“..How can you assassinate political leaders who were elected by the people?..”

I haven’t assassinated any political leaders or any one, for that mater.

Killing is very bad, you know.

“..This shows that you have not learnt anything from the military and human tragedy that ended in Vellamullaivikkal last year…”.

We haven’t learned any thing at any time in our history (including pre history). Probably, we learnt the lesson and torn the paper.

Don’t mention the human tragedy that ended in Vellamullaivikkal last year. We all know about it. What a shame.

I am sorry that you missed the whole point, I guess.

Take it easy and have a G’day.

“….If this happens it will be a return of history where the TULF was forcibly stopped and the Tamil Tigers marched for 30 years until their guns were finally silenced on 18th May 2009 in Vellamullivaikkal….”

History will not stop there. It (history) will return further back in time line. It (the point of return) will be a point where this island was free of external influence.

Although, TULF was representing Tamil community (on paper) they (members of TULF) were mainly living in Colombo and were lobbying with Sinhalese politicians. Lobbying and negotiation is two different things.

In my view, TULF violated vaddukkodai resolution. Vaddukkodai resolution was nonnegotiable with Sinhalese people. TULF were not in a position where they were able to tell same thing in “Jaffna peninsula” and in Colombo.

The “elite Jaffna people” didn’t care about double talk. Because they themselves virtually lived in Colombo and their vested interest were in Colombo or elsewhere.

“…live and learn…” . Yes, it’s true.

However, we don’t have to keep learning the same thing and reinventing the wheel again and again.

The whole country is disintegrating. Forget about TNA.

TNA doesn’t represent any one at the moment, I guess.

I strongly believe that there hasn’t been democratic space in Sri Lanka at any point in time. We are still living in the medieval period.

We all must understand that Colombo administration was brought by British. Not by any one else.

Dear SomeWhatDisgusted, we can’t achieve “…Equality for all…” until we realize the above very important fact.

I believe that any one with no farsighted back in the history is definitely not farsighted in future.

I tend to think that they (politician) don’t want to see it.

“…road to win the Tamil democratic rights lies across the A9 with Colombo ….”

What is/are the relationship/s between “Tamils”, “Democratic rights”, “A9”, “Colombo?”

The answer to your question “..Who will fill the vacuum?..” lies within your above statement.

An excellent article. Thank you.

Dear Anjali,

I agree that DJ’s article might not have been couched in the most diplomatic , but the essence of what they are both saying seems to me the same – seize the available opportunities and move forward within a democratic space. More can and must come later, but progress must be made within available means. I too believe their point is that banging the same old drum (Sinhalese are racists therefore Eelam, a racist utopia of my own) won’t help. The important thing is to keep the real end goal in mind, something that all moderates can identify with – equality for all.

Dear Groundtruth,

I would like to add to what Dayapala said about the Sri Lankan state being closed for negotiations and compromise. Tamil being made a national language, university quota systems being abolished etc. were all done within a democratic space. Now, for comparison’s sake, list out what the violence of the LTTE has achieved in tangible terms. I personally can’t think of anything but tragedy.

“The B-C Pact and the DS-BC Agreement were just that. Neither saw the light of day. Had these been implemented SrI Lankans of all raceas and religions could have been spared the unncessary and criminal spilling of blood and tears of other people. LTTErs were not even born then,a t least most of them!”

It seems that it is your statements that are astounding for their inaccuracy.

The LTTE and Prabakaran had nothing to do with the B-C or D-C pacts. Tamil militancy began in Jaffna in the early 1970s not as a result of the non-implementation of these pacts but because of standardisation which affected Jaffna Tamil youth. Prabakaran himself was a school dropout so standardisation did not even affect him, but he took advantage of the sentiment and got other dropouts to support him.

If the B-C or D-C pacts had been implemented, there probably would have been a backlash against the Tamils and the war would have started anyway.

You state that the following two statements are astoundingly inaccurate
(1) ‘It (Sri Lankan state) has not closed the door for negotiation and compromises.
(2) Non-Violent democratic struggle is the future etc.
This is my response. Both these statements are theoretically linked.
Statement 1: This is true. It has not closed the door for negotiation and compromises. But there are disappointments. Just because there have been historical failures no mature political organization can afford to exclude this option. Now the TNA has come out in support of SF and they will have to negotiate with him and come to certain compromises. Do you think then this is an inexcusable mistake on the part of the TNA? You should use the democratic space until it is exhausted and as long as the Sri Lankan state maintains even the semblance parliamentary democracy the democratic struggle is relevant and should be pursued. If you think this is inaccurate you are going make a monumental political mistake. All the armed movements in Sri Lanka from the JVP to the Tamil militant groups including the Tami Tigers disregarded the democratic struggle and paid a high price for their mistakes. They never knew how to negotiate and make compromises.

Statement 2: In my view the use of violence in order to achieve political aims belongs to the past. The armed struggle ends up with producing a one party state with totalitarianism/dictatorship. They close the democratic space and severely curtail people’s basic freedoms including the right to dissent. Do you want your Tamil community to live under such a totalitarian system which will not give them even the basic freedom they enjoy under capitalism? The best example is how the LTTE controlled the every bit of people’s lives in the area under their control. They tolerated no dissent and went for the total control which required them destroy every organization and individuals who did not submit to their will. You need to study the lessons of Vellamullaivaikkal in its entirety from the very beginning of the Tamil Tigers in a mature way to understand the value of the democratic struggle and its accuracy.