Northern demonstrations: Creating a Kashmir?
Posted on May 31st, 2015
By DR. DAYAN JAYATILLEKA
Were the scenes we saw on our TV screens this week a manifestation of a potentially dangerous, post-January 8th Radicalisation in the North?
(Radicalization (or radicalisation) is a process by which an individual or group comes to adopt increasingly extreme political, social, or religious ideals and aspirations that (1) reject or undermine the status quo or (2) reject and/or undermine contemporary ideas and expressions of freedom of choice.)
It is perfectly natural for demonstrations to be held when a crime as heinous as the rape and murder of a schoolgirl takes place. It is natural that such demonstrations be emotional. It would also be natural for those demonstrations to take a violent turn if the suspected perpetrators of the crime were from the armed forces or Police or former members of those services or of a different ethnicity from the victim.
In this case however, the suspects weren’t Sinhalese or current or ex-service personnel. Law enforcement did not try to cover up the crime or protect the perpetrators. The suspects were promptly tracked down and arrested.
Why then and how then did the protests turn forceful and violent?
Why were the targets the institutions of the (uninvolved) State? Why were Police personnel targeted and injured?
Why did the protests not remain localized, i.e. limited to the general area of the crime?
How did they spread to towns throughout the North?
How and why were the protests sustained over two days?
Is it coincidental that these demonstrations were in the wake of the mourning in the North on May 19th? Who would mourn the end of the war, the end of the large scale killing and dying, the dawn of peace? Who would mourn as a historical tragedy, the defeat of the Tigers and the death of the child-conscripting Prabhakaran? Why?
Was there any incitement by the pro-LTTE or more broadly, the pro-Tamil Eelam segment of the Tamil Diaspora, operating through the radical wing of the TNA?
Is this a manifestation of the Pongu Thamil training and indoctrination and the Makkal Padai culture?
President Rajapaksa reopened democratic space in the North and East by defeating the Tigers and holding all types of multiparty elections in the former conflict areas. He also kept the lid on. The security net was in place. Nothing of the kind of demonstrations we’ve just seen could happen during his tenure.
Wigneswaran dissuaded the Northern Provincial Council from passing a Genocide Resolution, on Mahinda’s watch. The Resolution was passed after the dawn of Yahapalanaya.
Today the security net has been rolled back by the Government. It is in that context of a permissive security atmosphere, a security semi-vacuum, that violent and radical demonstrations can take place in the North.
Is it because the North thinks that since its votes were decisive in bringing Yahapalanaya to power certainly the Swan would have lost if not for the votes of the erstwhile pro-Tamil Eelamist, pro-Tiger constituency/periphery adjacent to Tamil Naduit has special rights and can function with impunity?
The long struggle for Tamil Eelam also began with Satyagrahas and violent demonstrations. As revealed by Prime Minister SWRD Bandaranaike in an address to Parliament, there were violent attacks on the Police in Gal Oya in 1956-1958.
Are the latest demonstrations the beginning or the testing out, of an Intifada strategy?
Is it the beginning or the test run of a Kashmir scenario in which there is daily violence by stone throwing mobs against Police and armed forces personnel?
Aren’t violent demonstrations the way in which the Kosovo struggle started in the 1990s, and Serbia was framed after it had to send in troops to restore order?
Are the recent demonstrations the second prong of a multipronged strategy of which the first prong was the dastardly Genocide Resolution of Wigneswaran and the Northern Provincial Council?
The State must not lose control of the Northern streets. The authority of the state must be restored.
Our soldiers did not die so as to cede the Northern streets to violent mobs.
They certainly did not sacrifice their lives and limbs to usher in federalism and an inevitable de facto merger with neighboring Tamil Nadu, in the guise of postwar reconciliation.
Our troops did not give their lives to permit the North and East to be handed over by an elected puppet government as an economic and strategic “sphere of influence” of our giant neighborwhich has a permanently embedded 70 million strong Tamil population with much hostility towards the Sinhalese. The respected Times of India carried a photograph just days ago of a massive Prabhakaran poster adorning walls in Tamil Nadu in mourning for his demise. Tamil Nadu sentiment is not merely anti-Sinhala; it is pro-Tiger, even when the victim of the Tigers was India’s beloved Rajiv Gandhi! The well-made Bollywood film Madras Café, with John Abraham as the star, which is based on the Rajiv killing and the IPKF saga, was successfully banned from cinemas in Tamil Nadu as well as Tamil cinemas in the UK.
Our troops did not die so that Sri Lanka’s North and East could become a Tamil Nadu (or Indian) semi-colony within an island that becomes a Western plus Diaspora neo-colony.
In order to restore the authority of the State in the North, self–respect and strength of character must be restored to the State.
Do we not need Mahinda Rajapaksa as PM to restore strength, political will, purpose, direction and self-respect to the Sri Lankan State; to reinstall an erect spine as it were, and stop the dangerous drift in the North?
Isn’t the return of Mahinda imperative to prevent Yahapalanaya from degenerating or drifting into Yaalpalanaya?
May 31st, 2015 at 12:19 pm
I now know why Mahinda Rajapakse referred to you as an “useful idiot”
May 31st, 2015 at 1:16 pm
Dr Dayan Jayatilleke says : “Our troops did not die so that Sri Lanka’s North and East could become a Tamil Nadu (or Indian) semi-colony within an island that becomes a Western plus Diaspora neo-colony”. TOO TRUE, DR DJ ! Agree with you.
May 31st, 2015 at 1:58 pm
Micro,
MR NEVER called him an “useful idiot”.
What Dr. DJ says is the TRUTH. Learn to accept it.
“Isn’t the return of Mahinda imperative to prevent Yahapalanaya from degenerating or drifting into Yaalpalanaya?”
EXACTLY my thoughts DJ!!
I call it YAAPA(LA)NAYA.
When you remove the letters “LA” (one letter in Singhala), it is YAPANAYA (Jaffna)!! YAAPA(LA)NAYA is all about ruing the country by Jaffna.
May 31st, 2015 at 2:17 pm
I agree we need MR back to restore sovereignty & independence of the country, whatever fraud & embezzlement issues are there. Not that we agree with wrong doing but yahapalanaya showed it is worse with the CB bonds issue & Chief justice issue etc. You’re right Tamils & Muslims seem to think they owe yahapalanaya with their mass voting & may drag the country towards a bleak future.MR should try to make bonds with others , be SF,JHU or JVP & come as a stronger force at the election. If some understanding can be made with some of these groups to defeat Ranil & Sirisena it will add.
JHU has the most impact that’s why MS nominated him to the CC with a possibility to nominate Ranawaka as the PM later but why not give him a vice president post etc in a MR party & rope him in.Already Sarath Silva has given a boost & he should be roped in & used to maximum effect.
May 31st, 2015 at 6:24 pm
Another excellent write up by Dayan. More than his past, what matters today is what he stands for now which is truely ‘smart patriotic’.
Quote: Our troops did not die so that Sri Lanka’s North and East could become a Tamil Nadu (or Indian) semi-colony within an island that becomes a Western plus Diaspora neo-colony.
This sums up the fate of Sri Lanka. Today Sri Lanka is not a non-aligned country. Chinese investments are blocked while it follows US prescriptions. Sri Lanka is now aligned to one camp.
The recent Russian resolution (March 2015) at the UN challenging Ban Ki Moon’s dictatorial dictate to allow UN budgetory family grants to its staff who are LGBTs is a case in point. The issue here is not LGBTs or their rights. That is beside the point. He had no authority to make such a dictate. It must have been decided by the UN in a vote. Russia challenged it and the Russian resolution lost 80-43. Sri Lanka voted against the Russian resolution with USA and 78 other countries.
India and Pakistan voted for it. All other South Asian countries abstained from voting. All Muslim countries, China and Russia voted for it.
It has 3 wrongs.
Supporting it is misaligned with the Sri Lankan legal system the Penal code and the constitution. This government’s willful violation of the constitution continues.
Secondly, by voting against it, Sri Lanka has jumped into the US camp against the entire region and friends at the UNHRC.
Thirdly Sri Lanka has become a US pawn at the UN, once again. After the last time we did that (1951) we paid a very heavy price.
Soon China and Russia will also be supporting the division of the country just like India, USA, Japan and the EU. For China and Russia, it is better to have a piece that is with them than letting the entire island drift to the US camp.
June 3rd, 2015 at 8:41 pm
DR. Dayan these articles are very useful to know and think about our future with this Jarapalanaya. Ungrateful Tamils should not be given anything extra because they were treated same like other ethnic sections in this country by the previous Govt. They were given good schools,roads Hospitals etc same like in other areas in the country. They were allowed to live in any part of the country with Sinhalese and Muslims in Harmony and given every opportunity to live as Sri Lankans. We the Sinhalese too have the right to live in any part of the country including North and East. The Sinhala Govt should give the Sinhalese and Muslims their lands back in those areas and encourage more Sinhalese to go there and live. The facilities must be upgraded for easy access to the world. There should be a strong presence of Armed Forces to protect the land and it’s people.
Govt must not allow only Muslims and Tamils to live in North and East.It should be for all without any separation. The Govt must be very strict on Tamil and Muslim religious fanatics and NGO’s collaborating with these sections of the people. MY3 and Ranil combination is not strong enough to Govern and they are both more sympathetic to Tamils and Muslims rather than to Sinhalese although they pretend to act on behalf of the Sinhalese. Before Foreign Mafia Americans and Indian Parasites swallow the whole island with their evil plans and with the support of three traitors to the land MY3/Ranil/Chandrika we must save it therefore true Sinhala patriots to the land must stand unitedly to fight this evil battle in force.