Wigneswaran Damanaya (taming the shrew!) – Part I
Posted on February 15th, 2015

C. Wijeyawickrema

Given below is an essay printed in the Island newspaper on May 23, 2009, a few days after the defeat of Prabakaran, which now appears to me as a waste of time and energy, playing violin to a deaf elephant. However, I find the two parts of this essay and several others written by me  then have relevance in tackling the Wigneswaran genocide document of Feb 10, 2015, by ignoring it!

This Wigneswaran thing is nothing but a rehash of the 1976 Vaddukoddei thing or the Thimpu-Oslo thing or 2003-4 ISGA-PTOM things or the 2009 GCTCSL thing, mentioned below.  Freed from Ranil-Managala-CBK-Raajitha, black-white federal influence, president Maithreepala, could solve this so-called Tamil separatist issue, once and for all, if he takes the Buddhist Middle Path. When two ex-Indian presidents, not born as Buddhists, recently declared that the solutions to world’s problems could be found via Buddhism” they must have meant the application of the formula, 4NT+8NP, in a secular setting.

Digging from the past writings (I am tired of writing anew), an attempt will be made to present that solution, which, if followed then, would have made Sri Lanka, a model state for the world by now. It was a national tragedy that one or two individuals took a decision to cancel the Jana Sabha Director General’s Office, and to derail the successful Gami Diriya Village Development Program, reminiscent of the Rural Development and Crime Eradication Society Program floated by the late Ven. Kalukondayawe Panngasekara MahaThero in the 1940s,  with the support of ASP Osmand de Silva and Justice Akbar.

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Concerned Tamil citizens and the ‘Karuna paradigm’

by C. Wijeyawickrema

“Tell our king to save all our people from the LTTE”
A distraught Tamil mother in an IDP camp

Prisoners of pride and prejudice

The statement issued recently by GCTCSL (group of concerned Tamil citizens of Sri Lanka) (The Island, 5/18/2009) is as unreasonable as the letter written to the president previously by a group of eminent citizens (A ‘concerned’ group of Sri Lankans and the Kamatha test, The Island, 3/7/2009). These Colombo-living groups of people are so out of touch with reality. They still live in the shadow of the separatist sub-paradigm which thrived under the larger Colombo paradigm (milk to Colombo, fodder to villages, kolambata kiri apita kakiri -Youth Commission Report, March, 1990, p. xvii), which in turn helped to sustain the separatist sub-paradigm.

Even if they think that the army has staged those scenes of Tamils marching in the streets of Jaffna and Vavuniya carrying the lion flag (lion flag came from the last Sinhala king who was a Tamil), how can they ignore the evidence from those who escaped torture and killing and entered the army territory? Is it fair to say that they came from liberation to detention? The opinion that “the current war has greatly increased the sense of alienation…among the Tamils” has no objective basis.

Rights of Tamil IDPs

With Prabakaran and his top generals dying without the cyanide necklaces on them those Tamil moderates living in air-conditioned apartments, some receiving generous INGO dollars who maintained silence on Prabakaran’s murders for all these years have no moral right to talk about IDP rights. Writing books on some aspect of the Sinhala society with funds from the Marga Institute, ICES or the Center for Policy Alternatives did not help the Wanni Tamil crushed under the iron boot of Prabakaran. There were no HR or R2P help for people living under Prabakaran’s jackboot.

Some foreign visitors have already testified that the IDP camps are in reasonably good shape. Considering the fact that former terrorists have infiltrated the IDP camps and that the black cat who came to bomb the army commander was a pregnant woman, a child in the womb cannot become a free pass for entry and exit for at least some more months. Anybody with any sense of shame cannot come forward to defend the “impartiality and the monitoring ability” of INGOs who cheated the people in the Wanni by misusing the funds meant for the development of their localities and for their personal welfare.

Sir Isaac Newton and the apple

It is said that if Isaac had asked, “Why did this apple fall on my head?” he would have written a long novel. Instead, he asked, “Why apples fall?” Similarly, GCTCSL should not have asked, “What is the just and credible offer of a political package acceptable to the population of the North and East?” but, “What is the best method to empower all the people (not politicians) of the East, West, North, South and Central?” Prisoners in a separatist prison cannot formulate a new question of this nature despite the clear evidence that the Karuna paradigm and the Mahinda Chinthanaya Programme effectively ended the Tamil separatist plans in Sri Lanka. The demise of Prabakaran is a direct result of the joint application this new political philosophy. We can no longer talk about the B-C and D-C Pacts, Indo-SL Accord, 1995 and 2000 Neelan-GL Packages or the 2002 CFA. The last was rightly identified by the Englishman [Scotsman] Paul Harris as ‘the greatest give away in modern world history.

Hasalaka hero’s mother

It is however, heartening to see that the English-speaking, Colombo-living citizens have finally escaped from “this war is not winnable” mentality. But they and the international crowd shifted gears hoping to get what they could not get by the gun by way of a peace bonus called 13-A plus devolution. They are so excited and cannot wait at least until the dead bodies are buried. Six U.S. senators and all kinds of white newspapers, the IC and even the departing ambassador Blake are in a hurry for devolution of powers. Any discussion that even hints at language-based spatial units will be a betrayal of the Hasalaka hero’s mother. 13-A should only be a temporary measure until a home-grown solution to empower people at the village level is designed. When SLFP proposed one such method (Grama Rajya) in April 2007 only the Chinese government supported it! If India decided after 40 years of neglect to constitutionally resurrect the Panchayathi Raj Institutes, APRC has no reason to look for examples in Belgium or Scotland. Both are in trouble as federal models.

When we think of a solution still the 1947 Constitution is better than anything we saw. Section 29 can be modified with a different fundamental rights clause. It was based on the Ministers’ Draft which was prepared after meetings held at different locations in the island. This did not happen in 1972 or in 1978!

Tamil Buddhists

Unfortunately, Prof. Sunil Ariyaratne’s book “The Tamil Buddhist” (2006) is not available in English for the Tamil moderates to read. The monk Buddhagosha, who translated the Sinhala Tripitaka to Pali was a Tamil from South India. Tamil Nadu is strewn with ancient Buddha statutes dating back to the 3rd and 2nd century B.C. So many soldiers who sacrificed their lives happened to be Christians. Therefore, telling the truth about the elite-establishment Christians in Colombo or overseas is not anti-Christian propaganda. One does not become a SBC (Sinhala Buddhist chauvinist) for telling the truth. It is strange that 99% of all NGO mudalalis are Christians and they supported Prabakaran, openly or secretly. There was even a Wanni-Colombo wine trade.

There are all kinds of stories about Prabakaran’s family. In 1979, I spent one full year in Canada with Prabakaran’s younger brother [cousin] and he went to church on Sundays. They were fishing caste Christians. It is possible that the 33 bullets on the LTTE flag mark the 33rd year of the life of Jesus, the age at which he resurrected from the dead. The former president of India, Abdul Kalam, a scientist, who has a Tamil-Muslim ancestry, once said, that the solution to world’s problems can be found in Buddhism. It is sad that in Sri Lanka, the separatist Tamil leaders were almost all Christians. Thus the younger Prabakaran hated yellow-robed Buddhist monks roaming in Jaffna and did not like Vesak as a holiday in Jaffna. Yet, monks did not try to convert even the hari-janayas in Jaffna (some believe originally were Sinhala people) to Buddhism.

Most of the Sinhala politicians in Colombo also had strong Christian connections by blood or by marriage. A reasonable path to solve the frictions that naturally arise between ethnic groups after the end of a divide-and-rule colonial enterprise could have been found, if the Buddhist way of the Middle Path had been followed. Instead, we had Sir Ivor Jennings, Sir Olivers, Sir Johns and the colonial CCS cadre. The latter category comes forward as born-again crusaders only now and long after their retirement. This must be the reason why the late Mahanayaka Ven. Balangoda Anandamaitreeya Theo once said, “If Sir D.B. Jayatilleka had become the first PM of Ceylon the history of the island would have been different.” The modern version of the Middle Path is the reasonableness doctrine central to the western jurisprudence. The R2P guys (Gareth Evans) and gals (Rama Mani) would most probably do not know about this connection.

Reasonableness test

Can the press statement of GCTCSL pass the reasonableness test? Was the demand since the 1920s for a separate country in Ceylon/Sri Lanka by a Colombo-living, English-educated, western-trained class of Tamils reasonable? This question makes Tamil moderates nervous and they never tried to answer it. More recently, they thought that they had found an escape route by trying to equate reasonableness with the word moderates. This is a western-hatched strategy as a method to continue old colonialism by way of remote-controlled commercial colonialism. When Hillary Clinton says that “this is not the appropriate time to consider an IMF loan” she is with the moderate crowd! When the UK Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell talks in a Parliament debate about “a war crimes probe on President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s administration on how the war was finished,” the oxygen for him is the Colombo moderates’ voice. This group is called the black-whites (in Mexico they are called coconuts – brown outside, white inside).

A moderates’ dilemma

One does not become a ‘moderate’ because there are or there were ‘extremists’. These labels (definitions) are relative terms. They are contextual and time and space dependent. Israel’s Arial Sharon is a good example. The Jews in the settlements that he helped to create for decades later wanted to kill him for asking them to leave the settlements. But the objective-reasonable definition, then and now, is that the Jews settlements are illegal acts of invading and robbing Palestinian lands. The reasonableness test is not just a dilemma affecting only the Tamil moderates (ref. Prof. Rajan Hoole’s human rights award, The Island, 10/16/2007). It affects all other Colombo-based English-speaking Sinhala folks too. For example, recently another eminent citizens’ group totally ignored the bahubootha nature of the present constitution and pleaded for the implementation of its 17th Amendment to save democracy in Sri Lanka (The Island, 3/7/2009).

http://www.island.lk/2009/05/23/features1.html

10 Responses to “Wigneswaran Damanaya (taming the shrew!) – Part I”

  1. SA Kumar Says:

    lion flag came from the last Sinhala king who was a Tamil- You mean Last Mother Lanka king wa a Demilaya .
    I know I am wrong you are right but I want you to get it clear if Sinhala King who was a Sinhala or visa versa Tamil king who was a Tamil unless no different in Sinhala or Tamil those time (2600 years back).

    My sinhala sakothara(m) C. Wijeyawickrema does not matter how many artical (part 1 to 100) the fact is Mother Lanka for You Sinhala & We Tamils for last 2600 years ( according to Mahavamsa(m)) & for another 2,500 years.

    So Please We do not waster any more time to find out who is real owner of our Mother lanka Like Lord Bhudda said do not right to find out Why We born & why die.We never get answer .We both are owner or We both are Kallaththonis from India.

    only chooise we both have divide country into two or live together in United (no unitry) Mother Lanka .
    but at present time We only have only one solution because of American/Westerners& Indian We have to live in United Mother lanka until begining of Eelam war V will end in Nadi Kaddal 2 .

    Whether We like it or not 13A & 16A will be implemented fully !!!

    let me go back to my 33(38) years day dream , Naalai pirakkum TE, Velu where are you ?

  2. LANKAPUTHRA Says:

    SA Kumar, Hela Demala (I did not say it you said it) Tell me Who is a Sri Lankan Hela Sinhalaya or Hela Demala. Last Sinhala King was King PARAKRAMA BAHU. King DUTUGAMUNU had generals who were Tamils. VALU SUMANNA was a Tamil. What we call GOTABAY is in fact; GOTYNBARA, a general in King DUTUGAMUN’S army. He was a Malabari from Malabhar. I do not agree with C. Wijeyawicrama. SA Kumar you try to separate these two entities Sinhalaya and Demala, it cannot be done. Your MAHAWANSE say it.

  3. Ananda-USA Says:

    In Addition, there is now a Tamil Chief Justice presiding over the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka, READY, ABLE & WILLING to RUBBER STAMP any Proto-Eelam Devolution Proposals placed before him by Ranil’s UNP GOSL.

    Aiyoooo Sirisenaaa …. We will HOLD YOU RESPONSIBLE for the DISINTEGRATION of OUR MOTHERLAND!

    ………………………
    The FIVE STEPS to EELAM by Dayan Jayatilleka!

    Step One: As a definitive election analysis by experts proves, Mahinda Rajapaksa gets 58% of the vote of the Sinhalese who comprise 74% of the country’s populace, and only 13% of the vote of the minorities, and loses. Maithripala Sirisena gets 41% of the vote of the Sinhalese and 85% of the vote of the minorities and wins. (‘Deconstructing the Sri Lanka Presidential Election 2015 through Data Analysis’, Dr. Ranjiva Munasinghe and Ruwanthi de Silva, Daily FT, Friday Feb 13, 2015.

    Step Two: The President appoints as Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe of the UNP, who promptly appoints a Cabinet which is almost totally UNP. Thus a person and a party which have neither won a national election nor demonstrated that they enjoy the confidence of the majority of the House, forms the government. This is unprecedented in a democracy.

    Step Three: A signature appointment by the new Government is that of the Governor of the Central Bank. The post is given to someone who is not a citizen of Sri Lanka (not a dual citizen) and has been for thirty years, right up until his appointment, a top executive of foreign private banks.

    Step Four: The unelected government and an ex-president push a draft of Constitutional reform which will overturn the executive Presidency and replace it with a parliamentary/Prime Ministerial Government, in which the President has to act ALWAYS on the advice of the Prime Minister and can be removed by a two thirds majority of the parliament—which is easily obtainable courtesy funding from the next Raj Rajaratnam who comes down the pike.

    Step Five: When the North makes its inevitable push, in line with its strategy of incremental separatism, the Presidency would have been deliberately, consciously enfeebled while a parliamentary government and cabinet resting on Northern political support, will be unable to successfully resist that effort, besides which an economy whose commanding heights are dominated by non-national elements (including the pro-secessionist Diaspora) and whose direction is dependent upon the Western institutions (we’ve already gone to the IMF), will be unable to withstand its impact.

  4. Ananda-USA Says:

    This POWER TRANSMISSION PROJECT should NOT GO AHEAD!

    It will

    1. UNDERMINE the DRIVE to DEVELOP Sri Lanka’s own national power generation projects and assist India to FURTHER INCREASE its NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS in Tamil Nadu for sale of that power to Sri Lanka!
    2. It will DISCOURAGE EMERGING INVESTMENTS in INDIGENOUS Renewable Power Generation within Sri Lanka, gutting the rapidly increasing demand for solar and wind energy, and the LOCAL HIGH PAYING JOBS they create,
    3. It will EXACERBATE Sri Lanka’s BALANCE OF PAYMENTS. Why IMPORT energy when we can generate it from RENEWABLE sources like Solar and Wind in PERPETUITY?
    4. It will GIVE India ANOTHER HOLD on Sri Lanka’s ECONOMY and the ABILITY TO HOLD ELECTRICAL POWER AVAILABILITY to RANSOM should Sri Lanka oppose India’s other policies such as support for DEVOLUTION of Power to Eelamists!

    Bad IDEA, advanced NO DOUBT by Eelamists seeking to INCREASE India’s FOOTPRINT in Sri Lanka for FUTURE LEVERAGE!

    Aiyoooo Sirisenaaaa …. What an ABSOLUTE MUTT you are, not SEEING the FUTURE beyond the tip of your NOSE!

    …………………..
    Power, Transmission projects to get a push during Modi-Sirisena meet

    ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.

    Feb 15 (BS) NTPC’s 500 MW coal based power project at Sampur, Trincomalee and PowerGrid Corporation’s over and under-sea transmission line project connecting India and Sri Lanka are expected to get a much needed push during meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena.

    The power project, which NTPC had proposed in June 2005, entails an investment of Rs 2,000 crore has yet to get various clearances from the Sri Lankan government agencies.
    Similarly, the transmission project proposed in 2007-08 to transfer 1,000 MW of power from India to Sri Lanka needs an investment of Rs 3,000 crore. However, both the governments and PowerGrid Corporation and Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) have yet to settle various technical and non technical issues before reaching at a formal agreement in this regard.

    NTPC spokes person told Business Standard, ”The coal based project is a joint venture between the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and NTPC. Currently, the company has initiated process to get environment clearance from the Sri Lankan government. The public hearing will be held in a months time.” Already NTPC’s team is stationed in Sri Lanka and pursuing the project development.

    According to the spokes person, governments of Sri Lanka and India entered into an Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) in October 2013 to develop a coal power plant in Trincomalee as a joint venture between CEB and NTPC. The initial plant capacity will be 500 MW which can be extended up to 1000 MW. Further, power from the Sampur plant could be exported to India, as part of an interconnected grid.

    As far as PowerGrid Corporation’s transmission project is concerned, 300 km of overhead transmission line has been proposed between Anuradhapur in Sri Lanka and Madurai 300 km. This apart, there will be marine link of 1,700 km.

    PowerGrid Corporation official said, ”Technical and financial issues are being discussed between PowerGrid Corporation and CEB. Besides, there are religious place at the connecting centres and the local community needs to be taken on board. Two high voltage, direct current (HVDC) terminal stations are to be set up at the two ends of the link, connected to Sri Lanka’s national power grid. ”

    Meanwhile, Neelam Deo, former diplomat and director, Gateway House, a foreign policy think tank said traditionally, India and Sri Lanka have shared close relations.President Sirisena’s visit from 15-18 February will contribute positively to the bilateral and expand opportunities for economic engagement.

    ”India has investments worth over $1 billion in Sri Lanka, and trade between the two countries stands at $5 billion. India will need to strike a difficult and delicate balance between its economic interests and the need to emphasize the concerns of the Sri Lankan Tamils. India must advance pending projects with Sri Lanka, particularly the $270 million project to build housing units in the North and a 500-megawatt coal power plant in the Eastern province,” she noted.

  5. Susantha Wijesinghe Says:

    SA K !!!! Grrrr Don’t disturb me. Don’t you know I am in eternally at sleep in Nandikadal ??? Grrrr.

  6. Susantha Wijesinghe Says:

    ANANDA !! Fully agree with you on this POWER TRANSMSSION PROJECT. INDIA IS A SLY FOX. These are basic necessities for the foundation, to annex SRI LANKA to India. Sri Lanka can be self sufficient in Power, with Solar and Wind Power. INDIA KNOWS THAT SRILANKA GOVERNING POLITICIONS ARE DOLTS. They know that they will sell their mother(land) to show the world they are it. Damning imbeciles. Why do we have to import power from India ? THERE IS NO NECESSITY TO EVEN TALK ABOUT. IS THIS ECONOMIC ENGAGEMENT ? DAMN IT.

    THERE SHOULD BE NO UNDER SEA TRANSMISSION LINE. Whoever agrees to this should be shot with his own shit. He will have to be answerable to the impending disaster to SRILANKA.

  7. SA Kumar Says:

    LANKAPUTHRA
    King DUTUGAMUNU had generals who were Tamils. VALU SUMANNA was a Tamil
    So What is your point???
    We Both community lived( not together ) last 2,600 years & will live for another 2,500 years whether we like it or not.
    Why this kolaveri machang???

    Susantha Wijesinghe
    I am in eternally at sleep in Nandikadal ??? – We-Tamil need to keep him alive until We find another 7th grade dropped out self declare Thasiya Thalaivar VP 2.

  8. SA Kumar Says:

    also other wise chinhalavan get shit out from us so Velu walk up Velu, wake up ( pulampa vaichchiddanda- )

  9. NAK Says:

    India is all smiles warm welcome to president My3 to get what they couldn’t get from MR. Namely CEPA and Sampur. navariyan diga is also with the president who botched the Sampur last time.

  10. Fran Diaz Says:

    First I like to thank Mr C.Wijewickrema for writing on the more subtle points that, in the end, really matter.

    Some points to ponder :

    * Mr CW points out that : ““What is the just and credible offer of a political package acceptable to the population of the North and East?” but, “What is the best method to empower all the people (not politicians) of the East, West, North, South and Central?”. YES, it has to be National offer/solution to the problems of the People of Lanka.

    * The Tamil problem is a Caste issue, stemming from Tamil Nadu Hindu Tamils. Tamil Caste is tied to the Hindu religion and therefore seemingly intractable. It is not surprising that Tamils turn to Catholicism/Christianity to get away from the many Caste bound stigma that go back 3,000 yrs. Catholicism/Christianity offers a new language, English, with a western education, enabling jobs, connections, political power via churches, and of course, be FAR AWAY from Tamil Nadu, the Caste growth & nesting area. Lanka (North especially) too is partly included with Tamil Nadu.
    There were some 100 Catholic church buildings when the army took over the N&E (per Shenali Waduge article).

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