Tamils were celebrating dead Suicide bombers on maaverrar day until LTTE was wiped out on May 2009.

Ruki, is Jealous that out war heroes annihilated Ruki’s war heroes.

Grow up.

some such cases proved to be that husband was hiding from the wife to see another woman. Two most recent two tamils were killed by tamils themselves, in once case wife gave a contract to get the sinhala lover, in the other case, A former LTTE cadre killed the man to get his Rs 2 million money.

There is no end to this Tamil tribalism – melodrama.

My point is, if the Catholic Church, which is essentially a non-elected group of old men can make decisions that effect more than a billion people, why cannot the Sri Lankan government, which is elected into a power by a majority of the Sri Lankan electorate make its own decisions that affect its own citizens???

Dear Dhara,

You wrote “The numerical equations sound quite out of place in what is for me basically a moral and ethical argument about people’s right to govern themselves in the way they feel is best (not about people “owning such and such square feet of land!!!!).”

Are you really that naïve?
There is no argument about a peoples right to govern themselves.
I am for devolving power.

The argument is about how much power and the area where that power is going to be exercised.

Since you obtusely claim to have superior logic you should have some idea of the extent of power and the boundaries of the area within which that power becomes enforceable.

Is it cunning that keeps you from discussing the extent of Lanka that your “self proclaimed moderate group” wants to be governed by the Tamils of the North, a population of less than 2 million out of a total population of 21 million?

Is it your “Moderate Plan” to campaign to govern 45% of Lanka by less than 10% of the population?

Is it your “Moderate Plan” to exclude the million Indian Tamils living outside the Northern and Eastern Provinces from that governance?

Is it your “Moderate Plan” to limit the rights of 90% of the population (including the Indian origin Tamils) to 55% of Lanka?

Of course You say Land is unimportant.

I defer to your “Superior Logic” but I am wondering how that “Superior Logic” can justify allocating 45% of a vital resource to less than 10% of the population and asking the balance 90% of the population (which includes a near million Tamils) to be satisfied with a 55% allocation of the same resource.

I suppose you “moderates” view it as being Equal and Equitable.

Could you and your Superior Moderates, enlighten us inferior mortals the logic by which you justify such a division of a vital resource?

You wrote “O well, you do “sound” like a man, …. “

Nice touch of humour Dhara but I am hesitant to address you by an appropriate title as sometimes you “sound” like a female and at other times like a male.

Dear Mr Cuff,

Your persistence at least is admirable, even though your logic may not be : ). The numerical equations sound quite out of place in what is for me basically a moral and ethical argument about people’s right to govern themselves in the way they feel is best (not about people “owning such and such square feet of land!!!!). I have nowhere said that power sharing should be along ethnic lines, nor have I said land is a non-issue. But ethnicity has had a bearing on distribution of resources in the past in our country, and this is researched and documented. And, for me it’s not a question of land alone, but a question of people’s power over public resources that are justly theirs.

I don’t quite understand either why you are getting so aggressive about my mention of resources. For me resources mean everything from schooling, to medical care, to social welfare etc etc which are NOT equitably distributed, and along many lines, not just “ethnic” ones. And of course there are many many other resources, (some more prioritized than others, and some more prioritized for certain groups over others) I can’t talk about all of that here!, and some, I am a little hesitant to mention!

My Proposal, Mr Cuff, does not matter. What matters is what the people in the country want, including the people in the North and East, whatever their “ethnicity”. Have you bothered to ask?

If at all Mr Cuff, my proposal is free speech, non-violence, democracy, and people’s participation in decisions that affect their lives, and people’s participation in constitution-making. Now, is that a problem?

O well, you do “sound” like a man, but of course, you could be a woman, never can say …… I am a strong opponent of biological determinism ; )
Goodbye Mr Cuff

Dhara,

Your writings are contradictory

You said “You have the far more substantive and reasonable demands of a moderate polity to deal with. And this moderate group,…. are asking for power sharing AND equitable distribution of wealth and resources, “ Emphasis mine.

Based on the above, I asked you how you propose to share the most important resource (a scarce one) equitably.

I also provided you with the data of Publicly owned Land that is available for sharing.

Now you are ducking the question by making the following statement.

You say “I am absolutely not trying to claim land on “ethnic” grounds, so your argument there is quite redundant”

I have not made any argument one way or the other, so how can you make a non existing argument redundant?

You were given the data and asked for Your proposals in sharing it equitably.
Is your moderate group not equal to the task?
Is it possible that Dhara, as a member of this self proclaimed moderate group, is out of tune with the groups collective thinking?

The unit of devolution revolves around Land and if Land is a non issue, would you agree to a proportional allocation of PUBLIC land to each province on the basis of the ratio of population within that province to that of the total population in Lanka? Please note that there are no Ethnic lines here.

Expressed mathematically it is as follows

Area of a province = C + (P x 55110/21000000 ) sq km

where
Provincial population = P
Private Land in the specific province = C sq km

Total Population 21 million. Publicly owned Land Area in Lanka is 55110 sq km

What exactly are the other resources that your group had in mind when you made the following statement? Please name them so that all of us will know unambiguously, what wealth and resources you referred to in the following statement “…..AND equitable distribution of wealth and resources, “

We all make assumptions Dhara and in my case they are based on what people write as I do not have any other way of “knowing them”. I note that you have assumed that I am a man. For now I will ignore the rest of your comments in order to focus on your statement with which I commenced this post.

Off the Cuff, I would be the last person to whitewash the LTTE, and clearly they horrendously misused civilians during the war, and yes, I do oppose their carnage, in forums where this is necessary (and fearfully, there are many such forums!). But in your case, I don’t need to do this do I, because it stands opposed : ) But that does not excuse State excesses, now does it? And there is evidence for that now, more than we need.

All parties in war violate human rights. When a State that has been voted in by a constituency commit violations however, it’s far more serious. Pardon my simplicity, but my point is that violence is morally, ethically, wrong, and creates a cycle of destruction, it’s as simple as that. And violence is perpetrated more in the name of power, rather than justice, always. And if we are to forge forward with genuine reconciliation, then we have to acknowledge the excesses of both sides, not try to whitewash one or the other.

I am absolutely not trying to claim land on “ethnic” grounds, so your argument there is quite redundant. When I said assumptions, I meant all these “arguments” you articulate out of the wind that clearly show how you are “typifying” me, and your “assumption” that I am “Tamil” : ). Justice has no ethnic boundaries Mr “Cuff”, and I am in no way a Eelamist defender. That’s why i said you have far more complex issues to deal with than being the “good savior” attaching the bad.

Dear Prof Kopan Mahadeva,

To you Sri Lanka is Eelam to us who call this land our Mother land it is Sri Lanka. Your decision to name Sri Lanka as Eelam gives away your true intent. Sri Lanka has many other names Taprobane, Ceylan, Ceylon, Serendib are some. But she has only one official name and that is Sri Lanka which you have rejected. Having done so you are now claiming “And I did deliberately choose that title to dispel the psychological hatred that people like you have, to the word EELAM” . That is one of the lamest excuses that I have ever read. The word Eelam is synonymous with the separatists and the LTTE. It may please the separatist lobby but not Sri Lankans who loves their Land of Birth.

I refer you back to your first post on this page
http://groundviews.org/2012/05/19/three-years-after-the-war-in-sri-lanka-to-celebrate-or-mourn/#comment-44571

You posted that in Capitals which is the equivalent of shouting.
I questioned you based on your post. You sidestepped the questions and instead of providing answers you questioned my identity.

You said “Yet, I for one would have taken your comments and viewpoints much more seriously had you ripped out your face mask and revealed your true identity. Please, can you do that at least now, to be fair?”
http://groundviews.org/2012/05/19/three-years-after-the-war-in-sri-lanka-to-celebrate-or-mourn/#comment-44764

I provided what you asked for, believing that you would have the decency to keep your word.

When you found out the depth of my questioning you broke your promise without any shame.

You said “but I don’t wish to participate in this series any more because, we are drifting far away from Ruki’s article and Vikalpa’s photograph describing how the third anniversary of the end of the civil war in 2009 was remembered in the northern part of Lanka.”
http://groundviews.org/2012/05/19/three-years-after-the-war-in-sri-lanka-to-celebrate-or-mourn/#comment-44791

We come to GV to express our views, to understand opposing views and to prevent GV being used as a platform to disseminate separatist propaganda. If one is not prepared to defend what one writes it is either because what is written is indefensible or because the intent is propaganda.

The lack of any intent at honest discussion was underlined when you had the effrontery to ask me to write a book before you decide to comment.

This dishonesty and your refusal to justify your own comments makes it clear that your initial comment, posted in Caps was intended to stir the pot.

In view if your dishonesty I don’t believe I owe you any explanation.

I do hope you have the strength of character, to standby and defend whatever you write, on GV.

Have a nice day Prof.

Dhara,

What are the assumptions that you elude to by the following “assumptions in your post addressed to me is quite amusing” ?

You say “Opposing the carnage of innocent civilians nowhere means supporting Eelamist separate state politics

Yes that would be true if you opposed the carnage of Tamils by the Tamil LTTE terrorists who were funded by the Tamil diaspora. However the word carnage is misleading since if the govt considered a carnage in order to defeat the Terrorist LTTE, the war would have been over in a week instead of years. Of course there were civilian casualties due to the civilians being used as a Human Shield and being used to man the war front. Fighting in civilian clothes was an LTTE ploy and there are videos of that in the public domain. The Puthukudirippu hospital did not have a single casualty or corpse of the LTTE. All that we saw in the CH4 video were Civilians and that was the only hospital available to the LTTE in the war front. How do you explain that fact? The LTTE did not get wounded or Killed? Criticism must be fair. Being partisan is being an apologist.

You say “You have the far more substantive and reasonable demands of a moderate polity to deal with. And this moderate group, comprising Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims, are asking for power sharing AND equitable distribution of wealth and resources, “

I am for devolution but equitable devolution.
You seem to qualify reasonable demands without quantifying them.
Vagueness have been the hallmark of Tamil arguments
So why don’t you quantify them?

Let’s start with the scarce resource of Land. The following is the relevant data.

84% of Lanka’s Land is owned by the PUBLIC. Therefore, it has no ethnic owner.
Area of Sri Lanka is 65610 sq km.
Public Land (owned by Govt) 84% which is 55,110 sq km
29,760 sq km (54%) of this Public land is in the Northern and Eastern Provinces.
This is over 45% of Lanka’s land mass and I have not included the privately owned land in those provinces!

The other 7 provinces collectively contains the balance 25,350 sq km.

Let’s see how you propose to share the Life blood of an agricultural society.