C. Wijeyawickrema

It was the Anopheles mosquito that prevented Tamil homelands in the dry and arid north and east of Sri Lanka. The retired geography professor G. H. Peiris has explained this using his extensive collection of research data to disprove the Tamil separatist argument of Sinhalisation of Tamil settlements. While the mosquito was the enemy of Tamils, Sinhala old villagers continued their settlements known as the purana gam. Colonial white civil servants on the field provided the best data in this regard. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ In a recent reply to the father of 13-A plus, Dayan Jayatilleka, Prof. GHP has perhaps, forgotten to educate the latter on this subject. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Therefore, I thought of recording it for the benefit of the English-speaking Colombo crowd and the Colombo diplomatic crowd. Otherwise 90% of people in Sri Lanka are not interested in what we see in the Colombo Telegraph or DBSJeyarajƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s private Canadian web thing.

If one is really interested in Sri Lanka, the national need is to help MahindaR administration to overcome the socio-economic-civil administration dysfunction or simply domestic mismanagement rampant everywhere from village to cabinet level. MR inherited these defects coming from the past 60 or 30 years, but the executive presidency was created exactly for the purpose of eradicating these cancers taking the Singapore or the Malaysia path, provided the Ex. P. can qualify as a benevolent (not party-politician), sincere and honest statesman. But this cannot be done by collecting yes men or hiring people like Dayan (Geneva job) because Dayan speaks fluent English. MR needs Maliban mudalalis who know the country and who want to protect the Sinhala Buddhist heritage without unreasonably discriminating against the minorities.

Prof. GHP tried to answer 3 ideas put forward by DJ. Dayan says:

(1)ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  The purpose of 13-A was to recognize a separate Tamil ethnic entity;

(2)ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Therefore, 13-A is still needed despite the elimination of Prabakaran; ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ and

(3)ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  The origin of the idea of 13-A (provincial devolution) is not an India-created (death) trap.

DJ has become the mouth-piece of the ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-this war is not winnableƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ crowd of the past, who are now desperately making a last bid life or death effort to give oxygen to Tamil separatist cancer by compelling a Northern Province election in September. This election and the PC it created with even one separatist (TNA) elected, will give Tamil separatists the much needed platform to go to Geneva crying even when he/she hears a loud farting of another PC member. They will hear Kosovo in such sound. This decision to hold election is equal to CFA-2002 (worldƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s greatest give away) of Ranil W. At least Ranil was a helpless prisoner then. But for MahindaR to do it will be a classic case of inviting snakes wondering yonder to come inside oneƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s undergarments. There is no Machiavellian brain, or an AladdinƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s magic lamp here. This will be worse than RPremadasa having a tiger intruder as his barber and massager and transporting 5 trucks of arms to Prabakaran to fight against IPKF.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Fortunately, common people in Sri Lanka know these basic truths and will convince or force MahindaR to come to senses.

JayalalithaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s kitchen army

DJ ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-defeatedƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ MR at Geneva in 2009 by secretly introducing 13-A as part of the Sri Lankan plan. He was boasting about his winning 2009 votes until he was forced to reveal this betrayal in public by the Derana 360 interviewer. DJ was fired after Colombo office came to know about it then, but I can remember he was taken by MR as a member of his visiting team to Vietnam or Burma, after his removal from the Geneva job. DJ is promoting his 13-A game using the power of JayalalithƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢a army to frighten MR.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  He says if MR did not do the 13-A thing, then Indian air force or American navy or JayalalithaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s kitchen army may (will) invade Sri Lanka and create an Eelam!ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  He is so casual in presenting this theory as if he met Hilary Clinton when she visited Jayalalitha.

Tamil Moses

Bishop of Colombo Lakshman Wickramasinghe (RanilWƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s uncle) said at SJVChelvanayagamƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s funeral that SJVC was a Tamil Moses who wanted to take his people to the Promised Land!ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  The retired SC judge Wigneswaran recently declared that in 1921 two Colombo Sinhala politicians accepted Tamils are not a minority and therefore on the basis of this acceptance Tamils have a right for their own separate country. This new demand makes Wigneswaran the new Tamil Moses. Dayan supplements this Moses with his theory that Tamils are entitled to a province or two provinces or more. The key is the land area called the Province, nothing less than a province. DJ is holding on to the province unit because for SJVCƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s plan for a separate country the Eastern Province was a must as we see from SJVCƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s son-in-law, AJ WilsonƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s book. Two countries fighting for land and water is the best plan to destroy the Sinhala Buddhist heritage in the island and this is a world Christian-local Marxist plan. No wonder Christian-Marxist DJ is double qualified to fight for ethnic-based province/s. Wigneswaran and TNA now openly say that 13-A or 13-A plus is not enough and this put to rest the excuse people like Dayan or Rajitha Senaratne gave to justify 13-A. Dayan himself opposes TNAƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s position, but he still thinks 13-A will solve the demand for a separate country. Is Dayan delusional, deceitful or stupid?

Fear of history

For Wigneswaran Sri Lankan history begins in 1921. For Dayan history begins with SWRD in 1926, with Leonard WoolfƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s backing in 1938, because that is what they want to use as history. I doubt both of them had any exposure to geography or historical geography.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Law and political science both come under the control of geography, perhaps they do not know this. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ At a time that people in Ceylon were divided into three groups as Low Country Sinhala, Kandyan Sinhala and Tamil, a young Oxford-returned SWRD who did know history or geography of Ceylon would have felt a federal set up was the best. But unlike so many others he did not bring a white wife with him. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Woolf thought that the tooth relic cannot be a human one as it was so big. He could not think or suggest that perhaps, what he saw was a casing and the relic was inside the casing. I mentioned this because history and geography of Sri Lanka cannot be interpreted by taking one, two or three personƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s individual views.

History of the Province

DJ has to go to 1832 to understand how unsuitable the province as an ethnic unit is in 2013. In 1832, Ceylon was divided into 5 provinces and the main reason for this was the need to remove the influence feudal leaders had on their people especially after the 1818 Rebellion. The real genocide of the Sinhala people in Uva-Wellassa was not sufficient. The divisions were arbitrary and the Kandyan region (Kanda Udarata) was dismembered. Later from time to time 4 new provinces were added considering nothing but distanceƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬‚remoteness and access for administrative convenience. With a central mountainous region and rivers radiating from it the divisions were good for the purpose of extracting resources, growing tea and collecting revenue (tax). But the physical geography of the island is a recipe for disaster in a DayanJ kind of provincial set up creating water wars between upstream (Sinhala) and downstream (Tamil) water demands. This is happening now between Kerala and Tamil Nad and other Tamil Nad borders.

Malaria Mosquito

Except in the coastal areas there were hardly any significant settlements in the provinces except in the Western, Central and Southern Provinces. British colonial attempts to settle Tamils in the Wanni region failed because of Malaria. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ British attempt was to fill the empty space with Tamil settlements to create a greater Jaffna frontier region. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Previously, the Dutch tried to develop tobacco farms using imported Tamil labor but that was also withdrawn to the Jaffna peninsula.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Historically, there were old villages (purana gam) in the interior, but Malaria mosquito prevented any long standing Tamil settlements in the southern part of Northern Province or outside a few coastal locations in the Eastern Province. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Land development and settlement schemes began under the Donougmore ministers, and Prof. GHP has shown that even in this effort no discrimination was found between Sinhala and Tamil allocations. I know that even in the early 1970s Tamils in Jaffna did not want to come to work in the Puttalam cement factory (even Tamil engineers and technicians with housing provided) and the Works Manager had to bring people from his home town Kegalle. That was how Jaffna Tamils thought about SJVCƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s homeland!

Language-blind administrative units

Dayan, identified by Carlo Fonseka as Sri LankaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s Harold Laski, does not want to consider the advice given by the Chief Justice Sansoni to Tamil politicians to give up separatism. Dayan is like Kumar Ponnambalam who said Tamils (that is Tamil leaders) have aspirations. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ In the past Dayan said there is a Sinhala heartland. Now he wants a Tamil region carved out knowing very well the two will clash and the Sinhala heartland will die because Tamil Nad Tamils will invade the island via the Eelam state visas. Sinhala Buddhists have only this tiny real estate, Tamils have Tamil Nad.

Dayan should support a Tamil state with a UNO flag in Tamil Nad not in Sri Lanka. Dayan needs to understand that environmental and ecological problems require ecology-based administrative units and smallest possible administrative units. Dayan wants to give Tamil separatists a ladder to create an Eelam, instead of empowering Tamils at the village level.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  He is silent on this side of the equation. In fact I have never seen him writing a word about the Indian Panchyathi system. He thinks Tamil dignity is linked with a NP-EP Tamil region run by same kind of Chief Ministers like what we have found in the Southern 7 PCs. It does not matter to him that the PCs in the south was a disaster for the people and a gold mine for a lower set of crook politician families.

Dayan ignores the fact that Tamils are living all over the island and a separate Tamil country should mean all of them leaving the Sinhala areas or there will be Tamil Eelam enclaves in the Sinhala areas. This fact alone is good reason to abandon the Eelam in Sri Lanka and let Tamil people have their individual rights realized at village level based on ecology-based admin units with larger regional units as 7 major river basins. There will be a Yalpanam river basin division but it is not carved out because of Tamil ethnicity. The Sinhala fear of Tamil separatist bringing Tamil Nad Tamils to flood Sri Lanka can be overcome only by erasing language-based admin units and promoting people to think in a language-blind manner when it comes to public affairs.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  This is the only way a Sri Lankan identity can be created where there are no majorities or minorities. This is how one day a Tamil can become a Tamil Obama. Once both Sinhala and Tamil children learn both Sinhala and Tamil within 10 years there will be no room for Sampanthans, Mano Ganeshans and Sumanthirans to manipulate Tamil people and the international crowd. What government has to do is to buy time by not getting into the NP election trap.

Neelan-GL packages

So Dayan cites B-C pact, D-C pact etc etc.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Both SWRD and DudleyS were ignorant of the simple reality that giving land and police powers to a set of Tamil separatist politicians in a carved out land areas is a deadly sin that they each agreed to but later gave up. If it was a political and national crime in 1958 or 1966 it is national suicide in 2013 with new geopolitical realities.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  All those characters that Dayan mentioned to refute Prof. GHPƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s opinion that 13-A is an Indian-created racket are just useless points for the sake of just to justify DayanƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s support for a Tamil country in the Island. Dayan says if 13-A kind of decisions discussed and agreed upon domestically since JRJ came into power were implemented there would not have been a need for an Indian decision to impose a 13-A. Dayan forgets Indira Gandhi traning Tamil rebels to sabotage JRJ government. JRJ, RPremadasa, Mrs. Chandirka or RanilW as Colombo black-whites could discuss and decide but people in Sri Lanka did not want a set up to make a few Tamil politicians Jaffna prime ministers or chief ministers. When PrabakaranƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s black cats began to expand from killing Tamil opponents in the Jaffna area to streets in Colombo 7, these Colombo 7 Sinhala black-whites started thinking of provincial-level devolution to save their Colombo houses. Otherwise, there was never a genuine attempt to empower common people at local-village level in the south or the north. They did not learn from 1971 or 1988-89 Sinhala youth rebellions. Youth Commission Report became a joke. Even the local government system that was there was abused by the local government minister, whether he was blue, green or red. The Abhayewardhana Report on Local Government Reforms (Sessional Paper No. 1 of 1999) which is now dusting in some government office provided in detail a fact-based justification on why the country needs to go back to the pre-1980 village council system. People like Dayan pretend that they do not know anything about that useful report which makes 13-A an unwanted liability, a Trojan horse as well as a big white elephant.

What would Dayan say to following facts?

(1)ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Tamil Nad itself facing the threat of breaking into three, is directing the separatist venom at Sri Lanka thus the Chief Minister jokers can alternatively continue their respective family rule (in addition to fishing intrusions, Kachchativu is now added to this as a rallying point;

(2)ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  USA is using Tamil Nad irrespective of what Delhi wants to balkanize India via breaking Sri Lanka first;

(3)ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  TNA and Wigneswaran are not for 13-A plus and plus. They want a Tamil country;

(4)ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  In order to control China USA is joining with the Indian middle class and Sri Lanka is vital in this plan.

(5)ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  India tells not to remove police and land powers from 13-A because this is in line with item 4 above.

Prabakaran killed all Tamil leaders who had commonsense. Fortunately we have young people like Arun Thambimuttu (and Imtiaz Bakeer Markar) who must be a surprise to Dayan and the Eelam crowd, local and foreign. Ambassador Sison must be so worried. These crowds do not know that the JHU offered a parliamentary seat to Anandasangaree and JHU also said that if Imtiaz contested for the presidentƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s job it will vote for Imtiaz. That shows how racist the Sinhala Buddhist extremists were.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Lakshman Kadiragamar that Dayan praises so much was honored by Sinhala Buddhists as if he was born Buddhist and Jeyaraj FernandopullaiƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s funeral was like a Buddhist funeral with people coming from all over the island.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  It is this Buddhist respect for life and others lives that we find today with the grassroots movement of Bodu Bala Sena.