Tamils "very vulnerable" without political leadership
"Many of the grievances that fueled the conflict have not been met yet, and the question is what incentive does the [Sri Lanka] government have now that they have to reach out and begin reconciliation," said Dr Deepa Ollapally, Deputy Director at the Sigur Center at George Washington to an interview to Foreign Exchange TV, and added that without political leadership Tamils are "very vulnerable."
Associate director of The Sigur Center for Asian Studies at George Washington University discusses the latests developments and the future of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka
3 Comments
*** Many of the grievances that fueled the conflict have not been met yet, ***
She is just another LTTE PARROT (but she has a PhD) Nothing she says differs from what the LTTE have been repeating Ad Nauseum. She can only talk about Grievances of yester-year... Not one of today (BECAUSE THERE ARE NONE!!!!)
FASCIST DICTATORSHIP is not Leadership. For the past 25 years under Velupillai Prabhakaran and the LTTE,... Tamils were told to OPEN THEIR MOUTHS ONLY FOR FOOD..... The Tamils had LESS THAN ZERO when it came to Leadership before... so therefore even an Absence of Leadership (ZERO) is better than where they were in the past.
and by the way,....Tamils don't need Tamils to be their leadership. They can vote for anyone willing to look out for their best interests... just as they do so readily in the Diaspora countries they live...
The interviewer is correct when she states that the Government won the war...so guess what ... you take what has to be offered or Leave. Sri Lanka does not Owe Tamils anything, we do not owe them AUTOMONY or DEVOLUTION. These are not LEGITIMATE GRIEIVANCES... They were POLITICAL PIPE DREAMS...
Thanks Deepa for your concern over Tamils living in Srilanka. Most of the Tamil leadership in Srilanka were wiped out by LTTE. However the remaining Tamil leaders such as Anandasangaree, Douglas Devananda and Karinaammam provide good leadership to Tamils living in Srilanka. Unfortunately Elam Diaspora don't have any good leadership.
Thanks for articulating the plight of Tamils in Sri Lanka so well. It should however be noted, although the Second Republican Constitution of Sri Lanka of 1978 makes the Tamil language an official language, it has never been implemented as such. Tamil language is official language only on paper for the last twenty one years. Likewise, there will be a lot of noise made about concessions to Tamils but they will only ever be empty promises and will never be implemented in true spirit. Once the international community's attention moves away from the problem, it will all go back to square one. To give you an example, if you want to make an entry with the police your statement would only be recorded in Sinhala, whether you understand Sinhala or not. If you are charged by the police, rightly or wrongly, your statement would only be recorded in Sinhala. That should tell you the measure of the implementation of the Tamil language provision in the Constitution of Sri Lanka. Please do not take what the Sinhala governments tell you at face value. There is no value in what they say, on matters relating to the Tamils!
You are absolutely right to point out that the Tamils very vulnerable without the 'excellent leadership' they had that had been wiped out owing to the carelessness and inefficiency of the international community. One sincerely hopes that the international community would provide adequate protection, against the Sinhala racist government, for the Tamils to lead an independent and peaceful life with security and dignity in the island of Sri Lanka!