Sinhala Tigers in sheep’s clothing
Posted on April 16th, 2016
Janaka Perera
It is amusing to see ‘Comrade’ Surendra Ajith Rupesinghe pontificating on Constitutional reforms after years of supporting LTTE separatism in Sri Lanka and abroad. To him the Tigers were a political organization that represented the national-democratic aspirations of a nation”. Like hell!
We suppose he is still a Tiger sympathizer because he has never said he no longer believes in the LTTE ideology or that he regrets supporting them.
Rupesinghe’s April 12 article to Lanka Web exposes the sanctimonious humbug he is. Of course in the present context he cannot directly say he is backing the Tamil separatist cause. But when one reads between the lines one will not fail to miss the real objective couched in the usual rhetoric of the dubious ‘human rights’ lobby.
One wonders what he mean by saying …. A democratic political solution that respects the right of internal self-determination of oppressed nationalities….”
There is little doubt his idea is to promote the creation of ethnic enclaves or if possible a Sri Lanka-Tamil Eelam confederation.
As always Rupesinghe is trying to have one foot in Sri Lanka and other in the mythical Tamil Eelam. He has been playing this ‘constitutional’ game for the past 16 years. On August 24, 2000 he organized seminar at the BMICH, Colombo under the themes, ‘An Honorable Peace,’ ‘A United Country’ and ‘A Liberated World’.
Five months later in December 2000 he convened a so-called Citizens Initiative for Constitutional Change at the Bogambara Grounds, Kandy. It was one of several meetings the CIFCC held in the country since mid-2000. A ‘peace procession’ from and back to Bogambara Grounds preceded the meeting where a ‘Citizens’ Resolution for Constitutional Change’ was adopted. The crux of the arguments of the speakers was that as long as the Tamils’ right to self-determination and the Tamil Homeland” in the North and East was not recognized, the LTTE was justified in waging war.
I was among several journalists who covered this meeting. When one of them recalled how the LTTE reportedly threatened a group which called for non-violence and peace in the then Tiger-infested Wanni, Convener Rupesinghe said that the LTTE had every right to do so.
His response: They need the war until their rights are met.”
When asked why the LTTE massacred innocent Sinhala and Muslim civilians he gave an evasive answer and made a weak attempt to defend the Tigers’ image by blaming the Indian Intelligence Agency RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) as being responsible for the atrocities. (That the RAW initially trained the LTTE and other Tamil militant groups is a different issue).
Rupesinghe was more preoccupied with the ‘justice’ of the LTTE’s war rather than its injustice. Apparently he believes that justice is a government’s responsibility and not of insurgents or rebels no matter what the latter’s avowed objective and what their methods are.
If the CIFCC organizers hoped that day to get the message of peace across to the Sinhala majority in Kandy it was the last thing they achieved. When this writer asked an old friend, a Kandy resident, for his views on the meeting at Bogambara, his response was:
That’s a LTTE meeting, isn’t it?”
I reported the event in the Daily News of January 10, 2001 under the headline: HOW NOT TO PROMOTE PEACE.
Over decade later ‘Comrade’ Rupesinghe was in the news again – this time as Secretary, ‘Ceylon Communist Party (Maoist)’ to castigate Sinhala Buddhists in Marxist jargon following the condemnable mob attack on a disputed Islamic prayer centre near the historic Dambulla Rock Temple. The whole incident was blown out of proportion by sections of the media.
He wrote in the Colombo Telegraph of May 1, 2012:
What exists as Buddhism as a Sinhala (Aryan) supremacist political ideology that has been nurtured by the British colonialists and which serve the class interests of the dominant status quo and politics of the Comprador Capitalist ruling classes.”
It was a case of devil quoting the scriptures. The whole world knows what happened to religious freedom in China when Mao’s Red Guards went on the rampage during the so-called Cultural Revolution, though Rupesinghe pretends to be unaware of it.
Likewise he must be thinking people have short memories and have forgotten his track record in serving Velupillai Prabhakaran’s agenda. Both Ajith and his brother Kumar figured prominently in the ‘peace campaign’ aimed at weakening the opposition to the LTTE at all levels.
In September 2007 Kumar Rupesinghe’s ‘Foundation for Co-existence’ jointly with the Indian High Commission organized an exhibition in Colombo to mark the centenary of Mahatma Gandhi’s Satyagraha against the British colonial rule.
According to Kumar the exhibition was to stress the need for Sri Lankan citizens to be imbued with values of non-violence….”
In an article I wrote on the subject in the now-defunct Lake House weekly ‘Friday’ I asked why not get the same Gandhian message across to the LTTE-dominated Wanni. Since in an armed conflict one or more groups are involved it is imperative all parties involved should get the same message. The onus for this noble task I stressed rested on the Foundation and not on the Indian HC because Indian domestic and foreign policy is not based on Gandhian principles.
Since it is now seven years since the LTTE was militarily crushed we see intellectual frauds exploring other ways and means of destabilizing Sri Lanka.
April 17th, 2016 at 1:18 am
Thanks Janaka for exposing these hypocrites. They are only treasure hunters, money has no colour for them. What happens to the country is furthest from their minds. I put Maithripala Sirisena and Ranil as well into this category, not to mention idiots like Mangala
April 17th, 2016 at 6:55 am
Tigers were/are using them as ‘useful idiots’ all the time, but the sheep’s clothing would not completely conceal the tiger tails of the tiger sympathisers.
April 17th, 2016 at 7:10 am
Ajit had met even Pabakaran, I think as a Journalist. He is from a Racist – socialist movement..
HE may be Trotskiest.
April 18th, 2016 at 7:43 am
many Sri Lankans are gravely concerned about the TNA proposal to partition Sri Lanka into four pieces with a huge chunk (28% of the land area, 66% of the coastline and 66% of the ocean comprising the North and the East of Sri Lanka) going to the TNA racists and separatists as a merged North East federal state (but craftily disguised as ‘unitary’) with full powers.
We are wondering why did over 43,000 both Sri Lankan Forces and civilians die at the hands of the LTTE and that megalomaniac Prabhakaran, if now, the TNA is being handed over an ‘Eelam’ so easily constitutionally?
When looking at a GIS Map of Sri Lanka, it is amply clear that most of the forested areas of Sri Lanka are situated in the North and the East. Do not these forests belong to all the citizens of Sri Lanka? Do not the same principle apply to the ocean too or even the whole island, that the oceans and the whole island belong to all the people of Sri Lanka? Mr. Vigneshwaran has ‘created’ a fake history (stating that Tamils lived in Sri Lanka for 2000 years). Yet, there are no ancient ruins in Jaffna, in the North nor any ancient Dravidian writing to prove these fake claims. History of the Tamils commence mainly with the Dutch and the British bringing in large numbers of people from Tamil Nadu to work in tobacco plantations commenced by the Dutch and the British. There was the so called Jaffna Kingdom set up by an invader just prior to that but then Jaffna was only very sparsely populated. Our question is, can people such as Mr. Vigneshwaran ‘create’ his own fake history like this? He is ignoring the many Buddhist ruins, the many ancient Buddha statues, ancient Sinhala prakrit writing, the many ancient irrigation reservoirs built by Sinhala kings in the North and the East which proves an earlier indigenous Sinhala habitation in the North and all over the island. We would like to tell Mr. Vigneshwaran to be objective when it comes to history and archaeology and accept once and for all the fact that the Sinhala people lived all over the island for thousands of years and continue to do so. I would like Mr. Vigneshwaran to note that the provincial boundaries were drawn up by British colonialists for their administrative purposes with no input whatsoever from the Sinhala people and does not tally at all with the earlier history of the island which was unitary in nature.
The Kandyan Kingdom (1400AD-1815) comprised almost all of the island inclusive of the East and almost all of the North. The earlier Kingdom of Rajarata (600BC-1400 AD) comprised the North Central, North Western, Northern and Eastern Provinces or the dry zone of Sri Lanka.
We are gravely concerned regarding the drawing up of a new constitution where due to the pressure of the TNA, the US, EU, UK, Canada, Norway, Sri Lanka is in grave danger of being divided up on ethnic lines into four, five or even six different pieces. Is this not crazy?
The TNA proposals were drawn up by experts which the TNA hired from the UK, Canada, Belgium, Canada, US and the like. Is this not an interference in Sri Lanka’s internal affairs by foreign powers, even to the extent of trying to draw up Sri Lanka’s constitution?
Can any organization in Sri Lanka go to the supreme court and stop, once and for all, the merger of the North and the East since it is critical to stop this once and for all? Can any organization in Sri Lanka also go to the supreme court and stop, once and for all the, dividing up of this small island on ethnic or any other lines?
The only way to stop this madness is to go to the supreme court and get a verdict which would prohibit the merger of any provinces and to stop once and for all the dismemberment of this small island on ethnic or any other lines.
April 19th, 2016 at 2:33 am
Plumblossom Your comment is very relevant and covers very important issues. It is unfortunte that news papers like Island do not give publicity to these issues highlighted in the comment. This man Sirisena is unable to save Sri Lanka from the danger it is facing. He is more concerned on taking revenge from Rajapakse’s than saving Sri Lanka from the peril of being dismembered by the Tamils and Muslims.
April 19th, 2016 at 4:48 am
The REMOVAL of the 13-A will fix almost all the problems Lanka faces at present re division of the country, trouble with language issues, illegal migrants, proposed sea tunnel to Tamil Nadu, etc.
Does Lanka need more Tamil Labor ? NO.
The 13-A imposed under Duress on the JRJ govt. is ILLEGAL. Why shouldn’t it be removed ? Almost ALL of Lanka will give a resounding “YES – REMOVE IT”.
During the MR times, the 13-A could not be removed as INDIA would never have agreed to it as INDIA was not settled with the West re Security Issues of INDIA, the Indian Ocean and the region. Now INDIA is well set with the West re Security Issues, and it is the right time to REMOVE THE 13-A.
The UNP led Yahap is in a good position to remove the 13-A.
Citizens of Lanka must demand that they Do it NOW !