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Friday 2 May 2014

NPC on the wrong path


From day one the two factions in the TNA have been competing with each other to win the support of the dispersed Tamils in the western countries. It is true that the dispersed Tamils who were educated largely at the expense of the Sinhala tax payers have an economic clout with respect to the voters in the Northern Province. The dispersed Tamils help their relatives in the Northern Province economically, and the former have been able to dictate their views to the latter using this economic power. However, it is not a phenomenon that is going to last for long and if the two factions of the TNA think of competing for the sympathy of the dispersed Tamils then they are mistaken. The government should take steps to break the nexus between the dispersed Tamils and their relatives in the Northern Province by improving the economic conditions of the latter.  

The dispersed Tamils in turn are being used by the western powers led by England but their days are numbered. The western powers are powerless when the majority of people support an elected government, and Ven. Sobhitha Thero, Ranil, Chandrika, Sarath Fonseka or Anura Kumara or even a popular cricketer are weak candidates to challenge President Mahinda Rajapakse. Ven. Sobhitha Thero would end up as an also ran and Anura Kumara knows that he is not capable of giving a fight to the President. The JVP has already said that it is willing to support any candidate to defeat the President. Sarath Fonseka has said recently that he will get the support of the UN to topple this government. However, it is only rhetoric by a person who does not understand politics. Such statements work against him, and only those “nationalistic” political parties without a vision but with equal rhetoric would be excited by such statements. Both Ranil and Chandrika would be losing candidates at the presidential elections, and the only common candidate we have at present is Mahinda Rajapakse.

The dispersed Tamils in general are not from affluent families unlike the Vellalas who were the darlings of the English in the past, and the affluent have been able to send the former to “war” against the Sinhalas, with the support of the western powers. However, in the meantime the affluent Vellalas are gradually withdrawing from active politics confining themselves to indirect politics through NGOs and religious groups. It is ironical that a problem of the affluent Vellalas has been passed on to not so affluent, and the latter are fighting against the Sinhala on behalf of the former. In this regard there are a few Sinhala NGO and religious group activists who are mainly either non Buddhist or various types of Marxists who are with the Tamil racists against the Sinhala people. These people are given publicity by media though they do not have any base among the people. If not for the media nobody other than those who finance them would have herd of them, and would have died a natural death.

The media do not reflect the ground situation and the western powers make use of media reports for their propaganda against the government. However media politics through so called press statements and press interviews do not carry weight during elections as has been shown over and over again in the past decades, and the western powers will not be able to find a candidate to defeat the President. Under such conditions their dreams of various springs following the Arab Spring would not materialize, and the TNA could go on passing resolutions at the Northern Province Provincial Council meetings without affecting the government.

It is clear from the Gopi Appan Theiveegan incident that the dispersed Tamils with the backing of the western countries are trying to resurrect the LTTE if possible. The fact that the NGOs and other religious activists were not able to deny such resurrection and claim that Gopi, Appan and Theiveegan were only creations of the government gives ample testimony to the government statement. If there was even the slightest possibility of denying the incident the NGOs and the religious activists would have gone to town with cooked up evidence claiming that Gopi and others were innocent people. The western governments attempted to question the Gopi, Appan and Theiveegan incident but had to give up as it was proved beyond any doubt that Theiveegan had been one of the leaders of the resurrection of the LTTE movement. Theiveegan after fleeing Vavunia, Sri Lanka had been living in the west and some Asian countries and the million dollar question is as to who the financiers of the resurrection movement.

It is in this context that the decision by the government to ban sixteen organisations operating abroad becomes important. Together with the ban hundreds of “wanted people” have been named by the government. These “wanted people” have had connections with the LTTE or involved in resurrecting terrorist activities and if the western countries are genuinely against terrorism they should help the Sri Lankan government and extradite the relevant personnel without allowing the terrorists to use their soil to organise terrorist activities against the Sinhala people in Sri Lanka.

The Provincial Council of the Northern Province has adopted a resolution to the effect that the ban of the sixteen organisations should be lifted. This is under the influence of the dispersed Tamils who act on instructions by the western countries and. It is clear that in the final analysis it could be said that the NPC is acting in the interests of the western countries and not in the interests of the Tamils in the Northern Province. The Tamils in the Northern Province who celebrated the T-20 world cup victory by the Sri Lankan cricket team would soon realise that the NPC is representing the western countries and not them.

There are some people who talk of a “kumanthranaya” (coup) by the western countries when they mention the so called ethnic problem. It is not a “kumanthranaya” as such and coming out with “kumanthrana” stories would not help us to understand political phenomena. There is no “kumanthranaya” as such but it is a policy the west, especially England, has been following from the very beginning to weaken, if not destroy the Sinhala Buddhist culture or Sinhala Buddhism. This has been done through education and also by preparing an elite Tamil group to be the leaders of the country.

The Tamil leaders kept away the Tamils from the independence struggle and it was left only to the common Sinhala people, especially the Sinhala Buddhists to fight for independence from the very beginning. The irony is that the Tamil Vellala leaders consider the Sinhalas to be colonial powers much worse than the English (The English were not considered to be colonials by the elite Sinhalas and the elite Tamils who had the ‘best’ of the colonial education) and have driven the common Tamils to fight against the Sinhala people. It was not for nothing that the LTTE was involved in killing Bhikkus in Arantalawa and innocent people in many other areas and also for the attacks on Dalada Maligawa and Sri Maha Bodhi. The TNA leaders to date have not condemned these attacks and they could make a start by denouncing vehemently the attacks, instead of asking the government of Sri Lanka to lift the ban of the sixteen organisations. If the TNA continues to adopt an anti Sinhala pro western policy and lead the Provincial Council of the Northern Province along a path dictated by the dispersed Tamils who are guided by the western countries then the writing is on the wall for both factions of the TNA. 



Nalin De Silva

02-05-2014