The villains of the piece have been our politicians who promised their electorates a Sinhala Buddhist State.
by Justice C.V.Wigneswaran, Member of Parliament
It appears the President wants to find solutions to the present impasse in economic matters by discussing it with the members of different Political Parties. I have still not made up my mind whether to participate or not since I have to discuss the matter with my colleagues.
The present economic bankruptcy has been created by the stupid ethnocentric thinking of successive Sinhala majority Governments. I sometime wonder whether the pursuit of the War suited their thanha to make hay when the Sun shined!
The pursuit of the War was unnecessary and costly. It is the ethnocentric activities by the successive ethnocratic Governments which has pushed this Country into this plight. The stock answer by Governments for the perpetration of the War is that the Militants among the Tamils started it. That is not so. It was the discriminatory activities against the Tamils and the pogroms perpetrated against them previously that led to our Youth to take to Arms. Many a Militant was a successful candidate to enter our Universities at the time they took up to Arms. They were engulfed with desire to free their homeland just like the spirit of freedom that blazed in the heart of Keppetipola Dissawe. Keppetipola was a high profile personality respected by the British. If he chose to tread the difficult path of insurrection and violence it was his reaction to the activities of the British and the spirit of freedom blazing in his heart.
Our youth had a moral and legal right to resort to activities that saved their traditional homelands from encroachers and expropriators. The Law recognizes the right of Self Defense! The North Eastern Tamils have a history of their own going behind for over 3000 years. They have a language classified as one of the oldest in the Planet. They have a unique way of life, coming down for centuries. They are entitled to self -determination in terms of Article 1 of the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights(CCPR). Our Youth therefore had a right and obligation to save their traditional homelands and their way of life.
The villains of the piece have been our politicians who promised their electorates a Sinhala Buddhist State. Their erroneous propaganda that this Country always belonged to the Sinhalese and the Tamils were recent immigrants cannot any more hold water due to the excavations made during the last twenty years or so.
They had kept away from their people the fact that the Sinhala language is a recent mixed language fathered by Pali, Tamil, Sanskrit and many a dialect spoken in the Island. There was no Sinhalese language before the sixth and seventh centuries AD. Their first Grammar book Sidath Sangaraya was authored in the 13th Century. The Books they claim to be in Sinhalese were both written in Pali – the Mahawansa and the Atta Katha. The Buddhist remains now claimed as those of the Sinhalese were in fact those left by the Tamil Buddhists (Demala Baudhayo). The Tamils were the people who received Buddhism into the Island. Devanampiya Theesan was a Tamil. So discrimination, violence through pogroms and false history purveyed by the Sinhala Politicians made Tamil youth to take up to arms.
If the War was not pursued we would not have expended such large sums of money which sometimes went up to make one fifth of the Country’s entire Budget. Of course purchase of Armaments was a lucrative business, the promotors becoming the receivers of handsome commissions in foreign currencies.
So it is high time the President and others decided to take the Tamils into their confidence and promoted investments by the Tamil diaspora. It is high time they granted self- government to the Tamils of the North and East. The Tamil diaspora will come forward to help the Government wholeheartedly if a reasonable, plausible solution is found to our ethnic question.
The President has complained in his recent address to the Nation that he inherited the problem and is helpless. He cannot absolve himself of guilt. He is part of the problem himself. He did away with some of the Taxes to help his cronies as soon as he came to power in 2019. His Tax concessions took away Tax Revenue as a percentage of the GDP. He destroyed the income of Farmers by his hurried organic fertilizer project. Statistics show that Covid 19 was not the reason for our foreign currency bankruptcy. A recent Research done by Verite Research refers to the loss of Tax Revenue, inability of the Government to pay back its loans now since this Government paid its Loans so far through our very limited Foreign Exchange Reserves thereby reducing our Reserves by 79%.as causes for our predicament. WE had 4452 Billion dollars to pay in 2021.While other Countries increased their Reserves during the Covid 19 period we depleted our reserves. So Pandemic certainly was not the cause for our Reserves‘ depletion.
Though India has come forward to help us, how far and how long could they do so? The methodology suggested for Reforms for a sustainable recovery is Debt Restructuring returning to a planned orderly default, negotiating as to when we will pay and also receiving the IMF’s help in this regard.
But I doubt our Politicians would act keeping the interests of the People at heart. They are only interested in the next Election if Elections are going to take place at all. If our Politicians in power could jettison their thanha and work for the benefit of our People sincerely, we could certainly go forward with our heads held high. But for that we must cease to be Sinhala Buddhists and Sinhala hegemony must come to an end. The Sinhala politicians chased our Tamils out of this Country. Now many of them are doing very well abroad. Does the present Government have what it takes to say sorry to the Tamils and give back their Rights as a Nation and profit by that, putting an end to the bankruptcy presently faced? As for the War Crimes, Crimes against Humanity and genocide practiced by some so far, let a way be found.
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