Comments on: Misconceptions that prolong our ethnic conflict

By: Kuruvel

Kuruvel — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 03:12:23 +0000

I just fail to understand whether thre is a difference between Sinhalese and Sri Lankans. In practice Sri Lankans means Sinhalese and Sinhalese means Sri Lankans. The others living in Sri Lanka are termed as Sri Lankan Tamils, Sri Lankan Muslims and so on but they are not called or treated as Sri Lankans or Sri Lankan citizens.

The Tamils in Sri Lanka wanted themselves to be treated 'practically' as Sri Lankan citizens in the same way the Sinhalese are being treated. That 'demand' is the cause of the trouble going on today.

'Sinhalese' are being treated as 'disabled' persons who need a 'helping' hand while the Tamils are being treated as 'very abled' persons who should be given an 'obstacle' to run an 'even race' on a level field.

With or without their knowledge the 'Sinhalese' want themselves to be treated as 'disabled' persons and so it looks that we have a 'very large' number of disabled persons in this country who are not receiving any aid from the INGO's

By: SahaSamvada

SahaSamvada — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 12:22:46 +0000

congrats on very clearly discussing the misconceptions that have become a vicious deterrent to a positive change of attitude towards a negotiated solution to the conflict.

By: Bandula

Bandula — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 03:16:11 +0000

We cannot devide this small country . EElam wanted by most erxtremist tamils, will not end there. They will try to annexe more to their state till they take over the whole country. The tamil nadu will be part of eelam and fight against India. Courtesy of support extended by India.
Sinhalese will keep never give up the land. They had fought with Portugese, Dutch, English and Indians with past and will fightin future.
What is the future of tamils living in the south. They are ten times more than the number in the North. Will they prefer to live in eelam under the uneducated terrorist group or want to live in the south sharing equal rights and power in a democratic environment.
Get rid of madmax Prabha and his soldiers. Let the whole country be one Sri Lanka where everybody can live in any place without any fear as a SRILANKAN enjoying equal rights, opportunities and freedom. We can all march towards Glory, Economic Prosperity and Independence if we are together and not divided. Let us wipe out terrorism and then join hands to build peace among us and give this country free of all these problems to our future generation whatever their religion, race or belief is as ONE SRI LANKAN.

By: Justin

Justin — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 08:32:42 +0000

We fail to understand one thing, and that is, the Sri Lankan state was the cause for initiating and sustaining violence on Tamils. The violence was inflicted in 1958 anti Tamil riots and the brutal acts of 1983; which the then Prime miinster Indira Gandhi – who was forced to admit large numbers of Tamil refugees fleeing from our coutry, including our political leaders- called genocide.

Today, there is graduation to state terror and full blown genocide with cluster bombs.

APRC or any political solution will not come from the South because they are not remorseful for the evil they inflicted on Tamils for the past 60 years. They are hell bent on brutal war. What Prabaharan said in his message on these matters is a complete reflection of the entire Tamil people.

Let us not waste anybody's time. Let us ask India to separate Tamil Eelam from Genocidal Sinhalese. Perhaps then we can talk of living peacefully.

By: The_Under_Dog

The_Under_Dog — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 07:54:50 +0000

Thank you for the excellent and informative article Mr. Gunadheera!

If the Tamil struggle had campaigned for "equality of citizenship," rather than a separate nation, the struggle may have had a better chance of succeeding (the comparison is the civil rights struggle in America–they won equal citizenship and Obama is a culmination of that win).

With regard to the APRC, It's pretty evident that it is a sham and the government has no intention of ever presenting a political package. The 'liberated' East is proof of this, with even the existing 13th amendment not being implemented–land and police powers have been withheld and governance is largely in the hands of Colombo. IF the war is won (whatever that means), the government will probably declare that there is no ethnic conflict any more–problem solved, we can all go home, no need for a political package. We can expect the daily tally of shootings in the 'liberated' east to continue unabated, and to extend into the 'liberated' north.

By: Ashok

Ashok — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 04:58:22 +0000

Justin! what about Prbha killing Alfred Duraiappa and the 13 soldiers?What about generations of Tamils never want to intragrate into Sri Lankan society?Do Welsh,Irish,Scottish and other nationals living in England accept English as the official language?Do Chinese in Thailand(16% of the whole population) accept Thai as their one and only language and Intergrated into Thai socisty just like Chinese in Malaysia.(In both countries even Chinese new year is not a national holiday!!!)Why Tamilnadu and all the states of India accept Hindi as the only official language?Can any Tamilnadu citizen get a government job even in Tamilnadu if he does not speak Hindi?The answer is no!.Tamils should intergrate to SL society like blacks in USA intergrated joining the main parties.,.Otherwise there will be no Obamas.As long as they need their only parties and separate homelands the fights will continue.

By: Sinthaamani

Sinthaamani — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 02:50:15 +0000

While applauding the writer for the sensible portrayal of the malaise afflicting Sri Lanka, article such as this which softpeddles the APRC, provides the APRC even that little space the document doesn't deserve in intellectual debate. APRC is a farce, and the originator had nothing but duplicitous intentions in mooting it, and not even .0001% of Tamils view that as anything usable…Intellectuals with a modicum of honesty should say so; directly.