{"id":113279,"date":"2021-04-05T15:55:35","date_gmt":"2021-04-05T22:55:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=113279"},"modified":"2021-04-05T15:55:35","modified_gmt":"2021-04-05T22:55:35","slug":"the-geneva-game-and-the-13th-amendment-a-geographical-analysis-part-ii-to-expert-committee-to-draft-a-new-constitution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/04\/05\/the-geneva-game-and-the-13th-amendment-a-geographical-analysis-part-ii-to-expert-committee-to-draft-a-new-constitution\/","title":{"rendered":"The Geneva game and the 13th Amendment: a geographical analysis -Part- II-To: Expert Committee to draft a new constitution"},"content":{"rendered":"

C. Wijeyawickrema, LL.B., Ph.D.<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

As already intimated to you [to Expert Committee] orally and in writing, we are willing to evolve a settlement within the framework of a united, undivided and indivisible country: yet based on the principle of internal self-determination resulting in maximum possible devolution.\u201d <\/strong><\/em>-TNA leader Sampanthan (Island newspaper, March 21, 2021) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nTamils of Sri Lanka are the indigenous people of Sri Lanka. They have continued\nto live in this Island for over 3000 year<\/em>  North and East of\nSri Lanka are our traditional Homelands for over 3000 years. To expropriate\nsuch lands amounts to the destruction of our community. The Indo Sri Lanka\nAccord 1987 recognized the North and East of Sri Lanka as the traditional\nhomelands of the Tamils. Thus expropriation of our lands amount to genocide.\u201d\n<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ex-CM-NP,\nVigneshwaran’s Zoom Conference (Colombo Telegraph, March, 22, 2021) <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Introduction<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sinhala\npoliticians today are divided into two camps on the crucial issue of the fate\nof the PC system: (1) those who oppose \n13-A and (2) those knowingly or stupidly fighting for the continuation\nof the 13-A trap, despite the clear evidence that it will balkanize the island\nsooner than later. During 1994-2000, Mrs. Chandrika tried it but lost because\nshe was short of just 7 votes. A second Orumitthanadu attempt was made in 2019\nby the yahapalana cabal, but president Sirisena bombed it, last minute. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part I of this\nessay discussed the origin of the pro-13A lobby which has different and hidden\nagendas. One who climbed up the PC ladder asked recently, what are we going to\ndo the massive PC staff if PC system is abolished. Most probably he has a son\nor a nephew ready to be sent to the PC political Montessori. Similarly, Tamils\ndemocratic rights is what American and Indian politicians project via the\nagitation for 13-A plus, but their real aim is to use  it to resurrect the MCC Trojan horse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is clear by\nnow that a win-win situation between the Tamil separatist TNA lobby and the\nSinhala Buddhists is not possible via the 13-A path. Therefore, the Expert\nCommittee has to escape from this balkanization trap  by taking an alternative path. That path is\nthe empowerment of people at village level, because by trying to satisfy  a genocide-talking TNA MP set, Jaffna’s\npeople suffering  cannot be ended. If the\nexpert committee members watch you tube clips by Arun Siddharthan, they will\nsee how discrimination of low caste Tamils is rampant even within the Jaffna MC\nlimits.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my written\nsubmissions, I have explained in detail the solution to this 13-A dilemma. Part\nII of  this essay considers the efforts\nmade by Tamil separatists and Sinhala-Christian-Marxist black-whites such as\nDayan Jayatilleka to dishonestly (knowing that 13-A plus theory is not stop\nEelam demand) justify their 13-A claim, hooking it up now with USA-India\ngeopolitical strategy, after the MCC Trojan horse debacle. America will never\ngive up it is strategy even if it takes decades to reach the goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How can you\nunite by dividing!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a long\ndiscussion about Sri Lanka’s 13-A \nformula for peace between Prabakaran and GOSL, an American once asked\none of my friends, How can you unite by dividing?\u201d This <dividing> idea\nhas a history going back to years 1923-1924, when Ponnambalam Arunachalam took\na decision to create an international organization to protect and promote\nTamilakkam (Tamilness), influenced by the Dravidasthan movement started in the\nMadras Presidency in 1917. The two laughable statements above by Sampanthan and\nVigneshwaran are the latest version of this Tamilakkam idea. In the case of\nSampanthan, the real purpose of inserting a principle of an internal self-determination\ncannot be camouflaged by words like- united, undivided, indivisible  country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why are Tamil\nseparatists so afraid of the term, UNITARY Sri Lanka, if not a simple name like\nthe Sinhale (land of Sihalayas like Italy, land of Italians) used prior to\n1815? By getting Tamils to vote en masse to Sarath Fonseka in 2010, the TNA\ncrowds lost any legal or moral basis to talk about a Tamil genocide in Sri\nLanka. Thus, by its last minute letter appealing for an invitation to appear\nbefore the Expert Committee,  TNA got\nitself automatically uninvited by revealing its hidden agenda! This kind of\ngame is anathema to 6.9 million voters who wanted one country-one law. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vigneshwaran’s\nperformance is no better in this regard, at his ‘historic’ Zoom conference. He thanked\nSampanthan for conducting him in to Jaffna-TNA politics. The island of Sri\nLanka in his book was originally a Tamil land. Then  he talked about, north and east of the island\nas the Tamil homeland for over 3000 years. For some mysterious reason\/s, his\noriginal Tamil population moved to the limestone region of Jaffna and coastal\nstrip of the eastern province! He has forgotten his previous story of a five\nSiva lingams brought down from India in pre-historic times to bless the entire\nisland<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One cannot justly\nand rationally handle or convince this kind of delusional minds. In 1958 prime\nminister SWRD identified this delusional mind of SJV Chelvanayagam, recorded in\nthe Hansard (Vol. 31 (June 3, 1958) cols. 244-5). But about his story on the\n<expropriation of our land>, historian K. M. de Silva (The traditional\nhomelands\u201d of the Tamils, ICES, 1987) and geographer G. H. Peiris have\nseparately published  objectively\nconvincing facts and data relating to the myth of a Tamil homeland and the so\ncalled Sinhalization of that homeland. With colonial administrative data on\nSinhala Purana Gam,<\/em> professor Peiris has shown that nothing adverse had\nhappened to Tamil settlements in the EP. The responsibility for killing of a\nfuturistic <Tamil homeland> goes to the malaria mosquito.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Homeland is a\ntiger’s tail<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SJVC’s\nson-in-law A. J Wilson, was honest in this regard. In his book about his\nfather-in-law, (SJV Chelvanayagam and the crisis of Sri Lankan Tamil\nnationalism, 1947-77: a political biography, 1994). Wilson records how, after\nlanding in Colombo via the South Indian church, SJVC had to invent a homeland\nstory to carve out a larger land area for his Kosovo plan, (page 42) because\nJaffna limestone region was not a viable piece of real estate. Ever since\nseparatism-bent federalists  had to dig\nfor anything written to keep this myth running. They could not get any help\nfrom Robert Knox. Instead, they thought the Hugh Cleghorn’s Minute dated June\n1, 1799 would supply the desperately needed oxygen. Upon analysis it was found\nto be a stupid minute non-starter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then came\nKarthigesu Indrapala’s University of London doctoral thesis (1965, 1969) which\nwent against the homeland myth. He could find \nnotable Tamil settlements only from about the  10th<\/sup> century A.D. Apparently, with\nPrabhakaran coming to the scene in a cruel manner he could find (dig) new\nevidence (2007 book) to change his previous research, which was challenged by\nindependent critics (Justifying a change of heart: Indrapala’s evolution of an\nethnic identity, Gaston Perera, Island, 2008\/2\/6).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Christian\ninfluence on the Federal State Party waning and Prabakaran becoming history,\nVigneswaran began developing a new front. Sunil Ariyaratna while hiding in\nMadras with Nanda Malini collected data on buried Buddhist ruins there and\nwrote a book titled, the Demala Bauddhaya.<\/em> Vigneswaran capitalized on\nthis and used it as a political tool for the homeland myth. Thus, the new\nversion is Tamil Buddhists in the island became Siva Hindus overpowered later\nby Sinhala Buddhists! He says five Siva lingas were brought from South India to\nbless the island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suren Raghavan,\nex- NP governor and now SLFP list MP, who says he is a Tamil Buddhist, has\ntaken this a step further by blaming Sinhala Buddhist monks for not taking\nBuddhism to Tamils in Jaffna.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He cannot\nunderstand that, monks do not take Buddhism to places as if looking for herds\nof lambs. Federal State party hated Buddhist monks ‘roaming’ in Jaffna. Monks\ndid not go to help Ambedkar to convert Dalits to Buddhism. They went to Europe\nand America because they were invited. Suren as the only Tamil Buddhist in the\nparliament, fails repeatedly to tell in Tamil to Vigneswaran and others that\nthere was no Tamil genocide in Sri Lanka, then or now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unreasonableness<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tamil\nseparatist ideology was based on unreasonable demands in 1921 or now in 2021.\nThey are unjust, un-scientific and irrational propositions. For example,\ngovernor Manning, Arunachalam, other minoirites and Sinhala Christian black\nwhites agreed then, to balance (control) the Sinhala majority in the\nlegislative council by giving minorities collectively the needed numerical\nstrength. At a later stage GG Ponnambalam did not want accept 45-55, instead of\n50-50 formula. Small amount of money allocated for the preservation of Anuradhapura\nruins was cited by Tamil leaders, before the Soulbury commission, as an example\nof discrimination against them by Donoughmore ministers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peasant\ncolonization schemes aimed at helping villagers squeezed out of up-country tea\nestates were cited as Sinhalization of a Tamil homeland. All most all technical\ncadre in such projects were Tamil officers who knew little Sinhala to speak and\nwho could not or did not help hard-working farmers. Take over of Trinco naval\nbase from the British, nationalization of schools, nationalization of estates,\nall were hostile acts directed against Tamils. Any  Tamil leader who escaped from this separatist\ntrap and joined with the Colombo government was branded as a Tamil traitor.\nEven GG Ponnambalam was one of them, who got chemical, cement and paper\nfactories to Tamil areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No win-win\nsituation <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With regard to\nthe recent Asath Saali episode, Sepal Amarasinghe pointed out an interesting\ngame people play with freedom and human rights. In countries like Sri Lanka,\nthere is a play between legal and illegal (what is allowed and not allowed).\nThis is like the play (not too tight and not too loose) between two cogwheels.\nWise men or crooks know how to operate (use words) within this play area, but\nsooner or later unwanted\/unexpected words jump out of their mouth. This was\nwhat happened to Asaath Saali, Ranjan Ramanayaka and most recently to\nVigneswaran who is now asked to appear before the CID.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is clear\nfrom this collective Tamil separatist behavior is that the expert committee\ncannot try to create a WIN-WIN situation to both the TNA crowds and the Sinhala\nBuddhists using the 13-A path, which according to the Supreme Court a federal\npath. The expert committee ought to call as witnesses two Tamils. On one end is\nTamara Kunananyakam, who says 13-A will divide the island into two ethnic\nstates. She says as a Tamil she has found no discrimination against Tamils. The\nother end is Arun Siddharthan, a Tamil Che Guerra coming from two toddy-tapping\ncaste grandfathers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prevention\nof social disabilities act was passed on April 13, 1957, to bring social and\neconomic justice to non-vellala Tamils in Jaffna. In fact, fishing caste\nPrabakaran was a result of not implementing this law or sabotaging it by the\nFederal State Party TULF and TNA. Prabakaran was treated  like a paraya by the FP central committee (I\nwas told this by a close relative of P when he was with me in Canada as a\nstudent). By exposing the game played by Vigneswaran, TNA, Gajendra\nPonnambalam, Arun has begun an unexpected social revolution in Jaffna. The\nabject poverty in pockets in Jaffna landscape that he brings to light by you\ntube Video clips put to shame the Tamil politicians, NGOs and even the GOSL\nsince 2010. Just like the PC system failed to make the South better place to\nlive, 13-A will not help the Jaffna common man and woman. What are Tamil\naspirations for  Sumanthiran and\nVigneswaran living in Colombo 7 or Ponnablam \ndomiciled in London and for the low caste Tamils living within the\nJaffna MC limits without water or toilets for 40 years!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part III- Why\ngeography is against 13-A <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

C. Wijeyawickrema, LL.B., Ph.D. As already intimated to you [to Expert Committee] orally and in writing, we are willing to evolve a settlement within the framework of a united, undivided and indivisible country: yet based on the principle of internal self-determination resulting in maximum possible devolution.\u201d -TNA leader Sampanthan (Island newspaper, March 21, 2021) The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-c-wijeyawickrema"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113279","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=113279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113279\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}