‘Defending non-implementation of LLRC recommendations’ – a reply
Posted on February 24th, 2014
Bodhi Dhanapala Canada
February 23, 2014, 9:12 pm
Mr. Peiris forgets that at the “height of the war” Tamil children, their sisters etc., far from singing the National Anthem were singing songs of death and murder, undergoing war drill, and had been abducted from their parents and brain-washed to become little killers.
And how can a government stop children from singing whatever they want in any language?
The only cases where the government imposed a specific language were on official occasions. Has Mr. Peiris heard of the French Marseillaise being sung in Arabic by French Arabs whose demographic percentage is higher than all the Lankan Tamils put together? In the US there are some19% Hispanics. Has Mr. Peiris heard any official function of the US, or the US embassy, where the “Star-spangled banner” is sung in Spanish as well, even by Hispanic children?
So why should a province be given the opportunity to rouse emotions and create ethnic strife by making demands of parity of status on the national anthem, at a time where the wounds of a four-decade war are still raw?
Mr. Peiris unfolds his jaundiced, flawed views based on his belief that the Eealm wars began because of Sri Lanka’s injustices towards the Tamils. The oft quoted example is the Sinhala official languages act of 1956, even though Tamil separatism started long before.
Peiris now looks at land ownership! Does he not know that land tenure in the North has been extremely skewed, with most of the good land owned by rich land-owning Tamils who live in Colombo? Most of them are TNA-MPs now and ITAK or TC MPs in the 1950, or State councilors in an earlier era in the 1930s. There has been no change in the political masters of the North. So, what we need is land reform in the North, with private lands nationalized and re-allocated to poor Tamils of socially disadvantaged castes who actually live in the North, and not in Cinnamon Gardens. Instead, Mr. Peiris says , “Furthermore, there has been no progress in giving back the private lands in the now redundant artillery range perimeters of the former high security zones in the North, especially in the Waligamam North area, almost five years after the last threat of artillery to security forces was eliminated for good”.
The army has handed over thousands of sq. kilometers of lands held illegally by the LTTE, to their owners. Given the rumblings that we hear from Tamil Nadu, the discovery of communication equipment among LTTE detainees and their prison riots that were directed from outside, as well as bellicose statements from the TNA including that Prabhakaran was a great hero and not a Pol Pot, it would be utter folly to undo the defenses that we have in the North. Regarding private land in the North, I suggest that Mr. Peiris reads some of the articles on that topic by Sebastian Rasalingam. One of his articles that I have is entitled “Land Reform in the North and East”. It appeared in The Island newspaper, October 13, 2011, as well as in electronic journals.
Mr. Peiris’s amnesia of recent political history is also striking. He says: ” The implementation of political measures already on the books, such as the 13th amendment to the Constitution, which was at the end only opposed by the LTTE, should now be implemented.” Mr. Peiris needs to be reminded that the TNA spurned the 13A, with both Mr. Sampanthan, and Mr. Sumanthiran, rejecting it by giving it the middle finger, as stated by Dayan Jayatilleke (like M.I.A flipping the bird in the US, see “Transcurrents, 11 Feb. 2012”). Today the TNA leadership clamours for the 13A as a mere first step to Eelam. So the Sinhala majority also rejects the 13A. In spite of all this, Peiris claims that only the LTTE rejected the 13A!
We must note that Mr. Peiris’s type of thinking is limited to a small fringe of Colombo denizens. However, it is THE ideology of the Western-Funded NGOs, as well as the West that embraced Anton Balasingham, and now the Militant Tamil diaspora led by the GTF, CTC, and other organizations with connections to Father Emmanuel, Nediyavan, Rudrakumaran etc. It is precisely because of them, their Colombo fellow-travelers like Harim Peiris, as well as Vaiko and Jayalalitha, that the guns, and the military have to stay in the North.
Bodhi Dhanapala
Canada
February 24th, 2014 at 6:54 pm
Since the LLRC is a creation by a select nations in the UN and pushed by the UNHRC who refuses to take into account that Sri Lanka has toed the line on lessons learned.. It is time that Colombo comes up with her own list of reconciliations. This is not a new or unique idea. The US without the demands from foreign nations developed the Bill of rights in order to end Segregation. The post civil war amendments that ended slavery were also domestic issues the US took upon herself without foreign intervention.
Sri Lanka has the right to boast of a very highly developed civilization which does not and should not take orders from nations that once ruled her, exploited her and now are the voice of the Tamil Diaspora who in turn are the voice of LITE. Taking this into regard Colombo has the legal right to rectify any reconciliations process without the input of the world. This same world turned a blind eye for 30 years as the war raged with a select few especially India rooting for the division of Sri Lanka. Morally these nations have no right to tell Colombo how to settle the post war situation in Sri Lanka.
Colombo should come up with her own set of regulations and summarily dismiss that of the UNHRC as prejudiced, biased, unfair and with an agenda to continue accusing Sri Lanka for the sole purpose of creating Eelam. If they have offices in Colombo they should be closed and sent home in the same manner the Norwegian peace keeping force was dealt with by President Rajapakse. Whatever the solution is up to Colombo and not up to Chennai, New Delhi, London or Washington D.C.
February 24th, 2014 at 8:59 pm
Harim Peiris served as an advisor to the President of Sri Lanka (2001-05), as a member of the Government’s negotiation team with the LTTE after the tsunami and as Director General for Relief, Rehabilitation and Reconciliation in the conflict-affected North and East. He is currently attached to the Council for Public Policy in Colombo.
This former pastor is the voice and thinking of the Christian Church. He did enough damage while being the official spokesman for the Christian Chandrika Kumaranatunga aka Choura Ragiana.
LLRC are only a set of recommendations of a commission set up by the President. The final report that came out of this commission has overstepped the boundaries set up the government and even at that they are only a set of recommendations and that is IT. GOSL is not duty bound to implement them as sacrosanct. The requirement is to implement only those that are considered as beneficial to the post terrorist war – Sri Lanka.
Ethnic reconciliation is a process with no end date. This process is in the minds of the people affected by the racist tamil tiger terrorism. This will take as long as it takes and GOSL can only facilitate the process.
Pastor Harim Peiris, his NGO and the Christian Church are fishing in troubled waters aiming at regime change.
It brings shudders to think that this Christian Pastor was once the official spokesman for the President of Sri Lanka – a majority Buddhist nation. Feel very very sorry for Sri Lanka Buddhists! This is another Tiger in sheep’s clothing!!
February 25th, 2014 at 4:26 am
they are only a set of recommendations and that is IT.- Well said, like previous APRC next PSC …..
GOSL is not duty bound to implement except any outsiders recommendations last 13A , next UNHCR ……
Have ever We Sinhala Modayas & Demila Sakkiliyas learned ??? NO