In Geneva on Monday Pillay had made a
comment to the effect that they (UN?) would look after those who came to meet
her and gave “evidence” on so called human rights violation in Sri Lanka.
Except for the Jesuit priest who met her in Trincomalee “in camera” outside the
schedule the meetings with all the others were known to the government and
there were no objections by anybody in Sri Lanka including the nationalist
forces for these meetings though they were clearly one sided. The retired South
African Judge listened to the “evidence” but did not want to listen to the
other side of the story. The nationalist forces are not disturbed by the
procedure adopted by the retired judge as they did not expect anything more
than that from her. She behaved neither as a retired judge nor a diplomat and
even then neither the government nor the nationalist forces found it to be
surprising knowing the character of the lady. It is perhaps an irony of history
that South Africa and Sri Lanka are the only two countries in the world that
have adopted, definitely not on their own in the case of Sri Lanka, the Roman
Dutch Law. Though the Sri Lankans are used to listen to the other side of the
story long before the Dutch conquered the maritime provinces of the country,
they did not expect the retired judge to practice a procedure even as laid down
in the Roman Dutch Law. It is also an irony of history that South Africa and
Sri Lanka are the only two countries in the world saddled with the Vellalas
brought down by the Dutch from present South India, and in the former country
the Vellalas do not ask to share sovereignty with the native Africans. In any event the government and the
nationalist forces not only knew who were scheduled to meet Pillay on her
“visit” to Sri Lanka but also what they were going to say on behalf of the
Vellalas pretending of course that they were representing the “Tamil speaking
people” in Sri Lanka that includes the Muslims. The government did not prevent
these people, meeting Pillay and she can rest assured that having known what
they were going to tell the ex judge the government would not violate the human
rights of them after they met her.
There are two types of Tamil racism in
Sri Lanka nurtured by the Dutch and the English. One is naive Tamil racism, the
other being knave Tamil racism. Pillay practices both while the west in general
practices the latter. The TNA and at present the dispersed Tamils in the west
are only the pieces in the paws of the west, Pillay being a paid servant or
labourer who serves the west for a fee. All paid “executives” are merely
glorified labourers who work for a salary. When Pillay raised the question of
the Buddhist flag and the statue of D S Senanayke at the independence square
she exhibited naïve Tamil racism like a child who does things to satisfy the
elders. After all she should have known that Sri Lanka is a Sinhala Buddhist
country, as much as US and South Africa are Christian countries in spite of
what their constitutions may say, though perhaps she may not know that the
Brownrigg who rigged the Sinhala English accord aka the Kandyan convention of
1815 had promised to protect Buddhism in the said accord. She would definitely
not ask Obama why he took the oath with his hand on the Bible and not on the
Dhammapada or Bhagavad Gita not to mention Quran. The naïve Tamil racist in Pillay probably
wants to remove the Senanayaka statue from the independence square as DS
Senanayaka was a Sinhala politician. I do not agree that DS Senanyaka and the
Congress fought for independence of the country and when compared to
Keppitipola, Puran Appu, Gongalegoda Banda, Anagarika Dharmapala and numerous
Bhikkus and lay people who fought for independence after 1815, the congress
leaders were nowhere near. However to question the President on the statue of
Senanayaka merely because the latter was a Sinhala, Pillay had behaved like an
arrogant girl in spite of her age. I am
not at all surprised by the lukewarm response of the UNP on this matter as the
party has always been an agent of the non nationalist forces. Would Pillay
suggest the removal of the statue of Washington or Lincoln or some other
President of USA merely because they were Anglo Saxon Americans? In any event
the questions she asked the President Mahinda Rajapaksa revealed her anti Sinhala
Buddhist stand, and I am grateful to her for asking those questions.
The TNA soon after Pillay left the
country issued what it calls the election manifesto and claims that it is the
manifesto they presented at the elections held in 2010. It may be so but the
election manifestos are mere manifestos and are not presented for ratification
by the people. Even if the TNA receives
90% of the Tamil vote at the Provincial Council elections on the twenty first
they cannot claim it as a mandate from the “Tamil speaking people” to “share
sovereignty”. The manifesto does not specify with whom they intend to “share
sovereignty” and it could be the English. Sharing sovereignty is not in
accordance with the constitution of Sri Lanka and in any event they cannot
share sovereignty or anything for that matter unless the party that they wants
to share with them agree. Can A share B’s house without the latter agreeing?
Like all analogies it is not congruent with “sharing sovereignty” but I think
the message is clear. If they mean to “share sovereignty” with the Sinhalas
then the TNA should forget the whole idea. The Sinhalas would not agree to
“share sovereignty” for many reasons. Foremost the concept is wrong as
sovereignty is with the people as a whole and cannot be shared by groups of
people. The chief ministerial candidate of the TNA Wigneshwaran who wore the
Wig should have known this but it is very likely the “manifesto” was drafted by
the dispersed Tamils in the west. It spells
confederation first and Eelam later according to the “little now more later”
policy of Chelvanayakam of the ITAK (Ceylon Tamil State Party). Incidentally
TNA is contesting under the name ITAK and their symbol.
Even if the TNA (ITAK) polls more than
70% of the Tamil vote in the Northern Province they cannot claim that they have
a mandate from the Tamil speaking people of the country to ‘share sovereignty”
as more than 70% the Tamils and more than 90% the Tamil speaking Muslims live
outside the Northern Province. The TNA knows that there are no grievances of
the Tamils and that is the reason for them to switch to aspirations of Tamils
in the “manifesto” following Kumar Ponnambalam. The so called manifesto is not
for the poor people in the Northern Province but for and by the dispersed Tamils in the west and for England
and other countries in the west. The TNA does not find any fault with
Prabhakaran or the LTTE and with Premachandran talking of arms and Wigneshwaran
projecting Prabhakaran as a hero it is clear what the TNA wants. The TNA that
glorifies Prabhakaran who killed Rajiv Gandhi has keft India in the dark.
Though India supported and trained the LTTE and its terrorists initially, after
the killing of Rajiv Gandhi India changed its stance towards the LTTE. The TNA
those days gave the impression that they had no choice but to support the LTTE
and be proxy in the Parliament due to terror, but it is now abundantly clear
that it was not the case even then as we had repeatedly pointed out. The TNA is
only a tool of the west and it works hand in hand with England, US and other
western countries and the dispersed Tamils in the west. The aspiration of all
these is to weaken if not destroy the Sinhala Buddhist culture and Chinthanaya
and they would be happy to use the Muslims also in this regard. It is mainly a
case of the west using Vellalas against the Sinhalas by the western forces. The
west if everything else fails would supply arms mainly to the non Vellala
Tamils again and send them to the battle field to fulfill their aspirations.
The west is making use of Darusman
report, Pillay reports, channel four video footage and everything that is
produced by them against the Sinhala people. Darusman talked of 40,000 people
killed in the last stages of the humanitarian operations without an iota of
evidence based on myths created by the dispersed Tamils. Now the TNA in their
“manifesto” has raised it to 70,000 people and very soon it will reach the
figure 100,000. The government should ignore all these reports and footage
produced without giving any evidence and concentrate on uniting the people to
fight the Vellalas and their masters in the west who have brought nothing but
misery to the poor Tamils as well as others in the country. In the meantime we await the response of
India to the “manifesto” of the TNA.
Nalin De Silva
11-09-2013