{"id":111405,"date":"2021-02-06T16:57:51","date_gmt":"2021-02-06T23:57:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=111405"},"modified":"2021-02-06T16:57:51","modified_gmt":"2021-02-06T23:57:51","slug":"presidents-unique-speech-that-defined-the-nation-and-its-historic-values","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/02\/06\/presidents-unique-speech-that-defined-the-nation-and-its-historic-values\/","title":{"rendered":"President\u2019s unique speech that defined the nation and its historic values"},"content":{"rendered":"

H. L. D. Mahindapala<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

To understand\ncontemporary national politics and its complex combinations and permutations it\nis imperative that any student of politics must first get a firm grasp of the\ntwo political cultures that divides the North and the South. The gap is much\nwider than the Palk Straits that separates us from India, thankfully. For\ninstance, the Tamils have never tasted equality, dignity, liberty, justice and\npeace under any of the Tamil rulers starting from the time of Sankili who went\ndown to Mannar and massacred 600 innocent Tamil Catholics on the eve of\nChristmas 1544 to Velupillai Prabhakaran (2009) who massacred 600 Sri Lankan\npolicemen who surrendered to him. The Tamils got their first taste of these\ncherished liberal values only under what they called the Sinhala state\u201d, or\nSinhala-dominated state\u201d \u2013 two terms used interchangeably to label it as a\nracist state.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the time\nof the rise of oriental despotic rulers in the 14th<\/sup> century in\nJaffna \u2013 Marx defined Asiatic  kings who had centralised control of water in\nhydraulic societies as despotic rulers\u201d — and the subsequent rise of Vellala\nsub-rulers under the Portuguese, Dutch and British colonial masters, to the\nfinal rise of Prabhakaran, the average, grassroot Jaffna Tamil (I am\nexcluding  the Vellalas, the oppressive subalterns of the colonial rulers)\nnever had the political or social space to experience dignity, equality,\nliberty, justice and peace in Jaffna. The Dutch who legalised slavery in\n1707  by codifying the customary law in the Tesawalamai<\/em>, with\nthe consent and advice of the Vellala mudliyars, laid the legal foundation for\nthe exploitation of the Tamils as slaves. The Vellalas treated slaves as\nsubhuman pariahs. The rest, of course, is the history of Tamil tyranny that\ndenied Tamils their basic rights to be human. In some cases, they were even\nrefused the right to walk like all other human beings in the sunlight in case\nthe low-caste despicables polluted the pure eyes of the Vellalas. The last\nmission of even distinguished Sir. Ponnambalam Ramanathan was to the Colonial\nOffice in London in the late twenties (he died in November 26, 1930) to lobby\nthe colonial masters to preserve and enforce Vellala casteism as a means of\nmaintaining law and order.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The classic\ncharacteristics of a Jaffna Tamil despotic ruler was demonstrated amply in\nour  time by Velupillai Prabhakaran \u2013 the Thalaivar\u201d (leader) who\nforcibly abducted under-aged Tamil children to fight in his futile war. He\nfought a brutal war committing war crimes and crimes against  humanity.\nNevertheless, Tamils have no qualms about hailing him as their hero though they\nknow that he has killed more  Tamils than any other force.  He began\nhis war by first decimating the Tamils at the top layer. His first victim was\nmild-mannered, gentle Alfred Duraiyappah, the Mayor of Jaffna, and the best of\nthe Tamil leadership and ended by killing the innocent Tamils at the lower\nlevel \u2013 i.e., the mass of Tamils who were fleeing from him into the safe hands\nof the Security Forces in the final days of the LTTE. Prabhakaran\u2019s greatest\nachievement was in refining the killing machine of the Tamils into one of the\ndeadliest weapons in the 33-year-old war.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 20th<\/sup>-21\ncenturies Prabhakaran\u2019s Pol Potist regime demonstrated convincingly that he had\ninherited the traditional and incurable Tamil despotism from his tyrannical\nancestors. In every step he took he displayed his inability to use power for\nthe good of the Tamil people. President Chandrika Kumaratunga offered him all\nthe power he needs to rule the North and East without elections  for ten\nyears. Ranil Wickremesinghe offered him practically all what he wanted with\ninternational guarantees. Rajiv Gandhi offered him the Chief Ministership. He\nrejected them all. His ambition to be the sole representative  of the\nTamils was a pathological obsession with him. Together with his ingrained\nintransigence, he was bent on using power to glorify himself and not the people\nwhom he promised to liberate.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The eventual\ncause that led to his fall was his failure to understand how to use power even\nto save himself. He knew how to enforce brutal power but not to govern\ndemocratically or peacefully. He knew how to kill Tamils but not to save them.\nHe had all the chances and the power to end the blood-letting in the last\nstages. But he insisted on fighting knowing the human cost, particularly to the\nhelpless Tamils sandwiched in between the retreating Tigers and the advancing\nSecurity Forces. He knew and relied only one methodology : terror. If he won he\ncould have maintained his grip on power only through brutal force because he\nneither had the mental makeup nor the skills and the capacity to  govern\nas a democratic leader. Prabhakaran relied and survived, like his predecessors,\nessentially on fascist  terror. Tamil leaders have proved from the\nbeginning that they cannot  be trusted with power to deliver their \nown people with even a modicum of dignity, equality, justice and peace.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prabhakaran ran\na quasi-state with an army, navy, air force, police and courts but he never\ngave them any dignity, justice, equality, liberty or peace. Dissident Tamils\nand those who were perceived to be a threat to the Tamil state were hunted and\nkilled. Those who survived had to find  refuge  either abroad or in the\nSinhala state\u201d they had vilified. Douglas Devananda, the leader of the EPDP,\nwas one of the lucky ones  who survived 13 successive attacks on him.\nClearly, the available evidence points to the undeniable fact that \nthe  Tamils are not fit  to rule themselves, though they clamour for\na separate state. Their history of running states in feudal and modern \nperiods have proved  that they were not motivated by the ideals of giving\ntheir people dignity, liberty, equality, justice and peace. Their sole objective\nhas been to acquire power and use it to keep their own people under the heel of\nthe ruling elite with  brutal force.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prabhakaran was\ndriven, slowly but surely, to  his self-made end by his increasing\narrogance, intransigence and ignorance. He dug his own grave in believing that\nhe was invincible. Tamil triumphalism reached stratospheric heights with each\nkilling or massacre perpetrated by Prabhakaran. They believed that every death\nof a Sinhalese \u2013 or even a dissident Tamil — was another  step forward towards\nEelam. As recorded in the Yalpana Vaipave Malai<\/em> the Tamil\nregimes have survived on mass massacres of Tamils, ethnic cleansing of Muslim\nand Sinhalese minorities, legalised slavery of imported Malabaris and brutal\nfascist force. Ethnic cleansing and mass massacres entered the history books\nfor the first time through Tamil tyranny.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, when the\nIndian government presses the GOSL to grant  dignity to the Tamils etc.,\nthey have to go for a reality check and consider seriously whether there is any\njustification in their demand. It is time that the South Bloc in Delhi learnt\nsome Sri Lankan history before  writing press communiques to their Foreign\nMinister. The latest press communique reveals  that they do not know the\nbasics of SL politics. Their foreign policy is based on the political  pap\nfed to them by the Tamil lobby. Besides,\ninter-state diplomatic manoeuvres cannot resolve complex differences, or\nmaintain harmonious relations if the dominant party seeks  to dictate\nterms on  the lies of one single community bent on achieving their\naspirations\u201d at the expense  of all other communities. In any\ncase, it is superfluous for India to preach to Sri Lanka on how to treat its\nminorities when the minorities have been given the highest degree of\nrecognition, respect, and dignity only in the 73-years of independence.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No Tamil\nmigrant in the diaspora can boast of a place higher than what they had and have\nin Sri Lanka. Which Tamil can boast  of a star representing them in the\nAmerican flag? Which English currency will recognise  Tamil as an official\nlanguage? Why do Tamil undergraduates pay for their  degree abroad \u2013\nincluding Tamil Nadu, the only homeland of Tamils — while  the Tamils in\nSri Lanka get free education from kinder to uni? The Tamils of the estates, as\nelsewhere, get the best of medical treatment free in Nuwara Eliya public\nhospital in the Tamil language (I was once a patient in it) which no Tamil in\nAmerica and Australia can get. Donald Trump and the Republican have been raving\nand ranting against free medical and educational facilities even for the\nAmericans, let alone the Mexicans and the Asians.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, the Indian\ngovernment has to specify, instead of repeating the propaganda of the Tamil\nlobby,  in what respects the Tamils of Jaffna have been denied dignity,\nequality, peace and justice. Has the GOSL been unable and unwilling to go along\nwith India too to satisfy the grievances\u201d and aspirations\u201d  of the\nTamils? Didn\u2019t they sign the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord to satisfy India\u2019s\ngrievances\u201d and aspirations\u201d too in addition to  those of the Tamils?\nBesides, at the end of the day, the GOSL has to sell to the Sri Lankans the\ndemands of  India to find a final solution. GOSL has to tell the Sri\nLankans that we have to give the Tamils what they demand because of this, this\nand this. In doing so the Indian government also must evaluate how the Tamil\nstate of Prabhakaran and the previous regimes delivered dignity, equality,\npeace and justice to the Tamil people and  prove that the Tamils were\nbetter  off under their Tamil regimes than under the Sinhala state\u201d. The\nIndian government must prove to the Sri Lankan people that Sri Lanka has (1)\ntreated the Tamils worse than Prabhakaran\u2019s state and (2) that the GOSL has\ndenied the Tamils their dignity, equality, peace and justice which they had\nunder Tamil regimes. It is in the interests of India to give a valid rationale\non the basis of the treatment received by the Tamils at the hands of the GOSL\nand any Tamil state that had given the Tamils a better deal than the GOSL.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The historic\nswitch to liberal politics from semi-feudal, semi-capitalist, fully-fledged\ncolonial period took place in  the third decade of the 20th<\/sup> century.\nIt was the decade that Ceylon, as it was known then, was granted\nuniversal  franchise. It was the first path-breaking step in the\nmodernising and democratisation  of Sri Lankan  political landscape.\nAfter that it was one leap after  another into the evolution of \nconstitutions, economic reforms, revision of antiquated  laws and creation\nof new bureaucratic structures to build one of the best democratic\nwelfare  states in the  developing world. The resilience of the\nelected state to withstand the demonic and the destructive  forces that\nassaulted the democratic centre is in itself a remarkable achievement. The\nSinhala state\u201d even fought their longest war within a democratic framework. The\nTamils fought with the advantage of waging a war led by a Tamil tyrant who was\nunrestrained by democratic norms \u2013 and lost. The absolute obscenity of Tamil\npolitical culture is that they not only denied religious freedom to others they\neven denied religious freedom to their own Hindus to worship their common\nGod\/gods inside Hindu kovils. That is intolerance and dehumanising Vellala\nsupremacy at its abominable height.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Herein lies the\nfundamental difference between the two political cultures of the North and the\nSouth. The South has been open, liberal and democratic. The North closed it\ncadjan curtain to keep the outside world out and to rule it with the\niron-fisted ideology of Vellala supremacy.  The South welcomed and\nembraced practically all the new waves and cults that were sweeping  the\nglobe \u2013 from Marxism to born again Christian cults and religious extremists\nlinked to Wahabists, Hussein, and Gaddaffi. With all its imperfections the\nSouthern institutions maintained the  essence of democratic and liberal\nvalues that respected and gave dignity and space to multi-cultural,\nmulti-ethnic  entities. The North was fiercely committed to mono-ethnic,\nmono-cultural supremacy in the name of minority rights.  The South was the\nhome base which baked the cake for all multi-ethnic talent to shine abroad, as\nstated famously by Lakshman Kadiragamar, the brilliant Tamil liberal who was\nbrutally killed by the Tamil Pol Pot.  In contrast to him, the other Tamil\nleader, S. J. V. Chelvanayakam, refused to buy a house in Colombo fearing that\nhis children will be corrupted by the open, liberal and cosmopolitan culture of\nthe South which produced the best of Tamils, from Kadiragamar to Neelan Tiruchelvam.\nHe bought an estate in the hills not to protect and promote the welfare of the\nIndian Tamils but to exploit them for his profit. Jane Russell in her study of\ncommunalism (Communalism Under the Donoughmore Constitution \u2013 1931 \u2013 47<\/em>)\ndescribed this condition as the peninsularity of the Jaffna  mind\u201d (p.\n8).  The Tamils came down and colonised the South as government servants\n(example: Wellawattam), professionals, businessmen and generally made it \nthe base to extract  the maximum for their benefit. As the old adage goes,\nthe Jaffna Tamil son shone in Colombo while the father gathered the harvest in\nthe North!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While\nprotecting, defending and developing the core values of the majority the\nSinhala-Buddhist  bourgeoisie, the driving force of the nation, either\ncorrected after making  the initial mistakes or worked jointly with all\ncommunities to maintain a fine political balance to regain and  restore\nharmony in inter-ethnic  relations. Maintaining that fine balance was the\nprime necessity in the  post-colonial era. There were, of course, some\nmissteps that could have been  handled differently. But the ambience for\npolitical reconciliation was worsened by the lumpen Marxists, partisan\nintellectuals hired by the NGOs, and extreme  communalists whose counter-productive\nand disruptive politics threatened to destabilise and reduce Sri Lanka into a\nfailed nation. As against these forces, the resilience of  the\nSinhala-Buddhist bourgeoisie to recover, rise and stabilise the nation from\ntime to time has been a remarkable feat. The latest was the historic electoral\nvictories of the two Rajapaksa brothers. In the end the major inter-ethnic\nissues have been contained (temporarily) to a tolerable level. It is the\nminorities who ran berserk with violence that paid the highest price for their\nblood-thirsty politics.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \ncreative, innovative, resilient, and revolutionary achievements of the\nSinhala-Buddhist bourgeoisie  are themes for  future sociological\nresearches to explore for post-graduates aspiring to add Ph Ds to the tail-end\nof their names. They will discover that from international  cricket to\nwinning unwinnable wars  the record has been glorious. But the greatest of\nthem all is in maintaining  a democratic welfare state against all\nadversities. The victory belongs to the vilified and  demonised \nthe  Sinhala-Buddhist bourgeoisie.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Marxists,\nthe NGOs, the hired hacks in academia riding in the bandwagon of NGOs, and the\nTamil lobbies have been  in the forefront of demonising the\nSinhala-Buddhist bourgeoisie as chauvinists\u201d, racists\u201d, majoritarianists\u2019,\nreactionaries\u201d, or with slogans coined by the Marxists like Dudley-gay\nbud-day masala-vadai\u201d, etc. The Marxist intellectuals and their political\nallies who  led  the front against the Sinhala-Buddhist bourgeoisie\nfailed  to move  the masses with their revolutionary theories the way\nSinhala-Buddhist bourgeoisie moved the nation to create non-violent social\nrevolutions on historic scales. No single Marxists could draw the milling\ncrowds that lined up day and night for Dudley Senanayake lying in state. Though\nthe Marxists demonised the Sinhala-Buddhist bourgeoisie the irony is that \nthey ended up in the embracing the very forces they hated and vilified. Where\ndoes this leave the Kumari Jayawardenas, Jayadeva Uyangodas, the  odd ball\nKumar David and our political scientist Dayan Jayatilleke? Those who could\nmarch with armed Dharmapalas\u201d could  swing the nation to act  as a\nmonolithic force while those who  worshipped  Gramsci and Che Guevara\nhave to creep into the  bourgeois  camps to find their daily bread\nand some butter.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

President\nGotabaya Rajapaksa\u2019s Independence Day speech assumes an in-depth meaning and a\ngreat political significance in  the background of the last two election\nwhich signifies the rise of the new Sinhala-Buddhist bourgeoisie who were in\nthe forefront of the political campaigns.  These two elections mark the\npowerful rise of the Sinhala-Buddhists once against under the leadership of the\nRajapaksas. President Gotabaya Rajapakse defined it precisely and neatly when\nhe reminded the nation: I am a\nSinhala-Buddhist leader and I will never hesitate to state so. I govern this\ncountry according to Buddhist teachings. Within the Buddhist philosophic \ntradition of peaceful coexistence which gives the respect to all religions and\nethnicities, every person in this country irrespective of their ethnic or\nreligious identification has the right to enjoy the freedom as equals under \nthe nation\u2019s legal framework.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are\nresounding  words that goes deep into the heart and soul of the\nSinhala-Buddhists. These are bold and daring statements which no other head of\nstate had made before. Though every single Sinhala-Buddhist leader knew that he\nwas the representative of the Sinhala-Buddhists no one  dared to claim\nthat title, fearing that it would alienate the minorities. The odd thing in Sri\nLankan politics is that every other minority entity had the right to come\nout  in the name of their ethnic community except the Sinhala-Buddhists.\nNot even S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, the  leader who spearheaded the first\nnationalist wave in 1956, ever dared to claim to be the leader of the\nSinhala-Buddhists though he headed the Sinhala Maha Sabha.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Rajapaksas\ncame at a time when the Sinhala-Buddhists had no leader. The Tamils had India\nto fall back and the Diaspora manipulating the West. The Muslims boasted that\nthey had the whole of the Arabic bloc to back them. The majority had Sinhala\nleaders who  went to Geneva, joined hands with the West, and moved\nresolutions against the nation, agreeing to roast the Sinhala-Buddhist soldiers\nwho fought and liberated the Tamils from their fascist tyrant. It is the\nalienated, isolated, deserted and humiliated Sinhala-Buddhists who rallied\nbehind the Rajapaksas and President Gotabaya paid his due respects to the\nSinhala-Buddhists  who trusted him and elected him. But he went out of the\nway to emphasize that he was also  the President who would protect the\nminorities and  their rights as framed in the constitution. In other\nwords, he was not going  to abandon the Asokan ideal of a Buddhist state\nwhich is to make the land  fit for all\u201d, as stated in the Mahavamsa<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is from\nthe domestic angle. There is a foreign dimension to it also. President\u2019s speech\nis also a studied and guarded response to India\u2019s demand that the Tamil should\nbe treated with dignity, equality, justice and peace. Read as a whole he \nis telling India that it has been the Sinhala-Buddhist tradition to protect the\nrights of the minorities. What he said about the minorities needs repeating. He\nsaid : Within the Buddhist philosophic  tradition of peaceful coexistence\nwhich gives the respect to all religions and ethnicities, every person in this\ncountry irrespective of their ethnic or religious identification has the right\nto enjoy the freedom as equals under  the nation\u2019s legal framework.\u201d\nIn  other words, he was telling India, quite diplomatically, don\u2019t come to\nteach grandmothers how to  suck eggs. He is saying that we have been\ngiving protection to the persecuted minorities throughout our history and we\nare not  going to deviate now.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also took a\nswipe at the traitors\u201d in the opposition. He pinpointed the traitorous\nelements  (who) always band together and seek to marshal domestic and\nforeign forces against the leadership that upholds  the indigenous way of\nlife  and the country\u2019s sovereignty.\u201d True to his past record, the failed\nleader of these forces, Ranil Wickremesinghe, did  not  attend \nthe Independence Day parade. He attends it only when he is holding high office\nto bask in the power and glory of state ceremonies. So, he went out of his way\nto hold  his own Independence Day ceremony. He went to garland the statue\nof grand old D. S. Senanayake, the Father of the Nation.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is where\nthings went wrong for him, according to some Right-wing cynics. When he \nwas about to garland the statue DS\u201d had stopped him. Shocked by this Ranil\nnearly fell off the ladder.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then wagging a\nfinger DS\u201d asked him: Did I get independence for you to go to Geneva and\nbetray the nation and the soldiers who fought to save the nation?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ranil was\nflummoxed. He didn\u2019t\u2019 have a ready answer. In his confusion he had stuttered,\naccording to UNP sources, and mumbled:  I didn\u2019t go to Geneva. I must\nfind out who did it. I will appoint a committee and  let you know the\nanswer when I come  next time.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

H. L. D. Mahindapala To understand contemporary national politics and its complex combinations and permutations it is imperative that any student of politics must first get a firm grasp of the two political cultures that divides the North and the South. The gap is much wider than the Palk Straits that separates us from India, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-h-l-d-mahindapala"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111405\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}