England and Sri Lanka’s problem - I

We are victims of the English education we have had received whatever the medium of instruction may be. It is unfortunate there was no change in the substance taught in schools and of course the universities when the medium of instruction was changed to Sinhala and Tamil from English and also when free education was introduced. I myself received the
“best” of this education at school and the university and had the “benefit” of free education up to the post graduate education at an English university through a scholarship offered by the Government of Sri Lanka. I was fortunate to have one of the brilliant Astrophysicists/  Cosmologists, incidentally a McCrea (note the spelling), by the name Prof. Sir William Hunter McCrea who was a Fellow of the Royal Society, London and also had been a President of the Royal Astronomical Society. Thus I have had Royal connections, so to speak of, from the age of eleven to twenty five, and my formative years were spent in an “English” environment.

The late Prof. Sir Bill McCrea was very much different from Calum Macrae of Chanel 4 and loved Sri Lanka. I happened to be his last Ph. D. student and both he and his wife Lady McCrea treated me as a son. I had gone to England to become a theoretical scientist (cosmologist) but very soon I realized that I did not have the capabilities of becoming one, though I was considered as a good student at least by some in Sri Lanka (I must say that most of my university teachers and acquaintances did not and do not think so). About ten years later I found out that in order to become a western scientist one should be able to create knowledge in the Greek Judaic Christian Chinthanaya, which I am not capable of, in spite of my Royal connections. I was not interested in obtaining a Ph. D., not so much as becoming a (western) scientist, and when I realized I could not become a cosmologist I told my teacher Bill McCrea that I would go back to Sri Lanka with a M.Sc., as by that time I had not fulfilled the minimum time requirement of two years for a Ph. D. To my utter surprise he said that I should not go back with only a M.Sc., and took the necessary steps to get the Senate of the University to waive the minimum time requirement for a Ph. D. and allow me to submit for a Ph. D. Then in the late eighties when I had death threats from both the UNP government and the JVP (The UNP thought I was a JVPer, while the JVP was of the view that I was an Indian agent and decorated the walls of the University of Colombo stating so,) he got the Royal Society, London to offer me a fellowship to come to England. I am stating these facts only to show that there are McCreas and Macraes among those English of Scottish origin, and that I have nothing against the English or the Scottish or as they call the British people in general.,

However, the English establishment is a different kettle of fish altogether, and what we saw at the CHOGM in Colombo is only the tip of the iceberg as far as politics, government, governance, knowledge, law, manners, administration, democracy, press freedom, etc. etc. of English establishment is concerned. Unfortunately due to the English education we have received most of us cannot see through the antics. English has given to the world a system of knowledge that would hide all the action behind the screen and portray something else. They pretend to be human rights protectors while violating the human rights of not only the Irish but of others as well. As somebody has said the English ruled the waves, waiving the rules. They know how and when to apply, break, bend or waive the rules depending on the situation. (Somebody would want to find out waiving the rules of the University for me was also one such case!). The English know how to manage a situation to their advantage, which unfortunately the others have no knowledge of.

Consider the behaviour of David Cameron in Sri Lanka. He could not stay away from the CHOGM as he is the Prime Minister of England that was the colonial power before the modern commonwealth was established. However, the CHOGM was the last thing in his mind as he had come here to talk tough to the President. He was there at Nelum Pokuna at the inaugural ceremony taking a seat in a back row (that was good management by the Sri Lankans) probably not to his liking, but soon after went to Jaffna, came back to Colombo and had a press conference, played cricket with Muralitharan and went back home.  He had only one interest that was to talk tough to the Sri Lankan President, which he did. Unfortunately for him the President as expected talked tougher but politely and Medamulna triumphed over Westminster.  Mualitharan not to be outdone bowled a dooshra at Cameron when speaking as a Tamil he said the English Prime Minister has been most probably misled. However, I am sure that he is not misled but he is misleading the Tamils in Sri Lanka and in England. I will come back to this in detail later.

Overall, Cameron behaved like a bull in a Chinashop, and I am not referring to the Nelum Pokuna and BMICH built with Chinese aid. He met about twenty people in Jaffna and thought that it was sufficient for him to know the situation of the Northern Province. Of course he met the TNA leaders including the Chief Minister of the Northern Province but it is clear that the meeting that was held in camera was not to the satisfaction of Anandi the Provincial Council member from the TNA. The twenty odd people if succeeded gave the opinion of Anandi, which is not the same as that of Sambanthan and Wigneshwaran. Sumanthiran though close to the latter would also like to represent the Anandi opinion as well. The important observation is that Cameron threatened to move the so called international community against Sri Lanka to have an investigation on human rights violation during the last stages of the humanitarian operations against the Tamil terrorists (Tamil tigers in the vogue of the English who do not refer to them s terrorists) before he went to Jaffna. He did not come here with a so called open mind, again showing that there are no open minds in spite of what the English education teaches us, and the trip to Jaffna was not necessary for him to make up his mind. 

Then who made up his mind against Sri Lanka, the President, the Defense Secretary and the Sri Lankan armed forces, and the Sinhala people in general? Was it the Channel 4 gang Calum Macrae, Miller and the rest. Did he make up his mind after watching “killing fields”?  No it is the Ugly Englishman behind all these making up of minds. The gang of Channel 4 wanted to go presumably to Killinochci but they were met by protestors at Anuradhapura who stopped the train that carried the gang and they had to return to Colombo through Dambulla. The driver of the van that brought them to Colombo from Anuradhapura had to make a complaint at a police station in order to get his fare paid by the gang of Channel 4. That incident spoke volumes for the respect for the human rights of the driver, which the gang had. If not for the complaint at the police station and the publicity given to it, the gang would have scrounged rupees thirty thousand from the poor driver.

Cameron has not been misled by the gang of Channel 4 or by the dispersed Tamils in England (the so called Diaspora with Biblical connotations) but it is the other way round. The English regime, a word frequently used by Ranil Wickremesinghe, is manipulating the events and the dispersed Tamils in England and Canada, the English and American media in general are being used by Cameron regime against Sri Lanka, the President, the Defense Secretary, the Armed Forces and the Sinhala people in general. Channel 4 is only coming out with Video footage half yearly or so for Cameron to use them against all of us mentioned above. (To be continued)

Nalin De Silva

20-11-2013