It is five years since the Sri Lankan armed
forces defeated the LTTE. It was possible due to the commitment of and
sacrifices made by the armed forces, the political leadership given by the
President, the efficient direction by the Defense Secretary and of course the
wholehearted support given by the vast majority of the Sinhala masses. The
victory was achieved in spite of the opposition from the UNP whose leaders
ridiculed the forces, their victories with insults such as Thoppigala is only a
forest and Pamankada Alimankada talks, the NGOs financed by foreign countries
and organizations, the so called peace negotiators who were against “war” (it
was not a war as we have mentioned very often and it was only an operation
against the terrorists. Only bankrupt journalists called it a war giving it serial
numbers as well, without realizing that they should have called the operations
against the JVP also war to be consistent. However consistency is not the
hallmark of Sri Lankan educated people and their so called concepts are no
better than the concepts of the politicians) ,
but did not take any action against the LTTE that sent children to war
with cyanide capsules, the western countries and India who did not want the Sri
Lankan forces to be victorious, those who “theorized” on conflict resolution
without defeating the terrorists, the intellectuals, especially the social
scientists who taught that “war” is not for the Buddhists who had betrayed
Buddhism, the clergy of some religious sects who told us that Prabhakaran was a
humane person and those who could not see anything good of the nationalist
movement etc., etc.
However, it has to be mentioned that
even the majority in the nationalist movement were against “war” until very
late. I remember in early nineties when I was the editor of the first tabloid
in Sinhala in recent times, three of the present cabinet ministers contributed
to the paper and they were all against “war”. They were supported by elements
in the tabloid sympathetic to the JVP, as at least one of the cabinet ministers
mentioned above, and finally all united and got rid of me as the editor
claiming that I was a “war monger”. The political movement of one of the three
cabinet ministers was responsible for posters against “war” in Colombo.
It was a lone battle for just a few of
us to agitate to convince the government that the LTTE could be and should be
defeated through armed operations. We were only echoing the opinion of the vast
majority of the Sinhala masses and gradually some in the nationalist movement
who saw an “illuma” or a mine were converted to the stand that had been taken
by us. The government of Chandrika Kumaratunga had only contempt for us and her
late husband who had gone to Chennai to meet the terrorists did not consider us
as any challenge to his policies that were not Sinhala Buddhist friendly.
However, in spite of pundits in media who were influenced by some form of
Marxism, Liberalism not to mention various editions of post modernism and post
Marxism, and who thought that they were peace makers, forgetting that they were
money makers as well selling peace, the masses who said silently that the
terrorists should be defeated won finally and the political parties had either
to listen to the silent masses or be pushed to the side lines. The UNP has
chosen the second alternative and the Marxist parties in the government have
come over to the masses for the “war” though they are still against Sinhala
nationalism.
Though the government was able to defeat
the LTTE the Tamil racism continues to be alive thanks to the western countries
who are led by England. If not for England there would not have been a Canada
or USA supporting Tamil racism, and definitely there would not have been a
Solheim. It is clear that Solheim though a Norwegian and a minister of Norway for
sometime was representing England more than Norway. Today Solheim is not a
minister, but he continues to play his
Tamil racist cards from London. In fact it appears that Solheim has no
other politics at present, and whenever London wants him to make a statement he
obliges echoing his master’s voice.
It is a struggle between Sri Lanka and
England and sooner the government understands this position it is good for the
health of the country as well as the government. Those who opposed the “war”,
including the UNP and the peace vendor ‘intellectuals”, think that the government has failed to solve
some problem that they call the ethnic problem though the LTTE was defeated.
They have no right to criticize the government for failing to solve their
imagined problem as it is clear that they were working according to a plan to weaken
the Sinhala Buddhist culture, a project initiated by the English in the early
nineteenth century. If the UNP was in power by this time Prabhakaran would have
become the Prime Minister of a separate country and the rest of Sri Lanka would
have been in a chaotic situation resembling Sudan.
It is clear that the so called
minorities have a problem in Sri Lanka. They do not want the constitution to
state the Buddhism would be protected thus giving Buddhism a significant place
that is not enjoyed by other religions. Buddhism as stated here is more a
culture than a religion and even the English promised to protect Buddhism in
the Sinhala English pact they signed in 1815 with the Sinhala leaders. The
English did so for the simple reason that by that time they would have
realisedthat they could not capture the whole of Sri Lanka through war and the
only way to do so was by means of English diplomacy headed by D’oyly,
apparently a name introduced after the 1066 invasions of England. D’oyly was a
Cambridge educated person and Oxford and Cambridge had been the pillars on
which the English empire was built, though our Oxbridge scholars continue to
worship their alma maters. D’oyly was able to hoodwink not only the unsuspecting
Sinhala lay leaders but the Bhikkus as well and the Sinhala English pact was
destined to be breached on the very first opportunity available to the English.
However, after two hundred years we know more about English diplomacy though
the Oxbridge Sri Lankans may not have learnt anything due to the brainwashing
they have to go through at these “August” Christian institutions.
Whether it is in
England USA or Canada it is the Anglo Saxon Christian culture that dominates
and there is no country in the world that the cultures are treated equally.
Even in Singapore, an artificial country without a history, some kind of
Chinese culture is the dominant culture, as anybody who has visited that
country would have realised. Though the individuals are treated equal in all
these countries at least nominally, cultures are not dealt similarly. However,
in Sri Lanka the so called minorities want cultures to be treated equal and
erase the Sinhala Buddhist mark associated with the country. The “minorities”
work in different ways and there are some sophisticated non Sinhala Buddhists
who unlike the crude “intellectuals” who criticize the government for not
solving the “ethnic” problem would “take fire under the water” (diya yatin gini
gena yema). It was only the other day I listened to a non Buddhist cabinet
minister talking on the virtues of non Buddhists supporting the Buddhists to
organize a perahera (procession) so that it could be a national event. What
this sophisticated minister was trying to was to erase the Buddhist
characteristics by giving his support to the Buddhists. Buddhists would tolerate
these ‘foreign aid” provided that the Buddhist cultural significance is not
eradicated.
The government
should not take notice of criticism by those who opposed the “war” for not
solving the “ethnic problem” as they have hidden agenda not explicitly stated.
Instead the government should understand that if not for England there is no so
called ethnic problem in Sri Lanka and should work out a plan to defeat England
in the next few years standing firmly up to the pressure exerted by the enemies
of the country both internal and external. The LTTE could be defeated because
the government was able to withstand the western pressure exerted through
“intellectuals” NGO s and other agents of the west.
Nalin De Silva
16-05-2014