is reportedly an EPDP supporter was killed by the visitor as he was becoming a hindrance to certain regrouping operations being carried out in the area. This came to light when the police arrested the assailant and interrogated him. Also in 2013 several attempts by groups of Tamil male and female youths to engage in secret combat training sessions in Jaffna and in South India showed signs that the terror outfit was re-emerging from the ashes. And also the arrests of two women Kulasinham Puwaneshwarie and Rasa Malam, mother of Gopi in two separate instances have lead to the revelation of much information related to the suspects wanted by police.
Apart from Gopi and Appan the TID is also looking for another crucial operative by the name of Thevian. According to available information Thevian is a former Air Tiger and a senior member of the LTTE air wing.
The police believe that there is a high probability that the suspect along with the other two suspects are roaming in the North Eastern areas as well as in Colombo and suburbs. The TID has issued two hot lines 0112 451636 and 0112 321838 to anybody willing to pass any information about the existence of any of these three suspects.
And the agencies have once again intensified their espionage operations in the North and the East in preparedness of a potential regrouping of the terrorist organisation that disturbed the country’s law and order for over three decades.