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A Reply to Milinda Moragoda
Nimal Liyanage
Dear Minister Milinda Moragoda,
Thank you for you email to me along with copies to others in the the
list. I would appreciate if this reply is also circulated to your full
list so that views are known to all, and that ' old fashioned politics
will not take over and the pursuit of power does not occur' anymore,
in your own words.
I was extremely glad two years ago when you first wrote to my email
to start a decent dialogue, and hoping a huge changes in political attitudes
is being spearheaded by you. I did write back to you appreciating your
good intentions. Thanks to your computers automated reply facility,
I did receive a reply.
A few days thereafter, in early 2002 a huge scandel erupted in Colombo
regarding a 'wheat deal' into whch the Hon Prime Minister had to intervene.
I did ask for a clarification of the issue, so that rumours do not rule
the roost, sadly I never had a reply in spite of reminders to you. However,
I am glad to hear from you after two very tragic years for Sri Lanka.
You start your letter saying the ' Today we face an unwanted election'.
You cannot be more true. In fact, this is exactly what your colleague
Minister Tyronne Fernando said on TV just after President Chandrika
Kumaratunga took over the Defence Ministry. He in fact said ' Sri Lanka
cannot afford so many elections'. The message became very clear indeed.
Which political party ever had such compassionate views on Sri Lankan
citizens, never before ? So, I really appreciated this concern and compassion
on the people.
On the other hand, the world also saw serious a contradiction at this
point. How really can you test the will of the people (you like to be
the servant of the people, so best to ask them how they feel) about
donating their ancestoral land to the terrorists.
On one hand in today's letter you say ' you want the politician to be
the servant of the people'. In these circumstances would you consider
a matter as important as a possible division of the country after 2000
yrs of illustrious history, and just before a large portion of the land
mass and a two thirds of the shoreline and maritime resouces extending
a 200 km radius are being offered on a platter to a group of 'narco-terrorists',
some consultation with the original owners would be most appropriate
? Some very arrogant proposals were being touted around the world such
as a confederation, a federation, autonomy, 'a solution outside the
present constitution of Sri Lanka' by your colleague Prof GL Pieris.
Now please do not consider this as hate mail. These are real issues........
that real statesmen...... need to answer, and be accountable to the
people. So please do circulate this to your full list, I have no objection.
Something that puzzles me tho this very day is that the terrorists were
given four places in the peace talks ( they represented about 1% Tamils
at that time) to ask what they wanted, the 7% muslims were too given
a place in the peace talks to ask how they feel about it and stake a
claim for eastern autonomy. Where were the 74% sinhalese in the equation
at this time ? What representation to the Sinhala people did your government
give in this internationally marketed process of democracy? When you
are up against fermenting tamil racism would you not consider some expert
advice would be suitable on the spot, to stop people getting carried
away with 'castles in the air'.
Now that Karuna Amman has revolted will it mean four more places to
the terrorists in the peace process, as the gun pushes against the ribs
? If you and the LTTE proxy comes into power, will the UNF government
consider initiating a peace process between the the two terrorist gangs
to hold down these numbers with the Norwegain assistance ? Or in the
alternative would you have Prabha in the negotiating team when it comes
to tackling Karuna or the vise versa? Where do the 74% Sinhalese stand
in this whole equation ?
So these all very relevant issues.Thank you Mr Moragoda.
Regards
Nimal Liyanage
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