These are not a patch on SJV Chelvanayakam or any of our truly patriotic Tamils of the bygone era. These are parasites sponging on gullible asylum-seekers who work for £3.00 an hour and who donate their hard-earned money on the promise of a traditional homeland.
by Pearl Thevanayagam
(November 05, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) When the Late Pope John Paul 11 visited Sri Lanka in 1996 the podium on Galle Face Green was designed and erected by a Buddhist monk. This is a fine example of this island’s capability to accommodate all religions although it has seen the escalation of ethnic violence due to polarisation between mainly Tamils and Sinhalese since independence.
In this light we cannot ignore our Cardinal Insignate Malcolm Ranjith who is the only Asian to be conferred the title in the coming weeks and who courageously declared in no uncertain terms as witness to the LLRC (Lessons Learn and Reconciliation Commission) that Tamil grievances have to be met with due political transformation and that war casualties investigated and atoned.
There is a serious lack of willingness on the part of the government to mete out justice to the rights of the Tamil minority as well as Muslims and it is time the LLRC takes the Cardinal Insignate’s recommendations and act on them. Granted Sri Lanka is predominantly a Buddhist nation but it also has significant minorities who if their rights continue to be ignored by the ruling powers then it would have to be always looking over its shoulders when the next insurgency would surface in a more virulent form than ever before.
No more can the government bury its head in the sand and pretend there was no state complicity in the killing of civilians in the last throes of the war. The LLRC is watched keenly by the West who are succouring a significant number of refugees who stand testimony to the fact they were sidelined by the majority Sinhala government.
No more can war crimes be relegated to the dustbins of history when displaced civilians are still held in detention camps while several hardcore LTTE ers are enjoying state privilege with positions in the cabinet.
Now the TGTE (Trans-national Government of Tamil Eelam) consisting of LTTE sympathisers have set up a constitution and elected a Prime Minister and a cabinet of ministers. How much influence they have among the diaspora is yet to be seen. The credentials of this government and its effectiveness would depend on how minority Tamils view them in terms of how they propose to address the grievances of the minority Tamils.
Past experience shows that Tamils have never been comfortable with fellow Tamils due to their caste-ridden heredity and pro-Hindu stance. Also let us not forget that the champions of TGTE including the elected Prime Minister Visvakumar Rudrakumaran have a lucrative practice among Tamil asylum-seekers in the US and Europe the others have more vested selfish businesss interests which are not alien to Tamils who migrated as refugees.
Unlike the LTTE under Pirabhakaran who never coveted material comforts but was bent on ideology the TGTE are a bunch of selfish individuals. They cannot successfully deliver the populace of the North and East their legitimate rights.
If you look at their credentials they are far from satisfactory. I know some of these individuals who are merely shop-assistants and others who manage BP garages. Their first aim is to better themselves. I did not spend 10 years among the Tamil diaspora to ignore their attitude towards fellow Tamils.
These are not a patch on SJV Chelvanayakam or any of our truly patriotic Tamils of the bygone era. These are parasites sponging on gullible asylum-seekers who work for £3.00 an hour and who donate their hard-earned money on the promise of a traditional homeland.
If I cast aspersions on Douglas Devananda with all his faults I would vote hands down for Douglas than these pretenders in the TGTE. It is now up to the government to prove that it can look after its own citizens including the Tamil and Muslim minorities and not give leverage to groups such as the TGTE. However, I do not condone his complicity in abducting and doing away with those who oppose him
At least Douglas has the wisdom to co-operate with the government and address genuine needs of the minority Tamils rather than antagonize it. He is genuinely contributing towards the development of post-war North and East and he is not harping on his past engagement with Tamil separatist ideology. He is not unlike the many JVP elements who saw the light that insurrection alone could not deliver the liberty and freedom of choice for those relegated to the backwoods of development merely because they were not the chosen elite.
A good start would be to come clean with the LLRC and make its findings public. It would be a feather in the cap of this government if it has the guts to own up to any wrong-doings in the final onslaught of the ethnic war where thousands of Tamils perished. The LTTE too should be made accountable to the many atrocities it committed across the island but then again the LTTE is a now a spent force and those that the government chose to pamper would hardly own up to any atrocities they committed along with the forces. Politics is far too complicated to come clean since there is the nitty-gritty of engaging enemies to obtain secrets of the enemy under the promise of pardon.
There was this urgent need to wipe out terrorism which has dogged this island for over three decades. But the end of terror should follow a reconciliation and reparative process whereby all communities should be able to co-habit in relative peace and comfort.
North Korea is undergoing a tremendous healing process. Why can’t we?
The clergy have spoken; they were very forthright and they did not mince words. The President should and must listen to the voice of reason or else he can foresee another insurrection and a demise to his Presidency.
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