The absence of thinking in Tamil politics
by Dayan Jayatilleka
Of course I do not mean that there is no thinking among Tamils as a community, still less that Tamils cannot think! Nor am I complaining that there is an absence of systematic ideas and ideologies in Tamil politics.
That’s hardly a priority and could be a blessing. What I do mean is that there is no thinking through, in the sense of serious exercise of the faculties of intelligence and analysis, in Tamil politics. It may be said that the same is true if not truer of Sinhala politics, but then again, the Sinhalese need it less, thanks to demographic advantages and factor endowments, with the proof of the pudding being in the eating: the Tamil community is in far worse shape than the Sinhalese.
The absence of thinking is best evidenced in the refusal to accept reality and in the unreality of the attitudes and aims that manifest themselves in Tamil politics. This is true of the past as it is today. Examine the call for "balanced representation" or what is commonly referred to as fifty: fifty. How could anyone, including the British colonial power, accept a demand for reverse discrimination, wherein the combined minorities would have more representation than their numbers warranted, when it could not be demonstrated that the said minorities had suffered from a history of deprivation which is the sole justification for affirmative action?
Then let us take the refusal to accept anything less than the permanent merger of the Northern and eastern provinces as they are currently constituted, thereby ruling out either re-demarcation or referendum. This obduracy stymied a settlement in 1986 with Indian mediation. It made for an Accord with an Achilles heel, the merger subject to a referendum – while the opposition to a referendum opened up the giant loophole which the Supreme Court under Chief Justice Sarath N Silva, currently a supporter of the joint Opposition’s Presidential candidate, drove a cart and horses through, effecting a de-merger. The ridiculousness of the Tamil stand is best evidenced by the fact that the Good Friday agreement, which does NOT grant the Northern Irish Catholics the merger with the South they always wanted, is subject to interlocking referenda, including in the UK as a whole. Will any Tamil politician risk referenda in the Eastern province and all-island on the issue of the Northeast merger?
The LTTE and the TNA’s refusal to accept any version of President Kumaratunga’s quasi-federal political package and the Tigers boycott of the April 2003 Tokyo conference, just to mention two instances, betrayed a total absence of lucidity. The Diaspora’s decision to demonstrate under the Tiger flag in 2009, achieving visibility and nothing else, or rather, only a negative visibility which helped the GOSL case, contrasted with the diversity in the anti-Gaza War demonstrations world-wide, which achieved the severance of DPL ties between several Latin American nations and Israel. Most ludicrous was the strong sense among Tamils that India should intervene to stop Sri Lanka’s military operations and save the self-same Prabhakaran who had not even sought forgiveness for the murder of a former Prime minister of India who was the son of an illustrious Prime Minister and the grandson of an iconic world figure. As the kids say: "HELL-LO?!"
Obviously the Tamil polity, especially in the Diaspora, just wasn’t thinking. That’s not because of a lack of brains but because fanaticism scrambles or aborts rational thought processes. It must be observed though, that we know since Wilhelm Reich, that it takes a certain kind of collective mind, of collective psyche, to be so susceptible to fanaticism for so long and in the face of such overwhelming evidence. Collective Tamil delusion is so strong that it has not been definitively punctured by the conclusive defeat at Nandikadal, which decorated war veteran John Kerry’s Report rightly observes, was "one of the few instances in modern history in which a terrorist group had been defeated militarily.
Most pertinent to the future of Sri Lanka’s Tamils and that of the island as a whole is the prism of delusion through which most – but not all – Tamils seem to regard the 13th amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution. The TULF rejected the 13th amendment. The EPRLF took office in the Northeast provincial council in late 1988, having stated that it didn’t suffice and pledging to re-open negotiations. What was not understood was the plain truth that was being written in blood on Southern streets, namely that there was a huge upsurge of social opinion against the amendment which also barely squeaked past the Supreme Court. Nothing more was possible, not only because of the confines of the Jayewardene Constitution but because of public opposition.
The 13th amendment was as good as it could get and the South was in a state of civil war over it, with the finest of Sinhala progressives, Vijaya Kumaratunga having lost his life in its defense. With almost no exceptions, the Tamils didn’t get it. What they should have done was to support the Indian state in the effort to implement the 13th amendment, in a sustained triangular partnership with the Sri Lankan state and whichever the elected government in Colombo; not embarrass and delegitimize by attempting to force the pace, calling itself a "provincial government" instead of a "provincial council" or "provincial administration". The upshot of this adventurism was the dissolution of the Provincial council. In later years the de-merger took place, while the North has no functioning provincial administration to this day.
What the Tamil polity needs to realize are the following facts:
1. The 1978 Constitution of JR Jayewardene came into being when public opinion was far less ethnocentric than it is today. It is therefore far more modern and pluralist than any Constitution that is likely to be produced currently.
2. The 13th amendment was the maximum that resulted when the balance of forces was far more favorable to the Tamils than it is today:(i) July 83 had generated considerable legitimacy for the Tamil cause, (ii) Rajiv Gandhi had not been murdered by the main Tamil organization, (iii) India was more actively supportive of and sympathetic to the Tamil cause than it is today, (iv) there was a strongly pro-devolution progressive movement and supportive left-liberal intelligentsia in the South, and (v) the Tamil armed struggle had not been militarily crushed.
3. As the abject failure of external attempts to stop the war short of the decimation of the Tigers reveals, there is no factor or combination of factors that can compensate for and over-ride the balance of forces that prevails today, a balance which does not make for qualitatively more autonomy. Nothing can remotely compare with 70,000 Indian troops on Sri Lankan soil, and the 13th amendment was the best they could extract/push through.
4. It is highly probable that the current, postwar, post-military victory balance of forces could make for the rollback of reforms inscribed on the statute books during an earlier period. There are powerful chauvinist forces calling for such roll back, while those calling for the preservation or extension of autonomy are decidedly weaker than they were in 1987-8.
5. Any reopening of the question to the extent that it requires a plebiscitary process could doom the system of provincial autonomy, sweeping it away as the changed mood in Sinhala society, manifested in the higher judiciary, did the "merger"
What would be the consequences then, of the refusal by mainstream Tamil nationalism, to refuse to accept the 13th amendment and strive to work it? "Compassion fatigue" for one: as the US Senate’s Committee on Foreign Relations report demonstrates, a new ratio of strategic self-interest to human rights and humanitarian concerns will, in a multi-polar Asian environment, increasingly determine international policy towards Sri Lanka, especially post election.
There is a far more deleterious prospect, stemming from a grim reality: the realists (EPDP, PLOT, EPRLF, and EROS) within the Tamil political space are a minority, unlike in the case of the Palestinians, where the moderate Fatah dominated PLO heads the Palestinian Authority. In the Irish case too, it is the realist Sinn Fein rather than the fanatical IRA splinters that carried the day. Thus it would have been inexcusable for the UK Government to plead that it had no peace partner, and it is inexcusable for the Israelis to do so. In the Sri Lankan case though, if the South feels that realists like Devananda and Siddharthan have been marginalized and that Tamil politics hasn’t given up its maximalist mindset, then there would emerge a consensus that there is no viable Tamil partner with whom to build a durable, inclusionary peace. In turn, this would leave room for unilateralism.
That could please the Tamil extremists especially in the Diaspora who have absorbed a Zionist "next year in Tamil Eelam" attitude. This is a mindset of "the worse it gets the better it is", because "the world will see the reality and grant us Tamil Eelam someday". This is the same kind of atrocious miscalculation that has characterized Tamil politics from "balanced representation" to the ISGA. This thinking is unhistorical in the extreme. The Balfour declaration was possible because British colonialism controlled the relevant area in the aftermath of the defeat of the Ottoman Empire. Jewish migration would not have been possible in a sovereign Arab state with exclusive territorial control by its armed forces. The flood gates were opened, and there was international legitimacy for the setting up of a Jewish state after the Holocaust. None of these conditions obtain or are likely to. Sri Lanka is in Asia. The closest approximation—if one can be contrived for the sake of argument—of the trauma suffered by the Jews in Germany was in July 1983, and the Accord and the 13th amendment resulted. It doesn’t get any better than that. Therefore, the best counsel anyone can give the Tamil polity is "13th amendment: Use it or lose it!"
Marx defined ‘ideology’ as ‘false consciousness’ in which "man and his circumstances appear upside down, as if in a camera obscura". Except for a clutch of Tamil leftists linked to the Sinhala progressive stream and interacting with the state, the Tamils have seen themselves, the Sinhalese and their objective circumstances upside down as if in a camera obscura, therefore almost permanently formulating erroneous strategies and tactics. If the Sri Lankan tragedy is a tale of contending "false consciousnesses"of two constituent collectivities, the record of results and achievement shows that in relation to objective circumstances there is no "false consciousness" at work in this drama quite as false as the collective Tamil consciousness. ". Nowhere is a Truth Commission more imperative than within the Tamil community itself!
What then should the Tamils do? Roll over and play dead? Nope. They should shift modes and models, and take as example the smartest, most realistic and successful of the island’s Tamil politicians, S. Thondaman. A proud, upright leader who took no nonsense from any Sinhalese and was never trifled with by strong Presidents such as Jayewardene, Premadasa and Kumaratunga (all of whom treated him with respect), he managed to take his people out of the depths of disenfranchisement without losing a single life. He knew how to get the better of and the best out of the Sinhalese, not bring out the worst!
60 Comments
In todays world, the migration and intermingling of ethnicities and communities is a fact as portrayed by the existance of the Diaspora itself. Even in Sri Lanka we have the freedom to move, buy properties, settle down and live in whatever area we choose.
Colombo is a good example of a cosmopolitan society where all communities and ethnicities have learnt to live in harmony and co-exist side by side. This is for the common good of the individual, his community and nation as a whole. Therefore the requirement for a separate homeland and various historical arguments brought forward to support it do not hold good any longer.
The only hitch is when Governments try to forcefully change the demography of areas by implementing covert policies in collusion with extreme racist parties like the NPF and JHU. This results in the breaking down of trust between communities and gives rise to demands for homelands etc. So the reason for the uncompromising attitudes of people is mainly due to the breaking down of trust. It is easy to destroy but difficult to construct. Building trust between racial groups requires a Sincere Effort by a Credible Government and no amount of false promises, buying up of politicians by offering positions and plums of office can achieve this.
Hello Prof.Dayan,
Once again you are wasting your time by preaching to the converted.Why don't you get back to teaching at Colombo?
Sarath is going to win on the 26th and there is a very good chance that Prof.Uyan will end up in the cabinet.You will not get another chance to occupy the Chair of Political Sciences at Colombo.You are still a young man and please don't waste your time betting on the wrong horse.
Cheers,
Siva
Dayan makes some good points,
but there is never any honest thinking form the many tamil factions,
can they be trusted?
most tamils who speak freely do not think so.
they live all over the world,
their mind is not in the vanni,
it is for the outcast tamils, like the low caste rejected slaves that they abused at will for many years,
and want to do the same,
there is money to develop the vanni area, for tamils and all other lankans.
they must learn to live in peace.
There is no real intellect in the current group,
let us not hesitate to point this out,
many want to control the money that is diffusely distributed
and there is more money in fostering terrorism
as we have clearly seen for 30-40 yrs
Once a group is enslaved in the embedded idea, that what they think ,however ludicrous, can be rammed down the throats of people,
whom they think are
the so called very low caste,
who will bend and twist like a pretzel,
in the presence of the so called, delusional high caste.
we have comea long way with the basic casteless society,
where hardly any real intellect from thee majority community will marry based on case, race, ethnic origin orreligion.
just take a count of the next 25 sri lankans you meet[not the terrorist supporters]
you will see the diversity
of the past 2-3 generations,
north, east, north east, north west
extremee north, islands and other areas,
were the communal and lunatic ideas of the british
and tamils who licked their boots[etc] just to get some favours,
the british just wanted to be told they were great[not that naked, but with a good dress]
and most of the british who came here[with a few exceptions]
did not read the signs clearly[just counted on the traitors ,giving titles, cash, place to study, liberate from illiteracy, labelled non bastards,
etc.
Britian still prostitutes the honours, knight hooods[for any hood]
if the cash their to
grase the party and the greedy royalty[nothing has changed, just the fools who grase well, and knows how to stay ahead of the game]
the lankans shall, and will want all to be lankans not pariyas, low caste tamils or not so low cast tamils etc,
we according to the dominant world philosophy
in spite of all cults ,gods[over 100,000, more to come] beliefs, myths, ideas etc,
still believe firmly that man[wonam too] is born free,
is only labelled by ones action
and not by birth right.
conduct a study among 100,000 really intellectual people
and you will find this to dominate thinking[though their myth, and other beliefs, forces them to publicly state something to keep the powers, deluded,
we are all the same,
all of one family
those who are live
,and in the animal and human kingdon,
we have no boundaries, no limits
we shouldand can funstion among ourselves
though all of us act like idiots
with our fiem, false beliefss, at times,
until we reach a higher state of mind
and are free to think, without the effect of the body, to limit our thinking.
tamil terrorists are going through thisstate of
recovery, reasoning,
realization,
and learn about dependant originations, its conteol
and control of ones mind
and progress,
to some it is far away,
to others,this isa place for temporary
survival of the body, and its cessation,
that iscertainly due to come
and the most certain thing in all
conflicts of the mind and the body.
gods, karma, humans, intellect and all other forces,
sould help our poor humans
they deserve it
and cannot navigate these situations without a great deal of help.
humans deceive them too much ,for their own benefits,
and thats where terrorists are caughts in.
Dear Siva,
Wanna bet? I suppose this is the same kind of calculation that led to nandikadal and menik farms?
Well Said Dayan. I am a regular reader of your articles. I am a Tamil who think practically. We as Tamils are emotional. We have to be practical now and work with MR. I am sure MR did what he has to do to get rid of LTTE. There are good people died during that time. Now we need to support MR (as moderate) to get 13th amendment first then step by step we can negotiate with government to get what Tamils needed. Tamils had enough. Tamil Diaspora killed LTTE. Diaspora gave false hope for VP thus he got stuck and got killed. I used to support LTTE and hate EPDP. Now I think Douglas approach (What he says in the paper indeed if he meant to help Tamils?) would be the way to go.
Looks like Dayan has been given some contract by the Rajapaksa’s judging by the prolific amount of writing that is being produced by him these days.. please do tell us were you are promised another nice posting where you can preach your socialism and anti Israel rhetoric at the cost of our country’s national interest?? Or were you enticed with that coveted prize of Foreign Minister which has been promised to many already.. keep up the good work..you are sure to get something at this rate at which you are dancing to the Rajapaksa tune.
Tamils will vote for Fonseka and will show they are smart. It is not for getting any benefits..
Why can't the Tamils fathom the fact that they have a state? Tamil Nadu!..Hell..ooo. They have jokers as politicians as Sarath Fonseka rightly mentioned few months ago, and all diaspora can either become the audience or actors. Good luck Tamils! You guys are still MGR movie lovers. So keep beleiving on the silver screen.
Dear Dayan
Again good analysis. Enjoyed reading it.
As Mr Dayan Jayathilaka says the absence of thinking in tamila politics is far less shaped than sinhalese and the denying of acceptance of reality has caused due to this factor.In fact it was not alowed the ordinary tamils to emerge in politics by the government elected since the independance,their voice was not submerged by forcing them to accept the ideologies of sinhalese society,election rigging which happenedin 1983 in north DCs is an example to prove it.And since the begining of 1972 onwards the again the voice of the ordinary tamils(not the Politicians who received 10,15 votes and ware elected to the parliamentwho were not real representative of tamils)was not given a significant hearing. Tamil society was not allowed to come up with liberal thinking but forced to accept the political ideologies specially( under LTTE control of the region.Unfortunately now the history is beeing repeated by the Present Rajapaksha administration.Instead of leting out the ideas of tamils of their own the have been forced an unprecedented election.
Partly agree with Siva however SF win may be a much worse outcome for SL and a win for who s priorities are to destabilize the country.
Your statements should be smaller in my openion.
However WE MUST NOT FORGET THAT WITHOUT OUR PRESIDENT the win over terror ws only a dream.
Ordinary people like us owe the team including you forever.
Mr Dayan jayathilaka has got his brainwahed by the west so thoroughly that he can
Contestation and participation in the present presidential elections in Sri Lanka(SL), under conditions in which the mass of the people is mired with unreality and untruth, is apt to be democratic in form but not in reality.
The meanings with which the terms "terrorism" and "peace" are used, is making democracy a mockery in SL.
State terror is terrorism, and peace is not the ability to oppress Tamil rights and freedoms and enjoy in such denials.
Benjamin Franklin, the former US president, recruited Americans to fight the British troops in Philadelphia, to liberate America and declare independence to it. Mao Tse Tung of China, Lenin of Russia and many other leaders obtained independence for their countries through armed liberation movements. None of them are called "terrorists".
Therefore, by any standard of democracy or Communism, the armed resistance to liberate Tamil Eelam(TE), was totally acceptable, even according to the prescription in the UN charter.
Furthermore, the people of TE commenced demanding their legitimate rights even before semi-independence was granted to the dominion of Ceylon in 1948. They have asked for their rights for the past 60 years consistently and will ask with more determination, even if it is for for another 120 years, till TE is achieved.
Sinhala politicos and their "Buddhist" cohorts could not convince the Sinhala masses to resolve for 60 Years and they cannot decide to solve it for another 120 years.
If these important political aspects are not truthfully presented to the Sinhala masses by any presidential candidate, with specific workable solutions, the candidate should be identified as undemocratic, unpatriotic, dishonest, irresponsible and incapable.
Any election campaign with a view to to get voters to cast votes by rousing up peoples' emotions, cheating or untruthful means, is not democracy but crookery.
The crooked will remain crooked and the old cannot change easily. The vibrant young and pragmatic citizens must rise up to stop the abuse of democracy and bring about a genuine political change.
Hello, Mahinda's chief Scientist DAYAN Jayathilaka to practice his theory of ascimilation.
" S. Thondaman. A proud, upright leader who took no nonsense from any Sinhalese and was never trifled with by strong Presidents such as Jayewardene, Premadasa and Kumaratunga"
"he managed to take his people out of the depths of disenfranchisement without losing a single life."
Yes, he managed to get no nonesence but money and power for himself and his family. And left upcountry Tamils condemed to permanent bondage to line rooms.
Yes not a single live lost in self defence but lost thousands of premature deaths due to hunger,malnutrition, lack of health facilities,and by Sinhala thugs and armed forces.
And this is convenient for your asimilation theiory. Ethnic cleansing is about assimilating and digesting a people. It is about destroying the identity of a people.YES WE TAMILS DO NOT HAVE POLITICIANS WHO CAN THINK FOR THE BENIFIT OF YOUR DESIERS.(except of course Douglas,Karuna,and Pillians you have for that to accomplice)
You understand the Tamil psyche as few Sinhalese do. The issue though, as you've alluded, the rational thought processes have ceased for the Tamil diaspora and they are captive to their collective emotional fantasies of a Prabhakaran who is still alive, and an Eelam that will come one day whatever the cost may be. You're right about the diaspora's twisted logic of "the worse it gets, the better it is" - unfortunately the ground and geo-political realities, and the 'moral hazard' of such logic seem to escape them. May God save the Tamils in Sri Lanka.
Dear Dayan,
"Rajiv Gandhi had not been murdered by the main Tamil organization, (iii) India was more actively supportive of and sympathetic to the Tamil cause than it is today"
Dayan Donot talk rubbish like a Sinhala sarong clad street vender.in your anxiety to support MR.You hav been to The UN.
See below what Indian Foreign Sec has said.I am sure you should have read it before.
" We have a very comprehensive relationship with Sri Lanka. In our anxiety to protect the civilians, we should not forget the strategic importance of this island to India's interests,... especially in view of attempts by countries like Pakistan and China to gain a strategic foothold in the island nation...Colombo had been told that India would "look after your security requirements, provided you do not look around". "We cannot have a playground of international players in our backyard." Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, 23 October 2008. -Real tears from for INDIA and Rajive G.
Hon’ble Members may rest assured that our strong concerns for the safety, security and welfare of civilians caught in the conflict have led us to stay actively engaged to prevent a further deterioration of humanitarian conditions.- Crocodile tears from India for Tamils.
Please have some respect for the readers intelegent.
Prof DJ
Thanks for your pontifications. Elsewhere on this site it is reported that less than 10% of the IDP's in the Vavuniya GA area have registered to vote. This clearly demonstrates the tamil attitude and view towards southern politics. Prof DJ, the sinhala have succeeded in killing the spirit of the tamils and dead spirits of the tamil people are incapable of thought. There's opportunity here for the MR/Douglas combine to stuff ballot boxes. Long live democracy.
Dear mr Jayatilleke,
here and there i find your article a little bit over the top, but i like your main theme.
is your article available in tamil? this kind of clarity is needed for public discussion.
thank you, srajano
Hello Prof.Dayan,
As Mr Siva said ,please please do not waste your time what you are doing or what you are think to doing (writing) is you want to divete our Thamil problme .
eg:North & East merger etc....
Sir That is not our problme also for yor information that is not a problme at all.
FYI,You know,
Why (Tamil) Tiger take few steps back........
God bless my Motherland!
Thondaman lived among the Sihala Voters and had a
"Block Vote" which any Politician will go after and so they did - this does not prove that the present Tamil
Leaders follow Thondaman a one time King-maker, Mr. Dyan?
The issues Thondaman had were more to do with
Development of Estate Tamil Economics whilst the present Tamil leaders have a greater responsibility and its followers, mostly educated, are far different from the manual workers Thondaman shepherded!
Dr Dayan Jayathilake has nowadays become a realist and frequently talks about reality and realism but not about socialist realism or dialectic materilism.
Now let us look at some of the arguments he puts forward.
Yes Mr G.G Ponnambalam put forward the balance representation or fifty fifty demand during the 1940s.But when his demand was rejected he became a Minister in the Government of DS Senanaike and became an enthusiastic supporter of the unitary Soulbury constitution and claimed paternity for the section 29 of that constitution.
Was he not a realist?
S.J.V.Chelvanayagam put forward the federal concept,but was he not ready to accept regional councils under BC pact and even district councils under DC pact.
Now consider Mr Amirthalingam,the father of Vaddukoddai resolution that led to the separatist cry. Was he not ready to accept District Development councils in 1981.
Even the LTTE claimed the ISGA was a negotiable demand.
What is the history of the Sinhala leaders?-the great liberal democrats like SWRD and Dudley. They went back on their words!
But you still claim that Tamil leaders are not realists.
Dear Dayan ,Have you ever read Uncle Toms Cabin?.
You want the Tamils to be Uncle Toms.
You talk about 13A, of course without ever reading it!
You find fault with EPRLF calling the Provincial Council as the Provincial Government!
What is wrong?
Haven’t you heard about Local Government in Sri Lanka?
Didn’t you know that there was Ministers of Local Governments in Sri Lanka since time immemorial?
Are you on the side of the oppressor or the oppressed?
Do you want the oppressed to be Uncle Toms?
Then all the works and labour of Marxists, Communists, Socialists, liberals and even religious leaders are in vain!
If every oppressed peoples are realist, what else the oppressors need. They will have a field day!
There is an excellent opportunity for the patriots to come to a settlement with the moderates as well as realists like Mr Devananda and Siddharthan.
In fact Mr Devananda had come out with a ten point programme- a moderately, realistic programme!
Why waste your time with LTTE proxies!
Come out and settle with Mr Devananda!
Dr Dayan!, Did I call your bluff?
The LTTE obduracy is no more. Though the late Thondaman openly took issue on the
Separate State in 1976, he endorsed the other issues raised by the Conference. But they continued to be either ignored or the administrations that came in since - from both major Sinhala parties - were lukewarm in acting upon them.It is as shock-therapy he suggested the North East to be handed over to VP for 5 years. CBK made it 10. The point here is - then as of now - that there is no
substitute to allowing the Tamils of the North-East to run their local affairs in a Provincial Council. Remember this is allowed to all other regions in S/Lanka. Changing the demographic pattern in the region to reduced the Tamil numerical strength - as happening more now with greater intensity under various ways of tomfoolery - only exacerbates the matter and will make a future settlement more complex. The TNA - representing the vast majority of the Tamils of the Island - may accept this is a starting point for fresh talks.
This has to be handled with the urgency of NOW. Procrastination only went out to breed new and difficult by-products (the separate Muslim Council demand;
Muslim-Sinhala tensions in Puttalam etc etc)
So the regular feature of apportioning blame only on the Tamils for the non-resolution has to stop somewhere.
ISS
Dear Mr.Dayan Jayatilake,
I agree with you in one thing that tamil political leaders are selfish idiots without any sense of self respect.
Really the Srilanka state itself is illegal. When Portugese and dutch came there were Tamil kingdoms and North East have been Tamils Home land. The British has illegally united the island without getting the opinion from the North East people. Therefore that is the one which should be done, not thr referandum to unite north and east: Because there is no north and east, but its a single state. There should be referendum only to decide whether to merge the tamil nation with sinhala nation or let both to be independant.
After the independence the successive sinhala govts systematically acted to dilute the tamils in their home land with its colonisation with the purpose to braek the idea of homeland.
You cant argue that there is no division among the communities or there is no discrimination.The discrimination is very obvious from the education, to politics to sports.
You are taliking about lack of tamil thinking, have you ever thought and raised your voice meaningfully, again irepeat meaningfully, to put an full stop for the discriminations.
You must understand one thing, Tamils need not beg anything from Sinhala nation. Because its their birth right. Only sinhala nation has to apologise Tamil nation and witdraw its` occupying forces`from its land. I am not against the island to be as asingle nation: but for that referandum should be conducted from Both nations. Though there are lots of Tamil people in hillcountry , and the last Kandian king was a tamil, Tamils never claimed that it was their home land. It shows their sincerity that they have no greed to claing for themselves what does not belong to them.
I request you the wise sinhala people, to be honest and give the land which does not belong to you.
Yours,
Karikalan
If an individual
who follows poor strategies without
“serious exercise of the faculties of intelligence and analysis” //as one DJ
is bound to be sacked
then a community
that follows poor strategies without
“serious exercise of the faculties of intelligence and analysis” //as the Tamils
is sure to be doomed.
Sounds pretty reasonable to me.
The title should be changed to 'Absence of thinking in Tamil politics My Way.' And 'My Way' is to foist criminals like Devananda and Siddharthan as 'realists' on the Tamil people. 'My Way' is the 'Chechen model.' Ramzan Akhmadovich Kadyrov, such a fine Chechen statesman! As evidenced by kidnapping, torture, murders, and prostitution. Little wonder that Sri Lanka's current regime has elevated these practices to such a fine art form. Only in Sri Lanka can such a lowly thug pass off as an 'intellectual' and get his musings published weekly.
These thugs would use any New York Times article or closer home, any UTHR report, if it supports their case against the LTTE or those who disagree with them. But when the NYT publishes voluminous materials on the Chechnyan ruler's crimes, or when the UTHR publishes damning evidence of their side having committed mass crimes, they brush that aside or hide from the public. Such revolting thugs. Have Sri lankans got any decency? Do they know there is something called shame?
"S.Thondaman.......................took no nonsense from any sinhalese............................"
He and his co-MPs were addressed as "parademalas" by the president's brother.They resigned in a huff, but went crawling back for their useless portfolos, perks and salaries.
The 'parademala mentality' persists even now.Tamils are considered inferior citizens.Indian tamils got citizenship back,as it was inevitable and sri lanka would have ended up a pariah nation otherwise.Arumugam Thondaman shifted alliances in all governments to strengthen one party or another and got his useless portfolios and his moderate clout.
So now, lankan tamils should look up to his grandson as leader according to Dayan J!!!! Tamils cant think straight!!!!!
.
You are wrong again.....
Thondaman did not win anything (look at their conditions today) except for few concessions which he got due to the north-east tamils rebellion.
:-)
It is easy for Sinhala intellectuals either representing or having the same view as the Sinhala ruling elite who hold all the cards, all the power in Sri Lanka, to point the finger at the Tamils and blame them for their current plight. Have the Sinhala ruling elite taken responsibility for their inflexibility and repeated betrayals of the Tamil community that might have led to inflexibility on the Tamil's part? and the complete lack of trust the Tamils have towards the Sinhala ruling elite.
Many a Sinhala analysts have written that the Tamils of the North and East should take a lesson from the Upcountry Tamil leaders. What have the Thondaman's or CWC achieved for the Upcountry Tamils in aligning themselves with the government of the day? The Upcountry Tamils are in a permanent state of poverty thats suits both the Upcountry Tamil and Sinhala leaders. The Upcountry Tamil leaders get their perks and Pajeros while the Sinhala leaders get the Upcountry Tamil community's
vote in return for crumbs from the table.
Only today, we found out that the restrictions on Upcountry Tamils travelling to Colombo have been lifted, restrictions most of us didn't even know existed. Here is a community that had little or no role in LTTE's terror campaign but had restrictions placed on them because of their ethnicity. Is this the sort of third class treatment of their people that the Thondamans have achieved for their people? And the Tamil leaders of the North and East should emulate this?
I wonder how Dayan will Judge the following Tamils and their thinking ( which are different from Dayan but more rational - ofcourse for Dayan if others do not think like him or DS Senanayke or SWRD or JR Jeyawardne or MR, they are Modayas )which Island news paper has published :
Dr. Devanesan Nesiah, Mr. S. Sivathasan, Dr. Kumar David, Dr. S. Ganesan, Dr. K. Ganeswaran, Dr. Selvy Thiruchandran, Mr. K. Suntharalingam, Mr. E. Vivagananthan
(On behalf of a collective of Tamil Professionals)
http://www.island.lk/2009/12/22/opinion2.html
Going by Thamilan's comment, thinking would be n uphill task. This guy doesn't know that S Thondaman was long dead when this president's brother allegedly used a racial epithet. He doesn't know the difference between Saumyamoorthy Thondaman and Arumugam Thondaman. No wonder the Northern tamils are in such a mess and the calls of the ones in the Diaspora were spurned even by the tamil nadu voter!
Dear Expatriate,
You forgot TIME, the ECONOMIST and the Chatham House ( Royal Institute of World affairs )Journal!
Dear Velu Balendran,
Deng Hsiao Peng was also sacked a few times and made as many comebacks. Better sacked than wind up like Prabhakaran, Soosai, Pottu amman and Balakumar eh?
Dear Sri,
No you didn't call my bluff. I had already made my explicit suggestions: S Thondaman, and Martin macGuinness and Gerry Adams. Did anyone note that during all this fuss by the Tamil Diaspora in Western Europe, there wasn't a word of support for their " cause" from the Sinn Fein/IRA?
Dear Menaka,
I have no intention of accepting any post even if offered.
Dear Pandaravanian,
if that is indeed India's attitude, then, given the fact that USA will not go against India in a matter pertaining to Delhi's sphere of influence, aren't you really proving my point? the tamils do not have any patron, and should settle for the 13th amendment which came into being when they had one.
By the way why don't any of you metion Siddharthan, the son of a prestigious former parliamentarian, who is of the same view as I am regarding the 13th amendment, MR , etc.
Dear karikalan,
No separate ethnic enclaves. All the land belongs to the whole people of Sri Lanka. As we have proved, we are willing to fight until we prevail, for that proposition. Do we look like we are going anywhere, leaving anyplace. the Sri Lankn state, which must of course, be multiethnicised, shall have its presence in every corner of the island. Get used to it.
Going by Thamilan's comment, thinking would be n uphill task. This guy doesn't know that S Thondaman was long dead when this president's brother allegedly used a racial epithet. He doesn't know the difference between Saumyamoorthy Thondaman and Arumugam Thondaman. No wonder the Northern tamils are in such a mess and the calls of the ones in the Diaspora were spurned even by the tamil nadu voter!
Dear Expatriate,
You forgot TIME, the ECONOMIST and the Chatham House ( Royal Institute of World affairs )Journal!
Dear Velu Balendran,
Deng Hsiao Peng was also sacked a few times and made as many comebacks. Better sacked than wind up like Prabhakaran, Soosai, Pottu amman and Balakumar eh?
Dear Sri,
No you didn't call my bluff. I had already made my explicit suggestions: S Thondaman, and Martin macGuinness and Gerry Adams. Did anyone note that during all this fuss by the Tamil Diaspora in Western Europe, there wasn't a word of support for their " cause" from the Sinn Fein/IRA?
Dear Menaka,
I have no intention of accepting any post even if offered.
Dear Pandaravanian,
if that is indeed India's attitude, then, given the fact that USA will not go against India in a matter pertaining to Delhi's sphere of influence, aren't you really proving my point? the tamils do not have any patron, and should settle for the 13th amendment which came into being when they had one.
By the way why don't any of you metion Siddharthan, the son of a prestigious former parliamentarian, who is of the same view as I am regarding the 13th amendment, MR , etc.
Dear karikalan,
No separate ethnic enclaves. All the land belongs to the whole people of Sri Lanka. As we have proved, we are willing to fight until we prevail, for that proposition. Do we look like we are going anywhere, leaving anyplace. the Sri Lankn state, which must of course, be multiethnicised, shall have its presence in every corner of the island. Get used to it.
Dear Sri,(Dayan J Should read this ),I totaly accept your reply but if I may add The reson How? and why? 50:50:balance representation was invented and then droped see below
The Donoughmore Commission was appointed in August 1927. The Tamil leadership argued for the retention of the system of communal representation, saying that territorial representation would result in the concentration of power in the Sinhala community. Witness after witness complained to the Commission that the Sinhala leadership could not be trusted as it was interested in accumulating all the power.
7 July 1931,The first Board of Ministers comprised Messrs D.S.Senenayake (Agriculture), D.B.Jayatilleke (Home Affairs), Peri Sundaram (Labour), C.W.W.Kannangara (Education), T.B.Panabokke (Health), Butwantudawe (Local Administration), and H.M.Macan Markar (Communications).
the second State Council was held on January 1936. Seven seats were uncontested. The State Council met on 17 March and elected W.Duriaswamy the speaker by a majority oftwo votes. Then the members were divided into seven committees and the committees elected their chairmen. Senanayake and Jayatilleke and their supporters had contrived to get a majority in each of the committees.
The Board of Ministers consisted of Jayatilleke (Home Affairs), D.S.Senanayake (Agriculture), Kannangara (Education), W.A.de Silva (Health), G.C.S.Corea (Labour), S .W . R. D . Bandaranaike, (Local Administration), J . L . Kotalawela (Communications) .
That ministry was called the pan Sinhala Ministry. What the Tamils feared had happened. The Sinhalese leadership had managed to grab the entirety of political power for themselves. The Sinhalese leadership had managed to put the Tamils in their place, as D.S.Senanayake had earlier threatened.
On this suspicion and grievance devised the infamous Fifty Fifty formula to prevent that happening in the future. Ponnambalam, a skilful criminal lawyer, a debater without equal in the State Council and a flamboyant and charismatic personality, took up the communal representation cause from •where Ramanathan and the Jaffna Association left.
Ponnambalam modified that cry to equal representation to the Sinhalese and all minorities. At the commencement of his campaign, Ponnambalam received considerable support from the Muslims, the Indian Tamils and the local British, specifically from the British owned Times of Ceylon. But rifts surfaced in a short time. In the Muslim camp, T.B.Jayah, a Malay, gave unqualified support but the Ceylon Moors Association led by Razik Fareed, and the All Ceylon Muslim League headed by Sir Mohamed Macan Markar, opposed the fifty fifty formula. Among the Indian Tamils, K.Natesa Iyer, backed Ponnambalam to the hilt. He used his influence with the Tamil daily, the Virakesari, to espouse his cause. But the section led by Abdul Aziz which was more socialistic in its approach demurred and later openly opposed the fify fifty formula. The British nominated members of the State Council, Messrs C.G.C.Kerr, M. J.Cary, H. E.Newnham, J.W.Oldfield and C. J .Black, were sympathetic to Ponnambalam's cause. In June 1937, when the pan Sinhala Board of Ministers was pressing for constitutional reforms, a secret conference of all minority communities agreed on the formulation of Ponnambalam's demand for fifty fifty representation. A memorandum was sent to Governor Sir Andrew Caldecott, signed by most of the members of the minority communities, including Arunachalam Mahadeva, the member for Jaffna.
D.S.Senanayake had consistently opposed granting of voting rights to seven lakh Indian immigrant labourers brought to Ceylon by the British from the beginning of the nineteenth century to work first in the coffee plantations and later in the tea and rubber plantations He had stated his opposition as early as 1926, when he said at the second reading of the Bill relating to Indian labour that they were robbing bread and land from the indigenous people. He argued that they should not be regarded as permanent settlers though they had longstanding connection with Ceylon. They had retained Indian domicile and the Indian government had continued to have an interest in them. He advocated the adoption of special steps to bring a halt to the influx of the Indian labour. Senanayake went to the extent of opposing universal suffrage recommended by the Donoughmore Commission. During the debate in the State Council he said:
D.S.Senanayake argued that if all adults were given voting rights, most of the Kandyan electorates would return Indian Tamils and thus deprive the Sinhalese of those areas of representation. The British yielded and adopted the test of domicile as a compromise. The Indian Tamils wanted safeguards Written into the constitution. The Donoughmorc Commission did this by reserving 17 classes of bills to the Governor the most important being, "Any bill whereby persons of any particular community or religion are liable to any disabilities or restrictions to which persons of other communities or religions are also not subjected or made liable or are granted advantages not extended to persons of other communities or religions.
The Soulbury Commission too provided a similar safety to the minorities in its recommendations. Among those were bills relating to immigrants and the right of re-entry, the franchise and zany Bill, ants of the provisions of which have evoked serious opposition by any racial or religious community and which, in the opinion of the Governor General is likely to involve oppression or serious injustice to any such community.
In moving the motion of acceptance of the White Paper embodying the Soulbury Commission recommendations in the State Council on 8 November 1945, D.S.Seanayake spoke of the safeguards given to the minorities, No reasonable person can now doubt the honesty of our intentions. We devised a scheme with heavy weight age to the minorities; we in order to protecte them against discriminatory legislation; we have vested important powers in the Governor General because we thought that the minorities would regard him as impartial we decided upon an independent Public Services Commission and quoted by them as devises to protect the minorities."
The British granted independence to Ceylon in 1948 after obtaining a specific assurance that the interests of the Indian Tamils would be safeguarded But one of the first acts done by D.S.Senanayake was to disfranchise the Indian Tamil population by enacting the Ceylon Citizenship Act of 1948. He made use of a lacuna in the Soulbury Constitution which Left the question of Ceylon citizenship undefined. The Citizen,hip Act placed special restrictions aimed at excluding Indian ramils.
Members of the Ceylon Indian Congress, the All Ceylon Tamil Congress, the Lanka Sama Samaja Party and the Bolshevik Leninist Party voted against the bill.S.J.V.Chelvanayakam, in his speech prophesied,"Today, justice is being denied to the Indian Tamils. Some day, in the future, when language becomes the issue, the same fate would befall the Ceylon Tamils. Let us unitedly fight this injustice."
G.G leader Ponnambalam, in his speech, called Senanayake a racist. He said that the day was a black day for Ceylon.
The entire Tamil community in Ceylon, Indian and Ceylonese, were indignant about this mass disfranchisement. India, too, was annoyed and angry. The Indian government issued a statement criticising the bill. Nehru, India's first prime minister, condemned the legislation.
D.S.Senanayake sent emissaries to Ponnambalam with the promise of two ministerial portfolios and a parliamentary secretaryship as the prize (Bribe) for joining his government.... Similar to S.Thondamans act claimed by Dayan J, to suit the Sinhala program.
"Thondaman did not win anything (look at their conditions today)"
Aratai, You couldn't be so wrong. From your comments elsewhere, it is clear that you aren't in the least bit interested in knowing that positive change is possible for the minorities in their country Sri Lanka. But since you make such a claim, it is worth reminding you where the estate community is now compared to where it was before Thondaman broke with the campaign for Eelam.
Back then in 1978, the Sri Lankan estate Tamils had nothing. They weren't citizens in the land of their own birth, they lacked the vote (which Jaffna tamil politicians together with Sinhalese elitists voted to deprive them of), and were shut out of all public services that were provided by the state to everyone else, including Jaffna Tamils. They were the poorest of the poor, uneducated, and - yes - solely doing manual work as ardneham condescendingly mentions. And to make it worse, and they didn't even enjoy any solidarity from the other Sri Lankans who spoke Tamil, who if we are honest simply looked down on them.
Forty years since then is not a long time for social change - but they have without a doubt made advances. They have made huge gains in terms of social conditions, education, and recognition as full Sri Lankan citizens. It's not only that they are very much part of the Sri Lankan mosaic and considered as such by most SInhalese, but they have the vote, and increasingly the opportunities through education to move out of being "manual workers". For much of those gains, you can blame the so-called "Sinhalese" state and estate tamil quislings who worked together to bring public services to the estate community and who worked to break down the real walls they that they faced. I don't want to bore everyone with the data, but if you look it is quite revealing. For example, in the 1970s, less than 60% of estate people were even literate, compared with 90% or more of northern Tamils and other Sri Lankans. Today, there is almost no gap (92 to 93% in 2004) in basic literacy between young estate Tamils and the rest of the country, and there are now increasing numbers of estate tamils going even to university. That improvement in education matters and because of it young estate kids not only have aspirations to do office jobs and anything but work on the estates, they also have the means to leave the estates, which many increasingly do. I can take a bet that in a generation's time, estate tamils who largely want to be part of Sri Lanka, will be as well educated as any other tamil Sri Lankans, and consequently just as likely to be doing well. I am not saying that everything is perfect or that they have caught up, but all the evidence is absolutely clear that they have not only narrowed the gap with the rest of the country, but will continue to do so. At the very least they are moving ahead, whilst the past thirty years has only seen the people of the north go to the very bottom.
For you, all this may be nothing, but give the estate people some credit. They did all this without putting themselves into a situation where they had to suffer the deprivations of war and displacement all that the Sri Lankans of the north had to go through.
You may delude yourself that this was because of the "north-east Tamils rebellion", but if that is true, then the north-east Tamils must either be like DJ suggests the least thinking people in Sri Lanka to have gone through hell but seen all the benefits go to somebody else, or the most altruistic people in Sri Lanka to have suffered so much just and only to improve the lot of a people who most north-east tamils actually look down on.
‘Angille tharamata idimenu’(Know you size and the limits before you try to burst-)is a simple Sinhala saying to understand and explain the mindset of the Tamils. Dayan has clearly presented how Tamils have brought misery for themselves due to the arrogant mindset (all or nothing) they have.
This type of mindset may be most suitable for a community who represent at least 30% or more of the population. But for a community with roughly 10 %(could be even less at present)of the population this is disastrous. Now these toxic nationalist will call me a racist or one with majoritarian mindset. But Dayan has clearly replied them.
Most Tamils including Diaspora are nothing but a set of shylocks who want all or nothing. They always think that Sinhalese and Tamils are mutually exclusive set of people and there were two countries in the past. No please remember you can win whatever right as long as Sinhalese are not threatened and deprived of their right to this island. This is the simple reality these people can’t understand.
Many Tamils wonder and are surprised as to why Sinhalese fought at all costs to protect the territorial integrity of Sri Lanka. Because for them this entire island is the only traditional homeland and the only land they have. Can you find Sinhalese anywhere in the world? This does not anyway prevent SL from treating Tamils as first class citizens. We should recognise that they also have lived here for a long time. But why only one community want to protect it and other want to break it?
Tamils can win more individual and collective rights by corporating with Sinhalese rather than confront with them. What is needed is the right to live with equal rights not with special rights. So we should ensure equal rights to them including language. The more Tamils cling on excessive demands the more the Sinhalese will be determined not to give anything.
In addition to the excessive political demands the following comments are few example of the arrogance which appeared in this blog in the past few weeks.
1. Sri Lanka is a Sinhala name and Ceylon was changed to SL without the consent of the Tamils
2. The country flag is Sinhala hence should be changed to satisfy the Tamils.
3. Federal should be granted to them simply because they are a regional majority.
There is one truth about this 13 Amendment which Dayan does not tell. That is it has gone beyond the powers enjoyed by Indian states. Still Tamils want more and no end to the greed. So anybody who advocates more than that is quite insane and such will lead to break up and as Dayan said finally there will be nothing.
Tamils have selectively bred the INTELLIGENCE and COMMON SENSE out of their own community. Till they ADMIT and ACCEPT that FACT without trying to put the blame on the Sinhalese,... there can be no recovery or improvement of their situation in Sri Lanka.
That is the Truth, no call me a Liar.
Still water runs deep
According to DJ the Tamils unlike the Sinhalese in Lanka do not have the advantage of demography and related factors and therefore they are at a disadvantage especially when they under utilise their faculties of political intelligence and analysis. There is truth in what he says in the context of the recent referendum exercise conducted by sections of pro-LTTE expatriate Tamils resident in certain parts of Europe and Canada where they predominate. But strangely there was no such visible exercise in adjacent India where more poor and desperate Tamils have taken refuge.The question then is if it is a fair referendum, as it is made out to be by those self styled Tamilleaders who engineered and conducted same.
Their effort can be likened to an attempt to restore life to an extinct sabre tooth tiger by experimenting on it's DNA sample, and DJ's contention about utilisation of Tamil intelligence and analysis would be appropriate in so far as they are concerned.
Now returning to DJ's comments about Thondaman and his CWC,DJ's has forgotten the fact that the Ceylon Workers Congress was a cross between a trade union and a community organisation.Membership of it was not exclusively confined to only the Tamil estate workers who were inducted from India during the British colonial period. The CWC also had Sinhalese and Muslims estate workers as members.It was a broad church. But Thondaman and his cronies always supported whatever government whether UNP or SLFP which came to power and lined their pockets just as Devananda,Karuna or Pillayan are doing now.
If DJ had visited the line rooms and examined for himself working conditions in the estates and bothered or at least contacted the right sources then he may have known if there was any benefit that Thondaman's tenure as minister in the various administrations he had held over the years brought to the people he is supposed to have represented and looked after.Much is made of the fact the estate workers have obtained the right to vote,but has voting rights improved their quality of life? Are they treated as equals in Lankan society?
The evils of the voting system is such that they are abused and cheated and their votes bought for lucre and liquor.As a consequence most of them still live a hand to mouth existence just as many other poor Sinhalese Tamils or Muslims who have the vote in various parts of the island.
However, DJ is correct in saying that the Sinhalese will scrape through even without thought or analysis,but the Tamils will not ,especially when they have lumbered themselves with 'headless chickens' for leaders like the ones they have at present.
Dear Dayan,
After reading your article, I was confused whether you represent the "Chicken" or the "Egg". You represent the "Egg" by your anti Israeli rhetoric i.e. Grave breaches of the Geneva conventions / War crime, and on the other hand you are representing the "Chicken" by saying that if Israel can violate what's wrong if Sri Lanka does. I am not still clear after reading your articles over the last one year, where you stand in terms of the violation of human rights during the Sri Lankan war.
Sri Lanka is no more different from Israel today. There are clear violations of constitutional rights of people, and the people of Mannar, Kilinochchi and Mulativu district are greatly affected. There is no "Right to equality" and they are subjected to "Arbitrary detentions". All these are in the name of "Internal Security". Although there was a threat to "Exercise Sovereignty" of Sri Lanka, due to the LTTE, there is no such threat today as the war is won. Therefore there is no justification of violating the fundamental rights of "Citizens of Sri Lanka".
This does not mean that the fundamental rights of the majority is not violated. Following are few of the examples:
1. The recent demolition of churches - These are well organized crimes perpetrated by the JHU, a party representing the government. Which is a clear violation of freedom of religion and 14 (1)(e)
2. There is no right to equality - unless you are rich, powerful and pro government. Otherwise you are subjected to abduction, ransom payment or many other consequences
3. Arbitrary arrests
4. Clear violations of freedom of speech / publication and freedom of movement.
Do you stand side by side with the above violators?
Finally, it's a sad plight, when I think of the sinhalese mentality, which is "I always support the person/party which is opposing the person/party I hate. If I don't like the UNP, I will vote for the SLFP or vice versa. If I don't like the UNP, I will vote for thrash like Mervyn Silva. We haven't gone too far from the hate politics and choose the wrong persons, to rule our country. We will elect and re-elect people like Mervyn and Pillayan because we don't like Ranil!! I wouldn't mind Wickramabahu or Dayan ruling our country but
People like them will never rule the country
a. Because they are not interested
b. or they are not smart enough as Mervyn
c. or The voters don't like them because, the voters are generally idiots and vote for idiots
d. or some other reason which I don't know and I hope you can tell
Therefore we have to choose between Ginger or Chilli
An excellent analysis of the psyche of the majority Srilankans in the post war phase of the Nation.
The caption should have been "The absence of Thinking Tamils in politics" as most of them were eliminated or corcered in to silence over the past thirty years.The few who were lucky enough to escape numerous assassination attempts, and did not bow down to the LTTE, are trying hard to look after the Tamils in Srilanka and help them restart their lives after a hiatus of 35 years.
Even that is being thwarted by the pro LTTE diaspora in Canada and else where. The recent referendum in Scarborough is a good example. Sinhalese people are in no mood to give any consideration to autonomous homelands and self governing regions.Even the 13 amendment is not welcome in its original format as the ethnic demography has changed substantially over the past thirty five years.In fact Dayan lost his day job because he pushed for the full implementation of the 13 amendment.Doesn't that say something about the mood of the Nation?
If anything, it should be a 13 Minus. Even if it is necessary to re draw the boundries , each region or province should have equal (with in reason) number of voters.. This will prevent one ethnic group acquiring a whole province or a region for themselves.Even in Western countries, electoral boundries are constantly rarranged to equlise the number of electors.
From some comments here. few are expecting SF to grant the TNA demands which are pretty much similar to the LTTE demands.I can not see how he can do it democratically unless he decrees a military dictatorship and do away with the Constitution.
Even if he is generous enough to hand over the Executive powers to the puppet master Ranil , the electorate will not allow him to do secret deals like the CFA this time around.
Dear Uthungan,
I have not only visited line rooms as a boy, when my family were guests of Mr S.Thondaman , but i have also worked in the hill country as an activist of the kandy based Lanka General Services Union,while a university student.
Dear " Hector Kobbekadwe",
the majority of states in the UN Human Rights Council clearly understood what you do not, inclduing some Latin American states that voted with Sri lanka while having broken off relations with Israel over gaza. Israel is an occupyng power , in violation of successive UN resolutions; a power which has invaded and occupied the lands of almost all its neighbours. Sri Lanka has fought a war within its borders, to safeguard the principles on which the Un is founded: the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country.
As Dayan mentions here, many commentators here take both the Grand-dad and the present Thondaman to be the same or similar. I cannot recall anyone of consequence making a charge of pecuniary irregularities against the late S. Thondaman. Yes! Sections of tghe Press and the polity called him a political opportunist ( a common charge against most major political leaders) - but he had his defence for this. But never as someone who got involved in deals and other dirty stuff where filthy lucre is concerned. I remember an instance when he was in charge of the Textile Ministry one of his aides was suspected of a fraud in benefitting on a Textile Quota. He had him mercilessly censured in our presence. The old man was one of tremendous personal integrity which is why the Parliament of the early 70s - with giants of our political system as members unanimously elected him Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee. Long-time Secy-General of Parliament Sam Wijesinghe (Rajiva's father and Ranil's uncle) called him the best Chairman PAC after Bernard Soysa. Those were times the PAC was a great regulator and watch-dog of public finance.
ISS
Please, Sri Lanka only belongs to those people who choose to make it their home - all of them - and nobody else, and frankly it doesn't matter what your ethnicity is - Sinhalese or Tamil or Chinese
From the comments on this page, it's obvious that one thing that ethnic Sinhalese and the Tamils have in common is their equal tendency for chauvinism. Each complains asserts their imagined rights to this and that homelands, but how often do you stop to think that these claims are just mirror images of each other? and how proud should they be even talking about homelands, which is so clearly an imported idea from Europeans, such as the Nazis, who also loved to talk about homelands?
So Rohith Senewiratne says:
"Why can't the Tamils fathom the fact that they have a state? Tamil Nadu!."
and Karikalan (his intellectual brother) says:
"When Portugese and dutch came there were Tamil kingdoms and North East have been Tamils Home land....Tamils need not beg anything from Sinhala nation. Because its their birth right. Only sinhala nation has to apologise Tamil nation and witdraw its` occupying forces`from its land",
and PP (another cousin) says:
"Many Tamils wonder and are surprised as to why Sinhalese fought at all costs to protect the territorial integrity of Sri Lanka. Because for them this entire island is the only traditional homeland and the only land they have."
The reality is that Sri Lanka is not like Israel (sorry Hector Kobbakaduwa), or even Germany. We don't and thankfully nobody ever has ever tried to make the right to live in this country some right based purely on ancestry, regardless of where you live. Yes - we mucked up by disenfranchising estate tamils at independence (mind you with both Sinhalese and Tamil politicians voting for this in a sad reminder how much class matters more than ethnicity), but we also came to our senses and reversed this.
I am a Sri Lankan, and let me say as a Sri Lankan that Sri Lanka can only belong to those who chose to live in this island and make it their home. And frankly, it shouldn't matter whether you are Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim, Burgher, Chinese, Jewish (I recall Anne Ranasinghe who fled the Nazis to come here) or even English (one can think of Arthur C. Clarke) - it you want to live here then it is your homeland, and we all need to learn to accept that.
It shouldn't and doesn't matter what your ethnicity is. So sorry Rohith, for Tamils who belong and choose to live here, Sri Lanka is very much their own rightful homeland, and certainly not Tamil Nadu, which is as much foreign to them as it is to most Sinhalese Sri Lankans. And to those who keep on harping that Sri Lanka is the only homeland of the Sinhalese, please note that only this can only apply to the SInhalese who live here. If you are ethnic Sinhalese (or Tamil) and you have chosen to make your homeland in USA or Canada or anywhere else, why on earth should we Sri Lankans (ie the people who live here) give you another homeland? A Tamil who lives in and makes this island their home has far more rights to call it their homeland than a Sinhalese who lives and makes their home in France, and visa versa.
Sri Lanka cannot be the homeland belonging to one ethnic group or the other on the basis of ethnicity/ancestry. If we are going to do that, and go back to looking at what was going on when the British came here in the 1700s as Karikalan wants to do, then for starters we would have to say that the USA is the only and exclusive homeland of the Indian tribes who lived there when the British came, and that it's high time that the British descendants, and those Sinhalese and Tamils, plus the assorted Kenyan half-breeds like Barack Obama, who came after them in the USA should all be kicked out. And then after that we should kick all the Sinhalese and Tamils out of Sri Lanka and send them back to India where they came from, leaving Sri Lanka only to the Veddhas. Of course we can't do that. Just as much as the Americans and the Canadians and the British now have to accept that no one group can claim to be more American/Canadian/British than the other on the basis of ethnicity/colour/race, we have to do the same. If we are going to copy ideas from the Westerners, why don't we at least copy some which have more resonance with our historical cultural values than divisive ones as "homelands"?
FInally, for those whom Sri Lanka is our "homeland", let's accept and acknowledge that all it is our joint "homeland", and get on with figuring out how to make that a reality. There simply is no sense it trying to argue that one part belongs to this group more than another. If the north is going to be an exclusive homeland for one group, or the hill country for another, what is to stop the other groups demanding that the other parts be made exclusive rights to them? There can and will be no end to that. We should all just come to terms with that that reality. Just as the ancestors of the Sri Lankan Tamils and Sinhalese had complete freedom to settle anywhere in this island when they first got off those boats from India, so do we Sri Lankans now. Let's not diminish ourselves by imagining ourselves less rights than Sri Lankans had in the distant past.
Dear Anonymus,
You yourself has proved from your own words that you are not willing to give the rights of Tamil people and you are just saying what your political masters spell. Even in UK, the scotland and Wales have their own states and govts( leave switzerland). But in Srilanka the sinhalese do not want to devolve. They are greedy to such an extent they want to control everything and and want the minorities to live at their mercy although they are illegally occupying another nation.Like you we also will not cease in nsearch of justice until we prevail.
Karikalan
dear PP,
Your comments are insane than our views.
We have the right to claim our nation, for this percentage of population is irrelavant. Just think if india invaded the sinhala nation your population percentage will be only 1% compared to indias population. Then do u think its crazy to fight for the independence. The reality is its our nation. You have occupied without referandum and you are colonising our land to change the population ratio. Thats the fact. take india. It is non secular country althogh 82 % are hindus. But with 72% buddhists its a buddhist country.
Itys sinhala peoples and politicians greed to keep every thing for them and under their control(even though it does not belong to them).
Keep the things straight my friend.
Karikalan
Dear Chauvinists,
a. The land doesn't belong to the Sinhalese because they comprise of 70% of the population
b. The Eelam doesn't belong to the Tamils
c. Nor the country belong to the Wanniyala-Aetto because they lived here when Vijaya came here
If the 1978 constitution of Sri Lanka is correct then "A citizen of Sri Lanka shall for all purposes be described only as a "citizen of Sri Lanka," whether such person became entitled to citizenship by descent or by virtue of registration in accordance with the law relating to citizenship"
It doesn't say Tamil or Sinhalese citizen (So Champika Ranawaka does not become a better citizen than Muththiah Muralidharan, who is of Indian descent. Screaming everyday about patriotism does not make the Sinhalese or the Tamil chauvinists any more better citizens than others. Most of these chauvinists never fought the war and are mere hippocrites.
If Champika Ranawaka had done special ops in the enemy territory I will consider him as a patriot, they are just power hungry zealots, who want to take another set of lives both from the Sinhalese and the Tamil side; the same goes to the separate homeland supporters!
Dayan, I agree with you. You are spot on, on the question absence of thinking politicians in the Tamil political fraternity. However one thought that occured to me is that ABSENCE OF THINKING POLITICIANS IS BETTER THAN A LOT OF CROOKED THINKING POLITICIANS...why don't you run an article on that line. It would be very interesting!
Dear dayan,Thank you for your reply now you have come out of the closet, and confirmed that your mid set is hardcore,absolute Mahavamsa and Sinhala supremacist though you are a bone Christian but not practicing. There will be a time either you have to do what SWRDB did Change your religion and get assimilated in to Buddhism other wise You will get the same treatment Tamils are getting. BUT REMEMBER WE TAMILS WILL NEVER ALLOW US TO GET ASSIMILATED THAT IS OUR THINKING. TRUTH LOVE AND TRUST WILL PREVAIL.AS LONG AS WE DONOT TRUST TRUST SINHALA SUPRAMACIST POLITICALLY AS WE (our fore fathers like Arunasalam, Ramanathan brothers trusted DS senanayaka Who practiced a 'CONDOM CULTURE'. Which you have experienced personaly on a mini scale) did in the past.
In the State Council on 8 November 1945, D.S.Seanayake spoke of the safeguards given to the minorities," No reasonable person can now doubt the honesty of our intentions. We devised a scheme with heavy weight age to the minorities; we in order to protecte them against discriminatory legislation; we have vested important powers in the Governor General because we thought that the minorities would regard him as impartial we decided upon an independent Public Services Commission and quoted by them as devises to protect the minorities."
Dear Ravindra
I mostly agree with you.But I want to make my point clear to you.This land is the homeland of everybody who are born and choose to live here.2000% agreed.But when one community claim a part of the land as their homeland and ask more special right to make that part of the land an ethnic enclave based on a mythical history and sentiment,then that is the problem.
Unfortunately it is not Sinhalese who promote this idea but Tamils who have made it a fundamental requirement/principle for any settlement as expressed in the Thimpu principle.And still it is the big foundation stone of most of these Tamil parties like TNA.
So now you would see that the stumbling block for peace is this tamil homeland concept.There is no reason for sinhalese to promote such an idea as long as Tamils do not.
DJ your explanation of Israil occupying other state, the same thing the Sri Lankan forces are doing that is history. They are occupying forces, not a single tamil like their presence. Once they withdrew there will be a seperate nation for tamils. I know you.... as an accedemic can write and preach your socialist ideas. you and Vasu were kept by the CBK then MR to bridge the gap.
MR will win the election but 13th amendment is a joke. I will tell you now after the election victory he will proclaim that tamils have no grevences they can live in any part of the island, there is no minority in sri lank. The sadnes is this nation do not have a true stateman who can win the hearts of the people and really work for them. Do not blame tamils, their armchair leaders or VP for their plight. The betrayal and continued failure of the singhala nation to accept them and failure to share power equally with them are the reasons for all these events. If you want I can arrange meetings so that you can twist and talk like Mr Blair about how he lied the british people about the weapons of mass destructions.
Dear Dayan
So you have had the opportunity of of enjoyed Thonda's hospitality and visited the line rooms.Good for you.
I admit I never had the same opportunity to get mixed up with people like Thondaman.
I used to attend the CWC headquarters on a daily basis for some time in 1961 when it was situated at Lauries Road,Bambalapitya to complete an assignment which I was tasked with.I got to know many stalwarts and old guards of that organisation like the late Gandhian Rajalingam and also people like Vellayan,Somasunderam,Subbiah,Perisunderam Jr.and lastly Velupillai whose English poems which used to often feature those days in the Sunday English papers. Some of them had represented their electorates as MP's in the 1947 Parliament.I got to know them well and became friends eventually and often had the opportunity to visit places like Hatton,Nanu'Oya,Nw'eliya,Bandarawela,Mooloya,Diyathalawe,Talawakelle etc. where some time I had the good fortune to be hosted in a workers line room and had to share their diet of roti sambol and and plain tea before they attend 'muster' I had also bathed under the spouts which flowed behind their line rooms had also learnt to deal with the leeches and other vermin the tea plucker had to deal with on a daily basis when walking bare foot amongst the tea bushes. I have seen the appalling neglect and exploitation which goes on there for myself especially in the estate dispensaries etc.There is no electricity and sheltered toilet facilities almost non existent,it had to be done some where amidst the nearest bushes. So I think I have had first hand experience of life in a coolie line room and have also known and fraternised with plantation workers and their representatives like the late Chelliah of the LSSP Union and Shanmuganathan's Communist Party Union.
Dear Dayan and his lot,
Please view the three video clips,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FSTyYnbRj4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLZyje9K-_o&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoXVB59Qmd0&feature=related
Uthungan:
I hope your comment "Never had the opportunity of mixing up with people like Thondaman" was not meant to be derogatory of the late leader. But like yours much of the criticsm that the PQL of plantation workers is lagging far behind is valid.
Remember, sinced 1994 Chandrasekeran is in the Cabinet - thats 15 years. Unlike old Thondaman - who was a Capitalist Estate owner (his father was one of the first to own a motor car in the region)Chandrasekeran came from the lines and a son of pluckers. He could not do much too.
Why? The money has to come from a Sinhala-lead Govt and their priorities lay elsewhere. It was CBK who yielded to the Thondaman pressure and gave the Estate Infrastructure Development Ministry.
Consequently, young Thondaman built over 500 somewhat modern houses with electricity, running water and toilets within for the workers. He had assurances for funding for more - but this never came.
The development of schools, hospitals, better transport facilities are achievements - but more needs to be done. Most of the youth from the Estates (particularly the girls) end up as domestics - and often abused. Planatation politicians should do much more for their voters. A fraction of what they do themselves and their families will make a great difference.
ISS
Sir,
You are an intellect by every aspect of the term. I do respect your esteemed opinion on the Tamil question. Your comments cannot be simply brushed off.
You being politically oriented it would not be incorrect for me to, with assurance, believe that you ascribe to your primarily political background, your education, upbringing and good nature, to look at events on an even keel. But, your deep desire to create your own identity -in politics, in intellectual circles - might have hindered your efforts. Well, these impressions passed thru my mind when I cared to 'understand' your views.
Now, to the subject.
(I do not absolve myself of any bias. I am a Tamil. I know that the Tamils have been dealt a bad hand. Any chances of achieving anything rational is bleak if not doomed for us.I feel for the poor Tamils.)
First things first.
A) Tamils never had an able political Leader, ever. Tamils do not have a political Leader, even today. The only leader Tamils ever recognised was a nationalist, with little or no exposure to politics.
B) In the absence of a proper political guidance, a nationalist leadership was what was left for ordinary Tamils to follow.
C) There was nothing wrong with Tamils accepting the leadership they found. In politics, as in life, you live and learn.
D) The current turmoil among Tamils is the sounds of the rush by opportunists (Tamils) to fill up the vacuum caused by the sudden fall from grace of the Tamil leadership.
E) Things will settle down, sooner than later.
Analysts, in the mean time, have to keep themselves occupied. Your article deserves the merit it is owed under the present context. But it is not only the recent past that is available to you and to me. We have generations of past history, to judge your interpretations. A judgment that overlooks history cannot do justice to the author; it cannot satisfy any intelligent reader.
1) Peoples have their rights and freedoms bestowed on them by birth. These are birth-rights, that every self respecting human being is born to strive for.
2) The struggle for freedom of a nation cannot be abandoned by sheer fear of defeat. As long as there is life there will be hope.
Finally, when the dust settles down, wisdom will emerge, hope will rise, justice will prevail. History cannot be perfect, but it leaves enough room for correction.
Dear koppekaduwa,( PP make note of it)
Your words are nice to hear, but its not the reality.
1,If,as you said, sinhalese does not think its not only their land how did they name a sinhala name and put it as sinhala buddhist nation.
2.How could Mr. SWRD tear the pact signed between him and chelvanayagam.
3.If they think all communities are equal how dis they put the lion flag and just 2 strips for minorities. Why couldnt they put equal tiger and cresent in the flag occupying eqal space or select a flag not representing any ethnic groups
4. Why the anthem is in Sinhala and how could they bring the sinhala only act.
You sinhala people are the one started talking of "kalla Thoni" and ask tamils to go back to india. We never said that although u came from india and north india(orissa) much farther than from where we came(tamil nadu and kerala).
5. Your ancestor the Vijaya him self is naughty enough to be expulsed by his nown father and how he betrayed the Queny is your history.Now you are practising same against us.
Dear Koppekaduwa, In a country where more than one community is living in separate geographic area it is vital for them to have delineated area: otherwise they will be engulfed by the majority. Which community in this world recognised the minorities rights heartfully. They will alwys try to take advantage of their numbers. Therefore unless there is a protective mechanism, it will never happen. If you are fair enough think of events since 1900. At that time tamils wanted to live happily in a single country believing sinhalese. In 1920s SWRD first talked of federalism. But after the independence sinhala leaders forgot everything and tried to be our masters. Even at that time leaders like Chelavanayagam asked for minimal things and showed their resent peacefully. But what did sinhala govts behaved. They were able to do all this because they had the power both politically and milatarilly.
Do you still think that there is no non sinhala buddhist president or prime minister or Cricket captain is a co incident?
Now tell us, do you sincerely believe that if you were a Tamil, you would not have fought for your rights?
Karikalan
I was shocked to see the National Propaganda Channel( RUPAVAHINI) telecasting Dr. Dayan's interview with one of the announcers the other day.
If intellectuals stand for truth,I had doubts about the unbiaseness of Dr. Dayan in that interview.
Especially in an election campaign the intellectuals should speak the truth so that the best FIT will have a chance to win the race like in America where the Srutiny of the candidates are sever and they get thrown out even before the Compattiotion.( e.g Senator Garry Hart thrown away just because some Monkey business with Doaana Rice!!).
Now if I want to highlight the TRUTH speaking I would like to point out the interview with Retd. Gen. Sarath Fonseka telecast on SIRASA in the X'mas eve.
I could see the sigh of relief on the announcer when Dr. Dayan explicitly trew his lot with MR on the National TV.I could not see such BIAS ob Kingsley the announcer for the SIRASA.Long behold people who watch TV need not any special education to figure where the wind blows and why people say things the way they sai it.!!!
I would like to show the progreesive feature highlight of SIRASA interview with SF quoting news paper articles etc and getting the pointed answers to them from the Nominee and leave added spins in the questions pulled right out of the announcers a£$%^s like in the National Channel.Though the luminaries how great they are, appearing on the same platform to voice their opinions where the miserables like SB and Johnston appear would certainly do a disrepute to themselves and dis-service to the respective Nominee to say the least.!!!!
It was obvious afdter Gen Fonseka's interview with SIras on the X'mas view who is trowing stones from the glass houses.May the truth prevails over blatant lies and Sri Lanka come out with a stronger Leadership to steer it in to the Great nation building face.!!!!
aj
Ravindra's comments on the Estate Tamils is impressive. They certainly have come a long way - but much more is necessary. But they will prevail. Look at the political scene there.
The CWC which had total domination now from 1947 nowshares its primacy not only with Chandrasekeran;s UPLF but also with Sadhasivam and Mano Ganesan (from Cbo) The increasingly educated and politically conscious Malainadu voter is beginning to realise who is their friend and who uses their votes for personal and self-serving aggrandizement. 50% of the MPs in the CWC are now working to bring the once-strong orgnisatio down.
What more, the CWC/UPLF hid the fact the Govt sent out a directive to the Police even those from the Estate areas cannot come to the South without a Police Clearance. This comes out only recently when Basil R let the cat out at Hatton.
It is for this circular many Estate Tamils were remanded in the South when they came for legitimate business like looking for employment, visas to go abroad etc., This factor alone is enough for the CWC,UPLF to be thrown out at the next General Election with a new breed of leaders like Sathasivam, Mano Ganesan, Digambaram and others.
ISS
Dayan,
This is a great article. You have turned the "Singalya Modaya" paradigm into a "Demalya Modaya" paradigm.
Hi-time and well done. The Jaffna Tamils have for too long assumed genetic superiority and assumed and intelligence is a Jaffna Tamil Genetic inheritance.
Mahinda Mama proved them wrong. You have clearly outlined more instances of Tamil Political Stupidity. No amount of Singhalese atrocities can justify Tamil political stupidity arising from over educated Jaffna Tamils who were banking on the boys "to deliver the goods".
Jaffna Tamils have for too long justified criminal acts on minorities (including Muslims) while crying about Singhalese atrocities, like many Germans supporting Adolf because he is one of them. They have sent their children to the best US and European schools while funding the suicide of poorer children for the “cause”. They have demonstrated their inability to care for their own people (not directly related to them). They have brought great distress to Tamils all over the island and made bad investments on a bunch of morons whose efficiency they greatly admired. They funded the organization that created the “biggest bang for the buck” and rejoiced on their efficiency and celebrated the murder of many Tamil moderates. They should take some responsibility in sending may (not directly related) to their early grave.
In the same time the Singhalese sent their women folk to the most abusive environments of the world, to clean the kitchens and toilets that others would not. But to their credit they accept gracefully the "Sighalaya Modaya" paradigm. It’s time for the Jaffna Tamils to accept the "Maha Moda” title. It will spare the young boys of Jaffna the burden of carrying forward the mantle of Tamil Superiority.
Dear Ilaya Seran Senguttuvan,
I am glad we agree. The estate Sri Lankans have achieved much, but there is still much to do. Nobody doubts that.
What you other comments demonstrate quite clearly is that for all the problems and all the idiocies and insincerities of our politicians, at the end of the day the democratic political system with its voting and even horse-dealing after elections offers a more peaceful and ultimately more successful way to improve their lot than the violence and rejection of collaboration that was taken by the campaign for eelam. The time surely has come now for the tamil community in the north to also get down to the dirty business of democratic politics and allying as they wish with other Sri Lankan groups, including Singhalese politicians. It may be dirty but at least it offers a better and more likely route to solving their problems, than the failed strategies of violence which have brought nothing but ruin to our fellow Sri Lankans in the north and east.
Dr.Dayan Jayatilleke (one of the Sinhalese Professors who wears all the thinking hats conceptualised by De Borno ) the defenfer of Mahinda Chinthanaya, has been writing of Thondaman and the Tamils in SL a lot,here is an interesting news
http://www.island.lk/2009/12/31/news3.html
Two CWC top guns join UNP
Two crossovers won’t affect us , says CWC by Dasun Edirisinghe :
Deputy Education Minister M. Sachithanandan and National Organiser of the Ceylon Workers Congress R. Yogarajan resigned from the CWC and joined the UNP yesterday.
They said they would support the candidature of Sarath Fonseka.
He said: "I have been in the CWC for 32 years and am the Deputy Chairman of the party. But, today we are disappointed with the current leadership of the party. The leader acts according to his whims and fancies with no heed for the needs of his party and community. There is no point in my being with the CWC anymore. We, therefore, decided to join the UNP," Sachithanandan said.
Sachithanandan said that as Deputy Education Minister he had not been able to do anything for his community.
Earlier this month, the CWC offered its unconditional support to President Mahinda Rajapaksa for the Presidential election to be held on January 26.
Contacted by The Island for comment, President of the CWC and Deputy Minister of Estate Infrastructure Muthu Sivalingam said the party’s support was unconditional, but President Rajapaksa knew what they needed. However, the estate workers’ wage hike would be discussed once Rajapaksa was re-elected for a second term, he said. The crossover of only two members would not affect the mighty CWC in any way, he said.
M.Thiru,
In this blog on Dec 26 I remarked "50% of MPs in the CWC are working to bring down the once-strong party" Yesterday, MP/Deputy Minister Sathithanandan and Yogarajan broke away. My sources tell me the CWC in Parliament are only Thondaman and Muthu Sivalingam from the original 8. Sellasamy has always been a ?? for no fault of his. Even the tactless, semi-literate Muthu Sivalingam is doubtful quantity and is in league with Chandrasekeram/UPLF. It is unlikely Yogarajan will take Mano Ganesan's Colombo votes away. It is said even at his best Yogarajan could not generate more than 3,000 direct votes (even when he had the benefit of CWCs resources and backing) which is why he shied away from contesting and came to Parliament through the backdoor. At Uva Satchithananthan, without the CWC network and backing, will be all at sea. The gradual decline of the CWC, insiders say, is due to the machinations of both Yogarajan and Sivalingam that drove away most of the able senior MPs. Within about 10 years a 70-yr old body has been destroyed. The country was able to watch both the Rise and Fall of the CWC. Young Thondaman is reported to be camera-shy and cannot talk continously nor intelligently to the Press for more than two minutes without losing his temper. He is not known to have given interviews. He has now no one of any consequence to turn to. There are moves to bring back old Thonda's pet grand-daughter from Madras to enter the fray and save the CWC. She is capable of re-uniting the CWC but whether she can face armed thuggery worries the family. Sellasamy can take the Cbo District on his own. Sathasivam and Digambaram will take some of the votes in Nuwara Eliya. Ganesan will increase his tally in WP, Kandy, Sabaragamuwa and N'Eliya.
Poor old Thondaman must be turning in his grave.
ISS