What kind of a Presidential Election is this? Tamils want North – Muslims want East?
Posted on December 29th, 2014
Shenali D Waduge
All the talk on ‘inclusiveness’ ‘peaceful co-existence’ ‘reconciliation’ all need to be questioned given the discussions that reveal the demands being made by minority ethno-political parties in support for Presidential candidates. These ethno-political parties are demanding exclusive separate ethnic-districts for their people while having the right to live and own land throughout the rest of the island. How fair is this and what type of bargaining will this lead to? The Tamils and Muslims themselves need to ask the question while the Sinhalese politicians must also realize that they need to ensure that such bargaining politics is not accepted under whatever conditions.
Leaving aside the historical aspects of how minorities came to arrive, be welcomed and settle in Sri Lanka, what needs to be said is that while political parties can be formed using petty slogans to garner support which gets additional support from external mischief makers, it is in the hands of the people to realize where the country will head if main political parties give in to these minority ethnic-based political parties and their demands.
Sri Lanka is 65,610 km², the Northern Province is 8884 km² while the Eastern Province is 9996 km² and if North were to be declared separate for Tamils and East was declared separate for Muslims that would mean 17174 km² loss of territory for the Sri Lankan state which will end up having 48436 km² to call Sri Lanka where Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Burghers and others will continue to live. If Tamils and Muslims are to continue to live among Sinhalese in the rest of Sri Lanka what is the logic of having a separate ethnic state/district? Moreover what will happen to the Sinhalese and Muslims that live in the North and have lived so for centuries and the Sinhalese and Tamils that live in the East and have lived so for centuries? Let’s also not forget that there is historical evidence that the Sinhalese Buddhists were occupying all lands throughout Sri Lanka far before minorities lay claim to it and these can be proved with solid evidence and not the verbal claims being made via propaganda channels.
A good look at all territories that have been carved out under the same demands for ethnic-districts for exclusive ethnic nationality will reveal the chaos that has unfolded in these nations. Kosovo independence was given now the innocent Serbs who had been living in Kosovo are slowly been driven out of their once homes. Kosovo’s independence came with the assurance that it would be administered by an international civilian representative appointed by the West. Kosovo is thus controlled by the West and the people of Kosovo are controlled by the Albanian mafia that the West liaises with. Whoever wanted independence for Kosovo have to now live with gruesome statistics that reveal 45% unemployment, lack of international recognition for Kosovo’s domestic commerce document because Kosovo independence is not recognized, Kosovo has nothing to export yet EU charges the same tariffs it does to other nations (there are no favors any more), Kosovo has no international postal / telephone code and no web IP address thus no online purchasing ability, Kosovo has no internet banking, no national cyber security and even mobile phones have to be channeled through Slovenia or Monaco at a cost of course, Kosovo cannot send athletes to international sports events. Kosovo under Islamic fundamental and drug mafia rule has resulted in over 200 orthodox churches being destroyed. Kosovo is a drug haven and a ‘free market’ for 70% of Europes’ heroin, human trafficking and murder of non-ethnic Albanians and European nations are refusing to accept asylum claims by Kosovars. In exchange for the West to give Kosovo independence (which was promoted only by a handful of people and not the public) a gigantic military base for the West was built on 955 acres (360,000sq.m) of land which even has a secret prison for detention and torture. At one time 50,000 US troops was placed in this base in Kosovo.
No election should be about carving out bits and pieces of Sri Lanka. The minorities supporting these minority political parties need to take a hold on the situation and realize the likely damage that may occur if these ethno-based political parties attempt to create the scenario that has happened to Kosovo and even South Sudan and what is likely to take place in Iraq too. The West seeks geopolitical control in areas that they seek to take advantage. Minorities become easy bait drawing on emotional aspirations. The financial systems in control of the West are other tools that force developing nations to commit to compromising the nation and people simply to be given handouts to survive leaving no choice. It is in the hands of the people to realize the dangers in store.
What if North is given to Tamils, what if East is given to Muslims officially and legally – what next?
Why are we losing territory if Tamils and Muslims will go on living outside the areas that their political parties want carved out and declared exclusively theirs?
Tamil and Muslim voters need to look at this aspect very fairly and they need to ensure their political parties do not play footsy with Sri Lanka for petty political mileage but likely to lead to disastrous results for the nation in the future.
The country is looking to elect a suitable leader who can hold the country together and continue to keep the country stable and ensure that we do not enter a pre-May 2009 phase but ethno-based political parties are demanding exclusive territories for the support of their people to these candidates. Saner Tamils and Muslims must now come out and save the day.
Shenali D Waduge
December 29th, 2014 at 10:50 am
Quoting the article ” If Tamils and Muslims are to continue to live among Sinhalese in the rest of Sri Lanka what is the logic of having a separate ethnic state/district?”
In India the Bharata Janata Party has come back to power. they are intrinsically linked to the RSS. the RSS assassinated the Mahatma and the BJP are radical Hindu Nationalists. In India the repercussions of such a movement could be dangerous but in the island nation of Sri Lanka the rise of Buddhism as a state faith is part of her history. So much for that. A little bit of what is happening in India that may impact Sri Lankan politics:
The RSS was founded in 1925 by Keshav Daliram Hedgewar, a Doctor from the central town of Nagpur in Maharashtra, who agitated for both independence from the British crown and the strict segregation of Hindus and Muslims. What may surprise the West is that some of the most prominent figures of the RSS deeply admired Fascism and Nazism, the two regimes that swept Europe at the time. As such , the RSS was outlawed by the British (and was periodically banned by the Indian government after independence). Indeed, Naturam Godse, the man who assassinated the Mahatma in 1948, was himself a former RSS member who felt that the Mahatma made too many generous concessions to the Muslims. In the decades prior to that event, senior RSS members had direct links to both Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler. Part of the RSS fascination with these regimes was their shared opposition to the British Empire – however, it went far beyond that. The RSS (as well as other Hindu nationalists) admired the way Mussolini and Hitler reorganized their respective nations so quickly from the wreckage of war to build a powerful economy and military under the banner of patriotism and nationalism.
“There are only two courses open to the foreign elements, either to merger themselves in the national race and adopt its culture, or to live at its mercy so long as the national race may allow them to do so and to quit the country at the sweet will of the national race” wrote RSS founder Gowlwalka. “that is the only sound view on the minorities problem. That is the only logical and correct solution. That alone keeps the national life healthy and undisturbed…The foreign races in Hindustan must either adopt to the Hindu culture and language, must learn to respect and hold in reverence Hindu religion, must entertain no idea but those of the glorification of the Hindu race and culture, i.e. of the Hindu nation and must lose their separate existence to merge in the Hindu race, or may stay in the country, wholly subordinate to the Hindu nation, claiming nothing, deserving no privileges, far less any preferential treatment not even citizen’s rights”. If one were to replace “Hindu” with “German”, Golwalkar’s words would match Hitler’s rhetoric almost exactly.
Pracharaks or Sangh (Ornagizaion) Those who leave their families, often stay unmarried and lead detached lives devoted to the “organization”, when deputed to the Bharata Janata Party (BJP) or other RSS affiliates, they are called “Sangathan Mantris” (Organization Secretaries). In BJP units they are usually designated General Secretary (Organization). The “Sangh) has over a hundred affiliated Organizations, but most Pracharacks working in the BJP are either from the RSS or ABVP (Akhil Bharatiya Vidvarthi Parishad or All Indian Student Council)
Narendra Modi began his political career and spent twenty years in the BJP as a pracharak, a “spreader of the doctrine”, in other words an organizer and apparatchik for the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the Hindu nationalist movement known as the RSS. Pracharaks are expected to devote their lives to the cause of Hindu nationalism and among other things, remain celibate. Modi is “single” with air quotes or married* with an asterisk; as a young man he abandoned his wife to embark on a career as an RSS organizer, a state of affairs he deemed necessary to acknowledge only 40 years later as he stood on the cusp of becoming Prime Minister, and the fact that he habitually filled his marital status on electoral documents with an equivocal dash could no longer be ignored. Palash Ghosh of the International Business Daily performed a signal service with his article on the historical roots of the RSS quoted below:
The RSS doctrine is Hindutva, literally “Hindu-ness”. The idea that the preservation and advancement of Hindu identity is key to India’s revival. Like the Deoband and Barelvi schools of Islam, the RSS emerged as an Indian self -strengthening movement resisting the imposition of British rule and values during the Colonial period. Rejection of the Muslim contribution to Indian civilization (made as a result of Mogul conquest and rule that the British eerily recapitulated) was also integral to RSS identity politics. So after the British were gone, the RSS was still around, excoriating Muslims as an alien cancer and repudiating the Congress Party’s secularism as an attempt to institutionalize Muslim privilege at the expense of Hindu interests. In fact “secularism” and legal expression, “constitutionalism”, especially as they enable the myriad government set asides for both Muslims and so called “other backward Caste Hindus” are derogatory epithets in the RSS catechism. The political affiliate of the RSS is the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Modi’s current outfit. He’s been advancing the RSS electoral agenda since he was seconded to the BJP some 40 years ago. Concerning Modi’s political agenda, one of Modi’s many critics in the “left secular” Congress leaning media wrote:
“For Modi, as RSS pracharak, history is an act of cleansing, and ethnic cleansing is merely a way of restoring what the fascist regards as normative and normal. For Modi, the old pracharak, Muslims were “dirt”. They were an irritating reminder to the Hindu majority that minorities still defined the polity. Like many Hindus, Modi actually believed that electoral Democracy makes a majority feel deprived, guilty about the way it feels about minorities. Such a “majoritarianism” feels that too much attention and privilege is paid to Muslim minorities. For such a group, Democracy becomes a source of stress. Modi understood these “majoritarian” sentiments, shared them and harnessed them. He created legitimacy for communalism. He used communalism as a vector to return to electoral power”. For over a decade, Modi’s detractors have been attempting to force the spotlight on the fascist elements of his ideology and politics, and have failed to exact any meaningful political cost as he has risen to the position of ultimate power in India. Will his critics succeed in bringing him to book this time? Do not count on it. The first indication that Narendra Modi is something more than the proud steward of “the world’s largest democracy” is the embodiment in the term “pracharak”
The above is the new face of New Delhi. Colombo and the BBS should take note. The pressure from the BJP towards the Sinhalese Buddhists to adhere to the dictates of the BJP regarding the Hindu Tamils will only increase if the above has any truth to it.
December 29th, 2014 at 9:06 pm
What kind of a Presidential Election is this? Tamils want North – Muslims want East? And India wants the island.
December 29th, 2014 at 9:17 pm
Thank you Bernard.
December 29th, 2014 at 9:51 pm
As long as Mahinda and his brothers and the patriotic leaders in our country lives no one will get any piece of land from our Sinhala nation period. Tamils and Muslims can live with the rest in harmony as a family of Mother Lanka and help to build this nation for our future generation.
We will not allow any outside power to dictate to us or put any pressure or demands concerning our sovereignty. Those Opposition pigs from by gone era will not have a say in our politics for long.They will be discarded by the people very soon. Just stay calm and use your vote on the right direction and you will not repent later on. Our country is moving on the right path and we are all happy but there are some we need to correct and it will be done during the third term of our leader Mahinda Rajapksa.
December 29th, 2014 at 10:31 pm
Implications are far worse. Eventually all this will lead to Eelam and a Safiristan. Firstly it will mean encroachment along all the boundaries / borders so created and internecine unending war across these borders for either claiming more territory or for fresh water – the most precious commodity for life.Secondly Sri Lanka will loose the two thirds of shoreline, foreshore, exclusive economic zone and its 200 mile territorial limits. There will be unending waves of illegal Kallathonis landing without any control to eventually make Sri Lanka non-existent and to wipe out thousands of years of Sinhala Buddhist culture.
http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/category/ratanapala/
http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/category/ratanapala/
http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/category/ratanapala/
December 30th, 2014 at 6:59 am
Bharat Jaggeeo an Indian from Guyana is the Commonwealth election monitor from the Commonwealth. Will Sri Lanka end up another Guyana?
December 30th, 2014 at 7:06 pm
Sorry, same comment with the correct links.
Implications are far worse. Eventually all this will lead to Eelam and a Safiristan. Firstly it will mean encroachment along all the boundaries / borders so created and internecine unending war across these borders for either claiming more territory or for fresh water – the most precious commodity for life.Secondly Sri Lanka will loose the two thirds of shoreline, foreshore, exclusive economic zone and its 200 mile territorial limits. There will be unending waves of illegal Kallathonis landing without any control to eventually make Sri Lanka non-existent and to wipe out thousands of years of Sinhala Buddhist culture.
http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2012/11/08/13th-amendment-implications-of-eelam-2/
http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2012/11/02/13th-amendment-implications-of-eelam-
think/http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2012/10/28/13th-amendment-implications-of-eelam/