Thomas – the misguided shepherd!

LA PEIRIS

Rt. Rev. Dr. Thomas Savundranayagam, The Bishop of Jaffna, you are clearly an outright terrorist supporter. You are a traitor to the nation, when you make comments like "Intervention by foreign Governments is urgently needed to find a solution to the ethnic crisis, since a permanent justifiable solution cannot be expected from a government controlled by Sinhala majority". [TamilNet, Thursday, 10 May 2007] to ambassador Richard Boucher, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Affairs and US Ambassador in Colombo Robert O' Blake.

Saundranayagam, please recall a single country in the world, where the government is not controlled by the majority people of the country? In Sri Lanka the Sinhala are not a simple majority, they are an overwhelming majority of over 74% of 20 million people. Do you expect the minority parties especially Tamils to control the government? It would certainly help if you can prove that 73% is equal to 13% as you claim!

Sri Lanka is small unitary nation. 52% of the Tamil population in Sri Lanka live among the Sinhala, Muslim and other communities in the South. Saundranayagam, which country in the world will agree to secede the North and East regions, consisting of 1/3 of its land area and 2/3 of its sea coast to a minority of less than 2 million people. This too to a dictatorship under a megalomaniac murderer and his cohorts! What answer does a government give to the Sinhala and Muslim people in the Eastern Province? Do they not have the Human rights / Equal rights for self-determination? Sri Lanka is too small a country to be divided on federal state concepts. If under federal concept a Tamil state is established, what is there to stop the Muslims, the upcountry Indian Tamils, the Colombo Tamils, the Eastern Tamils, the Eastern Muslims, the Burghers, the Colombo Chetty’s, the Malays, the Borah’s, each wanting a separate state of their own. Is it only Sri Lankan Tamils that have a right to self-determination?

You and other terrorist supporters say that the final solution must meet the reasonable aspiration of Tamils. Please spell out to the Sinhala community and the world community what these aspirations are? People have millions of aspirations, (a lot of them pie in the sky) but unless these aspirations, are clearly defined, no one can say which of these aspirations are viable. Saudranayagam, spell out the aspirations and self- determination, required by the Tamils that you and other Eelamist’s keep harping about without generalising it. There are things that a national government of a democratically elected assembly can or cannot accept. The ISGA proposals and P-Toms of your terrorist brothers are a non-starter.

The CFA was pushed through by a Sinhala traitor, without the consent of the parliament or the majority people for his personal agenda. No responsible democratically elected government of a sovereign Nation is going to allow defence, foreign affairs, judiciary, economic policy and other essential services of the nation to any autonomous body within its borders.

The only thing acceptable is provincial / district administration. However mechanism for this is already in place. Compare the Sinhala and Muslim administrative staff in the Northern and Eastern provinces to the number of Tamil administrative staff in the rest of the country. Is it the LTTE terrorists that are feeding and servicing the infrastructure that is at current available in the North and East in the prevailing difficult conditions? It is the Southern taxpayer that is bearing the burden, on behalf of the GOSL.

Equal rights – Can you honestly say that Tamils do not have equal rights in Sri Lanka? Saundranayagam let me tell you they have more rights than the Sinhala, Muslim and other community people. How many Sinhala, Muslim and other community people are there in the North? None. Your favourite nephew, the megalomaniac murderer and his suicide bombing terrorists have ethnically cleansed Jaffna. In the East the Sinhala and Muslim people live in fear as many of them have been butchered by the LTTE terrorists. The Tamils who do not want to be subjugated have formed para-military groups to safeguard themselves and their families from these terrorists.

You have forgotten to mention that all para-military groups are Tamils! Do they not have the human right to live? Saundranayagam, how many Tamils living in the South would volunteer to relocate themselves to areas illegally held by the terrorists? However, Tamils in the North and east would jump at the opportunity to get away from the conflict zone where they are held subjugated by terrorists. The children are abducted and forced into the battlefield.

The A9 had to be closed as the terrorists were using it to move weapons and other war materials, as entry-exit controls, and collecting illegal taxes from the Sri Lankan public. People don’t hear the Tamil catholic clergy or your voice raised in anger at these atrocities? I assume that you in your divine wisdom have concluded that these Tamil children and their parents have no human rights!

The small Tamil minority in the North and East, must forget this crap about self-determination, and traditional home land of Tamils and join the mainstream political process in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is the homeland of Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim and all other communities. As Sri Lankans, the Sinhala, Muslim and other community people too have a right to live in the North or East of the nation.

They say pride goes before the fall and as a member of the Catholic Church be humble and listen to the doctrine of the church. Involve yourself on human rights and equality issues but make certain that your speak the unbiased truth without giving your personal biased opinions as a misguided Tamil terrorist supporter with hollow dreams as this is detrimental to the good relationship that has existed between people of differing faiths throughout the years.

Saundranayagam, the simple reality is that no Government can or should give in to the demands of terrorists who would kill and maim innocent civilians. The use of violence to make one’s voice heard is unacceptable in any civilised society. The first and foremost is that LTTE terrorists must lay down their weapons without any pre-conditions immediately, then and only then should GOSL sit down to any talks.