Your post of November 7, 2009 @ 1:48 am
http://www.groundviews.org/2009/10/12/imagining-the-immediate-impossibilities/#comment-10544

You Said
when an author spends time and energy writing an article, I’m sure his/her expectations will be to generate a constructive discussion/debate taht will help the younger generation.
Unquote

An Author has a responsibility to be fair and to Justify what he says when challenged. He has no license to Rabble Rouse and create division amongst the reading public. Some do this behind a facade of academic discourse.

In the past most Nationalistic Tamil writers had a field day as their posts went unchallenged and that’s why they were able to demonize the Sinhalese and gain sympathy.

Rabble Rousers are people who do not ANSWER queries raised by readers. They don’t do it because they can’t.

If you need very good examples of balanced writing read Dr P. Jeganathan.

I just came across your post in the midst of some research and decided that you needed to be replied.

If I have stated anything but facts and if you or anyone else can prove to me that I am wrong I will most definitely change my views. I am not inflexible as some others are on GV. To some people who have dogmatic views truth is unpalatable. There is nothing that I can do about that.

Thank you for your comment regarding “you present a lot of good points”.
I hope I have given an appropriate response

when an author spends time and energy writing an article, I’m sure his/her expectations will be to generate a constructive discussion/debate taht will help the younger generation.

It is sad to see people like ‘off the cuff’ making such nasty statements and presenting such characters. It is my humble view that such remarks should not even be published.
‘off the cuff’ -your comments are only a disgrace to you. you present a lot of good points, you shoud try writing some articles based on them than gettting in to destructive comments.

Riots — we’ve seen Sri Lanka, when they switched from English to Sinhala and disenfranchised the Tamils and so strife ever after. We chose — we didn’t say it was our national language — we said it was our working language, that everybody learns English whatever language medium school you go to. Which means nobody needs interpretation to read English.

So, our sources of culture, literature, ideas are now more from the English text than from the Chinese or the Malay or the Tamil.
So, there’s a clear difference between the grandfathers and the grandchildren. Look, my grandchildren, never mind the grandfather, their Chinese is not equal to their parents’ Chinese.

My children were educated in what were then Chinese schools and they learned English as a subject. But they made up when they went to English-language universities. So they didn’t lose out. They had a basic set of traditional Confucian values. Not my grandchildren.

I’ve got one grandson gone to MIT. Another grandson had been in the American school here. Because he was dyslexic and we then didn’t have the teachers to teach him how to overcome or cope with his dyslexia, so he was given exemption to go to the American school. He speaks like an American. He’s going to Wharton. Between him and his father, there’s a clear breach in cultural continuity — never mind between him and me.

But that’s the top 20 percent, right? For the majority in the heartlands, they don’t go to American schools or have that exposure. But from 20, it will become 30 percent going to tertiary institutions, universities. You asked me to predict what it will be in 50 years or even 20 years. I cannot, because we have left our moorings.

http://sundaytimes.lk/070902/International/i516.html

———–

All I can say, what a brilliant leader.

“But as to the topic, Singapore is not a police state. Minorities have never required passes to travel on the island. When we had the JI terrorism threat, we did not respond by placing our Malays behind barbed wire for the sake of security. And maybe we don’t have perfect media freedom, but our government doesn’t kill dissenting journalists. Nor does it jail them. Our civil society activists, NGO reps, are even given nominated MP positions so they can raise issues under protection of parliamentary privilege.

As for the housing issue, you must go to that other thread.”

The “patriots” will go to any length to justify their foreign conspiracy theory. This is not the first time I have seen them lean hard on Singapore, when in fact Singapore is a model success story for other Asian nations to follow. It just shows you how desperate the Southern extremists are. It’s beyond the point of constructive debate.. to label it stupidity is an understatement.

Quote…. “At any rate, I don’t appear on your list of those who you felt contributed to productive discussion on the other thread,…..”

Now I understand why you flew off the handle like you did.

I know that I am the person that asked you first but not with an intention of engaging you in a debate but just to get information. I joined the other debate a little too late to get it then, where I made the initial request from you.

I am “perplexed” that you ask me about SL as what you wrote about it displays a lot of in depth knowledge and if you did write those without such knowledge you would be a person not worth engaging with. I have not even pretended to know much about Singapore and have stated so.

There is one important statement that you have made which needs a reply ….Quote….” When we had the JI terrorism threat, we did not respond by placing our Malays behind barbed wire for the sake of security……” Unquote

SL has not placed the “Tamils” in internment. This is what many people try to make it to look like. Such statements are just propaganda as those people who make such comments are propagating a half truth not the whole truth and doing so deliberately.

The majority of SL Tamils (52%) live in the South and the entirety of the Tamils of Indian origin live amongst the majority Sinhalese. None of them are interned. Those who have been interned are the people who lived under a terror megalomaniac’s domination. The people, who were used by this gang of murderers to feed the manpower demands of his terror machine, the people, who had undergone compulsory military training. The people, among whom, trained suicide cadres, explosive experts and callous murderers are in hiding. The group of people amongst whom the HIGHEST density of Tamil Terrorists indoctrinated with a hate doctrine is now living. The wolves in sheep’s clothing hiding amongst the sheep waiting for a chance to get out and restart the killing spree of 20,000,000 people (irrespective of race) living in SL. It just happens that a 100% of internees are Tamil but the internment is not far race reasons. I too don’t agree to internment of ANYONE without just cause. In this case, the choices available to the govt are just two. Both are bad choices. The govt has had to choose the lesser of the two evils. It has been a Hobson’s choice. The problem Singapore had with JI is insignificant to the problem SL has and hence is not a fair comparison.

I join public discussions with a willingness to share my time with others, if that is not the case with you its ok by me.

I am waiting for a response from Suren Ragahavan and for the time being would prefer not to be distracted from that discussion with him. Hence as requested before, please even forget that I have asked.

I reckon we are a friendly and sharing bunch here. That’s why we don’t give others long lists of questions for them to answer. We respect the demands on others’ time. Certainly we don’t ask fact-based questions when the answers are easily available on the web. If what you wanted was my own personal take, there is lots of it on that thread you mentioned. I’m “perplexed” that you don’t engage with any of that. Asking such a long list of questions–others might think you were just trying to annoy me or, worse, discredit my contributions because, apparently, I come from a police state. Of course, I don’t believe that of you!

But as to the topic, Singapore is not a police state. Minorities have never required passes to travel on the island. When we had the JI terrorism threat, we did not respond by placing our Malays behind barbed wire for the sake of security. And maybe we don’t have perfect media freedom, but our government doesn’t kill dissenting journalists. Nor does it jail them. Our civil society activists, NGO reps, are even given nominated MP positions so they can raise issues under protection of parliamentary privilege.

As for the housing issue, you must go to that other thread.

It’s not a matter of unfriendliness or not wanting to share, but of not wanting to digress from the topic here. At any rate, I don’t appear on your list of those who you felt contributed to productive discussion on the other thread, so I am “perplexed” that you would want to seek my contributions, and even import a posting from the other thread to this one. It seems somewhat distracting.

Demand? Slave? Whatever gave you that idea?
This was not in response to any of your posts but I knew you were from Singapore as you stated it in another thread.

It was a request and nobody is another’ s slave on the web. My apologies if I conveyed anything like that though

I am new to this site and I thought posters on this site are basically friendly and like to share knowledge (though I have seen tempers flaring when responding to each other).

I do not know much about Singapore except that I heard that the state ensures housing projects to reflect the ethnic percentages in the country ie a high rise has a percentage allocation for each ethnicity and that the individual flats cannot be sold to or bought by a single race. Don’t know how true it is though.

I was also told by a friend that during Lee Kuan Yew’s time they feared to criticize the state and it was run like a police state, again I do not know what the truth is.

I was hoping that you being a Singaporean you would be able to add to the little I knew about Singapore. If you are unwilling, just forget that I asked

I imagined that you knew quite a lot about Sri Lanka after reading your posts on http://www.groundviews.org/2009/09/17/delusions-of-power-devolution-searching-post%E2%80%93prapa-possibilities/ which by the way is the first time I came across your comments, hence your request perplexes me

I don’t think it is ‘Sinhalese Buddhist’ nationalism anymore. It has become far less religious, and more ethnic and even that discription is a bit messy because there are plenty of Muslims who have been caught up with the new nationalism as well. The government has opened up Madhu, literally sponsored the Cathoic festival and just had a huge Catholic Mass to celebrate the aniversary of the Sri Lankan army. Remember too, the president’s wife is Catholic. Moves are underway to settle all the displaced Muslims in Mannar and Jaffna and build a new pilgrim’s rest in Saudia Arabia. I think that building the dagabas is the government’s way of reaching out to the Buddhist population. I don’t think it is justifiable to claim that dagabas shouldn’t be built in places where Buddhists or Sinhalese aren’t in the majority because there are plenty of kovils and mosques that have been built in areas where Hindus and Muslims aren’t in the majority. Many of the lands for these places of worship have been donated by the state. The Eastern Province is composed of around 30% Sinhalese. It’s only the Northern Province that has an overwhelming Tamil majority. The building of a dagaba there may thus signify a return of the multi-ethnic, multi-religious character that exists in the rest of the country.

You must think I am your slave to demand answers to such a long list of questions. My time is quite expensive.

Perhaps if you do a post telling us how the policies adopted in Sri Lanka in these following areas were not conducive to harmonious race relations, then I might follow suit with Singapore. These are the areas:

1) Land
2) Housing, State & Private (with special reference to any govt funded schemes)
3) Language
4) Judicial review process
5) Education (Govt as well as Private, free and fee levying)
6) Equality
7) Power sharing
8.) Access to free Medical Care
9) Media Freedom (please include the different media institutions and indicate which are govt controlled or has Govt representation and which are Independent. If possible please provide URL)

Thank you

I have posted this elsewhere on this site twice on two different threads. Perhaps you may have not seen it.

As a person living in a state that has apparently successfully integrated a multitude of races into a cohesive problem free society could you enlighten us on the policies adopted in Singapore on..

1) Land
2) Housing, State & Private (with special reference to any govt funded schemes)
3) Language
4) Judicial review process
5) Education (Govt as well as Private, free and fee levying)
6) Equality
7) Power sharing
8.) Access to free Medical Care
9) Media Freedom (please include the different media institutions and indicate which are govt controlled or has Govt representation and which are Independent. If possible please provide URL)

Thank You

Right now, rightly or wrongly, we are in a period of exuberant Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism. Thus the perception surrounding the dagabas’ construction becomes more powerful than, say, the festival at Madhu. I think this is especially true when you couple this with the plan to build one in each province, even those with (presumably) non-Sinhalese or non-Buddhist majorities. The symbolism, the perception, becomes loud and clear to everyone, including the Sinhalese Buddhist majority for whom the message is intended.

On a rational level, I think “OK, so there are a couple of dagabas going up, out of thousands already standing. What’s a few more? No harm done.” In an entirely calm, normal situation this would be true.

But then I remember that in such a heated and polarized situation as we find ourselves, perception is often more important and influential than fact. We all know how quickly wild rumors and theories spread, and how readily people believe them unquestioningly. That, I think, is the problem pointed out by the article.

Personally, I’m all for dagabas, and churches and kovils and mosques. But is right now the most useful time for the government to be officially planting dagabas all around? At best it gives the appearance, whether it’s actually true or not, of gloating. I’m not sure it does anything to calm anyone’s emotions, or help our Tamil and Muslim brothers overcome their fears. In the same way that supporters of the government plead for time to get things on track, so too must we allow our brothers time to get their own bearings. A special series of dagabas in each province doesn’t help do this. Can’t we wait a bit?

I just want tensions and suspicions to go away so that we can all get down to the business of improving ourselves and our country. If delaying this dagaba construction project were to help accomplish this, wouldn’t that be best for the longer term? Seems to me it would be worth it, if just to keep the peace.

I would disagree with you though in applying the metaphor of a “swamp” to the prevalent majoritarian democracy mindset. A swamp just stays passively in place waiting to suck in those people who venture near it. In Sri Lanka, the majoritarian democracy mindset is very active, and reaches out to ‘convert’ other people to its mindset, and it actively seeks to demolish progressive viewpoints. You have correctly identified the need to deconstruct majoritarian ideologies, but we can also see how rapidly the majoritarian mindset steps in to deconstruct your imaginings. They co-opt postmodern critical tools such as the querying of perspectives to further ground their own essentialisms and chauvinisms. For eg, how does one claim that only Tamils have attempted ethnic cleansing when the facts of far earlier state-sanctioned pograms are known? By offering it as a ‘perspective’, apparently equal in value if not superior to yours. But we can differentiate between a ‘perspective’ and lies, can’t we? Again, look at the attempts to demolish you as a person, as an academic, while accusing you of being personal.

I see it as not a swamp but a monster that cannibalises everything and converts it to its own use. Or perhaps as the Matrix, given the way it turns given meanings into their opposite, and offers an illusionary simulated reality?

What does differentiate their deconstruction from yours is that they can never actually state the basis on which they argue without losing moral force. I would suggest that you engage them on their philosophy of democracy. Then the rest of us can have fun watching them avoid getting into that discussion.

As for your suggestions of devolving power, perhaps the two VPs that you envisage should be selected on the basis of their representing minority constituences in general rather than any specific minority group. For eg, the 2 VPs may be at times Tamils, or Burghers, or Muslims, or Indian Tamils, though the two should be of different communities. I agree with President Bean that other communities should also be represented, but to have more than two VPs would be messy.

I like your idea of selected MPs from the provincial councils forming the national parliament! This suggestion as well as that of the two VPs would offer a lot of balances to power.

It’s good news that the Tamil parties are forming alliances. Should they also reach across to other minority groups? Women as a minority group (in terms of disempowerment but with huge numbers) could also be useful in breaking that ethnic-based majoritarianism.

I’d be good for both tea or coffee but we’d probably have to down a pint to retain our sanity while discussing this knotted issue (although I myself am unable to stomach much apart from a little wine, an exception will have to be made).

Since the time you’ve written this article, a further 4 posts have been added to that thread, making a total of 81 so far. I’ve also raised a few questions that I would like to see discussed further and hope the conversation will continue.

“It is a fact that no one can help those who are ideologically committed to analyse the reverse of every argument” …… that by the way is the opening statement of your latest post.

If it is meant as a blanket reply designed to answer the questions placed before you, then you have failed miserably.

In the absence of a counter view an argument ceases to exist.

In the absence of tolerance, intolerance will reign supreme.

Both above traits are visible in your postings and your professed ethics ring hollow.

“….Democracy is a collective effort built not just by university dons (then it will not be Democracy) but by engaging citizens like yourself.” ….that is what you said first.

So where would Democracy be if objective discourse is denied?

That the arguments constructed within the bounds of your comfort zone has not been deconstructed using the paradigm of “analytical weighting to the empirical data” was the reason that questions were asked of you. When the empirical data used for the construct, is itself faulty, the output is garbage.

Just answer the core issues raised without uncalled for attacks on others and the use of “Gobbledygook” vocabulary

This country has enough strife without adding religion to the boiling pot.

Sincerely

Off the Cuff
(You can use “Mahendra” if that is more in line with your comfort zone. An “n” at the end would have changed it to Tamil)

“The international brown sahibs speak a language adapted to their new environment, an opaque, circular idiom which symbolizes the essential futility of the kind of thought it expresses. Actually, it is not an articulation of thought but a series of sounds which are substitutes for thought. It is a language of discommunication which all brown sahib conferenciers understand as easily as the ancient Germans understood the runic alphabet. The trick is to prefer fat words to lean, pompousness to simplicity, opacity to translucency and orotundity to directness.”

Suren, I’m sorry to be harsh, but your reply is exactly in that vein and communicates nothing to the reader. I understand that it is common practice, especially in the soft-sciences, to indulge in this kind of miscommunication in the hope of adding weight to one’s argument. Remaining purposefully vague and thereby opening the argument itself to multiple interpretations ensures that one can always disclaim negative interpretations by falling back to an alternate meaning and it also ensures that any paper one writes is more likely to be accepted by an academic journal due to the sheer ambiguity and confusion surrounding the writing.

When you’re in a public space however, avoid trying to impress “ordinary citizens” with one’s academic profundity, because they may end up seeing through the charade into the vacuousness of it all. We are here to discuss these issues frankly and therefore, some humility and directness would probably be more appreciated and admired and lend greater credence to any argument you wish to make.

“When the problem of Sri Lanka is defined as the problem of the Tamils of North and East, the problems of 1.5 million Tamils of the plantations, which are different from those of Tamils of the North East, are completely concealed or hidden. They are denied their right to call themselves a national race. The Up-Country Peoples Front also urges that the attention should also be paid to the plantation workers who live out of the Hill Country,” he said.”

Chandrasekeran had proposed that the estate Tamils be recognized as a national race of Sri Lanka and a power sharing unit be set up integrating the Central, Uva, and Sabaragamuwa Provinces where plantation workers live densely, (as the system carried out in Pondichery in India).

http://www.island.lk/2009/10/16/news10.html

Perhaps the Upcountry Tamils and the Muslims themselves want a separate identity from “Ceylon Tamils”?

*significant voter base

It is true he said this a while back, but does any else perceive the blatant racism lying underneath the surface? If we add some context, the remark was the culmination of a sustained brutal assault on the lives and property of a single class of people, e.g. Northern Tamils. First their homes were destroyed.. then they themselves were incarcerated indefinitely.. finally their identity was written away in a single phrase… this is not postmodern politics at all, this is the hallmark of fascism. There is a historical precedent that can be drawn: the Jews who were confined to ghettos in the heart of Nazi Berlin, surrounded by barbed wire… we know what happened to them. Their demise was termed the “Final Solution”, just as the campaign to subjugate the Tamils was termed a “humanitarian operation.”

In any case, Rajapakse’s comment negates the possibility of any democracy… the modern democracy does not stress inclusiveness by denying “otherness”… but acknowledging “otherness”, often giving “otherness” priority over “oneness.” On the other hand, Rajapakse’s regime has embraced “oneness” exclusively… this “oneness” typifies the extremist mindset that permeates the rural South (the only significant voter for the ruling coalition). By oneness is meant is no meaningful devolution of any power to any of the minorities, in which case the authority of the Sinhalese to subjugate the entire island is never challenged. On the other hand, besides the political connotations, I am not sure what, if any economic connotations *oneness* has for the same group of people. The per capita income of these people is less than $300 USD per yr.. other than a few dam building projects begun eons ago, I am not sure of any significant economic development projects initiated (in the South) by any Sri Lankan Government.

Now we are in a position to add more context to the “no minorities” statement. It would never go down in a real democracy. The Speaker would be laughed out of office. On the other hand, emphasizing oneness in a place like Sri Lanka correlates well with the prevailing ideologies there, and similarly, with the economic reality. Totalitarian ideologies work well with uneducated, rural people. After all, they have no grounds to appeal. They are barely cognizant of alternatives. In the Sri Lankan case, there is a major language barrier. It is unlikely that the said group of people has ever come across the notion of federalism. It is not discussed widely in newspapers. It is not even mentioned explicitly, and if it is, only in reference to the great “foreign conspiracy.” Therefore, when all is said and done, Rajapakse’s “no minorities” sentiment is best taken in the context of a “fool’s paradise.”

So the government putting money into rebuilding Hindu kovils, and sponsoring the Madhu Church Festival and setting up SL Muslim pilgrim hostels in Saudia Arabia can also be used to predict its future actions?