{"id":58227,"date":"2016-08-31T21:26:10","date_gmt":"2016-09-01T03:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=58227"},"modified":"2016-08-31T14:20:55","modified_gmt":"2016-08-31T21:20:55","slug":"jehan-pacha-perera-stokes-fires-of-tamil-racism-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/08\/31\/jehan-pacha-perera-stokes-fires-of-tamil-racism-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Jehan \u201cPacha\u201d Perera stokes fires of Tamil racism again\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Velupillai Prabhakaran, the sociopathic Rottweiler unleashed by the Tamil Vellahla leadership to fetch their bone of Eelam, is no longer there to bark, bite, or grab Tamil children on their way to school. In the absence of any one else surfacing to replace ruthless Tamil racism and hate politics, C.V. Wigneswaran, the Chief Minister, seems to have stepped in to fill the vacuum. Like Prabhakaran his aim is to shine as the sole representative of the Tamils\u201d, eclipsing his political sponsors in the TNA. As an English-speaking, Saivite, Jaffna Vellahla extremist he represents the worst elements of what went wrong with Tamil politics in the post-Independent era.<\/p>\n

Like all Tamil politicians, his standard political tactic is to blame the Sinhalese for all the evils bred in the womb of Jaffna. Diverting attention away from the evils of caste-ridden oppression\u00a0 that dehumanised Jaffna society is a prime necessity for Jaffna\u00a0 politicians to cover-up their heinous past. Wigneswaran\u2019s latest diversion\u00a0 is to blame the Security Forces for the rise of drug addiction among the Tamil youth. P. K. Balachandran of the Indian Express<\/strong><\/em> wrote : Wigneswaran, like other Tamil politicians, blames the army and the police for rising drink and drug addiction among Tamil youth in the post-war era. He has also alleged that the Security Forces are behind the rising crime in the North.\u201d (Indian Express<\/strong><\/em> — August 30, 2016 ). Well. what else is new in Jaffna politics? As I have said earlier, whenever Prabhakaran had constipation, the Tamils blamed the Sinhala-government\u201d for not sending Basmati<\/strong><\/em> rice!<\/p>\n

Wigneswaran\u2019s ideological affinities with Prabhakaran, Swamy Premananda, the Tamil rapist who is also accused of murder, and Arumuka Navalar, the religious guru of Vellahla Saivites, guarantee that he is most likely to sabotage and resist negotiations to make compromises work for peaceful co-existence. However, as a Saivite of Jaffna, his loyalties are to Arumuka Navalar, the Hindu revivalist who preached that non-believers should be killed and if the Jaffna Tamils can\u2019t kill them personally they must hire someone else to do the job for them. And\u00a0 if they can\u2019t do either they must migrate.\u00a0 It is\u00a0 this blood-thirsty cult that gripped the minds of the Saivite, Jaffna Vellahla extremists who dominated and steered peninsular politics all the way to Nandikadal.<\/p>\n

Besides, Wigneswaran\u2019s alignment with the Indian Vishawa Hindu Parisad (VHP) does not augur well for the future of non-Hindu Muslims and the Sinhalese. He combines in him the fascist Saivite cult of Arumuka Navalar and the Indian VHP \u2013 a deadly combination that\u00a0 threatens the best efforts of all peace activists. If the Wigneswaran strand of extremism gains the upper hand in Jaffna, with the backing\u00a0 of the Tamil Diaspora, then the people of Jaffna should get ready to trek all the way back to Nandikadal one more time.<\/p>\n

Wigneswaran is showing no signs of letting\u00a0 up. He is consistently stoking the past to raise the anti-Sinhala-Buddhist hate politics. He is reverting to hate politics because he has nothing else to offer the Tamil people. He does not even bother to utilise the state resources available to him to serve the immediate needs of the Tamil people. Like most Tamil politicians he is obsessed with anti-Sinhala politics, brushing aside the much needed economics. He is behind the Tamil People\u2019s Council, (TPC), which\u00a0 was launched\u00a0 on December 12, 2015, as an alternative to the TNA, according to Tamil political analysts.<\/p>\n

Right now TPC is making preparations to launch an anti-Government Tamil uprising\u201d (whatever form\u00a0 it takes) on September 14, states the TamilNet<\/strong><\/em>, the rabid mouthpiece of Tamil extremism. This uprising\u201d is to coincide with the September sessions in Geneva and also the arrival of Ban\u00a0 Ki-Moon. Of\u00a0 course, this means that Wigneswaran\u2019s TPC has decided to revert to confrontational politics at a time when the imperatives of the post-Nandikadal politics demand more sober and rational approach to resolve sensitive issues. Jaffna is resorting to the same old game of pushing the electorate to aggressive Tamil racism in an attempt to sabotage the attempts of the Tamil parties willing\u00a0 to find accommodation within the pragmatic parameters of attainable politics. The political agenda of the TPC is aimed primarily at undermining the TNA\u2019s moves to find compromises.<\/p>\n

The TPC and TNA are now running against each other in an electoral competition to retain their vote base. The TNA seems\u00a0 to be the less aggressive party with an understanding\u00a0 of the extent to which it can go. They have grasped the heavy pressures of the international community and they know that they can go only thus far and no further. But the Wigneswaran-Gajendran Ponnambalam extremists in the TPC wing of Tamil politics, backed by the Prabhakaranist elements in the Tamil Diaspora, are manoeuvring to drag Jaffna back to the failed Vadukoddai agenda.<\/p>\n

Wigneswaran is playing with fire when he gambles with Tamil racist extremism once again. Does he know what bloody route it will take if his extremism turns violent and takes the same Vadukoddian path? Does he know where it will end? Does he know how many more Tamil children will be dragged in\u00a0 to pursue his\u00a0 political fantasies? After Prabhakaran, is\u00a0 he going\u00a0 to be the next grim grave digger of Jaffna? With his aggressive Tamil extremism he is also forcing political players to take sides. Not surprisingly, Jehan Pacha\u201d Perera has decided to join Wigneswaran\u2019s bandwagon. In doing so he has returned to his failed past of joining hands with the extreme wing\u00a0 of Tamil politics. His diastrous record proves that he never had any viable solution to the national issues, except appeasement of Tamil extremist demands at any cost. In his role as a\u00a0 foreign-funded peace-mudalali<\/strong><\/em>, with pretentious claims of having the keys to the kingdom of peace, he ended his futile days parroting Prabhakaranist politics of all-or-nothing which is the current stand of Wigneswaran.<\/p>\n

Pacha\u201d Perera\u2019s latest hijinks is to repeat Wigneswaran\u2019s accusation that the entry of Sinhala students to Jaffna University is cultural colonisation\u201d. He also agrees with Wigneswaran who claims\u00a0 that the admission of Sinhala students is an attempt to change the demographic composition of the Tamils in the North. (Colombo Telegraph — <\/em>July 25, 2016).\u00a0 Regurgitating the NPC statement, he states: …the Northern Provincial Council issued a statement that identified the demographic pattern of the North and East after the war as being consciously changed and students from other provinces being admitted in large numbers into Jaffna University.\u201d<\/p>\n

Endorsing it as valid evidence he adds : The statement issued by the Northern Provincial Council and signed by both its Chief Minister and Opposition Leader, and which cannot simply be dismissed as being the political maneuverings of extremists, contains feelings and facts that need to be taken seriously.\u201d It\u00a0 is not surprising to find that Pacha\u201d Perera\u2019s NPC (National Peace Council) parrots the politics of Wigneswaran\u2019s NPC (Northern Provincial Council.) Moves for reconciliation will go nowhere with the two NPCs working\u00a0 in tandem to push Tamil racism to the extreme. If\u00a0 this Pachaya\u201d knows the ABC of race relations, just not in Sri Lanka but across\u00a0 the globe, he should be aware that intransigent identity politics pushing extreme religio-ethnic agendas have\u00a0 been the primary cause of violence and global instability. The biggest threat to human rights and\u00a0 peace stems from the likes of Donald Trumps and Wigneswarans. Pacha\u201d Perera\u2019s politics has been to defend and justify mono-ethnic extremism as the way to peace and stability. He tried this formula with his favourites\u00a0 in the LTTE, all of which sank with his political heroes to the bottom of Nandikadal. His theories were no better than the fictitious doctorate he conferred on Anton Balasingham.<\/p>\n

In joining Wigneswaran he has started his\u00a0 old game of backing Dr.\u201d Anton Balasingham and his master, the Tamil Pol Pot. From now on one can expect this Pachaya\u201d to labour indefatigably to back the venomous\u00a0 racism of Wigneswaran. He is once again manufacturing excuses for the political maneuverings of extremists\u201d who are pushing politics of the North to mono-ethnic singularities at the expense of democratic pluralism. In other words, he is saying that it\u00a0 is legitimate for the North to reserve the Jaffna university for the Tamils as the introduction of multi-ethnic multi-culturalism would disturb the demographic dominance of the Tamils. This is another way of saying that the\u00a0 north must be carved out as an exclusive mono-ethnic enclave for the Tamils only to maintain their supremacy, denying any space for non-Tamils, whether Muslims\u00a0 or Sinhalese, while the South must open their doors for multi-ethnic pluralism. Well, if it is ok for the North to\u00a0 preserve the North exclusively for the Tamils (their feeling and facts …need to be taken seriously\u201d, he says) then why is it not ok for the Sinhala supremacists to deny rights to non-Sinhalese? Why shouldn\u2019t the Sinhalese maintain the land they claim to be theirs only for the Sinhalese? Shouldn\u2019t the feeling and the facts\u00a0 of the Sinhalese also be taken seriously\u201d, eh Pachaya?<\/p>\n

Those who argue for multiculturalism and pluralism can\u2019t have it both ways. They can\u2019t insist on legalising and institutionalising multi-culturalism and pluralism in the south and, in the same breath, insisting on legalising and institutionalising Tamil racism\u00a0 in the north. Their flawed notion of multi-culturalism is in preserving the North exclusively for the Tamils and, at the same time, opening the rest of the nation for the Tamils to have a foot in the south as well, on an equal footing as the rest \u2013 a right which they refuse to give other communities in the north. In short, there will no be no multi-culturalism in the North. Jaffna is to be a territory that will be preserved for the Vellahla elite. Anyone outsider\u201d stepping in Jaffna will be accused of interfering with minority rights. But the South must open their doors for pluralism, including the Tamils, in addition to the domain they claim to be their exclusive property. Drawing borders to demarcate ethnicity is racism. Opening societies for all communities to co-exist peacefully is pluralism. Multi-culturalists must get their definitions right and decide, once and for all, whether they want mono-ethnic singularities or liberal and humane pluralities.<\/p>\n

Moves for reconciliation will go nowhere with the two NPCs working\u00a0 in tandem to push Tamil racism to the extreme. All the punditry of our Pachaya\u201d in the past has failed to deliver results of any value to the war-weary people. Not a single of his partisan theories, cooked up by his NPC, ever worked to bring peace to the victims of the Vadukoddai War. He was manufacturing\u00a0 theories to rake\u00a0 in more\u00a0 dollars to fatten his bank account and not to save the victims\u00a0 of the war waged by his Dr.\u201d Anton Balasingham and his master. Pachaya\u201d unashamedly played\u00a0 the devious role of an unscrupulous liar deliberately distorting realities and hard facts to boost the war-mongering Tamil Pol Pot. Now he is starting\u00a0 his theoretical jiggery-pokery all over again to stoke\u00a0 the embers of racism for\u00a0 him and his fellow-peace-mudalalis<\/strong><\/em> to profit from the misery of another ethnic conflagration.<\/p>\n

This, of course, is against the principle of guaranteeing non-recurrence of\u00a0 violence \u2013 one of the four objectives mandated in the Geneva Resolution. When our Pachaya\u201d joins hands with Wigneswaran it can only lead to recurrence of ethnic\u00a0 violence. He can\u2019t\u00a0 argue for\u00a0 the implementation of Geneva Resolution and, in the same breath, back extreme racism, jumping into Wigneswaran\u2019s bandwagon, which can only lead to recurrence of Tamil violence. Besides, he boasts of a being a committed stakeholder\u201d of the Yahapalanya regime. Doesn\u2019t he know that when he sides with Wigneswaran he is undermining his prime stakeholder\u201d, Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is putting\u00a0 pressure on Rajavarothiam Sampanthan to stop the scheduled Tamil uprising\u201d. It is apparent that our Pachaya\u201d is aiming to ride both horses \u2013 Wigneswaran and Wickremesinghe \u2013 simultaneously. Since both horses are running two different directions in\u00a0 which dustbin will this Pachayas\u201d end up?<\/p>\n

Consider, for instance, the following statement where he cites figures to project a picture of the Sinhala students getting an undue share of places in the Science Faculty of Jaffna University. Like Wigneswaran he resents the presence\u00a0 of 60 % Sinhala students in the Science Faculty (mark you, selected on merit).\u00a0 Pacha\u201d Perera and states :<\/strong>\u00a0 It may be necessary to restructure the university admissions which is currently based on a national merit-based policy or permit the provincial councils to set up regional universities that can give priority to local area students.\u201d In other words, he is saying that university authorities must reject merit as a criterion in selecting talented Sinhala and Muslims students and admit only local Tamil students to Jaffna University to retain the local ethnic demographics. Supposing I argued on these lines and insisted that all the universities in Sinhala areas should admit only local students, irrespective of their merits, what would he say? Won\u2019t he and his moral maniacs raise a howl branding me as a racist? Isn\u2019t he deliberately promoting racist politics to keep communities apart?<\/p>\n

Pacha Perera\u2019s formula of admitting\u00a0 only local students to universities is racism at its worst, promoting divisive politics to maintain the territorial claims based on ethnic composition. This is Pacha Perera\u2019s version of bhumiputra\u201d politics. Compare\u00a0 this to the constructive experiment of His Excellency Judge C. G.Weeramantry. He proved that the future is in integration and not in separation. He funded a programme where undergraduates of the north and east were camped for\u00a0 a fortnight under one roof with the Sinhala students of\u00a0 the south. Initially, on the first day or two, there was reluctance and mental reservations about breaking out of the old prejudices. But at the end of the fortnight the students of all communities had bonded together and there were tears in their eyes on the eve of departure. Even in the Jaffna campus, despite the language differences, there was no\u00a0 bitter animosity among the Sinhala and Tamils students until the atavistic arrogance of Tamil racism raised its ugly head. So when Pacha Perera theorises to keep the communities apart, confined to Nazi-style campuses, he is pursuing the Prabhakaranist–Wigneswaranist racism and not the mandate of non-recurrence\u201d of racism leading\u00a0 to violence. The two formulas reveal the difference between a far-seeing savant serving the noble cause of bringing humanity together and a myopic idiot trawling theoretical mud to build walls to keep people apart. It is clear that even with his glass-bottom specs he cannot see beyond his nose. At best, he can see just far enough \u2013 and that too when he goes down\u00a0 on his\u00a0 knees — to lick the boots of\u00a0 Tamil Pol Pots and their successors.<\/p>\n

In essence, Pacha Perera is arguing to retain the status quo in the north without changing pragmatically to meet the new realities of the post-Nandikadal era. As long\u00a0 as Prabhakaran was running\u00a0 peninsular politics the Tamils and NGOs were relying cockily on brutal violence as a means\u00a0 of dictating\u00a0 terms to the state. Without\u00a0 that leverage now they have fallen back on the international community\u201d to pull their chestnuts out. With Prabhakaran they were dependent primarily inhuman violence. Now they are relying\u00a0 on human rights. The Pacha\u201d Pereras and Paki\u201d Saravanamuttus have been in both bandwagons, aiding and abetting Tamil extremism. They never argued for regime change of\u00a0 the Pol Potist regime for the liberation of Tamils.<\/p>\n

They were always for retaining the violent and racist status quo in the north, whoever was in command. Their strategy was consistently to change regimes of the democratic south, or to weaken power at the centre for the West to manipulate and\u00a0 enforce their will. Their human rights campaigns have not gone\u00a0 beyond putting up defences for the racist fascism of the\u00a0 North, disguised as minority rights. Minority rights have no blanket cover to do what\u00a0 they want at any cost. Their rights end where the rights of the other minorities and the majorities begin. This means that the North must change and accept the new realities of co-existing in a pluralistic society. It means abandoning\u00a0 the failed policies of mono-ethnic arrogance aimed at overriding the aspirations of\u00a0 the other communities. It means live and let live. It means that the North must change — and change radically.<\/p>\n

Pacha Perera, for\u00a0 instance, has been moving from village to village in the South holding seminars\u00a0 to change the South. But there was no commensurate programme to change the perspectives of the North. Besides, there were foreign-funds only for changing the South, not the North. For\u00a0 instance, Norwegian funds flooded the nation\u00a0 to even penetrate\u00a0 the Sangha \u2013 a grass root power identified as a primary source for manipulating local politics to serve foreign interests. At the height of the\u00a0 international intervention led by the Norwegians, the Norwegian Foreign Office sent a senior researcher, Iselin Frydenlund of the Peace Research Institute of Oslo (PRIO) to do field\u00a0 work in Buddhism\u00a0 in Sri Lanka. In 2004 \u20132005, she wrote a paper on The Sangha and its relation to the peace process in Sri Lanka\u201d for the benefit of the Norwegian team led by Erik Solheim, the Norwegian negotiator whose mission, inter alia, was to pick up the liquor bills left\u00a0 behind in five star hotels by our Pachayas Dr\u201d. Balasingham. Research was a part\u00a0 of\u00a0 the political process of Western powers to manipulate developing nations to serve their foreign interests. Both big corporations and the foreign offices of the West hire NGOs to develop strategies for socio-political interventions. It is cheaper\u00a0 for foreign powers to hire Pacha Pereras and Paki Saravanamuttus than post their\u00a0 diplomats and their families in Colombo.<\/p>\n

Politics in the Buddhist belt\u00a0 of South Asia, located\u00a0 in the underbelly of China, has received special attention, not only because of the emerging dynamics of the Big\u00a0 Power politics in the region but also because of the minorities clashing with the Buddhist majorities. Influencing the Sangha has become\u00a0 a\u00a0 political necessity for\u00a0 interventionist\u00a0 politics to succeed. So\u00a0 it\u00a0 is\u00a0 not\u00a0 surprising to find a Buddhist monk\u00a0 on the board of Catholic Pacha Perara\u2019s NPC. Infiltrating and exploiting the Sangha has been one of the main tactics of all foreign funded NGOs. Even the former 75-rupee\u00a0 teacher at Nalanda College, A. T. Ariyaratne, became a billionaire, by packaging and\u00a0 marketing\u00a0 politicised Buddhism to foreign powers.<\/p>\n

The upshot of this massive focus on Sinhala-Buddhism has been to demonise the South as racist bigots for not giving\u00a0 into the extremist demands of the North. But this is historically inaccurate. The South has a history of giving, though tardily, and\u00a0 each time it concedes\u00a0 the North increases its demands. The 13th Amendment\u00a0 is a case in point. After signing the Indo-Sri\u00a0 Lanka Agreement, with the help of India, they have shifted the ground\u00a0 to demand 13 plus. The history of the Northern demands\u00a0 is the same as that of Oliver Twist :<\/strong> the more you give the more they want. There will be Wigneswarans sprouting like mushrooms to push the North to the extreme until they get their Eelam. Constitutional exercises are mere eye-wash which will not take either the North or the South anywhere. Which constitutional formula can stop the the rise of Oliver Twists? Isn\u2019t it time to say enough is enough?<\/p>\n

The only certainty in Northern\u00a0 politics\u00a0 is the rise of future Oliver Twists, demanding\u00a0 this, that and the\u00a0 other. North has been the most vicious breeding\u00a0 ground for intransigent racism and will continue to be so because they depend primarily on hate politics for their survival. Northern racism thrived exclusively on politics of hate of\u00a0 the other\u201d \u2013 i.e., the Sinhala-Buddhists. Our intellectual Pachayas\u201d are reluctant to mount an argument to end Northern racism. It is the prime cause that obstructs peaceful co-existence. Reconciliation is a two-way traffic : <\/strong>Yal Devi must\u00a0 not only go to Jaffna, it must also come down to Colombo. But Prabhakaran-Wigneswaran idea of reconciliation\u00a0 is confined to only one-way traffic. Their idea of reconciliation is all take and no give. And the NGO Pachayas\u201d have gone along blithely with this one-way politics which has been the root cause of communal violence.<\/p>\n

There can be no peace, stability and reconciliation\u00a0 as long as the North insists on mono-ethnic extremism. So the future depends of the North changing and accepting pluralistic multi-culturalism as a\u00a0 new way of life.\u00a0 Insisting\u00a0 on changes only in the South can lead to two counter-productive ends :<\/strong>\u00a0 (1) fattening bank accounts of Pacha Perera and Paki Saravanamuttu in the South and 2. paving\u00a0 the path to the next Nandikadal in the North.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

H. L. D. Mahindapala Velupillai Prabhakaran, the sociopathic Rottweiler unleashed by the Tamil Vellahla leadership to fetch their bone of Eelam, is no longer there to bark, bite, or grab Tamil children on their way to school. In the absence of any one else surfacing to replace ruthless Tamil racism and hate politics, C.V. Wigneswaran, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58227","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\/58227","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=58227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58227\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}