Wimal....please listen to us... - REPLY FROM WIMAL

By Wimal EdiriwiraThe Sinhela Centre

Sorry about the delay in replying to you.. But let me reply SHORTLY to you since you state that you do not have the capacity to understand long articles - you appear to be able to only understand only short kele-pathra like yours.

1. You are a person who does not have the courage to state your name. You are a faceless and nameless coward who using an anonymous and false name to hide behind in order to make various allegations against people.

2. The allegations you have made are like you - without substance. For NONE of them have you produced any proof: they are simply allegations without even an iota of evidence to back them.

3. No other person would want to even reply to you, but I will do so because I have nothing to hide and I have no problem at all of replying to the allegations you have made.

4. The person whom you have quoted is YET ANOTHER anonymous and nameless coward like you, who is also hiding behind a false name "a retired Embassy Press Officer".

5. There is, in fact, NO Sri Lankan embassy in the U.K. - the foreign mission in the UK is a 'High Commission' - and it is doubtful that he was even employed there because he would have known of it.

6. He has said that I am "a failed wriiter and a frustrated newspaper man". Though he claims to have been a Press Officer and that "everybody at the embassy knew about me" - he appears to be the ONLY person who DID NOT KNOW ABOUT ME: I am NEITHER a 'failed (whatever that means) writer nor a newspaper man. In fact, I am an ACCOUNTANT.

7. The Sri Lankan public would like to know what the qualifications of this "Embassy Press Officer" were to have got this post (if he ever held it) - considering that most of the posts at the foreign missions have been given to ministers' relations or stooges during the past forty years.

8. It is ironical that this man has said that "anyone can call himself thr Sinhala Centre, Buddhist centre or what ever" . This is a statement from a man who makes anonymous statements by simply calling himself "Embassy Press Officer"! To use his own words, "Anyone can call himself an Embassy Press Officer". In contrast, I have NO reason to hide my name - and my address and telephone number are on most documents.
Let me now reply to YOU, the OTHER cowardly person who - like the "Embassy Press Officer" - also writes behind a false name, "Satan Karamu" :

9. Whether an article is short or long depends on a number of things: (i) Whether a lot of things need to be said; (ii) At whom the article is directed - the reason why most of the Sinhelas have been supporting the so-called "peace", the "Peace Talks" and even supporting the partitioning of our country etc is because they have NOT understood the actual situation, and have been kept ignorant by the governments' media censorship and distorted information. For such people, the points have to be explained more than to others. (iii) For other people - like children and mentally-retardant people - short articles and simple articles are ESSENTIAL. So if you need short articles, please read someone else's articles (and DON'T EVEN DREAM OF GOING near the Encyclopaedia Britannica!) - since my articles are intended to be read by a wide spectrum of people.

10. If you are interested in writing any more kele pathra, please go elsewhere: this forum is for serious matters. Everything I have written during the past twenty years on the Sri Lankan situation - and many have been OPENLY and STRONGLY critical of the UNP and SLFP governments and their leaders - have ALL been written with my name, address and telephone number. I don't think you or any other government or other stooges can hope to intimidate me to try to stop me doing this: I am not easily frightened. When I inserted an advertisement (titled "You heard the Media; Now read the facts!") in the British Guardian newspaper back in August 1983 challenging its pro-Tamil terrorist propaganda and giving the actual facts of the situation, my home address was stated in the advertisement (and my telephone address was given out by the newspaper without my authority) and I received EIGHT death-threats from Tamil terrorists! When the third man phoned, I told him that he was too late - because two others were already there before him in the queue. I told the other five the same story - and they then stopped theirs efforts. During the past twenty years also I have received a stream of death-threats from the Tamil terrorists attempting to intimidate me.

11. You have quoted the "Embassy Press Officer" that I am " only a talking shop and a utter nuisance. They say that the embassy can do without single issue nutters like Wimal." The single issue I am concerned with is that of fighting for the rights of the Sinhela nation - and that includes defending our Country. It is, therefore, NOT SURPRISING that I am an utter nuisance to the UNP and SLFP governments (and to their political appointees in our foreign missions) who have been violating these rights for the past 55 years and are attempting to further violate them by even trying to partition the Island to create a SECOND country for the Tamils, who already have their OWN motherland, Tamil Nadu - which is TWICE the size of Sinhalé ("Sri Lanka") . The fact that they have admitted that I am a nuisance to them confirms that my work is successful.

12. The supposed "Embassy Press Officer" got more information wrong - even regarding the "embassy". He does not seem to know that there was a High Commissioner in the UK called Lal Jayawardene - a fact that challenges his claim to have been an "Embassy Press Officer" there!

13. This "Embassy Press Officer" has got still more information wrong (He must have been a VERY EFFICIENT press officer!): You have stated that "No Srilankan paper prepares to give him an inch to publish his views since 1980s the press officer told me." In fact, The Leader newspaper - which is pro-UNP - published an article of mine covering the entire top half-page titled " Major parties are pawns of minorities" on 21st January 1996. I suggest that you find it and read it - every statement in it is still valid today, seven years later! Other articles of mine have also appeared in the Leader - and of course Lankaweb has carried an article just the last week.

14. You have said that the "Embassy Press Officer" "also told you "that JR once called Wimal "You Stupid Madman " and shut him up". In fact, YET AGAIN this so-called "Press Officer" not only does not give any evidence to support his claim, he has actually got his facts in a twist - or was not present on that occasion at all! In fact it was I who asked the High Commissioner for a conference - (in September/October 1985) with JR (to which ultimately more than eight Sinhela associations were invited to send their representatives) - at which I criticised JR (literally to his face - I was seated next to him!) for ordering the police and army in Jaffna to remain confined to their barracks and, thereby, treasonously handing the peninsula over to what were then just Tamil criminals. Far from calling me a "Stupid Madman", JR had no answer to give - and therefore asked me why if I feel so strongly, I "don't come back to Sri Lanka and fight the Tamil terrorists, and that he would appoint me as the commander of the army". This ridiculous and idiotic statement was made in front of ALL those associations, and in front of the High Commissioner at the time (about twenty people in all!), because he had NO reply to give! I told him then that not only I but hundreds of other Sinhelas were prepared to come to fight, but I had never handled a gun before and that it was ridiculous for him to ask civilians to come and fight terrorists while he was keeping the police and the army - who were trained and armed to fight - locked up in their barracks in Jaffna. He had no answer to give - so he changed the subject and turned to someone else. These facts (unlike your friend's unsupported allegations) can also be verified from the High Commissioner at the time. [JR, in fact, was a personal friend of my father, and both passed out as advocates on the same day.]

15. It is no coincidence that the comments of both of you have come immediately after the publication in Lankaweb of my article "Govern OR Get Out!" which exposed the phoney "anti-terrorist war" conducted by the governments of BOTH the UNP and the SLFP during the past twenty years. During this phoney war, these governments deliberately allowed the Tamil terrorists to massacre more than 135,000 innovcent Sinhela men, women and children and more than 25,000 Sinhela soldiers to terrorise the Sinhela nation - so they are clearly not happy that their traitorous and treasonous activities have been exposed, which could result in strong action against them by the Sinhela nation. The comments from the "Embassy Press Officer", who got his job from one or other of these political parties, are therefore not surprising. Your own response, suggests a similar vested interest and that you have obligations to those two parties.

16. You have, however, said that people like me "are good for our country because you highlight the current issues. Dont get me wrong, I still like to read your views..." If this is true, then read them without trying to be abusive. Otherwise, simply read someone else's articles - Nobody is forcing you to read mine - and just use the delete button to remove mine, or better still let me know so I can delete your email address. (In any case your email address was NOT in my email lists - so why did you seek out articles which you find too long for you?)

17. Unlike your letters, I have been very polite and factual in this reply. But I have no intention of replying to any further of your anonymous kele-pathra or to your "Embassy Press Officer's" also anonymous, and frivolous and totally unsupported allegations. They will simply be deleted and a block placed against your email address.