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October 4th, 2016 at 1:00 pm
Dayan Jayathilakae has grown up a lot from Federalist……….. to realist ?
October 4th, 2016 at 2:47 pm
Indeed, the 2015 Geneva resolution that was STUPIDLY agreed to by the Yamapalanaya govt will sound the death knell of this govt and the rising up of all payritic forces in Sri Lanka to oust it.
Traps notwithstanding, this resolution must not be IMPLEMENTED, come what may.
October 4th, 2016 at 3:09 pm
The ONLY PARALLEL to the Tamil Tigers in RUTHLESSNESS were the NAZIS!
I AGREE COMPLETELY!
October 4th, 2016 at 3:15 pm
Bravo, Dayan!
Finally, SOMEONE tells the TRUTH as it is!
We, the decent and patriotic people of Lanka, MUST OPPOSE & RESIST the 2015 Geneva Resolution, by tooth and nail, come what may!
GRATITUDE to our heroic leaders and the Armed forces who paid the last full measure of devotion to Sri Lanka in the field of battle, DEMANDS it of us!
October 4th, 2016 at 4:19 pm
Culture of intolerance raising its head again in North Sri Lankan Tamil politics
Mon, Oct 3, 2016, 10:17 am SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Oct 03 (NIE) COLOMBO- After a seven year lull following the end of Eelam War IV, the politics of confrontation and a culture of intolerance appear to be coming back to dominate Tamil politics in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka.
A small emerging group of radicals yearning for a return to the politics of confrontation with the Sri Lankan state in which negotiations on the basis of give and take has no place, is trying to impose its will on other political groups by the use of strong arm methods and disruptive tactics.
Tamil moderates fear that, as in the past, the silent majority, which does not approve of this confrontationist approach, may be forced, for the sake of survival, to bow to the dictates of this small but aggressive group.
The main ground for fearing such an outcome is past experience. In the mid and late 1970s, the Tamil moderates deliberately and unwisely created political space for extremist youth and encouraged them, but only to be subdued and consumed by them within no time.
The extremists did away with moderate democratic leaders. Finally, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) either exterminated rival militant leaders or forced them to become camp followers, to become the sole and uncompromising representatives of the Tamil people.
The current inadequate response of the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government to the basic demands of the Tamils in terms post-war justice, restitution, resettlement and restoration of normalcy, and the perceived inability of Tamil elected representatives to get the government to move on these matters in a convincing way, are paving the way for the emergence of radicals as a force in Northern Tamil politics.
In their defense, moderates elected representatives say that the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe regime deserves to be given adequate time to devise policies, structures and procedures to render post-war justice and restitution without alienating the majority Sinhalese who still have a lurking fear of losing power to the Tamils and other minorities backed by regional and world powers.
The government has taken several steps towards reconciliation and is in the process of setting up institutions, including a new constitution, to usher in an inclusive Sri Lankan polity based on ethnic equity. A wide spread consultative process on all key matters has already been completed.
That being so, the moderates argue that hiking demands, which are bound to have an equal opposite reaction from the Sinhalese majority, will only upset the apple cart and bring the process of reconciliation to a grinding halt. The moderates also point out that the international community, which is keen on giving the Sri Lankan government a fair chance, and will look unfavorably at attempts by Tamil and Sinhalese radicals to sabotage the process. The Tamils may lose the international support they have been enjoying so far.
But these warnings are going unheeded. The Tamil Peoples’ Council (TPC), a collection of people and organizations wedded to the politics of confrontation and drawing inspiration from the now defunct LTTE, has been making demands calculated to raise the hackles of the majority Sinhalese, such as withdrawal of the Sri Lankan armed forces from the North and a stop to the settlement of Southern Sinhalese in the North and the putting up of Buddha statues.
The TPC and its fellow travelers have brushed under the carpet a host of issues which the common Tamil man and woman faces in post-war North – issues which, when resolved, will make a big difference to the lives of the hoi polloi and release energies which could be harnessed for economic development.
Though the radicals did not make an electoral impact in the 2013 provincial council elections and in the July 2015 parliamentary elections, they have gained visibility in the past year with Chief Minister C.V.Wigneswaran heading the pack. His assuming the mantle of leader has made a difference as he is former Supreme Court judge. He is constantly in the media due to his hard hitting speeches at every public function he attends. The Tamil media, wedded as it is to confrontationist politics traditionally, is backing him fully.
But whether with Wigneswaran’s tacit approval or not, radicals have been trying to put Tamil politics into an ideological straight jacket by browbeating those with a different opinion or approach.
Since Jaffna University is dominated by radicals, the Vice Chancellor allowed a function to mark LTTE leader Thileepan’s “martyrdom” but denied permission to moderates to hold a seminar to commemorate the assassination of human rights worker Rajini Thiranagama.
At a function held on Saturday to launch a book on the constitutional history of Sri Lanka from a Tamil perspective, a group of radicals associated with the TPC heckled and shouted down TNA leader M.A.Sumanthiran; the Leader of the Opposition in the NPC, S.Thavarajah; and the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) leader, V.Anandasangaree.
According to those who were heckled, the trouble makers were not more than five or six but the media portrayed the disturbance as a mass protest. However, the more disturbing part was the attitude of the rest of the 600-strong audience who, as in the past, allowed trouble makers to get away with their act.
Sumanthiran had been “gheroed” by a similar small bunch of youth in Australia last year while the rest of the audience watched helplessly. Opposition Leader Thavarajah said that he was advised by well wishers not to voice contrary opinions in gatherings like this. He now says that he will not speak at meetings organized by people who cannot tolerate different view points.
Economist Ahilan Kadirgamar fears that if this trend is allowed to continue, it could gain legitimacy and become uncontrollable eventually as it happened in the past.
However Sumanthiran fees that the TPC has very little support among the Tamil masses, its support in the Tamil media notwithstanding. Human rights activist Rajan Hoole says that the Tamil masses are more sensible than many of their leaders and will not like to wantonly wreck the Sri Lankan government’s reconciliation process.
October 4th, 2016 at 5:32 pm
As Fr Vimal Thirimanna said in his recent speech, the “so called” international community which consist od Britain, USA and other bunch of thugs hated the Sinhala Buddhists. This group was led by Britain because they hated the Sinhala Buddhists who always fought them and kicked them out of Sri Lanka. That is why they just turned a blind eye when nearly 60,000 Sinhala Buddhist were murdered by the Premadasa government and reward Ranil who had a part in torturing and killing these youth. Fr Thirimanna should be applauded for his brave stance when the Catholic church supported the LTTE, I believe just for their money.
October 4th, 2016 at 6:09 pm
There is no leader to save the nation. I’m surprised by Dayan’s turnaround which is good. However, part of the mess is due to our own suicidal UNHRC resolution in 2009.
Jaffna is going through what it went through in late 1970s again. War is inevitable. Tamil “moderates” are unwilling to control “radicals” which is typical because the radicals help the moderates get their demands.
Fr Vimal Thirimanna failed to mention the biggest culprit of all – India in addition to USA, UK, EU, etc. Tamil terrorist groups were raised by India. Government slaughtered over 20,000 mostly unarmed Sinhala youth in 1971 and 30,000 in 1989 at the insistence of India. In 1971, the JVP was a Chinese ideological outfit. This fact denied JVP leader Rohana re-entry to Lumumba University in Soviet Union to complete his studies. China and the SU were enemies then. Since 1987 JVP carried out a strong campaign to oust Indian IPKF invader army.
October 5th, 2016 at 2:54 am
The LTTE massacred over 35,000 Sri Lankan Armed Forces members, Police Force members and Civil Defense Force members over 6000-7000 overwhelmingly Sinhala but also Muslim civilians, 1,253 Indian Peacekeeping Forces (IPKF) members, over 2,000 Tamil Armed Group members who supported the Government of Sri Lanka and who were against the LTTE, around 3,000 Tamil civilians and all this add upto 47,000. Around 35,000 LTTE terrorists are estimated to have perished too. In all around 84,000 in total have perished on both sides in the war.
As you can see it is the brutal LTTE terrorists who massacred over 47,000 mainly Sri Lankan Armed Forces members, Police Force members, Civil Defense Force members in over 26 years of war. Over 23,000 Sri Lankan Armed Forces members are today both temporarily and permanently disabled due to the war. Over 13,000 Sri Lankan Armed Forces members are permanently disabled due to the war. Over 156,000 Sri Lankan Armed Forces members have been injured due to the war. Over 6,000-7,000 overwhelmingly Sinhala but also Muslim civilians have been massacred by the LTTE terrorists in the war of over 26 years.
The LTTE terrorist group also ethnically cleansed the entire Sinhala and Muslim population of the Northern Province, of over 65,000 Sinhala people and over 75,000 Muslim people of the Northern Province in the 1980s and the 1990s. The LTTE also ethnically cleansed the entire Sinhala population of the Batticaloa District in the East of over 25,000 Sinhala people.
Today, the Sinhala people and their descendants of over 135,000 are yet to be resettled in the North and in the Batticaloa District and Muslims of over 115,000 are yet to be resettled in the North. Uptil 2012, of the above number, around 32,000 Sinhala people and around 32,000 Muslims has been resettled in the North.
The LTTE terrorist group recruited over 20,000 child soldiers, all Tamil youth, as attested by UNICEF itself which stated in 2007 that perhaps the LTTE has recruited over 20,000 young persons under the age of 18 years into its cadre between 1983-2007 inclusive.
The LTTE was notorious for its horrific terror tactics such as large scale bomb attacks and the use of suicide bombers in carrying out hundreds of attacks against mainly Sinhala civilians and the country’s leadership, horrific attacks against Sinhala civilians using IED devices, claymore mines and bombs, the massacre of Sinhala villagers in their villages in the North Central, Eastern, Northern and North Western Provinces, the coerced recruitment or abduction of Tamil youth and children for recruitment as child soldiers, forced money collection from Tamils with threats to life in case of non-compliance, attacks on Sri Lanka’s economic infrastructure such as the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL), Sri Lanka’s the then only international airport, oil storage facilities, hotels, planes, buses, trains etc. ethnic cleansing of Sinhalese and Muslims from the North and East of Sri Lanka, the assassination of Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, the systematic assassination of over 120 noteworthy Sri Lankan politicians, civil servants, senior military and police officers, prelates, activists, academics, journalists and other professionals who were assassinated by the LTTE who were but a few of the hundreds of assassinations carried out by the LTTE, including the former Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar.
October 5th, 2016 at 11:32 am
Dr. Jayatilleke, Thank you for a very good speech. However, at the end, you attribute the actions of the powerful countries to “emotion only. In my opinion, these countries do nothing unless it is based on profit. As you may know there has been an agenda driven by the rich and powerful countries for a long time to ensure that the resources of the world are kept mainly for their use. In order to do that, they have to ensure that the developing countries are kept in a state of poverty and if possible at war with each other. To me, this makes total sense.
1. It would explain what was done in Sri Lanka where a small terrorist group the LTTE was taken and trained and let loose on Sri Lanka by India – following whose advice ?
2. Why an internal uprising similar to what happened with JVP became a “War” between Tamils and Sinhalese.
3. Why the Catholic Church also helped the LTTE with advice and support.
4. Why these powerful countries prevailed on Sri Lanka at the last minute to prevent the removal of Prabhakaran.
5. Why Tom Malinowski went and kneeled and laid a wreath on the spot where Prabhakaran was killed. Was he on behalf of these countries asking the pardon of LTTE diaspora for their failure to prevent the death of Prabhakaran, and yet during the conflict these powerful countries were helping the Sri Lanka Govt with training and intelligence support which helped them to destroy 12 ships loaded with armaments which could have turned the tide of war in favor of LTTE.
6 Why so many resolutions were brought against Sri Lanka from 2006 onwards at the UN.
7. Why the IMF is now laying down stringent conditions to impoverish the country and destabilize it to lay it wide open for exploitation by the Corporations of these countries.
8. Why a completely unjust OMP bill was passed against the will of the people, and now an entirely new constitution is being readied to be passed to remove the unitary state of the country and make it a loose federation of provinces and also remove the Presidential post. It will be very easy to set the provinces against each other and also to exploit their resources.
9. The same impoverishing was done in Greece and is now being done in Brazil with the removal of the elected President on trumped up charges.
10. Right now in Sri Lanka, there is an appearance of Democracy with a parliament where the ruling party is the minority party forming a coalition with the majority party unheard of anywhere else in the world.
11. There is freedom of the press and people are exhausting themselves writing and writing while no one seems to read or take any notice of what is written. It appears the GoSL is just letting people exhaust themselves with writing while they carry on with a pre-set plan given to them by the powers which put them in place. I only hope it will not end in a bloodbath as it happened in 1988-90 period.
As far as I see the picture, the world is being run by a small group of Oligarchs whose only goal is total world domination by using the USA to bring about the changes they wish to happen.
October 5th, 2016 at 2:27 pm
Well stated, Dr Dayan Jayatilleke !
Thank you.
———
The Yahap govt folk have been following the Road to TPP (Tans Pacific Partnership).
All the ho-ha from Yahap is to get into the TPP and hand over the country to big powers !
If the TPP prevails in Lanka, then TPP rules will override local law.
Is GoSL prepared ?
Are the People aware of the TRADE TRAP ?
October 5th, 2016 at 6:35 pm
Cerberus, India was with the Soviet Union at that time and Sri Lanka was pro-US. Although the US brought this government to power displacing the previous government with a number of US citizens in it, the west has no money to sustain it.
This proves Dayan’s assertion – no matter how pro-US we are, they still trust Tamils better. Tamils and other South Indians have a long history of slaving for western hegemonies. Western colonials were so impressed they took these slaves all over the world. Sinhalese cannot match that.
Over 93% of Sinhalese are Buddhists and even the most ignorant Buddhist finds outright immorality repeated many times, unacceptable. Over 95% of world Tamils are Hindus. In Hinduism, hegemony, war and violence and religion go together (Mahabharata, Ramayana, Arthashastra). West is comfortable with groups that have no sense of what is right and what is wrong in pursuing hegemony.
October 8th, 2016 at 6:04 pm
Hi, Dilrook, Those who practice the higher forms of Hinduism such as the 4 yogas are more close to the Buddhists than the lower level Hindus. The Dalits and majority Tamils practice the lower forms of Hinduism which are mainly ritualistic and does not address ethics or morality. In fact, many Indian friends I have say Buddhism is refined Hinduism. Most of Mahabharata is storytelling to tell spiritual truths through long stories passed from generation to generation. But encapsulated in the stories there are many truths which open to those with inquiring minds. Even many of our Buddhists practice rituals without thinking or practicing Meditation as a means to gain enlightenment.
However, I think our army behaved in an exemplary manner and except for a few erring ones, the majority were good. In fact, there are pictures of army personnel sharing their rations with the civilians who came across the lagoon and even of wounded LTTE being carried on their shoulders which are the true Buddhist ways. The fact that almost 290,000 civilians were saved and over 12,000 LTTE cadre were rehabilitated speaks volumes to the Buddhist attitude and the true humanity of our people which is now being distorted by Tamil diaspora, NGOs, and foreign powers. We hope the new UNSG, Antonio Guterres will be better than Monkey Moon in dispensing true justice to Sri Lankans.