Monday, August 6, 2012

Last week marked the 25th anniversary of a controversial agreement officially known as the ‘Indo-Sri Lanka Agreement to establish Peace and Normalcy in Sri Lanka’, more commonly called the Indo-Lanka Accord. In a few months, we will mark, though not necessarily celebrate, the 25th anniversary of the 13A (the 13th Amendment to the Constitution) and the creation of Provincial Councils in the country.

That India forced this system of administration on Sri Lanka is not just history; it continues to be a thorny issue between the two countries. For 25 years, however, the Northern Provincial Council for which the Accord was primarily signed, was not to be while the rest of the country was saddled with a ‘Made in India’ piece of legislation nobody else wanted.
Suggestions have been made that it was time that 13A was completely revisited. India, meanwhile, continues to press for the full implementation of 13A, but not so much for the remaining provisions of the Accord, some of which are now pass� and irrelevant.

The Accord came against the backdrop of Sri Lanka’s post-1977 free market driven open economy that seemed to have riled India which was economically struggling with its anti-US socialist policies. India viewed Sri Lanka’s pro-West stance with great suspicion, and a tinge of jealousy. Today, roles are reversed with India bending over backwards to do business with the West, the US in particular.

Very few such bi-lateral accords remain without any sort of revision for so long. A Defence Co-operation Agreement between the two countries also fell through with no known reasons given. The belief on this side of the Palk Strait at the time was that it was because of New Delhi’s worries that it would upset the Tamil Nadu lobby, whose political support was crucial to coalition governments in India. The ‘war’ with the LTTE was raging in those years and domestic political compulsions would have priority over good neighbourliness or the global war on terror.

The Government is hamstrung by India’s persistence for the full implementation of 13A, and the call for elections to the Northern Provincial Council. We have said this before, and say it again, the reason for this demand is patently clear. India would like an unofficial eighth union territory under the control of its proxy, the TNA (Tamil National Alliance). The ‘doosra’ they bowl can be seen even before the delivery.

What New Delhi’s policy makers have missed out is the affinity most Sri Lankans have for India. But they seem to be squandering this natural goodwill by their parroting of unpopular calls. Worse, in their perspective would be that the vastly increasing influence of China in this country is being reluctantly accepted as a result.

Prior to revisiting 13A and the Indo-Lanka Accord, the Government might well consider holding a Referendum to ascertain the views of all Sri Lankans on 13A, the Accord and the Provincial Council system.

The 1978 Constitution had a progressive provision in Article 86 that stated that “A President may submit to the people by Referendum any matter which in the opinion of the President is of national importance”. This was one of the salutary clauses that the J.R. Jayewardene administration introduced. But the clause acquired a terrible reputation because it was misused by that Government to extend the life of Parliament without going for a general election. The purpose was to retain the five-sixth majority that the Government had at the time circumventing the need for a parliamentary poll.
A referendum of the people was never carried out thereafter. In many advanced democracies, such a move is frequently implemented. It is considered the ideal – a democracy where the people’s views are ascertained more than at elections and on a specific question.

Rather than waste public funds on holding staggered elections to Provincial Councils as the Government is doing right now mostly to prop up the its image as one having the continued support of the people, the more worthwhile exercise would have been to test public opinion on 13A, the Indo-Lanka Accord and the Provincial Councils.

The will of the people must prevail, and the Government must heed public opinion in this country. It would also come in handy in telling those foreign governments, which keep asking the Government to do this and that, that in a democracy one cannot go against the will of its people. Should the majority of the people so desire to continue with 13A, the Accord and the Provincial Councils, then the Government is duty bound to proceed to enforce them in a proper and systematic way. Right now the Government is doing neither; not implementing those Indian hand-me-downs, nor throwing them out of the window.

Even the Indo-Lanka Accord made provision for a referendum of the people of the Eastern Province after the temporary merger of the North and East Provincial Councils. Successive Sri Lankan governments ignored this for more than two decades and neither did India insist on it.

The Supreme Court later struck down the merger as unconstitutional and therefore such a referendum is now no longer an issue. However, the point is that even then, a referendum of the people was envisaged and drafted into the Accord. The question now is why a referendum of the whole island cannot be held on what is a nagging issue of national importance.

Small arms and ammunitions imports into Sri Lanka from 1992-2010: A latent hypocrisy?

Groundviews

Google has just released an interesting visualisation of the global small arms and ammunitions trade (works best in Google Chrome). For those with older browsers, a screencast of the visualisation can be viewed as an HD video below.

When disaggregated by country, Sri Lanka’s small arms and ammunitions imports since ’92 to 2010 are very interesting to study through this visualisation, which gives details of the country of origin as well as the sum spent on ammunition and arms per annum, generated from UN Statistics Division’s Commodity Trade Statistics Database known as COMTRADE. COMTRADE source data for the visualisation has been cleaned up by the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO). As Google notes, “…the scale of the global trade in ammunition rivals the scale of trade in actual weapons, an insight underexplored by policymakers today in conflict prevention and resolution.”

In 2006, our primary arms suppliers are European countries, including the United Kingdom. But we also get supplies from Japan, other South-East Asian countries and the US.

For whatever reason, in 2007, there seems to be no trade with China, and Brazil emerges as a new supplier. In comparison to 2006, we are importing less from the EU, and the statistics indicate some measure of arms and ammunitions exports to Belgium and the UAE. Can readers conversant with the global arms trade shed some light on this? The US is a strong ammunitions exporter to Sri Lanka. As opposed to the previous year, there are arms and ammunitions imports from India as well. Unsurprisingly, given the onset of war, imports jump from $277,422 in 2006 to $1,230,656 during the course of the year.

In 2008, imports drop to $813,224, and the visualisation suggests there’s an increase in ammunition imports from India over the last year. Also this year, the US drops as a supplier of ammunition, but remains a source of arms imports. The data does not show for this year any export figures.

By 2009, both arms and ammunitions imports from the US have stopped. The total value of imports, $1,331,513, is a dramatic increase over 2008. Brazil remains a key supplier of arms. Of the total value of imports, a staggering $1,122,968 was paid to Brazil alone making it the single most important supplier this year. This is also significant increase from $751,003 paid to Brazil for supplies over 2008. We do not seem to have imported arms or ammunition from India this year.

2010 sees a dramatic reduction in arms and ammunitions imports. It is unclear what the $4,510 worth of exports to the UK is about this year. We are also exporting arms to Tanzania and of all places, the Seychelles, but these could be statistical anomalies given their very small values. India’s exported around $60,000 worth of supplies to Sri Lanka, dwarfing the $8,284 from the US. The Philippines has exported $34,372, and Singapore just over $9,000.

Interestingly, the highest ever sum of money spent on arms and ammunitions imports comes from 2000, under the administration of the then President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge. The pulsating blue line is hard to miss. Of the total value of imports in 2000 ($9,061,456) a staggering $8,947,607 came from the Czech Republic.

Though the figures and statistics can and will be debated, it’s interesting to juxtapose the countries that have undergirded Sri Lanka’s war (from ’92 onwards, under successive governments) and the list of countries that supported the UN Human Rights Council Resolution on Sri Lanka in March this year.

If anything, the UN HRC voting map compared to the trade of arms and ammunition strongly suggests that the arms of foreign governments interested in strengthening accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka are not entirely in sync with other arms of government, including the private military industry, that have materially supported Sri Lanka’s war. This disconnect is one that Sri Lanka’s current regime has tirelessly sought to highlight, for entirely parochial reasons. That said, if there is now an interest in and commitment towards accountability within Sri Lanka by the international community, it begs the question – will there be any accounting of how foreign arms and ammunition flows contributed to gross human rights abuses in Sri Lanka?

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Breakdown of law, people lose confidence in Police

Puttalam fishermen protesting against fishing by ‘non-fishermen’ Pic by Hiran Priyankara Jayasinghe

Twenty-four-year-old Chandrika Kumara, a housewife, in the sleepy hamlet of Bilbewewa in the Anuradhapura District, chose to join four others on Monday night for a ride in the small trailer of a two wheel tractor to attend a funeral.
Little did this mother of a four-year-old child realise it was a journey that would end in her death. Four of her companions, seriously injured, are now lying at the Anuradhapura base hospital.

Tragedy struck them when a speeding van crashed into the tractor. Except for being one more for Police Headquarters statistics of traffic accidents and resultant deaths, the incident would have been forgotten. The number of road deaths, even Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena remarked rather effusively not so long ago, was higher than those who died of dengue.

That was not to be. Almost an entire hamlet turned up outside the Tambuttegama Police Station. They blocked the main Kurunegala-Anuradhapura highway for more than three hours on Thursday and staged a protest. They carried the coffin which had the body of Chandrika. Their grouse — Police had “under reported” the facts of the traffic accident resulting in the driver of the van receiving bail in court. Police were forced to fire tear gas after the crowds, estimated at more than a thousand, tried to enter the police station. They hurled back to the police premises tear gas canisters directed at them. Some even threw stones damaging windows of the police station. Police had to call for reinforcements.

Chinese woman sacrificed for the growth of Tamil language

[ Monday, 06 August 2012, 01:05.05 PM GMT +05:30 ]

Chinese Tamil announcer named Kalaiarasi. She is a Chinese national.

She speaks Tamil very well.
She hopes to spread Tamil among Chinese nationals. At present they have began Tamil television and radio stations in the country.

Only the Chinese nationals employed in these tv and radio stations.
Well trained Chinese nationals appointed as announcers of these stations.
Numbers of Tamil teledram and film viewers were increased in China.

Inside Sri Lankan's war-torn north-eastern corner

North-eastern Sri Lanka has been off-limits to journalists and most other outsiders since the civil war ended in 2009, but the authorities have now granted BBC correspondent Charles Haviland access to much of the area.

The 26-year civil war in Sri Lanka was Asia's longest modern war

I was with the army as they detonated left-over munitions near a major battle scene.

"Here, crouch behind these sandbags," they told me as we stood, in protective clothing, a few hundred metres from the detonation site. "If shrapnel comes anywhere near, just duck."

I decided to retreat a lot further back. The thud was impressive.

We were in the devastated land which saw the last bitter fighting of the war. Many tall palmyrah trees had lost their tops.

Many signs are in English and Sinhala but not Tamil - the local language

Half-submerged in the arid ground I saw a single flip-flop and a plastic shoe. Who had worn them?

This is where tens of thousands of people cowered - trapped between the Tamil Tigers who conscripted their children and shot those trying to escape - and the army bombardments.

Large tracts are still mined. There are buildings sliced in half; buses with an end missing. Most poignant are the mundane things: someone's trousers, a plastic chair, cushions, a rusting bedstead.

I looked towards a damaged Catholic church (there are both Catholics and Hindus among the local Tamil population). The church had been cleared of mines and a Sinhalese soldier took me inside. "I'm a Roman Catholic," he told me - a minority in the mainly Buddhist military.

Sections of the roof had been ripped out, leaving a zigzag pattern of light. The soldier stood by the broken glass of a small shrine to Mary and told me he felt consoled that 13 of the 14 Stations of the Cross were undamaged.

Earlier I met a man born and bred in this place. He had lost his brother and his sister as this area was being besieged. "We were climbing over bodies," he said.

Only now, after demining, are families beginning to return to their plots in these villages, many coming on recce visits from refugee camps.

Surviving buildings are mostly unsafe and will have to be destroyed. And people here have little with which they can rebuild.

Not far away, life seems more normal. A Tamil fisherman wades into the Nanthidakal lagoon and casts his net. There is a jetty and fishing boats here, a low causeway across which trucks trundle into the town of Mullaitivu.

There is little evidence of what happened here in 2009. Huge numbers of Tamils fled from the besieged zone across this lagoon. On its shore the body of the dead Tiger leader, Prabhakaran, was filmed, his scalp covered to conceal the fact that much of it was missing.

There is something which jars. There are many new signs in the neighbourhood, giving for instance the name of the lagoon or the government's account of what happened here during the conflict.

Indeed, a war "tourist trail" is already springing up for Sri Lankan tourists. But nearly all the signs are in Sinhala and English only - not in Tamil, the local language and, of course, the language of the people who lost so much.

This is repeated all over the area: at a museum of captured Tiger equipment; at Prabhakaran's bunker, now a tourist spot.

At the bunker there are in fact many Tamil visitors including schoolchildren from nearby, and expatriates from Germany. A Sinhalese soldier, fluent in Tamil, acts as their guide. That is impressive. But there is barely a word of Tamil on the signs.

At two places we ask the military why this is. "There was not anyone who could speak the language, but we would like to put up Tamil signs soon," one soldier says. Another, though, tells me he has mentioned it to the higher authorities - "but nobody is interested".

What does this say for reconciliation efforts in this country, whose war sprang partly from the fact that Tamils had said they felt like second-class citizens?

There are more immediate concerns. Along with the struggle to rebuild, there is little employment available.

By chance we met a former Tiger militant. He said there were no opportunities and no jobs. But he did not want war again.

The army presence is still massive. Travelling across northern Sri Lanka is like criss-crossing from garrison to garrison.

In fact the number of soldiers on patrol has fallen sharply. They have been asked to reduce their visibility. And many places like the army-run cafes and shops which had sprung up, have now been closed.

But the government says it still fears a resurgence of the Tamil Tigers and it is not loosening its grip.

In one place an officer told us the army's intelligence network had actually expanded. "We've been asked to keep a register of what people do and where they go," he said. "We even monitor schoolchildren's activities. We know what people eat for their lunch."

Sri Lanka inflation inching towards double digit (10 %) levels

Sri Lankan inflation rose to 9.8 per cent last month (on a year-on-year basis) against 9.3 per cent in June, appearing to edge closer to double digit inflation (10 per cent and over) in the next few months – unless food prices come down.The Central Bank (CB) said inflation, as measured by the Colombo Consumers’ Price Index (CCPI) and computed by the Department of Census and Statistics, increased to 6 per cent in July 2012, on an annual average basis, from 5.8 per cent in the previous month.

It said this was mainly due to a hike in food prices.Core inflation continued its decelerating trend for the 10th consecutive month and reached� 5.5 per cent in July 2012, on an annual average basis, from 5.7 per cent in June 2012, while increasing on a YoY basis to 6 per cent in July 2012 from 5.8 per cent in the previous month.

The contribution to the monthly increase in the Index came mainly from price increases in the Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages category (by 1.6 per cent) followed by the Non-Food category (by 0.3 per cent). The increase in the prices of rice, coconut, fresh fish, sugar, fruits, vegetables and prepared food contributed to the increase in the food category of CCPI. The upward revision in the prices of wheat flour, fuel and milk powder has had an impact on the prices of prepared foods with a time lag, the CB said.

However, a decline in the prices of red onions, big onions and limes was also reported during the month.

Sunday, August 5, 2012

I DON’T CONDEMN THE ‘SINNERS’ BUT THE ‘SINS’

- MANNAR BISHOP

“I don’t ‘become’ an anti Sri Lankan, LTTEer or a separatist because people call me so. I cannot waste my time thinking of the ‘names’ given to me or stop them 5-1

from calling me so, but I will continue to be a voice against injustice and will not tolerate violation of human rights,” says, Mannar Bishop Dr Rayappu Joseph.

By Sulochana Ramiah Mohan

You have been called the ‘Controversial Bishop’ and recently Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen claimed that you were the ‘cause’ for the clash in Mannar where Muslims attacked the magistrate and the Tamil fishermen in Uppukkulam? What is your explanation?
I am called a controversial Bishop because there are ‘controversial’ issues taking place and when I speak on those issues I turned to be ‘controversial’. If I speak out, I am an ‘outspoken Bishop’. If I care for the poor and fight for justice, I am an anti Sri Lankan, a LTTE or a separatist. So, what am I to do? I care less about these names, but I will keep voicing against injustice and fight against human rights violations.
In Uppukkulam, Tamil fisher folk paid a rent to the Muslims to put up vaadiayas and fish in their area for a couple of years. In 2006, they went to the Fisheries Harbour Corporation and asked permission to fish in their area. It’s just a 200 meter stretch on the beach and the additional director fisheries, and the GA issued a recommendation letter in 2006 giving permission to fish in the requested 200m beach front sea. The beach belongs to the state. Anyone can ask permission and fish but the Uppukulam Muslims did not want them to fish there. They ‘claimed’ it’s their land.
The Muslims complained to Minister Bathiudeen and he went to the district divisional secretary and the GA to tell the Tamil fishermen not to fish there. After a complaint to the police, they were given another place to fish. There too the Muslims of that area chased them. Tamils said they will wait till an area is given for fishing but nothing happened. After staying for some days, unable to starve they went fishing when the clash took place. What the judge said was to give 3 weeks and he will settle them. He was fair in his judgment. You cannot chase people off all of a sudden. And the beach stretch is owned by the state. Why cannot they let them fish there?

The Muslims say their livelihood is ‘threatened’ and less fish because all are fishing in their areas?
Muslims of that area are not fishermen. Most of them are businessmen. They don’t fish in big numbers. They have about six boats, I guess. They are seasonal fishermen looking for sea cucumber. You don’t find sea cucumber throughout the year. Only 200 meter stretch of the beach was used for fishing by the Tamils. Do you mean all the fish in the sea is in that 200 meter stretch? Why can’t they fish just outside the 200m sea area? The sea belongs to all and fish is everywhere.

Full Story>>>

Gota’s private paramilitary group fighting Somalia Guerillas compromises SL national security

(Lanka-e-News-05.Aug.2012, 7.30PM) The defense secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse, the bigwig of the Rajapakse regime and a citizen of the US had placed the country’s security in grave jeopardy owing to his avarice for personal selfish gains.

Without the approval of the SL security council or the Cabinet or the Parliament he had deployed employees of his personal security Company to engage in the war against the guerillas in Somalia.

Towards this end , the arms and weapons of the armory of SL Army have been used which action is absolutely unlawful. What is the right Gotabaya has to act so high handedly of his own accord and treat the SL national security and people’s so frivolously and uncaringly in order to achieve his self seeking aims?

Hereunder are details of this security betrayal.
Since 2005 the Somalia guerillas have been operating as sea pirates. The manner in which this threat spread by 2010 is depicted in the map hereunder . Today ,to those shipping Companies using the sea route this had become a big problem. The blue colored part in the Map are the main sea routes.

It is to be noted that SL ‘s defense secretary has exploited the perilous situation in the sea to supply security to the ships sailing in the risk laden zone by providing personnel employed in his Rakna Security Lanka service with a view to reaping huge profits.

Before we proceed further let us throw some light on this Rakna security service. This was a private Co. incorporated under the private Companies Act 1987 section 17 .The chief of this Co. is none other than the defense secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse along with a Director Board. The others who are the chiefs holding main positions are pensioners Major General Palitha Fernando and Major general Egodawala who were undergoing training with Gotabaya during his training period in the army.
Egodawala was responsible for the Alimankade debacle during the war , and therefore received a punishment on that account from the military court. The Ratna security service Co. is not a semi Govt. Co. coming under the Parliamentary Act., though it has the regime’s patronage. It is a fully privately owned Co. If it was a semi Govt. establishment its financial affairs must be accountable to the Parliament select Committee (COPE) and to the Govt. Auditor General. This Co. on the other hand is completely owned by Gotabaya Rajapakse sans all these accountabilities and responsibilities.

In other words this Co. is an absolutely illegal Co. because a defense secretary who is holding a Govt. post cannot in law also hold a position in a private Co. Under the Companies’ act , this is a punishable offence ; even otherwise because there can be a conflict of interests , Gotabaya’s action is unethical .

Full story >>

Important issues swept under the carpet

Government’s LLRC Action Plan is bluff

On 26 July a government website presented the proposed Action Plan (AP) to implement the LLRC’s recommendations. The plan needs to be reviewed seriously though I am inclined to conclude that it is mostly bluff, but let me not cross my bridges before I reach them. AP is presented in tabular form under five headings: Humanitarian Law (4), Human Rights (28), Land & Resettlement (9), Compensation (3), and Reconciliation (30), where the figures in parenthesis are the number of items into which the proposed actions are partitioned. I find it useful to review AP at three levels, viz (a) straightforward, (b) critical and (c) incisive. The straightforward approach is to take the document on trust and review the adequacy of what has been proposed and note what has been omitted or glossed over. The critical reading will consider the adequacy of the government’s implicit political approach; a sharper comment will be reserved for the concluding section of this article.
The Humanitarian Law section contains a proposal to conduct a detailed survey by the Census and Statistics Department; the Human Rights section proposes comprehensive human rights education programmes, centralized data collection on missing persons, and several proposals to screen and retrain young people and those with disabilities. The responsibilities are assigned to the relevant government departments (excluding the Defence Ministry and the Police) and I think a reasonable job will be done if resources are made available and filthy UPFA politicians kept out. There are also plans to lift restrictions on visits to places of worship and lift restraints on persons from overseas visiting their relatives in resettled areas. This will also be implemented, but why on earth 12 months and six 18-1

months, respectively, are needed for full implementation is quite baffling.
What has been said under the Land & Resettlement head is mostly bluff. Other than the assertive opening clause that any citizen of Sri Lanka has the right to acquire land in any part of the country, the remainder is wishy-washy. Return of lands taken by HSZs is brushed aside with a “Release where possible” comment, a National Land Commission to implement land policy guidelines under the 13th Amendment gets a mysterious “To be confirmed” which makes one wonder whether the government is contemplating repealing 13A or mucking around to turn it into 13A minus-minus. The 24 months set aside to complete Payment of Compensation is far too long but my hunch is that the payments will eventually be made as the names of ‘resettle-es’ get recorded on voter registers.
About half of the proposals in AP under the Reconciliation head are to be implemented by agencies other than the Defence Ministry, the Police and the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC), and we can be hopeful that some of this will get done if resources are provided. Apart from, and far more important than these specifics, is leadership to get things done, and that will not emerge till after the Northern Provincial Council elections and independent Tamil leaders are in place. This prospect however, the Rajapaksas are resisting tooth and nail.

Critical remarks Full Story>>>

Who is the greatest Sri lankan of all Time?

Saturday, 04 August 2012

Under the leadership of D.S.Senanayake the Sri Lankan economy grew immensely. The post independence economic management of Ceylon was better than when it was under the colonial masters. This prompted Lee Kwan Yu to say that his Utopian goal for Singapore was to emulate Ceylon .

Even today, Senanayake is venerated as the Father of the Nation. Rajapaksa is the most popular political leader in Sri Lanka with an approval rating of 93%. He is the 3rd most popular leader in the Asian Region. But yet, who could be considered as the greatest Ceylonese of all times? It was Senanayake who said that the greatest Ceylonese of all time was none others than Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan, KC!

During the heyday of the colonial Empire, we were a minuscule tiny dot in the British Empire . The British Empire was then headed by the most powerful monarch ever known, Queen Victoria . We just saw the grand spectacle and the unbelievable splendour of Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations the other day. World leaders were present at the ceremony but they had the occasion to greet the Queen but no one was invited from the Commonwealth to deliver a speech.

A rare honour

But nearly 115 years ago on a similar occasion, where Queen Victoria the grand aunt of the Present Queen, celebrated her Golden Jubilee, one of the greatest honours ever conferred upon a Ceylonese was conferred upon Ceylonese Tamil who was chosen by the then Prime Minister of United Kingdom to deliver an oration to mark the Golden Jubilee celebration.

In the year 1897, there was absolutely no question of Ceylon becoming a independent and dominion state. It was the age of aristocracy, Victorian values and morality. The aristocrats and imperialist believed in the moral and God given duty that they had to civilize the barbarians and virtual savages living in their colonies. But, nonetheless the Prime Minister of England, Lord Salisbury, decided to invite the only representative of Sri Lanka , Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan, to deliver a speech at the Golden Jubilee Celebration of Queen Victoria . It was more unthinkable then than even today. Such was the reputation of Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan as one of the greatest orators in the British empire . He was dressed in an immaculate long coat and turban and delivered one of the greatest speeches that has ever been delivered by a Ceylonese or a Sri Lankan. The entire audience, comprising Kings, queens, Monarchs and others were held spellbound by the eloquence of Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan. Queen Victoria was simply bewildered by the oratory of Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan. Her Royal Highness, the Queen, presented Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan with a gold medal, as a memento, for the great service rendered to the British Empire and to the empress, Queen Victoria. The only other person who received such an honour was, Siriniwasa Sasthri of India , in the year 1930, nearly 33 years after the momentous occasion, which could be compared to the greatest honour bestowed upon by any foreign government. Siriniwasa Sasthri and Ramanathan were known as the silver-tongued orators of the British Empire .. They were bestowed with the same honour on different occasions. Ramanathan put the country before self. During the Sinhala-Muslim riots, he was in the forefront of the struggle to free the Sri Lankan leaders. And many leaders were taken into custody without any evidence. D. S. Senanayake, F. R. Dias Bandaranayake. H. W. Amarasuriya, A. H. Molammure, D. R. Wijewardena, Dr. Casssius Perera and E. T. de silva were imprisoned under the dreaded Martial Law. There was a fear amongst the Ceylonese community as the British shot some prisoners without trial.

Sir Ponnambalam, who was appointed the Solicitor General by the Governor, pursued a campaign against the British governor and the British Military without batting an eyelid against the imposition of Martial Law and against the arrest, detention and killing of Sinhalese who were perceived by the Imperialist as the Public Enemy. He did not consider losing his perks and purse, but took the side of the Sinhalese who had been shot by the military. Thousands of innocent men died during this purge.

Lackeys and bootlickers of the British empires, headed by Sir Solomon Dias Bandaranaike, the Maha Mudaliyar, conspired with the British governor Sir Robert Chalmers and out of sheer jealousy of the Pedris family betrayed the person who defiantly curbed the riots, Captain Henry Pedris. He was named a traitor and shot without trial.

Anagarika Dharmapala

The leaderless community of the Ceylonese had to appeal to Anagarika Dharmapala, who was away in India . Dharmapala appealed to the only one he believed was a true patriot and would do everything to protect Buddhism. He chose none other than a devout Hindu Tamil, Sir Ponnambalam.

Sir Ponnambalam made a scathing attack on the British Governor. He knew that under the Martial Law he could have been arrested and imprisoned for being a traitor to the British Empire . He decided to visit Britain secretly. He was warned not to leave the shores of Sri Lanka as the German gunboats were attacking the British Navy and there was a great risk of his ship being sunk. In England he met the Prime Minister and other political leaders.

His mastery of the English language and the skill he developed as a lawyer to assess facts and present them with minimum effort, were so impressive that he succeeded in having the governor transferred and the head of Military recalled from Ceylon . He eventually managed to get all the leaders released from prison. When he came back to Ceylon victoriously, there were thousands to welcome him. The leader of the Labour Party Mr. A. E. Gunasinghe with thousands of supports was there to greet him, Sir John Kotalawala and A. C. Seneviratne, a prominent businessman, said that the Sinhalese owe Sir Ponnambalam a debt that could never be repaid. They insisted that his horse carriage be drawn by Sinhalese. Sir Ponnambalam was driven through the streets of Colombo to his residence at Ward Place and some of the top families, of Sinhalese aristocracy, had no qualms about drawing his carriage through the streets of Colombo virtually carrying him on their backs. Sinhala leaders took turns to pull the carriage.

Sir Ponnambalam wrote "Take the Sinhala Nation. I have served the race all my life. In my twenty eighth year I entered the Legislative Council and never once have I thought myself to be a member of the Tamil Community only - I supported the Sinhalese interest and every other interest and treated every subject with the same sympathy and desire to do the best for all the communities. I knew through and through the men and women of the Sinhalese communities of all classes. They have all the characteristic of a great people they are decidedly considerate and peaceful."

Let me pose this question again: Who is the greatest Ceylonese or Sri Lankan who ever lived in the last two hundred years. Senanayake and Sir Baron Jayatilleke conceded that the greatest Sri Lankan that ever lived was Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan Q.C.

True Nationalism Vs Imperialist

Tribalism

Rajpal has clarified many matters in his reply, leaving what I believe, as the main matter of controversy. He ends his article saying “I daresay that a political arrangement for the North and the East is a necessity to avoid possible future flare-ups between the two major ethnic communities. I think on that too Dr. Bahu and I could agree. But I certainly do not agree with him that protecting the economic sovereignty of this nation - which is something entirely separate from defending this government - is anti-national, or Sinhala chauvinist! After all, these progressive Nationalists ended the war, and stopped the seepage to the US of our dollars, to buy 44% of our arms needs! And if anybody - whether it’s Dr. Bahu or anybody else - thinks there was any other way of stopping the war with the fascist terrorist LTTE - of course surely he is in la-la land!.” There are many things that I could dispute in this short paragraph. Firstly, there is no ethnic problem in this country. Europeans assume, that they have left ethnic rivalries long ago and their conflicts are national problems. Rivalry between English and Irish is considered to be a national problem. However Tamils and Sinhala both, left tribalism long time back, may be in the 5th century; yet we are told that we have an ethnic problem. We dropped idol worship even before; and Hindu, and subsequently, Buddhist philosophies fashioned our thinking. In fact, Buddhist rationalism contested the concept of creation and advocated a rationalist view point. In this manner we lived in this island for over 2000 years. But still Tamil Sinhala clashes are discussed by the imperialists, in the framework of ethnic and tribal conflict. So Rajpal, let us 17-3

get out of this imperialist bid to keep us in the domain of tribalism and let us go forward to put the problem in the proper framework.

Two nationalites one people
We are two nations or nationalities though we are the same people and lived such a long time in this country. To put it in simple words we are of the same blood and flesh, but we are different in language, religion and culture and these are seeped in ancient traditions. Thus we have a national problem which could be much deeper than any European nationality problem. Secondly, there is no fascist problem here, as Tamil nationality is economically as underdeveloped as the Sinhala nationality or more so. LTTE did not express the expansion of the great Dravidian nation as there was no such thing but only a ferocious hatred of a small nation oppressed for decades. LTTE was the guerrilla expression of the Tamil struggle for freedom and equality. Thirdly, so called progressive nationalists did not end the war, but it was transformed into an international political campaign against Sinhala nationality. What does the LLRC report say? It says the war was contaminated with criminality and human rights violations. Also it admits the Tamil national problem and recommends Tamils should be given autonomy and democratic freedom. Fourthly, it is not Bahu who is in a la la land but Rajpal himself.

Tamil homeland
He thinks that the problem is solved where as the problem has become tenfold with all kinds of attacks aimed at Lanka. We could have solved the problem if a true autonomy was given to the Tamil homeland. If such powers were granted the LTTE would have died a natural death, if it did not accept a reasonable solution; because Tamils would have defended the autonomy against any extremism. Also the Lankan Tamils do not want to lose their first citizenship in Lanka.
Trouble with Rajpal and other progressives who think in this manner, is that they do not understand the Tamil national problem. Or more correctly they do not want to understand the problem. Otherwise how could one say that the LTTE is a fascist organisation? How could a nation of 3 million peasants and fishers living in misery create a fascist movement? If at least the Indian state was run by Siva sena and that backed the LTTE one could talk in terms of Hindu fascism.
We can think of a situation similar to Cyprus. But in this case it was Indian rulers who wanted the heads of the LTTE leaders. General Fonseka had said, that once the armed forces were put in order the rig rag army of the LTTE had no options but to runaway leaving one city after the other, into jungle marshy areas pleading international forces to save them. The truth is this war of Mahinda backed by India was not a necessity nor was it a war against a fascist take over. It was a war conducted in the model of ‘war against terror” of US and other global powers. It has given the opportunity to the Establishment to grab our land, water and earth resources, while aggravating the Tamil national problem. We are more in the clutches of the Establishment today, than we were before the war. True nationalists should mobilize all communities against the establishment to protect the national economy.