{"id":75573,"date":"2018-03-12T05:14:18","date_gmt":"2018-03-12T12:14:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=75573"},"modified":"2018-03-12T05:14:18","modified_gmt":"2018-03-12T12:14:18","slug":"statement-on-sri-lankas-inter-communal-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2018\/03\/12\/statement-on-sri-lankas-inter-communal-violence\/","title":{"rendered":"Statement on Sri Lanka’s Inter-communal violence"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

12 March 2018<\/p>\n

Hon. Chrystia Freeland
\nCanadian Minister of Foreign Affairs
\nRoom 509S
\nCentre Block, House of Commons
\nOttawa, On
\nKiA OA6<\/p>\n

Dear Minister Chrystia Freeland:<\/p>\n

As a Sri Lankan Buddhist-Canadian, who has lived in Canada since 1968 and in Ottawa since 1970, permit me to share my opinion on your Statement\u00a0 for the eyes and ears of the Sri Lankan Government and her peoples\u00a0 that Canada is deeply concerned by recent inter-communal violence in Sri Lanka\u2026..\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong>Then\u00a0 who wouldn\u2019t!\u00a0 I loved what you said,\u00a0 but I would have loved it more if you had only introduced the words and the majority Sinhalese\u201d <\/em><\/strong>when you said …Canada calls on the government to ensure the safety and security of all minorities\u201d\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong>\u00a0You have failed me and my Sinhalese people for not saying, …ensure the safety and security of all minorities and the majority Sinhalese.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s my problem.\u00a0 Sri Lanka is no Paradise of Saints<\/em>,. Thus it is unfair to assume that the two main minorities, the Tamils and the Muslims are Paragons-of-Virtue and that they do no wrong, and when they provoke the majority Sinhalese population and expect them to be Saints and not react to their provocation by word or deed. That is indeed the rub Minister Freeland and Canada has failed the Sinhalese community since July 24 1983 in many ways.\u00a0 Not good.\u00a0 And I could sing out reems of it.\u00a0 And\u00a0 my protest has been not to vote for the Liberals nor the Conservatives, And I have my doubts that I will ever do it in the future either.\u00a0 I resent the hypocrisy of both parties when dealing with the Sinhalese in my Motherland, Sri Lanka,<\/p>\n

Are you aware of the genesis that triggered\u00a0 the racial riots in Teldeniya?\u00a0\u00a0 Here it is – it was the Thursday, 22nd in February, when 4 drunken Muslim men, drunk to<\/p>\n

the hilt, were travelling in a Tuk-tuk\u00a0 had attacked a truck driver for not allowing them to overtake his vehicle.\u00a0 It was a case of a typical \u2018road-rage\u2019 that we Canadians too are quite familiar with.\u00a0 The truck driver happened to be a Sinhalese, H.G.Kumarasinghe, a 41-year-old-Dad of two and one of them is disabled.\u00a0\u00a0 No doubt this Sinhalese had been beaten savagely, who had been in a hospital\u2019s intensive care for 10 days, and eventually succumbed to his injuries on Friday, 3rd March. And mind you, Minister Freeland, there were no rioting during this period which only began on 4th March, the day after the Sinhalese Kumarasinghe died having succumbed to his injuries caused by the 4-drunken Muslims.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0In this Paradise-of-No-Saints, the anger of the hard-nosed extremists in the Sinhalese community were visceral and hell broke loose.\u00a0 It was unfortunate.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t this incident proof positive for the Canadian Government to see and admit that the majority Sinhalese community too need to be \u2018ensured with safety and security<\/strong>\u2019 as\u00a0 much as you all feel is important for the minority communities in Sri Lanka.\u00a0 That is where your insensitive humbug crumble.<\/p>\n

It is also interesting to note that both Islam and Buddhism strongly reject the consuming of alcohol of any kind.\u00a0 So what the heck were these four Muslims doing emptying into their stomachs bottles of arrack, or may be kassippu?<\/p>\n

Don’t you think it was appropriate for the Muslim MPs of the region and the Muslim<\/p>\n

Imam of the region to visit the Kumarasinghe family and commiserate their pain for what had happened to their family breadwinner at the hands of intoxicated-Muslims.\u00a0 The compassionate words like Is there anything that we could do\u201d <\/em><\/strong>would have been a healing Mantra for the Kumarasinghe family.\u00a0 That courtesy was lacking as well as acknowledging the violation of the human rights and the dignity of the Sinhalese Truck driver H.G. Kumarasinghe who was assaulted by the 4 Muslim drunkards. Minister Freeland, what’s wrong with our politicians.\u00a0 How come you don\u2019t see it my way?\u00a0 Come on Minister Freeland, it is too easy to point your finger always at the majority Sinhalese community in Sri Lanka or ignore them completely.\u00a0 That is not right, that is not cricket, that is not kosher and as a Sri Lankan-Canadian that dishonesty is hard to swallow.<\/p>\n

Minister Freeland, this is the same Sinhalese community who were ready to endanger their lives during the July 1983 riots, taking Tamil families into their homes to safeguard their lives, sharing their plates of rice and curry and providing them pillows to rest their heads on.\u00a0 My family took in 4 Tamil families in Dematagoda, a suburb of Colombo, and had the back door of the house open to run out if the Sinhalese goons who were after the Tamils during the July 1983 riots came in search of them.\u00a0 No one talks of these loving, humanitarian acts by the Sinhalese,\u00a0 Then why should they, when all of the west wants to paint the majority Sinhalese black, wicked and ugly hoping that it will translate into Tamil votes for their political parties.\u00a0 We Canadians are no better and we fall into this pigeon hole perfectly like a palm inside a kid-glove.<\/p>\n

Minister Freeland, this is the same Sinhalese community that the Canadian Government wishes to ignore and point our fingers as human rights violators, whose soldiers rescued 295,873 Tamils by 19 May, 2009,\u00a0 from the clutches of the Tamil Tiger terrorists who were herded like unwashed cattle for 30 months from the west coast to the east coast\u00a0 as a human-shield, under the Jaffna-Killinochchi scorching sun.\u00a0 And mind you it were members of the same Sinhalese community who helped to prepare a million meals a day, hearty breakfasts, lunches\u00a0 and dinners to feed these Tamil refugees who were housed in temporary camps.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t have to, but they did magnanimously, and I am proud of my Sinhalese people back in Sri Lanka for this very reason. No one talks about this amazing humanitarian Metta<\/em><\/strong> act of love and generosity towards their Tamil brothers and sisters.\u00a0 Why should they, and why should you as it would put a damper upon all of\u00a0 Canadian-Humbugs, when you want to tell the world that \u2018We are Holier than the Sinhalese community in Sri Lanka.\u201d as you are after the Tamil Diaspora votes in the nine ridings of the Greater Toronto Area,\u00a0 and do not wish to antagonize them.,\u00a0 That\u2019s disingenuous poppycock, isn\u2019t it Minister Freeland!<\/p>\n

My question is, what if the permutation of the 4 drunken men would have been 1 Sinhalese and 3 Muslims, and the driver a Muslim, Would the riots after the Muslim driver\u2019s death been directed towards the Muslim community?\u00a0 Hmmm…I doubt it.<\/p>\n

Minister Freeland, have your Sri Lanka Desk-political advisors point\u00a0 out to you that this whole rioting Scenario is somewhat fishy.\u00a0 That the timing of these communal<\/p>\n

riots raises questions like\u00a0 why does these exaggerated events\u00a0 point the needle of the Hate-compass always at the majority Sinhalese, coinciding with the Geneva\u2019s UN Human Rights Council Review of Sri Lanka\u2019s human rights and accountability of the last five months before the Sri Lankan armed forces annihilated in invincible Tamil Tiger terrorists on 19 May, 2009.\u00a0 This was after a 27-year long bloody war when the Tamil Tiger terrorists hijacked the right-to-life<\/em><\/strong> of 21 million people for all that long. The International Human Rights wallahs have difficulty to applaud the Sri Lankan soldiers for this immense heroic effort to give back the right-to-life<\/em><\/strong> to these 21 million people.\u00a0 Strange!<\/p>\n

You know what Minister Freeland, I smell a rat here and a nasty smelling one at that. I hope I am wrong, now that the Sri Lanka Government has announced of a major breakthrough in investigations having got the commander of the Mahason Balakaya, <\/em>the Sri Lankan KKK who is responsible for the racial attacks and will be taken to task.<\/p>\n

My plea to you in good faith, Minister Freeland is, notwithstanding your party has been after the\u00a0 Sri Lankan-Tamil and -Muslim Diaspora\u00a0 for Donkey\u2019s years, seeking their votes during the Provincial and Federal elections, please be judicious, honest and generous towards Sri Lanka\u2019s Sinhalese community\u00a0 which the Canadian Tamil separatists bombard you with dishonest lies against them.\u00a0 I don\u2019t claim that my Sinhalese are Paragons-of-Virtue, but then nor are the Tamil and Muslim communities in Sri Lanka who have their own political agendas which are inimical for a collective harmonious living in a multi-ethnic island, This has made the majority\u00a0 Sinhalese cautious to stretch their hands of love and friendship to touch those of the Tamils and Muslims, particularly those in the North and East of the island.\u00a0 And that’s a shame!\u00a0 And that is how\u00a0 the pappadam crumbles.<\/p>\n

Very sincerely,<\/p>\n

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

Asoka Weerasinghe Kings Grove Crescent . Gloucester . Ontario . Canada 12 March 2018 Hon. Chrystia Freeland Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Room 509S Centre Block, House of Commons Ottawa, On KiA OA6 Dear Minister Chrystia Freeland: As a Sri Lankan Buddhist-Canadian, who has lived in Canada since 1968 and in Ottawa since 1970, permit […]<\/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-75573","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\/75573","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=75573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75573\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}