Nelson Mandela Statue
Posted on September 26th, 2020
Chanaka Bandarage
It was reported in the news media that the Cabinet has approved the erection of a Nelson Mandela Statue in Colombo, without government funding. Currently it is planned to be installed at the Colombo Public Library premises. The request has been made by the South African High Commission in Colombo.
Is this the burning need of the country today?
There is no doubt that Nelson Mandela was a great leader. Mahatma Gandhi is regarded as the greatest human being lived in the 20th century. Nelson Mandela followed Gandhi’s nonviolent approach.
Nelson Mandela was successful in dismantling the apartheid system which was brutal, repressive and discriminatory.
Nelson Mandela brought emancipation to the native blacks of South Africa.
Overall, Nelson Mandela was a very good man. His remarkable personality was mostly about benevolence, grace and genuine sense of forgiveness. His sense of justice was immense. His sense of equity was absolute. For Nelson Mandela, politics was a matter of principle and of steadfast purpose.
But in Sri Lanka, is it a must that we erect a Statue of him in Colombo?
What is the special connection that Nelson Mandela had with Sri Lanka to erect his statue here?
He had never visited Sri Lanka.
Did Nelson Mandela help Sri Lanka to eliminate the brutal LTTE terrorism from Sri Lanka? This is not documented.
Nelson Mandela’s presidency began in May 1994. According to Counter-Terrorism expert, Rohan Gunaratne, Tamil Tigers advanced their activities in South Africa after 1995. They began to operate a series of camps where armed and unarmed combat training was given to the LTTE. According to him, the hardliners of the South African National Congress provided Tigers with military hardware, finance and political support.
According to Mr Gunaratne When South Africa’s High Commissioner based in Delhi, Jerry Matsila met with President Kumaratunga for three hours, he advanced the LTTE agenda of persuading Colombo to agree to the good offices of South Africa.”
It is a well known fact that during the war South Africa refused to proscribe LTTE as a terrorist organization. Furthermore, it refused to remove Sri Lanka from the list of countries to which South Africa has banned arms sales.
There is no evidence that Nelson Mandela directly approved assistance to the Tigers.
But, it is not a secret that Tigers did receive support and sympathy from South Africa, during his regime.
And, lots of innocent people in Sri Lanka died from LTTE terrorism.
We should not forget that Nelson Mandela’s close friend and ally, the South African Anglican archbishop Desmond Tutu openly supported Tamil separatist sympathysers.
Do we really need to erect a Nelson Mandela statue in Colombo?
Again, is this the burning issue face by the country today?
September 26th, 2020 at 4:57 pm
why Nelson Mandela ? Then we should have Pa
September 26th, 2020 at 5:02 pm
Then we Should have Lumumba , Fidel Castro; Martin Luther King, Perhaps President Obama. Gaddafi, Many others besides.
Sri Lanka should have statues of its own heroes and great personalities., writers, artists, dancers etc.
September 26th, 2020 at 5:05 pm
The Cabinet seems to have gone mad.
September 26th, 2020 at 5:39 pm
Just because foreign governments give us freebies we should not accept them
September 26th, 2020 at 9:21 pm
Nelson Mandela belongs in Africa and not definitely in Sri Lanka. South Africa, the ANC were steadfastly behind the LTTE and associated terrorism in Sri Lanka. It was Navi Pillay from South Africa who took a personal interest in bogus Human RIght issues in Sri Lanka.
We do not even have a statute of Mahatma Gandhi, if so what is the need for Mandela?
September 27th, 2020 at 7:52 am
No doubt he was a great man and every country should remember him as he gave his life fighting white supremacy and he deserve a statue in every country but not at this time for SL.
At least name a street after him we must not be complacent hoping every thing is going to be fine.
What’s happening in US under Trump is very frightening and there are dark forces emerging in EU and even in non EU blocks that include Russia.
Should they get together and who are we to stop them if ourselves in SL is trying to so no regards to the set conventions that was there after the second world war?
If likes of Trump grad power in Nov then the whole world will be in serious situation. Third world Nations with corrupt leaders will play into their hands in recolonizing us again for the wrong reasons.
Unlike some Sri Lankans I have being getting on with these people from the age of 13,now I am living in a area very close to the politicians here and they are not please with the way some people in the third world rob the country’s wealth and come and invest here where a two bedroom flat is nearly 2 million and they say that the locals,their siblings have no chance to buy their property here in this area.
See how a Sri Lankan Shot dead Met police officer Sgt Ratena. gives us a bad reputation all this type of incidents to add to our day of reckoning as it diminishes any sympathy that is there forthe third world.
September 27th, 2020 at 8:04 am
continued
See how a Sri Lankan Shot dead a Met police officer Sgt Ratena yesterday . giving us a bad reputation where all this type of incidents add to our day of reckoning as it diminishes any sympathy that is there for the third world.
I suspect when the HIV virus was made with the disease that of the Green monkeys in West Africa and spreading it all over which could be the beginning of the end for some people, then Ebola and now Covid19.
Sorry before I rechecked for the grammar they system forced it to present to embarrass me.
They may have a long term master plan and China is getting in the way?
September 27th, 2020 at 9:02 am
Oh God !!!
September 27th, 2020 at 11:30 am
Charles Oh God what,I suppose you are comfortable in France?
I have several eastern Europeans working for me, just cooked my lunch and through the day they were discussing or talking about the new trend in the EU.They are worried that the free movement in the EU countries will come to the end because there is a campaign initiated by the right wingers from Austria,Gemany,Holland to stop free movement where only the countries like Romania and Bulgaria will be affected the most and they are sudu people.That motion was over ruled by the EU Commission but for how long?
How long can we be safe.My first girl friend when I was 16 was an Iranian girl whose father was very close to their King and they all thought that Iran was another French country, very modern and progressive and I have been there and when I landed in Marssels in France and took the train to Paris nwhich reminded me the same set up when I took the train from the Southern port in Iran to their capital, it was just like in France.
How did it turn upside down in Iran, because France incubated and sheltered Ayatollah Kumani and brought to Tehran by an French official plane. There after with the help of Oliver North’s supply of weapons they started the war between Iran and Iraq. Now both countries are ruined and the trouble makers are demonizing Iran because the Iranians who are clever people will make even weapons to match people who is planning to dominate us once again. They find Iran, China and even Korea will not only be a obstacle but a threat to their geopolitical plans.
I am admirer of the colonial rule and the way UK conduct themselves in their country now but do you think that they will give that privilege to the people in the third world? It is up to the third world to wake up and be like them without always talking and praising the past history and culture which has no relevance only make things worse for us.
Take Singapore and Hong Kong as a good example. By the way my girl friend’s brother is a nuclear scientist now working South Korea. I grew up here in UK with the Iranians during my collage days were keen students in nuclear technology and they studied in the best universities in UK and in other countries. No wonder some want to demonize their country which they will find it a threat to them.