As usual another well thought after response. Fully agree that integration cannot be forced. It must happen voluntarily. Government must help it. If there are no one to integrate with (meaningfully), it will not happen.

Happenings of 1956 adversely affected integration and we could not achieve even the level of integration prior to that.

Cultures get nourished and protected not in isolation but in conjunction with other cultures! We have to find solutions fit for the 21st century. Enclaves are out of date, it is the era of multiethnic communities around the world.

At times I think the best politicians can do is to do nothing. But the government must take the initiative. We cannot create a Sinhala Nadu, Tamil Nadu and a Muslim Nadu in Sri Lanka.

Just another load of garbage from you!

Please appreciate the fact that you are living in the 21st century. You simply cannot have mono ethnic enclaves.

If you are unhappy with government sponsored multiethnic communities, go jump in the lake. Because it is happening already which is very good for the country.

Thanks. I know most people think like you which is good.

We have to protect all cultures and wiping out any culture, customs, traditions or the like is totally unacceptable.

“Agree with the need for development. Large agricultural, mining, fisheries, etc. based development can take place in the abundant land in the north. Poverty is mostly due to landlessness. As you know the north and the east is 33% of the landmass but has less than 15% of the population.”

Show me one example where a country has developed with a good portion of budget spent on maintaining a large military (roughly 2 personnels per hundred people) and an out of proportion cabinet. Sri Lanka will get nowhere with agriculture and fishery as the primary market as there are tough competitions for it in the region as well as new markets have emerged in this day and age. Simply put, giving away a patch of land to the landless and expecting them to make life merry with it will not elevate them from poverty – this requires change at the level of government policies.

“Poor people settled in developed schemes in Gal Oya, etc. are doing well.”

What proof do you have that their conditions were elevated as a result of this colonization schemes? As pointed out by Amarnath, the East only contributes little toward the GDP. Starting from DS to Mahinda, the aim of these colonization schemes have been different – that is to alter the demographics and get a Sinhala MP elected, as such schemes have not been proven to improve poverty any significantly, particularly in the North where the land is much more arid than the rest of the country. By the way, why not you add the landless upcountry Tamils and those impoverished through the war and prevented from a livelihood into your equation of the poor?

I think you have a wrong sense of what being “multi-ethnic” is. The Tamil people in the Western province are there on economic purpose or the exodus due to the war. Remember ’83? Most of them were sent back to Jaffna on a ship. The Tamil people won’t be against such economic migration but are against colonization that is aimed at reducing them to a minority in their places.

You mention that eastern Tamils rejected separatism as a result of it being “multi-ethnic.” Where do you think the Hon. minister Karuna is from? Again, you put down arguments without any proof – is there ethnic harmony in the East as a result of this colonization?
Do you remember what fueled the Gal-Oya riots?

What TT dreams of now, was becoming a reality in the 1940s and early fifties. Unfortunately, thoughtless politics, put an end to it in a very brutal manner, seeding the Tamil militancy and a civil war. To regain what was thoughtlessly lost will require a generation or more of sustained effort. It cannot be attained by force or by design, without endangering the process. My doubts are not about the people of Sri Lanka- Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim or other, but about the politicians we have permitted to evolve and dominate our lives. Politicians and politics need serious reform in Sri Lanka, if national unity and integration are to become a reality.

_Dr.Rajasingham Narendran-

Typing error – It should be AS

This shows how hollow the person TT is. No ASS to miss the fart from the door screech.

Won’t waste time responding to such uncultured responses. This is for the other readers in this thread.
01. No proof of poverty alleviation in those areas. Just blank statements by this TT. Eastern Province GDP per capita is only 5.3%. Check the Central Bank Statistics – 2009 for more. Why they don’t get back to where they were, is because, after their great grandparents were landed in those colonies 60 years ago, the present 3rd generation obviously has no where else to run to. Its just common sense understanding for even grade 5 scholarship candidates.

02. East was not confrontation, it was massacre by the security forces, backed by Karuna who reneged for personal reasons and privileges, as proved today. That Eastern massacre still has refugees, but the Tamil and HR lobby has always been a Jaffna lobby that leaves East for itself. The interpretation that Eastern people rejected the Tamil cause is utter bunkum. Today ruled under military, they would certainly not antagonise the MR’s militarised govt to face tragedy.

03. Colombo is not developed. Colombo accumulates wealth. Accumulating wealth and development are two totally different aspects in economics.

Those who day dream, see development in South and other areas. That can not be helped. Their shallow understanding of “development” is their baggage.

PCs don’t waste money as the wholly corrupt Colombo government does. All the numbers given are mere hear say, unchecked and bogus. Check the “Finance Committee” that recommends allocation of funds for PCs. Its only 2.8% for Council, Ministers and Staff. Chief Secretary and administration gets only 1.1%.
What ever the recurrent expenditure is, that can not be avoided, for that goes for salaries of teachers, education offices, administration, health service salaries and expenses, local govt bodies, etc., whether the PCs pays or the Colombo govt pays.

The waste is with the Colombo govt. Do you know how much of the tax monies go to sustain these Mervs, Dumindas, Pabas, Rangas, and the other stupid and dumb representatives, each month ?
Salary Rs. 54,285
Travelling Rs. 10,000
Mobile phone Rs. 2,500
Entertainment allowance Rs 1,000
Fuel allowance Rs 8.40 per km (not Colombo district)
02 fixed line phones – unlimited calls free
Parliamentary sittings Rs. 5,00 per sittings (minimum 08 per month = 4,000)
Select committee sittings Rs 5,00 if they opt to sit
Free house at Madiwela complex
Private Secretary and Asst – Rs. 35,000
Heavily subsidised food in parliament restaurant
Duty free vehicle
Cost of security provided.

Add 85 ministers and deputy ministers and their much larger budgets.

What do they do ? What is their contribution for development ? 62 years since independence, what has this country gained, spending on these corrupt politicians ? NO WONDER, they keep getting elected with majority being “TT likes” in the South.

Thank you for youtr interesting postings. Somebody said if I look in the Groundviews I am able to read many educational articles and responses to articles also, all from educated people. I am seeing some responses written by people like my own self but I am finding your response very interesting and sensitive also.

You are very right Mr TT. We must mix the populations. Too many Tamils in the north if you are asking myself. There are Sinhalese also but they are all wearing the uniform. We must have many Sinhalese there not wearing the uniform. Maybe children and wives of those wearing the uniforms. Whatever we do we must mix population. If too many Tamils together they get ideas and try to ask for more and more like the Prabhakaran did. So we must mix them with Sinhalese. Some people saying do you like Tamils in Colombo? I am saying no problem. If they are inColombo we can watch them, no? They will alwatys be surrounded by us no? No matter how we mix there will always be more of us than them no?

This is what we must do. Mix the Tamils with the Sinhalese so that we can watch them. It is for their own good. We can protect them from murderers like the Prabhakaran. We can have harmony also. Now in my area in the Kelaniya there are few Tamils and they are surrounded by Sinhalese. So we have perfect harmony. Tamils are not saying even boo. That is what we must do to the Tamils in the north also.

I am so very happy that you are thinking this is sensitive issue. Many people who are thinking like you don’t think it sensitive. They just say mix, mix don;t worry about what Tamils think just mix. But you uderstand it is very sensitive. The thing is the Tamils are such bastards they will try to do silly thing when we are trying to mix them with Sinhalese. Like throwing bomb for instance. Then we can call the uniform people no? There will be war again but who’s fault it is I am asking throwing bomb when all we are trying to do is mixing people to make harmony? And we can win that war also no? Now that we have experience and everything. Many people will die but we can always say unfortunate thing no? Just like we feel sensitive before all this happen.

Once again, thank you being so educational and sensitive.