{"id":57451,"date":"2016-08-08T17:11:03","date_gmt":"2016-08-09T00:11:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=57451"},"modified":"2016-08-08T17:11:03","modified_gmt":"2016-08-09T00:11:03","slug":"stephane-dion-in-sri-lanka-your-readers-have-read-the-truth-on-sri-lankas-reconciliation-issue-now-let-them-read-the-facts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/08\/08\/stephane-dion-in-sri-lanka-your-readers-have-read-the-truth-on-sri-lankas-reconciliation-issue-now-let-them-read-the-facts\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephane Dion in Sri Lanka-Your readers have read the TRUTH on Sri Lanka’s ‘reconciliation’ issue, now let them read the FACTS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Asoka Weerasinghe Kings Grove Crescent . Gloucester . Ontario .\u00a0Canada<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

8 August 2016<\/p>\n

The Editor (Letters)<\/p>\n

THE OTTAWA CITIZEN<\/p>\n

Mike Blanchfield\u2019s report \u2018Sri Lankan Diaspora backs Liberal reconciliation push \u2013 Tamils hopeful minority rights will be promoted\u2019 has stymied me pretty badly.\u00a0 Can the Tamil Diaspora\u00a0tell us Canadians what are the minority rights that they have been\u00a0denied, other than wanting their mono-ethnic, racist Tamil state, Eelam,\u00a0 carved out of one-third of the island bordered by\u00a066% of the coast line that they have been agitating for since the 1930s.<\/p>\n

If it is education that they are griping about, they got it.\u00a0 When the riots happened in July 1983, Jaffna Educational District was well supported and qualitatively superior in comparison with the situation elsewhere in the island.\u00a0\u00a0 They had 555 Government Schools for a Tamil student population of 207,524, where as the capital Colombo had only 251 such schools for 231,690 \u00a0multi-ethnic students.\u00a0 Then the Tamils enjoyed a literacy rate of 88.3% compared to 86.5% for the majority Sinhalese.\u00a0 The Jaffna District\u00a0 schools had 41% of approved science laboratories compared to the all island average of 19.6%.<\/p>\n

The Tamils had their own University in Jaffna, which they sanitized the student undergraduate population to be only Tamils when they stoned and chased 400 Sinhalese lecturers and undergraduates out of campus on 13th<\/sup> August 1977, who were brought South in buses escorted by the Army and Police, while the Tamil students enjoyed the privilege of studying in the southern Universities, untouched. \u00a0On July 18, 2016, the Tamil undergraduates at the Jaffna campus brutally attacked the Sinhalese undergraduates and 10 were hospitalized. The Sinhalese undergraduates went home and are refusing to return to campus. So what is the problem the Tamils are griping to the Liberals when they are denying the right for the Sinhalese to be educated?<\/p>\n

Was it employment that they feel denied as their minority right?<\/p>\n

When the riots happened on July 1983, the Tamils were holding the senior positions in most Government Departments.\u00a0 The Supreme Court Chief Justice was a Tamil as is now.\u00a0 The Inspector General of Police was a Tamil and so was the Auditor General a Tamil.\u00a0 Senior diplomats posted to Missions abroad, like London, UK, \u00a0were Tamils too.\u00a0 So what are they griping about\u00a0And I could go on. But here is the situation of the Tamils in\u00a0Sri Lanka today.<\/p>\n

While the majority Sinhalese cannot own one-square-inch of land on the Jaffna peninsula, the Tamils own 75% \u00a0of prime real estate in Wellawatte, a rich suburb of Colombo, which is Colombo\u2019s Rothwell Heights.\u00a0 And these Tamils refuse to rent an annex to the majority Sinhalese in Wellawatte, Such calculated actions are poison for harmony and a precursor for ethnic trouble.<\/p>\n

Forty percent of the population in the capital Colombo are Tamils,\u00a0Inter-marrying with the Sinhalese and living happily ever after.<\/p>\n

What have they got to reconcile about? \u00a0\u00a0They have already reconciled through their vows of marriage.\u00a0 Fifty-four percent of Tamils live in the South of the island, and they have harmonized their relationships with the majority Sinhalese.\u00a0 And they are happy with themselves.<\/p>\n

And what is most important to note is that along the mile long strip of shops along Main Street, Pettah in Colombo, every third shop is owned by the Tamils and patronized by the majority Sinhalese.<\/p>\n

They do not need any \u2018reconciliation\u2019 as they have already reconciled that they are partners of\u00a0 a multi-ethnic society,<\/p>\n

I think Canada should stop meddling with Sri Lanka\u2019s domestic politics as we have hurt them too much by aiding and abetting surreptitiously the Tamil Eelam war. Canada let the Tamil Diaspora collect two million dollars a month for 13-long years during the former Liberal Governments of Jean Chretien and Paul Martin to stuff the Tamil Tiger war-chest to purchase war weapons to keep fighting the Tamil cause of separation.<\/p>\n

He (Dion) also encouraged the Sri Lankan embrace peaceful pluralism\u201d, the news item reported.\u00a0 This is nothing knew for the Sri Lankans.\u00a0 They enjoyed peaceful pluralism\u201d for scores of decades, until the Tamil politicians spoilt it for them with their 1977 Vadukkodai Resolution wanting their Eelam for the Tamils even if they had to take up arms.<\/p>\n

Canada is strong not despite but because of its diversity, which is a source of openness, acceptance, progress and prosperity.\u00a0 Why should it not become true for Sri Lanka,\u201d Stephan Dion asked.<\/p>\n

The answer is simple.\u00a0 Remember, Canada had its \u00a0worrying days too with Quebec wanting to separate,\u00a0 In Sri Lanka\u2019s case, ask the Tamil separatist politicians to come down \u00a0from their high-horses and give up their wanting to win \u00a0their mono-ethnic racist cause\u00a0 wanting their\u00a0 mythical Tamil Eelam.\u00a0 That is \u00a0indeed the manthra for Tamil and Sinhalese harmony.<\/p>\n

Asoka Weerasinghe<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Asoka Weerasinghe Kings Grove Crescent . Gloucester . Ontario .\u00a0Canada 8 August 2016 The Editor (Letters) THE OTTAWA CITIZEN Mike Blanchfield\u2019s report \u2018Sri Lankan Diaspora backs Liberal reconciliation push \u2013 Tamils hopeful minority rights will be promoted\u2019 has stymied me pretty badly.\u00a0 Can the Tamil Diaspora\u00a0tell us Canadians what are the minority rights that they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asoka-weerasinghe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57451","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=57451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57451\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}