The loud and clear answer to this question is "NO". Why? Because there is no problem in the North and East in existence to give a solution! Sri Lankan government seems to be now in a helpless situation, apparently with the pressure being exerted by India to go for this so called "political solution".
As well known the demand for this so called political solution is very much based on the mythical "homeland" fantasy created by the power hungry Tamil elite. So this demand is purely aimed at satisfying desires of a few Tamil elites based on a fanatical idea perpetuated with nonexistent "grievances of Tamils". It is an undisputable fact that the most of the grievances which were supposed to have been in existence among Tamils some decades ago are no longer in existence. Solutions to the most of the so called grievances have well been addressed. Careful analysis reveals that the problems faced by the Tamils and Muslims in the North and East are same as the problems faced by the people in other parts of the country with no specific problems confining to the provinces which was discussed in my previous post regarding the subject. There are no longer any injustices in existence in terms of Language, education, employment, security or any other ways. Tamils are the equal beneficiaries of all the rights enjoyed by the Sinhalese as well. The security related problems that prevailed during the war is non-existence now. The resettlement of the war displaced is being done at a remarkable pace while the remaining IDPs will be settled soon. The government has undertaken a massive development schemes in the regions ravaged by the war with most of the Eastern districts being first to get the benefits.
Forefront among those who demand a political solution are Eelamists or supporters of Eelamists who live in the mythical Homeland fantasy. They are the same people who supported the LTTE to carry out mass scale Sinhala ethnic cleansing programmes in the North and East.
I will discuss here only a few among many grave consequences that would befall on the country in general and the Sinhalese living in the provinces in particular in the event of such a "political solution" is granted. Foremost among the so called political solution will consist of powers vested to use the lands and enjoy the police powers.
Lands
Any so called political solution entails the power vested to control resources, the foremost among them being the lands. The lands are the most vital resources available in the North and East with the largest swathes of unused and very fertile lands still intact. This availability of lands is equally supported by the vast number of irrigation works constructed by the Sinhalese kings.
The scarcity of lands has been one of the major problems faced by the people from other part of the country especially by the Sinhalese. This scarcity among Sinhalese is well exemplified by the moves they have taken to encroach the lands in Somawathee and Kokilai national parks as reported recently.
It is the forefathers of Sinhalese with their sweat and blood who developed these regions and turned them into rice bowls with magnificent irrigation systems. So it will be a great injustice to them if their own future generations are deprived to reap the fruits of their toil by giving in to a bogus homeland fantasy created and forested by a bunch of racists.
The Eelamists prime idea of creating a mono ethnic entity in the region will conveniently be fulfilled with the powers to control the lands being bestowed upon them as they will allow no future Sinhalese or Muslim settlements in the region claiming that there will be "changes to the demographic stability of the Tamils depriving their rights to have the homeland".
Sinhalese who are the minority in the North and East have become unfortunate victims of racist approaches followed by the Tamil and Muslim government servants ably supported by their racist political brethren. It is a well accepted fact that the Tamil and Muslim government servants discriminate Sinhalese over their own communities which is very common in Trincomalee and Ampara districts respectively. The Sinhala villages in the districts are purposely neglected and deprived with the government schemes and other benefits being hardly channeled to them. This is being done from the Grama Niladhri level to Divisional Secretary level. Landless Sinhalese are discriminated with no permits being issued to them. Therefore, Sinhalese have become a voiceless, marginalized and poverty stricken lot.
The acute housing problem among the Sinhalese is growing day by day while many houses built in the Trincomalee district in several villages with the support of pro-LTTE I/NGOs for LTTE martyrs are still unoccupied. The return of perceived "Tamil civilians" from India is the common excuse being used to keep these houses remain unoccupied by the Tamil government servants in the DS level. Under these circumstances it is very much clear the scenario that would emerge if any powers are vested to the Eelamist politicians well supported by racist government servants to control lands and other resources.
Police Powers:
The memories of the Sinhalese who lived in the North and East are still fresh with the atrocities carried out by the Tamil National Army when the IPKF was in the provinces. Sinhalese were chased away from their ancient villages and their properties were destroyed and confiscated by this Tamil National Army with the support of IPKF. This is the sour consequences of the first attempt to give a sort of so called 'police powers' to the regions. So it is well understandable the consequences which will lay ahead to the Sinhalese in the event of police powers being granted to a bunch of racists.
The fate of Buddhist temples and archeological sites:
As was highlighted in my many posts including my previous post great damages have been caused to the thousands of ancient Buddhist temples and archeological sites that scatter all over the North and East. There had been many instances where the Hindu kovils have been built over them in an attempt to prove that they were part of "Tamil homeland". So with powers being granted, the fate that would befall to them is very much certain.
Therefore, this so called "political solution" will certainly be a great injustice to the thousands of people who scarified their lives to preserve the rights of any ethnic community to live peacefully any part of the country with no particular resources being deprived to them. As mentioned earlier it will be a great injustice to the Sinhalese forefathers too whose scarifies in lives, blood and sweat turned the region into a great civilization until it was destroyed by the foreign invasions and colonial occupation depriving Sinhalese their own homeland. 
13 comments:
Great, Well said, I was getting sick of Groundview posts seeking the same and drawing ethnic lines. The whole country belong to everyone.
Really good post. The government must never allow Land and Police Powers to the Provincial Councils. It was a very vice move that lead to the separation of the combined North and East Provinces. Sinhalese are only 15 million and there are 60 millions Tamils who are craving for a homeland just 20 miles away. The government should be cautious when resettling the Tamils who fled to India. Thre can be mass migration of TN Tamils with them.
What utter chauvinistic rubbish!
Well said. No problem. No need of looking for solution when there is no problem. This mythical homeland idea must be completely discarded. Will the diaspora ask for a homeland in the UK. No. So learn to share the land.
Oh great; now that the war is over here come the extremists out of the woodwork. Just like in the previous decades they declare that there is "NO" North-East problem and "grievances of Tamils" are "nonexistent". The author goes on to say that "there are no longer any injustices in existence"; come on, on which planet or which dimension are you living? It seems that the author sits in his arm chair and conjures up these alternate realities and he seems thoroughly convinced that his conclusions are true. Notice that he sites no data or historical facts on which he forms his opinions. Logical arguments, it appears, are as mysterious to him as black-holes. These must be the "intelligent and grateful Sri Lankans" the politicians keep referring to.
Utter Rubbish. The author seems to be an uneducated person who does not understand the ethnic problems which existed in the country over six decades.
I wonder whetehr the author wishes to see more Prabaharans born.
Anonymous,The people like you will never allow innocent tamils to live in peace with other nationalities in SL.If you guys got any power to rule the even small part of the country you will try to all other nationalities in that part. that was proven facts. You guys are famous for writing bougus tamil history,Could not correctly mark the GCE A/L answer papers without cheating.
In the world sinhalese are the only people who trust tamils otherthan anyother.That is due to their generosity .That generosity is the fact your powergreedy tamils regard as base to your so called bogus tamil homeland.
This article is full of contradiction due to the little and skewed thinking of the author. Keep on hitting at the Tamils and you become a pariah nation in Asia or find a middle path in conformity to the teaching of Lord Buddah and engage and let the Tamils be inclusive as part of national building and you shall have a peacefull and prosperous nation.
ragunathan, Yes, we are not afraid of more and more fat praba's. The same will be with them as well as you too, if you want to divide this country on ethnic back ground. There was no problem in moderate tamils, in my university there are 25% of tamil student population. May be you economic migrators are afraid of this cause will vanis and you guys have to paid the price of being lying all the time. You guys may be living in the west for 30years. Can any one who can tell me in any of those countries include tamil language into their currency notes. In SL it has been in the currency notes from more than 40years now. you guys have been recognise as Srilankans form a long time but your greedy doesn't asked more and you got the answer on 18 May 2009.
THE RAL SOLUTION FOR A LASTING PEACE LIES WITH HOW FAR THE GOVERNMENT IS CAPBLE OF SOLVING THE ISSUES OF ORDINARY TAMILS TO LIVE ADECENT LIFE.bUT GOVERNMENT HAS PROVED THAT THE ISSUES OF NOT ONLY TAMILS IN NORTH BUT SINHALESE IN THE SOUTH TOO BEEN UNSOLVEDSO FAR.
@ SL
Yes, it is true. There is a high possibility of Tamil Nadu Tamils being sneaked into the country in order to preserve so called “demographic stability” of Tamils. So the government should be careful enough when resettling the IDPs. The history is replete with instances where the illegal Tamils settled in the North and East, in some instances with the support of Eelam supportive INGOs. I discussed in one of my previous posts how Norwegian Redd Barna facilitated the settlings of thousands of plantation Tamils in sparsely populated Giraanikke (Kilinochchi) and Mooladoova (Mullaittivu) districts who were on their way to India under the Srima-Sasthri agreement in 60s. It was revealed that the most of the Tamils who were displaced by the final phase of the war and were in the IDP camps belonged to those people. This was a clear harbinger to lay the ground work for the Tamil Homeland fantasy.
I have been told by some civil servants and the members of armed forces especially from the Navy who served in the areas early fifties to sixties how Tamil families from Tamil Nadu were settling themselves on the coasts of eastern and north east, initially in makeshift huts. On enquiry about their illegal arrival their answer was that they had no lands to stay in their country and were pleading for mercy.
Our politicians’ inability to foresee the great dangers lay ahead with no concrete moves to strengthen the Navy or to create a Coast Guard cost us an unimaginable way. At that time Navy’s strength was mere 900 men with a few aging ships and petrol boats. So smugglers in the northern and eastern coastal areas had had a field day those days. The ease with which they carried out the smuggling with little difficulty gave smugglers a sense of confident to expand it further with arms being smuggled from Tamil Nadu at later stages. The VP himself started his life journey as an ace smuggler.
I would suggest those who see my article as baseless read my previous posts written with well established proofs on the mythical “home land of Tamils” or in other words the bogus Tamil History in Sri Lanka. And also the posts on the perceived Tamil’s grievances and the true history of the demand for a homeland by Elite Vellala Tamils led by Singaporean and Malaysian Tamils by birth.
@ ragunathan
I believe that the next VP will never be born in Sri Lanka!
@terrorhunt
The Indian currency has tamil letters, describing the denomination in tamil.
@kandyrebel
You want to go back in time and solve an ethnic problem by redrawing the demographic map. This is something like what al-queda is aiming at. They keep on harping about the terroritories lost by muslim ummah and you keep on harping about the territories lost by sinhalese. These chauvinistic statements and attitude ultimately brings in violence and misery on the innocent people.
Migrations are going on at every place for centuries. Tamilnadu has around 40% people who moved there from other neighbouring regions. This is a natural phenomenon. You can bring in legislation and prevent this immigration, legally and in a civilised way. But you can't recreate a pure sinhala-buddhist homeland as it existed 2000 years back. This is the mistake the sinhalese did before and suffered. You are again trying to do this.
I can only pity your people, be they sinhalese or tamils. You guys will again force your country into civil war and chaos.
The author is an alien & working for the Pikkus at the Kanniya Hotwell looking for commercial interests - begging for money! This place for centuries - known to all in Trinco - belongs to Tamils and Hindu priests were looking after them as part of the Kovil management within the compound. The controversial Pikku came, by that time during the war, there was a 'Arasa' tree grown within the promises - he used that opportunity to build a shrine of budda & using it to propogate wrong history and I belive told you all these nonsense... Pls don't distroy the history and treat other religions same as yours. if you want buddish worshippers to worship you can always build a shrine, but don't destroy existing one & build new shrine of other religion. Our beautiful country got a good history all of us have to protect. Help protect! Don't create tension or destroy history for pure commercial / money intersts pls,.
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