Cameron, Manmohan Singh, Maccrae and Valmiki
Posted on November 15th, 2013
Professor Nalin de Silva.
Going by the reports that appeared in Indian news media I thought that finally the Indian Prime Minister would come to Sri Lanka to participate at the CHOGM even for a few hours at least to mark his presence. However, it was not to be. Remember that it is not Manmohan Singh who is not coming to Sri Lanka but the Indian Prime Minister. The talk of how many CHOGMs the Indian Prime Ministers have missed during the last fifty or sixty years is nothing but diplomatic mockery. After all it is not the same as the Indian Prime Minister not going to Perth as Colombo or (Sri) Lanka tolls a different bell to Indians at least from the time of Valmiki. The Indian Foreign Office has lost to Jayalalitha who is in effect the Indian Minister for Sri Lankan affairs. I feel sorry for Mr. Kurdish, whose portfolio has been devalued. The Indian High Commissioner in Colombo who must have done his best to see that Manmohan Singh came to Sri Lanka should also be a worried person.
However, I am not unhappy that Manmohan Singh is not coming to Sri Lanka as it would end our dependence on India to solve the Tamil problem. Sri Lanka is now out of the Indian yoke, and The Indian government will not be in a position to apply pressure on the Sri Lankan government with so called solutions such as the 13th amendment plus or minus. The Indian Foreign Office must have realized this but Jayalalitha who has played to the gallery in her entire adult life does not seem to understand the intricacies of non celluloid politics. I am sure that the Chief Minister of the Northern Province is also worried of the situation but he should realize that it gives us an opportunity to solve our problems without foreign interference. Let us talk of the commonalities between Tamil Shaivite culture and the Sinhala (Hela) Buddhist culture without importing concepts such as reconciliation from the west. After all it is said that Shiva Thandava Stotra was composed by Rawana who had later become a Buddhist if we go by the Lankavatara Sutta of Mahayana Buddhism. Non dualistic Advaitha Vedantha is so close to and so different from Bududahama that Sankaracarya was considered as a camouflaged Buddhist. It was Nagarjunapada of Madhyamikavada with his Sunyathava that made a Nirgun Brahman possible and it is clear that Nirgun Brahman is the -Athmic- (with soul) version of Sunyathava. The Theravada Buddhism of the third council (Sangayana) has tried to accommodate what I call instant soul theory in the form of Dhammavada and Kshanavada. Let us not be fooled by Valmikis and Maccraes (of infamous Channel 4) who had and have different agenda. Let us be Lankans of Rawana and not Ceylonese of George III (the English).
As we said last week the Commonwealth is an unsuccessful attempt by England to keep its empire intact in a different form. Thus England could not boycott the CHOGM nor send a low powered delegation to the meeting. However, England is not happy with Mahinda Rajapakse becoming the chairperson of the Commonwealth for the next two years. England and Canada have already said they would not contribute to the maintenance of the commonwealth. England supported the LTTE through Norway and other western countries including Canada, and operated behind the screen. Now Norway and the other Scandinavian countries have no role to play and England has come to the forefront in the struggle to send Mahinda Rajapakse and Gotabhaya Rajapakse to the guillotine as war criminals. We request the Sri Lankan government to appoint a Presidential Commission to inquire into the assistance given by foreign countries, NGOs, some churches to the LTTE, which violated human rights not only of the Sinhala people but as well as of the Muslims and Tamils. England is unhappy that the heroic Sri Lankan armed forces were able to defeat the LTTE under the political leadership of the President and the direction of the Defense Secretary against its wishes. Both India and England used the LTTE against Sri Lanka but India realized its mistake when Rajiv Gandhi was murdered by the terrorists. However, people such as Jayalalitha who play to the gallery will never understand the Tamil problem in Sri Lanka. She does not know that in Sri Lanka Tamils enjoy much better facilities than in India. Tamil is an official language and a national language in Sri Lanka and it is only in Sri Lanka one could obtain a Ph. D. in the Tamil medium. There is no discrimination on the ground of ethnicity or religion in Sri Lanka as anybody walking round in Colombo or any other city, town or village would realize. While Muslim women are not allowed to wear their traditional dress in some western countries in Sri Lanka there is no such restriction. In the cabinet of ministers there are Tamils, Muslims, Hindus, Christians together with Sinhala Buddhists unlike in England say for that matter. How many Muslim cabinet ministers are there in England, which has a substantial Muslim population?
The Tamil problem in Sri Lanka arose as a result of English favouring the Tamils, and nurturing the Tamils to be the leaders of the country over the Sinhala people. However, with universal franchise given in 1931 the Sinhala leaders became the leaders of the country and the English educated Tamils began to lose the privileges enjoyed by them under the English colonialists. These losses in privileges were interpreted by the Tamil leaders with the assistance of the English rulers as injustices caused to the Tamils in general, and the English were able to create the Tamil problem in Sri Lanka. The English used the educated Tamils against the Sinhala people who fought against colonialism from day one, and even today employ the rump LTTE found as the dispersed Tamils (so called Tamil diaspora) some TNA members, some clergy and lay people in some Churches and NGOs.
The Prime Minister of England, Cameron is here to talk tough to the President of Sri Lanka. He is with people such as Snow and Maccrae who can come out with a Video Clip against the Sri Lankan armed forces and the government at the drop of a hat if not of a few pounds sterling. Maccrae has been given a visa to cover the CHOGM and it is hoped that he does not go beyond the conditions under which the Visa was issued. The two green ladies who came from down under on tourist visas to have press conferences with Sumanthiran who is of the same Chinthanaya as the ladies, would have learnt that not only Cameron but we also could be tough. All these people claim that in the last week of the humanitarian operations against the LTTE the armed forces were engaged in killing innocent Tamils at will. This is absolute rubbish created by the English in order to take Rajpakses to a so called international war tribunal for defeating the LTTE terrorists against the wish of the English Prime Ministers. As the Defense Secretary has said these accusers should either come out with evidence or shut up. It is well known that during the last stages of the operations the LTTE used about three hundred thousand innocent Tamils as a human shield. What were the armed forces expected to do? Were they to let the LTTE keep the innocent Tamils protecting the terrorists until England and the other western countries sent a ship to rescue the terrorist leaders or to massacre the innocent Tamils? The armed forces did neither, but were instrumental in helping the innocent Tamils to come to the armed forces getting away from the terrorists.‚ It is inevitable that during the cross fire some civilians would have died for which the LTTE was mainly responsible. It is the LTTE that did not want to lose the human shield and it is very likely more people died as a result of the terrorist gun fire. In any event the armed forces would not have killed any civilians intentionally and Maccrae can go on producing video footage to satisfy Cameron and others who are interested in sending the Rajapakses and the -war- heroes to the guillotine. Thousands of years ago Valmiki, most probably a Vaishnavite, came out with Ramayana to charge Rawana of various crimes including molesting Sitha, while praising Rama who was an avatar of Vishnu. Valmiki did not charge Rama or Lakshmana for amputating the nose and the lips of Supranika without any surgical instruments. Valmiki wanted to justify the killing of Rawana by Rama. However at the end Sitha passed the chastity test after going back from Rawana but ironically could not do so after she was with Valmiki! It is more appropriate to call him Val Miki (Miki the cad) in Sinhala. To me the Rama Rawana battle at that time was one for supremacy between Vaishvanism on one hand Shaivism and Buddhism on the other.
Similarly Maccrae is doing a job for Cameron and he is silent on bombing of Iraq by England under the pretext that the former country was in possession of chemical weapons. There are so many crimes committed by England against all the other commonwealth countries including Sri Lanka and India, and it is suggested that at the CHOGM in Colombo Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse bring a motion condemning all the atrocities committed by England against all the other Commonwealth countries and asking England to pay compensation and return all the treasures taken to England from those countries. We are in the midst of another battle that is between the Greek Judaic Christian Chinthanaya and the other Chinthanayas.
November 15th, 2013 at 9:36 am
More importantly I hope government take measures to abrogate 13th amendment. This is a curse for Sri Lanka. Go back to village councils and urban council system.
November 15th, 2013 at 11:26 am
Prof. Nalin de Silva said,
“To me the Rama Rawana battle at that time was one for supremacy between Vaishvanism on one hand Shaivism and Buddhism on the other.”
Not strictly true Nalin, because the Ramayana epic PRE-DATES Buddhism!
November 16th, 2013 at 12:31 am
We Patriots of Sri Lanka will ALWAYS Love & Protect President Mahinda Rajapaksa who rescued Sri Lanka’s hallowed crown from the GUTTER and placed it on our heads!
What a Generation of Pusillanimous Political Pundits posing as National Leaders could not do this Great and Good man acheived with great skill and courage taking the Personal Risks that the others avoided.
While others Piously pontificated to the chorus of foreigners chanting the mantra of “Human Rights” and “Democracy” for the TERRORISTS blowing hundreds of thousands of innocent people to bits, and slicing and dicing innocents in the dead of the night, this Courageous Man with the Heart of a Lion took up the sword on behalf of his hapless countrymen.
He understood that innocent VICTIMS rights TRUMO those of pitiless MURDERERS!
We have only to look at the UTTER CHAOS WITHOUT END that reigns today in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia, Libya and elsewhere in world, despite, or because of, the failed bungled efforts of resource rich superpowers, to realize the STUPENDOUS MAGNITUDE of the SEEMINGLY IMPOSSIBLE TASK that our President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his band of brothers accomplished on a shoestring budget.
We Patriots of Mother Lanka will NEVER ABANDON this Heroic Leader of Ours who SAVED COUNTLESS lives of our fellow citizens by his inspired leadership in our hour of DESPERATE NEED!
Eternal Glory to President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his Band of Heroes in the Highest!
…………………….
Rajapakase Seen As Hero At Home, Despite Foreign Critics
ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Nov 16 (MD) COLOMBO- Mahinda Rajapakse may be a pariah for some of his Commonwealth peers, but for many of his fellow Sri Lankans he is a national hero who ended four decades of bloodshed.
The combative Sri Lankan president has long battled allegations that his troops killed some 40,000 civilians in the closing stages of the island’s ethnic conflict which ended in May 2009.
His refusal to countenance an international inquiry into alleged abuses at the end of the war has prompted the leaders of Canada, Mauritius and India to all stay away from this weekend’s Commonwealth summit in Colombo.
Others who are attending, such as Britain’s David Cameron, are promising to have “tough conversations” with the 67-year-old Rajapakse.
But for all the international criticism, Rajapakse’s popularity has stood firm back home among a population who endured 37 years of war before government troops crushed the Tamil Tiger rebels once and for all.
“People were getting killed for 30 years, at least after 2009 we have stopped it,” Rajapakse said in a typically unapologetic performance before the press in Colombo on Thursday.
“There is no killing in Sri Lanka today.”
Former Sri Lankan diplomat Dayan Jayatilleka says Rajapakse — who was overwhelmingly re-elected in January 2010 — still has no shortage of credit in the bank with the majority Sinhalese community after overseeing victory in what many had thought was an “unwinnable war”.
Jayatilleka likened Rajapakse’s image to that of Vladimir Putin, who restored Russian pride and prestige by ending the war in Chechnya — even if there was also a heavy human cost.
“Mahinda has the same kind of appeal as Putin. He has done something that none of his predecessors could,” said Jayatilleka, adding that he created a sense of patriotism among the majority.
Ordinary Sri Lankans, questioned on the streets of Colombo, were quick to voice their support for Rajapakse even if they have less kind words to say about his government.
“People are still grateful to him for ending the war,” company executive Nilantha Perera said. “He is seen as the man who defeated terrorism. He did the impossible.
“Whatever his flaws in governance, many are willing to overlook all that. We are a grateful people.”
Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella acknowledged that Rajapakse’s military success was still a strong draw at national elections.
“I will vote for him any day because he won the war and stopped the daily bomb blasts we had to face for over 30 years,” Rambukwella told AFP. “People trust him. Ask the ordinary people. That is what is important to us.”
The UN estimates that at least 100,000 people were killed in the fighting between 1972 and 2009, making it one of the longest and bloodiest ethnic conflicts of the 20th century.
Rajapakse is widely regarded as an astute politician, managing to shift blame for corruption onto others in an administration which includes several of his brothers in senior positions.
He has also been helped by a failure of the opposition to come up with a credible challenger.
UN Human Rights chief Navi Pillay is among the international voices who have accused Rajapakse of becoming increasingly authoritarian.
But he strengthened his hold at his last electoral test in September, when he won two of the three provincial council contests. His only defeat was in the north, where the main Tamil party unsurprisingly won in Jaffna.
Tamil politician Dharmalingam Sithadthan said increasing international criticism actually helped Rajapakse to consolidate his nationalist credentials.
“He projects Western powers as the new enemy of the state and he is fighting them,” Sithadthan told AFP. “This has proved a very successful strategy.”
November 17th, 2013 at 1:52 am
This so called professor doesn’t know the difference between the English Empire and the British Empire. After 1707 there was no English Empire. Because of the union of the Scottish and English Royal Houses in 1707 created the British Empire.
Professor Nalin De Silva, the only colonies under the English Empire were the 13 American Colonies and England’s Caribbean holdings.
Only the 13 American Colonies and caribbean holdings were English Colonies. All nations under the empire during the 19th Century for example like Sri Lanka were British Crown colonies.
There is a difference between British and English they are not the same thing. I would have thought the professor would know this.