by Dayan Jayatilleka
It is truly a pity that the Sri Lankan media did not feature the photographs of the demonstrations by sections of the Tamil Diaspora staged over the week of May 12-19 in variety of western capitals, as protest and in mourning for the final week of the war which was also the last week of Mr Prabhakaran’s destructive life.
Rally on May 18, 2011 in Paris ~ pic courtesy: TamilWin
I saw the demonstration in Paris and the subsequent gathering in the Trocadero which was at a vantage point in line with the Eiffel Tower.
A few phone calls that came in told me that the demonstrations in New York, London, Geneva and Toronto were the same, and that Paris was no anomaly.
The demonstrations were revelatory, and only those who do not wish to see, for whatever reason, can doubt the visual evidence.
The most visible flag, and the only one apart from black flags and the standard of the host country or continent (e.g. the EU), was that of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), with its roaring Tiger, 33 bullets and crossed rifles with bayonets affixed.
That was the only political flag; the only known, recognisable flag of political or organisational identity.
A half truck bearing a man dressed or rather, partially dressed/undressed, as the late Mr Prabhakaran was part of the parade.
In London, May 18, 2011
In London, there were red and yellow flags, but the most manifest was the Tiger standard borne by the ranks of demonstrators. One Tiger flag had even been hoisted on a high corner of the National Gallery which faces Trafalgar Square.
Those who claim that the Tiger flag is “the Tamil national flag” (and that Prabhakaran is ‘the national leader of the Tamils’) do the Tamil community a profound disservice by identifying that ethnic collective with a banner of a terrorist, secessionist and fascistic movement that assassinated, among others, Nehru’s grandson with a suicide bomber at an election rally.
That is of course if the claim is spurious. If not, matters are even worse.
The photos from New York show the Tiger flags waving among placards which read ‘Libya and Ivory Coast Today; Why Not Sri Lanka tomorrow?’
For the Sri Lankan state and the majority of its citizens, matters should be as clear as they were to me last week in Europe. The game is beginning to turn zero-sum, once again.
I could have well understood had the date for mourning the dead and protesting the Tamil situation had been July 23rd or 29th which would have marked the anti-Tamil violence of July ‘83. May 18-19 marks the end of a war that tormented the majority of citizenry. Those who mourn pick May 18-19 over July 23-29, because what they mourn above all is the defeat in the war, the destruction of the Tiger armed forces and the death of Velupillai Prabhakaran.
I could well have understood if the banners had been those of the Tamil National Alliance, the TNA, the major parliamentary party of the Tamils of the North, or of a coalition of Tamil political parties. The sheer ubiquity and monopoly of the Tiger flag however, shows us where these protestors are coming from and what their aims and ambitions are.
In some countries, the demonstrations were organised by the TGTE, the so-called Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam. In Paris it was by the Tamil Coordinating Committee (TCC) but brought together all LTTE factions. In London the organisers were the British Tamil Forum (BTF), whose Mr Suren Surendiran has been getting around quite a bit lately, even to important addresses across the Atlantic.
Doesn’t the clear dominance of the Tiger flag show us that the TGTE and BTF are increasingly serving as front organizations for and fellow travellers of the Tigers?
The pictures of politicians of various parties in some countries addressing the Tiger flag waving demonstrators reveal that there are political elements in some Western democracies who are either in sympathy with or do not care about the character of the Tigers.
They may not. But we Sri Lankans must. Some or even most in the West may turn a Nelsonian eye to the real identity and character of the phenomenon. We Sri Lankans cannot afford to.
This is not a movement of a marginalised minority seeking justice and autonomy. This is the same old fascist separatist enemy we have faced and fought for decades: the Tigers. This is the same terrorist movement and its supporters, sympathisers and fellow travellers, who waged a shooting war against us and lost.
They are now waging a Cold War against us, for the same old objectives, but with new allies or allies who, with the Darusman panel Report, are coming out of the closet. Their model is evident from their slogans last week: Libya and the Ivory Coast; meaning foreign military intervention by countries in which they form influential communities.
There has been no abandonment of aims, only a tactical suspension of methods or their abandonment due to inability. There has been no self-criticism. There has been no rejection by the Tamil Diaspora market, of the Tiger brand.
The Trafalgar Square stage had, amidst the surrounding LTTE flags, a mock up of a prison cell with a life-size effigy of President Mahinda Rajapaksa behind bars, labelled ‘War Criminal’, while a young lady dressed in black read from the Darusman panel Report. The Report serves as a loaded weapon handed to the pro-Tiger Tamil Diaspora. It also serves as an ‘enabler’; a passport and password to access many political and governmental circles mainly but not exclusively in the West.
If the Tigers are on that side, I must and shall stay on this side.
So long as – and precisely because— the anti-Sri Lankan demonstrators outside the country support the Tigers, the vast majority of Sri Lankan citizens within the country must, will, and do support the State; their State.
Standing firm is however, not good enough— and ideological regression is not good at all. We have to get it right. This Cold War cannot be won by ‘hard power’ but by that which Prof Joe Nye (perhaps unwittingly dumbing down and popularising Antonio Gramsci’s conception of hegemony) famously called ‘smart power’, i.e. the combination of soft power and hard power.
No country and no leadership provides a more complete lesson-a textbook example one may say-of the fusion of Realism and Reason in successfully responding to multiple, deadly external threats than post-revolutionary Russia under Lenin.
Lenin was characteristically lucid about what was to be done: to preserve, defend and consolidate the hard won gains, the victory of the revolution. Having departed from the classic progression and used the opening provided by the First World War to make a successful leap for power, going against the textbook wisdom of the traditional European Left, he was no less clear that to consolidate the historic victory in the face of a hostile external environment, compromises and concessions were necessary, and a step had to be taken backward if needed, to take two steps forward.
Having fought off the interventionist armies of over a dozen imperialist nations and fought and won a bloody Civil war, Lenin recognised by 1920 that the international balance of forces was unfavourable and would remain so for a period. He reversed course in terms of the radical programme of the Revolution and pushed through the New Economic Policy (NEP), seen by the far left as nothing less than a betrayal of the Revolution and a restoration of capitalism. He knew that after WW I and the Civil War, yet another violent conflict would ruin Russia’s economy and place at risk, the gains of the revolutionary victory.
The extensive compromises that Lenin made in 1920-1923 – both internal and external- were precisely to defend and preserve the essential thing and therefore to win for the Russian revolution, the time and space to consolidate its historic politico-military victory in an unpropitious international context over which it had no control.
Lenin was fond of saying that “nothing is more radical than Reality”. He never let false consciousness or old traditions and habits of thinking, blind or blinker him by obscuring the challenge of existing, emerging Reality. And he never lacked the audacity for reform; the clarity and courage for course correction and change.
How about us?
hello dyan,
thank you for your concern about tiger flag?
and tell me dyan what is wrong with tiger flag?
since tigers have renounced violence and want to practice democracy.
why don’t you tell your masters gotha and mahinda that your flag is stained with tamils blood1!
if you want to have a flag drenched with tamils blood,why can’t the tamils have the “tiger flag”.
i know where you are coming from, you know very well tamils are going to have
a settlement soon and tamils are going to have the flag with the roaring tiger.you don’t like that.do you?
tiger is the tamils symbol for donkeys of years like the dreadful provocative
lion with an offensive weapon in it’s hand for the sinhalese!
if the sinhalese can have that offensive flag why can’t the tamils have the tiger flag?
how about protesting to the French government about LTTE activities in that country..isn’t that what you are there for with tax payers money?
Dear Dayan,
The only flag the tamils know is the Tiger Flag. A majority of tamils believe LTTE as a liberation army and not terrorist outfit. The means adopted by the LTTE icluding spilling innocent blood in the streets, are justified as part of the liberation struggle. The tamils continue to believe in this sad part of our nation’s history and hence, continue under the shadows of the tiger flag.
It shows what Dayan Jayatilake wants to see in a crowd.
How did not he analyze the UN Expert Panel Report line by line.
Be loyal to one. Leave Lenin alone.
People do not support the state because it is not their state. It belongs to Rajapakse and Co and their hirelings. People are suppressed, locked up, abducted, and murdered. The country is being looted by this obnoxious clan. The military and police is being used to suppress the rights of the people. So its useless talking about flags when there is nothing to flag about.
It is amusing to read Dayan Jayatilleka using his over-exhausted phrase of “Nelsonian eye”, while describing an event that was held in Trafalgar Square where the legendary Admiral stands tall on top of a 185 feet column. Lord Nelson was indeed looking down (with his one eye), perhaps not out of choice, the entire Mullivaikal Remembrance event in appropriate silence.
If there ever was an unintended pun.
However, what Dayan is intentionally seeking in his article, is a perverted meaning for the symbolic-blindfold that covers the eyes of LADY JUSTICE.
Try as he may disparately, it is going to be hard to pull the wool over the eyes of the international community, the civil society and those of the Diaspora Tamils, let alone Lady Justice, about the 40,000 civilian death, caused by the state he represents.
Get a grip Jayatilleka, Lady-Luck is turning a blind eye to your state now.
To this add Taml terrorist’s flag in Canada and Australia. It is impotant to note in melbourne Australia tamil terrorist flag was in the May Day rally in melbourne with the JVP flags.
Hi Dayan when Lenin was doing what you stated Mondas Karamchand was organising ways and means of maintaining and the future of the Indian Empire.
To that end, he was instrumental in organising the Jaffna Youth Congress the roots of left politics in Ceylon. Karamchand with Nehru and Bose formed the “Third Eye” the most rutheless and secretive intelligence service in the world today.
Third Eye is behind the Tamil terrorism a and other problems in the dominions of the former British Empire now the Indian Empire.
Parabakaran (deceased) is a puppet of the Third Eye.
Dayan should know very well that the Tigers were banned at a certain point in time by the West for political reasons to further their geopolitical interests; despite knowing that no harm will come to their indigenous populations from the LTTE. So for these govts the Tiger flag is a trivial matter, unless they want to lick SL asses.
As for the Tamils, more than anything else, the flag is their National identity that is denied by the chauvinist Sinhala regimes. If it is denied exposure in the West, Tamils will consider freedom not only denied in SL but also in the whole world! In a roundabout way Dayan has at last come to realise that even though the armed conflict is over, the ideological war is being fiercely waged in all fronts for self-determination and devolution; and if denied separation.
A course correction is no doubt needed. Take a cue from the West; allow the Tiger flag in SL for a start! Now that will be courageous and do a lot more on reconciliation than what LLRC can achieve!
Dr J, very stimulating article, but you have left us in suspense. You mention that compromises and concessions are necessary. What are some of these ‘compromises and concessions’?
You also talk about ‘clarity and courage for course correction and change’.What kind of course correction and change are you referring to or implying? Please be kind enough to ellaborate.
Thanks.
Dayan dear chap,
Your title of the article reminds me of a Tamil proverb about the wolf weeping for the sheep in the rain.
You express your bemusement about the choice of the date for remembrance of Genocide of Tamils. As you correctly pointed it could have been July 23rd; indeed, it used to be. In fact through out the post-independence history, Tamils have observed remembrance of their Genocide in various dates:
June 11th To remember the 1956 riots with the death of 150
June 1st To remember the 1958 riots with the death of 300
August 12th To remember the 1977 riots with the death of 400
May 31st To remember the burning of Jaffna Library with the loss of 97,000 books
July 23rd To remember the 1983 riots with the death of 3000
Now it is
May 18th To remember Mulivaaikaal Massacre with the death of 40,000 people.
You see, throughout the history, it is the exponential increment of death and destruction, caused by the Sri Lankan state, that has determined the dates of remembrance of the Genocide of Tamils.
The orgy of killing reached its latest crescendo in Mulivaaikaal on the 18th of May. The destruction of armed resistance against the state oppression is incidental and not the determinant of the date.
Dayan dear boy, Not that you don’t know any of the above facts; just wanted to enlighten you from your pretentious perplexity, so that you couldn’t plea ignorance in the future.
I am a Tamil and I cannot accept LTTE terrorists’ Flag as TAMIL FLAG! With an animal and a CARTRIDGE “Maalai” has nothing to do with the Tamils of Sri lanka! LTTE dollar collectors can use it to “terrorize” the Tamils but now it is obsolete.
LTTE cannot represent the Tamils anymore!
Thanks Dayan for your right thinking!
just shutup chelliah.Once a terrorist always a terrorist….Ltte has not only killed sinhalese but also innocent tamil civilians.It’s quite strange that people do not remeber this…So called Tamil protecters my foot….
Actually Sandra, that’s why I am there at the invitation of the Sri Lankan leadership, having given up a 10,000 dollar a month salary from the National University of Singapore…which wasn’t from the Sri Lankan taxpayers money!
) However, as a student and teacher of political science, I am acutely aware, unlike you , of the legal and Constitutional framework and ethos of France, which I respect!
The Tiger flag is the flag of the LTTE, therefore the protest is given overtones (at best) of being an LTTE protest, therefore losing legitimacy.
I 100% agree with Dayan J. Carrying the flag of GUNS AND BULLETS in so-called peaceful non-violent demonstrations is utter nadness. Maybe the LTTE must confine this flag to the battle fields.
Not a single nation in this world displays a single gun or a bullet in its national flag.
The Sri lankan national flag also displays an intimidating sword – this sword must be ditched as well.
Dayan,
Interesting as it goes. But the fact remains otherways. I think you are trying to beat a dead donkey.
With the ‘Terroist’ Tag, the LTTE could not prevented what has happened to it.
And with a ‘War Crime’ tag the Sri Lankan state can not prevent about the former’s supportes activitities that you are talking about.
My observation is that the Tamil diaspora themselves are Sri Lankans too just like you and me and they want to return and contribute to their country’s betterment ONLY if they are free to do so.
With the suspension of Dual Nationality system targeting them and forcing them to obtain pass to visit their birth places will force them to come out in support against the state.
Instead just put yourself in their shoes and think that just like you and me, they must have a feeling for their birth place call Sri Lanka. Because no one in this world want to feel ‘destitude’
Yes one or two Tiger flags may be there but most of them were mouring for the dead of their relatives perished in Wanni war which has now been confirmed by the world body called UN.
Correct me if I am wrong.
Good point.
He can’t do that but writing here like a ‘paper tiger’ and in the Sunday Leader with his venemous comments about the most of those who were mouring for their dead relatives. A fact now confirmed by the UN
This kind of ‘burn the house with all the occupants just to destroy some rats’ attitude earns the fire of the world against Sri Lanka.
These kind of advisors for the state are destroying my country.
Dayan,
Interesting as it goes. But the fact remains otherways. I think you are trying to beat a dead donkey.
With the ‘Terroist’ Tag, the LTTE could not prevented what has happened to it.
And with a ‘War Crime’ tag the Sri Lankan state can not prevent about the former’s supportes activitities that you are talking about.
My observation is that the Tamil diaspora themselves are Sri Lankans too just like you and me and they want to return and contribute to their country’s betterment ONLY if they are free to do so.
With the suspension of Dual Nationality system targeting them and forcing them to obtain pass to visit their birth places will force them to come out in support against the state.
Instead just put yourself in their shoes and think that just like you and me, they must have a feeling for their birth place call Sri Lanka. Because no one in this world want to feel ‘destitude’
Yes one or two Tiger flags may be there but most of them were mouring for the dead of their relatives perished in Wanni war which has now been confirmed by the world body called UN.
Correct me if I am wrong.
hello sandra,
why don’t you go to france and protest whatever you think
is need to be protested!
after all france practices democracy unlike your country!
if you want a ticket and expenses to be paid pls why don’t you
apply to our transnational govt.
they may consider your request if it’s genuine and democratic.
good luck with your mission!
Dayan,
Do you want Tamils to protest waving flags with Sinhala Srilankan Lion with a bloody toungh pointing a sword to words north ????? Is that your/your wish??? Why not joint the protest with your counter part in London to protest aganst the Names of Restraunts in the world capitals? Or joins the Monks t0 do paradiam shifts of Buddhism
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRFTHof7E-M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jbvkht2W2JY&feature=related
“Those who claim that the Tiger flag is “the Tamil national flag” (and that Prabhakaran is ‘the national leader of the Tamils’) do the Tamil community a profound disservice by identifying that ethnic collective with a banner of a terrorist, secessionist and fascistic movement that assassinated, among others, Nehru’s grandson with a suicide bomber at an election rally” y Dayan Are you eroseing Indian’s emotions in a cordinated way with KP coached by Gotabaya???
IN the same vain Why are you still associated and defending Rajapaksha the war criminal and criminal against humanity who still keeps on carrying out Stte terrorism against its Civilians???
As you say it is moving to a Zero sum why are you shivering in this article??
.
Oh..Oh… Dayan….. was it a slip of your tongue!
Did you say, if no Tiger flag, you’ll be on the other side!!!!
Soon you have to go back to Singapore (by the way did you pay your taxes?).
Once again Tamils are fooled by the tigers. The organisers have allowed the tiger remnants to piggy back onthe Tamils.Tigers are causing great disservice to the Tamils by embarassing the host countries. The just and fair demand of the Tamils will be tainted by the flags shown in the demonstrations.
DON’T CALL IT RIOTS!!!RIOTS IS CONFLICT BETWEEN TWO COMMUNITIES..DO YOU REMEMBER ANY TAMILS HITTING SINHALESE BACK DURING THESE SO CALLED “RIOTS”???NO,TAMILS WERE VICTIMS..THIS IS GENOCIDE MATE..WHEN ONE COMMUNITY IS HELPLESS AND WHEN ANOTHER KILLS THEM IN MASSES IT IS CALLED GENOCIDE.. REMEMBER 1983,WHEN SINHALESE WERE GIVEN TAMILS HOUSE ADDRESS BY MUNICIPAL COUNCIL???THIS IS SYSTEMATIC GENOCIDE..SAD TAMILS NEVER REALISE IT..
DAYAN WE TAMILS TOO KNOW AND RESPECT LEGAL CONSTITUTIONAL frame work and Ethos of France…IF NOT WE WON’T WE WON’T BE SO SUCCESSFUL HERE!
We youngsters are becoming more aware of laws and manipulating them than you “diplomats”..
Hey Siva Matchan,
I am a Sinhala and can’t accepts that so called educated doctors like Dayan and uneducated doctors like Mervin advises our state.
I wonder if this Doctor Dayan is going to write in proud about the planned protest by that Doctor Mervin de Silva with the so called Lion Flag in Italy which had to be hurriedly abandoned due to him and his followers there coming under authorities radar when some interested parties notified about his suicide cadres being trained announcement.
Sick state and its sick advisers who will not stop until Sri Lanka becomes another Somalia.
Dayan, you need to do a real soul searching analysis about your own motive. The birth of the tigers was the making of your governments since 1948. All your politicians had a parochial vision, they did not need any blinkers, as the blinkers and parochial vision was provided and guided from Mahavamsa mythical contribution. Tamils had been silent for too long, their politicians too had failed to see the Sinhala duplicitous agenda from 1920′s. Sinhala chauvinism started from 1950′s, it is still being kindled and kept alive by people like you. Yes Tigers lost the war not due to your military acumen, but the duplicity you played, by taking advantage of George Bush’s “war on Terror”. It was 20 odd counties who intervened into ‘internal quarrel’ as you built a mountain out of a mole hill about the whole events since 1983. Being a state you had the funds and capability to mesmerise the global citizens that you were fighting a huge demon . when they question you it becomes an internal problem and you don’t want any to intervene. So; what was the rationale when you shout at UN and international community, when they point out your war crimes and crime against humanity, is that they are meddling in your internal affairs? You have deceived many countries covering your felony since 1956 -2009 and blaming all your sins on Tigers is isn’t that so? You very well know that many atrocities were carried out by ‘army intelligence unit’, even killing your own people and conveniently blamed the tigers for it. Tigers fault was ‘non denial’ of these acts which they did not commit thereby they brought discredit for themselves. Now all that is in the past, war has ended, there is no aerial bombing , no road side bombs, and still no peace dividend for the Tamils because of unnecessary harassment by the occupying army. If the Sinhala chauvinist stop their rhetoric and treat the Tamils as equal citizens there would be peace, and no tiger flags in the west. You are annoyed by the ‘roaring Tiger with halo of bullets’, possibly, that is the modern version of the ‘Emotionless lion with the sword’. I feel both flags need to be disbanded and Sinhala chauvinism has to end.
Dayan, First of all, Dayan should realise, if his senses are intact, that the phenomenon of armed resistance of the LTTE is the product of Sinhala state repression and violence. In other words the LTTE is the creation of Sinhala chauvinist oppression against the Tamils. Having taken birth from the conditions of state oppression, the LTTE is fighting against the state repressive apparatus to win the political rights of the Tamils. Self determination, the freedom of a nation of people to decide their own political destiny, is one of those rights. The LTTE has waged an armed struggle to realise this right. Since the Sinhala state has effectively repressed all forms of non-violent struggles undertaken within the confines of constitutional and democratic politicsin Srilanka the Tamils had no alternative other than to defend themselves what ever ,where ever left us them to win their freedom.If it means to carry flags with guns in it as long as Srilanka/Sinhala does not give them the space to articulate their grievences.
what DJ means by compromises and concessions are crums and bones for stuages like Gouglas and Karunas ans KPS not meat for Taamils.
Dayan “the legal and Constitutional framework and ethos of France, which I respect!”
But You don’t respect Human rights of Tamils and other Minorities in The island of Srilanka.
Dayan,
Why don’t you also write about the disservices to the Sinhala community by Rajapakse brothers and Wimal Weerawanse by his fasting in front of UN office and not to mention Dr Mervin Silva who become world famous by deeds and words.
Before you care about the Tamil Community you should write about yours and I know you won’t as you will lose your job.
Dilan try to know the facts before you put your pen to paper. Srilanka is “state terrorists”, so it is like ‘kettle calling pot black’. In 1971 and in 1988,89 sinhala youths were killed in thousands by sinhala state, but did not carry out aerial bombing or multi barrel rockets launched into sinhala villages and towns. But; Since 1977, aerial bombing and shelling into Tamil villages and towns went on till 2009. Tamil political prisoners were butchered by the guards and inmates in welikada jail 1983. many innocent youths just because they were born into Tamil families rounded up tortured and still langushing in jails without being charged. Is, This not state terrorism? some incidence in the south was carried out by army intelligence unit to keep on discrediting LTTE. Be careful, even your foot want be protected by your state.
Dayan Jayatilleka, as a student and teacher of political science, why don’t you fight against corrupt? Surely your understanding and appreciation of the political cultures around the world verifies that Sri Lanka is becoming a dictatorship? With your intellect you probably can also see that minorities have been abused in your native land. Regardless you will not do the right thing because at the end of the day you are an ardent Sinhalese nationalist.
The usage of the LTTE flag is wrong but so is your kowtowing to Rajapaksa. The Sinhalese masses love Rajapaksa now but give it another 10 years and we’ll see if your expertise in political science has failed you. The Tamils have already paid for supporting a dictator, it seems the Sinhalese haven’t seen the light yet.
Who cares if it’s a Tiger flag? Anyone can wave any flag in the UK, with the exception, in certain parts, of the Nazi flag. It’s great to know that Ambassador Jayatilleke could do absolutely nothing, but stand aside and respect the right of the ordinary man to protest . The UK is not Mahinda’s dictatorship, or Lenin’s failed dictatorship, the UK is a 21st century MODERN democracy. I do not necessarily endorse the views of the Tigers, but I respect the right of individuals to support them, whether in public or private.
Dr.Dayan Jayatilake,
We have realised that what 1000 bullets can do can be done with a click of a mouse. It is the objective of the exercise that matters. Prabaharan was good with guns, but now we have thousands of Tamil kids good with the key boards.
Look Brother, we are much stronger now than ever before. You should have been here in Toronto during the elections, we flexed our political muscle and Liberals were dumb founded.One person speaking in the parliament is better than 10,000 shouting on the streets. No one can stop us now.During May 2009 none of the political leaders wanted to meet us, now we are inside!They have to listen to us.
Remember Dayan, clear conscience is an invincible weapon.Conviction is a powerful motivator and
Perseverance and determination will acheive any thing. Are we paid to do this job? NO.
That is the difference between shoddy workmanship of a paid employee and the commitment of a dedicated worker.
You will be shocked to hear this in 10 years Sri Lanka will be in our hands,if you continue this belligerence. If you still think rajapaksa is an honest leaders of the people then that fate is inevitable.
“If the Tigers are on that side, I must and shall stay on this side”
Stop pretending. Tigers or no Tigers, you have always been against the Tamils, and Tamil rights. Your repeated claims of what the “majority of Sri Lankans” want is code for Sinhalese. Tamils don’t count, never have in your mind and that’s why you gave up your 10K per month salary to join the anti-Tamil regime of MR. Stop insulting our intelligence.
See whether your “modern democratic UK” allows you the same freedom to support al-Qaida — at least privately if not publicly! By the way, what’s wrong in waving the Nazi flag? Why the exception? Isn’t the slogan that one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter apply to Nazis? Ane tho wage puththal booruwek!
You say; “some incidence in the south was carried out by army intelligence unit to keep on discrediting LTTE.”
Do you mean to say killings like TULF leader Appapillai Amirthalingam, Foreign Minister Luxman Kadiragamar, Jaffna Mayer Sarojini Yogeswaran, Thambirajah Subathiran, Neelan Thiruchelvam were carried out by army intelligence. Even a naive child knows they were killed by LTTE. Pitty you didn’t know it.
And what I wrote is only five names of LTTE victims. If you like read a more comprehensive list to include thousands of victims, visit http://list-of-attacks-attributed-to-the-ltte.co.tv/#2005
I cannot but agree with you, fully.
We understand that you Tamils are not confused about self-determination and devolution. We knew very well that for you Tamils it all means Eelam.
Now, if you are talking about self-determination for Tamils, you should try it at where Tamils had it for thousands of years and not where you have barged in at times to plunder and run back with your loot.
Since you wrote about Nelson, perhaps I should say it all in a short phrase; Nelson had been the biggest pirate of all times.
Next let me also remind you that the International Community you are referring to are the decedents of that Nelson and the like. They are the bunch that used naphthalene, phosphorus, and various other WMDs fifty years ago to kill hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese, Cambodian civilians to save them from communists. But the dirty lot were chased out in the end.
Then your International Community did the same thing to Iraqi and Afghan civilians; this time to punish Bin Laden, the terrorist they themselves have created. All that is for nothing but to retain their economic and military power.
So we can imagine why Anglo French the US oligarchy wanted to have inquires and justices on a war that eradicated the biggest terrorist organisation in the world. This lot believe that they can establish land and sea bases in the North of Sri Lanka by giving self determination to Tamils.
Our luck had been shifted away from us for the last thirty years because we had spineless leaders. For our good fortune we now have a leader with a foresight who knows how to deal with vultures as well as rabid dogs.
Mr Joseph; you’ll have to wait a long time for our luck to run out. And by that time, you lot would be thinned out into the wilderness of the wild society of your ‘international community’ just like the progeny of all the immigrants there.
Learn a thing or two from the likes of Palihakkara and Dhanapala on how to conduct oneself as a diplomat without blowing your own trumpet about salaries and understanding countries..If only you were intelligent enough to see the difference of the beauty of a liberal democracy where you are posted and the pathetic autocratic state that you so ‘selflessly’ serve you could have actually gained some respect from the ordinary people of this country. Dayan it is never too late to learn a bit of humility..I assume you are smart enough to see the fate of lackeys of Mubarak, Gaddafi, Ben Ali etc..They are our beloved president’s bff’s..his fate and that of yours will be the same!
LTTE is NOT the product of Sinhala state repression and violence. It is the legacy of your thanthai Chelva’s Waddukkodi resolution.
Your thanthai Chelva is no peace lover. Indeed he is the person who prepared you Tamils for war. On May 14th 1976 in Wadukkodai, Chelva got a resolution passed at a mass rally that urged all Tamil youth to take-up arms and not to lay them down until Eelam is won. Piripaharan followed it to the letter.
Now that Piripaharan and company of LTTE is dead and gone, its rump wanted Eelam in a platter albeit blackmail. On the one hand, they do all the Machiavelli tricks in the book to send Rajapakses to gallows. And on the other hand its representative TNA negotiate with him to get Eelam on step by step basis.
But, President Rajapakse is no fool to walk in to their traps. Rajapakse has the backing of by far the vast majority of Sri Lankans. And, Sri Lankans want their country to remain a unitary state. They do not want the North of their country to be a ‘Bantu land’ of Tamils.
You people think we are like Libya. And Moon’s advice note would pave way for Anglo French the US oligarchy to bomb the temple trees an effect a regime change. Stupid people doesn’t seem to read what Russia and China said about Moon’s advice note. The dirty lot will fail at the HR council, Geneva as before because our government knows how to retain friend and beat the neo-colonialists in their own game.
Leela
You are right. Mervin is a thorn in the ass for many and he must be trained by the Army before the University students!
Terrorism cannot be a right of an individual! Will UK allow the flag of Al-Quada?
Dayan Jayatilleka, Dayan you have been paid9 although you have not reveled how much) by Rajapaksha to hide Tamil GENOCIDE. Now as a first step you are trying to hide it with Tiger flag ,and your are dreaming to pull the wool over the world. soon you will be running with out your under wear.
Dayan, Read this blog in trans currans the you will know Tiger flag is not large enough for you to cover Mahinda’s Deeds.by the way did you get a hit on your soloplexis when you returned fron Geneva?
http://transcurrents.com/news-views/archives/824
The main points raised are valid and I do wish the protesters will distance themselves from the LTTE. I don’t think anybody should mourn the Tigers.
There are plenty of valid reasons to be critical of the state but people should be equally ashamed of the LTTE.
Dilan, Youe ever heard of 1958 riots? If not, read up. Your lack of awareness is showing……….
Ranga, you are right. This man should be some politbureau somewhere, and nowhere near an embassy…….. not even outside its gates.
There we go again you big bombastic loud mouth!
Time you retired or was put to pasture.
Yes, you will respect the French Ethos and very much that of the former IMF boss! That we know!
…….. and 10,000 dollars? Must have been Singapore dollars or Momopoly money! Dream on, boy!
Tiger flag has become a symbolism for few of those who are unable to think beyond the deeper issues. In fact, I went to the Trafalgar Sq meeting for an hour. I was disspointed to see the flag of the proscribed organisation being held by the few.
My inquiries reveal that the organisers of these public events are unable control the situation. Despite alternative arrangements being made and appeals to hold back the Tiger flags, the young hardcore of the LTTE are not prepared to accept the instructions. They bring their own Tiger flags in their pockets secretly and display them forcefully.
These elements are no different to the ‘Jayaweva Brigades’of the Sri Lanka foriegn missions who are unrepentent. Unfortunately, the Jayaweva brigates are worst than the Tiger flag holders as they breed rabid racism to cause more problems for the moderates within the national divide.
Dayan is an employee of the government that gave birth to the Tigers, he must use his pen pushing diplomacy to understand and reflect the issues without giving petty parochial arguments.
Dayan played an important part to block the UNHR resolution on war crimes in Sri Lanka last year. He will not understand the pain and sufferring of the victims knowing very well the brutality inflicted against the civilian population. When he behaved so irrationally, it is difficult for him to understand the complexties involved in the war ravaged Tamil community.
These complexties are happy meals for government’s anti-Tamil agenda.
Dayan,
You are a fool to have given up your former job to prop up the bloody dictatership of Mahinda Rajapakse which is hated not only by tamils, but also by a majority of the sinhalese.
Do you still think that there is Rule of Law, Human Rights ,Personal Freedoms of Expression and Association ,Right to Life,compliance with international protocols like the ICCPR which has been agreed to by sri lanka, a police force like that in france, an unfettered judiciary like in france,in sri lanka?
You are unable to tolerate the modified Eelam Flag adopted by the tamils abroad.Why?
The Sri Lanka flag which depicts a carnivorous animal – a castrated lion – holding a weapon is the only one of its kind among nations. Under this flag,tens of thousands of unarmed sinhala youth, human rights
lawyers,buddhist monks and political opponents were massacred in 1971 and in 1987/88/89 by sinhala buddhist governments while praising the teachings of the Buddha.
Under this flag many hundereds of tamils have been bucherred periodically since independence, and tens of thousands killed during 2009.
Do you think that tamils should protest under this “Lion” flag?
DJ – you are moaning about the LTTE flag but when are going to speak up against your boss for committing horendous war crimes?
Giving up a S$10,000 dollar/month salary to serve the Motherland is something that needs to be lauded. Equally – and perhaps more, is to help bring peace and justice to the Tamil people – something the Tamil people will remember you for during those gallant days in the 1980s. You sacrificed much then to achieve this humane and just objective.
Yes! there were excesses and contradictions on the Tamil side. That is because, in my view, there was a planned effort to destroy the developed and established poltical culture in the Tamil-dominated parts of the country. That is what the NEP today is and those planners have reason to congratulate themselves. But, Sir, this is temporary. The Tamil people will rise again.
Now President Rajapakse has all the political power he wants in Parliament. The excuse of lacking a 2/3rd majority is no more tenable. And so ??? More significantly, he rules over that extra-legal undercurrent of the Buddhist political heirarchy that, most in the country including Sinhala Buddhists, see as the cause for most of our major troubles. It is to foolish to blame India, the West and the Tamil diaspora for all our failings. In demolishing that attempt to hold the Great Meeting of the Buddhist Prelates in Kandy not long ago, he has
clearly sent the message to the political priests in charge. Here he succeeded there SWRD, JRJ, CBK failed although they cannot be accused of not trying.
As friends in the region ask (1) Why is the Emergency Rule, brought specifically to meet the threat to the State by the LTTE, retained two and half years after the “war is over with the LTTE leadership annihilated?” (2) Why are PC’s allowed to 8 other Provinces denied to the NEP, to which, it was,originally designed as a
measure to cushion the resurrection (3) Why are thousands of Habeas Corpus applications, which the Supreme Court, quite rightly disposes in a matter of a day or two – denied to tens of thoussands who have been taken in by the State and missing? (4) Why was the List of Missing Persons that the TNA delegation asked, in everyone of its 5 meetings with the Govt delegation, not provided after several assurances “it will be produced at the next meeting” – that never happened?
If the Govt is serious about these negotiations, which it constantly drums up to the Govts of India, EU, USA/Canada, Britain and the UN as its examploe of good intent – why does it include in its delegation in the Govt side a man who was just a clerk in a Shipping Company in Dubai with a criciminal record in Sri Lanka. The Govt side should be, ideally, formed of established lawyers or men like Dr GLP, you and Dr. Rajiv Wijesinghe (already there). Look at the TNA side -brilliant Lawyers Sampanthan, Kanag-Iswaran, Sumathiran and the others just as capable. Why should not the Tamil people and the world think this is yet one more exercise in procrastination?
I suggest, Sir, the Govt refuses to provide the path to peace it is well placed to do because if peace arrives then the focus of the people will turn to the crippling Cost of Living. Remember Sukarno’s “Crush Malaysia” drama? Robert Mugabe still continues with that nonsense of “it is all because of the sanctions” after having ruined Africa’s most prosperous and educated country. KIm Il Sung has nothing offer to his starving millions except to hold them under the army heel and hide the fact across the border lies their cousins – never as prosperous as they are today and a world industrial power.
There is much more but space prevents me from listing them. These are good enough
for Starters, I guess. You may be in a position to help both the Tamil and Sinhala people only if you regain your garb of political neutrality.
Good day.
ISS
Dear Dr. Dayan Jayatilleke,
It was very impressive-your praising of the legal and Constitutional framework and ethos of France, which I am sure you do respect! There you do not have an option, you have to respect, because you are there!Now, mere respecting isn’t enough, you should be able to admire it too, because you haven’t seen anything like that back home.
It should have come from your heart. Now, how about displaying your certainly impressive knowledge about the legal and Constitutional framework and ethos of Sri Lanka, which no one including you, me and Mahinda care to respect! What were you doing in Singapore, if you never had the chance to learn about the Singaporean values of absolute equality among individuals and utmost respect for law and order.
What is your problem with Tamils marching in parades in Western capitals. This is not Colombo. They are grieving the loss of innocent lives which were their kith and kin. They know and you know that the racist Sinhala Government and its automatons called civil servants will never lose a wink of sleep over such massive loss of lives for Tamils.
So, they are not asking you to regret these incidents. They are not stupid! They know that you people haven’t developed the capacity to think on those lines. All they are demanding is to know from the Western Governments how they were able to climb down from such moral high grounds to the bottom of the pit to shake hands with some animal’s offsprings during our national struggle for liberation.
You know something! – The Sri Lankan Government is not known to retain any sort of gratitude, be it to a another Government that saved it from an embarrssing day or to an individual who had worked his ass off to carry its false propaganda all over the world. One day, you will know how it feels to be kicked in the butt repeatedly by an autocratic maniac after you have fallen to the ground. Unfortunately, at that time,the Tamils won’t be able to laugh at you, because we never laugh, we have never known a happy day since the British left the Island.
We always cry, always wondering how the rest of the world is able to tolerate such inhumanity by the Sinhalam to its fellow human beings called hapless Tamils. Believe me, these nations, they all know what is happening, they all know that as human beings, there is no comparison between Pirapaharan and Mahinda, yet Geopolitics is such a powerful force which makes good leaders weak-kneed and make them dilly-dally, half-frozen in the thought-”Let us not face the truth right here and now; We do not know how to handle it; Let us read it in history books some fifty years from now and then shed some crocodile tears for the benefit of the whole mankind!
…allow the Tiger flag in SL for a start!
Sir, you are welcome to come over and give it a try.
I think I have heard this before from a man called Velupillei Prabakaran.
Sinhalese are on a floating boat with 15% Tamils. They don’t care what you say from far away lands. You have to devise something very ingenious to throw out only 85% into the sea.
Dyan you better do your sum if your are not mathermatically chalanged 10,000 Singapoorian dollare versus your accomodtions,travel shofar driven cars,fuel, cost of living ,flight tickets,and salary in Euros and the perks given to you by Mahinda at the poor Taxpayers money in Srilanka.dont fool thr readers like Mahinda clans.
Also you said you respect the legal and Constitutional framework and ethos of France,Did you read French revelution and do you respect and aproveit as well???
30 May 2011 Share this page
Tamil police ‘excluded’ from Sri Lanka paradeBy Charles Haviland
BBC News, Colombo
The military parade marked two years since the end of Sri Lanka’s civil war Continue reading the main story
Sri Lanka After WarSri Lanka report: Main allegations
War in pictures
Q&A: Post-war Sri lanka
Profile: Mahinda Rajapaksa
A Tamil policeman from northern Sri Lanka says he feels hurt that he and 25 Tamil colleagues were excluded from a recent parade of security forces.
He said they were pulled out at the very last moment. He believes it was because of their ethnicity.
But a police spokesman said there was no discrimination and it was “wrong” to say anyone was withdrawn.
Meanwhile, a UN official says he thinks a controversial video, purportedly from the recent civil war, is authentic.
‘Security problem’
After decades of ethnic tension and militant separatism, members of the Tamil minority, some 15% of the island’s population, are under-represented in state institutions.
The security forces are overwhelmingly ethnic Sinhalese. Yet the police have recruited about 600 Tamils in northern Sri Lanka in the past year.
Of them, an elite 17 men and six women were selected to take part in last week’s military display marking two years since the end of the war.
One of them told the BBC they were delighted to be chosen and trained, first in the north, then for 10 days in southern Sri Lanka and three days in Colombo.
But, he said, at the last moment a senior police officer asked them to withdraw, saying this was because President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s security officer said that their presence in the parade posed “a security problem”.
He said the senior police officer was very apologetic but he could do nothing in the face of the order from the presidential department.
The policeman said that after days of training in the hot sun, he and his colleagues felt a sense of “hurt and shame”. He believed their exclusion was because of their Tamil ethnicity.
Asked to comment, the police spokesman, Prishantha Jayakody, said it was “completely wrong” to say that anyone was withdrawn.
He said there were established teams of what he called parade professionals; there was no ethnic discrimination in the police department, he said.
But the episode will fuel the sense among many Tamils that the state neither trusts them fully nor treats them equally.
Controversial video
In a separate development, a senior UN official has said he believes controversial video footage, circulated on the internet and broadcast by the UK-based Channel 4 News, is authentic.
The video appears to show Sri Lankan soldiers killing captured and unarmed Tamil Tiger rebels at close range.
The UN’s special rapporteur on summary executions, Christof Heyns, said the video had been tehnically and forensically reviewed. He described it as evidence of what he called “definitive war crimes”.
But a senior Sri Lankan defence official, Lakshman Hulugalle, said it was “not real” and “not authentic”.
“They should get an authentication certificate from a reputed institution to prove that it’s not a fake,” he told the Associated Press news agency.
Good one that is.
We in Great Britain will wait for the right moment to send ours to the parliment but we made a point to the political parties here that Tamils can not be ignored. Though many members are in local councils. We follow that in France too.
A day will come when the Sinhalese will realise that ‘Pirabaharan would have been much better to handle than the enemies aboroad’. We will follow Jews who carved out Isreal in Palestine not by violance but by power.
Already we are surprised many as a highly successful hard working community with numerous TV stations, Radio stations and business estabilishments. A feat that was a distant dreams to any other immigrant community except Jews.
India is already aware that its Tamilnadu state is getting billions from the Tamil daispora abroad from grocery, cinema, Tour and clothings exports. Sri Lankan government does not care of this oppotunity but busy in sending its poor labours to middle east to lick the ass of those arrogant Arabs. These educated guys like Dayan would not dare to tell the government that the Tamil Diaspore is caple enough to bring prosperity to the country if a solution is speedly found.
What this guy Dayan doing is to get some brownie points with that corrupt war criminals. Pathetic that is.
Hi Anonymous Aiye,
Don’t try to teach us the Tamils a lesson or two in history. We know well who is SJV and why there was a Vaddukottai resolution and why LTTE came in to existence.
You know one thing; While you celebrate the elimination of the Tigers, the Tamils too now start to realise that we can do much much better in the absense of the LTTE. This is because the fall of the Tigers, raise many many intellectuals from within the Tamils. You can judge it from the qulaity comments here comparing to some rubish from the supporters of the war criminals.
It is not TNA but Rajapakse who desperately wants the talks and that is to reduce the external pressure. He wants to show the world that he is interested in peace talks. But the TNA already informed the world that the government side lack seriousness.
You also said: ”Rajapakse has the backing of by far the vast majority of Sri Lankans. And, Sri Lankans want their country to remain a unitary state. They do not want the North of their country to be a ‘Bantu land’ of Tamils”.
Well my friend this is what Sudan’s Al-Bashir said. What happened to him and his country now is the history. You bombed the Tamils and killed them. They went out of North and East to save their life. In that they went aboroad and to Colombo. You now built Buddist Temples and sending in state sponsored settelers in to the Tamil’s lands, making the Tamils unable to return while telling the world that many Tamils are living outside North and East than inside.
Many of these settlers are giving miltary clothings so as to claims they are service personals and not settlers.
How long you can hoodwink the world which already knows your game plan. Time is running out for your leaders, the war criminals.
Pirapaharan and the LTTE was enjoying the backing of the Tamils but when the world was acting aginst him with the ‘Terroist’ tag and the outcome was obvious. Now it is Mahinda Aiye’s turn with a ‘War Crime’ Tag.
Any way good luck to you, Sir as you are trying harder.
Dayan,
The latest news is “French lawyers plan Libya suit against Nicolas Sarkozy” ( The Telegraph )- alleging ‘crimes against humanity’ over the NATO led military campaign in Libya, representing families who were victims of the NATO bombing campaign.
This shows the freedom to protest/seek redress against any perceived injustice by the state,in France.
Can this happen in Sri Lanka. Will not the lawyers and litigants ‘disappear’ overnight?
Do learn the practice of ‘real’ domocracy while you are in France and advise your president privately to allow such suits in sri lanka.
In this instance, I make an exception to my own dictum “IGNORANT SHOULD IGNORED AND UTTERANCE OF IGNORANCE SHOULD BE UTTERLY IGNORED”.
In the interest of causing discomfort to the blissfully ignorant, I’d like to point you to: 1) The 2000 years history of the Jewish Diaspora that established the state of Israel. 2) the recent arrest of the Serbian war criminal, absconder, Ratko Mladic, after 16 year.
The second and third generation young Tamils who witnessed the cold-blooded mass murder of their kin, in full colour telecasts, are unlikely to shake off the trauma during their life time.
Even if they try, THE CONTINUED ATROCITIES OF THE SRI LANKAN STATE WILL NEVER LET THEM. Now, that is TRUTH.
Dream on Massilamany, now it is ten years is it? Ever since the Vadukodai resolution and even before that from the inception of Dravidstan by Periyar in the 1930s you have been dreaming of a Tamil nation with Eleam and Tamil Nadu as one. See what it got you – the crushing of the LTTE and the prolonged suffering of the Tamils in the north.
Be realistic your aspirations for Eleam will never happen. It will be a figment of your imagination forever. In the meantime the Tamils in Sri Lanka are getting on with their lives and learning to live in peace with all the communities of Sri Lanka. No more will they have to sacrifice their children as cannon fodder to appease the Vadukodai resolution and the LTTE terrorists. Eleam will never come to pass even in a million years, so dream on and continue dreaming on forever.
What an attempt as usual to paint a genuine mourning get together as Tiger propaganda campaign. How can we do this after the world recognise that more than 40,000 perished in Wanni. Is it because we as a race, the offspring of a Lion as per Mahavamsha?
But unfortunately the world is not ready to by our story any more as we are tagged as ‘War Criminals’ in the way LTTE was tagged as ‘Terroists’.
So lets Tamils have their way as long as it is not violent.
The aversion to the so called LTTE flag seems to stem from a few (minority) categories of Tamils who are:
1. Anti –tiger for a variety of reasons
2. Boot-lickers of GoSL
3. Neutral or even pro-Tiger but take the view “better not create unnecessary problems in a host country that has proscribed tigers”
The fact of the matter is the fighting Tigers are dead and buried. The paper Tigers who are left behind need not be taken seriously – and must in fact be admonished, if they attempt to lead again, for the mess they created.
Though the Tigers are gone, the broad ideology, which is Tamil, more than Tiger – of nationhood, homeland and self-determination – unites the Diaspora Tamils very strongly. It is in this context that the old Tiger flag should be usurped from the dead LTTE and portrayed as a symbol of Tamil nationalism continuing from where it left at Mullivaikal. I consider the continuity to be very important.
After all that Tiger flag has its origin in Chola times and a strong nation of Eelam Tamils need not stoop to a level of cowardice to design an altogether new flag just because our enemies in SL or even in the West insist. If they manage to prise away our flag, that will not only demonstrate our impotence but also the overpowering of our struggle. The Tamil nation is at war for over 60 years and in war a flag symbolises defiance. The roaring Tiger is just fine for me. If it annoys my enemies so be it!
Very elouqently put. Albeit 10K/Month is not a great deal of money.
You are 100% right. But als address our 10K Dr’s comment
“I could have well understood had the date for mourning the dead and protesting the Tamil situation had been July 23rd or 29th which would have marked the anti-Tamil violence of July ‘83. May 18-19 marks the end of a war that tormented the majority of citizenry. Those who mourn pick May 18-19 over July 23-29, because what they mourn above all is the defeat in the war, the destruction of the Tiger armed forces and the death of Velupillai Prabhakaran.”
40K Tamil civilians were killed by end of that fateful day. Dayan instead of crowing about your job and 10K. Please think as a human being watch the Channel 4 videos.
No Mervin, it seems you are living in a dream!!!
As long as the sinhalese keep war criminals to run the country, the Eelam dream can be green. Look at Sudan. Al Basheer is a popular president with the majorities. Yet the North was taken away while he was hanging on the presidental seat with war criminal tag.
Either we have war criminal or Eelam. But not both in the long run.
As long as Tigers were there world did not wanted to no Tamils and their aspirations. But now as long as War criminals are there, the scnario is oposite.
Tamils are simply powerful abroad than you think.
Lets understand the reality.
True.
Dishonest to the core!
Whether the dream is green or purple, it will still be just a dream.
Yes, for the time being…
Sir there is one fact you can find consolation in. Your enemies have no control over your waving that in foreign countries. As for Sri Lanka every inch is covered.
Sir the Sinhalese also for whom the daily fare was to watch full color videos of LTTE atrocities against their innocent women and children for thirty long years will never let the Tamils to do it again.
It will be quite a while before Sinhala war criminals are brought to justice. But the Sinhalese are justifiably happy that they have already been able to do justice to the Tamil war criminals.
Except that (living in SL?) you are still scared to reveal your name!!
Fact: Tamils in Sri Lanka are a minority community with majority aspirations.
If they want a separate state- they should go to Tamil Nadu- the true Tamil homeland.
Sti Lanka is the ONLY homeland of the Singhalese
Are you retarded? Ever heard of the Ancient Tamil Kingdom?
Tamils were originally in the north and east provinces of Sri Lanka before the British colony.
Who actually believes that ‘evidence’ of VP’s death were actually pictures of his own body? Fools. The Sri Lankan government have told of VP’s death 3 times before 2009.
The liberation for a seperate land isn’t yet over. A new fight that is to forthcome awaits. Tamils Tigers will yet again arise, 2015 will be a prosperous year.