Mr. President, Please for Heaven’s Sake, Speak up
Posted on June 2nd, 2014
Dr D.Chandraratna Perth
Today’s news item in the Indian Daily ‘The Hindu’ states that ‘President Mahinda Rajapaksa will hope that the BJP’s independence of Tamil Nadu allies will make New Delhi more supportive of his regime. India values ties with Sri Lanka but Colombo must make room for political aspirations of the minority Tamils.’ Another editorial said that ‘The President needs to understand that mutual goodwill does not substitute for substantive constitutional reform in Sri Lanka, to give the country’s beleaguered Tamil minority a modicum of political empowerment and agency after a long, bitter history of oppression, revolt and defeat’. Time and time again in the last few days on the eve of Mr. Modi’s victory the reference to Sri Lanka in the Indian new paper editorials directly and indirectly infer that Tamils are discriminated as a minority and that needs Mr. Modi’s guidance because the Sri Lankan state under Mahinda Rajapaksa has failed to deliver. No wonder that the retinue behind Jayalalitha are stridently queuing up behind Modi begging for intervention.
This seems to be the dominant perception among opinion makers in the Indian press. In fairness to the commentators it has to be accepted that Sri Lankan authorities have failed in the perception-managing task with the outside world. If India is still not totally conversant with the constitutional and legal equality of all citizens in Sri Lanka one can only guess the misinformation impact on those countries in the West which are openly hostile to Sri Lanka. Sri Lankans domiciled all over the world are trying their utmost to contest the fabrication woven by the LTTE infected diaspora but authorities in Sri Lanka are content to ignore the damage which they deem virtually impervious. The blame must fall squarely with whoever is running the foreign policy agenda. It is about time for the Sri Lankan President to cast aside his (inaudible) script written by the advisers to set a new standard for political oratory. It is the head of the state that has the power and the moral authority to set the record straight. It is not necessary for any student of politics to understand that every occupant of the Headship is judged by his use of the official (bully) pulpit. It is he/she only who can shame purveyors of tainted falsehoods, and establish the truth through consistent and repeated word.
We must learn from history. The world makes constant reference to Martin Luther King’s oratorical tour de force, which changed the course of recent American history. The widely held view that unkept promises and unfinished business with regard to only one minority group alone in Sri Lanka, namely the Tamils is a gross distortion of the truth. The enemies of Sri Lanka are justifying the war, and the related deaths amounting to over hundred thousand, the crime of human bondage, all on the majority Sinhalese people as partners in crime. It is a heavy burden to be left to future generations to carry forward as it is a blatant lie by a minority group, which appropriated the riches of the country for decades as the favorites of the colonial regime. And Mr. President, Sri Lankan national trait cultured in a Buddhist ethic has never been violence and it will never be as evidenced by the magnanimous manner in which they weathered years of brutality to a nation. The LTTE sympathetic Tamils have edited out the past to bring discomfiture to the present. The world needs to hear that Sri Lanka is a nonviolent country but just as Abraham Lincoln’s Doric temple it is a shrine where all communities can worship.
At least in the country where we live and also in many others that we know of in the Western front the moral majesty of a nation has to be dictated by its leader. May be that the President is not the one for rhetorical flourishes but recent history suggests that leaders who speak boldly can do the impression managing better than others. It has been said that President Kennedy won the razor thin margin in his walk to the white house over Richard Nixon by the phone call that he made to Coretta Scott King expressing concern over Martin Luther King’s arrest that won the black vote. The latter day pulpit easily available to a leader is the television and those who make the best use of that medium are winners. Those who do nothing will only give the megaphone to the predator. Silence on the part of the President, many believe, is only inviting shame to the nation at large. He must speak, preferably in the language of the heart openly and boldly to demonstrate the reality. It is now history how a speech that had a beginning, ‘I have a dream’ became legendary and achieved much more than revolutionary protests for the cause of human dignity in the US.
Though Obama may not have achieved much many accept his persuasive power of direct speech. When a President speaks the national conversation and dialogue becomes more authentic and the world listens. The Japanese Prime Minister’s visit to the Yasukuni shrine and his words made the world understand the reality. He said that while he prayed for the souls of those who fought for the country (despised by many), while he has pleaded never to wage war again and build a world free from the sufferings of war. The visit drew furious condemnation from many countries but the words silenced the critics. The majority in Sri Lanka who stood for equality, minority rights, devolution of power and secularism are being cornered and defeated. It is up to the Sri Lankan Government to explain to the world that the reason for this phenomenon is not so much that chauvinism or extremism of the majority has raised its ugly head, but it is the extremism of the minorities who pronounce fanatically their right to safeguard an extinct racial purity. Explain to the world through the international press with the presence of diplomatic corp in Colombo and not to an audience in Mahiyangana why we cannot have a divided country, why we are one nation of many hues, why there are no homelands, why specifics are necessary for investigations, why the victims must be seen to be heard, why 25,000 square miles cannot be apportioned for tribal claims, and ultimately why we will only survive as a multi ethnic nation. The time has come for the President of the nation who stepped up to challenges before, to do the perception managing, with the popularity behind him. It is only he who can tell the world loud and clear and he should not leave it to corrupt human rights merchants such as Ms. Pillay.
Dr D.Chandraratna
Perth
June 2nd, 2014 at 11:08 am
BRAVO Dr. Chandraratna from Perth, AUSTRALIA. I wish NOT ONLY the President but each cabinet minister at least MUST speak up before ALL THE WORLD beleives the HALF TRUTHS, UN-PROVEN ALLEGATIONS & the poor destitute, discriminated TAMILS of Sri Lanka.
There are more to Sri Lanka than Tamils & their issue. If other minorities who number greated than TAMILS, and they are NOT AGITATING what is this problem with Tamils?. They need to learn to live with what is given, NOT beacuse they deserve it, BUT to keep the country a stable, UNITED natiion.
In many ways Tamils have gained TOO MUCH & we cannot continue to please ONE GROUP which dwindling in numbers, NOW amounting to ONLY 4% of the total population.
IT IS TRUE our President & LEADING MINISTERS must speak up and put the record straight. THIS IS A GREAT shortcoming of our leaders in the present GOVT. Their aim is to keep quiet, hoping something like a miracle will happen & THEN THE WORLD will beleive the majority Sri Lankan population.
General malaise of our people I notied on my recent visit to Lanka & I was appaled to see my class mates, saying WHAT CAN WE DO?.. This the apathetic feeling UTTERED by many. I saw large numbers of Tamils EMPLOYED in Govt. departments & in the private sector too. Where as poor Sinhalese are LEFT BEHIND because everyone is worried about the POOR TAMILS.
Shoud not those people who complain about discrimination BE IN NORTH & complain, rather than coing to Colombo & southern cities to complain? SPEAK UP before its too late, from President to any ordinary folks in the silent majority in Sri Lanka………….Thank you all………J
June 2nd, 2014 at 12:54 pm
Little by little, inch by inch he will give in, ultimately the police powers, the lands and even Eealm will be given, just to rule one more day. Even International probe also will happen and war heros will be the sacrificial lambs. Isn’t there anyone in the army to stop the rot.
June 2nd, 2014 at 1:02 pm
Don’t you see there are fifteen million Sinhalese behind you?. What more do you want?.
June 2nd, 2014 at 2:27 pm
Meanwhile dear President continues Bayagulla policy by releasing fishermen. Navy, risking their lives, catch these crocodiles and Bayagulla releases them. After a while Navy will give up wasting time and money. How could this bugger unilaterally release law breakers ?
If he goes to Tamil Nadu for talks and worship Amma and officially hand over all the fish to Endia and beg her no to interfere with other affairs, then it is better than this arresting and releasing like fools.
June 02, Colombo: Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa as a goodwill measure has today ordered the release of 29 Indian fishermen arrested by the Sri Lanka Navy on Sunday.
The Navy arrested the 29 fishermen from Tamil Nadu and seized their six fishing trawlers Sunday when they were illegally engaged in fishing in Sri Lankan waters northwest of Thalaimannar.
The arrests came day after the Indian fishermen resumed their fishing activities after a 45-day ban on fishing in the disputed Palk Bay region.
The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa angered by the arrest fired off her first letter to the new Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking him to take a “concrete and decisive” action to get the fishermen released.
She requested the Indian PM to “proactively initiate an appropriate and calibrated set of actions,” to achieve a permanent end to the “perennial” problem.
Sri Lanka as a goodwill gesture has earlier released all the Indian fishermen who were detained in the country’s jails.
June 2nd, 2014 at 2:29 pm
Aloy,
No gurantee that Army bugger will be a puppet of Roshchilds. What happened to the previous Kalawedda ?
June 2nd, 2014 at 2:29 pm
If he doesn’t the voters will!
I have NO FAITH in this ROTTEN system to save SL. Even with another one winning it will be same junk,
As in Thailand a MILITARY TAKE OVER with the blessing of the HIGH PRIESTS is the ONLY way out of this MESS. But it should be temporary.
What is the point of democracy if it is NOT DEMO-CRATIC (rule for the masses by the masses)?
June 2nd, 2014 at 2:40 pm
Nanda,
COMPARED to politicians the army is FAR BETTER patriots and made FAR GREATER SACRIFICES.
So they suit BETTER. Otherwise the army will suffer when they are sent to the GALLOWS with a label reading WAR CRIMINAL. To save themselves and save the country they MUST take the lead.
Fonseka became Gonzeka by getting into this ROTTEN POLITICAL system. Before that he was good.
As you can see the current system is HOPELESS. Don’t be scared to DREAM BIG.
June 2nd, 2014 at 4:30 pm
“current system is HOPELESS”
“COMPARED to politicians the army is FAR BETTER patriots and made FAR GREATER SACRIFICES.”
_ absolutely. But Ranee is surrounded by COlombian military buggers now. No chance of taking over.
“Before that he was good” – No. He came to SL after setting up his “military equipment” regime 1 month before Mahinda won. Personally I have looked into this and have proof. He was not clean. No doubt he was a good commander but he too was planning to EAT the country.
June 2nd, 2014 at 4:47 pm
I have often called the Tiger Nominated Agents (TNA) of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Separatist TRAITORS who should be ARRESTED, PROSECUTED, CONVICTED and SEVERELY PUNISHED to the fullest extent of the Law.
Perhaps NOTHING DEMONSTRATES the TREACHERY of the TNA more than this attempt by them to commemorate the death of that ARCH VILLIAN, the late unlamented Sun God and LTTE leader Velupillai Pirabhakaran at Mullavaikkal!
Why is the GOSL still DILLY-DALLYING without PROSECUTING & PUNISHING these TRAITORS to the Motherland?
…………………….
MAYOR VETOES TNA’S PRABHA MEMORIA. TNA planning to create disturbances in Jaffna
By Vijayanai Edirisinghe
DailyNews.lk
June 1, 2014
Jaffna Mayor Yogeswari Pathgunarajah successfully prevented attempts by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to commemorate the death of LTTE leader Velupillai Pirabhakaran at Mullavaikkal, our sources say.
In the face of strong opposition and objections of the Jaffna Mayor, the TNA had to cancel their plans to commemorate the LTTE leader’s death anniversary.
According to information, under the pretext of commemorating the dead, plans were being made to rouse the people of Jaffna and create disturbances in Jaffna where peace prevails now.
The Mayor said a group of TNA Provincial Council members had sought her permission to hold the memorial at the premises of the Jaffna Municipal Council.
She said she had vehemently opposed the idea, and had turned down their request. “Tamil leaders like Alfred Doraiappa and A.Amirthalingam served the people of the area and they were murdered by the LTTE.
“There were many others worthy of commemorating who were killed by the LTTE.
“The TNA should commemorate the deaths of such leaders. I told them this clearly,” she added.
“When such noble people who were the victims of the LTTE terror are not commemorated, I could not be a party to this by allowing the TNA to commemorate the terrorist leader.
“I also did not want anyone to cause chaos or disturbances in Jaffna City which is at peace today,” she said.
June 2nd, 2014 at 5:26 pm
Jaffna Mayor Yogeswari Pathgunarajah is from the EPDP.
UPFA won in Jaffna MC and Delft PS in the local elections in 2009.
This is why she is SANE than TNA racists. MR took her to Modi’s swearing in ceremony.
June 2nd, 2014 at 5:32 pm
Nanda,
I agree PRE 2009 Fonseka was NOT clean. But MR, BR, prime minister are NOT cleaner than him!!
STILL SF (pre-2009) was WAY BETTER than Vasu, Rahu, Mervin, Thonda, prime minister, etc., etc.
SF is just ONE army general. Don’t measure everyone by his standard.
Army, Navy, AF, etc. have WAY BETTER leaders than our politicians. They WON the country. Politicians LOST the country.
June 2nd, 2014 at 5:45 pm
Ananda, Lorenzo,
“According to information, under the pretext of commemorating the dead, plans were being made to rouse the people of Jaffna and create disturbances in Jaffna where peace prevails now.”
This might be the next trick. RuinNil may have been taught this at MIT by CIA.
How is the Gov going to handle “Mass demonstration against oppressive Rajapaske Regime ( as they may call it)”. We are thinking Colombo but it could be Jaffna. How to handle ? Shoot ? Can’t do that.
That is playing to the hands of the enemy.
The best way is to declare emergency in Jaffna and start arresting the bastards now. Some minor harmless bomb or two could help. Arrest Vesananthi and all the trouble makers of Tiger Nominated Tamil Agents now before it is too late.
June 2nd, 2014 at 6:46 pm
If we have to get out of this never ending bashing with 13 etc, we have to start with brand new constitution that is based on FairPlay and rule of law… SL politicians think they are above the law and that start with the highest highest position.
Current president is making the same mistake that JR did thinking they can stay in power indefinitely using half baked constitution and kicking rule of law out of the statue books.
We have a serious issues now coming out of the political goons that are in power today… All the hard work done by the defence forces are evaporating due to the bad management of foreign policy and public policy. Hope president take charge and go for a new constitution.
June 2nd, 2014 at 7:10 pm
Nanda,
Very good point. TNA knows that is the BEST way to make the govt. FURTHER unpopular and BRING the international community in.
TNA will CERTAINLY do it near the next election.
But ARRESTING them won’t work. That will TRIGGER violence demanding their release.
The ONLY solution is “LTTE”. Organize a group calling them LTTE. They send letters to ALL TNA top bugs and top NGO clowns demanding them to DECLARE TAMIL ELAM. If they do, the law will bust them. Endia will BUST them. If they don’t “LTTE” will BUST them!
At the next election a few bomb explosions in Jaffna early in the morning targeting a polling booth with a few deaths will stop them from voting.
June 2nd, 2014 at 7:42 pm
Sirih,
But the president will NOT do it. He has comfortably settled into it. ANY new constitution will be made by the same ROTTEN politicians.
Only hope is the SAME defence forces who saved the nation THRICE. They must rise up to the challenge.
The mother usually ends up feeding, teaching and training children IN ADDITION to giving birth to them!
June 5th, 2014 at 1:48 pm
Sri Lanka is a democracy in which the will of the majority MUST triumph.
The majority of the People of Sri Lanka, with the security and lives of themselves and their descendents at stake, are demanding that the 13th Amendment be REPEALED.
Whatever President Mahinda Rajapaksa may or may not have said in the heat of battle, or its immediate aftermath, as the ELECTED head of the People of Sri Lanka, he MUST BOW DOWN and CARRY OUT the wishes of the majority of the people of Sri Lanka. He is NEITHER A DICTATOR NOR A HEREDITARY KING, but an ELECTED Servant of the People.
If it is difficult for the President to CONTRADICT any statements he has made previously on the issue, or agreements that were forced upon Sri Lanka under DURESS by other countries, let him duck the responsibility to act directly, and pass the decision to the People of Sri Lanka through a REFERUNDUM. That will absolve him of ALL RESPONSIBILITY.
The INCONTROVERTIBLE FACT is, no country can hand over the Governance of a Province to the defeated separatists who fought a murderous war over 30 years, and are still VOWING, and PLOTTING, to resurrect it in collusion with Foreign Enemies.
It is not the survival of the political leaders that is at stake here, but the survival of the undivided Nation that is the REFUGE of ALL of its citizens.
June 5th, 2014 at 1:54 pm
Jayalaitha’s call for the creation of an Eelam, and a UN charge of Genocide against Sri Lanka, should serve to CRYSTALLIZE the need to IMMEDIATELY REPEAL the 13th Amendment in the minds of Sri Lanka’s Leaders.
…………………….
Sri Lanka to make formal objections to Jayalalithaa’s genocide accusations
ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
June 05, Colombo: Strongly objecting to the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, J. Jayalalithaa’s allegation of ‘genocide’ of Tamil people to describe the end of terrorism in the country, Sri Lanka today said a formal objection will be made to the Indian government over her remark.
Addressing a media briefing today at the Government Information Department, the Minister of Media and Information and Cabinet Spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said it is “very wrong” to use words like ‘genocide’ to describe what happened in Sri Lanka.
“She has used the word genocide. This is very wrong. We believe that it is creating a wrong image of us in the democratic world,” the Minister said.
The Chief Minister during her meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday in New Delhi submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister asking the Indian government to bring a resolution against Sri Lanka in the UN condemning the alleged genocide.
“I request that India should sponsor a resolution in the United Nations condemning the genocide in Sri Lanka and to hold to account all those responsible for the genocide and thereby render justice to Tamils in Sri Lanka,” the Chief Minister said in the memorandum.
“It is very much in keeping with the character of this politician to make wild allegations against Sri Lanka,” Rambukwella told reporters.
The Minister said Sri Lanka is happy that Jayalalithaa does not have the same influence on New Delhi as she had on the previous central Indian government.
“We are happy that there is a very stable government in India. A stable government in Delhi is good for Sri Lanka,” he said.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is capable of maintaining a government by themselves,” he said.
Rambukwella expressed hope that Prime Minister Modi will “stand on the right side that is Sri Lanka’s.”
Speaking of a political solution to the Tamil issue, the Minister said certain powers vested to the provincial councils through the 13th Amendment to the Constitution should be reconsidered before being implemented.
Rambukwella while noting that the 13th Amendment can be implemented immediately, said problems arise when the government implements all the sections of the Amendment.
“The current government has accepted that handing over police powers proves to be an issue of national security. We are looking into the possibility of whether we can hand over at least some police powers,” the Minister said pointing out that the Constitution is not something that is permanent and can be subjected to change many times.
The Sri Lankan government yesterday reiterated its stance that police powers will not be given to the provincial councils.
External Affairs Minister Professor G.L. Peiris speaking in parliament yesterday said Sri Lanka “made it crystal clear (to India) that devolution of police power is not acceptable.”
During the meeting between the Sri Lankan President and Indian PM on 27 May, the Indian leader stressed on the early and full implementation of the 13th Amendment and going beyond to expedite the process of national reconciliation.
June 5th, 2014 at 1:58 pm
Ananda,
Continuation of 13 amendment is the BEST example that the will of the majority DOES NOT triumph in SL under present rotten system.
“It is not the survival of the political leaders that is at stake here, but the survival of the undivided Nation that is the REFUGE of ALL of its citizens.”
EXACTLY. But the political leaders are saving themselves by putting the country at risk. That is why wee need leaders who ACTUALLY put their lives at risk to save SL (the opposite). And who might they be!
After winning the war, they are fighting Tamil racist propaganda too from NY, etc.!!
The country is in safe hands of them than politicians.
June 5th, 2014 at 2:00 pm
Keheliya Rambukwella is NOT the foreign minister.
Why can’t the FM make these comments?
And why can’t the president make these comments?