‘We must love all Tamils the way we love Muralitharan’
by Hemantha Warnakulasuriya
Muttiah Muralitharan claimed his 500th ODI wicket, just two less than Wasim Akram. The whole of Pakistan and those in the Gaddafi Stadium cheered loud when Muralitharan achieved the feat of being the second bowler in the world to have grabbed 500 ODI wickets. All over Pakistan photographs of a smiling Muralitharan were published and someone even asked him whether he would be going for the 600th wicket.
In Sri Lanka, after President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the most loved hero and others are from a different playing field. They are all cricketers. I believe Sanath Jayasuriya is the hero of millions and Muralitharan would come very close to him. When Muralitharan delivers the ball, all Sri Lankans believe that it is a dangerous weapon and would destroy the opponent’s wicket. So we love Muralitharan.
As we inch forward in eliminating terrorism from our motherland, we have another mission to accomplish and that is to love all Tamils like we love Muralitharan. This is the only way we can thwart racial bigots from preventing a substantial devolution package being approved in Parliament. The wish of President Rajapaksa is clear: "First, we must eliminate terrorism; secondly, we must eliminate the causes of terrorism". I believe that the second task is as important as the first: we must make all Tamils feel that they are partners in the engine of growth; we must make all Tamils feel that they are not being discriminated against by what happened during the last 30 years.
President Rajapaksa is one of the most anti-racial persons I have known since his days at Law College. Some of his best friends are Tamils and he is genuinely interested in helping them with their grievances. The majority must feel that without a joint effort of all races we can never become a fully developed state. Take Malaysia and Singapore as examples; the contribution that the Tamils made for their economic development is great. We must believe that the defeat of terrorism is the defeat of racialism.
The whole of Sri Lanka wants Muralitharan to play as long as possible to grab 600 ODI wickets. We pray for him that he will have the strength and the capacity to grab 1000 test wickets. We must also pray that we will embrace all Tamils with open arms, even the former LTTEers, so that we can show the world that our country is unique, being the first country to defeat terrorism and ensure peace, tranquillity and security to all for the well-being of the nation.
( Well -known lawyer Hemantha Warnakulasuriya is Sri Lanka's Ambassador to Italy)
22 Comments
To our Tamil brothers and sisters reading this blog from all over the world: Please do not think that Sri Lankan born Sinhala, Buddhists are blood sucking racists - we are not!!!! There are individuals with warped minds and crooked thinking everywhere. We got to live with them and make them better.
When I saw pictures of those semi-submersible and ocean going crafts that have been manufactured by your "boys" in the thick Mullaitivu jungles, I grieved for the lost talent. These are people of Sri Lanka. If we could have got together, without fighting each other, I am sure we would have been another Singapore. No one would have left our shores. To hell with those politicians from both sides who sowed seeds of racisim. Let's hope the Sinhala President who can speak Tamil will move the country in a new direction.
So, in that context, Mr. Hemantha Warnakulasuriya has quite correctly articulated the new thinking that should prevail in the minds of the majority community in Sri Lanka - not to think that the Sinhalese have ultimately given the works to Tamils BUT we have vanquished from our collective minds that hatred to go for the jugular of each other and look forward to live and die together and to make mother Lanka our own paradise. I whole heartedly welcome our tamil speaking, Sri Lankan brothers and sisters to come home and make our life interesting and challengine in Sri Lanka. Yes, we could get together and build those boats that will take Sri Lanka places on the world map!
We share the writer's sentiments Murali will make it to
503 wickets initially and thereafter set his sight on
600. Hopefully, nothing will happen in between to usher
in that condition which JRJ described in July 1983
as "The Sinhalese have reacted" where just because
13 Sinhala soldiers died in the battle-field Tamils all over the country were punished brutally - many on Electoral Lists that sprung up like magic in a day or two telling the world a conspiracy to "whack all Tamils at the first opportunity" was well in the making for sometime. Poor JRJ was taken into confidence in this by the Mathew-Premadasa led cabal. Murali, his parents and family will share this fear - as they were about to be roasted alive at that time and thoughts of which they will carry to their graves. But let me not play spoil-sport. If the Lawyer-Ambassador means well and sincere we are all with him
cheering Murali, Lankan Cricket and hopefully a Nation truly united - at last.
ISS
I hope that this will happen, but I have my doubts too...sound too good to be true!
We are with this Lawyer - long identified with Sirisena Cooray and the UNP - and now Ambassador in MR’s Govt - in sharing his hope Murali will soon be the highest wicket-taker in history. Not merely the 503 mark but more. The smiling boy from Malainadu deserves
this. But what happens between now and our mutual wishes coming true in unpredictable Sri Lanka is altogether a different matter where Tamils are concerned. A fear Murali,
his parents and his family will share. After all, it was in July 1983 the entire family escaped being roasted alive in Kandy in that incident when President JRJ calmly and sans emotion described as “The Sinhalese have reacted.” What, we asked this man then, whom an Indian scribe described as “a face and
expression of an embalmed body” did ordinary Tamils all over the country do to deserve
this dire fate where hundreds of thousands of innocent Tamils lost their homes and assets
with over 3,000 dead? The Govt of the day explained this was “spontaneous Sinhala reaction” in retaliation to the killing of 13 Sinhala soldiers in the battle field in Tinnevely in Jaffna by Tamil militants. If so how come organized and determined gangs of men with petrol cans, knives, crowbars suddenly appeared the following morning armed with Electoral Lists with great precision to the houses of KG Gunaratnam at Bullers Road, Maharaja at ….
Place, Upali’s Rajiah at Sir Marcus Fernando Mwa(located a lane not easily seen
from the road) being only 3 names of the more prominent and hugely successful Tamil businessmen. Rajiah, by the way, is an Indian Tamil. Tens of thousands of expensive homes of Tamil businessmen and their places of trading were all torched by men later admitted to be inspired by the Cyril Mathew-Premadasa clique in the verge of overthrowing JRJ? These lists could not have been prepared and handed out in a days time. The fear of a repeat of July 1983
where State-encouraged mobs ransacked Tamil homes, assets and left indelible wounds in the psyche of every single in the country must be worrying Murali and his family even today –
as they do all Tamils in the country. Why it was only last week Tamils in the South once again spent sleepless nights on hearing of hundreds of deaths of Sinhala soldiers in the Wanni – that is now believed to be a well-planned rumour. Tamils saw a sudden change in the looks and attitudes of Sinhalese in their environment and neighbourhoods.
But let me not be the party-spoiler. For the moment, let us share the writer’s optimism
and hope the day will come soon when the “Sinhalese will love the Tamils as they do
Murali” There is no point in my introducing a doosra in such a pleasant climate. But the raw
truth is the Sinhala governments have to do much more to gain the confidence of
innocent Tamils in all parts of the country.
ISS
Thank you for your thoughts.
In the interest of Sri Lanka, I sincerely hope that my Sinhalese friends and specially the president Mr Rajapakse will deal with the Tamil issue with utmost care after this war.
"..We must believe that the defeat of terrorism is the defeat of racialism...."
I don't understand your logic. You can not just kill the voice-less innocence people and relate them in the name of terrorism to your loan providers.
This is very good idea and should execute at all cost. But at the same time all the tamils should realize and accept that they are sri lankans and act like sri lankans and learn to intigrate with sinhala people as Muralitharan do.
Hemantha I applaud you for saying what you said as a Tamil. If it comes to practice LTTE can't survive. Even if there are a few left it will die on it is own because Tamils are not fools. If they are treated as you said should be treated LTTE will not survive. I wish 30 years ago this would have been visioned 30 years ago. Where would we (SL) be?
Mr. Warnakulasuriya,
Your simplistic analogy to cricket and your invocation of Mr. Rajapaksa's "best friends" to say he is non-racial are so duplicitous in the face of the death and destruction your government has inflicted on the Tamil people. Read the report by Stephanie Nolen of the Globe and Mail posted on this site to see how the "liberated" East is doing. Like your government, you do speak in "forked tongues." And you will pay the price for this immoral duplicity one day.
Thank you Mr. Warnakulasuriya for being candid. There cannot be room for sinhala or tamil bigotry. Everyone must realize that no matter what all are Sri Lankans. I live overseas and no matter how much I try to blend, I will always be "brown" and "foreign".. SO Sri Lanka is the place where even I feel home though i live abroad for family and economic reasons. No one is superior to another by virtue of birth or creed or caste. Sinhalese and Tamil people must all live together and learn to share and understand each other.. Spots is a great eliminator of racial prejudice. To do this, there has to be genuine efforts to share in access to resources across all regions of the country.
You are out of your mind, you are a terrorist..sinhala people love Tamil thay do not love terrorist..,,You are a fool..try tp compare murali and Terrorist.
good Luck for your writing
If Sanatha Jayasuria too was a Tamil from jaffna called Shanmugam Jeyasooriar, I am sure many many decent Sinhalese like your good self would be cheering him and wishing him to score the first 50 international centuries and also to score the first 12,000 test runs. The Indians would have welcomed it, and the Pakistanis would celebrate for days with street parties.
It is so refreshing and a pleasure to read an article such as the one you have written. It is a testament to the cultured mind you possess and the benefits it can bring to the island of Sri Lanka is enormous with the attitude you take. If only some in the Sri Lankan diplomatic corps would take a leaf out of your book, that little island would be well on its way to becoming one of the finest in the world. I sincerely hope that many more good Sri Lankans would come forward to reverse the destruction the island is undergoing and make it a better place to live for all islanders.
The defeat of terrorism is indeed the defeat of racialm!
Yes, we should eliminate terrorism from our motherland completely. Lanka has lost thousands of innocent Tamils, Sinhalese, and Muslims all due to ruthless terrorist acts of LTTE. First crush the LTTE, then treat the Tamils and other minority groups equally. India, Norway, UK or any other countries should not interfere with Sri Lanka's internal problems. Why these countries crying now? Because they have been brain washed by LTTE false propaganda. When thousands innocent Sinhalese were killed by LTTE's bombing (Colombo, Anuradhapura etc.)these countries did not utter a word? Why?
Yeah. right. Rajapakse, the president of Srilanka is a politiian for nearly two decade. He was silent when the people of Kahi uniform from burned the shops in Jaffna then took the jwelleries and wrist watches in a buckets.
we would if the LTTE played cricket. They dont want to play with us. The trouble is that they want to have their own team in our country. Raqther selfish , dont you think. It is not cricket ! is it?
Author has good intent but doesn't seem to understand Mahinda Shinthanaya of not giving any rights to the Tamil people. Mahinda hasn't made any progress in any power devolution
‘We must love all Tamils the way we love Muralitharan’
Let this be the most repeated slogan. Let us forget the past and live together like brothers and sisters. Let no one think he/she is entitled for ANY priviledge based on ethnicity or religion. Let this be the unadulterated feeling of every Sinhala man, woman and child. Success over terrorism has no meaning without this sentiment rooted in the heart.
‘We must love all Tamils the way we love Muralitharan’
Well Said
Thank You
MR.WARNAKULASURIYA.SINHALEASE (EITHER BUDDHIST OR CHRIATIAN )IN THE WORLD LOVE TAMILS.BUT NOT FOR LTTE & THEIR SYMPATHIZERS.YOU CAN SEND A MESSAGE TO THE WORLD HOW SRI LANKA SINHALEASE LIVING TOGETHER WITH TAMILS.(FOR EG.PLACES LIKE BAMBALAPITIYA,WELLAWATTA,KOCHCHIKADE ETC.,)
Hemantha Warnakulasuriya: "we must make all Tamils feel that they are not being discriminated against by what happened during the last 30 years"
This is further proof that nothing has changed with these cunning Sinhala-Buddhists, already they are twisting the facts of history.
It is NOT a matter of being discriminated by what happened in the last 30 yrs, but the war of the last 30 yrs was caused by discrimination prior to the last 30 yrs!
LTTE is a terrorist group! but all the Tamileans are not terrorist but they force to Support terrorisem.
So no one can except terrorisem except terrorist! So should be wipeout from whole world.
All the best!
Mahinda's love for the Tamils can be summed up here.
After public denials of civilian casualties, after international pressure he reluctantly agreed to take the injured to Vavuniya hospitals. There the injured children, and others are seperated from their parents or caretakers. The injured are taken to the hospitals, the accomapanying relatives are taken to detention centres(called as "LTTE camps")with barbed wire fence all around, surrounded and guarded by the murderous security forces. The parents or care takers are not allowed to visit their loved ones. Parents does not know whether their loved ones are dead or alive!! The children does not know where the parents are,or whether they are dead or alive.
The reason the people from Vanni does not want to come to the so called "liberated areas" is that they know that they will be "liberated" from this world soon by the "Tamil loving President". For him every Tamil is a "TERRORIST". He does not realise that he is the "biggest terrorist" of all. Several people who has crossed over from Vanni to his liberated areas has vanished into thin air, without any trace!!
The sinhalese "conveniently" forget that killings of Tamils started long before the LTTE was born. Pirapaharan was not even 4 years old when Tamils were killed all over the island in 1958!! Please read Tarzie Vitachchi's "Emergency '58"