Continuing the series on What Happened in the History of Jaffna – Blaming the Sinhalese for the “insane fury” of Jaffna
Posted on July 29th, 2012
H. L. D. Mahindapala
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ A closer look into what happened in the history of Jaffna will reveal that dark, demonic and destructive forces presided over its hidden past. Tragically, these dark forces have not evaporated. They still cloud the skies of Jaffna casting long shadows ominously across its future.
The ill-fated future of Jaffna was first identified by Mylvaganam Pulavar who wrote the first official history of Jaffna, Yalpana Vaipava Malai, at the request of the Dutch governor in 1736. The forecast of Jaffna’s doomed future is pronounced by Suppathidda muni who told King Pararajasegaram that “sovereignty will never again come back to your descendants”. However, this prediction in Mylvaganam’s history is less important — perhaps, even irrelevant in rational historiography — than his focus on the cruelty (he calls it the “insane fury”) that bloodied the pre-Dutch period, from Sangkili to the Portuguese. One strand of the dark forces that haunted Jaffna throughout its history is the unrestrained “insane fury” of the pre-colonial period (starting from Sangkili) that flowed right down, going through the mediation of the Vellahlas, to Prabhakaran. The average Jaffna man, living under the oppressive regimes of each phase, was a victim of the “insane fury” that dehumanised him, making Jaffna a brutal enclave with no parallel in any other part of Sri Lanka.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Besides, an overview of the history of Jaffna that has unfolded so far signposts an intransigent movement led by extremist leaders unwinding its way to an end without hope. No other community in Sri Lanka has suffered as much as the people of Jaffna under their self-centred and myopic leaders. At no time in their history were the Jaffnaites free from oppression . In addition to this, the Tamil leaders who were in command of peninsular politics never failed to lead their people into recurring disasters in the 20th century, except, of course, the Jaffna youth in the twenties and thirties.
The known events of the past records that the Tamil leadership went down the wrong path each time they arrived at the critical fork of the road. They seem to have the unerring knack of picking the wrong turn each time they decided to go their own way dismissing the other communities that have compromised seeking the path of non-violence for the common good. Their intransigence leading to “insane fury”, which, of course, leads to death and destruction, is a curse they have brought upon themselves. This makes them look as if they had walked out of Albert Camus’ ill-fated landscape. The fatalism that runs through his short story The Guest fits Jaffna like a glove. In it he wrote: “This is the way the region was, cruel to live in, even without men — who didn’t help matters either. But Drau (the school teacher living way up in a plateau, cut off from the rest) had been born here. Everywhere else he felt exiled.” (There is more to this story which will be related in due course.)
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ In all three phases of the history of Jaffna — pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial periods — the average Jaffna man was locked inside a socio-political framework that denied him the space to breathe the air freely or walk the the length and breadth of the peninsular with a sense of dignity. Jaffna was a rigidly structured socio-political order with the most privileged power elite of the nation sitting comfortably at the top while having no qualms in crushing their slaves and low-castes under their jackboots. The pain and the suffering inflicted on the Jaffna man by his leaders — most of whom claim to be “liberators” — amount to violations of the fundamental rights of the Jaffna man to be human.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The denial of the right to be just a humble human being — nothing more — is the most heinous crime committed by the Jaffna elite against their own people. In comparable terms it was more cruel than the apartheid regime in S. Africa or the humiliating oppression experienced by the Afro-American in the Bible belt of the American states in the south. Jaffna was a warped society in which the ruling elite had acted as bestial oppressors with no pity for women, children, old, the sick and the prisoners, as seen in the case of Prabhakaran. The separation between the ruling elite at the top and their victims created constant tensions between the two, driving their victims to desperation. The nightmares in the Great Expectations of the Jaffnaites — the Dickensian masterpiece by that title which inspired Kafka to write his masterpiece The Castle — need another Dickens or a Kafka to delineate the existential horrors of Jaffna society.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The rigidly stratified society seemed to have reduced Jaffna into a straight jacket and the desperate Jaffnaites seemed to have had no way out of it. Social scientists noted that the highest suicide rate in Sri Lanka was inside the north and the east. Jonathan Spencer, anthropologist from Edinburgh University highlighted that “the lowest (suicide) rates are found in Colombo and the densely populated southwest littoral” and “(T)he most spectacular (suicide) rates are found in Tamil-dominated areas….” He also added that “there may be distinctive social and cultural factors which account for a higher long-term predilection for suicide in Sri Lanka Tamil society..”.( p.8. Collective Violence and Everyday Practice in Sri Lanka, Jonathan Spencer, Studies in Society and Culture, Sri Lanka Past and Present, edited by Michael Roberts, 1993). Isn’t suicide the easy way out of a society that prevents citizens from being human? This suicidal tendency took away the heroism in the suicide cult put together by Prabhakaran. The suicidal tendencies were there, ready made, in the socio-political culture of Jaffna for Prabhakaran to exploit without much efforts on his part.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Jaffna is also a society living in denial. This state denial is a defence mechanism needed to keep their sanity in times of peace and, more importantly, in times of violence when they run amok with their “insane fury”. They are adepts in hiding their brutal society under the carpet and parading in world fora as dedicated champions of human rights. They never had the nerve at any time to correct the systemic oppression that condemned their people to subhuman misery. The lower rungs in their hierarchical order were kicked around as pariahs. And if you ask a moral poseur like Prof. Kumar David, a leading left-wing proponent of Tamil tribalism equating it with Marxism, why he did not thunder against the Vellahla oppressors the way he protests against the Sinhala elite he would throw abuse at you and retreat whining, with his tails between his legs, to hide ignominiously under the proverbial carpet. This is typical of the Jaffna Tamils who have a passion to wallow in their myths to make-believe that they are the purest of the pure — so pure that not even a low-caste Tamil could clap their eyes on him in case it pollutes their purity which would force them to take another bath!
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ But to grasp the “insane fury” of peninsular politics that led the Tamil leadership into a dead-end from which it could not get out it is necessary to go back to G. G. Ponnambalam (Snr). The political climate was comparatively benign and calm when Ponnambalam shot into prominence among the Tamils in the thirties The British were still the ruling masters of Ceylon, as they called it then. The Sinhala-Buddhists, though they were in a majority, did not have the full powers of the state to impose their will. There was no Sinhala-Buddhist Army, Navy, Air Force or Police. For all his cries of “discrimination” against the Tamils by the Sinhalese the Tamils were in a commanding positions of the British administration. The Tamil professionals were on par with the majority having even an edge over the Sinhalese in some fields. Nor was the Sinhala Only Act in force. The inter-ethnic relations were relatively calm except for the Nawalapitiya incident which, of course, was like a dark shadow that forecasted the coming events. It was also the golden period when the idealistic Jaffna Youth Congress was agitating for national unity, opposing the anti-democratic communal representation and demanding territorial representation as a universal principle. At the grasroot level the Tamil and Tamil -speaking Muslim traders, who had infiltrated every nook and corner of the cities and villages of the south, were co-existing in a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural harmony.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Above all, it was also the time when the much-maligned Sinhala Board of Ministers offered Ponnambalam 43% of the 50% he demanded in his divisive “50 – 50” cry. Offering 43% to a minority of Jaffna Tamils 12%, (25% collectively if the Muslims and the Indian Tamils were added), is unparalleled in any known democracy. By any standards, the generosity of the majority Sinhalese (75%) is overwhelming. It indicates their willingness to rise above “Sinhala-Buddhist chauvinism” — a common accusation hurled against them — and to co-exist in a peaceful multi-ethnic society. Historian S. Arasaratnam, commenting on this extraordinary offer wrote: “Without being able to concede the extravagant demand for minorities, as put forward by G. G. Ponnambalam, they (the Sinhala Board of Ministers) conceded a relationship of 57% to 43% as between Sinhalese and others in the legislature. It was, as it appears now, a tactical error that the Tamil leaders did not grasp this offer at that time, but stuck to their extreme demands.” (pp. 505 -506, S. Arasaratnam, Nationalism in Sri Lanka and the Tamils, Collective Identities, Nationalisms and Protest in Modern Sri Lanka, edited by Michael Roberts, Marga, 1979.)
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Considering the political conditions of the thirties, considering the halcyon days under the British raj, considering the readiness and the willingness of the Sinhala majority to concede a disproportionate and undue share of power, far exceeding the demographics of the minorities, why did Ponnambalam reject it and what was the necessity for Ponnambalam to go ballistics against the Sinhalese in Nawalapitiya? Perhaps, only the ingrained “insane fury” of the peninsular political culture, mixed with arrogance and intransigence, could account for this irrational behaviour of Ponnambalam.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ This historical evidence recorded in the Sessional Paper of 1944 (See footnote 13, in Arasaratnam) debunks the concoction of all the political pundits — from Harvard to Colombo University — that the root cause of the north-south conflict is due to “Buddhism Betrayed”, or Dharmapala, or “Sinhala-Buddhist chauvinism”, or the paintings of hell in Buddhist temples (Jayadeva (Marthelis) Uyangoda, the lumpen Marxist theoretician), or the web of myths spun by Kumari Jayawardena to feed her insatiable gluttony for anti-Sinhala-Buddhist hatred. This also explodes the theory of the Tamil propagandists and their hired agents in academia and NGOs who argued that the Tamils could not get anything except through the violence encoded in the Vadukoddai Resolution.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The historical record proves unarguably that the Sinhala majority had acted with utmost generosity and consideration to their Tamil neighbours — perhaps, the best the Tamils had ever found in their history. If further proof is necessary, consider the other offers made to the Jaffna Tamils. First, “the Sinhala-Buddhist state” granted, though under Indian pressure, regional autonomy to the merged north and east for the Tamils. What did the Jaffna Tamil leadership do? Prabhakaran killed 1700 IPKF soldiers in the north and sent a hand-picked suicide bomber (that thing again!) to S. India to assassinate Rajiv Gandhi, the architect who was bent on giving the Tamils the best through his Indo-Sri Lankan Agreement.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Second, in the midst of peaceful negotiations, Prabhakaran not only slaughtered 600 policemen who were ordered to surrender by President Premadasa in the hope of keeping the peace talks going but went to the extreme of assassinating President Premadasa. Is this rational behaviour or “insane fury”?
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Third, when President Chandrika Kumaratunga, along with the assistance of Jayantha Dhanapala, had drafted P-TOMS, a politico-administrative mechanism to hand over power to Prabhakaran for ten years without holding elections in the north and the east (TIME), Prabhakaran ruthlessly targeted her. She narrowly escaped death but lost one eye. Is this rational behaviour or “insane fury?
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Finally, with international guarantees, Prabhakaran was handed on a platter an autonomous state in the north and east, signed by Ranil Wickremesinghe and Erik Solheim, the representative of the international community. Solheim later revealed that India was involved with the Cease Fire Agreement every step of the way. Which means that the international community and the regional super power guaranteed it. But Prabhakaran, according to the Scandinavian Peace Monitors, violated 95% of the terms and conditions of the Cease Fire Agreement of February 22, 2002 and finally killed Wickremesinghe politically — never to rise again — by ordering a ban on voting for him in the presidential election of 1995.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ So who is to be blamed? The historical record underscores without a shadow of doubt one incontrovertible fact: it is not that “the Sinhala state” did not give a substantial — if not unwarranted — measure of autonomy to the Tamils at the expense of the other communities. It is simply that the Tamil leadership rejected them all. In fact, the more you gave them the more they turned and hit back at “the Sinhala state” — the goose that laid the golden eggs for them. If the Tamil leadership accepted any one of the political solutions offered by “the Sinhala-Buddhist chauvinists” they would be dancing rings round the majority today. They would have had the “Sinhala state” in a corner from which they could not get out.
Any one of the solutions mentioned above would have tied down and imprisoned “the Sinhala state” with constitutional, legal and political constraints forcing it to concede more and more, particularly under increased international and Indian pressures later. In fact, they could have avoided Nandikadal and survived as victors. Prabhakaran would not only be living today but he would also be dictating terms to “the Sinhala state” and the international community with the manipulative pressures of his agents in the Tamil diaspora. On this historical record, the Sinhala-Buddhists can stand on any platform and proclaim proudly that they gave more than what the Tamils of Jaffna could have got from any other majority community and the Tamil leadership rejected them all. Purely on their record, the Sinhala-Buddhists have the right to say: Please don’t blame us for the crass stupidity of your insane Tamil leaders.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The Jaffna Tamils were given the best deals that any minority could hope for except separatism which was non-negotiable. Had they some common sense they could have pressured and bargained and even resorted to military action, as stated in the Vadukoddai Resolution, from an internationally recognised political unit, if they had pragmatically accepted, established and consolidated a regional autonomy granted in the various offers made by “the Sinhala state.” Accepting the offers could have established some borders, at least nominally with international and regional guarantees, for them to use as a stepping stone to the next level of Eelam. But the Tamil leadership responded with outright rejections and unrestrained violence which saved the Sinhalese. The Sinhalese have to thank Prabhakaran and the Vellahlas who backed him, with offers of flowers, for rejecting all that was offered to him. It was their stupidity that saved the Sinhalese. It is hard to find another minority who got so much from so many and lost everything, gaining nothing, because of Tamil arrogance, intransigence, stupidity and over-ambitious obsession with mono-ethnic extremism.
Leaders at every critical moment in their careers are faced with multiple choices and the choice they pick eventually determines their future and that of their people too. The choices they make can either take their people to the depths of despair or to the havens of their aspirations. The choices made by the extremist leaders of Jaffna invariably took them and their people to the nadir of despair. Even when they are offered the opportunities to liberate themselves from their oppressive past they intransigently choose the very path that took them back to their self-destructive past. They are like the ill-fated characters who came out of the pages of Camus’ story, The Guest. It presents a parallel that explains the tragic trek of the Tamils from Vadukoddai to Nandikadal — a path which they took out of their own free will.
Daru, the teacher in Algeria, is handed an Arab murderer, with instructions to deliver him to the Police station, in Tinguit. With great reluctance, Daru takes his prisoner down the plateau to a ” level height” where the road forks. One goes south to freedom. The other goes east to Tinguit and prison. Instead of taking the prisoner to Tinguit Daru pauses and gives his prisoner 1000 francs and food and sets him free. To make sure that the prisoner takes the right road to freedom Daru “roughly” turned his prisoner in the direction of the south and goes up heading towards his school. On the way up Daru looks back only to find the prisoner walking slowly down the road to Tinguit.
Daru ‘s biggest shock was when he got back to school. The words chalked on board told him: “You handed over our brother. You will pay for this.”
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The “Sinhala-Buddhist chauvinist” of the south gave four chances to the Jaffna Tamils to get as close as possible to their separate state. But the Tamils rejected every offer and, on their own free will, took the road to Nandikadal. And now they threaten the south yelling: “You will pay for this”.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ (To be continued next week)
July 28th, 2012 at 6:43 pm
Tamils had been stupid and childish through out for some reason. Sinhala – buddhists are just lucky.
At one point, even when there was a Tamils – only university in Jaffna, Peradeniya medical and engineering batches had more than 50% of tamils students per batch. They say they are extra intelligent and they don’t talk how school – teachers and lecturers help them.
When I read this article, Dodo birds in Africa that disappeared because of foreign sailors; Look like those Dodo birds were born as Sinhala – Buddhists in Sri Lanka. For some reason, they are still surviving. Sri Lanka needs political Buddhism side by side. Otherwise, one day all these people will over come Sinhala – Buddhists.
July 28th, 2012 at 8:33 pm
So what can we do about it?
We have to PIT low caste Tamils against high caste Tamils to kill each other. That is the ONLY way to save Jaffna.
Then India, USA, etc. will NOT cry human rights because it is Tamils killing Tamils. They will blame Tamils for caste discrimination!!
Govt will blame international forces for instigating violence! :))
July 28th, 2012 at 10:49 pm
lorenzo,
You can dream what are telling but sinhalese never do it. I do not say they can’t but sri Lanka intelligent agency have nobody to tell them that it is their duty counter foreign spies and tiger western supporters. They either have to train by themselves or have to have leader to tell them to move into the world and learn to counter western spies who smuggled drugs, alcohols and various food related diseases to destroy sinhalese
Look at how much covert operation tigers and western spies carried out against Sri lanka. They killed thousands member of former unp government. thousand Buddhists monks hundreds of thousands of innocent sinhalese and Muslim families. and altogether more 100 thousand military personal and sinhalese muslim civilian.
And you said Tamil will become Arab in the west. If Tamil become arab it will be an excellent plan by western spies: they will send Tamil to spy in Arab countries and will set the Arabs against one another and take over rest of the oil and gold rich arab land.. Some of it already achieved.
Now, I have a question, some sinhalese crooks passed the law against very sinhalese who come to defend them from western conspirators, and now they passed law saying sinhalese who left the country have no right in sinhalese affairs and they claimed they fought the war. So these crooks used us to promote themselves public as war heros and get elected, steel million of rupees and hide in western banks.
who fought war? It is sri lanka military officers and police who paid price. Majority of this government members have nothing to do with war victory. they used war victory as it is theirs and used anti western slogan to trick sinhalese to stay in power and while cheating innocent sinhalese public, they got their children jobs and schools in the western countries.
Again the real people who paid with lives for the war is military, police officers and thousands members of former unp government.
Sinhalese spies who bravely talk for tigers and their western supporters are from caste and we know very well what this caste is.
However, lorenzo. who takes their law? do i need permit from crooks to come to my country? it is bloodiest joke.
do they want Kandian declare war thugs and create a sinhalese war?
July 28th, 2012 at 11:17 pm
Mr Mahindapala your writing skills and knowledge of history both produce a brilliant piece of work. To defend Sri Lanka from tamil bogus goebbelsian media machine we need to write similar articles continuously if not tamil terrorist racist expansionism will create more imaginary history for their benefit. History is the foundation of the nation. Sinhala nation has one of the world’s continuously written history book Mahawansa on their hands.
We have to tell tamils continuously that tamils have a traditional home land (tamil nadu) just 24 miles from Sri Lanka and imaginary eelam is not a achievable goal within Sri Lanka territory.
July 29th, 2012 at 1:16 am
Mr. Mahindapala:
As you say even Colonial master did not give a piece of country to the Tamils. Sinhala-Buddhists were fortunate that Tamils were stupid. If not for that fact, Sinhala politicians always had given away the country to Tamils. It is the defense forces and some sidelined political parties (not the two major parties) and similarly side lined a few politically motivated Buddhist monks who saved the country by not letting CBK to give PTOMs and taking CBK out.
In brief, Tamil politicians and Pabakarans for Tamils and Sinhala politicians for Sinhala buddhists have screwed it up every time for Sinhala Buddhists. Every time, the public was in the dark and they did not know what was going on.
July 29th, 2012 at 12:24 pm
Dear HLDM,
Please pardon me for diverting from the main theme for a moment. Your writing has resonated to some other aspect of the problem. Actually this must be posted in the article of Neville Ladduwahetty under the caption US-India-China and the indian ocean: impact on Sri Lanka.
Yes “Hatara waran deiyo” was residing in the bird brains of Tamil politicians. They kept taking the wrong turn at the proverbial fork junction in the political path at all times. That in-turn created a default belief among Sinhala folks to believe that the Tamil issue meant to culminate in a defeat to Tamil racism, and it will be resolved through some unspecified divine intervention. They had enormous faith in Prabhakaran to do the “RIGHT THING” more than they had their faith in Sinhalese leaders to do the same. I mean the “RIGHT THING” from Sinhalese perspective. And Prabhakaran did it in innumerable times.
As you have mentioned, if not for the “crass stupidity of insane Tamil leaders,” the nation of Sinhalese might have ended their existence entirely from the world map once for all due to the actions of the stupidest of all known political varieties, the “Colombian Sinhala leaders. “If Tamils were wise enough, the fate of Sinhalese could have been reduced to a keyword in Wikipedia for future researchers, similar to that of Chagossians, another Indian Ocean nation in Diego Garcia that has been wiped off the map.
The Chagossian struggle of reclaiming their country back has been stranded without success in foreseeable future. To the new developments of geopolitics in the Indian Ocean, Chagossians wouldn’t even have a remote chance of getting their land back from western nations either.
Now the question is, if the west desires only hegemony in the Indian Ocean and its sea routes, then how on earth Tamils have become favorite partners of the west to achieve their said goal, although logically it should have been Sinhalese that would have delivered their hegemonic aspirations much easily? And given the fact that Sinhalese are the majority of the land and supposedly not antagonistic to the west, logically west must have approached the Sinhalese to get a foot hold in the country rather than messing with them by abetting separatism in the island?
But above logic, which is based on the thesis of “ west is only desiring to control Indian Ocean sea routes” doesn’t answer this question of “why they have chosen Tamils instead of Sinhalese?” There is no viable answer for it yet.
Then the question must be wrong…we must ask the right question. To ask the right question we must change the thesis. So the new thesis will be “to control the Indian Ocean sea routs as well as to contain India as an emerging power that historically had the potentials of challenging the west” needs a partner in the Indian Ocean to deliver those goals. The Sinhalese has the potential of delivering one aspiration of the west, that’s of controlling the sea routs, but Tamils have the potential of delivering both western aspirations of controlling Indian Ocean as well as containing the future of India. Therefore Tamils will be the useful western partner in the region. Under this condition, not only Tamils in Sri Lanka, but also in Tamilnadu will be within the sphere of the strategists of the west. That is the reason why Obamas and Clintons visit Tamilnadu more frequently than Bihar where most of farmers commit suicide due to the actions of Monsanto, an American agro chemical company.
Therefore, Karunanidi and Jayalalitha, and Sambandan are singing like “Kohas” “කොහා” sensing the imminent down of a political New Year, but Delhi got freaked hearing this terror song because if they allow Karunanidhi to sing his songs of Tamil nationalism, then the Indian general public will come to know that the current Sri Lankan policy of Delhi is stupid and suicidal.
What Sri Lanka must do now is to form an espionage agency capable of countering foreign espionage agencies including RAW and reaching out Indian general public to educate them about the disastrous politics of their leaders. It is worth to spend few millions for that end in India.
July 29th, 2012 at 4:24 pm
Like I said, Karunanidi, Jayalalitha, and Sambandan are singing like “Kohas” “කොහා” sensing the down of a political New Year on the horizon with the auspicious support of the west. But Delhi got freaked out hearing this terror song because if they allow Karunanidhi to sing his songs of Tamil nationalism, then the Indian general public will come to know that the current Sri Lankan policy of Delhi is stupid and suicidal.
So Manmohan did the obvious…he used American Duct tape to seal Karunanidi’s mouth. It’ is pretty obvious; that the duct tape he used was not Indian but American, because Manmohan’s Duct Tape is not strong enough to seal Karunanidi’s mouth, but at the moment American Duct Tape only can do it, and it worked.
Yes, politics is so ugly. Manmohan knows it very well.
July 29th, 2012 at 4:41 pm
Geeth,
You are wrong.
K’nidhi is going ahead with his grand TESO summit in August this year with full support from Manmoron Singh and Sonia Ghand.
Manmoron Singh does everything to please Jeyalalitha including invasion of SL waters by Tamil Madu criminals, chasing away SLAF trainees, chasing away SL Karate players, attacking SL pilgrims, training LTTE AGAIN (Gota last year revealed India having NEW LTTE camps!!!), other Indian BS.
Psycho Vaiko was photographed with Thalaivar wearing the LTTE terrorist uniform!!! 3 years has passed after this. What has India done?
What has India done?
India is PROTECTING these criminals!!
Karunanidi, Jayalalitha, Psycho Vaiko and Sambandan are singing MANMORON SINGH’S favourite song.
July 29th, 2012 at 5:27 pm
Lorenzo,
I agree with you.
I think you got me wrong because what I wanted to tell is that Manmohan does everything to please all Tamil politicians as well as Tamil lobby in the western capitals but only as long as Tamilnadu politicians do not sing Tamil nationalist song in public. He does not want to see Tamils in Tamilnadu singing Tamil nationalist song in any circumstance.
Tamil nationalist song singing in Indian soil is the only thing that freaks Manmohan out because that will undermine his position in Indian polity in the north. That is the reason most probably why Manmohan might have asked western help to persuade Karunanidi to shut the ..up without creating political problems if Karunanidi wants to see him to continue the anti Sri Lankan policy, satisfying Americans and Tamils both at once. If it is not American help, Karunanidi wouldn’t rollback his Elam song such smoothly without having a counter argument in the media.
I am referring about the recent Karunanidi’s media statement of giving up Tamil nation slogan.
July 29th, 2012 at 5:44 pm
Knowingly or unknowingly Mahindapala agrees with the Tamil Ealamists that there were Tamil Kingdoms in anceint Sri Lanka. This is wrong. They were invaders including Elara and all way chased away to South India. If we agree King Parajasekaram, Sangili etc existed, which are recent inventions by the Tamil Ealamists, we will be in real trouble
July 29th, 2012 at 8:36 pm
I hear tow dogs staged protest to Indian cricket team when they were on the ground at RP stadium !
July 29th, 2012 at 9:38 pm
King Sangili did exist. Like Elara he was an invader. Other kings of the so called Jaffna kigdom are highly dubious. Jaffna was part of the Vijayanagar Empire of modern Karnataka at that time. The entire South India was part of it. What some call the Jaffna kigdom is actually the part of Vijayanagar Empire that was in Jaffna. After Sinhala kings wrested control of it, and following the Portuguese conquest and infighting, it fell to Sangili. That was the start and end of the Jaffna kingdom. He was ousted by a Portuguese and Sinhala army. On the other hand it was the Sinhala army of Jaffna that fought to save Sangili.
The short-lived Jaffna kingdom only covered the Jaffna peninsular. Nothing beyond it.
It was not a Tamil kingdom though for a short time ruled by a Tamil.
July 29th, 2012 at 10:13 pm
Geeth and Lorenzo:
Indian national interests and Tamil nationalists interest are 99% same. India plans to expand to Lanka through Tamil nationalism. This is nothing new for colonials. British ruled Ceylon through British-India company.
India has nothing to fear from Tamil nationalism. LTTE is a different case. India nurtured Tamil nationalism through the LTTE but it grew out of hand and developed a brain of its own. That was why India reluctantly allowed its destruction. Tamils have no future or existence without India and they know that.
Even the LTTE was very strongly pro-Indian except for 2 leaders. The exceptions were the LTTE supremo and Pottu Amman for obvious reasons (killing Gandhi). That was why the Indian government representative Vijay Nambiar came to Lanka to save the LTTE after an agreement with them. The two ‘wanted’ terrorists were left out from the surrender group. It was not USA but India that made the last ditch attempt to save the LTTE. He was called UN’s special envoy but in fact he was India’s special envoy.
India’s plan of giving oxygen to LTTE was foiled not by the government but by General Sarath Fonseka.
India never expected the LTTE to be annihilated. After LTTE (Indian agents) was annihilated, India instigated war crimes with USA while pretending to be on the Lankan side until UNHRC summit.
Now India instigates TNA and Tamil “civil” groups to demand more than 13A sensing the danger of a possible (emphasised) Muslim CM in the East. Tamils are culturally, politically, economically and religiously attached to India through an umbilical chord of belongness.
It is not India verses USA but India with USA. India, is and has always been the biggest enemy of Lanka. Unless this is understood, remedies cannot be found to Indian created problems.
July 30th, 2012 at 2:10 am
If you argue Sangili did exist and that he was the last King before the arrival of Portugese, according to the international law doctrinte of ‘traditional homeland and right for self determination ‘ Ealamists can claim North and that is exactly they are currently doing. So please be careful and do not give ammunition to the Ealamists
July 30th, 2012 at 2:13 am
Agree India has been the biggest enemy of India and will be in the future. I am glad Shenali Waduge has also now realised this, previously she stated India will never allow an Ealam in Sri Lanka but now writes to the contrary
July 30th, 2012 at 4:07 am
India is the enemy.
Read this.
Tale to defend treachery won’t help India’s future prospects with Tamils
[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 July 2012, 15:58 GMT]
Marking the 25th anniversary of signing the failed Indo-Sri Lanka Accord of 29 July 1987, The Hindu came out with an article on Saturday written by Col. R. Hariharan, who was head of military intelligence for the IPKF operations of the legacy of first large-scale war crimes committed against Eezham Tamils. The article, “A Tale of Two Interventions,” compared India’s success under Indira Gandhi in Bangladesh in 1971 and failure under Rajiv Gandhi in Sri Lanka in 1987, and concluded that in the post-2009 scenario, “What India does not have is a dynamic national leadership.”
What did India achieve in Bangladesh and fail in SL?
Division of another neighbouring country!!!
That is why Bangladeshi experienced Hariharan was put in charge among others.
Thank god these stinky stateless fools are damn foolish. If they were intelligent, we are no more. We should keep Tamils foolish to guarantee our survival.
July 30th, 2012 at 5:13 am
Only fools will commit sucide.
July 31st, 2012 at 5:13 pm
It is sad that it is the so called patriots themselves who give ammunition to Ealamists to propagate the Ealam internationally
August 3rd, 2012 at 8:28 am
I don’t think India is the enemy. India too is caught up in regional & east/west politics. India too has to do a balancing act to protect herself, and that is where we Lankans suffer. Before the Cold War, India was not inimical to Sri Lanka. It was after the Cold War (JRJs time where he leaned westward overmuch – no choice there, in those days), that India was forced to by regional affiliations to train the ltte in Tamil Nadu. However, too many Indian enterprises in Lanka may stifle our own entrepreneurs into oblivion.
We feel that it is Tamil Nadu earlier Separatism tactics plus the overly westward leanings of this particular state plus their own Caste related Poverty issues that really causes problems for Sri Lanka. This is because Tamils of Lanka are culturally affiliated to Tamil Nadu. Also, there is the greatest danger of illegal migrants from Tamil Nadu, always – this we must guard against and deport all illegal migrants, from TN and elsewhere.
The other problem is that the Cold War has been transformed into a War for Resources and Powerplay. It is also true that our own ‘Colombians’ leaned/lean too far west, disturbing the comfort zone of the giant regional countries.
Sri Lanka is dependent on foreign developed nations to gather her new found resources such as oil & gas, into proper productivity. For that we also need well qualified LOCAL people in Science & Technology, not Arts grads. We also need to formulate proper Laws to deal with foreign investors which ought to follow the principle of ‘smaller the better’, size-wise.
Also, is it that impossible to declare the Indian Ocean area as an International Peace Zone ? May be the whole of S.E. Asia will welcome such a ruling. SAARC may have to handle such a goal.
We have within our capacity to live within our means, demand absolutely loyalty to this Nation, and eliminate crime and over population. We should concentrate on the items that we can handle and put our energies there. Rational thinking can overcome most problems.