{"id":87221,"date":"2019-04-14T17:10:23","date_gmt":"2019-04-14T23:10:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=87221"},"modified":"2019-04-14T10:01:56","modified_gmt":"2019-04-14T17:01:56","slug":"tna-wont-allow-gota-to-become-president-sritharan-mp-the-island-of-28th-march","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/04\/14\/tna-wont-allow-gota-to-become-president-sritharan-mp-the-island-of-28th-march\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cTNA WON\u2019T ALLOW GOTA TO BECOME PRESIDENT\u201d \u2013 SRITHARAN MP (The Island of 28th March)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sugath Samrasinghe\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/span>\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n

Pray why? May I ask? What wrong has\nGotabhaya done to the TNA and the Tamil people? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was the  LTTE that terrorized the Tamil people into\nsubmission for 30 years ironically claiming to fight for a Tamil cause. Most\nable and rich Tamils left the country and sought refuge in Western countries.\nMany others escaped to Colombo and other areas in the South. The LTTE then\ncleansed the Northern Province of the Sinhalese and the Muslims. They brought\nuntold suffering to the Muslims and Sinhalese in the Eastern Province. It is\nsaid that more Tamils died at the hands of the LTTE than in the confrontations\nwith the three Forces put together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And what did Gothabhaya do?   He finished this 30 years old war with the\nLTTE. He thereby prevented Tamil children being snatched away from their\nparents and thrown into the jungles as cannon fodder, with a cyanide capsule\nhanging from their necks. The Tamil children are now happily back in schools;\ntheir parents no doubt are relived. Young Tamil women returned home from their\njungle hideouts, to be married and running their homes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On conclusion of the war, Gota had 285,000\nTamil civilians rescued from the clutches of the LTTE and had them accommodated\nin the IDP camps, had them sheltered, clothed, fed, treated for illnesses and;\nthereafter moved in due course to their homes. All this was done without an\niota of assistance from the TNA or other Tamil political parties, other than\nalleging that security forces had killed civilians. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, Gota had picked up 12000 ex\nLTTE combatants, had them rehabilitated and released to society. He had the\nNorthern area de-mined, removing the land mines laid by the LTTE, and rendered\nthose areas safe and habitable for civilians    \n     <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gota has retrieved TNA\u2019s self-respect from\nhumiliation, being forced to acknowledge that LTTE was the sole representative\nof the Tamils and being told that TNA was the mouthpiece of the LTTE. They are\nnow in a bargaining position with the present government on their own right. Is\nthis not due to the effort of defeating the LTTE? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The defeat of the LTTE triggered off the return\nof train service to Jaffna beyond Vavuniya, electricity and telecommunications\nrestored. In short, normal life denied to the Northern and Eastern Provinces now\nresumed throbbing with activity despite whatever other shortcomings. Political\nfreedom was restored by holding Provincial Council elections. It is not easy to\nput back what was lost for 30 years; and TNA has not helped speeding this up\nother than raising some parochial political issues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That government next embarked on the re-development\ntasks of the two Provinces when they were defeated at elections.  The situation does not seem to have improved\nsignificantly since then. Thus, the Tamil people and the TNA have evidently\ngained much from Gotabaya\u2019s efforts, though they may not acknowledge it for\nwhatever reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sritharan MP is said to have told the\njournalists that Gota had killed thousands of Tamil civilians. Then how come he\nsaved over 285,000 civilians from the battle front? Incidentally, what were those\npeople doing on the battle front? Who brought them there and why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides, in 1988-90 we had the 2nd<\/sup>\nJVP armed insurrection in the Southern parts of this country. The then UNP\ngovernment put it down ruthlessly killing thousands including the top notches\nof the JVP. But no body claimed that the government had killed the Sinhala\nyouth? It appeared that almost everybody in Sinhala society that those who\nsought to fight the government with arms had to be put down using force. In\nsuch circumtances, why is the TNA saying that Gothabhaya killed Tamil\ncivilians? What about the Sinhala villagers slaughtered by the LTTE in the\nDollar Farm and Kent Farm, a busload of Buddhist monks at Aranthalawa and\nvillaggers of Kebithigollewa etc. who had nothing to do with the war over which\neven the UNHRC appear to be unconcerned?       \n       <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A census carried out by the government\nshortly after the war, through Tamil government officials had revealed that\nsome 7000 odd people had died during the period under review and that included\nthose who died of natural causes too. The figures given by the UN officials\nembedded in the war zone during this time too is reported to have come up with\na similar number of deaths. Then the confidential reports sent by Lt. Col. Anton\nGash then attached to the British High Commission had also come up with a\nsimilar figure, with a further rider that a good portion of these deaths were\nof LTTE combatants and that many LTTE cadres in the last stages were in\ncivilian clothes. He is also reported to have remarked that if the Forces were\nnot concerned for civilian deaths the final stages could have been finished\nmuch earlier. There is also photographic evidence that many Tamil civilians\nwere killed by LTTE in their desperation to prevent them from crossing over to\nthe government forces for protection, during the last days of the war               <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is also independent evidence that\nfood and drugs were constantly supplied to civilians in the battle zone\nregularly under the supervision of and monitored by a panel of observers\nincluding the US Ambassador, Robert Blake. There is also pictorial evidence\nshowing how the soldiers, both men and women helped Tamil civilians to cross\nover to government side safety. We saw some soldiers carrying both disabled and\nold women physically to safety. Where else have we ever seen this kind of thing\nin battle fronts?    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides all this, one would wonder how the\nforces were able to defeat LTTE in battle, by killing civilians as alleged!?\nThen they will still be left with the LTTE combatants to deal with? Also then\nwho killed those 28000 odd soldiers and maimed so many others in the last\nbattles?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Gota could achieve all this\nsuccessfully, couldn\u2019t one surmise that he is a capable person who might be\nable to rescue this country from its present state of disaster?  We know that this country during the last 70\nodd years has been struggling to find their way, fumbling and groping in the\ndark, not knowing in which direction to move forward. This man says that he is\nnot a politician but says he is willing to try his hand at it. He does not seem\nto have much political baggage to shed unlike the predecessors whom we have had\nbefore and have now. His track record seems satisfactory, at least better than\nsome contenders in the field. Of course we live in a corrupt country. We know\nthat it is difficult for anyone to turn it around in the short run. We also know\nthat power is intoxicating. Subject to all those realities, he too may fail\nafter moving some distance. But even now we are going round and round in the\nsame place! So why not the TNA too give him a fair chance? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, the worst case scenario is that,\nbeing human he too may fail.  If he does\nfail we could throw him as we did with Mahinda R!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Sugath Samrasinghe\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Pray why? May I ask? What wrong has Gotabhaya done to the TNA and the Tamil people? It was the  LTTE that terrorized the Tamil people into submission for 30 years ironically claiming to fight for a Tamil cause. Most able and rich Tamils left the country and sought refuge in Western […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[128],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sugath-samarasinghe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87221","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=87221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87221\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}