The Tigers’ ticking time bomb
by Dayan Jayatilleka
Velupillai Prabhakaran is about to be defeated but he has left a time bomb hidden in plain sight which must be defused if he is not to wreak a posthumous revenge. This is the time bomb placed under a strategic four lane intersection, that between the Sinhalese and the Tamils and Sri Lanka and the world. The time bomb can be seen in the epidemic of demonstrations by the Tamil Diaspora and the statements critical of Sri Lanka that flood the international media. Prabhakaran is hoping that the time bomb will go off in time to save him, his army and his project. It is unlikely to do so, though we must not take that for granted and must crush the LTTE before external political trends especially those in the neighborhood, turn hostile. However, even if we defeat the LTTE militarily before the external turns unpropitious, we still have to defuse the time bomb.
Things become clearer when we think back to Prabhakaran’s great gamble which has failed (or his Strategic Miscalculation as Shanaka Jayasekara put it in a thoughtful recent piece). Having milked the Ranil Wickremesinghe administration dry, Prabhakaran pulled out of peace talks in April 2003, and submitted a maximalist proposal – the ISGA - which was bound to politically weaken the UNP. He was geared up, by his own public admission, to go to war in 2004, except that the tsunami forced its postponement. As the Human Rights Watch report of late 2005 revealed, he was collecting funds for The Final War, as it was billed in Diaspora circles.
Well, it certainly is proving to be the Final War for Prabhakaran. His apologists and weak-kneed Sinhala critics, who forewarn – the former, gleefully the latter gloomily-about an unending or subsequent war, simply have not grasped that a Final War is just that: once you’ve upped the stakes, you either win or lose and there are no second chances. Prabhakaran fought the Final War and has lost it or is about to. There will be no other. The Final War doesn’t become the penultimate war or just one more war or the less than final war simply because the side that was supposed to win it lost and the side that was supposed to lose it, won. As for romantic notions that a war isn’t over until memory fades, just ask the Serbs or the Chechens: once you’ve lost a war, you’ve lost it. “Gone Baby Gone” as Denis Lehane put it. Memories of the US Civil War remained in myth and song among the Southern whites (“The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”) for decades if not a century, but the war was long over, lost and won, done.
Prabhakaran sabotaged the election campaign of Ranil Wickremesinghe (who in his manifesto had promised to explore the Oslo understanding on federalism) having assassinated Lakshman Kadirgamar, because he preferred a Sri Lankan administration that would be or could be isolated internationally. What he failed to assess was the tremendous domestic mobilization effort that the populist-nativist administration of his “choice” was able to put in; a mobilization that has almost swamped Prabhakaran militarily. He completely overestimated his own military strength and prowess; an overestimation rooted in the Jaffna Tamil sense of superiority and racist underestimation of the Sinhalese (and also the North Indians, if one recalls the propaganda and hatreds of the IPKF days).
Let’s face it: they hate us. The bulk of the Tamil Diaspora hates us Sinhalese and this country, Sri Lanka . Their consciousness is almost pathological. They are racists and fanatics, among whom there are those who set themselves on fire. The hatred of Tamils the world over can be managed if only we unpack the problem and address its components. The 80 million Tamils that Prabhakaran appealed to in his last two Mahaveera day speeches can be disaggregated into four categories or groups:
1. The Tamils of the North and East, and outside those provinces but on the island of Sri Lanka , i.e. Sri Lankan Tamils
2. The Tamils of Tamil Nadu
3. The Tamils of the Western Diaspora
4. The Tamils of older immigrant origin in other parts of the world such as Malaysia , Mauritius and South Africa .
The key resides in Sri Lanka . If we are able to satisfactorily address the disaffection of the Tamils in Sri Lanka , the we can begin to make inroads into Tamil opinion elsewhere. Just as Home Rule of the 1920s split the Irish republicans between those who accepted it and those extremists who thought it a sell-out, Tamil nadu and the Tamil Diaspora will find themselves internally demarcated between realists and irrationalists; pragmatists and fanatics. At worst, even if this does not happen, Sri Lanka can ignore the Tamil Diaspora and manage Tamil Nadu, if the Sri Lankan Tamils are in the main, integrated. If the Tamil Diaspora insists that nothing short of a confederation or federalism can satisfy Tamil aspirations they are welcome to negotiate such a solution within Canada or wherever they are, or they can migrate to the only quasi-federal Tamil linguistic region in the world, Tamil Nadu.
However, we can take this stand only if we occupy the high ground. That high ground consists of the elimination of all forms of discrimination and privilege, and the coming into being of a society where all men and women have equal rights and equality of opportunity, together with adequate space for a measure of self government in the areas where they and their culture preponderate.
What does this mean concretely? For the Sinhalese it means implementing the 13th amendment that has been part of our Constitution for over two decades. “13 Plus”, emanating from the APRC, may require step by step implementation. The 13th amendment simply has to be activated fully and swiftly, perhaps with an interim or transitional arrangement until the election can be held in the North. For the Tamils this means acceptance that the 13th amendment is the start line and that the ceiling is maximum devolution within a unitary framework (as in the UK , China , Turkey , the Philippines , etc), while the modes of politics are strictly systemic: elections and the courts. Though legal, legitimate and understandable, the history of the Federal Party shows that nonviolent agitation in an ethnically polarized context soon triggers violence -- and is thus imprudent.
The Sri Lankan crisis today is a multiple one. One of its aspects is a failure to communicate. We just do not know how to talk to each other or to the outside world. The recent election results show that the President’s appeal has moved beyond the Sinhala Buddhist to the Sinhala as a whole and even wider, to the multi religious (Catholic majority areas in the Puttalam district), multiethnic and multi cultural. The fold-up of the Opposition (25-30% is a vastly diminished base vote) shows that the UNP is becoming representative of an enclave or antibody that cannot communicate with or even comprehend the sentiments of the large majority, the mainstream, which is nationalist. That mainstream is flanked by two minority enclaves, one large r than the other: the urban/UNP and the “class struggle” JVP. For its part the political and ideological representatives of that national and nationalist mainstream do not know how to communicate with the urban classes who are absolutely imperative for economic growth and prosperity. This disjunction is tolerable at the moment because the world economic downturn makes tight integration with the world economy less than imperative, indeed an unwise option. Thus Sri Lanka experiences the class struggle as a cultural Cold War and a mutual failure of social communication.
That failure is a multi-vector one. The smaller enclave can communicate with the outside world and the outside world communicates with it. In short the UNP and its anti-war civil society allies produce politically for an “export market” and a domestic “niche market” which is a silly thing to do in a competitive electoral marketplace. The SLFP wins because its political product is for a national mass market, which is sensible as an electoral option. However, the national mainstream’s failure in communicating with the outside world and the international community’s failure to communicate with the national/ist mainstream is a loss for both, and diminishes the prospect of an enlightened reformist outcome of our crisis.
The populist nationalist “pro-war” bloc is as organic as the Oppositional –NGO “antiwar” bloc is inorganic. The organic character of the nationalist bloc is the secret of its domestic political and military success, while the inorganic nature of the Opposition is the secret of its failure. Is its organic character also the secret of the external limitations of the pro-war patriotic bloc? That this is not inevitable is best evidenced by Cuba . But is it that, unlike the Cubans, the nationalists are culturally self-referential, or that our mainstream culture is self-referential? Have we as a country lost our capacity to communicate effectively in the outside world? Have we lost our voice or simply unlearnt the language? This is why History may judge Prabhakaran’s assassination of Lakshman Kadirgamar as one of the two most damaging blows he dealt Sri Lanka , equal to or perhaps surpassing the murder of President Ranasinghe Premadasa.
Sri Lanka does not have to live besieged, but it will unless we prudently yet generously address the question of building a nation while reconciling ethnic identities. Simply put, the question is this: are we ready to follow up our well deserved and hard earned military victory with reconciliatory reform, or are we not? Do we have the wisdom to avoid Prabakharan’s sin, of overweening and ultimately false pride, of what the Ancient Greeks called hubris? If the answer is no, then our fate will be isolation and social division, driving away or repelling our most educated; a fate which deprives us of the chance to fulfill our potential as a country. Fulfilling that potential requires unleashing the richness of our cultural diversity while forging a new unity. Many commentators rediscovering Donne have cautioned that “no man is an island”, but my old man Mervyn de Silva said it best when, extending the Metaphysical poet’s metaphor he warned snugly and smugly insular Sri Lankans that “no island is an island either”, noting in his last essay that “in this Age of Identity, ethnicity walks on water”.
(These are the strictly personal views of the writer.)
44 Comments
The So called " Prabaharan's Project" which is the quest for the Tamil Statehood is DEEPLY ENGRAVED in Tamil's heart now over three Generation. When I say three Generation even those who were born outside the Island in the comfort of the Western Nation.
Under no circumstances that any action by the International Community or Government of Srilanka will break the spirit of reclaiming our lost Nation. Actors and producers may change but someone will carry the baton and the race will continue until we find that fine day.
The myth of More Tamils live outside is a Fallacy as More Jews live outside Israel still needed a place called Homeland.
Another Fallacy is multi ethnic and cannot split the nation.
The fact is Island has Two nations and five communities. Many educated spin doctors are pseudo-political pundits have created this notion just to escape from the fact the island has had two nations and now the Tamil nations is being Occupied by the Sinhala Nation.
What make the Tamil Nation Doesn't exist is purely strategic interest of some countries ( a good writing by Nadesan Sathiendra can be found in the net)
Unless and of course the International community take steps to correct the Injustice it has aided, the conflict bound to spill outside the Island.
Mr. Jayatilleka, Do not hurry! The venom you and other singhalese nationalists injected in the singhalese minds will not let you solve the problem so easily and so quickly. Now, you hasten to solve the problem with the annihilation of LTTE? LTTE is just an expression for the idea of freedom and a life with dignity. Without you singhalese accepting the theempu principles of 1985, there will be no peace in Sri Lanka. This is the grim reality. Untill then more life will be wasted. So, change your mind and work for peace with justice!!! Tamils and Singhalese can then co-exist and thrive in Sri Lanka!!!!
Things have gone too far to make a come back. Scores of civilians being killed everyday at Vanni is like fixing more nails into the coffin of united Srilanka. Is it possible for Indians and Pakistanis to think of living under one nation? Tamils no more call themseves as Srilankans; they say that they are from Eelam. They have a separate map of their homeland and separate flag. In Tamilnadu, there are objections to address them as 'Srilankan Tamils' or call it as 'Srilankan crisis'. Even srilankan defence website on several occasssions mentioned the offensive as 'Eelam war IV'. These are not just different terminologies. It just shows that it is all over for Srilanka and the division is almost complete.
And attempts to keep them as one nation is only possible through military oppression. History tells that such strong will of the people cannot be suppressed for too long.
The time bomb is actually not set by Prabhakaran now, but by Bhanadaranayaka & other hard core sinhalese in the fifties itself, soon after independence.
The ticking time bomb is, because of this annihilation and injustices done by you and your government, Tamils will be united (except the lap dogs like Douglas and Karuna)to achieve an independent nation, unless the Sinhala racists governments and Sinhala venoms like you change the attitude towards Tamils.
It is abundantly clear now that after the capture of Vanni and neutralizing LTTE military assets Sri Lanka will be shifting towards a position from ‘War against Terrorism’ to ‘War against Sinhala Nationalism’. Tamil Diaspora is now gearing up momentum to highlight the dominance of a Sinhala state against its Tamil minority and Sri Lankan Government will be exposed to the International community on how it is going to handle the post war rehabilitation of IDP and the much talked about political solution to the long drawn ethnic conflict.
The author’s sentiments in this article are only a tip of the iceberg for unleashing unfair treatments to the minorities by the Sri Lankan Government which is currently intoxicated with Sinhala Nationalism. Not to mention the victorious Sri Lankan armed forces which are headed by an individual who believes that Sri Lanka belongs to the majority Sinhalese?
Therefore, the time bomb is not the making by the LTTE or racist attitude of the Tamil minority but it will be the handiworks of the Sinhala Nationist elements in the compositions of the current Rajapakse Government.
One weakness of Dr.Jayatilleke's political analysis, as i find it,is that it always speaks his subjective biases.Rightly, many other analysts say him to be a rhetorical writer. Fine, one can be rhetorical as well.However, not always and not when you talk about the matters of death and life, or war and peace.In this he has talked about the elections results, recently held. His interpretation is not different from that of a columnist of a weekend Sinhala paper. As a person who is supposed to have excelled in Political Theory, Jayatilleke has clearly not used his deep analytical power (if he has some) to give the journalistic reality a bit of theoretical vigor. Jayatilleke, like Nalin, writes without much thought of the repercussions of their writing. They, like MR, have no responsibility to serve the humankind in large, but like real Machiavellians, they serve the 'power elite' who right now require their impeccable services to construct the 'public psychology' so as to continue with their killing spree and winning game in all the fronts. Jayatilleke has read Mechiavelli's texts but again his reading (text)is limited by the mere fact that he cannot transcend the individual in him whose ego always blinds him, and distracts him from objectivity. The egoistic, self-seeking individual that all the realist theorists have discovered in men, is in fact not a model to follow. No realist theory would ask to be inhumane in their actions. Also, they do not reject the fact that man/woman is a mixed of good and bad and the subjectivity is created inter- subjectively. But analysts like Jayatilleke and despotic preachers like Nalin, produce their localized realism to serve the most selfish and egoist politicians in srilanka. In doing that they think they serve the majority of the country, the well-being of sinhal buddhism and national security. In fact, if you have peace in mind, which you need as an analyst,you recollect all the past writings of you and ponder over them in order to see you have produced a objective study of the politics or just, a Gobelsian analysis which has been inhumane and beneficial for all the warmongers. If all your expertise in language and theory were used for the creation of a bloodless peace this country would have been a heaven, which is now the hell.Your theory or reading of political theory, has greatly contributed for the division of this country. Integration by war is your theory. But in reality what kind of national integration we have achieved in a blood bath. Political Theory is not limited to war making as you aware of it. Political theory ultimately is the creation of a humanely world, and clarity of analysis. You missed both. In some ten years from now, you may again be providing the theory for Sajith Premadasa,that time again to stop the war in several provinces of the country, as you did to his father. You have no difference in color in doing that, which is a good thing, but again you can do this repeating act of ideologues role for all the politicians who are semi- liberal or illiberal (naked power hungry, egoists)because they are real 'politicos', not the 'statesmen' that the theory would have been used to produce.Carry on.
ajith samaranayake
Aren't there Moor, Burger and Malay nations in SL too. Why just Sinhalese and Tamil.
It is quite obvious you are attempting to score cheap political points with this government propaganda that is intended to entertain blind Sinhalese nationalists. You argue that the war will be permanently over, yet you fail to acknowledge the fact that the LTTE global network is largely intact along with the reality that the LTTE at its core is a guerrilla organization. Most military analysts would agree that the LTTE's attempt to sustain a conventional force over an extended period of time was unrealistic since they are vastly outnumbered and outgunned against the SL military forces. The fact that they were able to bring the Sri Lankan military establishment to their knees during the late 1990s is more easily attributed to the incompetence of the SL forces and the ingenious of certain LTTE commanders. Then you expose your prejudice against Jaffna Tamils by claiming that they feel superior to the Sinhalese and North Indians. Yet I recall that not only SL Tamils but the Sinhalese nationalists despised the IPKF. In fact the GOSL supplied the LTTE with weapons to fight the Indians. Either you are gravely misinformed or deliberately spreading slanderous filth by trying to categorize Tamils as racists. Furthermore, you slander the Tamil diaspora as racists claiming that they hate the Sinhalese and Sri Lanka. This is hilarious, you are truly a chameleon; one day you support the idea of a united Sri Lankan identity the next day you are taking the position of the SL Commander to equate Sri Lanka exclusively with the Sinhalese. Personally, I feel you have exposed yourself as a raging racist.
Don't you feel you are prostituting yourself to the current political climate by stating that federalism is not an option? I hope the GOSL will not adopt the previous policy of "starving the Tamils" so that the Sinhalese will remain happy. To be honest, I don't see why the 13th amendment, which is practically quasi-federalist in nature, will not work but the serpents in the GOSL will probably not even allow the implementation of the Constitution. This is evident through the fact that the eastern provincial government holds no "concrete" power.
Then you have the nerve to speak of the Federal Party, shamelessly stating that their non-violent agitations led to violence due to its ethnically polarized context. From which side did this "violence" originate? Was it not blatant state terror? I suppose when the South openly embraced ethnic or communal politics it led to political pluralism instead of the state terror that was so disgustingly unleashed on civilians who nonviolently protested the injustice you call a democracy. You must have the mind of a child if you think democracy simply entails majority rule. Compare Sri Lanka to any prosperous democracy, you will see major differences. There is human rights and minority rights entrenched in fully implemented Constitutions of successful democracies.
When it comes down to it, Sri Lanka simply lacks leadership. Quite evidently it does not lack ethnic leadership but it lacks a leader who has the ability to credibly unite different individuals under one banner; a Sri Lankan banner. Unfortunately the southern masses are intoxicated with recent military victories but I hope they can eventually embrace political pluralism instead of communal politics. As for Dayan Jayatilleka condemnation of the Tamil Diaspora as "racists," he is ignorantly generalizing a whole community utilizing recent protests as a sign of hatred towards the Sinhalese yet he refuses to consider that most people brave the horrible weather because they are nervous and simply afraid for the safety of their loved ones. They want this war to end because civilians are being slaughtered not because of their alleged undying hatred towards the Sinhalese. Furthermore, Sri Lanka is basically bankrupt, so the Tamil Diaspora, which has accumulated some economic influence, is necessary in order to energize the Sri Lankan economy with foreign investment.
Dear Dayan,
Nice going.
Take it a bit deeper.
It has got nothing to do with being Sinhalese or Tamil or about a final war - if there is has been or ever can be such a thing. It is a much bigger problem.
Nobody likes the kind of people who kill the people they govern. No body likes the kind of people who adopt killing as a policy of governance. No body likes the kind of people who make people disappear, who torture people and assassinate them. Nobody likes people who bomb thousands of people to death. Nobody likes people who want others to fear them. Nobody likes people who intimidate and terrorize them. Nobody likes people who subvert due legal and democratic processes. Nobody likes people who have closed and static minds and who therefore refuse to allow change. Nobody likes those who stir up public disaffection against their opponents. Nobody likes people who turn humans into killers instead of into lovers. Nobody likes such people regardless of their ethnicity or other elements of their identity.
Such people are disliked because they prevent and seek to crush the free expression of what it can be to be human - and this shows especially clearly in the areas of identity, gender, sexuality and belief. That is why they turn violent in the face of non violent protests - regardless of the objectives of such protests. If to be Sinhalese one has to be such an Authoritarian, Intolerant, Exclusive, Gender biased, Violent, Murderous, Sadistic, Lawless Killer, then naturally the Sinhalese will as a group come to be identified with these characteristics. One notices at the very least a certain fading of warmth, a certain coldness even, a slight glazing of eye, when one is identified as a Sinhalese as though all Sinhalese are responsible for the bomb - blasted human flesh and blood spattered on the soil of this land and for the screams of the tortured, the dying and the injured that can be picked up by military satellites via their own scanner cameras and by radio transmissions and recorded. At worst there are those who have begun to look away, avoid and even walk away sometimes.
You see Dayan, despite the propoganda of the government, the world knows just what is being done to the Tamils in Sri Lanka and the world thinks that all Sinhalese approve of, support and are complicit in what is being done to the Tamils here because one does not hear even a single voice raised against the killing in the Sinhala language. Opposition to these killings and the killers who commit them is always voiced in Tamil or in English. The government has obstructed and resisted all humanitarian interventions and has castigated representatives of other countries and the international community and these actions have been articulated widely with triumphal glee. Moreover the kind of content widely found in the Sinhala media reinforces this perception. Most importantly the characters and personalities of those in power, especially the main government players like Mahinda, Basil and Gothabhaya Rajapaksa, Rambukwalla, Fonseka, and henchmen like Mervyn Silva and his progeny as well as lesser lights like Ranawaka and a whole host of audio, video and print media personnel who effectively articulate and bestow a grave reality upon it. These are not lovable people - feared perhaps, but not loved, and Dayan, when you, Rajiva, and Palitha justify the actions of these people you find yourselves placed in their company.
It is not the triumphalism, and the celebration of victory or of war heros that I am talking about. It is the implicit but widespread support for killing - the "Oh what! They wont accept it/they want to wear miniskirts to PTA meetings/they want to convert buddhists/they want to have abortions/They want to hold hands in public/they want to eat pork/they want to eat beef/they want to drink alcohol/they want to be lesbian/they want to be gay? f*** their mothers, Kill the Buggars/Bastards/Whatever" - that is the widespread problem. This is a program that is pretty deeply embedded in the minds of the majority of the islands people and one only has to scratch the surface mildly - such as with a non violent demonstration or protest - for it to come rushing to the surface and spill blood before one knows whats happening, and the world is beginning to recognize this. Behind the warm sunny smile there has always been a crazed and paranoid snarl and it is beginning to show more and more clearly. It is an ethos that is well represented in Parliament and popular support for which has been well expressed at elections.
Interestingly it is in India's interest to ensure that the island develops and consolidates such a character because that is the only way it can be isolated and prevented from realizing its potential which would see it occupy a far more important position within the global economy and play a much more vital role in balancing regional geo strategic equations than India will ever be able to. This is why India sat by playing the impotent old man instead of bringing the LTTE and the government to the negotiating table - which India could very well have done long ago. Therefore India, at the moment, is the greatest friend of these people - what shall we call them? Fascists, right!
But there are limits to what the world is prepared to tolerate, and the realization of the economical and strategic potential presented by Sri Lanka is an urgent necessity especially within the context of the current global financial crisis which is likely to reveal its monetary basis very soon. The heavy hand of India is therefore being slowly but surely twisted in line with where the global one is pointing, leading to Mukherjees undignified summersault. The exact set of sticks and carrots employed on this maneuver is still not clearly visible and will not be for some time. India's open opposition of all proposed international humanitarian intervention has however, severely compromised her moral position and led to her being shunned as shown perhaps by Clintons careful avoidance and statement of intent towards China at Indias expense. Far more potent than this may have been a subtle threat to expose the wider nexus of events surrounding the Rajive Gandhi Assassination. Such an exposition - hinted at in the attack against Subramaniam Swamy - would have put paid to the Congress as a political force and far more important would have released a genuine wave of emotion in Tamilnadu which if carefully guided could have led to an attempt at secession. It could also have led to Pirabhakaran being re cast as a wronged hero of the Tamil People, wronged by a Brahmin caste that has for ages dominated the Tamils in India and diluted their culture or worse still to the justification of Rajive Gandhi's assassination. Moreover a large part of India's recent affluence arises from non resident earnings and the IT and BPO sector. The non resident earnings have already dried up and many are in fact returning to India. The IT and BPO sector are vulnerable to policy changes. Should India be isolated along with Sri Lanka, she would face an economic and consequently political crisis of unimaginable scale.
One more thing. The Sinhala Buddhist Nationalist Project - like its Hindhi Hindu counterpart across the straits - is organic only at LOCAL level. What is organic at a GLOBAL level is not an "NGO anti war block" as you seem to think. It is a whole new world view that generates a different kind of person with a different kind of character - a kind of person and character that has always been the model though never yet the norm. These are people who adopt broadly humanitarian values, who are inclusive in their thinking, who accept the concept of Human Rights and who accept due democratic and legal processes, who do not agree with a state that uses violence in the implementation of its policies, who do not agree with the use of violence and torture by the police, who accept the right of every person to lead a life of their choice as long as they do not cause physical harm to others or to their environment, who understand reality as being dynamic rather than static, relative rather than absolute and stochastic rather than deterministic.
As you can see from those who articulate the Sinhala Buddhist Nationalist Project, such people are not likely to find inclusion therein. In fact according to these champions of this project to be Sinhalese is to label these values as being alien products of western degeneracy, to reject them, to label all those who espouse these values as being unpatriotic traitors and "the enemy within" and to torture and kill them. The outcome as you can see is, and always will end up being an Authoritarian government made up of people who love to be feared and fear to be loved. A government dedicated to the destruction of all those who love and love to be loved and who therefore care for themselves and each other and the world around them and who are therefore willing to SHARE.
So I am not at all surprised to see you begin the anticipated U Turn. It has come faster than I expected. It seems that I may indeed live to see the outcome - though I have already been reduced to dependence on a nice young typist to keep writing. You may or may not be one of these Fascists, but you are smart enough to know where credibility and possibly survival itself lies.
Dayan without "Dayawa", (compassion) please stop propagating this much of racism. Re-read your own strictly personal racist words: "The bulk of the Tamil Diaspora hates us Sinhalese and this country, Sri Lanka . Their consciousness is almost pathological. They are racists and fanatics, among whom there are those who set themselves on fire" (Dr.Dayan).
In 1983 some fanatic sinhalese made a large section of the Tamil community leave the country. Now you talk about their racism. And do you not know of the racism of the very people that you are serving right now. And apply your theory of pathology to read yours and MR's minds.Do not generalize all the sinhalese with "us", because we do not like that kind of 'sinhalaness'. For Tamil racism, you answer with sinhala racism. Your are a genius man.
A.S
Let me add one missing category of Tamils for your Hitleristic reading.
5.Tamils with Mahinda
Thank you
Thamodaram Siriwardena
Karumpanai,
After LTTE who left in Tamil leadership to talk with Sri Lanka government on the noted theempu principles of 1985 (even those principles are leading to a separate state)? LTTE has murdered majority of Tamil political heads who can represent Tamils and negotiate with SL government. Tamil Diaspora is equally responsible for creating a politically naked ground within Sri Lankan Tamil community by believing just a military language to achieve Tamil demands.
My personal opinion is, Tamils must join with national or mainstream political parties other than Tamil dominated parties to win mass political market and bring national leaders in to the top of the Sri Lanka politics.
D.Jayatilleke & Group will last as long as they write this way to appease their Appointments and will face an end, BUT the Tamil diaspora plus is becoming more alive, due to the the likes of this Group!!
Dayan should know that the Sri Lankan Politicians (past and the present) are so inefficient that other countries are drawn into our conflict. First the politicians must be taught how to govern a country. They are so corrupt and they are misleading the people of Sri Lanka. On the other hand Prabaharan is misleading the youth.
A Sinhalese lady from Kuliyapitiya informed one of your columnists,
Sri Lanka's MIAs - present grief, future fear
By Mark Magnier
which is follows:
QUOTE
Gunawardana's agony is still fresh, as she reflects on Tamil mothers on the other side who must be experiencing some of the same pain.
"In the north, they're going through the same suffering we have," she said. "We are running out of boys in this country. We don't need a war with the north to lose more children
UNQUOTE
So Dayan you better educate the politicians in Sri Lanka (Sinhalese,Tamils and Muslims)and do not try to find a scape goat. It is not your blood or mine. But the poor Sinhala and Tamil youth. Dayan, I think you should go the battle front and get involved to see the plight of the Sinhala and the Tamil youth.
We have shed enough blood in this country. That's enough. Let by gones be by gones. We shall start a new chapter.
God save Sri Lanka.
Dayan please read
Sri Lanka's MIAs - present grief, future fear
By Mark Magnier
relax have couple shots whisky, Think how more you want to damage your country.
Mr Dayan answer my questions,
1:- How many of your own sons and daughters fighting in front line? (if you have)
2: How many of your pay masters sons and daughters fighting in front line?
3:- Any politicians sons and daughters died in action during this 25 year brutal war? name them?
ANSWER IT IF YOU ARE MAN?
DO NOT DEFEND BRUATALITY OF MR BROTHERS, YOU DEFENDED PREMADASA, HE PAID THE PRICE. NOW MR BROTHERS THEY WILL PAY THEIR SINS SOONER.
THANKYOU
Mr Jayathilaka is completly correct when he says that the bulk of the Tamil Diaspora hates Sinhalese and they are full of hatred with no room for a amicable solution. It is also true that they have a sense of superiority over sinhalese ,seeming to living still in the period where tamils were discrimanated by unwise politicians , delebarately forgeting the tiring efforts taken after by the recent government to put things right. As I have stated in this forum these people have nothing to do with the tamil people living in Sri Lanka and their demands can never be met as they are brainwashed to see the things through a dark glass. It is also very correct that the aspirations of these who are critical of all good and bad must not be the solutions to address the real ,suffering tamils in Sri Lanka.The truth is that today these people have become victims of this unhealthy situation and we Sinhalese should do our best to answer their greivences , protect them and cleanse their minds filled with hatred towards sinhales implanted by the LTTE and this Diaspora . Mr Jyathilaka sounds hard here but the truth is bitter , and dear tamil brothers , we are ready to live with you and share your opinions , and you ? The ball is in your court now !
Dear karumpanai,
the nazis were an expresion of German aspirations of lebesensraum, The Khmer rouge of ultra communist levelling down; The chechen terrorists of an independent chechnya, the Khalistani terrorists of an independent punjab. Every movement is an expression of some aspiration - but once you crush the momevement the aspiration becomes irrelevant unless, the aspiration itself is willing to become moderate and more modest.
Jayathileka the pseudo humanist spouts his virulent clap trap again. Dont worry all your goverments genocidal activities activities are adequately documented on the internet. It will come back to bite you, and your race will be eternally linked to the nazis.No matter what propaganda you spout, the true tamils know who stood up for them when it counted. All the false saviours and uncle toms you have will be spat on. The only way you can win is to succeed in genocide.You cant hide it, and all your backers are trying to extricate themselves and leave the room before the shit hits the fan. That is why your indian friends are bailing out.
.
The biggest mistake Prabaharan made was that he believed Sinhala Buddhists are not going to kill thousands of innocent tamil civilians to get to him. Therefore he was sure that he is safe behind tamil civilians.
:-)
A day will come for sinhaleese people to suffer. They have unleashed terror on the tamil people. They have klilled innocent children. A day will come. The sinhaleese parents who enjoy seeing the pictures of tamil children will feel the pain. If not tamils, the god will unleash the punishment. We pray and pray, these sinhaleese monsters pay for what they are doing. We ask the god, how can the sinhaleese people go unpunished for killing innocent tamil children. Do not forget what goes around always come around. For individuals it comes fast, but for socities it will come slow and it will be devastating. A day will come for Sinhaleese to pay the price for klling innocent tamil children. On that day, we will tell the god, you are always there almighty.
Dear Dayan,
You seem to be frightened of the 80 M Tamils spread out throughout the world.
It was the genocidal attacks that had awakened the sleeping giant.
The Tamils were busy making money even in Sri Lanka up to the 70s and in Tamil Nadu up to now, the Tamil nationalism was dormant until the oppression became unbearable.
The powers to be thought that the Tamils are docile and that they will never resort to violent means and teaching a lesson or two periodically make them see sense.
Dayan wants to settle this problem by granting only minimum possible concessions and an imposed solution.The Tamils will not allowed to have a say!
Dayan recommends reasonable devolution like reasonable use of Tamil of an earlier generation and Dayan knows that if the greatest liberals of all time like SWRD Bandaranaike or Dudly Senanaike unlike Rajiv Wijesinghe can go back even on a written agreement what cannot be done by the lesser mortals!
He speaks about a 13th Amendment, 13th Amendment minus and 13th Amendment plus and his reasonable devolution moves slowly Yes! very slowly from one end of a continuum to the next, but of course within the unitary constitution.
This is a brilliant idea and in the meantime state sponsored colonization to change the ethnic balance could go on with an excuse of preventing LTTE infiltration and converting Tamils as minorities in all districts even in the Northern Province and that will solve the ethnic problem once and for all.
But will your nationalist intellectual majoritarian friends be tolerant of this “ "little now more later” as Mr S.J.V Chelvanayagam was criticized mercilessly for this supposed statement of his!
You talk about an election in the Northern Province!
Who will be allowed to contest and win?or Have you already decided about the results?
Don’t you agree that Sri Lanka is a failed state?
Do anybody have faith in the Public Service, Judiciary, Police, Press, Parliament?
Let us first have good governance and the rule of Law, then others including solution of ethnic problem follows!
Until and unless the state is reformed and reconstituted there is no hope for justice ,fair play or peace.
The war will continue in one form or other! The peace will be elusive and a distant dream!
Dear Dayan
thank you for an informative article about ongoing problems in SL. As a person from Tamil Diaspora I am very disappointed the way current Tamil diaspora acts in the West. To see the background of this behaviour we have to go back our history. Tamils generally more loyal to their White Masters than their own countries. Most of the Tamil Diaspora still living in a mindset 25 years ago Sri Lanka. They don't want look other way and see the opporturnities once the country's ethnic crisis solved.
The West also look more worried about a peaceful Sri lanka as it will not depend on them. As many countries start to be self sufficient and close to it's neighbours in Asia it will not allow them to dictate terms. Therefore I suspects the main reason for current Tamil Diaspora upheavel manupulated by the West. Beside they are the West afaired to loose a hard working community which very less dependent on social welfare system.
Dear Dayan,
I know you would like to treat the SL Tamil struggle like a Cricket match, and determine who won the game at the end of 5 days or 50 overs (rounds of gunfire), by looking at the runs (casualities). Because you know what is on the pipeline as the LTTE is sidelined in SL. The diaspora Tamils, TN Tamils and othe World Tamils are becoming active trying to fil the void, and that is bad news for SL govt and its supporters. The LTTE is within the reach of the SL govt, but not the World Tamils though.
But unfortunately, for your dismay, the Tamil struggle is not a MATCH, but a STRUGGLE. Also even though you want to trick the world in treating the Tamils struggle as a match, later you let the cat out of the bag with the following statement in your article."If we are able to satisfactorily address the disaffection of the Tamils in Sri Lanka , the we can begin to make inroads into Tamil opinion elsewhere.". So you agree that the struggle is going to continue until the issues have been addressed to the satisfaction of the SL Tamils. As you and I know the southern polity very well, it is not matured enough to address the Tamil grievances / aspirations. At most, what it could do is increase the white van presence in the Tamil homeland and suppress any true Tamil voices representing the majority Tamils. At the mean time, the paramilitary groups will be allowed to contest elections and they will be guaranteed to win the elections. The Tamils will be continued to be terrorized by not having access to basic necessities like food / medicine, and the state will negotiate with those tamils for basic rights, if they are willing to give up their secondary rights like freedom of expression / self determination. If India cares to flex its muscles, then a 13th amendment may find its way while MR risking his life like SWRD.
This is not the first set back for Tamils. I am only old/young enough to remember SJV. From SJV to VP, these were set backs, not the end of Tamil struggle. The future is going to be world Tamils and it will be the most challenging enemy that the SL govt has ever faced. Why? SJV / VP live(d) in SL and has to face the brutal SL forces for representing their people. Unlike them, the world Tamils live out the SL boundaries and cannot be TERRORIZED by the SL govt into submission.
Isn't this a scary situation for the SL govt?
The SL Tamils have determined to exercise their universally accepted principles of self determination rights (as communicated by them in the 1977 elections. Apart from the SL govt, only India is the other country which would like to prevent the Tamils from exercising their rights. That is why, India rushed in with this phony 13th amendment solution as a distraction. But, if the world tamils continue to express their support around the world exposing both India/SL in their attempts to prevent Tamils from exercising their rights, there is no way, SL govt can DEFEAT the Tamil struggle unless another mandate is provided by the Tamils to replace the 1977 mandate. But, will the SL Tamils fall in love with SL govt to provide a different verdict under a UN supervised free and fair elections?
Dayan, you know the answer for this question more than any one, don't you?
If the spring of popular government in time of peace is virtue, the spring of popular government in revolution are at once virtue and terror, without which terror is fatal; terror,without which virtue is powerless.terror is nothing but prompt, severe,inflexible, justice; it is therefore an emanation
of virtue;it is not so much a specific principle as a consequence of the general principle of democracy applied to our homeland's most pressing needs. We Tamils demand equality,human rights and freedom, we must not shirk from it consequences but must muster the courage to apply terror needed to really defend and assert equality,human rights and freedoms
Dayan
You say the tamil people hate you. I am a tamil and I can say quite categorically that we have a lot of different emotions about the current war, but hatred of the sinhala people is not one of them among the vast majority of my friends and relatives. We the tamils do not ask for one square centimeter of sinhala land. The whole conflict has been about the right to self determination in the lands we have inhabited for a thousand years.If your rulers were able to recoggnise and respect this your country would not have had to have road shows to raise funds from a scepitical diaspora. Your governemnt and the LTTE ( whose aims I support, as there is no alternative) have wasted the lives of thousands of your young men, and women because of this. We have gone from being the country with the best socio economic indicators in the late 50's to one where murder,rape and human rights abuses are the norm.If your army prevails repression and HR abuses that you commit will keep fuelling the conflict for the next generation.We will continue to agitate, and expose your government and your supporters double standards. Unfortunately there are no Douglas Macarthurs in the sinhala army who can rebuild your shatterred country. Do not accuse us of the base instinct that your ruling class are guilty of .
Dayan Jayatilleka says "The key resides in Sri Lanka . If we are able to satisfactorily address the disaffection of the Tamils in Sri Lanka , then we can begin to make inroads into Tamil opinion elsewhere."
How about starting with trying to persuade the SLA not to bomb and kill Tamil civilians? How about allowing adequate food and medicine through and allowing charities to operate in the war zone? How about allowing journalists in so that they can determine who exactly is killing the civilians?
You know and everyone else knows that if you did this you might turn up dead just like Lasantha.
The key does indeed reside in Sri Lanka. Us in the Tamil Diaspora have now been fully exposed to western ideals of liberty, justice and good governance. All we want is for these to be applied in Sri Lanka by a competent government.
Segaran
Now that the racist momentum of GOSL has reached a crescendo, this Goebbels-apologist, Dayan J, is spouting the venom for the so-called Final Solution. These days, however, genocide is slightly more complicated than it was in the 40's. Our Goebbels apologist has realized this, and is trying to save some face with the International Community. Of course, it is a very naive, crude childish attempt that leans far more towards propaganda than any objectivity. This is a perfectly sensible approach, or should I say, perhaps, the only possible approach, since the Government he works for is a fascist, unstable, unpredictable one, that cares little for rational behavior, let alone objectivity (unsurprisingly, you will never find our Goebbel's apologist commenting on lack of basic freedoms in his flourishing dictatorship). This instability is reflected well in the good Ambassador's writings... we can see the oscillations between Marxism and Fascism, interlaced with repeated rejections of Federalism, declarations of Sinhalese supremacy, half-hearted attempts to win international support by mere mention of the "13th amendment", and now, carefully contrived - albeit blunt - attacks on the Tamil Diaspora.
Dayan Jayatilleka, you have shown your true colors. All these time I thought you were a neutral person, fighting for justice and fair play by all communities in the country. I thought you were against those who are involved in this vicious cycle of violence, kill and kidnapping that are going on in Sri Lanka for some time with out any control by the so called Democratic republic of Sri Lanka. This article of yours has proved beyond any doubt that, you are also a racist and worry only about your own people. You should realize that we Tamils have every right to live in the country as much as you Sinhalese have the right. Why do you want to suppress our freedom and rights live in the country as equals like you? Until these discriminatory attitudes you have towards your fellow beings are remove from your mind and hearts, there will never be peace in your country. This animosity and mistrust has to be removed for ever. If you are a true follower of Buddha’s teachings, you have to fight to bring the ultimate peace and happiness for ever single citizen in the country whether he or she belongs to Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim or Burgers. Everone is equal in the eyes of God and the good men who lived on the planet and left leaving an exmple for us to follow their path.
Dear Dayan, I don't even bother two read beyond the 1st few lines of anything you write anymore. You are a waste of educated talent. Like Dr. NM et. al. people had a lot of hope in your clan. Now all what your say is empty talk. Whatever happened to your political philosophy ? Buried when your greed to live an exotic life took over. Pity your comrades who perished.
Raj.
Dayan, you do not have to worry about Tamil diaspora who suffer from inferiority complex because they do not have a country for themselves. Instead of fighting with mighty India where the majority of Tamils live, they thought it would be easy to fight with Sinhalese and rob a part of the island as most Sinhalese are easy going type. How many of these so called diaspora have their children fighting for a Tamil homeland? They fund the LTTE to attain something never ever existed in the reality by sending the sons of innocent Tamils who live in Sri lanka while keeping their children in comfortable positions. These Tamils who think of a Tamil homeland should be lunatic as Prabakaran to even imagine that a separate Tamil country existed in the history. There was NEVER a separate state. These idiots should go and do some serious search of Sri Lankan history. In addition to the inferiority complex these Tamils have another issue haunting them; racism. Where ever they go, they want to isolate from the community of that country and resist integration. They never let anyone outside of their community (even a Tamil) to get married and integrate to their social circle. Racism and discrimination is rooted in their culture as well as in their minds. That's why no one of these comm enters can give a fair answer when someone raises the question of 60% of Sri Lankan Tamils living in the south with Sinhalese. They just dodge an answer and duct away.
Let's re-read one review:
"Dear Dayan, I don't even bother two read beyond the 1st few lines of anything you write anymore. You are a waste of educated talent. Like Dr. NM et. al. people had a lot of hope in your clan. Now all what your say is empty talk. Whatever happened to your political philosophy ? Buried when your greed to live an exotic life took over. Pity your comrades who perished".
Raj.
Dear Jayatilleka,
Your intention is vivid when you put parallel to German aspirations of lebesensraum with Tamils aspiration for equality. You can day dream about the annihilation of LTTE as a force in the island. Hypothetically spoken, the struggle will go on even without LTTE as a decisive factor. You talk about becoming moderate and modest. What do YOU do on your part so that the Tamil aspiration becomes more modest and moderate? You contribute to the consolidation of Tamil extremism, don`t you. In my view you serve well to the success of Tamil nationalism in the island. So, please do not give up your struggle.
Having read all comments I thought of posting mine too.But a short one.
In Sinhala language there are two sayings(Proverbs) which would be applicable for all the above comments and for both Sinhalese and Tamils.It is very simple.Let me write them in Sinhala first and then translate.If any tamil friend is very good in Sinhala he weill understand without translation.
1.Angille tharamta idimenu!
2.Boralle tharama danagena uda paninu!
Gross meaning(direct translation)
1.Do not try to swell more than the size of your fingers(If the fingers swell more than their capacity,they will burst/explode)
2.Please know the nature of the ground/surface/earth you are going to fall before you jump up.
Real meaning
1.Please know your limits.Do not be over confident.Know what you can achieve.Dont daydream.
2.Think carefully before you do something.Know the pros and cons of any action.Do a cost benifit analysis of everything.
So I tried my best to give the real meaning of those two with my English knowledge.
Enjoy.
Prasad, don't you know that 60% of the Tamils living with your Sinhala brethren are living in utter fear.Eever day and night they fear for their life, any time they could be harassed by the police or army and taken away for questioning. Those who were taken away are still kept in prison or killed. Can you deny this?
"He completely overestimated his own military strength and prowess; an overestimation rooted in the Jaffna Tamil sense of superiority and racist underestimation of the Sinhalese (and also the North Indians, if one recalls the propaganda and hatreds of the IPKF days)"
Dayan Jayatilleke.
I have just one question about this:what does this mean exactly?What is the evidence for this "Jaffna Tamil sense of superiority?"
I think Mr DJ,insipte of having certain scholarly training,should still learn the art of disciplined thinking and emotion-free analysys.Hit and run brick bats hysterical outbursts should be left to certain scurrilous "jounalists" from down-under.These outbursts only undermine the few defensible arguments he does make.
Dear Dayan,
You are so wrong - The vast majority of Tamils dont hate the Sinhalese. It is precisely this narrow mindedness in branding all Tamils racist which is xenophobic. Being of Tamil origin, I always thought of myself as Sri Lankan. Unfortunately, I had to re-think of myself as Tamil, when the space for being a Sri Lankan was denied to me. The reality is that over the past 25yrs, the marginalisation of any one of Sri Lankan of Tamil origin by the state and the Sinhala establishment, has only served to push those who never aspired for Eelam into the seperatist camp. As many saw memebers of my family killed, raped and burnt out of home and were left with nothing else but the shirts on their back, and, a state which showed them no remorse they turned to the only movement which offered them justice - real or otherwise. The belligerent stand of the Sri Lankan government in offering no politcal settlement and the indiscriminate iron fisted approach in foisting a military solution robbed any space of moderation. Today all Sri Lankan Tamils see themselves Eezhath Tamilar not because they desire it, but, because they have no space to be Sri Lankan Tamils.
TICK, TICK, TICK ...
After reading all these comments what I can conclude is that Dayan's assumption of Tamils hating Sinhalese is right. Whether you like it or not this is the truth. These guys support LTTE becauses they are a part of their blood. However educated you are, for a 'normal' human being, this is the truth. For example, Zimbabwean's love Mugabe, knowing that he is corrupt and wrong. There is no difference in Tamil or Sinhalese. Some of the people who wrote above pathetically exposed themselves by mi-spelling a Sinhalese name with Tamil pronounciation. Who r u trying to fool? You fool yourselves. You don't like when Dayan says that partitioning the island is not possible. Someone expressed it correctly saying that this problem is brewing in Tamil's mind for three generations. Prabha is only a messenger. Don't people understand this is a part of a far bigger conspiracy? Tamils are having an inferiority complex for not having their own country despite having 80million people. Root of the cause is this. Nothing else. They cannot bargain this with India, therefore, tried to grab a part of Sri Lanka. Isn't this the truth and the whole truth? There is no need to coat this truth with sweet venomous bulls**t. This was almost achieved with that traitor elected in 2002, but, who prevented that. The Tsunami. Although 30,000 people sacrificed their lives to this natural phenomenon, now we could see that it was a godsend to protect the country, we beleive is being protected by the Buddha.
Dear Submarine
You must visit India in general and Tamil Nadu in particular to see the freedom which the Indians have. Did the Tamils in Sri Lanka speak of partition in the good olden days? No! It was forced upon the Tamils by the Sinhala politicians. So instead of talking partitioning and other bullshit, see how all of us can take the country out of this mess with less pain and agony to all the Sri Lankans. May be you don't want to expose yourself as you call yourself "submarine" to cover all the sins you commit.
Sri Lanka is for all of us you and me and the Sinhalese,the Tamils and the Muslims.
For one as well read as Dayan; an advisor to GoSL, to boot, to conclude "All Tamils hate all Sinhalese" is totally wrong and calculated to
create hatred among the two communities. Doubtlessly, feelings on both sides have become very acute since 1983 - and perhaps more so today. Look at the reality. The Sinhala soldier of today aged between 18-25 has been taught both in school and the army that "the Tamil is our enemy" And so it is with the
Tamil militant holding a gun whose perception of the Sinhalese is only as
"my enemy" The Buddhist priest you see with the soldier in the army flags all over
the land is to give out this false message. We must all thank SWRD for dividing the country on racial lines. And yet, despite all this the more educated among us (even Sinhala and Tamil educated) do not "hate" the other side in the true sense of the word. Look at the wise choice of Brendon Gunaratne to speak recently on the commemmoration of the Tamil leader Arunachalam - also carried in this journal. There is a great deal of humanism, understanding and a message in Brendon's poignant address the Sinhalese are ever
ready to embrace their Tamil brothers again. Of course, "racial hatred" is the messsage - or, to be precise, raison d'etre of
Wimal Weerawansa, Nalin de Silva, Champika Ranawake and the Buddhist extremists
whom I have identified in my recent comments. I have avoided being personal but you have recently mentioned your father in these blogs. Your parents and my dear friends
Mervyn and Luxmi - while at Dinner in my home in the evening of their useful lives - were convinced eventually there will be a re-union of both communities in our life-time. They counted a vast number of Tamils among their close friends. I know you speak glowingly of
Padmanabha, Varadan and other Tamil friends. I believe the Hutu-Tutsi hatred
based on irrevocable tribal lines do not apply to our unfortunate ills.
ISS
The writer's generalization of Tamils is quite laughable. Generalizing any group is dangerous, to both sides. As a Jaffna Tamil man now part of the diaspora (temporary until it's safe to come back and pick up the gun) I can tell you that the Sinhalese of the low-country are going to create havoc all over the island because of their racist ways.
Sinhalese are winning against LTTE because they are the majority, and even then it has taken a very long time (25 yrs. or so). But, globally, Tamils are the majority, and for decades, we have been mobilizing and coming together around the horrible treatment of SL Tamils since '48. It is just a matter of time until the wrath of all Tamils will fall upon Lanka. The wrath is brewing, I can see it and feel it real-time. This is not good for you, Sinhalese people, it's very bad for you. Think, if it takes this long to crush the LTTE, imagine what's going to await the Sinhalese when ALL the Tamils come down on Lanka politically, financially, and with manpower.
Then, the Sinhalese future will be topic for discussion...i'm not joking, this is serious...as they exist nowhere else but in Lanka. Tamil spirit cannot be broken, history tells us that. We will not break with the LTTE's fall, that's a promise. The best is for the Sinhalese to NOW treat the minority Tamils (and Muslims) as equals or the future of Sinhalese culture will be bleak (except for the Kandyan Sinhalese, whom the Tamils get along with mostly).
This is a warning from a Tamil man who not only wants Tamil culture to flourish in Lanka but also the Sinhalese culture...Sinhalese people, take heed, you are headed for disaster in the next 3 generations IF you keep up your persecution of minority Tamils. Heed the warning well or else YOU will pay the ultimate price and not the Tamils, for we have weathered storms like this many many times over the past 2,500 years.
Meessage to Crazyoldmansl from the earlier post:
This is such an excellent analyses that I wish you would expand it and publish it in a print media too --perhaps under your own name It needs wider distribution.
In any case keep up the good work.
If I ever became the president of Srilanka, I would
1. make "English" the Official Language of the state with immediate effect.
2. Every new birth certificate will be issued with the word "Srilankan" as the nationality.
3. Free homes will be given to couples with different multicultural backgrounds.
It may take a long time to breed a whole new generation but at least it is the right step forward.