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My recollection is the LTTE will settle for “Maximum Devolution” that is being bandied about short of Eelam. But, pray, do spell out what this maxdev is to make any discussion meaningful. LTTE have announced this several times ad nauseum but the Govt, by design one is left to presume, choses to ignore this. It is good the British are taking the initiative presently and this line of thought, must be pursued in earnest. We must show courtesy, gratitude and decency to the Norwegians, who I think, have tried to help us out sincerely. WE must not allow room to be called an ungrateful nation, though we have many amongst us fitting this description.

I believe there is still sufficient space for both sides to hammer out a workable solution, if not immediately but gradually.

Let us be reasonable and concede Ranil Wickramasinghe, inspite of all the flak against him by the JHU/JVP, gave us a peaceful country, economic recovery and a sense of confidence in the future within the 2-1/2yrs he ruled. Mahinda Rajapakse may have meant well in his Chintanaya to promise peace in 3 months but he has proven he does not have the managerial skill or the team to usher in peace. The many contradictory actors he took on board his bandwagon are working in cross purposes (look at what the JVP is doing) and he has lost direction and the confidence of the people. Which will destroy the country first – the conflict or the skyrocketing Cost of Living appears to be the question in everyone’s mind? As for MR he is quite happy flying to Rome and watching Cricket in Barbados – as if everything is ticketyboo in the resplendent island.

It is obvious that the LTTE cannot win militarily (and the pinprick airraids doesn’t change that), so what is the future for the NE Tamils? You in the diaspora who contribute to LTTE funds have the ability to pressure the LTTE.

How well you describe yourself by saying empty vessels make most sound.

You say Tamils are settlers and this is a Sinhala Buddhist nation. What an ignoramus you are!

So Vijaya banished by his father Sinhabahu did not settle here? He did not cohabit with Kuveni? He did not marry Pandyan Tamil princess from Madurai?

There were five Eeshwarams (Koneswaram, Thirukketheswaram, Muneeswaram. Thandeeswaram and Naguleswaram) hre when Vijaya landed says Sir Paul Peiris the historian

Sinhala Buddhist? What was Devanambia tissa till he met Arahat Mahinda?

Please answer this question on caste in Sinhala community.
Can Salagama, Durawe, Karawe, Wahumpura and Padu people become Bhikkus of Siam nikaya?

Do you have courage to truthfully state your full name with Ge name? I am sure your Tamil ancestry will be proved then

A dual-Federal model along ethnic lines, as suggested by Jeyaraj, will only lead to more strife and polarization.

There is no tax and other governmental income for GoSL coming form that teratory held byforce by the grade 3 school drpo out. Their so-called defacto state is a “mobile state” which they take with them when running (or so called tactical withdrawal) infront of SLA advances.

Majority Sinahesle pay taxes and bear the expences including the cost of feeding “untaxable” community in uncleared areas…All their basic needs (with shortcomings) are covered with the money of Sinhalese. Meantime Sinhalese bear the cost of defence and also to bear losses caused by LTTE (fuel tanks etc.). But the Tamil daisapora and LTTE use or unethical ways of pumping money for their seperatist machine……

This is just a “MINOR EXAMPLE” to show that IT IS THE SINHALESE THAT ARE DISCRIMINATED…..LTTE boot lickers try to create a history for Tamls while destroying all the Sinahala Buddhist heritage in North and East….
This is a problen of economicla factors fueled by the “Aragonance”, “Selfisheness”, “Narrow Thinking” and “Inward looking approcah” of the Tamail community.

Sinhala Buddhists have been showing their hospitality for all which has been the Boomarang of their own wisdom……

What ever the Barking Dogs (so called intellectuals of diasapora) dictate……You will only find peace for you in Sri Lanka only if you accept the Sinhala- Buddhist Heritae which is the inherent identity of this precious land….Your ansestors from your homeland (South India) tried to destroy it several times in the historay and so did your masters white – westerners……..But still it is there…….

We Will Protect You at Any Cost…Mother Lanka….Like in all critical moments in the history Patriot Southerners are in the arena again….

As canadians we must not ignore the rights of the first nations.

Same should apply in SriLanka.

Only the ignorants will see tamils and sinhalese as srilankans and create distinguish status.

Now that V.P. s eelam is a pipe dream these various ideas are being proposed by the losers.

A peaceful solutin is the only way to go.

As a keen observer of Sri Lankan affairs I read your columns regularly and always find them food for thought. However, with regards to your column Can ?Autonomous? Quebec in Canada inspire ?Eelam? within United Sri Lanka? I think that for a change I must point out a couple of things.

For one, it is too simplistic to put the 1990 and 1992 constitutional debates in Canada down to a simple Anglo-French conflict. While the English and French are the two main European founding nations of Canada, that duo interacted with a large number of aboriginal or First Nations when they first came to what became Canada. This has often been ignored or glossed over by the mainly white European narrative of Canadian history that has prevailed up until now.

In 1990, what happened with Meech Lake was simply one part of a number of assertions by aboriginals of their rights as Canadian citizens in what became known as “Indian Summer” (check, for example, on the Oka Crisis in Quebec that summer for more). It was Elijah Harper, a Cree member of the Manitoba legislature who held up his Eagle feather during voting and voted against the Meech Lake Accord because it did not acknowledge aboriginal rights and tried to codify the myth that Canada only had two founding nations (analogous with the Australian myth that that land was terra nullius when Europeans arrived there). Since the Meech Lake Accord needed unanimous approval in all of Canada’s legislatures and the national parliament the accord was dead from that moment. Brian Mulroney’s government tried to blame the defeat of the accord on Newfoundland because it was too politically sensitive to acknowledge what Elijah Harper did in Manitoba, but the historical record clearly shows that that argument does not wash.

The Charlottetown Accord, two years later, was a process by which the government tried to assert the same myth of only two founding nations in Canada, amongst other problems with the document (but I think that it the most relevant analogy to Sri Lanka, viz. the Muslims there), and during the referendum campaign about the accord it and the traditional powers that be tried to frighten the Canadian people into voting for a highly flawed document. In the end, on October 26, 1992, 6 provinces including Quebec voted against the Accord. It was not simply down to the Anglos as you suggest.

Lastly, while on the surface the ADQ scenario makes an interesting case for Sri Lanka, the ADQ is also very neo-liberal. In recent Sri Lankan times the only party that has espoused anything remotely similar to the ADQ’s position was the recent UNP government. It can be, and has been, argued that it was the UNP’s neo-liberal policies, more so than its peace process or political suggestions for constitutional change, that undermined it in the 2 April 2004 parliamentary elections. In other words, while the ADQ may yet prove its ability to thrive in Quebec, it could just as easily founder on the rocks of neo-liberalism as the inherent contradictions of its polices have to be played out now amidst the brute realities of being the official opposition in the Quebec legislature. Personally, I predict that the ADQ will boom and bust like the List Pim Fortuyn in the Netherlands or the Reform Party in Canada. Politics globally is in a state of flux and the ADQ is another manifestation of that. The PQ are far from dead yet. Watch this space.

Please don’t bring back all the bad memories that my birth country, or Sinhala r駩mes to be accurate, brought upon us Tamils. I want to live in peace.

All other Sinhalese,

Most of you assume that democracy means majoritism. Pity isn?t it?

Currently, Tamil speaking population may be reduced to merely a 30% (12% Eelam Tamils), but that will not take away their right to self determination as a people. Also, it is not guaranteed to remain constant