A reply to Sampanthan who went to Toronto to say, “ ….we cannot trust The Government of Sri Lanka «

(In Toronto while Sampanthan set aflame  hatred  of expatriate Tamils against  Government, Vasudeva Nanayakkara pleaded  for peace and reconciliation .)


Did you see Sampanthan and his cronies since their visit to USA and Canada ? They  are dressed up like Englishmen, in coats and ties.

Sampanthan went to Toronto in Canada, and on the 30 October,2011 made a long speech to a gathering of expatriate Tamils at the Sri Iyappan Temple Auditorium. It was a speech to the expatriate Tamils in Canada to inflame their anger and hatred against  the Government of Sri Lanka and the Majority he does not mention by name.

What was strange reading that speech (appearing in Transcurrent) is that he has mentioned the word “Sinhalese”  only once in his speech, referring to “them” as the Majority. In that one occasion he says, “We consider Sinhalese as our brothers and sisters. Many are ready for a just solution. A just, implementable and lasting solution should be found. But, I would like to make it clear that if such a solution was not put forwarded, we will not accept any other mirage of a solution »

In contrast to  the speech of Samapanthan   to the Expatriate Tamils in Canada was a public Meeting hosted by the Canadian Sri Lankan Community mainly expatriate Sinhala and attended by Mr.Sam Rajendran of the Canadian Tamil Cultural Association,  at which  the Minister  of National Languages and Social Integration Vasudeva Nanayakkara, pleaded for peace and reconciliation  to heal the wounds of past conflicts.

However, in Canada Sampanthan mixed up the histories.  Sri Lanka is a country with a longer history  and a richer culture than  Canada.  Even the name Canada came to be used some where in 1545. 

The name Canada is derived from  Kanata the name of a small Indian village, which  Jacque Cartier borrowed and  vulgarised   to Canada, using  it as the name  of the areas  occupied by the French and later when the French ceded their conquests to the English, the whole of the area occupied by the French and the English was called Canada.

The British expelled the French settlers as and when they occupied the  respective areas. However, some of the pioneer French settlers remained,  most of them in Quebec and others in Manitoba, Ontario etc.  Canada became Independent only in 1982. 

The land they call “Canada “ was occupied by the aborigine Indians who were massacred by the invading British and the French, and now not even mentioned making the Canadians of today made to be the owners of the land . 

Sampanthan’s  mixing up was in trying to draw parallels to Sri Lanka saying « In Canada, two major ethnic groups, who speak different languages have been living in different parts of the country. These are people who speak English and French languages. They have self- rule in their respective areas where they live. »

[ Sampanthan forgets the aborigines. If things had been left for invaders to decide Sinhala would also have suffered the same fate of the Canadian aborigines]

The  Canadian Languages act of  1974 extended as a Charter did not give self rule, though the later Quebec Act gave the French in the Province of Quebec the right to preserve their language, the Religion and the French System of Civil law.   But no self rule has been given to any of the Canadian states.

This man Sampanthan still speaks with his master terrorist Prabhakaran’s voice.  He is not a patriotic Sri Lankan despite his having got the votes of the poor Tamil people duping them, playing into their sentimental attachment to their  birth right of being Tamil. 

In Sri Lanka, the Tamils came in as marauders, plunderers, and invaders.  Elara came at a time Sri Lanka was politically unstable and militarily weak, and settled down  to build a kingdom.  None of them came with any love to Sri Lanka. Thereafter  it was the English colonialist who brought in Tamils from Madras to work in the coffee plantations and thereafter the  tea plantations.  There were no Tamil settlements in ancient Sri Lanka .

Despite the way they intruded in to Sri Lanka the Sinhala people had accepted and adopted those Tamils that settled down in Sri Lanka as the people of the country.

Therefore, they cannot claim parity with the Sinhala as of right.  It is up to the Sinhala, the Muslim and other communities to accept them as a  Community among others..

If Sampanthan pretends to  be a Sri Lankan,  he would not go to Canada to say «  we cannot trust the Sri Lanka Government. » .  He is more a patriot of TamilNadu, roped in by  Prabhakaran to spy for him.
Sadly Sampanthan and his clique of TNA MPs are today posing as the  representatives of the poor Tamil people in the North and East of Sri Lanka , having fooled  them to  place their trust in him and his cohorts.  If he has a problem with the Government of Sri Lanka it is with the people of Sri Lanka he has to start a dialogue  to  get the government to settle differences, not by going to USA, Canada or Delhi.

I would not like to reply to Sampanthan as I did to Anandasangaree who is  at least free from blood stains of  terrorism.  But Sampanthan has the blood stains of terrorism all over him.  That is why he was received by the expatriate terrorist front organisations in Canada. For them he is acceptable with the blood smell of terrorism coming from him, and his poison imbibed  language reminding  them of the terrorism they aided and abetted in Sri Lanka.

Sampanthan  says, « ..We have been struggling for this right for a long period of time. No one can deny this. However, so far, the Sri Lankan government has not come forward or agreed to grant these rights to us. »  The point is these terrorist proxi Sambanthan  thinks Sri Lanka is Canada  and the Tamils and Sinhala  have conquered Sri Lanka like the French and the English conquered Canada.  Therefore, they should share the language rights .

Sampanthan and the TNA MPs have to wake up to reality and think of other ways to solve the “ethnic problem” they have created in their minds, it is not so easy as it had been in Canada. 

As far as the ordinary Tamil people are concerned, they have been given all  the rights and priviledges the people of other Communities have been given. They can now even correspond with the government in their language and receive replies in their language. The children can go to any school or University.   They can apply for government jobs, for service in the Police Force,  the Armed Forces or the Navy.  They have the political right to vote for any one they want, or refuse to vote if they so wish.

But Sampanthan and his TNA goons are not satisfied with  that.  They want a separate provinces for Tamils.  They want police and land powers given to the Provincial Councils in the North and East. 

But they are neglecting  the people who had voted for them to represent them in the Parliament. Some of these people in distant villages in Baticaloa still have no modern facilities.  They have no one to appeal to get better living conditions. But Sampanthan and the TNA have no time to dabble in small matters concerning the ordinary people.  They are more interested in political power for themselves, and work for that end  by discrediting the Government of Sri Lanka in foreign countries.

 Sampanthan had spoken in Toronto, about  the  Bandaranaike-Chelvanayakam agreement of 1957, and the  1965 Dudley-Chelvanayakam agreement, and argued that these agreements were signed especially to protect and to preserve the northeastern parts, as the Tamils’ traditional land. 

Sampanthan and TNA are still living in the past.  These Pacts and Agreements are  now the past history, those things have no more value since Sri Lanka came through the worst period of  30 years of suffering under the most vicious terrorism, where not only the Tamils but the Sinhala, Muslim and the rest of the Communities equally went through untold fear and suffering. 
Now we have to look at Sri Lanka and its different Communities in a new light, and the future of Sri Lanka should be moulded differently  from what it had been in the past, so that future will not once again end up being what it had been during the past thirty years.

This new phase of development is the renaissance of Sri Lanka.  After  terrorism the people of different Communities cannot claim special rights and priviledges, as none of the Communities could now live isolated from one another. 

There should be a renunciation of special priviledges in the interest of the country as a whole with out differentiating the people communally.  There should instead be a willingness for a  communal integration to form a multicultural Nation, where all rights, priviledges, wealth and amenities are shared  by all as a Nation , but not as  separate Communities.

Sampanthan says, « … They agreed that Tamils in the Northeast have been living as a majority in these areas for a long period of time and this fact must be respected. However, the present leaders of the country think other wise. They think that there is only one solution to overcome this issue. That is that Tamil’s identity should not be accepted…. »  

He had chosen these words  to inflame anger and hatred against the Government and the Sinhala people in the minds of the expatriate  Tamils in Canada, who unfortunately knows nothing of the suffering the Tamil civilians underwent , and the heroic part played by the Sri Lanka Armed Forces to rescue them from  the hardship they were made to suffer by the terrorists.

Sampanthan of course  would not  praise the humanitarian services rendered  to the Tamil civilians by the Soldiers of the Sri Lanka Armed Forces during the military operations against terrorism, but he was instead using  “ poison coated ” words to disparage  the Armed Forces,  to get the sympathy of his Toronto Tamil listeners for himself  and his TNA as the legitimate heirs of the Sri Lanka terrorism.
He was trying to promote himself  and the TNA as the saviours of the Tamil people and become the  natural  heirs to the generous largess of the expatriate Tamil Community in Canada, USA and UK  extended to the terrorists. So that he and his TNA cronies could  continue  their « war » against the Government and the Sinhala and to set up a Tamil Homeland  which the expatriate Tamils love to have, with their questionable  yearning to Sri Lanka.

Having thus prepared the ground Sampanthan now  appeals to the expatriate Tamils, “ We firmly believe that our people, specially the Diaspora Tamils will offer their support to our efforts. Your large gathering here shows one thing, that although you are living abroad, you haven’t forgotten your land of origin and your villages. You haven’t forgotten your brethren. You should never forget them. You should come back. You should help the people living there at the right time. You should try to uplift them.”
Sampanthan has now  a new theory which he puts to the expatriate Tamils to win them on to his side and keep their  hatred focused on the Sri Lanka Government and the Sinhala people. He says that there are  one million Tamils living in foreign countries, and  the thinking of the government of Sri Lanka  is that,  if it denies the Tamil people a peaceful coexistence  the rest of the Tamil people will also leave the country thus removing the ethnic problem. 

What a naive way of putting things to bring in the expatriate Tamils who he has taken for fools  to  accept his loony theory ?

He had said, « Now, almost one million Tamils are living out side of Sri Lanka. They live in India, Europe, North America, Australia and various other countries. Same way, they think, if the rest of the Tamils in Sri Lanka can be sent out or if the peaceful co-existence in Sri Lanka can be denied, then their demands will disappear. That’s why Sri Lankan government is accelerating its efforts to change the demography in Tamil’s traditional lands. »

Sampanthan Defended the LTTE terrorism when he said , “….We talk broadly about the recently ended war in May 19, 2009. In fact, the violence against the Tamils started in the year of 1956. It continued in the years of 1958, 1961, 1977, 1981 and 1983. After that only the war was (waged) continuously. There was no organization called Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam when the violence against the Tamils started. It was only formed at the latter part of the 1970’s or early 1980s. …. ». 

The blame for the  riots in Sri Lanka  could not be put only to the Sinhala because they happened to be of the majority.   The riots started  from incidents involving the  death of Sinhala people or Police Officers in the North, which resulted in a backlash in the South.

The organisation of the LTTE terrorism on the other hand did not result from the riots, but it was a calculated move taking advantage of the riots for the Indian RAW to unleash a group of Tamil youth from Jaffna trained in guerilla warfare to start a campaign of terror. That is the truth, and this group of terrorist youth became a Frankenstein monster which even India could not control , and resulted in the assassination of a promising Young Indian Political leader the late Rajiv Gandhi.

Sampanthan then tells a lie, without even a word of appreciation to  the Government and the Sri Lanka Government Armed forces for the rescue operations , settling the IDPs in camps and  demining the Tamil villages  which  the terrorists had made inaccessible by burying millions of personal mines, and finally settling the people, providing them with necessities for an initial home setup.  Sampanthan says  despite these commendable accomplishments of the Government  and the Armed Forces., that, “ …After the war, they are not allowing the Tamils to resettle in their own lands…. »

Sampanthan laying bare his separatist ideology  tells the expatriate Tamil gathering in Toronto,  « .. We are a people with a separate language, culture and heritage. We could claim that we have been living in Sri Lanka even before the arrival of others. We are not saying that Northeast belongs to us. However, we have concerns in preserving and protecting the language based heritage in that land. We are saying that the Sri Lankan government should not alter that situation. »

Yes they may have now and then  come to Sri Lanka as marauders, raiders, or treasure hunters.  But ancient Tamils settlements had never been found in Sri Lanka.  And this language based heritage has not been affected by the new moves of the Government of Sri Lanka which has allowed use of language without discrimination.

He says , that , « ….The majority community is being settled in the Tamils’ lands through direct and indirect way. Military camps are being built. Military’s strength is being increased in the North-east areas. Lands are being given to the majority community under the guise of development. Religious and cultural centers are being destroyed… »

Sampanthan goes on to say, “…The government not only refuses to give the political rights, but also denies help to our people. They did not do much for these people. They did not build houses the people needed, neither they created any job opportunities for them. They did not allow our people to live in peace. ” 
It was the terrorists that did not allow the Tamil people in the North and East of Sri Lanka  to live in peace,  destroyed their houses, and buried personal mines in their villages. But the Government  after eliminating the terrorists, have looked after  the Tamils in the North and East  sometimes  even better than those  Communities in  the South.

The Government  has resettled  nearly 95 percent of the IDPs.  And if the Sinhala people are allowed to settle in the North and East it will be a guarantee against  a possible  regrouping of « sleeping  » terrorists for another  period of terrorism in the North and East of Sri Lanka, with its repercussions in the South.

If the previous governments had been more perspicacious they should have encouraged more Sinhala , Muslim and other Communities to settle down in the North and East of Sri Lanka which would have avoided the thirty years of terrorism.  It is time that is done at least now  so that there will be a  mixture of the Communities  in every part of the country as it is now in the South.

While Sampanthan was meeting the  US Officials,
« ….. During our visit, we met many at the U.S. State Department. We met the members of congress, senators and people in Charge of Human Rights. We have explained these facts to them clearly. If our rights are not protected, definitely the Tamil ethnicity will be wiped out. There is no doubt about that… »,  and inflaming the  hatred of Tamil Expatriates in Canada against the Government and the Sinhala people, there was another public meeting held in  Toronto hosted by the Canadian Sri Lankan Community, which had invited the Minister of National Languages and Social Integration  Mr.Vasudeva Nanayakkara.

The President  of the Canadian Sri Lankan Community  explained the humanitarian work that is being carried out by the  Canadian Sri Lanka Community for the welfare, and well being of the Tamil people of the North and East.

This Canadian Sri Lankan Community had sent  Canadian $ 70,000 worth of medical supplies in 2009 for the use of the IDPs in the  Refugee Camps.  They had sent  mosquito nets to  the people in the villages around Omanthai, provided School Books to Children in newly Constructed schools in the East. 

In 2008 they had organised a « Brotherhood Train » which left Matara Railway Station  to Vavunia with  12 carriages with merchandise for the use of the  IDPs in the refugee Camps.  The train had stopped at all stations allowing the Sinhala people in the areas to make contributions. The Sinhala people rich and poor contributed, some even by giving a measure of rice.  When the train reached  Colombo all the 12 carriages had been  full of merchandise contributed by the people.  They added more carriages in Colombo and finally when they reached Vavunia they had 40 million Rupees worth of merchandise to be distributed among the Tamil IDPs in the  Camps.

They also organised a marathon walk from Dondra in the South  to Point Pedro in the North to collect funds to construct a Children’s cancer Ward in Jaffna. They had collected 1500 Million Rupees .

In that meeting the Minister Vasudeva Nanayakkara explained how many of the difficulties the Tamil people  had encountered previously with the Government administration  is being eliminated ;  first  by training all government officers  to have proficiency in both the Sinhala and Tamil languages in addition to English.  Sri Lanka is also  looking forward to making Sri Lanka tri-lingual and has declared  1912 as the tri-lingual year. 

In addition he said that records  in the Tamil Speaking areas will be kept in Tamil and that they will establish  bilingual areas where the records will be kept both in Sinhala and Tamil.  There is in fact a bilingual area even in the Galle District.

The Minister  says his Ministry has  established 700 Cultural Centres where  there would be language teaching  classes and  organization of awareness programs to make people of different communities understand different cultures and religions and learn to respect  each other without discriminating  a Community for customs,  cultures or religious beliefs which are different from theirs. 

The Canadian government is providing aid to establish these Centres, and more Centres will be established later on.  The Government is even prepared to make constitutional changes to facilitate reconciliation of the communities.  He said the reconciliation is an ongoing process, and every thing will be done with a view to unite people.  But every change should take its own pace   without  precipitating into  action which may later have negative effect.

The terrorism in Sri Lanka lasted 30 years .  The wounds inflicted as a result on the whole of the people  are immense . The healing process will be long. Terrorism was eliminated only two years ago and we cannot expect to have normal conditions restored  within a short period of  time.  We have to go step by step in the reconciliation process and eventually  we will be able to enjoy  peace, and the happiness of being a Nation. The process could be short only if every one of us understand the situation  and get together to make things work faster, by stopping to  promote our  selfish personal or individual Communal interests.
It is time to ask the Tamil diaspora what action they have  taken to unite the Communities in Sri Lanka and develop Sri Lanka to make it a country of which we can all be  proud.

TNA are merely a group of Parliamentarians  who are still in the darkness of the passage out of the womb of terrorism. They  still  have to learn  what is a democratic political system. What they are doing now in the name of politics is only distancing Communities from each other. 

Sampanthan and the TNA have to be made to understand there mistakes, which in itself is a difficult task because of  their limited understanding of a viable political system.  They have to learn the way to interact with people, with different cultures and speaking different languages, as they have still not been weaned from their terrorist beginning.

Replying to Anandasangaree’s, the desperate plea of a patriot for a permanent solution

 
Writing to the President of Sri Lanka Anandasangaree says, « Although both of us entered Parliament together in 1970, I am more senior to you in age and in politics. Hence I have a moral duty to tell you frankly what I feel about every one of your actions and decision. »

Although the writer  did not enter Parliament with Anandasangaree, he knows that Anandasangaree was a member of the LSSP . And as  the writer is of the same age as Anandasangaree he thinks he also has  a moral duty to tell Anandasangaree that he is the worst Tamil racist and a  hypocrite.  

His membership in the LSSP had been bogus and hypocritical, because if he was a sincere member of the LSSP he cannot today speak in the language of  a separatist Tamil racist.  He was awarded the 2006 UNESCO Madanjeet Singh Prize for the promotion of tolerance and non-violence, which he did not deserve.

He  calls himself a patriot, and  the writer challenges his patriotism. A patriot is one who loves his country and his compatriots whatever their  race, colour or religion.  A patriot does not seek to divide the people, a patriot loves the unitary status of his country, and does not seek to divide it territorially or communally. But Anandasangaree divides people as Sinhala and Tamils, he does not work for the unity of the people, he wants federalism which is a sort of  divisionism.  Therefore he is not a patriot.

If Anandasangaree wants to be a real patriot , he should give up his call for a Federal Constitution or an Indian model. He should not treat the Tamil Community as a different entity.  He should instead be a bridge to bring in the Tamil Community into the mainstream of the Sri Lankan people without allowing them to tear away from the fabric of Nationhood.

Sri Lanka could progress faster if all communities  get together to give a hand .  It is the Tamils who stand on the way  of progress with their pseudo “ethnic problem” and show to the world outside a division within. It is the Tamil diaspora which has brought Sri Lanka to disrepute, accusing the President and the Armed Forces for military crimes when they know very well that the elimination of terrorism was a necessity for any progress and that the military operations were against the terrorists and not against the Tamil people. 

If the civilians were to have died it may have been inevitable and it was a sacrifice to end thirty years of suffering, and find at last peace and security for every one.  Hiroshima and Nagasaki stand symbols of human sacrifice for the greater unity and peace of the world, at least that is what the West believes.

Now that the terrorism is over the expatriate Tamils should if they want to be real patriots contribute to the work in progress in Sri Lanka, and join hands with all Communities to develop the country to make the people happy, peaceful and prosperous.

Anandasangaree should help Sri Lanka not by demanding Federalism, but by getting the Tamils to fall in line with the rest of the communities to create Communal Unity.

His statements are pungent with hypocrisy, as when he says, “ I am one who is not communal and had been always saying that I wish to have a Sinhalese family as my neighbour on one side and a Muslim family on the other. I have still not changed my views in this matter.” Is that to show that he is not communal, and is that the way to bring the Communities together ? He thinks he could fool people with that kind of trash.

Anandasangaree as an elderly Tamil politician, living in safety amoung the Sinhala people in the South, had a greater role to play for the reconciliation of the two main Communities of Sri Lanka the Tamils and the Sinhala, if he did not try to play the Tamil Nadu game of separating the Tamils from the Sinhala.   He also  raises the GG Ponnambalam’s  out dated demand for 50-50, but in a different way.

The permanent solution  to the so called ethnic problem in Sri Lanka is there before every ones eyes , but the Tamils including the UNESCO prize winning Anandasangaree do not want even to look at it.  The Solution is,  that the Tamils should try to forget their Tamilness and accept to be patriotic Sri Lankans à part entière  and unite with the other communities to form a larger Nation of Sri Lankans, where there would be no Sinhala, Tamil and Muslims but just Sri Lankans.  That is what the President Mahinda Rajapakse meant once when he said that there are no minorities and majorities.

The fear of the Tamils is that the they  will be assimilated into the Majority, otherwise there is no reason for the Tamils to ask,  to be treated separately with a special devolution of power.  The whole of the  ethnic problem stems from this failure of the Tamils to give up their fear of loosing their Tamilness.  

It is typical of the Tamils, this is what DBS Jeyaraj says on his article on  Nedumaran’s book on Prabhakaran which he says would be  Nedumaran’s magnum opus the “ hagiography “ of Prabhakaran.  DBS Jeyaraj says 

“……… I am very proud of being a Tamil. My pride is based on the notion so well articulated by Namakkal Ramaligampillai one time poet laureate of Tamil Nadu.” Is he a Sri Lankan or of TamilNadu ?  If he is a real  Sri Lankan he should have at least said I am proud to be a Sri Lankan Tamil.

This stems from an inferiority complex  of the Tamils. They do not want to accept being Sri Lankans .  The black African Community in America understood that accepting to be Americans is the way out of their isolation, and became a part of the larger people of America, and that is how today a black African is the 44^th President of USA. 

They had the intelligence to understand that they had to accept being Americans, but the Tamils in Sri Lanka and the prize winning Champion of tolerance  and non-violence are unable to comprehend that simple essential unity of people of all communities to build a Nation out of them.

Sampanthan and his TNA cohorts were slaves of Prabhakaran and did what ever the Thalaivar asked of them, spying for the terrorists in the Parliament.  They were therefore free from the wrath of the uncertain moods of the Thalaivar the terrorist leader.

Anandasangaree was not selected by Prabhakaran to spy for them , therefore he feared  Prabhakaran, who would have eliminated him if it became necessary.  Therefore he played a double game living with the Sinhala people in the south, but echoing Prabhakaran’s call for a homeland by harping on a Federal Constitution.  

Anandasangaree  wanted to be different from Sampanthan the proxi of Praphakaran,  therefore he did not ask for a separate Homeland for the Tamils, but he thought it was better to go step by step before he could arrive at  making the North and East the Tamil Homeland, therefore he opted for Federalism. 

Anandasangaree  is an old political fox, who thinks he could get what he wants , by pretending to be  friendly ( tolerant and non-violent) with the “Sinhala modayas” and moving along with their ideas until the time is right to “jump the queue” to  bag in  what he wanted a Tamil Homeland, or  North and East as a separate Province under a  Federal Constitution. 

Therefore Anandasangaree mooted the Federal theory, and when he found that the Sinhala people would not accept it, he  changed it to an  Indian Model.  He knows how to wriggle his way out of a situation, to get back to his demand to which he sticks stubbornly, when the time is ripe.

It was the Tamils  who created the so called  “ethnic problem” to enable them to get a Tamil Homeland established in the North and East.

There is in fact no  “ethnic problem” at all.  But it was created artificially, to divide the country to have a separate Tamil Homeland.  That is why all this Anti Mahavamsa theory of Narapalasingham, and the rewriting of the Tamil history insisting on the presence of Tamil settlements in the North and East prior to the advent of the Sinhala.

Anandasangaree says, “  I am yearning to see the dawn of peace in its true form in this beautiful Island of ours, in which from time immemorial the Tamils and the Sinhalese had lived in peace and harmony along with Muslims and many other ethnic groups, before the country gained its independence.” 

He does not mean a word of what he says. He is vehemently opposed to any large numbers of Sinhala people taking permanent residence in the North and East.  He will call it colonizing, which in fact what the Tamils have done in the South.

Anandasangaree says, “ What was going on in this country since independence in 1948 is not fully known to the present generation. They hardly know what a peaceful country Ceylon was in the good old days. I am one who had lived throughout this period and had witnessed and experienced all good and bad events that took place in our country. ” 

In the good old days the south of Sri Lanka was a paradise for the Tamils from the North .  The British colonialists following the divide and rule policy  pampered the Tamils giving them important places in their administration pushing the Sinhala to the background. 

The Jaffna Tamils came to South and opened shops and boutiques.  Only the Tamil men came to the South leaving  their families home,  not wanting to socialize with the Sinhala.  The well to do vellalas came and settled down in Colombo sending their children to best of schools to  make them Doctors or Engineers.

The North and the East was left for the Tamils to live as they want,  the majority of the Sinhala people were not interested, either in settling down or even to know about the  Northern Provinces .  That is why Anandasangaree is  nostalgic for the old times.  If things would have been the same today North and East would have been their uncontested Homeland.  Anadasangaree knows very well that neither North or East voted for any candidate of the  LSSP the political party which stood for all communities.  There was I think just one LSSP Member  from the North in the House of Representative. Not seeing a future being a member of the LSSP  Anandasangaree changed camps.

In a way the terrorism brought some thing good in its wake, the Sinhala people of the South  became aware that the North and East are after all  part of the whole of Sri Lanka and that they have an interest in those parts of the country as well.

That is what irks Anandasangaree, North and East becoming close to the South and the possibility of more Sinhala people settling down there. Hence his demand for an Indian Model so that the North and East could be  kept a Tamil enclave as it was in the good old days.

If Anandasangaree wants a real reconciliation of the Communities and  make Sri Lanka a peaceful place as it was , the time is ripe now.  The Sinhala people are ready to make any sacrifice just to bring the Communities together.  But do the Tamils want it, and would the Tamils in the North and East forget their Tamilness to create a United  Nation of all Communities,  stepping out of their narrow Communalism ? 

This Communal integration forgetting the Tamilness does not mean that  the cultural and  religious values of each Community is to be devalued, but there is all the more reason that the  parity of status of  different Communities should  be maintained in forming a  multicultural Nation.

The Sinhala people have been inviting students from North and East to the South to stay with Sinhala people to understand more of each other.  Do they profit from the occasion ?  Has Anandasangaree gone to meet these young people  who came from the North and East and spoken to them  of the necessity to unite to  forget their minority complex and become part of the larger community of  Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim people ? 

No ! the UNESCO award winning tolerant and non-violent Anandasangaree would not do a thing like that.   He knows that if the Sinhala people in the South were to bring the whole population of Tamils from the North and East and entertain them for even for one whole year, they will go back and become once again Tamils with their racial hatred to the Sinhala people.

Federalism or Indian Model means nothing to the ordinary Tamil people,  even if every one of them  in the North and East makes their daily  morning Salaams or Namasthe to Tamil Nadu, what they want is to live peacefully, with daily amenities and  plan a future for their children. 

The Federalism and the Indian Model is the dream of the high class Tamils who want to dominate the poor low caste Tamils with ruling power in their hands  with a Parliament of their own, with their own Police and land rights.

Only means for Sri Lanka to forge ahead with peace and prosperity is by being an undivided people united to coordinate with one another for an ambitious program of development as a country of a united community of people.

Anandasangaree says,

« The turning point was the passage of the Citizenship Acts and the situation got aggravated with the passage of the Act making Sinhala as the only official language of the state in 1956. » 

That is all nonsense, because it was necessary to make  a difference in an independent Sri Lanka, where the colonialists ruled the country the  way they want  by  denying the Sinhala people their rightful place, burning their villages , killing their people  when they rebelled  against these savage invaders who had continually harassed them, insulted and denigrated the culture and the religion of the Sinhala people.  That necessity was understood only by  SWRD Bandaranaike. He did what was necessary, to give back to the people what had been denied to them for  nearly 500 years.

The Tamil people did not take part in those rebellions, whether it was against the Portuguese, the Dutch or the British,  though they claim they have a long history as settlers in Sri Lanka.  How many Tamils fought along side the Sinhala Soldiers against terrorism ? In the long history of Sri Lanka the Tamils have not played any  role to defend the country  except of course few exceptions like, Lakshman Kadirgamar, Jeyraj Fernandopulle and few other Muslims and Malays.

Anandasangaree should be happy because he is there today,  free to speak out his mind because he had been with the Sinhala people in the South whose children had fought the terrorists to rid him of the fear of  assassination by a wayward terrorist.

His theme of complaint through out the long article revolves round the ethnic problem and the  advice to implement an Indian Model.  But this ethnic problem he  speaks of does not exist any more, even if did in some ways existed before.

Now with the  implementation of the Mahinda Chintanaya, even the language problem has been settled and the Tamils share all rights equally  with  all other Communities. And the Tamils like Anandasangaree, Sampanthan etc. raise a Tamil ethnic problem knowing well that no such thing really exists now, but yet  to make an issue of it merely to bring disrepute to Sri Lanka and allow interference by the foreign countries into our internal affairs, and hoping for some politically beneficial fallouts for themselves.

Anandasangaree  insists, «  A unitary system will not be acceptable to the minorities, the Tamils in particular. It will never serve as a permanent solution, since it can be meddled with, by some others when you and I are no more. I had been repeatedly saying that only the Indian Model will be acceptable to the minorities as the only alternative to a "Federal Model" if the term "Federal" is allergic to some. Otherwise it would be the best and the most acceptable one. »

What is special about the Tamils that a unitary system will not suit them.  If it suits every one else it is democratic that the Tamils accept what is accepted by everyone else.  It is people like Anandasangaree who should  make them understand  that simple  reality and bring the communities together without holding onto a separatists ideology.

Everything is not hunky dory in India despite Anandasangaree’s eulogy of India as a Model. India which is a leading nation today claiming leadership in the South, with its own atomic bomb, preparing to send Indian men into Space, is unable to provide equality of opportunities  to all  the citizens of the country.  The low caste untouchables have still to find their place in the Indian Society. 

There is ethnic problems in Assam, Sikh and Hindu conflict in Punjab. India still has Hindu Muslim conflicts.  It has  very racist Tamil politicians in TamilNadu.  Tamil Nadu has taken away the power of the Central Government of India which is being made to dance to the tune of the Nedumarans, Jayalalithas, Vaikos, Karunanidhis or  the We Tamil Movement of Seeman.  Is that the glorious Indian Model Anandasangaree dreams of for Sri Lanka ?

Anandasangaree goes on with his eulogy of India , «  ..A majority Hindu country has a great Muslim Scientist as Head of the State and treat him with due honour. ….Another highly respected leader is the Prime Minister of India from an ethnic group that forms only 2% of its population and the leader of the ruling Party who is a very highly respected lady is one, not born in India. This great neighbour of ours has found unity in diversity; why can’t we have powers devolved to our regions on the Indian pattern? “

But this has been made possible  by India having no divisive political parties  except in TamilNadu.  Sri Lanka could easily have the same possibilities if the Tamils come down from their  sacrosanct Tamilness and accept to be citizens of Sri Lanka  without having racist political parties for Tamils, such as the :

Tamil Eelam Liberation Army, Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization, Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal,Tamil National Alliance, Tamil National Liberation Alliance, Tamil National People's Front,Tamil United Liberation Front.

Anandasangaree should demand that these Political parties with the Tamil Label be banned and all citizens of Sri Lanka, Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim  and others should join the two main political parties as in America, UK or France.  Then the country will select as President  the  leader of the political party  that has won the elections. It may be a Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim, Malay or Burgher.  For that to happen we need not be a country with a Federal Constitution, or a Constitution with that of India as a Model, but we should be a United Nation, without any Community demanding to be different from the rest of the Communities .

The rest of the letter need no reply as it is the repetition of the same ethnic problem, the Federalism against a Unitary system, and if allergic to Federalism requesting to opt  for the Indian Model.

Mr. Anandasangaree, you will soon be  eighty years of age. The future is short for you, but the past had been long. When the end is near we become more and more nostalgic about the past  and  forget the present and try to project the past into the future as a model for the present generation to emulate.  But the present generation has more wonderful things to do than you had been doing  through out that long past.  Therefore, do not try to make the past a model for  the future generations.

The President Mahinda Rajapakse who you knew as a young man has matured. He has shown to every right thinking man and woman  that of the many Heads of State of Sri Lanka we have had from the Prime Ministers to Presidents, President Mahinda Rajapakse stands out as the man who did the most to this country of ours within the short time he was given the reins of leadership. 

He had driven away the terrorists that were menacing the very existence of Sri Lanka as a Unitary State.  He has reconstructed North and East as no body had ever been able to do before.  He had brought the once poverty stricken South to an important centre of political and commercial activity.  He had built  roads and railways  as none had ever dreamt of doing before.  He has developed our country into a  middle income State.

But all those who criticize him despite all that  he has done for this country, has done nothing.   It is only Mahinda Rajapakse who has shown to every one of these critics what, a President with a vision , determination and effort could do, within the shortest possible time to turn a dream into a reality.

Therefore, Mr.Anandasangaree, Mahinda Rajapakse is not a “podiyen” who dropped from the last rain, and he knows what he is doing  and it is up to you to wish him well and  allow him to do what he wants to do in his own way.  From what he has done so far there is no reason to think that he will disappoint any one of us in the future.

All progressive work in Sri Lanka to develop  it economically, culturally, and socially  had been mostly the indifatigable effort of the Sinhala people .  While Sampanthan and the TNA, Anandasangaree, Kumar David, Pakiasothy Saravanamuttu, DBS Jeyaraj et al make a hue and   cry about an ethnic problem and collect international awards, the Sinhala people are at work in the North-East South and West of Sri Lanka for the betterment of the people and development of the country.

Jehan Perera writes and DBS Jeyaraj presents : « Economic and political costs of over-extending military role »

« Two soldiers wait for electricity to power their sewing machines at a tailor shop opened up in front of their unit's headquarters, just outside Kilinochchi, northern Sri Lanka. The military has started opening cafes, tailor shops and other businesses throughout the north »

Jehan Perara’s article , « Economic and Political costs of over extending Military  Role» has been published in the DBS Jeyaraj’s  anti government website TransCurrent.

And DBS Jeyaraj makes his own comments in presenting Jehan Perera’s article. This is to examine his comments.

What have they against the Sri Lanka Armed Forces unless they want to be in the good books of the anti Sri Lanka Western Countries, perhaps hoping for a few priviledges falling into their laps.

The Sri Lanka Armed Forces are an integral part of our Nation and our country. Our Armed Forces cannot be compared to any other Armed Force in the world such as that of the  NATO. Our Soldiers had been battered by a ruthless villainous terrorists, who were  pampered and strengthened by  the International Community, which despite banning the terrorist group, allowed the expatriate Tamils settled in their countries to form terrorist front organizations and collect funds to help terrorists in Sri Lanka to continue their massacres, murders and subjugation of  poor Tamil civilians in  the areas under their control .

The soldiers of our Armed forces did not take arms against the Tamil people of Sri Lanka.  They  were conscious that they were fighting a war against the Tamil terrorists and not against the ordinary Tamil people, who they were ever ready to help, whether they were  running away from the terrorists or were among the terrorist kept by them as a human shield.

They the soldiers  were brothers, sons and even fathers to Tamil Community harassed by the terrorists and forced to be  their slaves.  When they were being rescued, the Soldiers carried the old in their arms, wounded were helped to walk, the children were fed.  When they were in the IDP camps they were provided security at risk to their own lives.  When they travelled the soldiers  were their guards providing security, and their wants.  Now the war is over , and DBS Jeyaraj mourns , “Hello Friends, The war may be over but the Armed forces of Sri Lanka continue to play an assertive role in the affairs of the Country. »

But what was DBS Jeyaraj doing all that time , he was certainly before a computer in a warm comfortable room writing articles in favour of terrorists, and against Government Armed Forces, which he still continues to do.

To day the war against terrorism is over.  But is terrorism over ?  It is people like DBS Jeyaraj and Jehan Perera who give hope for “sleeping terrorists” to lie low until space is provided  for them to be awakened. 

Therefore the presence of soldiers is a boon to our nation and also to ungrateful Tamils who will again be provided security and protection and IDP camps in case the attempts of  pseudo patriotic Tamils like Jeyaraj, Pakiasothy Saravanamutta, Kumar David , Jehan Perera  et al , will succeed to  revive terrorism once again.
If there were to be terrorism once again in Sri Lanka it will not be Jehan Perera and  DBS Jeyaraj who will take arms against them; it will again be the Sinhala Buddhist Soldiers from Sinhala villages in the South who will sacrifice their lives to protect both the country and the  people of all races and religions.  Therefore, no one can question the right of the soldiers and the Armed Forces of Sri Lanka playing  an assertive role in the affairs of the Country. Because it is on them that we will have to fall back, if the necessity arises.

DBS Jeyaraj borrows an image from Al Jazeera  with the caption, « Two soldiers wait for electricity to power their sewing machines at a tailor shop opened up in front of their unit's headquarters, just outside Kilinochchi, northern Sri Lanka. The military has started opening cafes, tailor shops and other businesses throughout the north »

What is wrong in our soldiers opening , shops and cafes ? The complaint had been that they were carrying guns,  and the Tamil people did not feel safe, but now they complain that they are working, running shops, cafes and boutiques.  The Tamils should at least be happy that they are not carrying guns but being of service to the people, that is to them the Tamils.

DBS Jeyaraj has some difficulty to think objectively and reason out for himself the useful role that had been played by the Armed Forces and that it will play again if the necessity arises.
DBS Jeyaraj writes as if he is a Nostradamus or some such wizard, « This is more pronounced in the 

Northern and Eastern provinces of the Country where the armed forces continue to dominate many spheres of everyday life in the regions where Tamils are a preponderant majority. »  as if every thing is hunky dory  and there is no fear of some one in a nearby country training another group of terrorists to take over North and East.
The man should be daft, he seems to have forgotten that terrorism arose in the North and East, and today it is  the Tamils in the North and East  such as the Sampanthan and his TNA Tamil cohorts with their demand for  devolution of  political rights who  are going the length and breadth of the world complaining against the Sinhala Majority, inviting every one to help just the Tamil ethnic community, against a vicious Sinhala Majority Community. 

If the problem of terrorism were to raise its head again it will be in the North and the East. It is therefore necessary to have a permanent military presence in these two Provinces, whether DBS Jeyaraj, Jehan Perera and the TNA MPs like it or not.
In the South JVP will not begin a terror campaign again. If they do there is the means to thwart it.

DBS Jeyaraj need not worry about  any militarization of the South.  The Sinhala people understand, as they have always understood that the Sri Lanka soldiers are their children a part of the country, its citizenry.  The soldiers  are not there only to fight terrorism, burry the dead, clean tanks, build bridges and roads, and clean drains or closets. They  can also be employed like any other citizen to sell vegetables , stitch clothes or even overseer cricket grounds,  and give protection to the country and communities at the same time.  They don’t stand apart from the country and the people.

It is the Tamils like Jeyaraj who have a difficulty understanding not only the Soldiers, but also the Sinhala people, thinking only in terms of Tamils as the only community that has to be left alone, looked after and protected with full political rights devolved unto them.
Then DBS Jeyraja says, “ The increasing militarisation of society coupled with the increasing politicisation of the military is creating quite a dangerous climate in Sri Lanka. Arguably the defence secretary and Presidential sibling is “in practice” the most powerful man in the Island today.”  In any country the President and the Defense Secretaries are powerful and important.

In Sri Lanka the Defense Secretary, as the brother (the sibling as Jeyaraj prefers to call) of the President,  has become the person on whom the President could place trust and place his  confidence, and accept obedience and  support.  Therefore , he is an important person in the country to-day. It was he who played the deciding  role in coordinating the Security Forces in the elimination of the  terrorists.  Perhaps DBS Jeyaraj is reluctant to give him credit for that looking for faults to attack him as being the most powerful man, perhaps to create some sort of “ jealousy” amoung brothers- putting one against the other  a Tamil ploy !!!

Then he  pulls his last shot before presenting Jehan Perera’s article, “ All these developments trouble people concerned about the future well-being of the country. Some have begun speaking out or commenting publicly on this situation……..National Peace Council director and well -known analyst-commentator Jehan Perera has in a recent article referred to this situation. “ 

Who are these concerned people ?  Jehan Perera ? The anti Sri Lanka countries of the West ? TNA ? UNP ? and JVP ?  

They had always been against unity and progress.  Can we now expect any thing else from them. But the people Jeyaraj… the people….  at least those in the South knows that, “the future well-being of the country”, is being taken good care of by the President, his government and the Defence Secretary. That is what matters. 

The Tamil people including Jeyaraj, Jehan Perera are not grateful and  are not patriotic enough wanting to take care only of the Tamils, and if the occasion presents itself to divide the country,  to separate the North and East as a Tamil Homeland.

DBS Jeyaraj’s introduction to Jehan Perera’s article is a summary of it.  Therefore , at least for the moment it does not need a separate reply. If however on re-reading  I find it grossly in inappropriate, I will write a reply to  Jehan Perera who was  introduced by another  journalist Nalin Swaris as follows:

“  Jehan Perera remains an unrepentant advocate of the LTTE’s cause - even of LTTE post mortem. Perera seems to have undergone a make-over and become an unbiased political commentator. Consider his painless, noiseless move to The Island newspaper from The Daily Mirror. However, a discerning reader will be quick to see that though his writings have become subtler, his heart is still in the den. »

No doubt DBS Jeyaraj  seems so close to him.

Aren’t we going too far to develop tourism, and shouldn’t we be more selective in accepting foreign investment?

At last we know, that Sri Lanka is not to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games. Mr.Sunil Gunawardhana a veteran Sri Lanka athlete and coach has bemoaned that Sri Lanka had been denied the occasion after a thirty year war in its effort to reconcile the communities by  uncaring sportive bigwigs of the Commonwealth Games Federation voting 43 to 27 in favour of  Australia.

Those who voted against Sri Lanka were undoubtedly, mostly politically motivated Westerners  against developing Nation breaking new grounds in economic and social development.  It was expected , that despite the West becoming failed Nations to still bellow their war cries of NATO, and naval and air power in their united front against developing countries.  The 43-27 vote is another victory they claim over a developing poor nation after its failure to reprimand  and  send it to their “political gallows” for violation of human rights at the CHOGM meeting in Australia.

A pavement hawker Pradeep Silva, had said , "Why can't they give us a chance , This is the so-called mentality those rich countries still maintain. They think they are still the colonial masters, we have to obey them. I am happy that at least Sri Lanka made an effort."  How correct and that is how our ordinary  people feels despite what ever the BBC, Reuters, Agence France Press of the foreign Media, the  websites Sri Lanka Guardian, Transcurrent, TamilNet and Ground view ,  Al Jazeera and UKChannel 4 may have to say.
Sri Lanka today is a greater nation than the 47 nations that voted against us to keep the Commonwealth Games with them.  Because within a short time after elimination of a ruthless  terrorism, Sri Lanka has come out of its “poverty” label to become a middle income Nation. That is  no small achievement to a developing country that it was.  

Now it is time to turn to events taking place in Sri Lanka and question whether we are doing the right thing, and whether the Government should not be more precautious in some of its more ambitious undertakings.  Tourism is a great money earner.  Today it has become the number one preoccupation of the government as a source of income. But do we ask ourselves,  whether we are not over doing to  make money on tourism ? 

We cannot forget that tourism also has its  disadvantages   and a perilous dark-side.  Sri Lanka seems to be on its way to jump the boundaries, if the Government would not draw in reins.  There is  news of prostitution in a big way drawing in women from East Europe, while even some of our young film artists are being put on show cases of notoriety.   There are also news of Casinos for tourists and some even promoting tourist resorts for nudists.  Russia became very rich very quickly and is now in the grips of a moral decadence and fear of mafia.

What more is in stock in Sri Lanka by way of pleasing the foreign tourists specially those from the West ? Some time  back there was talk, of special plane loads of rich Germans taken to Philippines  for sex tours arranged for them , the baits being  young girls,  and pedophilia. It was recently reported by the National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) that they had received more than 7,000 complaints of child abuse since it established a telephone hotline.

Are these children  only those sexually abused or molested by their parents, guardians or people known to them, and are they children in out-of-home care, mainly living in foster homes or with relatives ?
There were some time back rumours  that children, whose mothers have left to Middle East for domestic service leaving  the children in the care of grand mothers or the fathers were being « taken for prostitution » in hotels.   Not only the Children but women working as machinists in some workshops were made to prostitute by the workshop owners.  These reports must be taken seriously by the government and serious investigations made, before it goes out of control.

Any projects and enterprises should have limits, but in Sri Lanka their seems to be too much of a hurry to promote tourism as the main money earner, therefore there is a dangerous attempt  to provide tourists every thing they  may demand.


Lot of statistics are being given about the numbers of tourist arrivals, but little is said about the earnings.  Are we really earning enough to setoff our financial commitments to make tourists happy ? Is the income from tourism justifiably high compared to the expenditure on account of it?   

The tourists coming to Sri Lanka should be given a Sri Lankan vacation in keeping with our cultural values they can enjoy, that should be the criteria to attract tourists. 

But do we respect that principle  or are we turning our tourist industry to keep in line with Western tourist resorts ?  If we have to spend large sums of money to import foreign alcoholic drinks, and aliments in keeping with Western tastes, and import cutlery,  table wear and interior decorations to be tasteful in the Western sense, the income over expenditure may not be very much, and the vacation in Sri Lanka will fail to reach national standard of hospitality.

Even the country’s natural heritage it had been said is in danger, by constructing roads  and constructing hotels close to these protected areas.   We cannot sacrifice everything in the name of tourism.  In the West money is everything.  They even put people to risk without taking timely action to prevent accidents not wanting to spend more than what they think is necessary keeping an eye on the benefits. 

Even the death of passengers in a Concord that met with an accident after the burst of a wheel, it is said that the authorities knew of the defect months earlier  but hat failed to take  appropriate action to replace the wheels causing the accident.

Are we also putting money before people ?  Is money every thing ? Should not we put at least a temporary  halt to unnecessary expenditure to give us time to reflect whether such expenditure is necessary or not? 
It was recently reported that a large extent of land in Sabaragamuwa is to be handed over to a company for a golf course.  Is that really necessary ?  How many of the tourists come toSri Lanka to play golf ?   Isn’t our land more important than to construct golf courses ?  Even in the West many golf courses are used only by the rich and those who could afford and that is not much ?  A golf course as much as a Nudist Camp are not essential elements to develop tourism in Sri Lanka.

While the Government speaks of  poverty elimination, it appears  that attempts are being made to enrich some, at the cost of others.

It is not correct that our ancient Tanks  are converted to provide  joy rides motor boats without taking into consideration pollution to the environment.

In Fiji  they say the land belongs to the people and foreign investors are given leases of land to construct hotels or other business venture.  In Sri Lanka it is said that prime land even in Colombo are sold outright.  If that is how foreign investment is  encouraged, the Government should re-think about the advisability of such methods of dealing with what belongs to the people.

The least seriously taken other foreign exchange earner is the Sri Lanka middle and lower class  women sent  to Arab countries  as maids. Much has been written about their maltreatment by the Arab employers, and the suicide committed by  some  unable to bear the physical and mental torture they are subjected to by their Muslim Arab employers. There are   others who return with nails driven into their bodies.

The last  sad news about our “maids” abroad  is about a body of a dead Maid returned to Sri Lanka without her internal organs. For how long is the government prepared to tolerate these  savagery of the Muslim Arabs employing our women not as their servants ;  but as their slaves making them their personal chattel, with rights over their bodies and lives ?

Finally  it is about the still more dangerous situation that 62 500 hectares of land said to have been “given”  to the American Fruit Company Dole.  It was reported in the Sunday Times  of the 21 August, 2011,  that , “State lands, including the region around the Somawathie Chaitiya Sanctuary have been issued to an American fruit company for banana cultivation, in various parts of the country, according to environmentalists.
“ The company Dole, has acquired 62,500 hectares in the following areas - Buttala, Uva Kudaoya, Galle, Puttalam, Dambulla and Somawathie, without  obtaining the  required Environment Impact Assessment (EIA).
“The lands belong to several State bodies including the Mahaweli Authority, Forest and Wildlife Departments, and the Viharadevalagam (temple). “About 3,000 hectares in Uva Kudaoya, given to the company, is very valuable because of its rich biodiversity and water resources,” said Centre for Environmental Studies National Coordinator Ravindra Kariyawasam.
“About 500 hectares of land along the Menik Ganga reservation, 15,000 hectares in the Kantale region and 11,600 hectares in the Somawathie area have been given to the company, he added. He said the farmers in Uva Kudaoya were involved in chena and paddy cultivation before the company established the banana cultivation, but now the farmers are working for Dole. “ 

It is well  know that the American Fruit Companies have caused dangerous political instability in countries where they had grabbed land to open fruit plantations, turning them in to «  Banana Republics ».  Some of them like the United Fruit Company of American become a  law unto themselves using the land as they want without respect to natural resources ,  the danger to human and animal  lives by using dangerous fertilizers and the countries made poorer by  the people been exploited, and  depriving them of their own cultivation for their livelihood.
It was Jamaika  that was taken over to promote large scale Banana production by Captain Laurenzo D.Baker, followed by Henry Meigs to feed the railroad workers .  Meigs began the Tropical Trade and Transporting company which later became the United Fruit Company.

Honduras saw two Fruit Companies (the United Fruit Company and the Cuyamel Banana Company) vying for  land rights and employment of workers.  In 1911 one company hired mercenaries to effect a coup d’etat to dispose Miguel R.Davila the President of Honduras.  The Fruit Company deposed the President Davila and installed Manuel Bonilla as  a puppet President, which resulted in Honduras becoming a poor Banana Republic.

With regard to Guatamala it has been reported , that it  became a Banana Republic because of  the , “ inequitably distributed agricultural land and natural wealth  uneven economic development, and an economy dependent upon a few export crops, usually bananas, coffee, sugar cane. The inequitable land distribution is the principal cause of national poverty and the low quality of Guatemalan life, and the concomitant socio-political discontent and insurrection. Almost 90 per cent of the country's farms are too small to yield adequate subsistence harvests to the farmers, whilst two per cent of the country's farms occupy 65 per cent of the arable land, property of the local  oligarchy.” (wikipedia)

This is the new global land and water grab by American Fruit Companies.  America Dole Food Company is a multinational cooperation.  Dole had been named  as a defendant in a murder case in which it was accused of  causing death  through paramilitary violence in Colombia.

Again in Nicaragua a lawyer Juan Donguez sued Dole for use of pesitcies-Nemagon which sterilesed the workers.  The law suit was refused by the law courts in California on testimony that the plaintiffs did not work in the Dole’s plantations.  But, “A lawyer for the Nicaraguans, Steve Condie, however, stated that some of the witnesses who gave testimony that the claims were fraudulent, had been paid by Dole. The witnesses' identities were kept secret so that the plaintiffs' lawyers could not interview them”  Dole company bribed judges and witnesses and the lawyers representing the plaintiffs were accused of ethics violations.

« Swedish director Federic Gertten made a documentary film about Dominguez and the alleged banana workers. The movie Bananas-premiered in the 2009 LosAngeles Film Festival. Because Dole had serious concerns on what the film might reveal to the public, it urged festival officials to "immediately cease and desist" their sponsorship of the film.

The festival officials allowed the film to be screened, but it was not allowed to compete for placement in the competition. In addition, festival officials distributed information before the film's screening that indicated Dole believed the film to be factually inaccurate.

Although the film was screened with a disclaimer from the festival, Gertten was subsequently sued for defamation by Dole.The lawsuit was dropped on October 15 2009, and in November 2010 a court in Los Angeles found in favour of the movie crew making it possible to release the movie in the USA, and ordering Dole to pay SEK 1.4 million (roughly USD 200,000) to the filmmakers.
The last Nicaraguan DBCP awards against Dole were overturned in July 2010. »

Has the  Government investigated and taken precautions to avoid what happened in Guatamala, Colombia, Nicaragua and also in Philipines, happening in our poor Sri Lanka in giving land to open fruit farms to the Global land and water grabbers the  Dole Fruit Company of America  ? 

It is far better land is given to our own people for cultivation on a co-operative basis.
 ______________________________________

When the above article  appeared in the Lanka Web on the 16 November,2011.  There was a sarcastic comment by Cassandra on my anti Western sentiments.  The following are the two of the comments  I  made in  the Lankaweb as replies to Cassandra.

Cassandra Comments on my anti Western bias, and he thinks he is justified.

Who voted for or against Sri Lanka’s application   to host 2013 Commonwealth Games is not  known. But  following  excerpt from a report may give  an idea of how the voting may have proceeded.

« Hambantota 2018’s chances of making it the winning bid would be boosted by a guaranteed vote base from the Asian, African and the Caribbean regions. In contrast, Gold Coast would pin its hopes on voting that they lobby mainly from European, Americas and Oceania regions.
Out of six continents, Africa has the highest number of 18 member states in the CGF with the Caribbean having the second highest number of 15. The other member countries which will be eligible for voting would be 13 from Oceania and eight each from Asia, Americas and Europe.  »

There is no doubt that the Western  countries may have voted en-block against Sri Lanka followed by others for political and other reasons.   Sri Lanka certainly had a better case  to present itself as a candidate to host the  Commonwealth Games as it has within two years after elimination of a ruthless terrorism, which had eaten into its human, material and territorial resources for thirty long years, made a remarkable  ascension into a middle income group. 

The Western Countries which should have applauded its achievement as an example  for other developing countries who are far behind that remarkable achievement of Sri Lanka, thought it fit to accuse Sri Lanka for violation of human rights in the elimination of terrorism. Developing countries achieving economic development would be an asset to developed countries. 

We trusted and respected the Europeans and sought to emulate them often harping on their justice and fair play,  readiness to commend others for their efforts of development , and their democratic out look. 
But we saw their true “visage “only after Sri Lanka single handed won against terrorism through a military solution.   

The Government of Sri Lanka’s military operations were not directed at any time against  the Tamil people, though the self interested Tamils like those of the TNA,  Anandasangaree, Kumar David, Pakiasothy Saravanamuttu and Jehan Perera try to make out that the Sri Lanka’s war against terrorism was  a war against the Tamils.

The stand taken by both David Cameron and Stephen Harper in Australia at the CHOGM was deplorable. 

There aren’t many European citizens who write in defense of Sri Lanka though they make a terrorism free Sri Lanka their favourite  tourist destination, which was made possible by the Government and the Armed Forces of Sri Lanka.

(2)

I do not like Cassandra’s sarcasm in his criticism of what I write

I left out  answering  Cassendra’s pertinent  question, whether it made sense for Sri Lanka to have made a bid for the Games, in the first place ?

Perhaps  he does not  known that Hambantotata a few years back was a poor remote area of Sri Lanka.  All development projects by previous governments  were for the Western, Central and few other Districts and the South was left as it was poor and undeveloped. 

The selection of Hambantota to host  the Commonwealth games would have,

(i)                 helped the further development of the neglected South. 

(ii)               It would have also enriched the country  attracting larger numbers of foreign visitors, 

(iii)             earned foreign exchange by leasing the stadiums constructed for the Commonwealth Games for International Sports events.

(iv)             It would also have been an impetus of our own local sports men and women to work hard to participate in more ambitious fields of  sports competitions such as the Olympic Games

Australia had apparently hosted the Commonwealth Games on four previous occasions, why not therefore  select a fast developing country like Sri Lanka to give it  an opportunity to host the Commonwealth Games ?