this is a well written artical telling truth absolutely

Thank you for exposing the true colour of SF. Rajapakse & co are exposing themselves.

When I was in my teens in newspapers I have read that a lot of attrocities were committed on Tamils especially in Colombo and Kandy. By that time Jeyawardane was the president. I thought Jeyawardane is a racist. But some of my elders told me that if at all there is a Sinhalese who has some soft corner for Tamils then it is Jeyawardane. Then I was able to imagine how other sinhalese leaders will be.

Mr.Jeyaraj, I request you to answer the following question.

Is it possible to get equal status and rights on par with sinhalese within an unified Sri Lanka?

Please answer the question without any reservations.

Regards,
Dr.P.Yogesh

Yes…………DBSJ

“By backing down he proved himself to be incapable of tackling the Rajapaksas with the most powerful weapon at his disposal: the truth.” This is her way of calling Fonseka a liar. (January 4, 2010).

On the issue of corruption too Fonseka has come out battered and bruised. Debunking the claims of the Common Candidate, Sarath Fonseka, as “Mr. Clean” in shining armour who can the slay the dragons of corruption, bad governance, et al has become easy after the revelations made by Capt. Upul Illangamage, who has been one of the closest family friends of Fonseka in Oklahoma. He told the media that it was he who set up everything initially in 2002 for the Fonseka’s to settle down in their new home in Oklahoma. Capt. Illangamage said that Fonseka was sure that he could not stay in Sri Lanka after he retired.

In his press interview Capt. Illangamage attacked his character and his arms deals put through his son-in-law, Danun Tillekeratne. It is Fonseka’s character exposed by his friend that is most alarming and questions his capacity to be the head of the nation. He portrays Fonseka as a cruel and uncouth head of the family who would not hesitate to abuse his wife and children. Capt. Illangamage said that once an angry Fonseka force fed his house waiter with a roti simply because it was misshapen. True to his nature Fonseka’s reaction was to attack his former friend in abusive language in public.

Capt. Illangamage also spent sometime at the press conference exposing the arms deals put through by Tillekeratne. It is more than a coincidence that the Army Commander’s son-in-law takes to the business of arms dealing shortly after the father-in-law becomes a key figure in deciding arms procurement. Besides, after Danun Tillekeratne becomes an arms dealer he goes on lavish buying sprees including the purchase of a handbag for his wife at a cost of $4500.

As a close family friend only he would know that Danun Tillkeratne, “with no fixed job”, as he said, had bought a BMW first, followed by a Hummer next, and followed by a Range Rover after he began to sell arms to the Sri Lankan forces. As they say, the servings of gravy depend on who is having the ladle in the hand. So an arms dealer having an Army Commander as his father-in-law is as good as having a father-in-law serving in a soup kitchen with the ladle in his hand, eh?

Second, Fonseka has been throwing promises irresponsibly and carelessly to all and sundry. Promises fall out of his mouth like polluting gas emitted from a dilapidated, rattling vehicle on the way to Nandikadal. He is playing for short term gain like the way Ranil Wickremesinghe appointed committees to appease everyone without solving the problems. In the end neither he nor his factotum Bradman Weerakoon, who headed most of the committees, knew how many committees were appointed nor the outcome of the committees. Fonseka too has begun the same tactic by promising to appoint a committee to look into the problems of the students. Big deal!

Fonseka has underestimated the intelligence of the voters. He thinks that he can diddle the voters with his false promises which he can’t keep.

Third, this election is based on the voters’ list of provincial councils. Those statistics are the only available guidelines to assess any electoral trend. The trend in these polls was very clear: the voters went all the way with President Rajapakse. In the presidential election too, as in the provincial council polls, Rajapakse camp is fighting the Wickremesinghe-Hakeem-Mangala-Somawansa combination – the main voting bloc of the opposition. In addition, two new factors have entered the electoral equation: (1) Sarath Fonseka and (2) the TNA fragment of the divided Tamil votes of the North and East. Can these two factors plus the Wickremesinghe-Hakeem-Mangala-Somawansa combination make a difference on January 26?

By and large it is safe to assume that the voting blocs of the two main contenders remain the same as during the provincial council elections with marginal variations due to cross-overs. In the provincial council elections the national average polled by Rajapakse is a decimal point over 62%. If a change is to occur the opposition will have to bring down the 62% of Rajapakse to at least 49%. Leaving aside the hype of the opposition, the task is not only to drag the 1.9 million voters that voted for Rajapakse in the PC polls into Fonseka’s camp but also add the extra point to cross the line to victory. In other words, the opposition has to gain a swing of nearly 13%, or a two million plus, to be on the safe side.

This is a big ask. The opposition is crowing stridently about the cross-overs as if the cross-overs at the top are an indication of mass migration of voters at the bottom. Take the cases of M. S. Sellasamy of the CWC and the Mayoress of Batticoloa, Mrs. Sivageetha Prabhakaran, both of whom crossed over to Fonseka. In the central hills the bulk of the Indian Tamil votes are with Thondaman – the man who can deliver votes in bulk. And he is with Mahinda Rajapakse while in the East votes are mainly with Karuna and Pillaiyan. The headlines of individual cross-overs may be long but the votes they bring are very short – not the thousands required to swing the election results.

The most significant cross-over to Fonseka’s camp comes from the TNA – a somersault that indicates more the divisions within the former monolithic party operating under the jackboot of Prabhakaran. Besides, it is laughable that Sampanthan and his TNA partners who went round the world complaining about Sarath Fonseka and his military tactics are now pledging their support to him. Perhaps, this may be a Freudian craving for the kicks of Sarath Fonseka’s jackboot as a substitute for the missing jackboot of Prabhakaran after Nandikadal.

But the underlying fact is that TNA cannot deliver the Tamil votes needed for Fonseka to win. M. K. Sivajilingam, who took an independent stand, breaking away from the TNA, is expected to collect a sizeable vote of the north. His being a relative of Prabhakaran too is likely to help him in his independent stand which is more close to that of Prabhakaran. Besides, he could claim that his principles have not changed simply because Prabhakaran is not there to kick them into line which may appeal to the disillusioned Tamils after Nandikadal. That apart, in the post-Prabhakaran phase the northern Tamil vote is like an amoeba: divided into separate entities which have sprouted with new lives of their own. Wickremesinghe missed his chance when the votes could have been delivered en bloc to him when Prabhakaran was living. He was a loser when Prabhakaran was alive. Now he seems to be the biggest loser of Prabhakaran’s death. He has lost again because, without Prabhakaran, the lion share of the Tamil votes is distributed among Douglas Devananda, Sivajilingam, Vikrama Vickramabahu etc.

With the divided Tamil votes, new psephological statistics dominate the northern electorates. The Tamil left parties together with DouglasDevananda who are backing Mahinda Rajapakse command a substantial proportion (45% +plus, according to Tamil expatriates lobbying in Jaffna) of the northern Tamil votes. So if the votes of Sivajilingam and Vickramabahu, who are expected to garner a fair percentage, are taken away from Fonseka what is left for him to cross the line to victory?

These factors are bound to wipe the smile off the face of Fonseka and Wickremesinghe. Once again Wickremesinghe is faced with defeat. Fonseka, of course, can go back to Oklahoma where his son-in-law will come in his Range Rover to take him home. It will be cold when he gets to Oklahoma. But it will be colder in Sri Lanka on January 26 when the election results are announced.

Tamil children were being kidnapped by the LTTE and money being extorted from Tamil civilians by the LTTE on a daily basis. Bombs were being exploded in buses, trains and crowded city centres. Our troops were being murdered willy nilly. The Northern and Eastern provinces were merged and the danger of our Country being bifurcated with the creation of a separate state of Tamil Eelam was ever increasing.

Economically we were at rock bottom: development was only a distant
dream [what development did we see even during the `phony peace’ of the Wickremesinghe Regime ???] and tourism all but dead. The Northern and Eastern Provinces had ceased to be productive units and a drain on the public purse.

After 4 years of `Rajapakse Rule’, our Country has been re-unified; bombs have ceased to be exploded; de-mining is going on apace; anybody from the South can travel to the North and anyone from the North to the South;soldiers and civilians have ceased to be murdered and Tamil children have ceased to be kidnapped. The extortion of money from Tamil civilians is now history.

The Northern and Eastern provinces are de-merged and the threat of the bifurcation of our Country or the creation of a separate State of Tamil Eelam no longer exists, unless of course, some opportunist betrays our Country to feed his ambitions.

On the economic front, development is progressing in all parts of the
Country on a scale hitherto unknown. Tourism is fast rebounding amidst genuine fears of a gross shortage of hotel rooms. The North and East are productive economic units once more and produce from there is now coming into the Southern market.

Unquestionably we are far the better after 4 years of Rajapakse Rule

The patriotic masses who yearned for a complete wipe out of the terrorists and terrorism were however apprehensive that once again the victory will be snatched away from them as it happened in 1987 with the mere drop of Parippu parcels and Indian pressure under which President Jayawardene shamelessly acquiesced and commanded Lt. General Denzil Kobbekaduwa to halt operations and withdraw the forces to their respective barracks.

If not for this political intervention, and the shameless genuflecting to foreign pressure, Lt. General Kobbekaduwa and his troops would have wiped out the terrorists forever, as the LTTE at that time was in a nascent stage and had only a few thousand fighting cadres and had no Navy powerful than the combined navies of several Asian nations and had no Air Wing which even became a threat to India.

After President Jayawardene Sri Lanka was ruled by several Presidents and Prime Ministers and all of them failed to put an end to the rapidly growing terrorist scourge since all of them lacked determination and the political will to annihilate the terrorists, succumbed to external pressure, became deceptive to LTTE’s cunning maneouvres, failed to provide adequate men and material to all forces including the police, had no faith in the capabilities of our security forces, and moreover were ineffective to muster the backing of all patriotic masses from all walks of life for the war effort.

Annihilation of the LTTE’s military wing was possible because of a multitude of factors. The prime factor among them was the solid and staunch leadership given by the President who by making every effort to provide men and material for the forces unswervingly faced all pressures, criticisms and threats from the world’s most powerful nations and foiled all attempts made by treacherous political desperados and political bandits to topple the government with the objective of halting the operations against the terrorists. Nonetheless, we should not remain complacent of what was achieved but be very cautious of the dangers that may befall us from the combined cabal of disgruntled elements who were unsuccessful in saving the LTTE leadership.

The mere annihilation of the LTTE military wing will not make Sri Lanka safe. The last minute sturdy attempts made by western nations including the joint visit made by Foreign Ministers of two powerful western nations (initial attempt was to make it a joint visit of three Ministers) point to the fact that how important LTTE was in their neocolonial geopolitical roadmap in the face of rising Asian giants China and India.

Since Sri Lanka is situated in a strategically important location than the illegally acquired Dieggo Garcia the western nations, despite unavoidable proscription of LTTE, considered and valued the LTTE as a vibrant agent to destabilize the region, as they maintain Israel, Georgia and several other nations and terrorist organizations to destabilize regions and establish their economical and political hegemony over those regions.

Having lost the mercenary force, the LTTE, which they were nurturing to destabilize China and India,and other nations in the Asian region, the western imperialists together with the international LTTE elements and unpatriotic political desperados and hooligans would certainly attempt now to install a puppet regime in Sri Lanka. Most Sri Lankans were unaware that on October 15th some treacherous elements under Uniform attempted to snatch away the people’s victory over the LTTE, and install such a puppet regime. Swift action taken by the President and India placing its security forces on alert foiled the intended coup attempt.

If not for the swift action taken by the President, similar to what happened through an Army coup in Indonesia in 1966 overthrowing President Sukarno’s 32 year rule would have happened in Sri Lanka, and by now several thousand would have lost their lives in a blood bath worse than the Uva-Wellassa blood bath. In Indonesia, the western powers and the local treacherous political elements resentful of President Sukarno’s people friendly rule and his close relationship with China supported Suharto’s take over of power and following this take over military backed militia went on rampage and mercilessly murdered upto two million Sukarno’s party (PKI) members and Chinese nationals.

Similarly in Chile, the Popular Unity Governemnt elected in 1970 of President Dr. Salvador Allende was toppled in 1973 with active support from American CIA and a military dictatorship headed by General Augusto Pinochet was installed. Following this coup over 3,200 people were killed, at least 80,000 were imprisoned, 30,000 subjected to gruesome torture, and another around 200,000 people fled the country seeking asylum in Argentina, Peru and several other Latin American countries. It was also reported that Dictator Pinochet’s military intelligence even killed some of these exiled people going into the countries they found asylum.Likewise in 1983 the American forces invaded the carribean island of Grenada and killed Prime Ministeer Maurice Bishop and a puppet Army General named Hudston Austin was installed as the Head of State. Nicaragua is another ountry where an Amercan puppet regime was installed by deposing Daniel Ortega’s Sandinista government.

Our neighbours Bangladesh and Pakistan too were subjected to the jackboot conspiracies of the western imperialists. The father of Bangladesh Sheik Mujib ur Rehman, the elected popular Prime Minister of Bangladesh and his family members were brutally murdered by the Army on 15th August 1975 and General Zia ur Rehman was installed as President of Bangladesh.

Elected popular Prime Minister of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was overthrown and imprisoned by an Army Coup led by General Zia ul Haq on 5th July 1977 and he ruled the country for 11 years under an iron fist until he was disposed by his own mentors the Americans in a meticulously arranged plane crash in 1988.

All these incidents occurred when those countries were governed by persons who loved their country over and above their self and were committed and determined to develop their nations with populist agendas. Only in Malaysia they were unable to impose their hegemony since Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed clearly understood their maneouvres freed the country from all bondages with western nations and steered the country on a self-reliance agenda, and fortunately that country did not have a treacherous political force prostrating before western imperialists and exercising political banditry.

There is every possibility that the western imperialists who are unable to squeeze us economically due to forthright assistance we receive from China, Iran, Libya, Russia (their sworn enemies) and from India and many Middle East countries, will make every attempt in collaboration with unpatriotic shady political crooks and immoral elements to install a puppet regime servile to them.
When the matriarch of our nation the late Prime Minister Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike without bowing down to American threats nationalized the oil companies in 1961 attempts were made to imprison and murder her in a Coup led by C.C.Dissanayake, the grandfather of Ravi Karunanayake at midnight on 27 January 1962. Due to timely action taken by a patriot, S.P.Colombo Mr. Stanley Senanayake to inform her through his father in law Mr. P.de S. Kularatne saved the Prime Minister and the then Ministers of the Cabinet from the planned massacre. Incidentally the Octobdr 15th attempt to overthrow the government could indeed be another such effort that failed to materialize. The argument of dangers posed by the western imperialists to subjugate our nation is vividly confirmed by a bipartisan report on Sri Lanka that had been prepared by the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The New Yrok Times dated 6th December outlining details containing in the report says that the report emphasises Sri Lanka’s importance to protect U.S.geostrategic interests in the region. Saying Sri Lanka is too important a country to be isolated from the West, the report emphasises that “Sri Lanka is located at the nexus of crucial maritime trading routes in the Indian Ocean connecting Europe and the Middle East to China and the rest of Asia,” Coupled with terrorist sympathiser Robert Blakes uninvited unilateral visit to Sri Lanka we all Sri Lakans shoud be very cautious about the anemy agendas that threatens the future of our nation.
Anyone who has an iota of patriotism cannot allow the hard earned victory to be snatched away by the external and internal vicious hostile unpatriotic forces. It is the bounden duty of all patriotic masses to join hands placing the country before and above all other petty and parochial interests and save the nation from attempts being made to achieve through the back door and clandestinely what was failed to achieve through terrorism, econmomical subjugation, and gunpoint-diplomacy and through deception and banditry.

The forthcoming Presidential Election has offered us the best option to be visionary, to put a permanent end to underhand and despicable activities by enemies of the nation, thwart all threats to the country, and steer the nation on a development path and make it a worthwhile and peaceful country for our posterity. Let us seriously examine in the forthcoming installments of this article who is capable of steering our nation in the right path and attempts being made to hinder our march to progress and prosperity.

I for one have been trying to help you financially by clicking furiously on those google ads. My problem is how many times can one look for an Asian wife, especially on a website which says Asian for Euro.

Maybe that old head Shankar has some advice for us on this online dating predicament.

Congratulations another superb piece of journalism. Everywhere we are n darkness with only your words to light the way. Best wishes for your health and happiness and another virtuoso year in 2010.

Thank you Ravin and wish you all the very best for 2010…………..DBSJ

If the Tamil people in Srilanka aspire to live with the other communities as brothers and sisters JHU would not have any reasons to object.All these animosities and Sinhala patriotism were also the result of the LTTE .So it is wrong to say that Sinhalese harbored ill feeling and hatred towards Tamils for 60 years.

When I saw the poster for the recently held referendum by the Canadian Tamils.I was flabbergasted.One third of the land mass and two thirds of the coast line is claimed as Tamil Eelam.These demands are the cause of antagonism and misunderstanding among Sinhalese towards the Tamil community.

Tamils who have left Srilanka and obtained citizenship in other countries,( same applies to Sinhalese as well ) should not have any claims to current or future directions of Srlanka.The Tamil people with influence in Srilanka should tell these shit stirrers to butt out.

Any solution to the grievances of the Tamil people should be worked out by themselves with the Srilankan government.The present President ,despite his uncompromising stand against the LTTE, still is the best option for the Tamil people if they wish to live as brothers and sisters in a unified peaceful and a prosperous country.