LET US BUILD NATIONAL UNITY WITHOUT BETRAYING THE UNITARY CHARACTER OF THE COUNTRY
Posted on January 19th, 2015
Chandrasiri Atukorale
Under the Rajapaksha Regime the war we fought was not against Tamil race, but Tamil separatism appeared in the guise of Nationalism.
It is this fact that many of our Sinhala politicians have lost sight of despite those heavy casualties.
Today many of our elected representatives are using such terms like Nation, Race in a manner prejudicial to the rights of the native Sinhala majority.
Hardly a day passes without something being said about finding a solution to the Tamil problem in the North & East. Very often they refer to it as a Tamil national problem.
What is this National problem?
In the country we see races like Tamils, Muslims, Malay & Burghers. Nobody ever has said that these racial issues should not be fully tackled by Sinhala Governments.
These Tamil racial problems should not be confused with national problems so as to affect the rights of the native Sinhalese people. This is what is happening at the moment. This is a very pathetic situation.
In the context the distinction between nation and race must be made carefully.
In all these past years our politicians have been indiscriminate in their choice of these words.
Under the Rajapaksha rule we were able to defeat the LTTE terrorism which sought to divide this country in to two states. Mr. Maithreepala Sirisena the present President must always pay his attention to that victory of the Sinhala nation
The term nation is obviously aligned to nationality, both being from the same Latin rule Natus meaning birth.Thus Burgess defined nation as a population with ethnic unity inhabiting territory with Geographic unity. Leecock similarly says that it indicates a body of people united by common decent and a common language.
In recent times however, especially since the First World War the term nation has had a more distinctively political connotation; it has stood for a people who feel united and have more desire for Independent Government. There has been a more pronounced tendency to create states on the principles of self-determination nationality & one State (See Substance of Politics Dr.Uppadoreiy)
In the dim distant past Sri Lanka was known to the outside world as the land of Sinhalese. As a case in point we can cite the famous Allahabad inscription of King Samudragupta of India. In that stone inscription Sri Lanka is referred to as the Sinhaladweepa”, though some our elected representatives are hesitant to call this land a Sinhala Land.
When the Portuguese captured the Jaffna province the Tamil chieftains surrendered to the Portuguese by signing the famous Nallur Convention which was written in Sinhala language.
In the present context we have to tell those politicians to think twice the above facts before they plan to bring amendments to the constitution.
January 18th, 2015 at 7:45 pm
>>>In the present context we have to tell those politicians to think twice the above facts before they plan to bring amendments to the constitution.<<<
I bet I can find 80 patriot MPs that will say NO to the 19th Amendment without abolishing the 13th Amendment. These 80 patriots can exert GREAT power of Maithripala/Ranil, as there can be no two-thirds majority without them.
The problem with weakening the president with the 19th Amendment is that if the Tamil terrorism problem re-emerges, the government is in a VERY WEAK position to do what it needs to do to stop it as there are too many MPs that are self-interested rather than country-interested. They will then cave if the 13th Amendment is still on the books, and Sri Lanka loses ONE THIRD of its country.
January 18th, 2015 at 9:33 pm
What is this National problem?
This unnecessarily and artificially created National Problem was solve on the 19th of May 2009 with the cost of 26600 patriotic soldiers lives.
Two days later Mahinda Rajapakse recreated this problem by telling India
Rajapaksa promises political solution to ethnic conflict
May 23, 2009 01:54 IST
President Mahinda Rajapaksa promised on Friday to seek a political solution to address the ethnic conflict in a post-Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Sri Lanka, even as a top UN official pressed Colombo to begin process of national reconciliation by accommodating “legitimate” grievances of Tamils.
In a message to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Rajapaksa renewed his promise to work towards a political
solution for addressing the grievances of the country’s ethnic Tamil minority who share close ties with India.
Indian envoys, M K Narayanan and Shiv Shankar Menon had yesterday met Rajapaksa and sought political solution of
the conflict after the military defeat of the LTTE.
Ahead of UN chief Ban Ki Moon’s visit to Colombo, his top aide Vijay Nambiar said: “The process of national reconciliation, we feel, must be all-inclusive so that it can fully address legitimate aspirations of Tamils as well as other minorities”.
Ban, who is scheduled to arrive in Colombo on friday night will discuss the condition of nearly 300,000 ethnic Tamil civilians displaced by the war and ask Colombo to check ethnic divisions, said his chief of staff Nambiar. Later in the day, Rajapaksa dismissed attempts to haul him for international war crime charges and said he was even ready “to go to the gallows” for defeating the Tamil rebels.
He said unnamed foreign elements were trying to sabotage the government’s military campaign which ended successfully
earlier this week with the complete defeat of the guerrillas.
“There are some who tried to stop our military campaign by threatening to haul us before war crimes tribunals,” Rajapakse said before a huge crowd at a public park in front of the national parliament.
Earlier this month, the UK told Sri Lanka that it may face a potential war crimes probe over deaths of civilians in the conflict.
Rajapaksa, who is also commander-in-chief of the armed forces, said the Tamil Tigers had been completely defeated and
had no possibility to resume their violent campaign for a separate state.
Congratulating Singh for his re-election to India’s top office, Rajapaksa said: “India’s role in successfully and resolutely confronting the scourge of terrorism, one of the greatest challenges of our contemporary era, has been a source
of strength to us”.
Before his departure to Sri Lanka Ban said he was pained by “the plight of people trapped by fighting and living in terror and grave hardship.” He is slated to meet Rajapaksa and Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama on his visit.
Nambiar told reporters here that the UN chief would tour the Manik Farm area in northern district of Vavuniya, where
most of the people displaced by recent fighting are housed.
“It is important that victory becomes a victory for all Sri Lankans,” he said, adding, the Lankan government now needs
to hold talks with Tamil leaders to address their genuine demands.
January 18th, 2015 at 9:51 pm
Rajapaksa recreated this National Problem, nurtured and used it an excuse to keep his and his family’s luxurious life.
He did not look after the Sinhala interests at all and wost still he punish war heroes and neglected soldiers who lost limbs.
” Mr. Maithreepala Sirisena the present President must always pay his attention to that victory of the Sinhala nation” – very true. And it is our paramount duty to make sure he fulfils this.
January 19th, 2015 at 6:36 am
Namaste. Let us bow to India, Indian colonial parasites and vermin. Sinhala people are dying younger, population growth is less than the replacement level. Most of them are unemployed. The area of land they occupy is much less than what is occupied by Indians. The richest and the wealthiest in the island are Indians. Most powerful in the island are Indians. Our new Foreign Minister goes to worship the Emperor and will be followed by the Honorable President. Jai Hind.
January 19th, 2015 at 11:26 am
Tamil Nadu wants to “REPATRIATE Sri Lankan Tamils” with an AID PACKAGE from Sri Lanka, including “1/2 Acre of Land” in the Wanni!!!
And so, Tamil “RESETTLEMENT” is to proceed, presumably including Indian Tamils Kallathonis among them, at Sri Lanka’s expense, while Sinhala settlers are BARRED from setlling there!
Aiyoooo Sirisenaaaa …… What have you done to our Motherland!
…………………
Aid Package Needed for Refugees to Return to Lanka
ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Jan 19 (NIE) COLOMBO- S.C.Chandrahasan, head of the Organization for Eelam Refugees� Rehabilitation (OfERR), has been trying to impress upon the Governments of India and Tamil Nadu the need to work out an aid package to motivate Sri Lankan Tamil refugees to return to the island nation.
On Sunday, Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Sri Lankan counterpart Mangala Samaraweera, had agreed to start, by the end of January, discussions on the repatriation of Lankan Tamil refugees living in camps in Tamil Nadu.
Welcoming the decision, Chandrahasan said that OfERR had worked out a time-bound aid package and submitted it to the Governments of India, Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu. “It could be the basis of an India-Sri Lanka Agreement on Repatriation and Resettlement,” he told Express.
It would be easier to work with the new Lankan regime, given the fact that it will not make a fetish of security concerns unlike the Rajapaksa government, Chandrahasan felt. But New Delhi should see to it that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) does not put a spoke in the wheel by propagating the idea that the refugees should be given permanent resident status or citizenship in India, he added.
“It is important for Lankan Tamils to return to their homeland and reclaim their lost lands and rights there,” Chandrahasan said.
Aid Package
To motivate the refugees to return, the Lankan government should give them land and the means to start a livelihood, and India could look after other needs.
“It should be possible for the Lankan government to give about 20,000 returnee families half an acre each in the Wanni area. India could help them build houses and offer a financial grant to each family for three to six months. The financial part of the aid package will tally with the amount the governments of India and Tamil Nadu are now spending on the refugees,” Chandrahasan said.
Asked if refugees would opt to go back, he said: ” The 26,000 who came in 2006 will go back because they have not struck roots in Tamil Nadu. Among the rest, the women and youth want to go, but older men find shifting difficult.”
January 19th, 2015 at 10:47 pm
I will say this again and again. The problems in Sri Lanka are not due, not addressing minority grievances and aspirations. These are artificial matters raised by minorities in the first place to keep their existing privileges and in the second place to get more by hoodwinking the majority idiotic Sinhalese.
The main problem in Sri Lanka is the so far unsuccessful and weak attempts at regaining their lost position as the majority. Though 1956 was a watershed year, all gains made by D S Senanayake were lost by SWRD and Dudley and subsequently by those who followed.
Every politician from Bandaranaike to Rajapakse took for granted and paid only lip service to the Sinhala Buddhist majority who brought them to power. To add insult to injury they were used during the war as cannon fodder and again discarded by Rajapakse who went all out to appease the unappeasable Tamils, Muslims and Christians. They all banded together to put him out of power.
It is a long story, but this is the hard truth not addressed. Until the majority regain their lost position in whose name the nation was built there will be turmoil in the country.
No country where the majority stake holders are marginalised can prosper!
January 19th, 2015 at 10:57 pm
Ratnapala,
Fully agree. Now the Maha Raja gone Govi Raja should learn from his mistakes and correct it. If necessary he should keep most of his powers and sack all UNpiers if they do a single mistake.
Ravi Karunanayake should be asked apologise to Gota or resign. HE has constructed such a big lie and still continuing as the Finance Minister of a Yahapalanaya
January 19th, 2015 at 11:01 pm
My3 has to resettle 26000 Sinhala families and Muslim families before looking after 26000 so called Tamil refugee families from India.