Tamils should be allowed to seek their LEGITIMATE ASPIRATIONS

Asoka Weerasinghe (Mr.)Kings Grove Crescent . Gloucester . Ontario Canada

 Open Letter to Mauril Belanger,M.P. Liberal Member of Parliament for Ottawa-Vanier

 03 February 2009
Mauril, belt yourself down onto your chair and read this lesson on – Sri Lanka’s Tamil Facts 101. I hope this will change your views on Sri Lanka and erase from your mind that Sinhalese are “racists”. They are not really, as they are a clan of wonderful people who intermarry with the Tamils, and the Sinhalese parents would gladly stretch out their arms to welcome their Tamil daughters-in-law or sons-in-laws, and would gladly share a plate of rice with them. They patronize the Tamil retail and grocery stores all across Sri Lanka and have Tamils as their family doctors and lawyers, who are well respected citizens of the community.

You no doubt, as other Liberals would say, the Tamils should be allowed to seek their LEGITIMATE ASPIRATIONS in this multi-ethnic diverse community without having to face any discriminatory impediments thrown at them by the majority Sinhalese population.

My question to you Mauril is, what ‘Legitimate Aspirations’ do they tell you that they cannot pursue in Sri Lanka? That’s a crock of cod’s wallop!

What Legitimate Aspirations? Do they want to become politicians? They have them in oodles crawling out of the fronds of Jaffna palm trees.. The Tamil politicians have been cabinet ministers’ right through the 61 years since Independence in 1948.

Douglas Devananda, who is presently a Cabinet Minister representing Jaffna was once upon a time a fully fledged Tamil terrorist and a buddy of the Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and was a founder member of the Eelam Revolutionary Organization (EROs). In 1978 he was dispatched for military training with Al Fatah. And now he is the leader of the political party, Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP). That is what happens to Tamil terrorists when they realize how stupid they were to believe that they could serve their people by shooting bullets at the Sinhalese instead of dropping ballots into ballot boxes.

Here is another example for you Mauril. After the Tamil Tigers were kicked out of the Eastern Province by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces, there were democratic Eastern Provincial Council elections and the people in the eastern province voted in the former Tamil Tiger child soldier, Pilliyan (S.Chandrakanthan) who renounced terrorist violence to join the democratic mainstream, as their Chief Minister. This happened not so long ago, in May 2008. That is the story of the evolution of a Tamil Tiger terrorist for you when they hit the “terrorism has failed me and my people” conscience button. Did you know of these two positive stories? I doubt it, as you seem to be averse to hearing about the good things that were happening in Sri Lanka as you want to support the Tamil Diaspora’s separatist cause so that they would keep voting for your colleagues in the Greater Toronto Area’s ten ridings.

The Tamils will tell you, “But the Sinhalese have never supported our politicians.” That is not true. As we have had Tamil Mayors elected in Kandy as well as in Colombo. And the first Tamil elected as the Kandy Mayor was Gate Mudaliyar N. Canaganayagam in 1941. The Tamil politicians R. Saravanamuttu and Rudra were Mayors of Colombo where the majority of the voters were Sinhalese.

In the State Council, R. Saravanamuttu, a Tamil, and later Mrs. N. Saravanamuttu, a Tamil, were members of the Colombo North riding from 1931 to 1942 through four successive elections, where the majority of the voters were Sinhalese. Where is the discrimination of the Tamils, Mauril? I hope that I am breaking down your attitude towards us Sinhalese with the presentation of these Tamil FACTS.

But here is the choke and here is the rub, the reason why I asked you to belt yourself down onto your chair in case you drop dead with shock. Out of 31 parliamentarians who were killed by the Tamil Tigers whom the Tamil Diaspora and you Liberals are supporting 20 were Tamils. Three happen to be Mayors of Jaffna, and MPs A.Thiagarajah, V. Dharmalingham, K. Alalasundaram, A. Amirthalingham, V. Yogeswaran, Sam Thambimuttu, W.K. Yogasangari, M. Kanagaratnam, A. Thangathurai, S. Shanmuganandan, Neelan Thiruchelvan, K. Rasanayagham, Chandra Nehru, Lakshman Kadiragamar (Foreign Minister), Joseph Pararajasingham, T. Maheswaran and Jeyaraj Fernandopulle. Isn’t that shocking? Isn’t that despicable? Isn’t that reprehensible? All these Tamil parliamentarians were killed because they did not toe the separatist line. Now don’t you ever call me a “racist” since I divulged this story to you proving that your Tamil refugee protégés are down right “Tamil Facts” hiding liars. To say that they have been discriminated and persecuted by the Sinhalese is a load of horse-poop, Mauril!

WHAT LEGITIMATE ASPIRATIONS? Are they belly aching to you that they are held back in educating themselves, and think that this is a blockbuster reason to go on killing the unarmed innocent Sinhalese, who happen to be my people and Rohan’s people, to justify their cause?

Let me take them on, to clear the souls of the Sinhalese from this bunch of lies. Mauril, every Tamil who landed here as a refugee was provided their primary, secondary and post secondary education free by the Sri Lankan government, like any other Sri Lankan whether they were Sinhalese, Muslims, Burghers or whatever. Every Tamil who is an academic, doctor, lawyer, accountant or what ever who came to Canada educated themselves not having to pay a single penny to the state because of Sri Lanka’s ‘free education policy’. There is nothing for them to gripe about. And that sickens me to my very core to know that they are treating Sri Lanka as if she is a nasty step-mother. Since Sri Lanka is my Mother too, I am not going to let these selfish, uncouth Tamils bash her unfairly, as I know that she has been a damn good Mother nurturing everyone of these Tamils generously and fairly.

In 1981, two years prior to the July riots of 1983, the school census showed that there were 3.37 million school children in government schools and classified according to their ethnicity: Sinhalese-77%; Tamil-15% (total population 12.6%); Muslims-8%.

Of Advance Level (University Entrance) classes available in government schools, 14.4% were conducted in the Tamil language.

Out of a total of 22,109 university admissions in the five year period between 1977 and 1981, 18.5% of those admitted were Tamils (total population 12.6%). These numbers don’t equate to discrimination, does it now, Mauril?

By 1981, two years prior to the July 1983 riots, when thousands of Tamils took off from their cuckoo nests and some landing on the shores of Canada saying that they were flying away from persecution and discrimination in Sri Lanka, the mainly Tamil Jaffna district, had 555 government schools for a Tamil student population of 207,524 and the capital city Colombo, with a multi-ethnic student population of 231,690 had only 251 government schools. Forty-one % of these Jaffna District schools had government-approved science laboratories compared to an island average of 19.6%. All this according to my knowledge of simple arithmetic doesn’t equate that Tamils had been discriminated. They were the privileged minority compared to the wronged majority, the Sinhalese. Who the hell are they kidding? So you Liberals fell hook, line and sinker for their horror stories which painted us Sinhalese are a bunch of wretched Halloween Ghouls. I am not sure that just because the Liberals want to accept their sob stories that I would want to take that crap from these lying refugees, Mauril. Now don’t call me a “racist” just because I have provided you with some startling TAMIL FACTS. I hope you are still strapped on to your chair as there are more TAMIL FACT revelations to come.

Ha! These Tamils would say that they were blatantly discriminated because of the ‘standardization’ of marks, so most of them could not enter university.

Here is a wee personal (secretive) story for you which makes me believe that standardization of marks is one way to help students from sub-standard schools to enter university. When I used to mark Geology 100 papers at a University in an eastern province in Canada, I used to start giving students who went to schools in outport communities that did not have geology labs at all 5% straight away, as they were competing with students from urban centres who were privileged to having attended schools with excellent geology labs. And that was ‘Standardization’, Mauril. I was not prepared to let this less fortunate students go under. And that was my form of ‘Standardization’. No one knew it, and I thought it was very fair at the time.

Like wise, the “standardization’ scheme in Sri Lanka was introduced to provide equal opportunities to rural community students to enter University. This not only affected the urban centre Jaffna Tamil students, but also the Sinhalese and Muslim students at urban centres in the South in Colombo, Galle and Kandy. And the winners were the less fortunate Tamil students like at Vadukkoddai Maha Vidyalayam as well as the Sinhalese students at the Gurulugoda Maha Vidyalaya. The thrust of that policy was that both these Tamil and Sinhalese students from weaker schools were able to get to University, and perhaps, become, Doctors, Lawyers, Engineers, and so forth. It was only the mean spirited who would have complained, and they happen to be the Tamils as we did not hear a pip-squeak from the Sinhalese students. They accepted the new education policy as fair game for the good of all communities. Bless them!

And so these selfish Tamils from Tamil urban centre schools cried out ‘foul’ and they are still crying ‘foul’.

Hold it right there you Tamil complainers, I would like to challenge you lot. Would you not agree that thousands of Sinhalese students too were affected by this policy in urban schools like Ananda, Nalanda, St. Peter, St. Joseph’s, St. Thomas, Royal Colleges, Vishaka Vidyalaya and Museus Girls College in Colombo; Mahinda and Richmond Colleges in Galle; Trinity, Dharmaraja and St. Anthony Colleges in Kandy?

But here is the thousand dollar question for you Mauril, As a Franco-phone parliamentarian would you have tolerated the Québécois students at the University of Laval wanting to purify the French ethnicity of the student population in campus, stone and chase away all the students from outside the Province of Quebec? So all these students from Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia et cetera had to be escorted by the army and police to the Quebec /Ontario boarder to find their way to their respective homes in other provinces. Isn’t that despicable? Isn’t that unacceptable? Isn’t that the primitive tribalism at work?

That is exactly what happened on August 17, 1977, when 400 Sinhalese undergraduates and lecturers from the University of Jaffna in the North of Sri Lanka were stoned and chased away from the campus by the Tamil separatists and they were brought down south in buses escorted by the army and police. These students who were shaken were lying on the floor of the buses dodging the stones and rocks that were flying at the buses like meteorites. This was a text book example of ‘ethnic cleansing’. So now the Tamils have their own Tamil University and Medical College in Jaffna in the North of Sri Lanka where no Sinhalese or Muslim students are admitted. But what is so refreshing to see is that Tamil students have been welcomed in the southern campuses at Colombo, Kandy and Ruhuna, et cetera. These Tamils who complain of discrimination certainly like the best of both worlds, don’t they?

Mauril, don’t you feel that you have been taken for a ride by the Tamils and you slipped up in your judgment by calling my friend Rohan and his wife “racists”. I hope you will reflect on that unfortunate day and repent woefully.

WHAT LEGITIMATE ASPIRATIONS? Have they complained to you that they were discriminated in employment?

Here is what the 1981 statistics say about the Tamil employment. And two years later they took off searching for greener pastures lying through their teeth saying that they have been discriminated and persecuted. You can figure this one out Mauril.

For a Tamil population of 12.6%, the following percentages were employed in various professions: Doctors 35.1%; Dentists 24.7%; Vet. Surgeons 38.8%; Life scientists 41.5%; Medical technicians 30.2%; engineers 34.9%; Surveyors 29.9%; Engineering technicians 24.3%; Survey Draughtmen 27.8%; top public sector administrators 15.9%. They didn’t do too badly, did they? But sure enough, most of them like their green 20 dollar bills flipping hamburgers at McDonalds and being Security Guards. Well, all what I can say is that they are the architects of their own destiny.

WHAT LEGITIMATE ASPIRATIONS? Do they tell you Liberals that they wish to become diplomats and that they have been barred to represent Sri Lanka?

Well that is not true also. When the riots took place on July 1983, three of the leading Diplomatic Missions were headed by Tamils, and London was one of them. Canada had a Tamil High Commissioner, H. Thambiah, and the previous Consular General in Toronto too was a Tamil senior diplomat, Poolokasingham. And there was a Deputy High Commissioner who was also a Tamil posted to Canada in the early 1970s. So you ought not to believe in their fairy tales.

WHAT LEGITIMATE ASPIRATIONS? Do they tell you that the reason why they want their own separate state in the North and Eastern Provinces is because they are not welcome by the Sinhalese in the rest of the island.

That is a bunch of rotting baloney reeking a nasty smell up to the high heavens and should be dismissed with contempt. You know why Mauril? As 75% of the real estate in Wellawatte, a suburb of the capital Colombo, which is the Rothwell Heights of the capital, is owned by Tamils.

Ask your Tamil protégés who you are willing to support so freely, how much real estate do the majority Sinhalese own in the Jaffna peninsula? This is not a tricky question and they will not need an abacus nor a hand calculator to figure that one out, as the answer is a zero, naught, zip. Not even one-square-inch. This is because the Sinhalese are not allowed to own land in Jaffna and the Tamil are able to buy property in any nook and corner of Sri Lanka. That is certainly a hellava-how-do-you-do, isn’t Mauril? Now don’t call me a “racist” because I am bombarding you with Tamil Facts, which are dismal, wretched and sickening.

WHAT ASPIRATIONS? Did the Tamils tell you, as they have piped around the world that they were ethnically cleansed in June 2007 because 376 Tamils were rounded up from Colombo’s half-way safe houses and bused up north to their homes in Vavuniya, Batticaloa, Jaffna and Trincomalee, as suspicious elements of Tamil Tigers who put together claymore mines, suicide jackets and other explosives to blast the transport system killing hundreds of commuters during rush hours, et cetera. “Our human rights are violated” the Tamils shouted. The world reacted and spoke against the Government of Sri Lanka.

Mauril, but here is a three part Human Rights Trivia Pursuit question for you. You will get an “A” if you identify the answer right, but an “E” if you fail because you happen to be a politician.

“Which is the country that expelled 100,000 people in 1990 from their place of abode where they had lived for generations to move out within 24 hours, compared to Big Daddy Idi Amin of Uganda who expelled the Asian community from his country giving them three months to leave with the dead line of November 9, 1972? What ethnic group were they from and who ordered this evacuation which portrayed Idi Amin as an angel with gossamer wings, and this was a clear act of ‘ethnic cleansing’?

I hope you got the answer right! a. Sri Lanka, b. Muslims in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka, 3. Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) aka Tamil Tigers, whose leader is Velupillai Prabhakaran

International voices, including that of Canada were hypocrites as they were silent, as no one screamed bloody murder against this ruthless humanitarian violators. Where were the voices from the UN, AI, Human Rights Groups and Canada? That was sick Mauril. But everyone found their vocal cords when 374 Tamils were evacuated out of Colombo to chastise the Sri Lankan Government. That was a sorry commotion.

Expelling suspicious Tamils by the Government of Sri Lanka was according to the Doctrine of Necessity to safeguard the lives of the innocent Sri Lankan subjects who were the targets of the Tamil Tigers to be killed.

One shouldn’t point an accusing finger at the Sri Lankan government as Human Rights violators. as every country does it and so did Canada. Remember how we flooded the roads with kaki fatigued, Kalashnikov carrying soldiers, and the skies with propeller buzzing military helicopters, having invoked the War Measures Act in October 1970 to quell an FLQ insurgency. Remember how we starved the Mohawks to surrender during the Oka Crisis. So we are no paragons or virtue. Any government has to do what it has to do against insurgencies to safeguard its territory and its people. So lets not tell the Sri Lankan Government that ‘We are Holier than Thou,’ because we are just not.

We in Canada are no angels either when it comes to Human Rights, which has been pointed out in today’s THE OTTAWA CITIZEN headlined ‘Canada now often a human rights ‘problem’. Alex Neve, the Secretary General of Amnesty International has flayed us by saying, “Canada has started to be a problem with regard to some human rights issues and has, in fact, started to get in the way of protection.”

I hope I stated my case of ‘Tamil Facts’ which I hope opened your eyes to reality. If you want to let the Tamils take you down the garden path one more time, it is indeed your prerogative. But please don’t call us Sinhalese “racists’, as I personally would resent that and would not hesitate to challenge you.

Call me if you need to discuss this subject more. Invite me to debate the issue in public with your Liberal members of caucus, especially Jim Karygiannis, Maria Minna, Judy Sgro, Derek Lee, John McKay and Albina Guaneiri. I know that I will be handicapped, not being an experienced debater like you lot of parliamentarians, nor am I a political scientist. But this Geologist, Paleontologist and Museologist is prepared to take you all on, on this subject at any forum.

Yours sincerely,

Asoka Weerasinghe (Mr.)