RE: Sinhalese and Tamil
New Year
Jaliya Wickremarachchi
CSLAT (Canadian Sri Lankans Against Terrorism)
Attention: The Rt. Hon. Stephen Harper, P.C., M.P.
Prime Minister of Canada
House of Commons
Ottawa, Canada
RE: Sinhalese and Tamil New Year
Rt. Hon. Prime Minister:
As a Sri Lankan-Canadian, I am disappointed and disturbed after reading
the following article (Please see attached) , which seems to suggest
that you have ignored the rest of the Sri Lankan-Canadians by extending
your "warmest New Year Greetings" only to the Sri Lankan
Tamil community in Canada. For your information, the Sinhalese-Tamil
New Year is celebrated by both Sinhalese and Tamils in Sri Lanka,
and expatriates all over the world, including in Canada.
By extending your best wishes only to a part of the Sri Lankan Community
in Canada, you may have offended many Sri Lankans, especially in the
Sinhalese community, where celebration of the New Year is a major
event. It may be pure ignorance, or lack of knowledge in your office
staff to understand that Sinhalese are the majority (76%) of Sri Lanka,
and Sinhalese -Tamil New Year is a national event that brings both
communities together. It must be understood by the Prime Minister
of Canada, a country well-respected and loved by all Sri Lankans,
regardless of their ethnicity, Canada and its leaders must be sensitive
and impartial to the multi-ethnic Sri-Lankan community, whose motherland
is devastated by on-going Tiger terrorism. Unintentional or not, insensitive
gestures of this nature by a Canadian Prime Minister will only offend
and polarize the communities, rather than uniting them.
if a leader of another nation extends his or her best wishes only
to French-Canadians, ignoring 75% of the English Canadians on Canada
Day celebrations, the rest of Canada would not be very pleased with
such an ignorant gesture by a foreign head of state. Sadly, this is
the message conveyed, by extending your New Year Greetings only to
the Tamil-Canadians, while ignoring the rest of the Sri Lankan-Canadians.
On the other hand, we certainly hope this was not an intentional gesture
by the Conservative Party of Canada to woo the Tamil voters in Toronto
and elsewhere, who have been loyal to the Liberal Party of Canada.
It will be a shame if the Conservative government fall into the same
trap as the previous Liberal government, which turned a blind eye
to the Tamil terrorist activities, for the sake of gaining the Tamil
votes. In the last election, majority of Sri Lankan-Canadians (which
include Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims), have voted for the Conservative
Party mainly because of their disapproval and disgust of the way which
the Liberal Government had ignored the Tamil Tiger activities in Canada;
and their reluctance to ban the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam),
in Canada.
Of course, we are grateful to the present government for banning the
LTTE in Canada, and we certainly hope your government will continue
the policy of zero tolerance for terrorism and illegal activities
by terrorists groups such as the LTTE, which remains a great threat
to many Sri Lankan-Canadians, and the peace and security of Sri Lanka,
in spite of the ban.
We do understand politics, and realize that there will be a Federal
election very soon, and your goal is to form a majority government.
However, as much as we would like to see a majority government, we
certainly hope that your government will not abandon the policy of
zero tolerance for any form of terrorist activities in Canada or Sri
Lanka, just for the sake of securing some pro-LTTE Tamil votes, as
the Liberal party has been exploiting shamelessly, in the past.
Thank You.
Sincerely
Jaliya Wickremarachchi
CSLAT
(Canadian Sri Lankans Against Terrorism)
