Sri Lanka's national interest and security cannot be shaped by somebody else's ethnic lobbies
by Dayan Jayatilleke
We Sri Lankans have no excuse whatsoever. We have been forewarned. A piece by PC Vinoj Kumar in the latest issue of Tehelka magazine says that "while the Sri Lankan army claims to be close to wiping out the LTTE, Prabhakaran may already have an able successor in his son".
The article goes onto say that "The techno savvy Anthony is widely tipped to succeed Prabhakaran’s mantle" (sic). And again: "It is expected that Anthony will take over the leadership from his father". "Many LTTE cadres are said to have entered the thick Mullaitivu jungles, an area where several Indian soldiers died during battles against the LTTE in the 1980s. This is truly the lair of the Tigers…Observers now expect that Prabhakaran’s son, Anthony, will lead the coming guerrilla attacks on the Sri Lankans in uniform. Indian journalist Anita Pratap, who shot to fame after interviewing the elusive Prabhakaran, believes that Anthony will eventually take over the leadership of the LTTE from his father some day".
The Tigers have taken a heavy toll on our country and its prospects. They have done so even when other alternatives had presented themselves, starting with the Indo-Lanka accord of 1987. If the Tiger leadership surrenders to a non-Sri Lankan entity, the strength of the Tamil Diaspora will almost certainly secure their release and they will return to blight the future of another generation of Sri Lankans.
If the No Fire Zone (a misnomer inasmuch as it is a Zone from which and within which the Tigers fire at our troops, escaping or restive civilians) remains intact it will expand cancerously over time and become the beachhead of a future Tiger recovery. Therefore the Tiger leadership must be given no quarter and must be annihilated.
Can someone explain to me how the Sri Lankan armed forces campaign to conclusively defeat "one of the world’s most dangerous terrorist groups"(FBI), and "the most lethal and totalitarian guerrilla organization in contemporary Asia" (Barbara Crossette in The Nation) is "futile fighting" (to quote a recent international pronouncement), while the escalating war in Afghanistan is not?
Maybe someone can also tell me why those who opposed a Security Council call for an immediate ceasefire when the war on Gaza was raging, and delayed the meeting of the Security Council, are now calling for an immediate ceasefire in Sri Lanka.
The Diaspora Dimension
These stands are being taken primarily because of the influence of Tamil Diaspora in Western societies. Now, some societies are acutely prone to influence by lobbies, special interest groups, particularistic interests, while others, such as Sri Lanka, Russia and many states of today’s Latin America are more driven by a quasi-Rousseauesque General Will.
The policy of some powerful countries towards places as divergent as Cuba and the Middle East are driven by voting blocs and lobbies. Earlier, such states would argue that Taiwan rather than the government of the Peoples Republic of China with its several hundreds of millions of citizens was the authentic representative of China and was deserving of China’s seat in the United Nations.
To each his or her own. If some states wish to shape their policies towards sir Lanka on the basis of the Tamil Diaspora, that’s their prerogative. Sri Lanka’s national interest and national security cannot be shaped by someone else’s ethnic lobbies. The Sri Lankan state owes its primary responsibility to its citizens, of all ethnic and religious groups.
These are the shareholders and stakeholders of Sri Lanka. Insofar as there are non –resident Sri Lankans, i.e. Sri Lankans who live and work overseas, they are stakeholders of our state and indeed very important ones; the migrant workers in the Middle East bear the burden of our war against secessionism.
Inasmuch as expatriate Sri Lankans have dual citizenship, then they too are citizens of our country.
Inasmuch as they do not, they have no claim on the Sri Lankan state, which in turn has no obligation by them. "British Tamils", "Tamil Canadians", "Tamil Americans" (or "American Tamils"), are just those: British, Canadians and Americans. If we choose to have a dialogue with them – and it is always good to dialogue with everyone—it is not because we have any obligation to do so, or because it is a priority, but because we as pluralist democrats are open to discussion.
This does not mean that there must be no dialogue, but the necessary dialogue is not only between the Sri Lankan state and the Tamil Diaspora, it must, on the one hand, be between Sri Lankan citizens living in this country of ours, and on the other, within the Diaspora between progressive minded Sinhalese and Tamils, especially the younger generation.
In a word, a double dialogue, but both taking place in a social or cultural, i.e. civic space. This double dialogue, particularly among the young, can bear fruit in formulating plans and programmes which can be fed back into Sri Lanka.
Meanwhile the duty of the state and government is to have an open dialogue with all of its citizens as represented primarily by political parties, and various citizens groups.
Lack of a Lankan Guardian Class
Why has Sri Lanka failed to achieve its full potential? Each has his or her own explanation. Mine is that we failed to produce the kind of elite that could have led us to achieve that full potential. We failed to produce or to sustain the kind of vanguard necessary for the task. Without such a vanguard we shall find it difficult to face the challenge posed by the huge mobilization of the Tamil Diaspora in the developed countries, spearheaded by its student youth.
We need such a national vanguard or elite to fight the next war, the coming Cold War on a world scale between the pro-Tiger overseas Tamils (including the irredentist extremists in Tamil Nadu) and Sri Lanka.
It is not that we have not had or do not have elites. We have had elites aplenty: traditional, Westernized, urban, provincial, Sinhala, and Tamil, rural, professional, and monastic. What we have not had is the kind of meritocratic elite necessary for the task of the fulfillment of the country’s full potential. Such an elite would have to unify the various communities into a single nation, while recognizing and accommodating the diversity of the underlying society.
Therefore such an elite would have to be meritocratic, multiethnic/multiracial and multi-religious, just as the Indian elite is and was from the days of independence. The closest we came to such an elite was the Ceylon National Congress, and interestingly, counter-elite, the Ceylon Communist Party in the first decade of its existence. Neither was sustained. Perhaps neither could sustain itself.
How do we define the traits of the Sri Lankan elite that is necessary for the tasks of catching up with the rest of Asia and fulfilling our potential?
Kishore Mahbubani, the outspoken former Ambassador/Permanent Representative of Singapore to the United Nations in New York, Dean of the Lee Kwan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore and one of the most respected theoreticians of the emergence of Asia, provides the answer in his essay in Foreign Affairs, entitled "The Case against the West", subtitled "America and Europe in the Asian Century". The essay is adapted from his latest book The New Asian Hemisphere: The Irresistible Shift of Global Power to the East (Public Affairs, 2008).
He identifies the secret of the recent emergence of the East and an essential social ingredient of that emergence. Of course, Mahbubani himself is a prime example, as was his illustrious and equally outspoken predecessor, Ambassador Tommy Koh, of the kind of national elite, which is also an intellectual and policy elite; the neo-Platonic Guardian class that he describes and we have lacked and sorely need.
"Fortunately, some Asian states may now be capable of taking on more responsibilities, as they have been strengthened by implementing western principles…Their [China and India’s] ideal is to achieve what the United States and Europe did. They want to replicate, not dominate, the West. The universalization of the Western dream represents a moment of triumph for the West…The success of Asia will inspire other societies on different continents to emulate it. In addition, Asia’s march to modernity can help produce a more stable world order…" (‘The Case Against the West’, Foreign Affairs, Vol 87, No 3, pp111-124)
He describes a particular historical process and social category, in fact a particular social creature emerging from that process: a westernized Asian who resists Western hegemony and stands up to the West, competes with it, but standing on the ground and using the terms of Western universality and modernity. This is an Asian who is anti-Western in the sense of refusing Western hegemony, while being westernized in another; an Asian who has adopted the baby while throwing out the bathwater.
Sri Lanka has had a westernized elite but which was servile to the West. That is the elite responsible for the retention of the British bases in Trincomalee, the non-recognition of Russia and China (our crucial defenders today in the UN Security Council), the departure from our Non aligned foreign policy which helped trigger Indira Gandhi’s policy dual track policy towards Sri Lanka, and worst of all the CFA-ISGA-PTOMS season of appeasement of Tiger fascism.
Sri Lanka also had a counter-elite which was anti-Western but not from the Nehruvian or Mahbubani-esque standpoint of meritocracy and modernity, secularism and universality, but in the most backward, parochial sense, which was almost always ethnocentric. This counter-elite has sometimes been led by members of the old elite or included Westernized/Western-educated chauvinists. (By the way I wonder what Prof Mahbubani would say about the ultranationalist Professor who opined that we do not need a Barack Obama nor do we need to fuss about him, because DS Senanayake was already our Barack Obama — ignoring of course the glaring sociological fact that in complete contradistinction to Obama, who did not even look like the majority of US citizens and previous Presidents, and belonged to a group traditionally discriminated against, DS came from the traditionally dominant Sinhala Buddhist Goigama propertied elite).
The dominance of each of these two elites has over time, led to backlash which replaced one by the other. Neither is a truly Lankan elite. On the one hand we have a corporate elite which cares about Sri Lanka only as a "brand" and a place for exotic domestic tourism. The other is a Sinhala or Sinhala Buddhist elite, which by definition cannot be Sri Lankan.
This limited alternation and the absence of a synthesis of a patriotic, nationalist or national-minded yet multiethnic, multi-religious, modernist, universalizing elite; an elite which is both nationalist and internationalist, patriotic and globalized as well as globalizing; an elite which is the organic counterpart of those in emergent Asia, has been an abiding source of the Sri Lankan tragedy.
(The writer wishes to state that these are his strictly personal views).
27 Comments
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DJ's question?
Can someone explain to me how the Sri Lankan armed forces campaign to conclusively defeat "one of the world’s most dangerous terrorist groups"(FBI), ....
Answer:
Why didn't you accept PTOMS or ISGA and negotiated in a peacefull way. If your Sinhalese Governments has agreed to some sort of federal solution and won the hearts and minds of Tamils, we wouldn't have lost over 20,000 sinhalese soldiers and 3 billion dollars in the last two years.
Dear Dayan,
Beyond ethnic lobbies there is the fact that we are all members of one single human species and there are certain parameters beyond which we cease to be human. One of those parameters that is widely recognized is killing other humans, another is genocide, yet another is cannibalism and there are many more. The problem posed by the LTTE is widely recognized as is the fact that its emergence and consolidation has been through a long drawn out process and that its eventual disintegration can come about only through the modification of this process and not merely through the destruction of the LTTE. Attempts to destroy the LTTE may very well lead to the scenario that you describe where Charles Anthony emerges as leader of a tech savvy underground global Tamil terrorist movement with the goal of establishing a nation state for the Tamils. THAT IS WHY THE FIGHTING IS DESCRIBED AS FUTILE. How come you cannot see that you have answered your own question? This is another example of what the education system has done to your mind. I hope you recover from it.
The LTTE appeared only in the 70's. The damage to the country had progressed pretty far by then. The Sinhala Buddhistization of the citizenry - a sort of mass brainwashing that co opted the education system as well - was well under way and was in fact one of the principle factors that enabled the emergence of the LTTE. So you do your considerable intellectual capacity a disservice when you say that the the Tigers have taken a heavy toll on our country and its prospects. The impact of the Sinhala Buddhist Nationalist ideology on the intelligence of the islands people has done far more damage than the LTTE has and ever can do. You yourself recognize this when you lament the absence of what you call a "guardian class".
It is not just Sri Lankan citizens of one class or another who have a stake in what goes on in the world. We all do. Every single human being is concerned about what happens to other human beings wherever they may be, on this planet in outer space or on another planet and of course in whichever country and geographical location they may inhabit. Can you grasp that or has the Sinhala Buddhist Nationalist indoctrination gotten too deep in your mind? I hope not. There is a severe shortage of mind power - as you know very well and have acknowledged - and your mind free of that Sinhala Buddhist Nationalism and other junk you have stuffed it with may come in useful. So do not be surprised if the collective wisdom of the human species decides that what Mahinda, Gothabhaya, Basil, Sarath, Keheliya, Mervyn, Champika and Piraphakaran have in mind has to be stopped. We live in a world where beating up ones spouse is no longer a private family matter and killing off a chunk of ones citizens is no longer a nations prerogative on the grounds of national security or anything else. Even fascists like the ones mentioned here do have certain human and legal rights which have to be respected.
The human species does have a claim on the Sri Lankan state to account for its actions towards human beings living within its jurisdiction. Whether you like it or not the Sri Lankan State has to explain its actions if it wishes to retain any sort of legitimacy. Dialogue is not a luxury that your Sinhala Buddhist Lordships bestow upon the world Dayan!. Dialogue is a basic necessity in order to be part of the human species. This dialogue has nothing to do with the Tamil Diaspora. Things have gone far beyond that. The Tamilsd have always known the extent of the destruction of humanity involved in the Sinhala Buddhist nationalization process. Tamils know just how cynically, inhuman and destructive those infected with this ideology can be. The Dialog must be with the rest of the human species which is looking askance at what the Sinhala Buddhist Nation is doing to the Tamils and what it has done to the democratic process and what it is doing to the media and to dissidents.
Your synthetic patriot is a non starter. Its just too late. It is impossible to be a nationalist yet multi ethnic multi religious, modernist universalizing !!!!! Dayan wake up! Its not going to work that way. The Sinhala Buddhist Nationalism like the Tamil variety has to go. If it is jettisoned then it does in fact become possible to be multi what not and universalist too - and this is a far cry from anything that Asia with its vaunted Asian values has ever produced.
You have to stop limiting your mind to what you think is possible. This will make you an opportunist - a waste of time and waste of a life. Look instead at what must be done and seek out the paths that will lead to its realization. I think that you may be one of perhaps two or three in your generational strata who may actually work up the guts to do this somewhere along the line. The rest have given up and lie around like well fed chamelions changing color to suit the context. I hope you take the trouble to do it - with your intelligence you should by now be in no need of a job. The last bunch who made it were a good twenty years senior to me. I do not have much hope for these young people you talk about. All their wisdom turns to water when they are put in the public glare and they break down into good old Sinhala Buddhist Nationalism. As for the Tamils, not even their oppression has helped them break free of their Tamil nationalism. Even the ones from abroad bring with them a ghettoised mentality - they have lived and moved with their own ethnic minority wherever they lived. So if you want universalism - as I do - then you will have to work towards it. You will have to win converts! So Dayan! Can you get that damn anti conversion bill thrown out please so that I too can get on with converting people to universalism? Its a sword that is being forged precisely to prevent this ideological conversion.
Dayan Jayatileke writes-
"To each his or her own. If some states wish to shape their policies towards sir Lanka on the basis of the Tamil Diaspora, that’s their prerogative. Sri Lanka’s national interest and national security cannot be shaped by someone else’s ethnic lobbies. The Sri Lankan state owes its primary responsibility to its citizens, of all ethnic and religious groups." - Is the Sri Lankan governement fullfilling this resposibilty to all ethnic and religous groups?
"Meanwhile the duty of the state and government is to have an open dialogue with all of its citizens as represented primarily by political parties, and various citizens groups."
-Is this possible when journalist a shot on the streets and locked up for using a mobile phone?
Its pure fantasy to speculate on alternatives without considering the actual ground realities. Who fooling whom?
Hi Ho Mr Dayan,
Do not under estimate our diospora tamil brothers and sisters. We never let down our home land and brothers and sisters of tamil ealam which we belong to, no matter what argument you give end up in carbage of civilized world. Sinhala brutality against our people slowly coming out old man. Let me tell you I never beleived in separate homland for tamils in Srilanka, but after mahinda and his modaya gang no matter your advice these ruthless brothers I come to the conclusion ealam Tamils need their own country.
I will tell if your government do not respect tamil wishhes future leader of tamils will be ruthless than Our beloved leader Methagu Velupilla Pirabakaran.
Dear Aratai,
The 20,000 Sinhala soldiers, their mothers and fathers, and the vast majority of sinhala people, preferred the present outcome to the ISGA-PTOMS. This is evident in the increased recruitment to the military, the morale of the soldier as evident in their performance, and the repeated electoral defeats of Ranil's UNP. And looking at the present situation, who can say they were wrong?
Dear Veera,
Your Mr Prabhakaran's ruthlessness has not got him very far has it? Look at the pathetic mess he is in , in contrast to the maoist guerrilla leaders. so if you prodce someone more ruthless than him, we will be even better off. And we might produce someone more ruthless than Gen Fonseka. What will you do then?
Dear Crazyoldmansl,
You write: "Your synthetic patriot is a non starter. Its just too late. It is impossible to be a nationalist yet multi ethnic multi religious, modernist universalizing !!!!!" That's stuff and nonsense. Look at lakshman kadirgamar, kethesh Loganathan, Vijaya Kumaratunga, Leslie Gunawardene, Pieter keuenemen, Sarath Muttetuwegama, Mervyn de silva, lakshman wickremesinghe, Denzil Kobbekaduwe, Neville kanakaratne, Shirley Amerasinghe...I could go on and fill this box.
As for whatever the education system has done to my mind it certainly has not prevented an essay in the International Journal of Zizek Studies which groups and assesses my book on the ethics of Violence together with the latest work by Slavoj Zizek and Alain Badiou, nor has it prevented my work being positively reviewed by an Emeritus Professor at the London School of Economics. I wonder if the same can be said of you, old man.
And as for the charge of being brainwashed by Sinhala Buddhist ideology, the silliness of that claim is best evidenced by the fact that the Ziek Studies journal article I refer to , groups the work of Zizek, Badiou and myself as "Christian Communist". So much for brainwashing by sinhala Buddhist ideology!
It is interesting that dayan jayatilleke has shifted his role model from Cuba to Singapore now. It reminds me of Rohan Gunaratne ( sooth sayer or terrorrism expert depends on how one discerns him ) shifted his position from a Chandrika loyalist ( one of the former adviser to Chandrika ) and eventually landed a plumb job which only clinically deals with how to be an expert on terrorism without the basic character needed to be a principled human understanding the root causes of conflicts and how to prempt them without state terror or to resolve it through International law and International organisations.
Basing on what Dayan has quoted about Professor Mahubani and Professor Tommy Koh it looks like he has superficial knowledge about these learned people and the political system and the leadership that nurtured and groomed them to the pragmatic need of Singapore. Although both were career diplomats and have their own strengths both are unique and can not be compared.
It is sad that Dayan failed to compare the constitution of Singapore to that of Ceylon ( which had a head start since 1931. Also in the early days of Singapore Ceylon was regarded as a model for certain aspects of good governance) and later Republich of Srilanka . Dayan also fialed comapre the fundamentals on which PAP Singapore came to power and todate by and large practising that fundamnetals, to that of the fundamentals on which SLFP was formed and came to power and UNP was formed and came to power.There was no dearth of intellectuals when the majoritarian ( two thirds or above ) parties lead Srilanka with constitutions written by the so called Srilanka experts.
What is important is not the number of these intellectuals or the race or religion or cast or creed or pro western or pro eastern but the character, integrity and the conscience to be righteous. The PAP and its founder members or the old guards led by LKY has all the necessary ingredients. That is the truth.
When communities can not get along the best way to go is to go their own way and in my opinion Singapore Malaysia parting ways paved for modern Singapore emerge as a friedly neighbour to Malaysia and now to be quoted by the likes of Dayan Jayatilleke and Rohan Gunaratne who have beenjustifying the war against Tamils for their Sinhala Buddhist existential theory echoing the sentiments of Sarath Fonseka and Gothapaya. Never adovocated that non violent non state terror political solution through UN would have made LTTE's seprate state demand redundnant and majority of the Tamils would have made LTTE to change course.
The way things are going now both mahinda regime and Indian regime have hidden agenda in imposing a solution on the Tamils after crushing the Tamils' armed struggle.
Sorry to be frank but my sixth sense suggest ( it may be wrong ) that there may be a possibility that dayan is vying for a plum job in Singapore through Rohan Gunaratne or trying woo east asian countries to support the mahinda regime in imposing a Sinhalese solution on Tamils with the partnership of India and Tamil quislings from NE.
I hope the editor post this personal comments from me.
I sincerely hope
I quote - "The impact of the Sinhala Buddhist Nationalist ideology on the intelligence of the island's people has done far more damage than the LTTE has and ever can do."
Bravo old man. Just in one brief sentence you have summarized the problems in our island home and named a disease that has afflicted so many people from the ordinary ones to the intelectuals or "intelectuals".Even in the debates and discussions of these issues many of them seem so blinded by this condition that even the ordinary courtesies of civilized debate have been abandoned.Childish name calling, vicious personal attacks,hysterical ourbursts and comical posturings seem to be the chosen tactic.I,for my part,as a student of Buddhism, cannot allow these ideas and practises to be called "Buddhist".It is more of a local perversion of the doctrines of the enlightened one.I am afraid there is no redemption from this Sri Lankan condition for a long time--if ever.
Rajan Karalsingham
This article is amusing at best. The only thing Sri Lanka had to do to "move forward" is accept federalism in 1948. After all, this is the secret behind India's success. Compare, for example, the states of Bihar and Kerala - you will see that Kerala is light years ahead. If, however, the Central Government had chosen to hog all the powers for itself, you would find both Bihar and Kerala to be in shambles.
Without focusing on this key issue, Dayan Jayatilleke instead chooses to speculate on some nonsense about an "elite class." "Elite classes" do not move a nation forward. The reason behind the success of China, India, Korea, and Japan has to do with the creation of a highly skilled class of intellectuals. None of these countries relies on pedophile tourism or the slave labor of indentured servants (tea-estate workers) to boost their economies. But to create such a class of intellectuals, one must first of all have a responsible Government. If the Government is compromised of 109 buffoons and yellow-robed hoodlums who spout racist filth on the floor of Parliament, the intellectuals will flee the country as fast as they conceivably can. This leads to the "brain-drain." Which is the real reason behind Sri Lanka's demise.
So let me explain this another way. Federalism gives people freedom. When people have freedom, they can "think" rationally. When people can "think" properly, they are productive. Stuff people behind barbed wire, colonize their villages with Sinhalese prison convicts, turn Jaffna into an open prison, have white vans roaming at random through Colombo... yes, people WILL think - they will think how to fight back!
You are right,
Sri Lanka's national interest and security cannot be shaped by somebody else's ethnic lobbies. Because Tamils dosen't belong to Srilanka. They are from Tamil Nation called EELAM.
Firstly, I wonder if it occurs to Dayan Jayatilleke that PC Vinoj Kumar is trying to stir resentment among the Tamil diaspora and other LTTE supporters by suggesting an automatic dynastic succession along the lines of various dictatorial regimes.
Secondly, the question the wider world is looking at is not whether Tamils and Sinhalese can live together happily ever after, but how the island of Lanka can serve its strategic (military and economic) interests.
The issue under consideration then is stability - stability at any cost, for there is now a sense of urgency since the world is as it were speeding up.
So under this motive the answer is a straightforward YES: the future of Lanka will certainly be shaped with reference to the influence of the Tamil diaspora.
And under the neo-colonial regime, in good time (and probably with a lot more bloodshed) the Sinhala-Buddhist extremists will be sidelined and they will be made to feel inferior as they did during the earlier colonial times.
Furthermore the Sinhala-Buddhists presently in power together with the other Sinhala nationalists/SriLankan patriots are of course ill regarded and not at all cosmopolitan or 'westernised'. (And these are also the very ones who killed off the possibility of any hope of a meritocracy in post colonial Ceylon.)
How soon the next steps are taken will depend on the results of the Indian elections.
Don't forget that even the GOSL war against the LTTE depends on external factors.
Dayan,
You never answer my previous questions? May be you have no answer to give. Tell me How many of your children fighting in front line? You don’t know the pain of our sinhala poor soldiers. Again I introduced myself, used to be soldier in srilankan army( officer). I fought for my country, which i believed its right. When I left, I did break my contract and left my mother land. You know why? we were fighting against our own people may be they speak different language and religion, we misguided and fighting for certain classes of sinhala society. After long research we treated them differently since independence, which you never going to agree. Now you and your gang misguiding our own sinhala people. You should know now why they expelled london times journalist? They are hiding war crimes in our own country. Did you see channel 4 documentry? clearly a brutal war crime? I still have contacts with my friends in army, some of them are against this brutality. They agreed civilians were affected by this shelling and bomping, thay cant do anything because high commands order. What they have in mind total annihilation of tamil people. We all know LTTE hiding behind tamil civilians, responsible govt should not behave like barbarians.
I will tell you do not defend GOSL, as a sinhala myself shame my self behaviour of this thuggish govt. Let tamils rule themselves within united srilanka or separation is inevitable.
Dear Dayan,
The last bunch who made it were a good twenty years senior to me. There were plenty of them around then and it was a pleasure to interact with them. All of them saw the logic of the Sinhala Buddhist Nationalist project and its likely consequences and they never hesitated to speak out against it which they could since its fascist nature was nascent and had still not come into bloom. I can add that most of them are dead and what they stood for has been steam rollered into oblivion by the Sinhala Buddhist Nationalist project.
So it takes Ziek Studies Journal - in the absence of any comment from the US state department - to tell you who you are!
Fortunately I do not need reviews positive or otherwise from anyone to know the worth of my own life and work - and so am not beholden to any such reviews and reviewers.
If you are not comfortable with the Sinhala Buddhist Nationalist project then distance yourself from it and make your criticism of it clear.
Its time you took a clear stand and dropped the love of killing.
to the person who is trying to be a Sinhalese without even the slightest idea of how a Sinhalese name should spell!! there had never been a roshnn or a wicremesinge in Sri Lanka. Stop trying to "SHOW" you are a Sinhalese because you are not. Look buddy, you've never set your foot in a war area for sure! What do you know about the situation in North of SL? oh....let me tell you....nothing, zero, zilch...... If you want to barrack for the murderous LTTE bunch, do it as a Tamil which you are.
I don't pretend to be an Army personnel who knows what's going on in north of SL, because I'm not. But I know what the LTTE blew up the most sacred place to all of us Buddhists. That alone is enough to annihilate every single LTTE terrorist including the supporters like you.
I have no children of mine fighting in north, but I have a brother fighting the war for the last fifteen years, a cousin one who had fought as a STF for ten years, his brother who was badly hurt in fighting the terrorists five years ago, and over ten class mates who sacrificed their lives for the country.
By the way, you said you were fighting in north, where were you? can you spell the name of the regiment you were serving? .....let me guess, you can't...
Mr.dayan,
You must thank Binladen for your present situation old man. War on terror policy suited sinhala mahind barbarians. I will tel you old man you are living in fantacy world, without indian help you never move one inch of our beloved land. Ltte made so many mistakes i agree but you and your thuggish govt done very good think for tamils. They are more united ever before. Time will come you will regret. Not to worry who ever responsible for this genocide against our people will be punished in due course. wait for that day.
Mr.dayan,
You must thank Binladen for your present situation old man. War on terror policy suited sinhala mahind barbarians. I will tel you old man you are living in fantacy world, without indian help you never move one inch of our beloved land. Ltte made so many mistakes i agree but you and your thuggish govt done very good think for tamils. They are more united ever before. Time will come you will regret. Not to worry who ever responsible for this genocide against our people will be punished in due course. wait for that day.
Hi Dayan
I just missed your retort because I don’t live by writing gibberish to hoodwink people from both sides of the divide. Quoting from all sorts of dead languages you are on a mission to imitate that you are an intellectual. Right Grammar or not you have very well understood that I have exposed your nudity in my previous post. That is the last resort all the immoral people are taking cover of.
Remember when Gen.Fonseka exposed the hideous scheme behind the proposed removal of HSZ (high security zones) during the infamous Sathis Nambiar visit, couple of do-gooders in your ilk tried the same prank, to divert attention to some language irregularity and push the dirt under the carpet. Fonny stood his ground and survived to save mother Lanka. Looks you are hurt and bad at that.
You have been time and again quoting a Mervin De Silva, a so called genius as your father. How come Silva has a son by Jayathilleke? That speaks volumes to your dishonesty and changing colours to suit the occasion. Either you are ashamed to be a Silva or anything is possible with a character like you. The day Jayathilleke going to be a Rajapaksa may not be very far. Come on give me a break. Military Intelligence needs to take a close look at what’s happening at Geneva under diplomatic cover.
The incumbents at all chapters need to be educated about a man with a hidden cross insulting great Anagarika Dharmapala with utter contempt is at a vital point of our foreign mission.
Prbhakaran has taken a vow to kill all the Sinhalese. We have no worries about that because he is a Tamil. He is our sworn enemy and we know how to deal with him. But a Jayathilleke/Silva is a viper in the bush and pretending to be with us.
You may be able to write hosannas to MR, Lakshaman DA and Gotabhaya. Let me remind you once again that your double games with Chandrika, Sanjana, and like minded culprits are very well noted. Once again Giruvapattuwa man who had the patience to wait for 40 years to take control knows when to dump. So keep counting your days.
Sincerely
Wasantha ultra Sinhala Chauvinist
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DJ,
Today's reality is that if Rajapakse's have to make a choice between You and Karuna ( who ordered the killing of 600 sinhalese policemen, Tamil MP Joseph Pararajasingham, .....), their pick is KARUNA.
Am I right?
:-)
“The Sri Lankan state owes its primary responsibility to its citizens” Mmmm. If this was so in its fullest essence, there would have been no internal onflict. We are at each others throat for the very absence of this reality. Together with “British Tamils” “Tamil Americans” do lump in the “Sinhala Americans” – both naturalized and PR card carrying – as well. One of the latter variety is running riot in matters Defence, yet another talks matters concerning the life and death of 20 million Lankans with crucial foreign countries whereas he lacks locus standi and still another leads an army of 200,000 armed to the teeth but unable to “finish off a few hundreds poorly armed barefoot LTTErs” As to “Sri Lanka’s national and security interests cannot be influenced by somebody else” applies in general terms, the example of Tanzania’s Julius Nyerere invading
neighbouring Uganda to oust the near-lunatic Idi Amin under the OAU flag - not only to save the captive Ugandans under Amin’s military dictatorship - but also “to rid Tanzania of a serious and continuing head-ache” was one that engaged the prompt approval of both the African countries and the world. Until Morgan Tsangarai stepped in and took over Zimbabwe as PM recently, that … disaster Robert Mugabe was about to get the same treatment – with due approval of the world. The safety valve of sovereignty does not absolve a tottering or rogue government from destroying a country or killing a part of its civilian citizens over a period of time – totally ignoring global condemnation. By the way, it is cruel and unbecoming to generalize our “Westernised elite as being servile to the West” There have been dozens of them while being “westernized” were more loyal and patriotic to the country than the pseudo variety that hi-jacked both Parliament and the Sinhala polity. I certainly would like to know of those servile to the West - a strong allegation of a group of fine Lankans who had always done us proud.
Ilaya Seran Senguttuvan
Hi Aratai
Do you have to ask this question from Dr.Who Dayan. Your choice, Karuna is absolutely correct.
Karuna as a dedicated soldier, for a cause he thought right, fought against the rogues with high ranking epaulets – school drop outs- in SL army and made all of them string puppets. Including his old buddies Dennis Pereiras. Probably when he found the futility of fighting, if that’s what he believes now, changed his mind. Only time will tell whether he is genuine in his new thinking.
But this is a man who is an expert in the art of Chameleonism. If not for anything else he is entitled to an honorary Doctor of Science from Timbuktoo for this speciality with exclusive patent rights.
Karuna not only killed 600 pows or those who surrendered, which is a heinous crime. If George Bush can live as a hero after killing more than a million in Iraq and still encouraging to kill many more millions why not a rehabilitated Karuna. He stands miles ahead of Dr.Double Agent.
Sam and Jayatilake
You are too posh to meet/chat with frontline army cadets. I had to cross army checkpoints every 50 meters in Jaffna to go to University. These cadets look very young and vulnerable especially in their civilian clothes. Most of them join the forces due to poverty, not patriotism. Let me give you an example- There was an army cadet in my neighrbourhood area, who got admission to University, however joined the force on 2-3 year contract to earn some money to contnue his studies. same story with LTTe cadets, most of them are from eastern province ( villages near sinhala settlement areas-witnessed atrocities of sinhala thugs). Very tiny percentage of children from leading Jaffna schools joined the LTTE. Both sides are exploiting poor youngsters to achieve our goals. I don't think corrupted politicians and military personnel will ever let this war end. All their children study in english medium and do their degrees in abroad, e.g- Army officer from middle class managed to send his 3 children abroad, paying 60 000 pounds as tuttion fees, how does he manage to earn.
Alas, Mr Jayatilleke appears to be an exemplar of the mirroring of Tamil society by educated Sinhalese; just as liberal Tamils gave space to fascist militants in the belief that "liberation" would be worth the cost, so to have the even more liberal Sinhalese decided that "geographical unity" is worth the "Nazification" of Sinhalese politics (in style if not in actions)...
...for what are the strategic differences between the current SLFP/JHU/NFF combine and the Nazis? Both came to power through a quirk of their voting systems (the SLFP because the LTTE stopped the Tamils from voting, the Nazis because Hitler was the only candidate whom the larger parties could agree on), both have shut down dissent in the name of "patriotism", both follow policies that are Nationalist & Socialist in terms of wealth creation & distribution.
Just as the LTTE "means" hampered the "ends" they sought I suspect that so too the "means" being employed by this govt (the "at all costs" military campaign directed at the LTTE but affecting Tamil civilians, religious minorities of all races and Sinhalese dissents in the press and parliament) will ruin Sri Lanka's emergence as a plural, liberal and developing society.
My fervent hope is that Mr Jayatilleke will see that whilst the defeat of the LTTE is a necessity for peace, it is the means by which it is done (and the suffering inflicted on the civilians caught in the middle) that will actually decide true victory. The loud but ultimately futile lobbying of the diaspora may catch the headlines right now but they will have no impact so long as the SL govt/army do not sow the seeds for a new rebellion amongst the "ruled" peoples of the north by creating too many vengeful parents, siblings & children.
ABOUT WASANTHA RANAGALA's ESSAY: I havt thought until now that
in Sri Lanka this kind racism has been the exclusive province of educated people:you know, people from the former Civil Service,those with Ph.d's in engineering or physics or sociology from foreign universities or the various self-glorifying graduates from the local campuses.Mr Ranagala proves that I was wrong:One can be ignorant,illiterate,incoherent and ungrammatical and still be a chauvinist!!
Rajan
"you are too posh to meet/chat with frontline army cadets"
Aren't you talking out of your a.... You have seen, but I have members of my family with over 30 years combined experience fighting your beloved tigers.one of them have shrapnel embedded in his body which can not be removed. And I have written earlier that I have lost friends as well. How can I be too posh is hard to comprehend. You want examples? I'll give you ten mate. but I'm not here to prove it to LTTE supporters like you.
Anyway, it's good to see you have dropped your "FAKE" Sinhalese ID and just being anonymous. stick to it.
Here's a one for you, your so called "beloved leader" sent his children to study in Europe! How did he manage that?
Wasantha Ranagala writes "Remember when Gen.Fonseka exposed the hideous scheme behind the proposed removal of HSZ (high security zones) during the infamous Sathis Nambiar visit, couple of do-gooders in your ilk tried the same prank, to divert attention to some language irregularity and push the dirt under the carpet. Fonny stood his ground and survived to save mother Lanka."
Now this clown has not read The Island during that period, because if he did he would have seen the number of articles under my name, supporting Gen Fonseka on precisely this issue...which The Island editors illustrated with pictures of the General. The moron also does not know that for all those years I was an invited lecturer at every military academy and in the joint programme of the US Special Forces and the Sri Lankan Special Forces.
And can't this illiterate lout take some classes in English while he is in Australia so his readers such as myself can I understand sentences such as this one? "The incumbents at all chapters need to be educated about a man with a hidden cross insulting great Anagarika Dharmapala with utter contempt is at a vital point of our foreign mission". No wonder the pro-Tiger Tamil lobby is doing so much better worldwide than the Wasantha Ranagala types. At least they speak and write granmnatically and therefore can get into the international media, which is the important new battlefield!
Dear M Thiru,
whether it is Cuba or Singapore, we must learn from all good examples. As Demg Hsiao Peng, a veteran Marxist said, it does not matter if the cat is black or white so long as it catches mice.
Dear Dinesh,
No country in asia has modernized and advanced faster than China, which is not federal but unitary. Go put that in your pipe and smoke it.
Dear Crazyoldmansl,
At least I don't pat myself on the back with smug self satisfaction, unlike you. It takes an objective view of someone credentialed, to satisfy me.
Dear Aratai,
MR doesn't have top choose between me and karuna as I was one of those who supported the Karuna rebellion from the outset. Of course, for the North, I have long supported Douglas.
roshann wicremesinge
I'm an Eelam Thamil , Sorry I can not lyre to say I'm Srilankan Tamil, But I can say loudly & clearly I'm Lanka Puththa ( Ilankai Makan).
Thanks you for your comments
Yes We can live together in a one country that is United states of Lanka.
Hi Dayan jayatilleka
Ref:more ruthless than Gen Fonseka
Please do not take me wrong I'm a your contry man (left to UK 1983 u know why) as you are a responsiblty person in our society please do not answer like the above to one of your angry Tamil country man.
put the blam on VP & try to create a United Lanka!
Anonymous,
Also LTTE leaders (socalled freedom fighters) sent their children to western countries.