Deepak Obhrai: says “Tamils faces discrimination in Sri Lanka
Posted on December 7th, 2014
Asoka Weerasinghe Kings Grove Crescent . Gloucester . Ontario . Canada
6 December 2014
Hon. Deepak Obhrai, MP, PC
Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, House of Commons, Ottawa.
Dear Deepak:
Your statement in parliament in response to the Tamil Tiger sympathizer, the rookie Tamil MP for Scarborough-Rouge River, Rathika Sitsabaiesan’s comment in parliament offending Canada’s Veterans by equating their Remembrance Day with her Tamil Tiger Heroes Day, you said …there was no denying ethnic Tamils faces discrimination in Sri Lanka, but you can’t compare Remembrance Day to Tamil Heroes Day.” That got my goat.
After 30 years of my involvement on the Canadian-Snow Tigers file I retired from the issue on August 4, 2013. With that God damn lie of yours, Deepak you nudged me back, however temporarily, to deal with your stupidity trying to colour my Motherland, Sri Lanka black, that I am still romancing with after leaving the island 58 years ago. No way Hozay! That comment of mine applies to all you Canadian parliamentarians who relish playing with Canadian Tamil Tiger cubs and feeding them with baby bottles of Bison milk to provide them with vitamins to sustain their cause and funding to carve out the best chunk of real estate off that puny island nation for their mono-ethnic, racist, Tamil separatist state Eelam.
Let me identify your problem, Deepak. You speak with too many Canadian-Tamil Tiger cubs and not enough with honest Sinhalese-Canadians. And inhaling too much of Jaffna Roasted Curry Powder meat curries is not good for your faculties of comprehension and honesty. Less consulting with Tamil-Canadian Tamil Tiger Cubs and more with Sinhalese-Canadians will do you a world of good and repair your degenerating faculties of comprehension when dealing with Sri Lanka.
Your memory is short Deepak. At 64 you are too young to lose your long term memory. Remember, what we did to the FLQ terrorist uprising for their separatist cause on October 16, 1970? These FLQ terrorists killed Quebec’s Labour Minister, Pierre Laporte and kidnapped James Cross the British Trade Attaché, and the War Measures Act was evoked and we saw military helicopters buzzing like monster mosquitoes over the Ottawa skies, and every street corner in Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City was lined up with soldiers with assault rifles on the draw to shoot at belligerent French separatists. When Sri Lanka went after the Tamil Tiger terrorists, the most ruthless in the world, who not just killed one or two but thousands of innocent Sinhalese, Muslims and their own Tamils, and India’s Rajiv Gandhi and Sri Lanka’s President Premadasa, You, and Prime Minister Stephen Harper, John Baird, Jason Kenney, Lynne Yelich, Patrick Brown, Paul Calandra and others lined up with baby bottles filled with Bison milk to feed the Canadian Snow Tiger cubs to sustain them. And that is sick, Deepak. And one result of that stupidity was Rathika standing up in the House Chambers and insulting our Veterans. You bet, there will be more of those misguided comments coming in the House in the future by Tamil Tiger terrorist sympathizers.
To be honest Deepak, thinking back, I, must be having a hole in my head, to think that Minister Deepak Obhrai is an honourable man, when this is the guy who took a chance of getting kicked out from Sri Lanka during the Commonwealth Summit in Colombo, when he acted like a Canadian High School Bully resisting a Sri Lankan official when he told this Canadian parliamentarian not to, and yet performed a well orchestrated with photographers tagging along laid a wreath with a banner printed with Tamil script on the sands of Elephant Pass in memory of the dead Tamil Tigers of the Eelam war, but not for others who died defending their Motherland. When challenged this Canadian parliamentarian told us that he laid the wreath on neutral ground, when he could have picked one from thousands of other neutral nooks all over in Sri Lanka. But this Canadian parliamentarian figured out that Elephant Pass was neutral enough for Canada’s Conservative Government, where there were three raging battles fought between Tamil Tigers and the Government forces. The First battle was fought between July 10 and August 9, 1991, and the Sri Lankan Army was victorious. The Second battle was from 22 to 23 April, 2000, and the Tamil Tigers decimated the Sri Lankan army. And the Tamil Tigers held on to Elephant Pass then on until the Third battle of January 9, 2009, when their butts were whipped on the way to their demise on May 19, 2009. Deepak, tuck that bit of information at the back of your mind, and recall them before you look dumb saying that Elephant Pass was a neutral site to lay your Canadian Conservative Government wreath for the Tamil Tigers who died at battle. Neutral, my foot, Deepak! You must be a joker.
I hope you recall what happened on July 24th, 1967, when French President Charles De Gaulle ended his speech on the balcony of Montreal’s City Hall with a salute Vivre le Quebec, Libre!” That extraordinary statement made him get into his military jet on July 26, panicking sweating under his pants and vanished through the Quebec clouds in the Canadian skies as the Canadian Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson didn’t want him in Canada. And Deepak, if I had a say on your wreath laying orchestrated shenanigan at Elephant Pass, a signature to anchor Tamil votes for the Conservatives at the next federal election, I would have asked you to buggeroff from Sri Lanka too, tout suite.! Being a Canadian parliamentarian wouldn’t have mattered a tuppence to me, nor the diplomatic niceties.
Since I will tell you loud and clearly, that Tamils have been the ‘privileged minority’ all along, and the Sinhalese have been the wronged majority”, the crunch time has arrived for you to defend and explain your Tanzanian-Canadian logic to prove your point to me and to the world that there was no denying ethnic Tamils faced discrimination in Sri Lanka.”
- What is that the Tamils have been denied in Sri Lanka that other ethnic communities in Sri Lanka enjoy! Speak out Deepak, let’s hear it.;
- If half the Tamil population live in the South amicably with the majority Sinhalese not feeling or complaining about discrimination, explain to us why this phenomenon, Deepak! Crunch time is here right now Deepak, Come on give me/us your explanation. You say the Tamils have been discriminated, and I say, Hell no, you better lie no more”;
- If 40% of the population in the capital Colombo is Tamils, what are they doing there if they have been discriminated? Crunch time Deepak, explain this phenomenon. You say the Tamils have been discriminated, and I say, Hell no, you better lie no more”;
- In the one mile long commercial drag in Pettah in Colombo, every second shop is owned by Tamils and patronized by the majority Sinhalese. This is where the shop signs say Ganesh Sari Emproium, Selliah Jewellers, Ponnaia Grains & Spices, Nadarajah Kanji Café, Kandaiya Jaffna Gold Shop, Best Tamil Thosai Boutique, and so forth. Surely Deepak, what the hell are these Tamils doing along Main Street in Pettah if they are discriminated making millions of rupees off their majority Sinhalese patrons? Explain your thesis Deepak. Your crunch time is now to defend your lie in parliament.
- When the July 1983 riots broke out in Colombo and the Tamils got it bad, not because the alleged discrimination of the Tamils by the majority Sinhalese but a reaction that the Sinhalese had enough crap from these Northern Tamils having terrorized and kicked out 27,000 Sinhalese between 1971 and 1981 from the North where they had lived for generations, and the 13 Sinhalese soldiers who were ambushed and killed by the Tamil Tigers and their bodies were brought to Colombo. By then the Tamils were enjoying a superior education system in the North than from the rest of the country. Deepak, memorize these numbers and regurgitate them before you open your mouth in parliament next time to spit on Sri Lanka saying that the Tamils have been discriminated.
In 1983, the predominantly Tamil Jaffna District had 555 government schools for a Tamil student population of 207,524, and the capital city Colombo had only 251 such schools for 231,690 multi-ethnic students. Forty-one per cent of these predominantly Tamil Jaffna District schools had Government approved science laboratories compared to an island average of 19.6 per cent. Deepak, let me have your Tanzanian-Canadian logic to explain that these numbers equate that the Tamils have been discriminated. Let’s have it Deepak. Show me and the world your smarts or else I will tell the world that your crock is full of cod’s wallop and that you lied through your Tanzanian coconut kernel smiling white teeth.
- When the riots took place in July 1983, the representation of Tamils in the professions was far higher than their ethnic ratio. Unemployment among males were among the majority Sinhalese (14.7%) than Tamils (8.8%). The Physical Quality if Life Indices were higher for Tamils then in Sri Lanka than the general population. And remember my telling that Tamils were a ‘privileged minority’ compared to the majority Sinhalese who ‘were a wronged majority’. These are the facts that would destroy your myth that …there was no denying ethnic Tamils faces discrimination in Sri Lanka.” That’s what got my goat. And I said under my breath, This guy is a liar”.
- Deepak, let me make this the last item for you to defend your statement in …there was no denying ethnic Tamils faces discrimination in Sri Lanka” in parliament.
When Colombo was burning and the Tamils were getting the brunt of the Sinhalese anger, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court was a Tamil, and the Attorney General was a Tamil, and five of the 10 Deputy Inspectors-General of the Police were Tamil and several Diplomatic postings were of Tamils including the Sri Lanka High Commissioner in London. Deepak, and you had the sordid gumption to tell us Canadians and the world that …there was no denying ethnic Tamils faces discrimination in Sri Lanka” in parliament. Explain your lie…the mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the liar of them all idiocy.
It is time you stop spitting on Sri Lanka. It is time you stop playing and feeding the Canadian Tamil Tiger cubs with love so they will stop feeding you with lies about Sri Lanka
It is time that you accept that you as a Canadian Parliamentarian has no moral authority to speak on discrimination of Tamils in Sri Lanka”, when it was Canada who let the Tamil Tiger rump collect two million dollars a month for 13 years to stuff the Tamil Tiger war chest to buy sophisticated war weapons to kill innocent Sri Lankans in the thousands. Let’s have a public debate on your statement in parliament …there was no denying ethnic Tamils faces discrimination in Sri Lanka.” Bring with you John Baird, Lynne Yelich, Rathika Sitsabaisan and Patrick Brown, all anti-Sri Lanka protagonists, and I will take all five of you.
I will stand firm by my words – Tamils have been a privileged minority all along and the Sinhalese have been the wrong majority. Deepak, my strength is the Truth”.
But here is what all five of you are against in a debate with me. I have a handicap because all five of you did not have the gumption nor civility to acknowledge that by wiping out the most ruthless terrorists in the world, the Tamil Tigers on 19 May 2009, the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government gave back the most treasured item of human rights, the right-to-life to 21 million peoples in Sri Lanka which had been hijacked from them by the Tamil Tiges for 27 bloody year. Shame on all of you. Deepak, you may recall the pathetic Press Release that came out of Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon’s office when the western world praised Sri Lanka for defeating terrorism. You were his Parliamentary Secretary then. Right Deepak! Not a Bravo Sri Lanka”. Not a Way to Go, Sri Lanka!” Not a Take a Bow Sri Lanka.” That is how small minded Canada was, not wanting to antagonize the Tamil community.
And here is another reason why all five of you will fair badly in a public debate with me. I have a handicap because all of you did not have the gumption, honesty and civility, to acknowledge up to this very moment, the classic human rights text book example of liberation of people used as a human shield by a terrorist group. When 295,873 Tamils were rescued by the Sri Lankan soldiers by 19 May, 2009, who had been used as a human shield by the Tamil Tigers and herded like unwashed cattle for 30 long months and moved from the west coast to the east coast, Canada should have acknowledged and thanked the Sri Lankan armed forces for bringing about this miracle. The NATO and Allied forces are still struggling to get rid of the Taliban since 2001, and that is a reality check for you. What was your problem Deepak not to acknowledge the greatness of the Sri Lankan armed forces to get rid of Tamil Tiger terrorism? What was your Conservative Government’s problem? This is the only reason why I call you all a bunch of Humbugs trying to show the world that Canada is concerned about the last five months of the Eelam War IV, that you believe when human rights were violated. The last five months of a 27 year bloody war. Ha! What rubbish! What piffle, Deepak!
I am still prepared to debate on your statement in parliament ….there was no denying ethnic Tamils faces discrimination in Sri Lanka…” I say that your statement is piffle, baloney, cod’s wallop and Humbug. And I am not prepared to accept that rubbish. Your spitting on Sri Lanka, just has to stop. You recall what I said earlier in this letter. I am still romancing with my Motherland, Sri Lanka, that I left 58 years ago. You said there was no denying ethnic Tamils faced discrimination in Sri Lanka”, and I say to your face Deepak, Hell No, you better lie no more!”
Sincerely,
Asoka Weerasinghe (former Member of the Reform, Canadian Alliance and the Conservative Parties)
December 7th, 2014 at 5:45 pm
Does SL have something along the lines of a FOREIGN MINISTRY?
I don’t think so.
SL needs one.
WHEN SL has a foreign ministry it should FORMALLY respond to the WILD allegations early so that they don’t snowball into a major human rights issue.
(BTW they foreign minister GLP called LTTE Anton Balla “your excellency”. So GLP meant AB was the HEAD OF STATE of some country? What is that country?)
December 7th, 2014 at 8:29 pm
Well Said, Asoka … Let him both barrels where the sun don’t shine!
December 8th, 2014 at 7:37 am
I agree with Asoka that “Tamils were a privileged minority” throughout the period the British colonialists ruled Sri Lanka. However, I wish to qualify this statement by excluding Eastern Province Tamils, Indian Tamils and “low caste” Tamils who were also discriminated by the privileged upper class Tamils who were mollycoddled by the British rulers in their effort to suppress the Sinhalese who always wanted to liberate their country from the colonialist. After independence from the British, as these racist Tamils held most of the influential and senior positions in the public sector, they continued to discriminate against the above mentioned categories of Tamils as well as the Sinhalese and Muslim communities. It took quite a long time for the Sri Lankan Governments to bring up all communities to a level playing field, but at this stage the hitherto mollycoddled Tamil leaders interpreted the losing of their privileged position as discrimination.
When the Muslim Minister of education, Hon. Baduideen Mohammed introduced standardisation for university entrance, which opened the way for Muslims, Eastern province Tamils and rural Sinhalese students to enter university in reasonable numbers, this too was interpreted as discrimination against Tamils, even though it also adversely impacted Sinhalese students in schools with good educational facilities.
Even today they scream they are being discriminated but up to date they have not listed out what this discrimination is. It is unfortunate that politicians with no self esteem are prepared to do anything or say anything on behalf of these Tamil activists just to get their vote and get re-elected.
December 8th, 2014 at 8:07 am
That was a GREAT addition, Sooriarachi! At least there are some people here that understand the sorry history of colonialism and their divide-and-conquer tactic that was employed by the British in Sri Lanka and by white colonists all over the world.
This is in a nutshell what the Sri Lanka issue with the Tamils is really about – after independence, some Tamils lost their privileged status bestowed upon them by the British in a divide-and-conquer scheme and now feel ‘discriminated against’ because they are no longer running things in Sri Lanka like they did before under the minority-rule system of the British.
What these Tamils don’t realize is that they got PLAYED by the British who really just wanted to use them to neutralize the Sinhalese majority so locals would be fighting each other rather than uniting against the British. Now that the British are gone, the Tamils should realize that they were PLAYED and that minority-rule by ANY race or religion in ANY country is inherently oppressive and simply unsustainable, as eventually the majority unites and rises up to topple the minority-rule.
The solution is therefore not separatism, but uniting for the benefit of all against the neo-colonist oppressors who want to keep the country divided so that they can impose their will on and control the country for their own purposes.
December 8th, 2014 at 3:27 pm
SO DO SINHALESE.
BUDDHIST SINHALESE FACE DISCRIMINATION NOT ONLY WITHIN SRI LANKA BY THE TAMILS AND THE GOVERNMENT BUT ALSO FROM OTHER SINHALESE WHO ARE NOT BUDDHIST
SINHALESE FROM RAJAPAKSE TO THE BUDDHIST SANGA TO THE SINHALESE PEOPLE FACE WORLD WIDE DISCRIMINATION
UNLIKE THE TAMILS THIS BLATANT DISCRIMINATION DOES NOT EVEN GET MENTIONED.
December 9th, 2014 at 6:19 am
This Obhrai fellow ought to focus on discrimination in his own country Canada against Red Indians, Eskimos, Tamils and Sinhala, Indians and all other minorities to improve their lot before sticking his dirty nose in other countries affairs
December 9th, 2014 at 2:25 pm
Thank you Asoka and all others for the contributions. We should never forget the substance of this issue and never fail to throw this back at UK and others when every time we are accused of discrimination against the Tamils. Tamils have not lost basic rights. If they have they had better list them out when challenged to do so. What they have lost are privileges granted by the Brits like relatively better educational facilities followed by jobs in the Public sector. I have also heard the Tamils say that they are more hard working. There may be a grain of truth in that because generally ALL minorities throughout the World work harder relative to the majority natives. That has nothing to do their Tamilness but simply a minority trait to get ahead! So, Instead of stating the truth that they have lost privileges the Tamils have cunningly converted this loss of privilege by the Brits into the loss of basic rights. No leaders in the West will bother to listen to the Tamils in Sri Lanka if they cry that they have lost privileges given by the Brits but many leaders in the West will have all the time in the World when the Tamils cry out that they are being formally discriminated against through government policies – which of course is a bloody lie! – S de Siva – London