Dear Inoka Karu,

Sometime back someone who called herself Inoka made a similar comment to yours. I suspect that the Inoka of the past is the Inoka Karu of the present.

Now let’s discuss issues that I have raised on this web page and other related issues that I have raised on GV in the past.

1. Land is a scarce resource that is essential to life.
2. The Provincial boundaries of the British were administrative boundaries that enabled them to manage revenue and was not based on the residential patterns of the locals.
3. The Kandyan Kingdom extended up to Elephant Pass during Dutch Rule of Jaffna Peninsular.
4. The East was under the Kandyan Kingdom and it never had a Tamil Kingdom
5. At the start of British Rule, Sri Lanka had a 85% forest cover.
6. Area including inland waters of Lanka is 65,610 sq km
7. Population of Lanka is 20.97 m
8. Indian origin Tamil Population 1.6 m (recent statement of an Indian origin Tamil politician)
9. Lanka Tamil population 1.4 m (recent statement of an Indian origin Tamil politician)
10. Population of N province 1,058762

If you do not agree with any one of the above statements please feel free to correct them and give your reasons.

The per capita land area in Lanka is 123.7 perch

Justifiable area of N Province 3313 Sq Km
Actual area of N Province 8884 Sq Km

I have proposed that this excess of 5571 Sq Km should be removed from the control of the Northern Province and vested in the Central government as a directly controlled central territory AFTER which unrestricted Land powers SHOULD be conferred to the Provinces.

You seem to think it is Rabble Rousing. If you had cause to say so, please justify them with reasons else you would be guilty of poison penmanship.

Why should ANY Province be allowed control of Land beyond the per capita entitlement of the population living within such a province? Should the REST of the Lankan population sacrifice their Birthright to a scarce resource, essential to life just to pamper the unjust demands of a section of the population? Is that EQUALITY? Is it not avarice or greed on the part of those who insist on an unequal share of a scarce resource?

Are you aware that an obnoxious clause exists within the 13A that confines the benefits of Centrally funded development to those within that province even though the overwhelming portion of the debt burden is carried by those outside that province? Why should this be so?

Please justify why the Central Law Enforcement should be prevented from entering any Province in uniform.

As I have stated before, I support COMPLETE devolution of power in a Just an Equitable manner and I oppose devious methods of grabbing the major part of the cake. What do you support?

I do hope Inoka that you have the honesty and integrity to justify your stand.

BTW Ms Inoka Karu, you seem to be an avid reader of GV and would have obviously read Padraig Colman’s immensely popular article that drew 213 comments. Ms Usha of the TGTE wrote profusely in that thread. Did she escape your attention? Did you agree with all what she wrote as indicated by your COMPLETE silence? Did she write the TRUTH or was she Rabble Rousing? http://groundviews.org/2013/05/28/sri-lankas-numbers-game/

Best Regards

OTC

Dear Groundviews,

Thank you.

The Right of Reply is a journalistic ethic and I am grateful to GV for upholding that ethic in the past.

Hopefully we will not see comments that are purely Ad Hominem in nature that distracts from the issues debated, in the future.

I understand that even though you try hard to prevent them, these poison pen comments do get in. When that happens a response is inevitable when the target of the poison pen, exercises his Right of Reply.

The comment made by “J Fernando” on 07/01/2013 • 7:51 pm, has no relevance to the issues raised by Dr DJ or by me in my response to DJ. It is purely an Ad Hominem. Similarly the very first comment by Dev is also a pure Ad Hominem.

However, I will respect your wishes and sacrifice my Right of Reply and refrain from responding to the latest post by “J Fernando” of 07/02/2013 • 4:26 pm which again does not discuss Indo Lanka issues raised by DJ’s article.

Thanks again

OTC

To everyone on this thread – can we please stop calling each other names, and stick to a more civil debate. If you haven’t taken the time out to carefully read the comment submission guidelines, do not expect any comments, no matter who the author is, to be published.

So anyone who disagrees with you and point out the (obvious) fact that you are nothing but a rabid racist must be a Tamil? Sorry, wrong on this one, very much a Sinhalese and a Buddhist here !

I have already mentioned that I have made counter arguments against Usha, please don’t be a parrot and repeat the same thing over and over again. As someone in another thread pointed out, you seem to have plenty of time -so seek and you will find some of my comments to Usha !

Replies from a PRACTICING Buddhist like me is a hindrance/thorn/annoyance to racist ones like you and Wirathu !

Hi JF,

Make your counter argument to the points raised (if you have the capacity to do so) you have consistently failed in that respect since you saw the light of day on GV in May 2013 on the Nimalaruben thread.

A poison pen wont address the issues but would circumvent them.
Your posts have consistently done so on every thread and you are the second Poison Pen on this thread to date.

You wrote “I think you need to take a long hard look at yourself, its not like you are writing under your own name is it? So why resort to name calling?”

Name calling? Did you mean the Poison Pen? Has anyone been named? Is it because you found the Hat a good Fit that you decided to put it on?

You could of course prop up your failing ego by using the fact that the name you write under “J Fernando” has many such Fernandos in Lanka and in the country of origin of the Fernandos and in the Latin West.

But the FACT is, you could be anyone other than “J Fernando”. In fact you could be “Dev” or Ponnambalam or Mohammed or Ganesh or Abraham or Peter etc, that HIDES your the real Ethnicity and Religion. However your inability to critique Rabid Separatists such as Usha displays a partiality and a protectionists mindset towards Tamil separatists.

Good Luck JF but we can see through your Moniker, so please dont try to pull a JK stunt on GV.

I am not sure whether you are being serious or not…”poison pen”? I think you need to take a long hard look at yourself, its not like you are writing under your own name is it? So why resort to name calling?

Singhalese like you and more importantly (I assume Buddhists like you) are the blight of the nation, since 1956 we have made many historic mistakes and ruined this nation that was triply blessed with carnage.

We should give our Tamil brothers their right to live and being magnanimous at this time is the right this, nothing promotes my beliefs (Buddhism) that that is my strong belief.
Buddhism is not spread by destroying muslim shrines, avoiding beef once a month (and then consuming it the rest of the 29/30 days), the list goes on and on.

Try to reduce/remove greed (lobha) and anger against Tamils, go and speak to some of them, they are no different to us, this will in turn will reduce your ignorance !

Dear Prof Kopan Mahadevan,

While I do agree with you about the need to build on the 13A, which I support with the removal of the objectionable sections which are inequitable and unjust.

Such as striping the control of Land over and above the equitable proportion of land entitlement of the population living within any province, by removing the excess land and creating Territories directly ruled by the Central Govt as Land is a scarce resource that is essential to support life (please see my comment to DJ 06/30/2013 • 10:10 am on this web page).

However I do find the following statement by you a Historical misrepresentation.

“We did invite India to help in 1987 and they obliged us with loss of 1000s of lives, large sums of money and even their prestige when we chased them away in 1990”

Did we invite India or did India invite herself?

Please update yourself about India’s Operation Poomalai.

Here is a primer

Quote

In late May (1987), the Indian government informed Sri Lanka that it was sending a convoy of relief supplies to the Jaffna peninsula by a ship convoy for ‘humanitarian reasons’. A flotilla of Indian boats carrying more than 1000 tonnes of supplies were turned back by the Sri Lankan Navy as they approached the territorial waters of Sri Lanka. The sending back of the Flotilla was seen as a great victory by the general populace of the Sri Lankan capital Colombo, and it was greeted with Jubilation and ‘Victory’ celebrations. It was quite clear that the Indian government was not going to take this living down. Plans were afoot for another drastic measure. It called for an aerial supply drop.

on June 3rd, 1987 at 1500 Hours, the Sri Lankan Ambassador in New Delhi was called to the Ministry of External Affairs office. There he was conveyed the message by Mr. Natwar Singh that Indian Air Force An-32s would be taking off at 1600 Hours from somewhere in India and would be dropping supplies over Jaffna. The ambassador was told that the aircraft were expected to complete their mission unhindered and any opposition by the Sri Lankan Air Force ‘would be met by force’ by the escorting Mirage 2000s. The warning was unnecessary – The Sri Lankan Air Force hardly constituted a ‘threat’ to the IAF. It had a handful of Turbo prop Siai-Marchetti SF260 and Argentinean FMA Pucara Twin Turboprop counter insurgency aircraft. They would be no match for the digital deltas in a fight. The only opposition if any, would be that of ground fire from the Sri Lankan troops.

About the same time, the aircrew at Bangalore were making their final checks on the An-32s. There were a large number of domestic and International journalists who were at the airport covering the mission. It was decided let them fly in the An-32s to cover the flight. A group of 35 were finally chosen and all of them embarked the powered up An-32s in teams of seven each. At 15.55 hours, the first An-32 took to the air piloted by Gp Capt Sunder and Flt Lt SR Swarup as the co-pilot. It would be a round trip of 900 km awaited them to Jaffna and back.

Designated as ‘Eagle-Mission-4’, the An-32s formated and climbed upto 12000 feet altitude. As they crossed the Coramandal coast at around 1645, they were met by four Mirage 2000s led by Bhavnani who had taken off about the same time as the An-32s. The Mirages were carrying three drop tanks and two Matra Magic II Air to Air Missiles, just in case the Sri Lankan Air Force made an appearance. As it turned out later, they were not needed.
Unquote

Prior to that India trained and armed Sri Lankan Terrorists on Indian Soil to kill Sri Lankan Civilians and to carry out Bombings and Massacres against them.

You see Prof, Russia leaning India did not give us anything in 1987 other than Terrorism designed to destabilise a West leaning SL govt that had the potential of threatening India’s position in the region, if the USA established itself in the former main base and shore headquarters of Eastern Fleet of the British Royal Navy at Trincomalee which by the way is perhaps the 5th largest deep water Natural Harbour in the world. Global Security has this to say

Quote
Trincomalee Harbor is home to major Sri Lankan naval bases and a Sri Lankan Air Force base. Trincomalee Harbor – a natural deep-water harbor – is at least the fifth largest natural harbor in the world. Some say it is the second best natural harbor in the world [next to Sydney]. The available water and land area is about 10 times as much as the Port of Colombo. The Bay of Trincomalee’s harbor is renowned for its large size and security; unlike every other in the Indian Sea, it is accessible to all types of craft in all weathers.
unquote

The military significance is not insignificant. India is not known to be magnanimous in that respect.

As a supporter of some of the principles of power devolution within the 13A, I do not see a logical argument for the unequal distribution of scarce resources between provinces thus creating a fundamental inequality.

Is not Land in most Provinces and especially within the North and Eastern Provinces uninhabited?

Should control of Land disproportionate to the inhabitants within any Province be allowed to a province if JUSTICE and EQUALITY is the objective?

Is there anything in the 13A that prohibits the creation of another territory directly under the Central State that can rectify the above inequality? India has 7 such Union States. Malasia, USA etc has similar Federal States.

Should the Central Police force be restricted in performing their duties in uniform within a province?

If all Provinces refuse to entertain the Central Police Force within their jurisdictions in uniform what is the position regarding law enforcement? Can one criminal of one Province find refuge within another?

You wrote “Just how these silly Sinhala Sun Tzus who are willing to fight the Indians down to the last Sinhala peasant lad in uniform, plan to secure supplies (especially fuel and ammunition) for an island, which in a worst case R2P scenario can be easily cordoned off by the powerful neighbouring navy and subject to a no-fly zone by its air force, beats me”

True, but what will the effect of such a scenario be on the very people who are to be protected given that these people are distributed all over the Island?

Note:- I hope that the poison pens that has responded to DJ, will instead, bring forth logical counter arguments.

“I think, to the contrary, that a Tamil Nadu and Diaspora-backed Tamil nationalism and a restive Northern Provincial Council cannot be contained by the Sri Lankan state other than through co-management and politico-diplomatic quasi-partnership with Delhi.”