Wednesday 20 July 2011

Importance of the 23 July, Local Government Elections in the North and East

The elections in the North and the East set for the 23rd July would be a deciding factor for  Sri Lanka’s future development, progress and un-interfered existence as a unitary Nation.   

For 30 years the North and East of Sri Lanka had remained in a state of paralysis  while the world around advanced forward. Now that the terrorism that had put the people of the North and East  into a mental stagnation for 30 years has been eliminated, the Tamil people of these  two Provinces  have   to be awakened to actively participate in  the present post terrorist development process. 

The claim of a political devolution to the people of North and East, and that they should be  given their rights to develop separately, is to keep them imprisoned in the mental set up  forced upon them by  the  terrorists. 

Terrorist wanted a separate Tamil Homeland, separated from the rest of the country. Now with the elimination of terrorism the Tamil people of the North and East have to be emancipate from this  mental stalemate, and brought into a process of development along side the rest of the country.

This process of emancipation requires a new way of thinking. The Tamil People of the North and East have to be made to think differently from a strictly ethnic stand point, and taught to appreciate the fact that there is “no majority or minority” distinction as the President of Sri Lanka announced clear and loud immediately after the elimination of terrorism.  

The future of the Tamil people of North and East is now along side the other communities –the Sinhalese, the Muslim, Burghers , Malays and the rest in the whole of Sri Lanka.  The development of North and East is along with the South, and not separated from the South. 

The resettlement of the IDPs in their former villages does not mean that they  should be allowed to continue to  live the way they lived  before they were displaced, with their age old we  Tamil mindset  of the North and East.  But they have now to be taught to think differently as Sri Lankans, a part of  a Nation of Sri Lankans.

That is a new concept, freed from the concept of a Tamilness  they had been made to accept for the last thirty years by the terrorists.   This huge task of taking people from the old  to the new way of thinking cannot be done by the Tamil political parties.  The TNA and Ananadasangarees are living  with their thirty year old political concepts, and they cannot  help the people of North and East to break away from the old political shackles,  and fall head long  into a different development processes that is going on, along with the rest of the Communities.

The  anti Sri Lankan Western Countries lead by  UK,USA, France, the  pro-terrorist Tamil expatriates, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International ,  UNO’s Ban Ki Moon, UNCHR Navineetham Pillai and the rest of the crowd have not thought of this need to bring  the  Tamil people  of the North and East into the  new   remarkable progressive development programs undertaken by the Government under the President Mahinda Rajapakse.


Their continued demand  to  give the Tamil people of the North and East a separate development program is not to help these people but to separate them from the main political stream  isolating them in the process, and in doing so handicap the development projects that have been started.

The President of Sri Lanka Mr.Mahinda Rajapakse, is a man  who has very progressive ideas  claiming himself  to be the  President of the whole Nation of People .  He is a determined man, who eliminated terrorism when every one  including the powerful nations  said that terrorism cannot be eliminated militarily. 

He had thought out with wisdom, that giving the Tamil people, language rights is a step towards separating them from the rest of the communities.  Therefore, he promoted the idea of developing English education , at the same time requesting the public servants to learn both the Tamil and  the Sinhala languages.  He built close relations with different religions  to stop cultural segregation.  He developed the transport system to bring the people of the South and the North closer.

Despite all these progressive undertakings of the President Mahinda Rajapakse, ever since he was elected he had been continuously criticized , accused and barriers put before him to dampen his enthusiasm, and make failures of his courageous undertakings.  Nevertheless, in the face of  all that opposition he has been  able to trace a path of hope for the people as a whole without communal, religious, or cultural bias.

Unfortunately in spite of these progressive activities,  in the  previous elections, the Tamil people of the North and East mislead by the  Tamil politicians of the TNA, did not show their support for  the progressive policies of  the President Mahinda Rajapaksa by voting for the candidates of  the UPFA.

That refusal of the Tamil people of the North and East  to vote for  candidates put forward by the  political party  which represent the President,  despite their having suffered under terrorism, was taken by those Western Countries opposed to the President and his government as a proof of  the Tamil peoples’ rejection of the Government of the President Mahinda Rajapakse.

Everyone comes out with different sorts of accusations against the government, and makes proposals that are out dated and outmode.  They are  not to help the Tamil people but to distance them from the Government and  keep the Tamil people out of the development process of the country. 

There are those who want the implementation of the 13 Amendment to the Constitution as if that would be the end of all problems of the Tamil people.  The 13 Amendment was proposed in 1987, but Sri Lanka has evolved since then.  The terrorism which was the reason for the proposal of the 13 Amendment, is now non existent and therefore  the 13th Amendment , which was proposed to solved the problems that existed then , is not useful to solve the present day problems of the Tamil people.


Those age old proposals of Chelvanayagam , Ponnambalam , Sundaralingam at al  to solve ethnic problems are out dated now.  therefore those solutions proposed by the ancient politicians should be replaced with new proposals not with an eye to keep the Tamil people separated, but to bring them in to the main political stream, where they should  bury their ethnic difference, to join hands with all communities for  a common goal of making Sri Lanka a Unitary Sovereign State.

JVP,TNA or even UNP have not come out with political solutions to a country which is fast developing .  The Government of the President Mahinda Rajapakse has done commendable effort to develop the infrastructure of the country from Dondra to Point Pedro. The North and East are being developed to bring them in line with the South.  The garment exports which the opponents of the government claimed would be lost after  the EU withdrew G+ trade concessions have regained the lost  markets and are showing increased sales.

These have been made possible by the policies planned according to the Mahinda Chinthana of the Government.  The Tamil people of the North and East to profit from these surging development of financial, economic, and social activities of the country should join hands with the government , by placing their complete confidence on the President Mahinda Rajapakse and his Government. 

That confidence of the Tamil people of the North and  East has become imperative to keep away the anti Sri Lanka Governments of the West from interfering into Sri Lanka’s affairs.

The Tamil diaspora which is spending billions of Dollars  paying foreign Senators, Attorneys, Media etc., to keep alive the Terrorist LTTE , has not so far spent a “cent” for the welfare of the Tamil people of the North and East. 

All the allegations against the Sri Lanka Government Armed Forces, and threat to take them before a tribunal for war crimes being made by the Ban Ki Moon with his Darusman Report, UNHCHR Navi Pillai with the Channel 4 video footages, Hillary Clinton with her uncalled for advice as to how Sri Lanka should look after its IDPs, are the result of the failure of the Tamil people of the North and East to place their confidence in the government of the President Mahinda  Rajapakse.

Therefore it is important that the Tamil people of the North and East take these facts into consideration and vote on the 23 July,2011 for the candidates of the UPFA to show their  solidarity with the Government of the President Mahinda Rajapakse.






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