Now what is the record of the western countries as far as reconciliation is concerned. Do the Afro Americans enjoy the same privileges as the European Americans? Obama follows the white Anglo Saxon Christian culture irrespective of the colour of his skin and he is only a token just as much the Afro American characters in the USA television shows are there to show the world that the blacks are enjoying very high standards of life. Can Robert Blake come with statistics on poverty lines with respect to the African Americans and European Americans? What is the percentage of poor people among the blacks? In England can one see a Welsh word on the roads despite the fact that the Welsh had been living there before the Norman invasion? How did the English reconcile with the Welsh and the Scotts in so called Britain and with the Irish in the UK? Of course they allowed Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wild to write in English thus contributing to that language rather than to Irish. In more than one way Shaw and Wild were used (kade yaveema) by the English for the benefit of the latter at the expense of Irish, perhaps in the name of reconciliation. Did any Englishman except for academic purposes learn any of the languages Welsh, Irish or Scottish in the name of reconciliation? In USA it is worse. What happened to the languages spoken by the Afro Americans? Are they spoken in the homes of Afro Americans? Then we come to the so called Red Indians. What were the steps taken by the Anglo Saxons who followed the pilgrims to reconcile with the natives, after poisoning the wells of the latter and massacring them through other means as well? The Sinhala people do not want any Tamil writer to publish in Sinhala ignoring Tamil and of course vice versa. The use of Tamil by Tamils have to be encouraged facilitating them to learn Sinhala if they wish. Similarly for the Sinhalas and the recommendation by the LLRC to make Sinhala and Tamil compulsory for all Sri Lankans in the name of reconciliation is not only meaningless but would create an antagonism among Sinhalas and Tamils. LLRC also wants the national anthem to be sung simultaneously which again is a meaningless exercise. Let the National Anthem be sung in Sinhala as it is, without following Ashraff of the SLMC who first advocated this racist idea. This is a continuation of the English policy of appointing one Sinhala and one Tamil to the legislative assembly without considering the demography, history and the culture of the country. In any event it is not clear what is meant by singing simultaneously since if the National Anthem is sung in two languages at the same time it would create only a noise and not any meaningful utterance. Perhaps the LLRC could not decide on the language in which the National Anthem had to be sung first.
I do not talk of double standards of the west as I feel that they have only one policy. That is to propagate their hegemony. The war crimes in Japan (Hiroshima Nagasaki) in Vietnam (My Lai) in Iraq and the latest in Afghanistan are forgotten with a “sorry” from the President of the USA. In Sri Lanka the west insists on punishing Sri Lanka for crimes not committed as they want to punish the Sinhala people and their culture again in order to maintain the hegemony of the Judaic Christian culture. We do not have to be afraid of the western forces who are now on the decline after more than five hundred years of world domination, and we have to concentrate on the Anti west block and also on uniting the people against possible economic sanctions and NATO aggressions. We have to be prepared for any eventuality, and we have to be self sufficient in many food items as we have achieved in rice. It would be much better if we can do this without depending on agrochemicals of the west, which in any event add poison to our soil. There are people who can advise the government on alternative “govikama” but unfortunately they have not had the best English education and the government is not prepared to listen to Sanga, Veda, Guru, Govi, Kamkaru which has become only rhetoric after 1956. Regarding so called war crimes many people including the members of the LLRC forget that long before the terms human rights and war crimes were coined by the westerners not because of any humanity but for political reasons to suppress the non westerners, King Gemunu had been contemplating on the people died in the war. Our armed forces have carried on these traditions and they have treated the “enemy” with much respect looking after the families of LTTE cadres killed in the operations. We are guided by our traditions and the LLRC should not have forgotten the example set by King Gemunu when he treated the dead body of Elara with utmost respect. The Sinhalas had not been like Maghas or Cholas or Portuguese, Dutch or English and there is no record of massacring people who lived in Anuradhapura after that city was taken by the forces of King Gemunu. Our present armed forces have followed this tradition in looking after the parents of Prabhakaran and the families of other LTTE leaders and other terrorists who died during the humanitarian operations.
I think the mandate given to the LLRC is not complete. The government instead of requesting the commissioners to inquire and report on facts and circumstances which led to the failure of the ceasefire agreement operationalized on 21st February, 2002, should have requested the LLRC of course with members from Sanga Veda Guru Govi Kamkaru as well, to inquire and report on facts and circumstances that led to the signing of the so called ceasefire agreement, and also on the crimes committed by the LTTE against humanity to use a phrase familiar to the west, and also on those here as well as abroad who directly, indirectly, tacitly or otherwise aided and abetted the LTTE to fight to establish a separate state in some parts of Sri Lanka, and also helped the LTTE directly or indirectly to engage in crimes against humanity. The government should appoint another commission not in the tradition of Colebrook and Cameron, but with members from Sanga Veda Guru Govi Kamkaru as well, with a wider mandate to report on these activities including those by the nations, the NGOs which are nothing but instruments of western colonialism established after the African countries were given limited independence in the sixties, the clergy of various churches (how can we forget the Bishop who talked of humanitarianism of Prabhakaran), and until the report of that commission is released no decision should be taken on the implementation of the report of the LLRC, which has acted on wrong assumptions. I am not questioning them on inquiring into the history of the so called ethnic problem which I think is within their mandate, but acting with preconceived ideas on the so called ethnic problem. When I went before the commission on their invitation I made it a point to present my facts to show that there was no ethnic problem as such. However, after I finished with my submissions I was told by one of the commissioners that though my presentation was logical they had to give something. It was clear that the commission was thinking of giving something to the Vellalas and the westerners who had trained the former, and I thought my effort and time had been wasted. If my presentation was logical and factual and they could not find any fault with what I said the logical step would have been to act after considering my views. It was clear that they were guided by the sentiments created by the myths propagated by the English and their Vellala agents and some of the recommendations stem from these pre conceived ideas. The commission specifically states that the grievances of the Tamil community has been a root cause for the ethnic conflict, and I challenge this statement. The problem in this country is depriving the Sinhalas, especially the Sinhala Buddhists and their culture their due place.
It is statements like that and some recommendations by the LLRC that the west wants to bank on in their attempt to control us, and we should never give into their attempts. It is true that the LLRC was appointed by the government, but that does not imply that the government has to implement all their recommendations. Let us appoint the commission I have suggested above and let the government after considering the recommendations of both commissions decide on what recommendations have to be implemented. The so called war crimes taken together with grievances of the Tamils give the western powers room to use the Tamils dispersed in their countries (the word diaspora itself is used with Biblical connotations to mislead people and attract their sympathy), which is their creation against the Sinhala people, the way they used the English speaking Vellalas in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and the government has to be careful in giving a pardon to Sarath Fonseka, who initiated the white flag story. It is he and not Ranil Wickremesinghe whom the west wants to use as the leader of the puppet government after toppling the present government, and the government should make sure that Fonseka if given a pardon is not used by the American state department.
The maha sangha have answered the westerners in the Buddhist tradition with Poojas , peace walks etc., not to fight against the westerners but to extend compassion to the western leaders ho are responsible for decisions against Sri Lanka to destabilize the country in order to form another government. The latest in this series is a Sathyakriya commencing on Wednesday the 21st in front of the Fort Railway station by the maha sangha led by Ven. Bengamuwe Nalaka Thero in order to “bless” the western leaders with compassion and wisdom. The maha sangha have formulated the concept of national rights as against human rights and consider the former to take precedence over the latter. More details of this concept will be discussed in these columns.
Copyright Prof. Nalin De Silva