The Tamil Variable In Lankan Politics
Harim Pieris, a former advisor to President Kumaratunga in the days that she had really lost touch with what was what in the country, has written the best piece so far on the strategy of the joint opposition at this Presidential election, with a clear if implicit indication that he thinks the strategy is likely to succeed (“Ranil’s Formula for the General’s success”, Daily Mirror Monday Jan 11th 2010). It’s a good article, a correct piecing together, but to my mind a bad analysis and latent prognosis. I may well be proven wrong and I shan’t go into the why of my demurral until after it is all over, in these crucial closing ten days of a most portentous election.
Speaking strictly as a political scientist I think the ongoing election campaign and national debate entail a basic confusion and conflation of two distinct categories, namely State and Government. This election is one in which we choose the head of state, not just the head of government, and for reasons I have set out earlier I believe that Mahinda Rajapakse makes a better head of state, a better leader for the country, than would his main opponent. As for our grievances with the government, the administration, these are best settled at the upcoming parliamentary election. I also agree with the arguments of Prof Carlo Fonseka in the Sunday Island of Jan 10th, that even in the worst case scenario (nepotism and corruption) a Mahinda Rajapakse victory would be less risky, less dangerous by far, than a victory for his main opponent.
The election of the main challenger would mean not merely a change of personalities but a change in leadership style which is symbolic and symptomatic of a change in the form and model of state and eventually of the model of governance. These structural changes will not be for the better as they will usher in the most authoritarian rule since that of President Jayewardene and one far more authoritarian, entrenched and potentially coercive than that of President Jayewardene. It may also mean the emergence of a de-facto civilian-military junta, with a power shift at the social level to the NCOs and the rank and file infantry.
I had argued in my published writing as far back as a year before the war’s end and in the post war months, that the 13th amendment be expeditiously implemented, the psychological collapse of the pro-Tiger forces including the TNA be capitalized upon, the Northern Provincial Council be reactivated and the elections to it, held. The idea evoked a howl of protest from the Sinhala hawks, the chief champion of whom defected to be the head of the coalition for “regime change” while the rest now fulminate against the “regime changers”.
If my suggestion had been implemented at the time, the TNA would have still been suffering from the success of the State’s “shock and awe” tactics against the LTTE, and Douglas Devananda would have had a distinct edge in a provincial council election. As Chief Minister pushing his strategy of integrationist developmental –welfarism with social equity and moderate political autonomy, he would have been able to shift an even greater percentage of Tamil opinion than he seems to have done; and he already seems to have done quite a bit. Had the Presidential elections been held against such a backdrop, but at the same time that is now being held, the TNA factor and the Tamil nationalist vote would have counted less than it does now, as Harim Pieris’ reconstruction of the opposition strategy reveals.
None of this means that the President will lose; what it does mean is that he could have won comfortably, and this margin could significantly affect the dynamics of a possible second term.
Only a future historian can pronounce on whether the successful visit to Jaffna by President Rajapakse and the strong showing by Douglas Devananda on the occasion was a “game changer” and enough of one in an electoral sense, or whether Devananda will prove unsuccessful in converting the support for himself and his party into votes for Mahinda Rajapakse. However, the Duraiappah stadium crowds demonstrate that the game has probably changed within Tamil politics. It also confirmed that had the power elite heeded my advice rather than sacked me for it, it would not have been in as stiff a competition as it is now, for the highest stakes in which winner takes all and loser loses all.
Douglas Devananda once likened Tamil nationalism to cholesterol, saying just as there is good and bad cholesterol, there is good and bad Tamil nationalism, and just as you need good cholesterol, you need the good Tamil nationalism. Certainly the history of Tamil nationalism shows plenty of examples of “bad cholesterol”. Elite Tamil nationalism opposed the abolition of communal suffrage and the introduction of the far more progressive territorial representation, demanding instead a Tamil seat in the Western Province. This was well before the founding of the Sinhala Maha Sabha in 1927, and the formation of the Pan Sinhala Board of Ministers a decade later, let alone any oppressive legislation or actions against Tamils. It resulted in a fissure in the multiethnic Ceylon National Congress.
Then again, though the discriminatory disenfranchisement of the hill country Tamils had indeed taken place, ‘Sinhala Only’ was many years away and the quintessentially secular Ceylonese state as framed by the Soulbury Constitution remained intact when SJV Chelvanayagam demanded a federal system with a merged North-East and Trincomalee “as its capital”. This while quasi-federalism, not full federalism, was good enough for 70 million Tamils in Tamil Nadu!
N Sanmugathasan, the outstanding Tamil Leninist-Maoist, had excoriated in his writings and speeches, Tamil federalism for having opposed “every single progressive measure” introduced in the country, which led to a wide gulf between the Sinhala masses and the Tamil nationalists. V Karalasingham of the LSSP had in his famous pamphlet, already warned in 1977, that Tamil nationalism had long identified with Zionist Israel, not national liberation struggles the world over. Famed Indian Lankanologist Urmila Phadnis of the Jawaharlal Nehru University had debunked the notion that there was ever a legitimate Tamil nationalist claim to the East, noting that neither demography nor the results of the 1977 election bore it out. In her last book, republished posthumously, she had also noted that Sri Lankan Tamil nationalism, unlike ethno-lingual nationalism or sub-nationalism in India, demonstrates a distressing dynamic of what she termed “an autonomist-secessionist continuum”. I experienced the validity of her observation with Vardarajaperumal’s Chief Ministership of the North East Provincial Council (NEPC). All these factors combine to give the lie to a notion of a defensive/reactive Tamil nationalism. This is not to say that Sinhala nationalism was itself defensive/reactive. Rather I would observe that both Tamil and Sinhala nationalism were aggressive towards each other and also defensive/reactive towards each other in a vicious escalating dialectic.
The history of Tamil nationalism has been a history of negativism and – if one may borrow a metaphor from economics—hyper inflation, where rhetorical and programmatic fancy far exceed real political, military or diplomatic output. By contrast, Devananda stays close to reality, close to the ground and the grass roots. What the scenes from Jaffna during last week’s presidential visit show is that Douglas has clearly effected a split in Jaffna politics and emerged the clear challenger to both the pro-Tiger political tendency as well as the old confrontational and rhetorical Tamil nationalist leadership represented by the TNA; a tendency which almost always allied with the UNP on the occasions that it entered the mainstream. Devananda’s is a unique synthesis, merging a moderate-reformist Tamil nationalism with a constructive developmentalism and a populist progressivism. He has shown that it is possible to a Tamil nationalist as well as an integrationist; to work hard at the periphery while remaining a reliable partner of the centre.
The EPDP leader has built a solid mass base, using a two pronged approach: from bottom up, with incessant mass contact even during the war years, and from top down, using his position as a senior minister to deliver goods and services to the people. Douglas’ use of the mass line, tapping into his own practice as the Jaffna commander and head of the military wing of the EPRLF in the early 1980s, inheriting and reactivating the EPRLF’s old social base, and combining it with his interventions as a partner of the Sri Lankan state under three presidents, Premadasa, Chandrika and Mahinda, has enabled him to accumulate considerable political space and social capital. Like the iconic S. Thondaman from the hills, he has proved a reliable partner of the democratic leadership at the centre. Above all he remained a people’s politician, never forgetting the Jaffna people and their needs even during the war; waging a consistent anti-fascist (anti-Tiger) political and ideological struggle together with the struggle to safeguard and improve the social, economic and material conditions of the Tamil people.
Devananda is a new kind of Tamil nationalist: a welfarist-populist with a developmental touch, a gradualist-incrementalist (almost a Fabian) in terms of strategy, and a national integrator. I can imagine none better to represent the Tamil people in Cabinet and more importantly as Chief Minister. He will not only secure the best deal possible for the upliftment of the Tamil people, he will implement a Kerala type developmental success in the Northern province as a whole.   The old Tamil nationalism talked, just as the TNA talks. The Tigers fought and did nothing else. Douglas Devananda works and delivers. His Tamil politics are constructive and productive.
While the citizens have two elections at which to vote, the Tamil people have three: the presidential, parliamentary and provincial council. Of course it will take these triple elections that the Tamil people now have the opportunity to vote in freedom at, to decide on two large questions, namely whether Devananda’s project has permanently altered the face of Tamil politics and whether his equation with President Rajapakse has laid the foundation of unity between centre and periphery, North and South, Sinhala and Tamil.
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Dear Dayan,
“It may also mean the emergence of a de-facto civilian-military junta, with a power shift at the social level to the NCOs and the rank and file infantry.”
As a leftist, would you mind explaining how it would be a bad thing to empower the lower strata of Sri Lankan society? Wasn’t it this very power shift that enabled the SLA to defeat the LTTE?
Dear Wijayapala,
There are power shifts and power shifts. I supported that which was propelled by Premadasa, and opposed that sought at the time by the JVP. And no, such a power shift had nothing to do with the victory. it was not even mentioned in the recent detailed interviews/public lectures by the top frontline combat commanders: Kamal Gunaratne, Shavi de Silva, Prasanna Silva, and Chagi Gallege. They did mention the political and ideological shift though, to a leader who had the political will to opt for the military defeat of the Tigers as the strategic goal.
dear Dyan
heads i win tails you loose is it?
mathew
Tamils have to decide whether they live as individuals with individual goals or Tamils with a group mentality.
If they are thinking in a group type way then this will be on a collision course with Sri Lankan and/or Sinhala group.
The Tamils have to realise that the WHOLE COUNTRY must be re-structured within a unitary system such that EVERYONE inside the country benefit from that reform.
If at this stage you say I am Tamil I want this …I am Muslim I want this then there can not be any peace in Sri Lanka.
Tamils are a large majority OUTSIDE SRI LANKA.
The Muslims are a large majority OUTSIDE SRI LANKA.
The Christians are a LARGE majority outside Sri Lanka
The Sinhalese and Buddhists are a very SMALL MINORITY outside Sri Lanka.
If you can grasp this reality. Then a lot of political problems can be solved.
The Sinhala-Buddhists have NEVER said that they WANT more power, or recognition than the so call OTHER.
THe parties that have represented such policies have NOT got many votes from the Sinhala-Buddhists people.
The Tamils and the Muslims on the other hand have voted for EXCLUSIVE Tamil and Muslim agenda parties. These are some of the ISSUE that needs to be recognised , discussed openly and structures found to address.
Dear Mathew,
No it isn’t.
Why do you think that I think it is?
My recommendation is plain: vote MR at the Presidential; vote any which way — that includes sending SF to parliament– at the parliamentary (but vote EPDP in the North); vote DD at the Northern PC poll.
As a package, its the least worst deal in town.
So we continue to think that capitalizing on defeat and collapse is the answer to the national problem.My friend this can be the answer to the problems of the sinhalese on how to keep the tamils at bay, but it is not the answer to the national problem. Coming from one who sees god like virtues in Devanada, it should not be strange.
If you had said this was the opportunity to encourage non-violence moderate politics in the tamil community whether they be political entities or former militants, and from that base formulate a national policy which empowers all, that would have been different. When you want to build on a collapse, it is because you want to dominate. No wonder you would feed the coffers and the ego’s of those individuals who are willing to serve domination as long as they can become the elites of the suppressed. Such desperation for social mobility shows the corrupt nature of the individual. Peace with equity is a possibility a pax romana will not last forever.
Dayan,
Permit me to say my two cents worth, you are partially correct in supporting MR but wrong and wrong when it comes to Douglas or Thondaman. Let me explain. Partially, yes, because SF contests for all the wrong reasons. Personal vandetta and persuation by bankrupt political entities are his main reasons and he has proven it beyond doubt. (He needs your support to speak intelligently, and diplomatically ). So he rules himself out and MR is the only credible alternative from that angle left in the fray. On the end, let’s be honest, if MR didn’t win in 2005, in all possibilities the island would no longer be a single country. He deserves his second term. Thus, you are partially right because you only support MR half heartedly. As for Douglas, he is a man who is just waiting for second coming. He has no bottom-up strategy, i.e., helping the people etc, but he believes by talking and waiting he counld gain support of the poor, which I doubt. And for Thondaman, yes there was a time where every up-country tamil called him their God but now the people are educated. Only a few remembers him. Even the Junior Thondaman will struggle to maintain his vote base that his grandpa built, if he did not get it right fast.
By the way Dayan, you have better reasons than SF to contest this election. MR only remove SF from the Army chief post but he was placed in a nominal higher position which he didn’t like. Whereas, you were just siffone out, should I say… !! Be careful though, those JVP guys who went on a killing spree of the innocent in 1989 are still on the search for a prime ministerail candidate in the unlikely case SF wins. It’s clear , unless the JVP comes up with some very sensible nomination, the UNP will not want any other help from the JVP than kicking MR out, knowing the UNP has such a massive vote base. They (UNP) will not agree to Sarath Silva’s nomination, who they impeached unsuccessfully a while ago. Ranil and only Ranil will be their choice if the JVP proposes Sarath Silva. You may not have thought about this, but you make a better candidate for the JVP with your very western-friendly, Somawansa-like leftist attitude.
Dear Dayan
You are talking re -Douglas positive side and also doubt about SF administration.
Anyway talking about Douglas is not productive at this movement. Also implementation of 13 th amendment, too will not come up in MR period.
Wasting time on those subject at this juncture is useless. In case someone is able to reinstate the good governance in the country and impartial courts, govt service ,police, media and eradication wastages and corruptions and democracy is the prime needs of all people including minorities in the country. Thereafter if all people become equal citizen ,most of the problem prevail at present will disappear. There onwards, the govt and the people can see what part is left to be solved. The only reliable and trusted candidate for the current situation is SF and not any one else.
In fact what President Rajapaksha could have done instead of focussing on holding PC elections to ensure the well being of tamils and that is the only way he could have used to attract the votes of tamils in north and east.In such a context minister Douglas devananda may not be an important matter for tamils.the factor wether implementation of 13th amendment is vital or not too will be decided by them in time to come.but it all depends on how they are treated by the government.
Dear Dayan,
Your article lacks scholarship that is expected from a political scientist.
If you study carefully the so called quasi federalism of Indian constitution and the 13A,you will become aware that the devolution granted under 13A is much more than the devolution given under quasi federal Indian Constitution..
Yet you will observe that there is greater acceptance of the devolution among 70 Million Tamils in Tamil Nadu whereas is the Sri Lankan Tamils are apathetic and not so enthusiastic even about the superior(in paper) 13A.
It is because of past experience.
Let me elaborate.
In India the Constitution is a sacred document. Meddling with the constitution will not be tolerated. There is a greater acceptance of devolution among Indian politicians, bureaucrats and even among the ordinary people.
In India the constitutional provisions are acceptable in letter and sprit.
What is the situation in Sri Lanka?The people are apathetic
Does 13A has popular support?.Do politicians support 13? Do the bureaucrats? Or the common people?
.when there is hardly any commitment what is promised will remain only in letters.
This is what has happened not only to 13A but to 16A as well.
The government will simply say that 13A and 16A are defunct. You have the heart to advocate Tamils to support this outdated 13 A as a solution and the Tamils to support this to complete the annihilation of Tamils in Sri Lanka.
article categorically says that mr is better than sf. really what makes somebody like dayan say this is only known to him. he had already made up his mind that sf’s administration will be a quasi military/civillian junta, which in my opinion is a silly idea, an idea that is marketed by the govt. what the country needs now is someone who is tough, strict and a desciplinarian. govt. and their supporters may say that sf is contesting for all the wrong reasons. maybe there is some truth in it. yet, i believe that sf will be a better leader for this country than any of the proffessional politicians who ruled us.
dayan also delves into the jayawardane era govt. i’ll like to know how many media persons, institutions were effected during this period either due to govt. instigated thuggery or otherwise. can any one give me a breakdown, for eg: numbers killed, numbers assaulted and needed hospitalisation, media personnel that had to flee the country, institutions attacked or damaged etc, etc, compared with mr’s regime. govt.’s since then had ample time to right the wrongs of the jayawardane era. but what do the govt.’s do? they refine and fine tune all the wrongs done by the previous govt. so much so it has come to a state that the people are cowed into submission by the state machinery.
we sri lankans have gradually become, without being aware of it, a grass and punnaku eating nation thanks to the machinations of leaders like mr and his cohorts. war victory does not condone mr to vandalize this wonderful nation with so much of potential in this manner. no sir, not at all.
DJ’s view that reads “The election of the main challenger would mean not merely a change of personalities but a change…………………….. These structural changes will not be for the better These structural changes will not be for the better………………It may also mean the emergence of a de-facto civilian-military junta, with a power shift at the social level to the NCOs and the rank and file infantry.” is nothing other than a biased one favouring MR. MR has not been different in his style of govenance which is a mix of JR’s and Premadasa’s. The disposal of DJ himself from his positiion for his liberal issues is a clear example. Governance in Sri Lanka needs a COMPLETE CHANGE. Only a new personality sans the ‘old political mindset’ could bring about this change. Certainly SF could bring about this change.
Dayan:
May be you are an idealist more than a political scientist. Look at how the 13A is winding and twisting to the tunes of those in the seats of power in the East. Ok, for argument sake, let us assume that SF is as what you have described. Would you be able to convince the President to announce before the election date that he would implement the 13A in letter and spirit (in full)? Never mind the plus plus thing but just the 13A. This is a guy who literally created a drama of sorts with the APRC?
I do feel sorry for Douglas for he had invested his hopes in a President who just treated the IDPs like garbage and there is nothing Douglas could do about it. Eventually Douglas paid the price and there could be some support for him, now that MR needs him to win votes, but there is no indication that Douglas would be able to do anything tangible or substantial once this President is re-elected. It is not about Douglas per-se but the people believe that with this President there is nothing much Douglas can do except to be a “yes” man, just like Karuna and Pillayan.
As per Faizal’s comment, Dayan, how is it that you came to the conclusion that SF’s administration will be a quasi military/civillian junta.. etc?
If you are basing your judgement on the manner in which SF administered the military, it is not an appropriate comparison in the current context as SF is no more in his military attire.
I find your article to be more a piece of literature that is aimed at showing the repercussions for government as a result of not heeding your advice on the 13th A. You have not attacked SF on his policies and not even aimed to point out how MR has ruined the whole concept of governance in this country. Hence, my opinion of this article is that it is a merely a letter of frustration aimed at the government however presented with subtleness so that this fact is not highlighted on the face of the article.
I have immense respect to you and do not wish to disrespect you in anyway through my comments. – af@eventure.co.uk
Dear Dr. Jeyatilleka,
Quote:
“Then again, though the discriminatory disenfranchisement of the hill country Tamils had indeed taken place, ‘Sinhala Only’ was many years away and the quintessentially secular Ceylonese state as framed by the Soulbury Constitution remained intact when SJV Chelvanayagam demanded a federal system with a merged North-East and Trincomalee “as its capital”. This while quasi-federalism, not full federalism, was good enough for 70 million Tamils in Tamil Nadu!”
Unquote
You have eloquently depicted that the bad cholesterol, the Tamil Nationalism has been the prime reason that caused the Sinhala Nationalism to reciprocate! It is amusing that you described Douglas D as a good cholesterol; he is a good cholesterol from the Sinhala Nationalistic point of view that he would not rock the boat! As long as he is looked after, he can run an armed malicea that has been responsible for numerous atrocities in the Jaffna district. If one is opposed to violence, then it should be for all forms of violence not just targeted at LTTE because they stood for a separate state.
That said; let’s analysis as to when exactly SJVC’s federal concept was articulated. In the 1948 general election, SJVC contested on the Tamil Congress ticket being headed by GG Ponnompalam. It was when GG and two others wanted to join the DS’s government, there was a split; SJVC formed the Federal party. Let me remind you that, only two seats were won by the Federal Party in the 1952 election with SJVC losing to Mr. Nadesan, a UNP candidate at the KKS seat! So, it was manifestly obvious that the support for federalism at that time was flimsy among the Tamil masses.
So, what actually caused that mammoth shift to occur within the Tamil masses towards embracing the federal concept? It is fair to say that, it was the Language Bill that promoted the Sinhala language as the state language that pushed the Tamils to side with SJVC leaving the Tamil Congress helpless.
In my view, until the Sinhalese deal with the small though malignant Sinhala Buddhist Nationalism that is the real cancer in Sri Lanka, there will never be peace. This cancerous phenomenon will not rest until a Sinhala Buddhist state is established in a true sense of the word. Now that, they have dealt with the Tamil Nationalism, their attention will turn towards the Christians and then Muslims and so on!
Dear Dayan
“And no, such a power shift had nothing to do with the victory. it was not even mentioned in the recent detailed interviews/public lectures by the top frontline combat commanders: Kamal Gunaratne, Shavi de Silva, Prasanna Silva, and Chagi Gallege.”
Really? There was a commentator named “Dayan Jayatilleka” who stated in 2008, “The defeat of such an insurgency will require (a) greater use of small-unit tactics on the part of the Sri Lankan armed forces …”
The hard-nosed realism of General Sarath Fonseka
http://www.lankamission.org/content/view/473/44/
At the grand strategic level, yes the political will demonstrated by the Rajapakses played the key role. At the operational and tactical levels, though, it was small team tactics that won the war. Tammita-Delgoda stated under the “Mentality” section of his paper, “Instead of the large formations which they had used in the past, General Fonseka adopted the idea of fighting in small groups. The four-men and eight-men teams became the core of his new strategy.”
These war-winning teams would have been led mostly by corporals and sergeants, and not officers, so my dear Dayan there definitely was a power shift within the SLA from the officers to the NCOs. Why else have you concluded that the NCOs and enlisted ranks are backing Fonseka?
Dear dayan,
thanks for posting this article in ground views. One finds it very difficult to understand as to how you are able promote the 13th ammendment as if MR and his team have fully accepted it and are offering it to SL when it is already law but is not being implemented. I agree with ‘Sri Said’ on this. If MR was and was convinced of t13 what was the whole purpose of the APRC ? (as some one said was it to fund Tissa W)
How will Tamils accept the leadership of a politician who still has private military groups operating. Why is MR unable to promise the dismantling of such groups?
Dear Dayan,
So you want the Tamils to support Douglas Devananda to be the Chief Minister of the Northern Provincial Council.
But I want to emphasise that Douglas Devenanda is a tamil nationalist.
The TULF,TNA and ITAK does not have eelam tag in their name whereas EPDP refuses to remove Eelam from their name.
The separate state of Tamil Eelam is their ultimate objective. What is the difference between LTTE and EPDP. EDDP is more cautious and cunning! Does n’t it? Dayan be honest!
“A little now, more later”
This phrase was supposed to be coined by Mr S.J.V.Chelvanayagam to justify his gradualist approach to the Tamil question and highly critical comments were written on this strategy regularly by the Sinhala xenophobic intellectuals that include Malinda Seniveratnae.
In the light of this revelation, Dr Dayan, Would you like to revise your opinion of DD?
This article looks to me to be more about the travails of the government for not heeding the advice of DJ on election strategy. I fully agree with Fony on this point.
SF has a lot of weaknesses, who doesn’t, but with several political parties (some extreme e.g. JVP and UNP) there is hope that the administration can strike a balance.
If it cannot “accomplish” much, that is better as we need “less” government and more space for people and business. In our present state the unknown devil is better than the known devil!
” In our present state the unknown devil is better than the known devil!”
No wonder you are a “civil society type” and not a “thinking type”! That Mephistopheles will do our country immense good by remaining “unknown”.
Its interesting video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqyHKz4zbuA Its Presidential elections in Sri Lanka. Unlike previous 5 presidential elections in ,82, 88, 94, 99, 2005 this presidential election is held under one law, one president, and one country. The country is freed from LTTE brutal terrorism. Ever since President Rajapakse came to power in 2005 Sri Lanka has been on continuous development despite the bloody Eelam war IV erupted in 2006 against LTTE. The war was 24-7 for 2 years time and against super powers wishes. President Rajapakse not only fought a war against the most brutal terrorist organzation in the world, the LTTE but also against pro-LTTE west media and super powers’ diplomatic intimidations in UN, UNHRC lead by same super powers USA, UK, EU whom are still fighting their enemy Al Qaeda while President Mahinda Rajapakse not only totally eliminated LTTE and won the war but also accomplished 90% of his promises given to his people. What the west and the western media and its local agents still struggling are try and manupilate the ground realities. They will again hear from Sri Lankans on 26th January 2010 that they are not only wasteful but also brainless creatures!
The FBI called LTTE the most dangerous extreme and ruthless terrorists in the world followed by Al Qaeda the number one enemy of USA (March 2006) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lvfrWcLDl0) The war against Al qaeda terrorrist was supported by every state of the world while the war against LTTE was supported by only few countries. Surprisingly the superpowers US, UK, EU objected the Mahinda Rajapakse’s war against LTTE. President Mahinda Rajapakse Government might not be perfect yet it is the best government Sri Lanka ever had. There are certainly room for improvement but it is unlikely that Sri Lankans will choose another candidate as the President of Sri Lanka in 2010!
Anti-Rajapakse front also criticises President Rajapakse for sending a personalized greeting to his people’s mobile phone on a new year day. Thats an innovative thought. I would definitely be delighted to have a greeting from the president my country on the new year day. What they expect from this. Are suggesting to imply estern values nd standards in sri lanka too? We are a collective culture not a western induvidualistic culture. You may have been to west but do not try and criticise Sri Lanka in western perspectve.
The human rights violaions, media threats, corruptions and thuggery have been decreased since the end of war as it is said here. But some journalist who makes comment violates the right of the reader to make a comment in his so called citizen journalism. Before pointing others, criticize own mistakes and be an example to others.
NoEalamInSL
known or unknown or one who can deliver promises?
No Eealam inSL: If the war has been won and the LTTE vanquished why do you waste so many words writing about it. Are you trying to overcome your guilt of how it was done. Or is it the Tamils you want Vanquished.Should not your name be noTamils in SL.That seems to be your heart
Dear Kumar,
As you say the problem is in the “IF” of your statement
quote
If the war has been won and the LTTE vanquished why do you waste so many words writing about it. Are you trying to overcome your guilt of how it was done. Or is it the Tamils you want Vanquished.
unquote
Yes the Military and Terror capability of the LTTE in SL seems to be subdued. Whether it has been VANQUISHED only time will tell. It will depend on the successful removal of all hidden Munitions before the now dormant LTTE cadres get their hands on it (they did not vaporize as the Trees in the non existent photographs of the London Times’ purportedly showed) and the continued flow of Intelligence to the SL security forces.
However the LTTE tentacles spread throughout the world still remain (TRO, WTM etc). Overcoming that requires continued vigilance on the part of ALL Sri Lankans.
Probably you have not heard of the Transitional Govts?
Fortunately 100% Tamils are not LTTE though unfortunately 100% LTTE are Tamil. Hence there is no Guilt feelings to be overcome for VANQUISHING the LTTE as far as Sri Lanka is concerned.
Those Tamils who do not have a LTTE ideology are always welcome to live in SL as equals with all other ethnic groups. Equal means equal in ALL respects. EVERY CITIZEN of SL should be able to LIVE & WORK anywhere within SL WITHOUT any EXCLUSIVE zones or special favours for ANY of them.
The day that happens, Sri Lanka will be free of ethnic strife. Till then, Sri Lankans will have to be on their guard. NoEalamInSL is not an exception.