{"id":65216,"date":"2017-04-15T15:50:03","date_gmt":"2017-04-15T22:50:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=65216"},"modified":"2017-04-15T15:50:03","modified_gmt":"2017-04-15T22:50:03","slug":"letter-to-mayor-john-tory-on-his-visit-to-sri-lankas-north","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2017\/04\/15\/letter-to-mayor-john-tory-on-his-visit-to-sri-lankas-north\/","title":{"rendered":"letter to Mayor John Tory on his visit to Sri Lanka’s North"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

14 April 2017<\/p>\n

Mayor John Tory
\nCity Hall, 2nd Floor
\n100 Queen Street W
\nToronto, On.
\nM5H 2N2<\/p>\n

Dear Mayor John Tory:<\/p>\n

I wish you a Happy Sinhala & \u00a0Tamil New Year.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Your personal observation piece on Sri Lanka in the Toronto Star<\/em><\/strong>, \u2018The quest for healing and justice in the homeland of Toronto\u2019s Tamil community\u2019<\/em><\/strong>, came to my attention this morning.<\/p>\n

While I was reading my concentration was interrupted by voices at a distance with Tamil accents singing a modern version of the nursery rhyme –<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s go gathering
\n<\/em><\/strong>Canadian-politico nuts in May,
\n<\/em><\/strong>Nuts in May, Nuts in May,
\n<\/em><\/strong>and in January, February, March
\n<\/em><\/strong>and April, on a Toronto\u2019s
\n<\/em><\/strong>frosty Tory morning.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

It sounded like a Toronto separatist-Tamil winner\u2019s circle celebration of some sort about Canadian politicians.<\/p>\n

Mayor Tory, you said, You probably know a lot less about their home country and how many of the, mostly Tamil, came to be here in Toronto.\u201d<\/em><\/strong> \u00a0And you continued,<\/p>\n

In fact, many were either escaping or just getting away from a lengthy and tragic civil war in Sri Lanka – a war with many chapters over many decades.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Mayor Tory, of course I do, and here is what I know and you may want to check the veracity of what I have to say with your new Tamil Councillor Neethan Shanmugarajah, who I am told had come to Canada as a refugee when he was 16 years old.<\/p>\n

The Tamils flew out of Jaffna raven\u2019s<\/em> nest not because they were persecuted or discriminated by the majority Sinhalese but was for another reason.\u00a0 They were the privileged minority <\/strong>of 12.6% compared to \u00a0the wronged majority<\/strong> (Sinhalese) of 75% for almost 450 years of colonial rule and far beyond the years after Ceylon\u2019s (Sri Lanka) Independence on 4th February 1948.\u00a0 They were opportunistic Tamils \u00a0who flew out searching for greener pastures. And they flew out bypassing their Motherland India, thumbing their noses at her, where 55 million (1983) Tamils lived just 18 saltwater miles away from the northern tip of Jaffna, after the western floodgates were opened for them after the July 1983 riots.\u00a0 What lucky people!\u00a0 That riot was a God\u2019s send for these Tamils. Their Mother India would have embraced them with affection if they had \u00a0so desired to go home.<\/p>\n

They were economic refugees and not Convention refugees as they claimed to be.\u00a0 I can bet my last dollar that 85% who landed on Canadian soil couldn’t have had a snowball chance in hell if they had tried to immigrate to Canada on the point system. These Tamil Convention refugee claims in the West turned out to be a million dollar business for some \u2018enterprising Tamils\u2019 \u00a0for helping their Tamil clients to hurdle over International territorial boundaries with forged passports and forged immigration documents, et cetera. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0So Mayor John Tory, don\u2019t try to sell me your bleeding-heart poppycock.\u00a0 Give me a break.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s why I said that the Tamils were the privileged<\/strong> minority, and one would ask the question why on earth did \u00a0the majority of these Tamils get on \u00a0a plane with legitimate passports at Colombo\u2019s International Airport and when they arrived at the Toronto\u2019s Pearson International Airport almost all had learnt the magical ABRACADABRA disappearing trick to let their passports vanish into thin air. Once they had the passports in their hands and then Haro..Hara<\/em><\/strong> and Soooosh\u2026\u201d they disappeared into the airline\u2019s lavatory commode, and then there were no passports to show the Canadian Immigration Officers when they told them that they were refugees running away from discrimination and persecution in Sri Lanka and had no passports to show, A brilliant ruse to say that they were refugees which almost always worked to their benefit.<\/p>\n

When Colombo was burning with riots on July 24th, 1983, after the 13 bodies of army soldiers who were ambushed up North by the Tamil Tigers and killed and were brought to Colombo for burial, the Tamil student population of 207,524 in the predominantly Tamil Jaffna District in the North were the privileged <\/strong>minority (12.6%), with 555 Government schools, and the capital city of Colombo had only 251 such Government schools for 231,690 multi-ethnic students of which the majority were from the \u00a0wronged<\/strong> majority Sinhalese population.\u00a0 Would you honestly call this persecution and discrimination of the minority Tamils!\u00a0 Ha! What green-bin garbage.<\/p>\n

I hope, I didn\u2019t choke you Mayor John Tory.\u00a0 Take a deep breath and hold onto it as there are more to come as I do not want your bleeding-heart baloney about the Toronto Tamils who landed as refugees claiming that they were running away from persecution and discrimination only to get on the first plane home after they received their Canadian passport..<\/p>\n

Now to continue with the privileged minority Tamils <\/strong>of the North of Sri Lanka.\u00a0 Forty-One percent of these Jaffna District Government schools had approved science laboratories compared to the island\u2019s average of 19.6%.\u00a0 These Tamil students were far better off than the Outport community students in Government schools in the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, as I had the privilege of helping such students in Geology and Palaeontology lab work at MUN, \u00a0during my Graduate study research time after dinner hours.<\/p>\n

I could quote many such incidents but I will tell you of one more privileged<\/strong> incident of the Tamil minority who flew away and ended up in places like the City of Toronto in far away Canada.<\/p>\n

On July 24, 1983, the day of the riots in Colombo, and note that there were no such \u00a0riots in the Northern Jaffna peninsula, \u00a0Sri Lanka\u2019s Inspector General of Police <\/strong>was<\/p>\n

Mr. Rudra Rajasingam<\/em><\/strong>, a \u00a0Jaffna Tamil and NOT a Sinhalese.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court<\/strong> was Mr. S. Sharvananda <\/em><\/strong>another Jaffna Tamil and NOT a Sinhalese<\/strong>\u2019 \u00a0\u00a0And the island\u2019s Attorney General was another Jaffna Tamil, Mr. Siva Pasupathy, and NOT a Sinhalese.<\/strong> \u00a0You were \u00a0not told of these Facts, were you.\u00a0 In my understanding all these facts do not equate to Discrimination or \u00a0Persecution of \u00a0the minority Tamils.\u00a0 What a crock of cod\u2019s wallop!<\/p>\n

What \u2018healing\u2019<\/strong> and what \u2018Justice\u2019 <\/strong>are you talking of, Mayor John Tory?<\/p>\n

You know what Mayor John Tory!\u00a0 I wish you had taken off your \u2018disingenuous \u00a0dark glasses\u2019 when you toured the North of Sri Lanka. My stomach went into Ha!…Ha!! somersaults when I read your statement which I suppose was a clinical analysis of \u2018today\u2019s situation in the North of Sri Lanka\u2019 by an Eelam leaning Canadian politician.\u00a0 We had many of your kind who traipsed along the toddy- palm fringed kabook red soil of the Jaffna peninsula and spat out reams of stupid Tamil vote soliciting rubbish after their return to Canada.\u00a0 Do I smell one more rat in you too?\u00a0 I have had a belly full of your type of politicians, many were federal politicians like Jim, like Paul, like Jack, like Maria, like Judy, like Jason, like Deepak, like Bob, \u00a0like Patrick, like Derek and scores of others.\u00a0 All didn\u2019t want to antagonize the Tamil bloc voter base in case they lose their votes at the ballot box.<\/p>\n

Just a minute I am hearing another Tamil accented voices singing, I believe it is a modern nursery rhyme squeezed lilting through my den\u2019s window. \u00a0\u00a0I believe it is wafting from Little Jaffna<\/em> in Toronto.\u00a0 Let me listen to it and then will continue with my letter to you:<\/p>\n

Jim, Maria, Paul and Jack,
\n<\/em><\/strong>the Four blind mice
\n<\/em><\/strong>See how they run
\n<\/em><\/strong>we caught the fifth
\n<\/em><\/strong>blind sucker John into our net
\n<\/em><\/strong>it was not cheese that got him
\n<\/em><\/strong>but a blood- red blank ballot
\n<\/em><\/strong>and green Bank notes
\n<\/em><\/strong>as election funds
\n<\/em><\/strong>spilling out of a leather wallet,
\n<\/em><\/strong>So we got the fifth
\n<\/em><\/strong>sucker John inside our net
\n<\/em><\/strong>adding him to the four blind mice
\n<\/em><\/strong>Jim, Maria, Paul and Jack of the
\n<\/em><\/strong>Canadian-Parliamentary Tamil
\n<\/em><\/strong>Blarney Gong Show fame.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

You know, Mayor John Tory, there is one important word, the main ingredient that is lacking in the vocabulary in your Toronto\u2019s separatist -Tamils who have not given up wanting their piece of real estate in the North of Sri Lanka, to claim their second Tamil Homeland Eelam. The first being Tamil Nadu in South India, and who knows there will be the third Tamil Homeland in Canada – Eelam-Markam<\/em><\/strong>, and time will tell.<\/p>\n

The word is S-O-R-R-Y.<\/strong> \u00a0This is the Manthra of Healing. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Please…please\u2026. Mayor John Tory, this healing is a two way street and stop<\/p>\n

expecting \u00a0the wronged <\/strong>majority Sinhalese to keep saying Sorry\u201d to the privileged <\/strong>minority Tamils.\u00a0 Enough, is enough.\u00a0 Enough of this disingenuous crap, Mayor John Tory.\u00a0 These Tamil Tiger terrorists, who your Councillor Neethan Shanmugarajah is a sympathizer of \u00a0I am told, crept in the indigo dark \u00a0nights into fisherfolks and farmers adobe huts in border villages of the North and East of the island, chopped the unarmed peasants with machetes, shot them at point blank range, plucked the infants from the mother’s breasts and bayoneted them as if playing a War Game – Tamils Eelam War: The Mother of all Terrorist Wars<\/em><\/strong> with stuffed toys bought at Toys R Us. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Wow! Man!! \u00a0There is no memorial or monument for the Tamil community in the Northern Province to remember their loved ones who were lost during the war\u201d <\/em><\/strong>\u00a0you said. That is nasty and heartless, isn\u2019t it Mayor John Tory! \u00a0\u00a0I see your bleeding heart has spoken well for the Tamils who died, who lived by the gun and died by the gun, during the Eelamist generated 27-long years of \u00a0that brutal war.\u00a0 That is incredulous.\u00a0 So was your political stunt to gather the Tamil votes in the Greater Toronto Area.\u00a0 I would give you an A<\/strong> for being that cunning-smart.<\/p>\n

But, hey! Mayor John Tory, but there is something horribly missing in your sympathetic conviction.\u00a0 I believe in reciprocity which you lacked in buckets in a nasty way. If you had let your bleeding heart bleed a little more of your Ketchup blood you may have noticed and you would have said – \u201dThere is no memorial or monument in the North and East for the Sinhalese brave sons who fought the separatist Tamil Tiger terrorists and got killed, while wanting to give back to the 20 million Sri Lankan peoples their paramount human rights, the \u2018right-to-life\u2019 that was hijacked by the Tamil Tigers for 27 long years.\u201d <\/em><\/strong>\u00a0That would have been a new brand of Mayor John Tory, a stamp of honesty which is a rare trait in politicians around the world.\u00a0 But you missed that opportunity Big Time., Mayor John Tory.<\/p>\n

And if you were taken to the border villages of the North and East war theatre where peasant farmers and fisherfolk were massacred by the Tamil Tigers you would agree with me that each such border village would have wanted a memorial of some sort to remember their loved ones snuffed out by Tamil Tiger terrorists.<\/p>\n

*Ask your Tamil Councillor Neethan Shanmugarajah what did happen up North on Friday, 30th November of 1984 around 5:30 in the morning?\u00a0 If his mind has gone blank, then let me relate to you:<\/p>\n

That eventful morning, the Tamil Tigers, about 100 of them in a sudden and unexpected attack massacred and killed over 60 farming folk at the Dollar Farm settlement in the Mullaitivu District.\u00a0 Among those brutally killed were 4 women and 3 children.\u00a0 And all who were killed were of the Sinhalese community. \u00a0<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0And do I, as a Sinhalese, have to say S-O-R-R-Y to these separatist \u00a0Tamils?\u00a0 Na!\u00a0 Not in this life, Mayor John Tory.\u00a0 I want a Lest we forget-<\/em><\/strong>–memorial at this site of the massacre by the Tamil Tigers.\u00a0 Perhaps there is a rock propped up as a memorial.\u00a0 This I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

*Ask your Tamil Councillor \u00a0Neethan Shanmugarajah what did happen up North on Saturday, 1st December 1984, where he was \u00a0born?\u00a0 If his mind has gone blank let me tell you and I hope I won\u2019t puke with anger while I relate the incident.<\/p>\n

It was two hours after dusk that Saturday, by then the most inhuman and beastly attack of unarmed innocent fisherfolk by the Tamil Tigers took place \u00a0in the two fishing villages of Kokilai and Nayaru<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

That fateful day as many as 14 innocent Sinhala civilians were brutally butchered by these Tamil terrorists.\u00a0 That day they didn\u2019t even spare innocent children.\u00a0 Two young sisters in their early 20s \u00a0were tied to each other with their long hair and then shot through their faces at close range, \u00a0These two girls had died embracing and hugging each other. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In Kokilai where they attacked first, the first victim was Nalin Thushara, a baby of 10 months, who was happily sucking his Mum\u2019s breast.\u00a0 The mother panicked and ran for life with her baby pressed to her bosom.\u00a0 Mayor John Tory, do you know what these Tamil terrorist no-good rascals did? \u00a0\u00a0They shot two bullets and killed both Mum and her infant. The revolting bastards!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

And you seem to be concerned about not having a memorial for the Tamils who died at war.\u00a0 I will underline in red my concerns to you. \u00a0\u00a0I want reciprocity. I demand reciprocity.\u00a0 I want a \u2018Lest we forget\u2026\u201d memorial for \u00a0my Sinhalese people who were killed by these inhuman ruthless Tamil terrorists at every village where the innocent unarmed Sinhalese became victims to the Tamil Tiger machetes, bullets and hand grenades.\u00a0 Nothing more and nothing less.\u00a0 I hope you got it.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

These are the 4th and 5th of the Tamil Tiger killer events in my catalogue of hundreds of such brutal massacres.\u00a0 I will leave it at that now that you may have got a taste of it and also realizing that you are walking on thin ice and telling yourself – \u00a0To hell with the Tamil votes, I am going to keep my Mouth Shut without giving this guy Asoka Weerasinghe of Ottawa to come after my \u00a0exposed jugular.\u201d \u00a0Right, Mayor John Tory!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

And you went on to say, The entire experience of visiting the Northern Province of Sri Lanka was incredibly moving precisely because we met real people who had experienced real trauma and who had still not seen action by the government adequate to constitute justice and promote real healing.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

O my God! Mayor John Tory, who the hell do you think you are kidding!\u00a0 No, you didn\u2019t meet all the real people who had experienced real trauma\u2026\u201d \u00a0<\/em><\/strong>That is a bunch of baloney.\u00a0 You only met the Tamil sector who were traumatized for the very reason that you wanted to garner their votes back home, with a \u00a0Tamil witness watching you \u00a0exposing your bleeding heart for their Eelam cause.\u00a0 Right, John Tory !\u00a0 That was a bit sick, wasn\u2019t it!<\/p>\n

Mayor John Tory, you are guilty in my eyes not being honest.\u00a0 The real people who were traumatized in this war in the North were the Sinhalese who had lived there for generations.\u00a0 They \u00a0were terrorized, stoned and were ethnically cleansed, and those in the border villages were massacred, chopped with machetes, shot with bullets and some officials locked in \u00a0kerosened-buildings and burnt alive.<\/p>\n

I will accompany you the next time you visit the North of Sri Lanka, so that I can force-squeeze tears out of your eyes, and watch you cry for my people who were traumatized.\u00a0 And kneel at a murder site and say a prayer for their souls.\u00a0 I will pay my way.\u00a0 I want to witness your heart bleed not only for the Tamils, but for my people, the Sinhalese too.\u00a0 Let\u2019s make a deal. Let\u2019s do it, and give my people a break, and correct your Northern Tour path as you had been taken along the Eelam Liar\u2019s Boulevard.<\/strong> I am aware of the right path to show you where the Sinhalese were chopped, quartered and shot, where the Sinhala humanity was trampled and spat \u00a0at by the ruthless Tamil Tiger terrorists – the Sinhala Metta Road to Love.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mayor John Tory, you amazed me when you said, One of the first things that strikes you as you travel the North is the extraordinary military presence.\u00a0 Every couple of miles there is a military presence.\u00a0 Every couple of miles there is a military base, far in excess of what you would expect to see even a highly militarized democratic country.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, Mayor John Tory, you didn\u2019t go South, did you?\u00a0 If you had you may have noticed that there are military presence even in the rest of the country.\u00a0 That is what any government would do for the security of its territory and its nearly 21 million people. Your international geography is skewed Mayor.\u00a0 The North of Sri Lanka is still part of that beautiful island and the Tamils up North better start accepting that reality, and so it should be with their foreign \u00a0friends like Mayor John Tory of Toronto in Canada.\u00a0 While you have your job cut out to take care the interests of the huge City of Toronto, just don\u2019t make your job difficult by adding to your Mayoral \u00a0duty agenda, to act as an unsolicited consultant as another Canadian political crap-shooter for the Tamil Eelam cause, and tell the Sri Lankan Government how to govern the North of Sri Lanka because some of your Tamil voters still carry Tamil Tiger flags on special occasions, and still \u00a0have not extinguished the flames of \u00a0dreaming for their mythical mono-ethnic, racist. separate Tamil state, Eelam, from their bellies, \u00a0And more over it is none of your business Mayor John Tory.\u00a0 Just keep your nose and your Tamil curry-dirtied fingers out of my historical Sri Lanka, my Motherland, that I am still romancing with. I hope you heard my voice of dragon spitting anger loud and clear.<\/p>\n

In your opinion piece you said, Those who know members of our community from Sri Lanka in Toronto will know they are enterprising, successful, engaging people.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

While I am happy to acknowledge the enterprising \u00a0and successful members of the Tamil community\u2019, so would I of Sri Lanka\u2019s Sinhalese, Muslim and Burgher immigrant communities who you have intentionally ignored to extol their enterprising and successful virtues.\u00a0 There are many around Greater Toronto Area and its suburbs that you don\u2019t seem to care, as Tamils have the numbers and the Tamils have the bloc- vote.\u00a0 Right, Mayor John Tory!\u00a0 Don\u2019t you feel stupid about all this, and I think it is time you renounce your membership at the Canadian Politician\u2019s Club of Crap-Shooters for an Eelam <\/em><\/strong>cause as it will take you nowhere.<\/p>\n

Oh..sure…sure, you talk of the Tamils saying Those who know members of our community from Sri Lanka in Toronto will know they are enterprising, successful, engaging people.\u201d<\/em><\/strong> \u00a0Of course, they are smart and enterprising.\u00a0 But did you know that among the enterprising Tamils in the Greater Toronto Area, there are the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.\u00a0 And I know that you have blanked out those who are Bad and the Ugly.\u201d \u00a0Shish!…Mayor John Tory, that is a bit disingenuous on your part, isn\u2019t it.\u00a0 Stop painting \u00a0gold haloes over the Tamils in your community, just because you want their vote.\u00a0 Silly, you!\u00a0 What of the Sinhalese, Muslims and Burgher community members. They have a vote too, don\u2019t you know?<\/p>\n

But let me inform you about the bright enterprising Tamils in your neck of the woods, who were on their way to becoming millionaires in a jiffy until they got caught to the Durham Regional Police \u2018Project Off-Guard\u2019 \u00a0Fraud Net.<\/p>\n

In November of 2012, around 24 smart enterprising Tamils were arrested in a Massive Fraud Bust and charged in connection with a debit card forgery ring that garnered tens of thousands\u201d of dollars. Sure…sure…Mayor John Tory.\u00a0 You were right a 100% \u00a0when you stamped these Tamils as enterprising and engaging.\u201d \u00a0And I hasten to add that that there are genuine hard working, smart Tamils who are enterprising, successful, lucky and done extremely well in life in Canada, \u00a0And I doff my hat to them.<\/p>\n

The Durham Regional Police confiscated tens of thousands of dollars, and debit card forging equipment (is this what you called enterprising) dismantled and seized.\u00a0 A warrant was executed at a Scarborough address and a debit card lab was dismantled, \u00a0Numerous safes, hundreds of forged debit cards and $10,000 in cash were seized., \u00a0Some Tamil suspects were arrested in Vaughan and there were more goods seized including $35,000 in cash.<\/p>\n

I suppose, Mayor John Tory, you must be pretty disappointed that you lost 24 young Tamil enterprising\u201d millionaires in your community until their luck ran out and, very likely they may be behind bars now.\u00a0 So be judicious with your enthusiasm extolling your community\u2019s enterprising Tamils.<\/p>\n

You may want to follow these names through the Durham Regional Police – Nirmalarasan Kanaglingam<\/em><\/strong> (32), Vinotha Rajasrikumar <\/em><\/strong>(26), Nirojan Kulasekaran <\/em><\/strong>(22), Pratheeb Krishnapillai (<\/em><\/strong>26), Sujan Sivakumaru<\/em><\/strong> (21), Chandrakumaran Tharamarathnam<\/em><\/strong> (30), Kajethiran Vijayakumar <\/em><\/strong>(39), \u00a0Fazilath Omer<\/em><\/strong> (25), Pirakalathan Sithamparanathan <\/em><\/strong>(20), Mithun Indrakumaran<\/em><\/strong> (19), Krishnajith Ramesha <\/em><\/strong>(21), Nishanth Ganeshamoorthy<\/em><\/strong> (19), and Ravindra Aruncumar <\/em><\/strong>(21) and there are more, but I don\u2019t want to burden you any more.\u00a0 These were your enterprising\u201d<\/em><\/strong> Tamils who were on their way to become quick millionaires.\u00a0 These were the economic refugees who landed on Canadian soil in search of greener pastures and roads paved with gold and wanting to catch moonstone stars raining from the sky.\u00a0 Well…the rest is history.<\/p>\n

This will be an eyeopener for being so stupid for being an Eelam sympathizer.\u00a0 Just cut it Mayor John Tory\u2026.Just cut it.\u00a0 I have come across many Canadian politicians who were made jokers and fools by the separatist Tamil Eelaml lobby in the Greater Toronto Area, and I notice that you are now their latest recruit been made a Joker and a Fool for their separatist Eelam cause.\u00a0 What a bloody shame!<\/p>\n

Sincerely,<\/p>\n

Asoka Weerasinghe (Mr)<\/p>\n

(A Sinhalese-Buddhist)<\/p>\n

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

Asoka Weerasinghe Kings Grove Crescent . Gloucester . Ontario .\u00a0Canada 14 April 2017 Mayor John Tory City Hall, 2nd Floor 100 Queen Street W Toronto, On. M5H 2N2 Dear Mayor John Tory: I wish you a Happy Sinhala & \u00a0Tamil New Year. Your personal observation piece on Sri Lanka in the Toronto Star, \u2018The quest […]<\/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-65216","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\/65216","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=65216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65216\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}