Sri Lanka is a mature Nation, and needs no International pressure to solve its problems.

Jehan  Perera is a Sri Lanka NGO who without a sense of shame writes to bring disrepute to Sri Lanka and help its enemies justify their accusation of Sri Lanka and its Armed Forces for  violation of human rights and war crimes. 

He knows that Sri Lanka is being falsely accused by the USA and its allies for no other reasons than for  the elimination of a ruthless group of Tamil terrorists.  These false allegations as Jehan Perera knows,  are to please the expatriate Tamils living in the West who funded the terrorists in Sri Lanka,  and who are now an important vote bank, and financial  contributors for election campaign of USA President, and Labour and Conservative Governments  of UK and Canada.

Jehan Perera is contributing to justify these false accusations of the USA and its allies, by twisting facts to implicate Sri Lanka.   In his article “ Why international pressure has become necessary” published in the Island news paper on the 22 January,2014, Jehan Perera puts into the mouth of the President of Sri Lanka words he has never pronounced or sentiments he has never expressed.

The President Mahinda Rajapakse has not used the word “ethnic” in his speeches, which is a word bandied by the Tamil politicians, anti-Sri Lanka Tamils of the diaspora, Izeth Hussain a retired diplomat, the Western media and anti-Sri Lanka countries of the West.  Even the Sinhala writers or politicians rarely use the word, because there is no such thing as an ethnic problem  in Sri Lanka, though the Tamils refuse to accept it.

However, Jehan Perera writes in his article, “ Shortly after the end of the war in 2009, President Rajapaksa declared that in Sri Lanka there would no longer be an ethnic majority or ethnic minorities but only a majority who loved the nation and a minority who were traitors.” 

This is utterly false, deliberately twisted to please his “paymasters” to  give them an additional handle to pin Sri Lanka as a country discriminating against the minority  Tamil Community of Sri Lanka treating them as traitors.

What the President Mahinda Rajapaksa actually said  on the 19 of May, 2009 at the occasion of the Ceremonial opening of the Parliament in Sri Jayawardhanapura, Kotte was,

“……….Mr. Speaker

We have removed the word minorities from our vocabulary three years ago. No longer are the Tamils, Muslims, Burghers, Malays and any others minorities. There are only two peoples in this country. One is the people that love this country. The other comprises the small groups that have no love for the land of their birth. Those who do not love the country are now a lesser group………..”

Jehan Perera then goes on to explain the false statement he pretends to have been made by the President.  He says,

“ Apart from the warning inherent in this statement to those who were political dissenters, there was also the implication that a political solution based on the notion of ethnicities and majorities and minorities based upon them would be unnecessary after the defeat of the LTTE.  The logic of this position is that a political solution was only discussed because of the pressure of the LTTE, and now with its destruction there was no need to take that discussion forward.” 

That is far from what has to be understood from the President’s speech.  Jehan Perera is of course applying his lopsided “logical” conclusions to his own statement which he attributes to the President.

There is no warning, as Jehan Perera says,  in the statement made by the President.  It was a sincere statement  by the President heralding a new era after three decades of shedding blood and tears.   In that beginning of the  new era the Tamil people have  no reason to continue the separatist ideology of the terrorists which had just been brought to an end.  The three Communities the Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim have now to act as one people loving the country of their birth as the one and only motherland of every one of them.

But the President at the same occasion addressing the Parliament in Tamil said,

“Friends, (In Tamil)

Ceremonial opening of Parliament on 19 May,2009, after elimination of Terrorism on 18 May,2009

This is our country. This is our mother land. We should live in this country as children of one mother. No differences of race, caste and religion should prevail here. Over the last thirty years, the LTTE has killed many people Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslims - many have been killed.  The war against the LTTE is not a war against Tamil people. Our aim was to liberate our Tamil people from the clutches of the LTTE. Our heroic forces have sacrificed their lives to protect Tamil civilians. The victory we have gained by defeating LTTE is the victory of this nation, and the victory of all people living in this country.
Protecting the Tamil speaking people of this country is my responsibility. That is my duty. All the people of this country should live in safety without fear and suspicion.
All should live with equal rights. That is my aim. Let us all get together and build up this nation (Tamil ends)

Jehan Perera says: “In keeping with the President’s immediate post-war policy statement and despite the passage of nearly five years since the end of the war there has been no fundamental shift in the government’s approach to the ethnic conflict.” 

How can we now speak of an ethnic conflict, if the President says that there are no more minorities in Sri Lanka ?

The President says that there are  only two  peoples in the country, that is  those who love the country and those who do not.   Therefore if the Tamils love the country , as much as the peoples of other Communities, then all these peoples are entitled to share in  every aspect of economic , social and cultural life of Sri Lanka without restriction.  Language wise Tamil is  now in par with Sinhala, and English. Development wise no part of the country is neglected. Education and employment is open to every one from what ever part of the country they come, and what ever community they belong. 

What more “fundamental shift in the government’s approach to the ethnic conflict  ”  is expected ? 

What more do the Tamil people want, inorder  to eliminate the notion of  “ethnic difference” from their minds ?

Is it their claim for a separate State that is lacking or is it the demand that  North and East should be left entirely for the Tamil  people ?

If what they still want is, a separate Eelam State, or a separate Province in the North and East exclusively for the Tamil community, then the Tamils fall into the second category  of peoples who do not love their land of birth.  If any groups of people wants to divide Sri Lanka, or separate a part of it entirely for the use of one Community then those groups of people become a minority, and an evil to the  whole of Sri Lanka, disrupting its peace and progress.

Jehan Perera says, “ Nearly all public intellectuals from the Sinhalese community who support the government, which is the politically dominant voice in society, appear to have also taken the cue from the President that there is no ethnic conflict to resolve.  But Tamil minority voters have repeatedly challenged this assumption. ”

That is how  the Tamil Community led by TNA is challenging the expressed view of the President, by creating and perpetrating the  “ ethnic  problem.”    What is the reason for this inane desire of the Tamil Community to perpetrate a notion of “an ethnic problem” ?

We have to make a deep search to find the reason  why the Tamils led by the TNA do not subscribe to “ no minority” issue as spelt out by the President of Sri Lanka.

All animals  as much as human beings have an instinct that goes beyond ancestral past.  This instinct may be stronger than the memory, and ties one to its natural environment from which  it sprang.  This is what creates a deep sense of belonging, and an attachment  to a motherland together with all human, animal and material wealth it contains.  For us Sri Lankans,  that belonging and attachment  extend to the length and breadth of Sri Lanka- from Dondra to Point Pedro, and from Batticaloa to Colombo. 

This is true with the  Sinhala people who  have nothing against Tamil or Muslim Communities, and accept them as nature has a way of accepting any foreign matter  thrown into it covering it up with lichen, roots, plants and earth. But that foreign matter thrown into the nature will remain the same without absorbing itself into the nature. Like a bottle in the sea.

That may explain why Tamils remain aloof, like the foreign matter thrown into the nature, with their Tamilness,  without  absorbing into a Nation of communities.  Muslims too with their spiritual allegiance to Mecca will remain without completely accepting a motherland, and  the Catholics who have their spiritual allegiance to the Holy See in Rome  will not honestly and sincerely  accept a motherland concept.

The Sinhala with their all embracing Buddhist culture  will accept any one into their fold, like the nature that accepts any foreign matter and makes it a part of it.  But yet the Sinhala will reject terrorists who had  terrorised the people in the past , and those who will terrorise the people in the future,  and will also reject those who demanded in the past ,  and those who  demand now or in future a  territorial separation. 

The Tamil people do not seem to have this sense of belonging,  ferociously seeking a  Communal separation.   Even the retired Tamil judge Wigneswaran who has his sons married to Sinhala women and have grand children of mixed blood, still seeks separation from the Sinhala to be in an exclusively Tamil environment.  They all remain unchanged like any foreign matter thrown into the nature.

Strangely, the Tamils are the ones,  including the retired judge Wigneswaran ,who are more concerned about Mahavansa , seeking to  write a new history of Sri Lanka  proving that there were Tamil settlements in North and East even before the arrival of the Sinhala.

What is the necessity to write a new history ?  Is it to prove to themselves that they are a separate entity ?

The answer becomes apparent  when we look into the past history of the Tamil Community in Sri Lanka. Their ancestors  came from South India as marauders and plunderers until Elara set up  a Kingdom in Anuradhapura, and brought along with him  Tamil mercenaries. 

Hence the Tamils in Sri Lanka today are the descendents of  those Dravidian marauders and mercenaries who settled down in Sri Lanka. Therefore their sense of belonging is to  where their Dravidian ancestors came from .  But now that they cannot claim the land from where their ancestors came from as their motherland,  they seek separation from the Sinhala , to live together in an area exclusively  for the Tamil people.

The Tamils of Sri Lanka haven’t got that sense of belonging to a motherland vis à vis  Sri Lanka the same way the Sinhala people feel for Sri Lanka to the extent that they are willing to sacrifice their lives to keep their motherland intact with all Communities united, which is not Sinhala Buddhist chauvinism, as those who do not understand it as  the natural consequence of a sense of belonging, accuse. The Tamils on the other hand want a territorial separation or a Tamil only Provincial Administration, which is racism.

Therefore when Jehan Perera says, “ So long as there are unresolved ethnic grievances the electorate will tend to vote along ethnic lines.  The government’s policy of formulating and promising policies of economic development as an alternative to political reform have been repeatedly rebuffed by the ethnic minority electorate.  ”, it has to be seen in the light of the  absence of  the sense of belonging of the Tamils who are seeking a separate identity.  It is a loss for the Tamils.

The ethnic problem is therefore  in the minds of the Tamil people.  If they can change their mind set the problem could be solved, but this will not happen as long as TNA politicians are in control of the North with the International community making use of them for their own political benefit to keep the North of Sri Lanka out of reach of China and Russia.

Only a few Tamils were able to clear their minds of this negative sense of  being different, to   accept the Sinhala as their own people. They are Ponnambalam Ramanathan, Lakshman Kadirgamar, Jeyaraj Fernandopulle, Douglas Devananda, Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, Nalliah Thayabharan, Thuraisingam Bhagawathsing, Manohar Radhamano and a handful of others.

The USA and its allies have understood this, (USA and Canada being  Communities in a foreign land), and are profiting from this to precipitate a territorial separation or Tamil only Province in the North for their own strategic benefit.  They have no  love for the coloured Tamil people,  having no kindred relationship- the fact which should be seriously taken into consideration by the  Tamils included those in the TNA.  There is now no minority in Sri Lanka means that there is no “ethnic problem”. 

Ananthi Sasitharan  who has still not shed her terrorist garb, thrilled in the company of  Michelle Sison and Stephen J Rapp standing at St.Anthony’s ground  would have to make herself seem important, and the contact more interesting recounted a horror story perhaps with tears in her eyes of how the Sri Lanka Army Soldiers shot Tamil families gathered at that ground.  That was fodder for Stephen J Rapp who seized the story to  note it down as evidence of violation of human rights and war crimes recounted  by an eye witness against the Sri Lanka Armed forces.

A Government cannot continue to govern the country continually moving to escape  from the threat of anti anti Sri Lanka Western Countries seeking to accuse it for violation of human rights for what happened five years ago in the elimination, in the greater interest of the country and its  people, of  a  ruthless group of  terrorist. 

The accusations are false , but the anti Sri Lanka Western powers lead by USA are not prepared to accept their accusations as such, and continue to gather  evidence when there are none  getting individuals to make statements and adduce them as true evidence  against the Government and its Armed Forces without an iota of truth in those statements made by the selected individuals. Even false evidence repeated over and over again leaves a dirty scar. People like Jehan Perera only support the West in their blind acceptance of what ever false evidence that falls in to their hand.

In Law evidence has to be verified in  cross examination of the witnesses.  Similarly the evidence USA is preparing to present against Sri Lanka should be allowed  to be cross examined  by Sri Lanka,  the  party accused of those allegations. It should be the normal  procedure without which it amounts to contempt of international good relations, and making questionable the honesty and respectability of  USA.

This is what the USA Ambassador at Large Stephen J.Rapp did on his recent visit.  The terrorism was eliminated five years ago and the USA and its allies are still collecting evidence of violation of human rights and war crimes by the Armed Forces of Sri Lanka, not allowing the right of access to such witnesses to Sri Lanka. 

Why ?

After five years have the memories got a new lease of life and those witnesses see more clearly what happened five years ago now than immediately after,  or are they inventing new stories more damning and horrific ? 

Formerly it was the USA Ambassador in Sri Lanka Robert O’Blake who was  openly maintaining friendly contacts with the terrorist leadership who was making accusations and demanding accountability from  Sri Lanka for the elimination of terrorists.  Now it is Michel J.Sison the new USA Ambassador in Sri Lanka who has commenced  a devil dance with an appropriate facial mask to bring back the terrorist phantoms to life.

Jehan Perera writes a long article all about the “ethnic problem” , and spectrum of events initiated by the government, which  according to him  are in view of the forthcoming UNHRC Sessions. Jehan Perera has to write to earn his living.  It cannot be Prabhath Sahabandu who is paying him.  It had been said that Pakiasothy Saravanamutta and Jehan Perera were the informants on Sri Lankan Affairs to USA State Department.   It was reported that they were once taken by the CID and questioned on their arrival in Sri Lanka after a junket in USA.

The elections to the Western and Southern provincial councils, Jehan Perera says  is to , “….negate the impact on the people of Sri Lanka of a negative resolution that seeks to penalize the government and its leadership.  The government will make maximum use of international pressure for domestic political gain ”. 

The mass of the people of Sri Lanka  outside Colombo are not really concerned with the UNHRCouncil Sessions.  The elections will however be decided on what the Government has done for the development of the country, and in the absence of a comparatively competent and a more popular  political leader to oust the present President and his government.

In order to counter  a single party (TNA) administration  in the Northern provincial council promoting a separatist agenda, Tamil political leaders are in the process of forming a new Tamil Coalition Political party.  Their object is  to take the Northern provincial council forward awakening  the Tamil people to the necessity of a break away from the narrow racialist communal political system to which the TNA had bound them, and open themselves  to a honest reconciliation with the rest of the Communities of the country for their own progress and development.

With regard to this initiative of the Tamil political parties, Jehan Perera’s friend Pakiasothy Saravanamutta has said, “…… the credibility of the new coalition is questionable, since its composition is mainly of Government political parties…………the policies of the new coalition; with reference to reconciliation, conflict resolution and rebuilding; need to be taken into consideration in order to assess whether the party is going to make any difference to the politics in the North.” 

The fact that the new Tamil coalition is government friendly is no reason to scorn it as a  possible means  to break away from the political dominance of the north by the  TNA , and to make the Northern Provincial Council cooperate with the government and the rest of the Communities to bring progress and development to the people of the North.

Finally Jehan Perera says, “The ethnic conflict is the problem that gave rise to three decades of war.  The answer to the conflict has to be a just sharing of power between ethnic majority and minorities.  It is in the context of failure to evolve an internal answer that the answer to the government’s failure has come to be seen as international pressure.” 

It has to be repeated ad infinitum that there may be a  communal problem in Sri Lanka , but  not an ethnic problem.  The ethnic problem if there was one, ended with the elimination of the terrorists and the President of Sri Lanka in Parliament declaring that there is no more minorities in Sri Lanka.  But this “ethnic problem” is kept alive by the TNA, the anti-Sri Lanka Tamil expatriates, the anti-Sri Lanka West, and writers like Jehan Perera twisting facts and putting unspoken words as said by  the President.

If there are no more minority and majority communities, it means that the   political power is equally shared by all the peoples- Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim and all others.  The solution to the problem is for the TNA to realise that the Tamils have to live with the rest of the communities as the citizens of Sri Lanka sharing in its prosperity or in its poverty. 

This could happen if the International Community instead of seeking to accuse the Government of Sri Lanka advice the TNA and the Tamil people to cooperate with the government and live in harmony with other communities. USA in the mean time should not use its Embassy in Sri Lanka to interfere in the internal matters of the country.

More resolutions by the USA and its allies against Sri Lanka every year calling for accountability for a struggle which had been brought to an end  five years ago  will only prolong the reconciliation of the Communities in Sri Lanka.  

Therefore Jehan Perera should write articles to inform the west that Sri Lanka should be left alone to bring progress, peace and security to the country at its own pace,  without  becoming a stumbling block  to Sri Lanka’s  efforts at reconciliation, progress and development.