We must be hard on the Tigers as we are soft on the Tamils
By Dayan Jayatilleke
The eyes of the world are upon us. This means two things: Sri Lanka must not blink on the fundamentals, whatever the pressures brought to bear, while at one at the same time Sri Lanka must be open and flexible on that which is non-fundamental, tactical and secondary. We must be resolute and tough, steel-like on the issue of the Tigers and pluralist, liberal and moderate on the politics that comes after. The closure of the conflict, the construction of the new Sri Lanka and the transition from one to the other requires that rare combination of characteristics: steel and water; yin and yang.
We must be as hard on the Tigers as we are soft on the Tamils; as open on the Tamils as we are closed on the Tigers. But are we getting it right?
Rohana Wijeweera survived the 1971 insurgency and commenced a second bloodier one in 1986. Once he was killed, the JVP abandoned the path of armed struggle. The leaders of Peru’s Sendero Luminoso and the Kurdish PKK, Abimael Guzman and Abdullah Ocalan remain in captivity and both insurgencies have been rekindled.
The Angolan government forces killed the legendary leader of UNITA, Jonas Savimbi, and almost overnight, a decades-long insurgency drew to a close. In Chechnya, Russian forces and their local allies killed separatist leaders Djokar Dudayev and Shamil Basayev, and the brutal secessionist insurgency began to wither away. On the other hand, in 1982, the Israeli forces permitted the evacuation of the Palestinian leadership from Beirut to Tunisia. And most famously, the US forces took their eye off the ball in Tora Bora, which permitted the leaderships of Al Qaeda and the Taliban to slip across the border.
The lessons for Sri Lanka are very clear: while strict rules of engagement must be laid down which are in consonance with International Humanitarian Law (both because it is intrinsically right but also because there are powerful actors out to get us), nothing and no one must be permitted to prevent the Sri Lankan armed forces from destroying and decapitating the LTTE. Nothing must stand between Prabhakaran and the meting out of justice.
The pro-Tiger Tamil Diaspora has emerged as a highly organized, mobilized and lavishly funded formation which has to be taken seriously as an adversary. Increasingly it is replacing the LTTE’s military force on the ground as the most important element in the separatist-terrorist cause. So far the mobilization reveals a political monopoly of the Tamil Tigers and open identification with that organization. The moderates, democrats or progressives have not emerged as a trend.
If this new threat to Sri Lanka is to be faced and defeated Sri Lanka has to change. It has to make a change similar to that which enabled us to come this far in the war, namely the coming together of the best, the most committed to the cause. However, since it is a vastly different battlefield, we must also change many things about the way we are; undo and learn quite a bit.
Pro-Tiger Tamil students, mainly from Canadian campuses are walking from Toronto to Chicago in order to get on the Oprah Winfrey show. Now that’s a pretty neat gimmick. They have a well designed website. The Sinhala students who have the sophistication to pull something like this off are uninvolved in the struggle because they are alienated by the elements that tend to dominate equivalent networks, while those who are heavily involved in the "patriotic" struggle do not make the most Oprah-friendly material.
If we are to compete and win internationally, we have to catch up, and in order to catch up we have to transform from within. But what kind of transformation should it be?
Nation-building
This brings us to the heart of the matter: Sinhala and Tamil nationalism and Sri Lankan nationhood. The Sinhala hyper-nationalists like to brush aside Western criticism or even examples, by taking comfort in our Asian location, identity and values. However, the shortcomings of that ultra-nationalism is best revealed when we reflect on the fact that they choose to ignore the clear cut views of Asia’s Wise Old Men and most respected figures. They have ignored the doctrine of modernization practiced by China, the Far East and ASEAN and India, so which Asia are they talking about and identifying with— an imaginary religious bloc that does not exist as an entity in Asian affairs, let alone world politics?
Nobel Prize winning economist Joe Stiglitz, former chief economist of the World Bank, author of ‘Globalization and its Discontents’ and "How to make Globalization work’, currently head of the expert panel on the Economic Crisis set up by Fr Miguel D’Escoto, President of the United Nations General Assembly, almost gushed last week that China had the most successful economy in the midst of the global economic downturn. While the architect of the Chinese economic miracle is undoubtedly Deng Hsiao Peng, it just be recognized that China retained as senior advisor on economic affairs, Former Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Kwan Yew. One of the pioneers of the Asian economic miracle which has caused a fundamental shift of global power in favour of Asia, Lee Kwan Yew returned to the lessons of Sri Lanka in a speech earlier this month:
"Singapore’s multi-racial peoples will never be united if we had used Mandarin as our common language. All non-Chinese, 25% of Singaporeans will be disadvantaged. The result will be endless strife, as in Sri Lanka, where Singhalese was made the national language and the Tamil-speaking were marginalized. We made the right decision to use English as our common language. We also retained the teaching of mother tongues".
The advice that Malaysia’s Mahathir Mohammed had for Sri Lanka is contained in the speech he delivered at the CIMA convention a few years ago, in which he argued for a ‘grand bargain’ or social trade-off, in which the majority must share political power with the minority while the minority must share economic wealth with the majority.
It is a positive sign that young Sri Lankans are already beginning to examine and re-examine Sinhala nationalism and matters of identity. In a seminal essay ,revaluating Gunadasa Amarasekara on his 80th birthday, Peradeniya university’s Dr. Liyanage Amarakeerthi (formerly of the faculty at Cornell), produced a double-edged critique which deserves to be quoted in extenso:
"…But only a few of NGO operatives could be called authentic. Writing mainly in English, they could not really reach out to the monolingual masses. Therefore, some of them sound like highly paid parrots talking to themselves in an unknown tongue, living in comfortable cages.
Only a few among those intellectuals could deeply respond to or engage with literature and art produced by Sinhala- speaking people- to focus on my own native language group. The bilingual intellectuals associated with NGOs are more or less ignorant or cynical of Sinhala literary and works of art...Without genuine and authentic connections with vernacular cultural life, some important work by NGO intellectuals had very little impact on the masses. In addition, their failure to produce a sustained critique of LTTE violence during the last three decades even created a certain resentment of them among the masses...
…Many children of 1956 turned their own inabilities into a form of Jathika Chinthanaya. For example, those who do not know any language other than Sinhala elevated their monolingualism into a form of being "Jathika." These days universities are full of those ‘national thinkers.’ …Those who claim that The Jataka Book is enough cannot read Derrida or Foucault and they cannot deal with such rigorous thought, so they disguise their inability as Jathika Chinthanaya. One cannot begin to describe how the sublimation of mediocrity has destroyed this country…
…An entire school of mediocre ‘thinkers,’ masquerading as national thinkers, (Jathika Chinthakayas) is constantly at work to rid our society of genuine conversation. In any institution; including the private sector, the people of average skills and knowledge are the most nationalist calling any innovative and energetic person "non-nationalist". For these disciples of the Jathika Chinthana School, being productive and creative means being Western. Therefore, those who have done nothing substantial for the Sinhala nation are the most vocal defenders of it…
…For me, Sri Lanka’s true national quality has to be found in its rich diversity- not in an unbroken Sinhala- Buddhistness. There are many ways of being Sinhala and Sri Lankan. In addition, it is impossible to recover the pure Sinhala person who ‘got lost’in a confluence of other cultures; that moment of past purity is a creation of the present and when we look behind the layers of time what me see is yet another meeting of many
cultures, thought and modes of being. If there is any cultural ‘essence’, it is always in the making, shifting and shaping itself making it impossible to pin down the essence. For one thing, the essence is no longer the essence when we find it…
It is said that the ‘total military defeat of the LTTE’ is just a few weeks away. At least after that we need to remind ourselves that Sri Lanka is an extremely diverse country where multiple modes of thought or ‘Chinthanayas’ coexist, and there is no one ‘Chinthanaya’ or one basa". Our generation has the challenge of finding the best ‘structures’ that simultaneously nourish many thoughts, many modes, many voices, and so on…"
With this essay Dr. Liyanage Amarakeerthi, one of, if not the finest critical mind of the younger generation of Sri Lankans, has begun the conversation. He has also sketched the beginnings of a manifesto for postwar Sri Lanka.
(Writer states these are strictly his personal views)
31 Comments
Mr. Dayan u tried your best, better walk away from this scinario, Tamils had enough. If you have any humanism left in your heart, advice govt to leave tamils alone and bring all poor sinhala youths join their families.
We tamil and GREAT TAMIL EALAM WILL PROVIDE YOUR PEOPLE DIGNIFIED LIFE.
Dear Dayan Jayatilleke!
"Rohana Wijeweera survived the 1971 insurgency and commenced a second bloodier one in 1986. Once he was killed, the JVP abandoned the path of armed struggle."
After Rohana Wijeweera, people like Somawansa/ Tilvin etc. cannot think of an insurgency without USSR. Even there is no cause for such an insurgency. But you can clearly see an ethnic polarization within Tamil / Sinhala community. It could even bounce back after 50 years in an unexpected angle (you might have seen 5 year old kids holding VP's picture, in rallies), if the problem is not looked in to and solved with a long term vision. Singaporean Lee Kuan Yew, understood this problem better than yourself, I hope.
I know the government is exactly thinking the same way on Ltte as JVP. You will realize the post war (if one), era will be too hard on SL. The changing world order even harder for a country like Israel.
SL does not have real friends in western countries. Countries like India/China can simply change their mind any time...
May be a day SL gov should realize itself about dividing SL, for survival. Still people in SL have so many 'Chinthanayas’. But it does not go beyond Gota and MR. That is irrelevant to the war.
Ah Dayan Jayatilleke:
You are finally beginning to see the light.Nothing like being free of the trappings of office to clear the mind!
Rajan K
We must be hard on the Tigers as we are soft on the Tamils
The header itself is wrong man. You should have chosen “we must be soft on Tamils as we are hard on Tigers"
MUTHAL KONAL MUTRUM KONAL
(in English : first mistake always a mistake).
From the turn of the century, Sinhala Polity is making mistakes and we have come to a point of no return.
Besides you still stick to the old rotten " one Nation" theory.
Unless some one accept that this land has two nations and two distinct people with multiple religion ( which is community) we will never see the light.
Let me remind you some thing you might have heard in your childhood.
REWARD and PUNISHMENT.
Now a days it is " Reward or NO REWARD" we don't use the word Punishment in a civilized world.
Based on this simple principle
South should accept the fact that there exist a distinctive nation of people in the Northeast part of the country as their traditional homeland. They have the right to self determination if "every thing fails".
Here is the catch.
The Reward for the Sinhala nation to prosper with Tamil nation as one country if they respect the other nation of people and try to work under a Confederal state.
If the Sinhala nation fail on this ( which is the case for the last 60+ years), then the Tamil Nation will go on its way with a set time frame of 3-5 years under the supervision of UN or some countries which has no strategic interest on the Island's location in the Indian Ocean.
If you expect to wipe out the LTTE, we Tamils are expecting a total Demilitarization of the NE too.
The Coin always have two side and you cannot expect to have one side all the time.
Dayan,
How do you classify yourself.. an hyper-sinhala nationalist ? It is clear that your a sole aim is portraying the Tamil Diaspora as terrorists as well because you fear them more than the LTTE. I presume in your hyper-nationalist vocabulary all separatists must be terrorists.... !!
No amount of Boot polishing of academics or citing Foucault or Derrida will cleanse you of the Sinhala/Buddhist Fascism that is animating your writing and your justification of the brutal decimation of Tamil civilians albeit in the service of wiping out the LTTE.
If the naked Fascism of a government bent on wiping out Tamil civilians at the alter of "war against Terror" is not facism in a masked form what is it Putha?
Go back and ask Buddha for forgiveness for your blood stained soul and pen!
This is an excellent piece of analysis by a Sinhala Nationalist. However, the first person reference of ‘we’ for the majority Sinhalese is somewhat disturbing. The term ‘we’ should refer to Sri Lankans not to the majority Sinhalese. Again a constitutional amendment is required to change this term ‘we’ from Sinhala Buddhists to Sri Lankan. In Singapore, Lee Kwan Yew uses the term ‘we’ to refer to the Chinese where the minority Malays are kept under firm grip of internal security laws and away from major financial institutions and political power. Keeping the National Anthem in Malay and English as official language are his clever strategies for the welfare of ‘we’, the Chinese.
The Singapore model is not applicable in Sri Lanka where the minorities are on par with the majority Singhalese in academic, political and financial sectors and they are equally capable of leading the country towards prosperity. Indian model is more suitable for Sri Lanka where a minority Sike can be elected as Prime Minister of the country.
A mental transformation is required among the Sinhala Nationalists to accept the minorities as citizens with equal constitutional rights, partners towards prosperity of Sri Lanka and more importantly, sons and daughters of the soil. Unless such a mindset is cultivated among ‘we’ the majority Sinhalese, the war against LTTE may be won but the battle against racism will be lost.
Seemingly, Dayan has finished with his ammunition and now is quoting big chunks from another article written by a non-racist intellectual of the country. This shows the poverty of the Dayan Chintanaya which is a carbon copy of Nalin and Amarasekere. The power of the theory as such it has misled a whole nation which is convinced falsely of the clearance of whole North of Tamils and establishing a Sinhalese kingdom subservient Colombo 'Maha balakotuwa'there. Now as Dayan has nothing new to write or prescribe or his prescriptions have all gone wrong, he will have to hang himself soon once the country is in complete chaos being unable to defeat the LTTE militarily and forced to negotiations by the international community.
Dayan Claims, "So far the mobilization reveals a political monopoly of the Tamil Tigers and open identification with that organization. The moderates, democrats or progressives have not emerged as a trend."
Is he from planet mars and born in Srilanka only after July 1983 ? The moderates, democrats or progressives have been there from the Tamils and among the Tamils even before 1947 ( eg Youth Congress ) and after.
They are still there in Srilanka and outside Srilanka ( eg : Dr. Kumar David, Dr. Sivathamby ).
Not only parties contesting in NE had Tamils and Muslims, number Tamils were in UNP, LSSP, CP and later in SLFP. I know personally how these die hard LSSP and CP candidates who became disillusioned with the main stream politics of both UNP and SLFP coalitions.
Has the majority of the well educated Sinhalese like Dayan made any changes to the Chinthanaya of the two parties that have been ruling SL based mainly on majoritarian power and not on good principles. JVP, JHU jioned the so called democratic process made any changes to the southern thinking ? Professor Vitharane (Dr. N. M Perera's nephew I was told )used to make statements that 95 % of the work has been completed. When 5 % is left he wants TNA to come in ans say " Amen " or "sathasthu" just before he attends a conference in Singapore to reveal his solution based on Mahinda Chinathanya which is a JHU, JVP, SLFP and Nava LSSP/CP conglomeration.
One young eastern born journalist who is dead and gone rightly said like Lasantha, it hard to change the mahavamsa mindset even after Dayan's wish of eliminating Prabhaharan.
Mahavamsa mind set will continue to prevail under unitary state and Dayan know very well. He can not change that even if he become Malwatte Mahanyake Thero in the futre. What is he talking about except instigating Sinhalese youths among the Diaspora to march Oprah Winfery show and wants to take the Sinhalese war against the Tamils in SL to the next generation. I like your challenge Dayan.
Hope the editor will post this.
Is this what is meant by "how have the mighty fallen" ? Well if so Jayatilleke has fallen well and let's hope Rajiva Wijesinha (another good brain that has been converted to the Mahinda Chinthanaya) follows suit.
Dyan, your memory is conveniently very short.
Do you expect the Tamils to believe the Sinhala politicians? Promises / agreements have been shreded before the ink dries!
The state terrorism encountered by tamils, have been far more than all what the LTTE has done. Remember 1983?
Why are you not honest and meaningful PLEASE.
This person must have directley effected by the LTTE.We can
continue debate this matter.Lets forget abot LTTE.
1 Is he things Sri lankan government have acceptable solution for tamils?
2.Is he things tamils are allowed to live freely in sri lanka?
3.Is he things media freedom is there in sri lanka?
4.Is he things singaleese can express their views freely in the contry with the current government?
5.Do we (tamils) have any problem since 1948?
6.Why tamils supported this freedom fight then and now?
7.if we had a problem then,do we have the problem now?did any of the government or specialy Rajapaksa regime have any solution to the course of the problem once they won the war?
8.This government and the military denying civilians death.there are so many deaths of children,elderly and babies and continue to blame the LTTE for everything.
Is this government really concern about tamils and really cracking on the LTTE then why cant they allow media (local and foriegn)m and UN and others NGO's to be there on there own risk???????????????
(something to hide)
i. is he trying to say what this government is doing right?
Civilians who have moved to government control area are not allowed to have contacts with friends and relatives.and they are not allowed to speak to any media.why?.
I am not talking about LTTE here. I am talking about the tamils and their freedom to live in sri lanka with equal rights.Does he belives that we have the equal rights in sri lanka?or does he thinks that we will have equal rights in the future?
This government is having a genocide war against tamils.Thats why many tamils in lives abroad supporting the tamils freedom by contributing money and other sorcess.
He must think.............. and think carefully....................think fairly............ and not for his own selfishness.
God Save Sri Lanka
The only acceptable solution for Sri Lanka is that TAMILS lose their Separatist and Nationalist Mindset. It will not be tolerated in Sri Lanka after the LTTE are destroyed. No one in Sri Lanka is going to bend over backwards to make Unnecessary and Unreasonable SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS for Tamils as an Ethnic Group. All Citizens of Sri Lanka are EQUAL in the Eyes of the law, you will not be given FEDERALISM based on ETHNICITY, or any SPECIAL accommodations just because you are TAMIL. If you don't like that you can feel free to LEAVE SRI LANKA and go try agitate for Special Favors in OTHER COUNTRIES....
GOOD LUCK, and GOOD RIDDENCE!
Yes Mr. Dayan
• Your country men were very soft on Tamil on July 1983.
• very very soft in saying all hospital in LTTE controlled areas are legitimate target for your esteemed military
• Confiding all the refugees in a concentration camp; not allowing a Tamil girl in the concentration camp to even pay last respect to her own biological mother
• Killing my father and fellow passengers in the same bus and said a grenade was thrown from the bus
• Killing more than 100’s of my fellow villagers in front of my eyes.
• When killing Tamil MPs and Tamil journalist. Tissanayagam
• Confiding the young Tamils ( most of them are the bread winners of their families) in BOOSA WELIKADA (to name few)
• Sexual assault and murdering Tamil girls, Krishanthi
Very very soft.
It is an inetresting article but it is non-starter in my opinion.
"Hard on Tigers and soft on Tamils" it is no secret that Tigres were born out of the policy since 1948 by ruling class being hard on Tamils.
Changing the written and unwritten policy is not easy because
1. Even the educated sinhalese does not have the insight of root cause of the issue.
2. Sinhala jingoism so perverse even intellects themslves conflict their own thinking.
3. Sinhala ruling class did not leave any room to educate the common man by shutting down the free media.
4. Same ruling class made sure the south see the minority rights thru excesses of Tigers
5. Tamils are going to be radicalized as never seen before from current operation by SL
Hence, SL have to be hard on sinhala buddists for enable to be soft on Tamils. Choice is clear for SL, no change and continue to be hard on tamils, in the process ruin all Srilankan society
I enjoy reading Dyan's articles though I don't agree with all the elements of his writtings, and I am in opinion that intellcts like Dyan should be hard on SL government to be soft on their citizens and respecting their lives and rights.
Having been with Premadasa and the even more murderous Rajapaksas, for all to see over the years, the writer occasionally wants people to believe he is still a man of virtue. Obilivious of the sheer contradictions in his views, he would rave about "Che" and "Fidel" and suddenly turn around to promote the "wisdom of Lee Kwan Yew," who ruled a country that is more capitalist than the West, perhaps the most capitalist in the world.
That China has so far been surviving the economic crisis better than others has a lot to do with its size and its totalitarian political system. It doesn't have anything to do with Yew's "economic" acumen.
The Angolans probably did not have a thriving, committed diaspora, nor 60 million fellow ethnics 30 miles away. The Chechen "solution" is far from final--Russia has installed some friendly thugs in power just as the GoSL has done in the East and plans to do in the North, but the final chapter has not been written.
Just as July 1983 united Tamils, the current murderous spree of the GoSL will unite pro-LTTE and anti-LTTE political formations in a struggle for survival against GoSL and pro-GoSL forces. Without the pressures from, and the baggage of, the current leadership of the LTTE, the resulting unified formations may well be more effective globally. The diaspora should unite in resistance and deny any legitimacy to the murderous GoSL and its allies.
Dayan:
We must be "Hard on the Tigers and soft on the Tamils" is the most powerful statement you have made in recent times in these columns. If this truism was
understood and duly acted upon by your current political bosses several thousands of lives on both side of the conflict could have been saved
and the country richer in many ways. Pls impress this on the ruling clique
and we probably can build that Family of Lankans and a united Nation our
leaders failed to do in 1948. Incidentally, the accomodative spirit the Sinhala Govts, with the Buddhist clergy joining in, with which the JVP "terrorists" were rehabilitated may kindly be shown to the Tamil militants too. Remember Prabakaran,Pottu Amman and the leadership are one thing while the thousands
of "the fodder" with them either voluntarily or by force - young boys and girls - another.They have feelings and dreams of "tomorrow" and a "just, peaceful and prosperous future for us" Have'nt we heard winners of wars throughout history practised magnanimity in victory - in a sense outside
that of crude patronage.
ISS
It is sad that dayan is respecting and quoting LKY now only. He should get more information on LKY's well meaning candid comments made about the disgraceful July 1983 SL programme and the effects of it in his couple or few national day rally speeches as the then Singapore PM . He also mentioned about the politics of SL and her leaders particulalrly about JR in his books. From what I interpreted, LKY had great respect for the Iron Lady of India, then PM Indira Gahandhi.
He aslo replied to a question to the press during the then Indian PM Narasimha Rao's vist to Singapore, the solution to SL is let the Sinhalese develop the the Sinhalese areas and the Tamils develop the Tamil areas and that was the way to progress or something to that effect.
It is sad that advisors like Dr. Roahna Gunaratne ( advisor to Chandrika ) or Dayan ( to Mahinda and brothers and sarath ) did not give the man of wisdom LKY's right advise that was record for many years much earlier. Suddenly they have become admirers of such a great Asian and global leader.
Still dayan can get these information from the SL high comissions to enlighten himself more with Asian leaders wisdom than Cuban leaders.
Dear Dayan,
I do not know of any government that is piling up pressure on the government of Sri Lanka to give the LTTE a new lease of life. On the other hand every government in the world that values human life and is committed to the respect and defence of human rights is bound to put pressure on the Sri Lankan government to stop killing people, stop the war and work out a political solution.
Those who are heavily involved in the "patriotic" struggle do not make the most Oprah-friendly material because they come across clearly as the authoritarian, gender biased, violent killers that they would like to be if given the chance to do so. The talk about Asian-nes and Asian values is all about this. What is this Asian-ness?
Let me tell you what it is.
To be Asian is to harass your husband and to beat your wife and thoroughly distort and trample their lives treating them as ones private property and determining what they may and may not do and how they may and may not live their lives.
To be Asian is to intimidate, terrify, beat and abuse ones children. It is to rule ones family like a tyrant, making ones spouse and children plead for what little pleasures they are occasionally allowed to enjoy, deciding what they may and may not eat, what they may and may not do, who they may and may not meet and mingle with, where they may and may not go, what they may and may not wear, what they may and may not believe and in general how they may and may not live their lives.
To be Asian is to encourage teachers to beat their students, the police to practice torture and murder and the government to resort to the mass murder of those who do not support its policies.
To be Asian is to prevent people from changing their religion and systems of belief.
To be Asian is to repressively control the sexuality of ones spouse and children and everyone else.
To be Asian is to be unable to express ones sexuality in a respectful, gentle, caring, sharing, loving mannret without aggressiveness, violence, guilt and shame.
To be Asian is to be afraid of women's sexuality and the sexuality of gays and lesbians.
To be Asian is to be dependent on women for every little thing in ones life.
To be Asian is to be unable to look at women's bodies without being sexually aroused beyond restraint.
To be Asian is to oppress and kill all those who do not belong to ones own belief system, ethnicity, nationality, caste etc.
To be Asian is to insist that everyone adopt ones own world view and to advocate the killing of al those who do not.
To be Asian is to be hypocritical and corrupt.
So what are you going to do with this Asian-ness?
First you must realize that this is not Asian-ness. It is Authoritarianism at the level of the individual and social institutions and Fascism at the level of the state.
You will have to discard it for human-ness.
The first thing you will have to do to be human is to get this obscene and pathological love of killing out of your mind. That means your military campaigns will have to be brought to an end and discarded for all time and your police force will have to be re educated and re trained in how to respect human rights and they will have to be subjected to stringent supervision and subjected to strongly deterrent punishment for the violation of human rights until a non violent culture that accepts and defends human rights is firmly established within the police force.
Once you have done that you will have to learn how to respect other peoples points of view, their interests and their right to live their lives in the way they want to live them.
You will then have to learn how to share. You cannot greedily grab everything to yourself. You will have to accept the others right to an equal share. You will have to accept that numerical superiority or superior firepower does not entitle you to a lions share.
You will next have to learn how to care for people, to be loving, compassionate, kind and helpful.
You will have to accept and ensure that women have the right to choose whom they will have sex with and when and how. You will have to accept that gays can be gay and lesbians can be lesbians and bi sexuals can be bisexuals openly with all laws against the expression of human sexuality repealed and abolished.
You will have to accept that children have the right to grow up free from religious indoctrination and to choose their own religion or system of beliefs when they are old enough to do so and economically independent which would mean that no parent can make their children members of their religion and no one under the age of consent and who is not economically independent may join a religion.
You will have to allow your children to marry those whom they want to marry - not those you choose for them and insist that they marry.
You will have to accept the right of the minorities to ask for a separate state or whatever they want to ask for and advocate without trying to suppress such demands with laws and with violence.
You will have to accept the right of everyone to use the language of their choice.
You will have to stop parents violating their children
You will have to stop teachers violating their students
You will have to stop the police violating people
You will have to stop members of the government killing people
You will have to stop politicians from killing people
You will have to ensure that every person has access to due process of law regardless of whatever crime they may be uspected of.
If you do this you will in effect be putting an end to the Sinhala Buddhist Nationalist project as well as the Tamil Nationalist Separatist project and THIS is just about what we all need - though not all of us may want this.
I am all for a country that is administered in English and where Sinhala and Tamil are used within the administrative process wherever necessary, by an administrative service that is comprised of men and women who are able to speak and work in English, Sinhala and Tamil, who understand and accept the concept of human rights and who are pledged to the defence of these rights.
Whether you like it or not the English language and western culture has come to be identified with respect for and defence of human rights and the understanding of reality as being stochastic rather than deterministic.
That is to say that the majority of those who adopt broadly humanitarian values, who are inclusive in their thinking, who accept the concept of Human Rights, the acceptance of what can be described as broadly humanitarian values and due democratic and legal processes, a state that is not allowed to use violence, the acceptance of 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, and an understanding of reality as being dynamic rather than static, relative rather than absolute and stochastic rather than deterministic are usually people who speak the English language and I doubt very much that any one of them will be found who cannot read, write speak English at all
In the meantime I see that you are moving very fast to hide your own fascism by sharpening the focus of your inherent bitterness, hatred and murderous intent on the LTTE and you will use this anti LTTE stance to hide your support for the killing of the Sri Lankan Tamils under the garb of anti terrorism. A good try, but this time Dayan I think the world has seen very clearly who you and others who share your kind of thinking are and what the lot of you are up to in Sri Lanka.
Truth Is Out There !!
At least greater majority of the Sinhalese don't deny the fact that innocent Tamils were murdered in organized riots in 1983, for which we are ashamed of and regret.
But we the young Sinhalese had witnessed, tens of thousands of innocent Sinhalese being killed by LTTE suicide bombers, claymore mines etc. in south.Did we raise a hand to hit a Tamil after those incidents? No No No, we remain patiently thinking this is their revenge!
Truth is the new generation of Sinhalese want to live in peace with Tamils and to see this country of all of ours prosper. Thats why Colombo Municipal area has a population of 30% of Tamils live in peace with us, and thats why our best friend are Tamils and thats why we never bother about anyone's race when we recruit employees to our Organizations.And that is the truth nothing but the truth!
Tamils have suffered enormously, at least in Sri Lanka, much more than Sinhalese, having confronted the majority. Now I get the feeling, having read the responses to most of the articles in these pages, most of the Tamils want to continue confrontation. Choice is yours, you know who will continue to suffer.
Ramesh Pathirana
Once referring to the Treasury bureaucrats Dr. N.M. criticized them of their two drawers approach to things. They maintain two sets of drawers with files, one with precedence to accommodate their visitors and the other to reject them out right. As they see their clients at a distance, the bureaucrats decide on which of their drawer to pull out. Likewise the author too is no doubt capable of quoting a number of examples for and against an armed resistance libration movement. His quotes depend on which side of the fence he is at a given time.
So, after reading all of these comments, Ramesh Pathirana from Colombo is indeed correct.
I work with Tamils; I go to their Kovils; I eat from their hotels and I enjoy their company. I just do not worry about them: I do not look over my shoulder when I walk in Wellawatte or Kotahena.
This Tamil Diaspora is very funny. They are a very warm people. They get along well with Sinhala people living among them, wherever they live. Sinhala people tend to trust them more than their own people, especially outside Sri Lanka.
But a majority of those Tamil people who write comments here are being rather very unreasonable; not being able to see reality or looking at it with colored glasses. You are mistaken and misled. And for that, you suffer.
You talk with so much hatred, spewing forth anger and a viciousness at the Sinhalese in Sri Lanka. You people hate Buddhist, Sinhalese but less of those Sinhalese who are Christians. What is the problem here? Are we the children of a lesser God? Are Tamils in Colombo kicked out of buses? Are they told to stand out in the rain when there is a downpour to make way for Sinhalese? This is incredible! None of you give us credit for being different than those Sinhala thugs of 1983.
We love you people. Just do not sweat it out wherever you live; save that money and then give it over to LTTE or whoever to wage war. Have you seen the squalid life of your brothers and sisters that are filling up IDP centers? Get your NGO's to show photos of the life they lead in the Wanni. How can you be happy? I guess you are OK and you do not want to come and live in torrid Sri Lanka. What the hell, put a dime or a dollar to the collection pot and think that you have contributed to making a mirage come true.
To those LTTE supporters, learn a lesson from Karuna Amman. It is better for LTTE to stop this insane war. Let go of the civilians and then join the mainstream democratic way of life even by getting guarantees and by giving guarantees that are demanded by the GOSL. Then develop those provinces with the help of the Diaspora and liberal, peace loving Sri Lankans. I am sure that will make life highly insecure for Sinhalese politicians and Sri Lanka could even have a Tamil President based on broad acceptance, performance and achievement.
Seguttavan,
Don't complain about Sri Lanka as if you care... you don't and we all know it.
"We must be hard on the Tigers as we are soft on the Tamils".....
If we are soft on each other, there won't be any tigers for you to be hard on. It is a simple logic.
Ramesh Pathirana has raised an important issue here. "Did we raise a hand to hit a Tamil after those incidents?".
When our mates from neighboring town visit us to play friendly games, some times, fight breaks out and we used to settle down quickly and move on with our games knowing that one day we will have to visit their place to play the game.
In this occasion, we didn't raise our hands NOT because we respected others dignity and accepted the humility BUT because of the balance of power between us.
This scenario could be closely related to the current situation in Sri Lanka at the moment. This climate is not healthy for having a long lasting peace.
We must accept this harsh reality. This could help us to change our thinking pattern and therefore our mind sets.
Antonio Gramsci was clear in his thinking as Dayan Jayatilleke is muddled in his!
Give life a chance!
As a Singhalese Buddhist I certainly wish that all legitimate aspirations of EVERY Tamil be met and their grievances addressed.
They should indeed have equal opportunities and rights as everyone else and devolution of power is a sine qua non.
But no one should harbour dreams of what is impossible.
This applies equally to everyone, and I believe the vast majority from both sides understand conflict resolution demands flexibility. With the LTTE on the way out, this might be the best opportunity.
Kindly do not bury your head in the past, there is opportunity and space for both you and me. As RP says, "Truth is out there". So please come and see. We live in a multicultural and multireligious society. We need to acknowledge the others right as well as respect what is ours, and conform to socially accepted norms. Give life a chance.
Every thing evolves! Come & help create change for a better tommorow. Choice is yours!
Chammika Wickramasuriya
Devinda Fernando:
Your reading of my hopes and thoughts of the Lankan impasse is as bad and misplaced as your judgement of the Lanka Tamils (all LTTE to you) The choice of your language and the flow of your thinking is, at best, atavastic and sub-human. MR, Ranil and many other Lankan political leaders personally know I have spent the post-1983 years to build bridges between the Sinhalese and Tamils.
They have encouraged my efforts and joined me in many of them. In spite of the political Buddhist priests and the scheming Buddhist Sinhala supremacists and their surreptitous and anti-national campaigns, I believe a time will come sooner than later when both communities will walk hand in hand as they did before. Some of you have mischievously called us LTTErs and various names. We have strongly criticised the LTTE when the occasion so demanded and held with them where necessary - and so with the Sinhalese polity. The Tamil militants are, mark my words, an unfortunate creation of Buddhist Sinhala pseudo-nationalism. The wisdom, speed and objectivity to address those causes that bred them is the key to the peace all Sri Lankans of good and peaceful intent are searching for.
You are, to use current parlance, "a toxic nationalist" You are neither Buddhist, Lankan, Portugese, Indian and god knows what else. You and your ilk are "achcharu" cases niether Indian nor Sinhalese looking for an identity from the time of that crank Anagarika Dharmapala - that is simply not there. If you want the world to believe you came off the mating of a lion and a blood-drinking, cannibal half-human aborigine woman suit yourself, dear chap, because as they say in Hollywood "the world is made of 90% suckers."
ISS
Dayan says, “We must be hard on the Tigers as we are soft on the Tamils”
Who are these “we”? They are the Sinhala Buddhist racist microscopic minority
that includes Dayan, but leaving behind the vast number of Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims who are really the indigenous population of Sri Lanka.
They are the ruling class and they decide to be hard or soft depending on their own yardstick or whim and fancies!
Now they want to be soft on the Tamils, but If they want they could be hard on the Tamils because this country belongs to them and representative democracy had given them a expedient excuse.
But why do they want to be soft on the Tamils?. Precisely to cheat the international community and the Diaspora Tamils, Once their attention is diverted to somewhere else they could be hard on the Tamils also. Being soft means they are entitled for “Dry Ration”. Being hard means they could be bombed and shelled irrespective of any international, national or humanitarian laws because a sovereign government could do anything with their people.
Now Dayan wants talks with the Tamils. He will choose the leaders among the most subservient Tamils for conducting an eyewash negotiation. These stooges will accept 13th Amendment minus police powers minus land powers and whatever is offered and also accept Chief Minister and Ministers nominated by the same ruling class and thereby bring democracy to Tamils after decades of tyrannical rules.
Nobody should speak about 16th Amendment. Fortunately nobody in Sri Lanka remembers about this celebrated amendment!
Hence this reasonable devolution like reasonable us of Tamils of another era
will satisfy the Tamils and be a showpiece to the international community and the Diaspora Tamils and the victory over the Tamils is complete thanks to Dr Dayan and generations of Sinhalese will be grateful to Dr Dayan for this single most remarkable contribution in consolidating total power over the Tamils ending two thousand year old war once and for all.
Max Headroom,
Forgive me when I say yours is a somewhat unusual name – even for a pen name. But, friend, continue to enjoy the company and hospitality of the Tamils. That’s inherently natural in them. So the Sinhalese, I must hasten to add. You have a long way to go to understand the Tamil diaspora. They do not hate the Sinhalese, their language or culture. They are only at odds with Sinhalese politicians who ran Sinhala govts since 1956 widening the Sinhala-Tamil divide by choice – the only reason they get the Sinhala voter returning them regularly. You are clearly unware for sometime in the past few years Tamils live in absolute fear in the South – now that they are indiscriminately destroyed in the North East being no news to anyone expect the fork-tongued government and their spokesmen in the army and in Colombo (Mr Kehelmala?) And today, they live in abject fear though they show an outward charade of normalcy. Tamils are not sure if they will get home when they leave for work or on other business. They can be abducted, detained by the Police or simply disappear. If they had a ghost of a chance to vanish from Sri Lanka they will run. You ask if they are pushed out of buses. It may come as news to you at least one Tamil teenager of Colombo Hindu College was pushed out of a moving train and killed on his way to school recently – purely because his bag in the rack fell down and threw open Tamil books. His parents in Wattala have gone out of their minds. That is the hatred in the eyes of the ordinary sinhala men when they see a Tamil. A few months ago relatives and friends of ours returned from Chennai having attended a wedding of a successful accountant boy in Canada and a young scientist lass working in Australia. My friend, ask your Tamil friends in Colombo why the wedding was not held in Colombo – now that Jaffna is out – and you will learn this is the norm for some years now. No Tamils settled abroad feels safe to conduct their weddings there. The moment you arrive in Colombo holding a Canadian, US, European or Australian passport the Police and other authorities start harassing you. And if the women are decked in jewellery that is the end of their visit. I am not speaking disparagingly of our Police or the forces. That is the norm today. Many Tamils have been robbed, assaulted and some killed in the airport by immigration and police who were after the foreign money these people carried. Yes! Weddings of Tamils resident in the Colombo area are held generally without any incident, I must add. But the climate of insecurity remains. The women are not at peace until they return home safely with their jewellery.
As to your mistaken belief Karuna Amman and Pillaiyan have started safe and new lives among the Sinhalese, you probably don’t know a beautiful innocent girl around 6yrs named Varsha Jude Reggie was recently abducted by a man the girl identified as “Computer Mama” who had falsely taken her away from school esrly on the pretext her mother was ill. This little girl’s body was later recovered; neck slit; battered to death. This is believed to be an instance where Karuna’s men wanted to place Pillaiyan in bad light and so the little girl’s life was destroyed. Computer Mama, in turn, was shot dead. You’ve heard of the expression”dead men tell no tales, have’nt you” That is peace and democracy in the East for you, my man. As to a Tamil President in Sri Lanka, brother, are you living in Cuckoo land?
ISS
Dear Crazyoldmansl,
when and where have I upheld "asian values" or "asianness"? i disagree with those concepts just as much as i disagree with your self-hating caricature of Asia and Asian. To me, asia is Ho Chi Minh, Pham Van Dong, Nguyen Vo Giap, Le duan, Le duc tho and others of a small peasant nation who defeated the world's mightiest military power. Asia is also mao ze Dong, Chou en lai, Deng Hsiao Peng and Nehru. It is Dien Bien Phu and Bandung. It is the Chinese and Indian economic miracles of today.
Dear Nallavan,
Taraki (DP Sivaram) classified me in column as a Sinhala neo-nationalist. the Scottish separatists are not terrorists. the Tigers, PKK, Basque ETA, Abu Sayyaf, kashmiri JKLF etc are.
Dear N2, muddled though it be , at least I'm thinking, unlike you.
Dear Navvenan rs,
How can i ask forgiveness from the Buddha when i am a baptised Catholic who studied in catholic schools?