A Lesson for Mahinda and Maithripala and Hope They Learn It
Posted on January 6th, 2015
Dilrook Kannangara
First comes the nation; second and third too comes the nation. Is there anything that comes ahead of the nation? Surprisingly yes. There is. Sinhala ethnicity, Sinhala language and Sinhala Buddhism are much more precious than Sri Lanka because it is the Sinhalas who defend Sri Lanka. In known history, this nation was subjugated in whole or in part for over 650 years and it was the Sinhalas who liberated it time and again. The nation could revert back to how it was before those invasions thanks to the protection of the “Sinhalaness” of the people. For this reason, if anyone wants to defend the nation, they must defend Sinhala interests; the nation will be protected automatically. This is the lesson Mahinda and Maithripala must learn.
Who Won the War? Sinhala People
The debate over who won the war comes at every major election. It was not a politician, an army commander or a particular clan that won the war. It was the Sinhala people who won the war not just in 2009 but also in 161BC, 1070AD, 1236AD and on all other occasions when the nation faced a foreign or local threat. Despite droughts, invasions and other calamities they defended the nation and Buddhism preserving it for earthlings in written form (89BC). Over 97% of the armed forces are made up of them and over 90% of diplomats and expats who defend the nation amidst stiff foreign assaults are Sinhalese. Over 80% of those who toil in harsh Middle Eastern conditions to sustain the national economy are Sinhalese and over 80% of farmers are Sinhalese. Most freely educated professionals who serve the nation after graduation are Sinhalese while virtually the entirety of those who defend the Buddha Sasana are Sinhalese. This disproportionately larger national contribution of Sinhalas must be recognized by the leaders and politicians.
Uplifting Tamils Disproportionately Above Their National Contribution and Ethnic Percentage
It was the Dutch and British imperialists that uplifted Tamils above what they naturally deserved. Following their divide-and-rule policy, they showered disproportionately large benefits on Tamils to rule over native Sinhalese. Unfortunately this policy didn’t die totally in 1948 and it raises its ugly head time to time.
If Maithripala wins the election, Tamil votes would play a crucial role in his win. However, he must not forget Tamils vote for him not because they want to save the nation from corruption and other evils. It is because they abhor Rajapaksas for unifying the nation. The oft claimed Tamil adage ‘get whatever you can from Sri Lanka but be loyal to Tamil Elam’ is what drives Tamils. It has been twisted lately to say ‘get whatever you can from Rajapaksas but be loyal to Tamil Elam’. It will be the same pedestal Maithripala will be on. If Maithripala wins the election with the help of Tamil votes, he should not mistake the Tamil support for their loyalty. He should follow a similar approach – get whatever you can from Tamils but be loyal to Sri Lanka and the Sinhalas’. Sir John, Dudley, Chandrika, Ranil and Mahinda learnt this the hard way. If Maithripala loses, he loses because he embraced anti-Sinhala elements in his election campaign.
If Mahinda wins the election, he must appreciate it was the Sinhalese who shouldered his victory, not Tamils or Muslims. Despite wasting 90% of borrowed funds on Tamil majority areas and Muslim majority areas, they show no gratefulness at elections. He should not do the same mistake again. If Mahinda loses, he loses because 90% of borrowed funds were wasted in infrastructure projects in Tamil majority areas and Muslim majority areas.
Reconciliation, Indian pressure or UNHRC dictates should not cloud their minds to see this obvious fact.
Immediate Action before the General Election
Whoever wins, the 13A must be abrogated in full before the General Election. President must be made to answer the parliament and must be able to be sued. Preferential voting system than turns the nation into a battlefield at election time must be removed. Maha Sangha must have a constitutionally guaranteed right to veto government action. Patriotic forces that bear the weight of both camps must continue their patriotic appeal and demand these things.
Politicians must not be allowed to pack away the Sinhalas back in a suitcase until the next presidential election.
January 6th, 2015 at 8:57 am
Patriotic forces that bear the weight of both camps must continue their patriotic appeal and demand these things- This is your own definition of Patriotic ?
We-Hela Demilayas kicked out IPKF even they have offered NEP in gold plate to us -that is call Patriotic My Sinhala Brother.
live & let live until Eelam war V !
January 6th, 2015 at 1:00 pm
Very true! The Sinhela Buddhists have been used and discarded by all politicians and political parties because they remain poor and disenfranchised despite their contribution to Buddhism and the security of the nation. No politician remains loyal to the Sinhela Buddhist after elections because of corruption and greed.
All this, because we have not had a true Sinhela leader that Dilrook is hoping for.
It seemed, for a while, Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) came forward to fill that void, but why they took sides in politics is a question they must answer. Is it a rivalry with Hela Urumaya (JHU), or, are they really tool of politicians, as alleged? What hope have we?
January 6th, 2015 at 2:14 pm
SA Kumar
After this election, the allocation of funds for development in the North and East will be drastically reduced who ever who wins the presidential election. If MR wins, he has already learnt his lesson and in future he will concentrate development of the Sinhala areas only and If Sirisena wins, he will not go for any development projects as his policy already declared to curb borrowing money for development. I think that will be the best opportunity and incentive for Tamils to get themselves to work in the field converting their barren land in the North and East into fertile land like in Israel. S.A.Kumar even can call it Eelam
January 6th, 2015 at 2:41 pm
The reason why Sinahalese always get the third class treatment from the governments
they vote in is UnPatriotic Party (UNP) . They divide the Sinhalese and make the minorities king makers.
All these times mossies took the full advantage of this. Mainly the SLMC (Sri Lankan multiplying community).
Now Tamils have realised that fighting the government they are not getting anywhere and mossies take
the full advantage by joining the government. After this election, Tamils going to join the Government and this
will make the mossies unimportant. That will be a very good thing for the country.
While Sinhalese and Tamils killed each other for 30 years, mossies got into the government and happily multiplied
and trebled their numbers. We all know how mossies turned former Buddhist countries like Iran, Afganisthan, Pakisthan, Bangladesh, Maldives, Malaysia and Indonesia by simply MULTIPLYING!
Tamils problem is they think they had tamil kings and they own Sri Lanka. If they had kings, they should have
ancient kingdom like Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa etc. But the ancient kingdom of eelam exists in books only. So we all know they are mythical kingdoms. They themselves know it, but being Sinhalese they don’t make a fuss about it. So they keep chanting eelam mantra. You should give up this lie and get on with your lives.
You all are very proud and happy to call I’m French, I’m German etc. etc, when you’re living abroad. Why not say you are proud to be called Sri Lankan rather than expecting special treatment. They can live any part of the country, but Sinhalese in their own country, they are not
supposed to live in Colombo, North or East. Sinhalese have been bending over backwards to please these two lot of uninvited guests
for far too long. I blame UnPatriotic Party (UNP) for the plight of the Sinhalese as they divide the Sinhalese and make
minorities the king makers all the time.
There is another thing about UnPatriotic Party (UNP) Sinhalese don’t know about. UnPatriotic Party always align the country with America, UK, France etc. etc and dance to their tune. They are all Catholic countries. Is there any wonder then UNP is anti Buddhist and anti Sinhalese? Sinhalese are a naive lot. So they are digging
their own grave in the long run by supporting this treacherous party!
January 6th, 2015 at 3:45 pm
NeelaMahaYoda
Tamils to get themselves to work in the field converting their barren land in the North and East into fertile land like in Israel. S.A.Kumar even can call it Eelam- This what We-Tamils want We do not want any OC money.
soon We will send our barren land fertility to Sinhala Lanka by Yaldevi .
We only ask one Eelam but You gave us Two – Saiva TE (NP) & Muslim TE (EP-Muslim & Maddakilappu Tamils have same attitute (not reliable people ) as Muslim so they can live together).
January 6th, 2015 at 3:54 pm
Ancient Sinhalaya
Eelara (Eela Raja) is Tamil King ???
Last Kady King is Tamil King ???
We-Tamils & You Sinhalese are living for last 2,500 years in Mother Lanka – according to Mahavamsam .
so why this kolavri mate ???
January 6th, 2015 at 4:08 pm
What Dilrook says is absolutely true.
This is why I say the main problem in Sri Lanka is not giving enough to the minorities, but a problem of the majority not getting enough of the national pie. Sinhalese have democracy only on the election day and after that they are a taken for granted lot who are forgotten, discarded and left for dead till the next elections. Come the next election they have to be reborn as fresh Karapincha to be used and discarded again! This has happened for far too long.
This is also why I say that this is a good occasion for the Sinhalese in both the SLFP and the UNP to join hands and rise up to the occasion to have a strong Sinhala leader at the helm of affairs. There is hardly any difference between the two parties the SLFP and the UNP, both now having interbred many times over.
However on the UNP side, Don Juan Ranil true to his namesake has clearly taken sides and now ready to hand over Sri Lanka to the “New Portuguese”. He has literally made UNP a Christian Party so much so it should be named the Christian United National Party. With himself a born Christian, he has literally cleared the top hierarchy of the UNP of Buddhist leaders and any that remain toothless eunuchs. With close comrades Catholic Ravi Karunanayake, Catholic Joseph Michael Perea, Christia Eran Wickramatunge, Catholic John Amaratunge and supposed to be Born Again Saith Premadasa and Rosy Senanayake the job is nearly done. I am not surprised in the hands of Chandrika and Rosy very soon Hirunika too will end up in the Born Again clan. The conjuntion of all these anti Buddhist characters does not bode well for Sinhalese Buddhist supporters of the UNP. If ever this unholy alliance come to power it will be a successful reenactment of the 1962 Catholic Coup. It is time they realise their folly and helplessness and join up with other major Sinhala Buddhist party the SLFP which can still count majority of her leadership as Sinhala and Buddhist.
Democracy they say is the best out all the worst forms of governments that humans have conjured up for governing themselves. Human history has shown clearly that human kind has prospered only when they had charismatic patriotic leaders at the helm of affairs. The main weakness of democratic forms of government is that it does not always have a mechanism to select real leaders. There is no mechanism to weed out weaklings and the propensity to bring into the front weaklings simply based on seniority has ruined the democracy of Sri Lanka many times. Dudley Senanayake, W Dahanayake, Chandrika Kumaranatunge, Ranil Wickramasinghe are a few good examples.
Finding strong leaders is not easy for they are at a premium all over the world. Some are good talkers-like SWRD and Premadasa who is also strong leader and some are cheaters like Chandrika who forget those who brought them to power. Even Rajapakse forgot to a certain extent the majority Sinhala Buddhists who brought him to power. That is why he is now rattled and again wooing the Sinhala Buddhist for his salvation.
He spent too much time trying to satisfy the unsatisfiable. He spent too much time going to the Vatican – nearly 4 times during his tenure so far – much to the consternation of this majority Sinhala Buddhist nation. Whether his labours in wooing the Vatican will bring anything good for Sri Lanka is yet to be seen.
This time Sinhala Buddhist must vote overwhelmingly to give Rajapakse a third term in office for he is definitely the lesser of the evils contending for power in 2015. As President himself said the known devil is better than the unknown angel!
January 6th, 2015 at 6:00 pm
I agree with Ratanapala. I try to keep my head above politics on this.
However, a win for Maithripala may (no certainty) lead them to believe they should do more to Tamils and Muslims. His leading voters (by the lead they create in the district or electorate) will be in this order.
Rural Tamil
Urban Muslim
Urban Tamil
Rural Muslim
Urban Sinhala
Rural Sinhala
If he starts to allocate resources according to this ranking, then there will be another needless youth insurrection. Ranil’s UNP has done so since 1993 which is a clever strategy from the UNP point of view. However, I hope it will not be the case.
Mahinda’s voters distribution is much simpler and the ranking is.
Rural Sinhala
Urban Sinhala
Rural Muslim
Rural Tamil
Therefore if he follows his voters’ worth ranking in allocating resources, it is perfect for the nation. However, 2010 to 2015 says a different story. Not just Mahinds but all (emphasised) our leaders became more minority appeasing in their second term. I sincerely hope he will change it in the third term.
In sum, for completely different reasons, Sinhalese are disadvanataged either way. JHU, NFF and BBS diluted the Sinhala say by dividing into different camps fighting each other. My worst fear is if this infighting continues, Sri Lanka will be at a great disadvantage at the UNHRC due in 2 months. This time it will be much worse as the report/s on war crimes investigations will be presented resulting in a harsher resolution and action. Nationalists who now fight each other on rival political camps must unite for the sake of the nation after the election.
January 6th, 2015 at 7:35 pm
How anyone compare Mahinda to Sira. What Mahinda has done to the country is enormous. Sira what he has done except betray the leader same as Judas. I agree that the war was ended collectively by all patriots to the Motherland but who gave the leadership fearlessly to end the war? None other than HE Mahinda Rajapksa. Nobody can take that credit because we saw there were so many Presidents before him and how they fought the war. When Mahinda took over, our nation was already in LTTE’s hand given by the traitor Ranil on a gold plate to murderer Prabakan.That was the truth which nobody can deny. Because of his leadership qualities we won the war. A leader should be strong to lead if we had a person like Sira a traitor still the war would have been there. So who ever claims that particular individual or a group helped to end the war I disagree because if Mahinda didn’t take out the NGO’s from North and said ‘NO’ to all foreign backers of LTTE there won’t be no end at all.
We should be proud to have a leader like that to lead us not a puppet who say “YES SIR” to America and England and the west. We never saw a fearless leader like Mahinda before and I hope he will serve the Majority well this time rather than listening to useless characters around him . We Sinhalese have only this country to call home and we should be treated well and respectively. It’s o.k. to give more and more to Tamils and Muslims as they were all Sri Lankans but if they continue supporting LTTE agenda we should not go to please them with more goodies. In everything we do, first preference should be Sinhalese as we are the Majority. Our children needs Education,Jobs etc. Our leaders must work and listen to Majority voice rather than others. We need a leader to safeguard our religion and our race and at the same time safeguard other religions and races. We need to see a united Sri Lanka under a strong leader like Mahinda Rajapksa who is not a puppet of the evil western Govt’s. A leader for Sri Lanka and for a peaceful world.
January 6th, 2015 at 9:45 pm
I largely agree with what Dilrook says in this article, except for one important aspect:
The Sinhala people cannot be divorced from either Sri Lanka their Motherland, or Buddhism their exquistely beautiful religion that raised them to greatness sustaining their unique national conciousness through thick and thin through the ages.
There can be no Sri Lanka without the incurably courageous Sinhala people, and there can be no Sinhala people without Buddhism their immortal religion.
The relationship between the Land of Sri Lanka, the Sinhala Nation, and the Religion of Buddhism is SYMBIOTIC; none can survive without the others.
Every corner of Sri Lanka is hallowed by the blood of the Sinhala warriors who defended it against all enemies and Buddhism imbued the people with a fine sense of balance that moderated their worst impulses and gave them the emotional stability and maturity essential to survival as a country and a nation of people.
The LAND of Sri Lanka, the Sinhala PEOPLE and the RELIGION of Buddhism are ONE … an INSEPARABLE whole!
All other communities and religions of Sri Lanka add to, and enrich, that basic underlying Sinhala Buddhist fabric. They survive and thrive in the shade cast by the compassionate umbrella of the Sinhala Buddhist civilzation of Sri Lanka, as they did from times immemorial.That too is as it should be … but ETERNAL VIGILANCE to protect and preserve the basic Sinhala Buddhist civilization of Sri Lanka must and should remain our PERMANENT DUTY now and forever.
January 7th, 2015 at 12:31 am
basic Sinhala Buddhist civilization of Sri Lanka must and should remain our PERMANENT DUTY now and forever.- agreed in Sinhala Lanka also Demila Saiva civilization in TE.
We never learned for last 2,500 years.
Live & let live until Eelam war V !
January 7th, 2015 at 1:18 am
A very stirring article by Dilrook which should be framed in gold.
I recall a former president once said that the majority ethnic group, the Sinhalese, is like a massive, robust, sturdy tree, and must be maintained as such, while minorities are creepers that need the unfailing support of that powerful trunk to continue their path upwards.
No creeper can tear itself away from its support. Its choice is clear: cling on or fall off.
No government can overlook this obvious factor. Bending over by governments to foreign demands for so-called autonomy for ethnic enclaves is self destructive for the nation as a whole. Ethnic enclaves inevitably raise the cry for autonomy. Therefore such ethnic enclaves must be done away with. There is no point pretending to resist foreign dictates in favour of ethnic minorities and surreptitiously pumping massive sums for the development of such enclaves.
This country is a Sinhala Buddhist country. So it was, so it is, and so it must remain. All wars and ravages of the past were caused by attempts to dilute that historic identity. It is the Sinhala Buddhist identity which is the thread that has woven the fabric of our very ancient civilization. It is within the four corners of that fabric that we must live and advance.
Mario Perera
Kadawata
January 7th, 2015 at 2:52 am
SA Kumar old chap,
You made a mistake in saying “also Demila Saiva civilization in TE” for it is not in Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka, but in Tamil Nadu in India!
January 7th, 2015 at 5:46 am
12 killed today by two Islamic terrorists in Paris, France! The terrirists are still on the run!
Kouchner, why don’t you offer help to RESCUE these terrorists now? It is YOUR OX being GORED now!
Calling Kouchner, Helloooo … are you listening?
January 7th, 2015 at 8:17 am
You made a mistake – NO ,you know that my Chinhala brother.
We are Hela Demilaya (Eelath Thamilar) .
why this kolavri mate???
Soon Yaldevi will bring Japana mango , pana gnotta etc… to you
January 7th, 2015 at 8:41 am
Ananda-USA
Also I want MR to win (more than you want) because We have every thing (Two TE , Yaldevi , soon (2020) Mahaveli into Irana madu kulam ) .
live & let live until Eelam war V !