Associated Press,  Fri Mar  2 17:38:06 EST 2007

    COLOMBO, Sri Lanka -  (AP)  Sri Lanka - 's air force bombed a rebel position in the east on Friday, wounding at least 31 combatants, the military said. <p>        Fighter jets, backed by ground troops, targeted a rebel base in eastern Batticaloa district, military spokesman Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe said.              
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_________________
- The Academic

AP Quotes " The Tigers began fighting in 1983 for a separate homeland for ethnic minority Tamils following decades of discrimination by the majority Sinhalese".  This is for the journalist..can you elaborate on this discrimination.  What are the basic rights the Tamils do not have in Sri Lanka which the others do.  Is it not the Sri Lankans living under LTTE that have lost all their basic rights.  The articles started in the past with the words "alleged discrimination" and now the word "alleged" has disappeared.  Even the AP is quietly influenced by LTTE to promote their propaganda!  Are their LTTE money launderers, drug traffickers or arms dealers in AP's vicinity...

Only Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe keeping the accounts and schedules right.
He is well approacing the final LTTE numbers. According to his check list, the war will be over with in next 4 to 5 months ?.
(otherwise he will be in trouble with MR's US citizen brother !!)
Atleast some one doing thier job right with in the govt.

Damn!!! MR doesnt seem to be sticking to his side of the Mahinda/Velupillei pact. He's shamelessly breaking it by directing the security forces to...

chasing LTTE away from east
capturing LTTE camps
capturing weapons
destroying ships brining in weapons
bombing LTTE camps
etc etc etc...

Shame on you Mr President for breaking the pact that you have with the Liberator of the tamil homeland.

Good question anurajay what are the basic rights the Tamils do not have in Sri Lanka which the others do? What is this discrimination (alleged or otherwise) that has been harped upon over and over again by every Tamil from the hard-line LTTE sympathisers to the very moderate LTTE opponents like Anandasangaree?

I will try to give my interpretation and of course I stand to be corrected by others in this forum (I also apologise for my long winding reply).

In any country where you have a strong group of a majority with several minorities with identifiable differences such as Language, Religion or Culture there are a few ways of keeping these groups together as one nation.

A strong leader can keep the minorities (and the majority) suppressed. That leader may not necessarily be a military dictator but could be 'democratically' elected in its face value but without being dictated by the essential ingredients of a Western democracy such as free speech, free media and independent judiciary. The country can develop rapidly and the resulting prosperity of every one (including the minorities) keeps the dissent to a minimum (limiting any cry of revolt to the few 'eccentrics' who usually end up in jail). An example is Malaysia where the government has been openly following discriminatory policies favoring the majority Malays (Bhumiputra) against Chinese and Indian minorities. However these minorities still remain silent in public because they are still economically powerful and have a lot to loose by any rebellion. The few who are unhappy about the situation would migrate to western countries. Another example is Singapore where the country is governed by a group of technocrats who are drawn from all communities. As long as the country remains prosperous there will be a very little dissent as all communities are well off and treated almost equally even in suppression.

A strong secularism as practiced by India with some common theme such as Hinduism or common culture with a long freedom struggle fought jointly could also keep a country together. For example a Tamil living in Tamilnadu feels that he is an Indian too. Even an Italian borne Sonia Gandhi feels for the Tamils in the south because she has accepted to be an Indian at heart. This all happened because of the gentle leadership that India had and also the general simple way of life among its leaders.  

In Sri Lanka (or then Ceylon) everything went wrong because the leaders it had in the late 50s offered the country the worst of the both worlds. They combined ill conceived Sinhala Buddhist nationalism with pathetic economic policies of so called socialism. The leaders thought even if you make some symbolic gestures (e.g. Sri number plates) then the majority Sinhalese would be unhappy. Whatever they did they did it in the most insensitive way possible to not only to the Tamils but also to the other minorities like Burghers. For some peculiar reason the Muslims were seemingly impervious to this situation probably because they were a very practical people and did not care much about intellectual niceties (no disrespect intended here). Burghers were lucky because their number was small and they managed to escape to countries like Australia that was practicing the 'White Only' policy. Tamils did not have much choice and being naturally very conservative tried to win their perceived lost rights by non-violence. As the country continued to go down economically the perceived suppression became more and more as the size of the economic pie became smaller and smaller. It was not that the Sinhalese were fairing any better but the Tamils felt worse in the limited Public Sector job market with political interference reigning high. The private sector where a Tamil could compete with Sinhalese on an equal footing had been virtually crippled by the so called socialist policies (this doesn't mean that I subscribe to the general myth prevalent among some Tamils that they were essentially smart, educated and hardworking compared to Sinhalese - in my experience no community has found to monopolise these attributes).

In the current context where most of these past follies on the economic front have been identified and at least on surface eliminated - some kind of economic advancement and decent living could be possible for everybody in the country if you make some attempts to achieve a few cosmetic changes. They are not expensive in monetary terms or social terms.

I think there is a deep down feeling in the Tamils that the sinhalese buddhists are essentially racist and supremacist. Some Buddhist monks carrying a lot of baggage from the Anagarika Dharmapala of the colonial era add fuel to this notion by claiming the Sinhalese Buddhist nation is under siege. Either they genuinely believe this or just cunningly use it for power (take my word the notion of power is very alluring to lay people and clergy alike) - I don't know - but seemingly the majority is easily hoodwinked by these so-called nationalist leaders. Buddhism as I know does not need any such protection and it has its own qualities to survive. It is a very pious religion that attracts many people into it. If you remove these irritants of nationalism (that equates perceived oppression) the Tamils will start again admiring the Buddhism as they did in the past. How beautiful it will be if there are say a few Tamil speaking Buddhists and Sinhalese speaking Hindus!

So the number one step is to remove this irritant of perceived supremacy of the Sinhalese Buddhism by treating all religions and races equally not only by letter but most importantly by spirit. Secondly the political leaders should try to learn to speak the second national language of the country - Tamil. I have seen even the die-hard Tamil nationalist mellowing when someone converses - in his own language. Learning Tamil may not be essential to carry out everyday business but it carries an important message. The message of equality, the message of being sensitive to each other and the message of belonging to one another. After all - the Tamils, Muslims and Sinhalese are so look alike the language appears to be the only barrier existing between them (non-English speaking Sinhalese and Tamils). The cultures are intervened, the social values are almost the same and the language is the only thing that makes these communities different. Reduce that barrier and the job is almost half done.

Of course there are many other challenges faced by the country such as corruption, bad governance and the violence. I think these are easy to resolve if we can eliminate the deep down malice that keeps these two communities apart as described above.


_________________
sp

Damn!!! MR doesnt seem to be sticking to his side of the Mahinda/Velupillei pact. He's shamelessly breaking it by directing the security forces to...

chasing LTTE away from east
capturing LTTE camps
capturing weapons
destroying ships brining in weapons
bombing LTTE camps
etc etc etc... "

Do’ be funny and surprised….Has he ever keep his pact? Initially he broke his tie with CBK than JVP then JHU then went to Geneva to mug around with the donors countries told them he will disarm Karuna……..endless list…..finally he broke with Mangla to brought his Green Card Holders ( Those Green brothers, have they ever contest in an election?) to SL and send his son to UK to follow Navy training within 3 weeks or so and there he broke the code of Navy!!!!!!

He will keep brake all the known pacts in SL before you fool realise…..

[quote="enation"]

Damn!!! MR doesnt seem to be sticking to his side of the Mahinda/Velupillei pact. He's shamelessly breaking it by directing the security forces to...

chasing LTTE away from east
capturing LTTE camps
capturing weapons
destroying ships brining in weapons
bombing LTTE camps
etc etc etc... "

Do’ be funny and surprised….Has he ever keep his pact? Initially he broke his tie with CBK than JVP then JHU then went to Geneva to mug around with the donors countries told them he will disarm Karuna……..endless list…..finally he broke with Mangla to brought his Green Card Holders ( Those Green brothers, have they ever contest in an election?) to SL and send his son to UK to follow Navy training within 3 weeks or so and there he broke the code of Navy!!!!!!
He will keep brake all the known pacts in SL before you fool realise…..
[/quote]


Of all of these, what hurts you most must be the breaking of the pact that he has with VP  

.....And Mr. genious that's the second time you called me a fool today.

enation wrote:

Damn!!! MR doesnt seem to be sticking to his side of the Mahinda/Velupillei pact. He's shamelessly breaking it by directing the security forces to...

chasing LTTE away from east
capturing LTTE camps
capturing weapons
destroying ships brining in weapons
bombing LTTE camps
etc etc etc... "

Do’ be funny and surprised….Has he ever keep his pact? Initially he broke his tie with CBK than JVP then JHU then went to Geneva to mug around with the donors countries told them he will disarm Karuna……..endless list…..finally he broke with Mangla to brought his Green Card Holders ( Those Green brothers, have they ever contest in an election?) to SL and send his son to UK to follow Navy training within 3 weeks or so and there he broke the code of Navy!!!!!!

He will keep brake all the known pacts in SL before you fool realise…..

enation,
it was nice extended list of facts !!
those who act like fools have least chance to understands something.
but those total fools have no chance of realising anything except  

[quote="sp"]Good question anurajay what are the basic rights the Tamils do not have in Sri Lanka which the others do? What is this discrimination (alleged or otherwise) that has been harped upon over and over again by every Tamil from the hard-line LTTE sympathisers to the very moderate LTTE opponents like Anandasangaree?

Quote:

I will try to give my interpretation and of course I stand to be corrected by others in this forum (I also apologise for my long winding reply).

Yes, That will be done

Quote:

In any country where you have a strong group of a majority with several minorities with identifiable differences such as Language, Religion or Culture there are a few ways of keeping these groups together as one nation.

Let see what you have to say, may be we can get examples from UK, USA, France, India, Indunesia, Malaysia, even Australia

Quote:

A strong leader can keep the minorities (and the majority) suppressed.

So, you say it is bad to become a strong leader as there is a tendency to suppress majority & the Minorities.  Who are these minorities.  Can you spell out, Lesbians, Homos, Christians, Muslims, Malys, Burgers, Weddhas, LTTE, Eastern Tamils, Northern Tamils, Tamils live in Kanda Udrata, etc

Quote:

That leader may not necessarily be a military dictator but could be 'democratically' elected in its face value but without being dictated by the essential ingredients of a Western democracy such as free speech, free media and independent judiciary. The country can develop rapidly and the resulting prosperity of every one (including the minorities) keeps the dissent to a minimum (limiting any cry of revolt to the few 'eccentrics' who usually end up in jail). An example is Malaysia where the government has been openly following discriminatory policies favoring the majority Malays (Bhumiputra) against Chinese and Indian minorities. However these minorities still remain silent in public because they are still economically powerful and have a lot to loose by any rebellion.

So, you mean the Tamils who do not rebel are well off like the Chinese in Malaysia? Or, the Tamils live away in  from their Home-lands and  in others home lands in the South?'

Quote:

The few who are unhappy about the situation would migrate to western countries. Another example is Singapore where the country is governed by a group of technocrats who are drawn from all communities. As long as the country remains prosperous there will be a very little dissent as all communities are well off and treated almost equally even in suppression.

This is good observation.  Can we eradicate LTTE, get together and make our country prosperous

Quote:

A strong secularism as practiced by India with some common theme such as Hinduism or common culture with a long freedom struggle fought jointly could also keep a country together. For example a Tamil living in Tamilnadu feels that he is an Indian too. Even an Italian borne Sonia Gandhi feels for the Tamils in the south because she has accepted to be an Indian at heart. This all happened because of the gentle leadership that India had and also the general simple way of life among its leaders.  

If you take Sri Lanka, here too, Tamils, Sinhalese and Muslim were together in our Independent struggle?  My friend, Sonia will have a feeling for any one since she needs votes.  And in India's elections, opposition politicians discredit Sonia owing to her Italian roots

Quote:

In Sri Lanka (or then Ceylon) everything went wrong because the leaders it had in the late 50s offered the country the worst of the both worlds. They combined ill conceived Sinhala Buddhist nationalism with pathetic economic policies of so called socialism.

You bring Socilism. Whoi are you talking about, NM, Peter K-man, Wasu, Wivian, Philip?

Quote:

The leaders thought even if you make some symbolic gestures (e.g. Sri number plates) then the majority Sinhalese would be unhappy.

I thought SRI number plates would have made Sinhala people Happy.  I do not understand about this SRI?  We call Indira Gahandi Srimathi, we call some cities in India e.g. Sri Nagar Even Godess like Saraswati we call Sri Saraswati si what the big deal?

Quote:

Whatever they did they did it in the most insensitive way possible to not only to the Tamils but also to the other minorities like Burghers.

You came up with symbolic gestures but only with SRI number plates.  What are the other gestures Sri Lankans made Burgers unhappy?

Quote:

For some peculiar reason the Muslims were seemingly impervious to this situation probably because they were a very practical people and did not care much about intellectual niceties (no disrespect intended here).

Our Muslim brothers will take this as a compliment.  May be, this the very reason VP chased Muslims out from his de-facto state.  On the other hand, do you mean to say Tamils and Burgers are not Practical.  How you generalise communities like this?

Quote:

Burghers were lucky because their number was small and they managed to escape to countries like Australia that was practicing the 'White Only' policy.

Disagree.  Many Burgers found their havens in Canada.  Canada does not practice a White Only Policy.  So, if you say escaping of Burgers triggered because in Sri Lanka we did not have a White Only Policy? Pathetic I would say.


 

Quote:

Tamils did not have much choice and being naturally very conservative tried to win their perceived lost rights by non-violence. As the country continued to go down economically the perceived suppression became more and more as the size of the economic pie became smaller and smaller

.
This Economic Pie has to be shared with all.  This was not peculiar for Tamils only.

 

Quote:

It was not that the Sinhalese were fairing any better but the Tamils felt worse in the limited Public Sector job market with political interference reigning high. The private sector where a Tamil could compete with Sinhalese on an equal footing had been virtually crippled by the so called socialist policies (this doesn't mean that I subscribe to the general myth prevalent among some Tamils that they were essentially smart, educated and hardworking compared to Sinhalese - in my experience no community has found to monopolise these attributes).

Take the percentage of Tamils in SL and take each profession and see the share they enjoy.  I agree with you last sentence of course!

Quote:

In the current context where most of these past follies on the economic front have been identified and at least on surface eliminated - some kind of economic advancement and decent living could be possible for everybody in the country if you make some attempts to achieve a few cosmetic changes. They are not expensive in monetary terms or social terms.

I agree with you but spell this out. Pl. give some example of Cosmetic changes you are suggesting about.  May be you can hit the Jack-pot?

Quote:

I think there is a deep down feeling in the Tamils that the sinhalese Buddhists are essentially racist and supremacist. Some Buddhist monks carrying a lot of baggage from the Anagarika Dharmapala of the colonial era add fuel to this notion by claiming the Sinhalese Buddhist nation is under siege. Either they genuinely believe this or just cunningly use it for power (take my word the notion of power is very alluring to lay people and clergy alike) - I don't know - but seemingly the majority is easily hoodwinked by these so-called nationalist leaders. Buddhism as I know does not need any such protection and it has its own qualities to survive. It is a very pious religion that attracts many people into it. If you remove these irritants of nationalism (that equates perceived oppression) the Tamils will start again admiring the Buddhism as they did in the past. How beautiful it will be if there are say a few Tamil speaking Buddhists and Sinhalese speaking Hindus!

Well, Buddhism did not survive well in India.  Hope you know about Nalanda the Buddhist University.  Even in Sri Lanka Buddhism survived in peaceful times.  To achieve this peace there were wars.  Again, I think Buddhist already speak Hinduism. Pl. Go to Katharagama, even Dondra Vishnu (Upulwan) srine, every Buddhist Temple has Kovil for Hindu Gods.  Take Kandy Perahera there you can see how Buddhists speak Hinduism.  It is the blood thirsty LTTE who bombed the Dalada Maligawa!

Quote:

So the number one step is to remove this irritant of perceived supremacy of the Sinhalese Buddhism by treating all religions and races equally not only by letter but most importantly by spirit. Secondly the political leaders should try to learn to speak the second national language of the country - Tamil. I have seen even the die-hard Tamil nationalist mellowing when someone converses - in his own language. Learning Tamil may not be essential to carry out everyday business but it carries an important message. The message of equality, the message of being sensitive to each other and the message of belonging to one another. After all - the Tamils, Muslims and Sinhalese are so look alike the language appears to be the only barrier existing between them (non-English speaking Sinhalese and Tamils). The cultures are intervened, the social values are almost the same and the language is the only thing that makes these communities different. Reduce that barrier and the job is almost half done.

I agree, that is why Teaching Tamil in Sinhala Schools taking place.  I think Premadasa adress masses in Tamil.  But we had leaders like JR who learnt Sinhala from the kitchen.  Because in his house the only place where Sinhala was spoken was by the servants and the Appu who cooked for them!

Quote:

Of course there are many other challenges faced by the country such as corruption, bad governance and the violence. I think these are easy to resolve if we can eliminate the deep down malice that keeps these two communities apart as described above.

Corruption is every where, even in India, Bangladesh, UK or Pakistan. Violence will go when all the communities get together to eradicate LTTE.  LTTE was formed to kill and destroy as long as it is there Violence will continue.  First thing First

har wrote:

enation wrote:

har wrote:

Damn!!! MR doesnt seem to be sticking to his side of the Mahinda/Velupillei pact. He's shamelessly breaking it by directing the security forces to...

chasing LTTE away from east
capturing LTTE camps
capturing weapons
destroying ships brining in weapons
bombing LTTE camps
etc etc etc... "

Do’ be funny and surprised….Has he ever keep his pact? Initially he broke his tie with CBK than JVP then JHU then went to Geneva to mug around with the donors countries told them he will disarm Karuna……..endless list…..finally he broke with Mangla to brought his Green Card Holders ( Those Green brothers, have they ever contest in an election?) to SL and send his son to UK to follow Navy training within 3 weeks or so and there he broke the code of Navy!!!!!!
He will keep brake all the known pacts in SL before you fool realise…..

Of all of these, what hurts you most must be the breaking of the pact that he has with VP  

.....And Mr. genious that's the second time you called me a fool today.

actually, if MR has/had a pact annd has broken it, what would hurt MR most must be the breaking of the pact that he has with VP. VP has that streak in him. MR is probably calculating that he can finish VP before he can hurt him, what if he comes short?


_________________
"The degree of one's emotion varies inversely with one's knowledge of the facts - the less you know the hotter you get." -- Bertrand Russell

Mr Amarakoon

This is my response to your comments.

1. ” Yes, That will be done"

Do I notice here a certain tone of defiance Mr Amarakoon?

2. "Let see what you have to say, may be we can get examples from UK, USA, France, India, Indunesia, Malaysia, even Australia"

No comment as at this stage probably you appear to have just started to read my post.

3. "So, you say it is bad to become a strong leader as there is a tendency to suppress majority & the Minorities....."

I am confused because I was making a general statement not necessarily referring to any particular country. It is you who assume that I was referring to SL. You very well know I was not referring to the gays.

4. "So, you mean the Tamils who do not rebel are well off like the Chinese in Malaysia? Or, the Tamils live away in from their Home-lands and in others home lands in the South?"

Again I was talking in general terms. If SL was a rich developed country what are the chances of having this kind of conflict? Have a look at all the conflicts in the world. What is the economic situation in the majority of these places?

5. "This is good observation. Can we eradicate LTTE, get together and make our country prosperous?"

Well it will be heaps easier to eradicate the LTTE if we start building some bridges with the Tamil community  (both North & East) by removing whatever the unnecessary irritants we have in our country that do not serve any purpose.

6. "If you take Sri Lanka, here too, Tamils, Sinhalese and Muslim were together in our Independent struggle?..."

Did we have a decent Independent struggle to talk about?  What I know is our independence came on a platter. We had a bloodless independence and then 20-30 years of an ocean of blood. Is it something to be proud of as a nation?

7. " You bring Socilism. Whoi are you talking about, NM, Peter K-man, Wasu, Wivian, Philip?"

I am talking mainly about Bandaranaykas (SWRD & Sirimavo). NM & Peter joined Sirimavo later.

8. " I thought SRI number plates would have made Sinhala people Happy.."

Sri (Sinhalese letter) replaced the English letters on car number plates. I chose it because it was one of many unnecessary irritants that could have been avoided. This was an innocent one - after all who cares on what they use on number plates but the symbolism was important. It may have represented Sinhalese domination to most of the Tamils (when you take it in context that it happened). Even the language issue was like that. In a country where say 80% speaks one language and the rest 20% speaks another is it too much ask to make both these official together with English? In Singapore even Tamil spoken by about 7% enjoys equal status. What did we gain by this foolish move except the loss of many brains that could have been put to the best use?

9. "You came up with symbolic gestures but only with SRI number plates. What are the other gestures Sri Lankans made Burgers unhappy?"

I am sure the language issue forced many Burghers to leave the island together with the economic decline. They also had a place to go.

10. "....How you generalise communities like this?"

I agree with you that it is not proper to generalise but I was just indicating some trends. What alternative did  I have to give as an explanation?

11.  " Disagree. Many Burgers found their havens in Canada.......So, if you say escaping of Burgers triggered because in Sri Lanka we did not have a White Only Policy? Pathetic I would say."

Did I ever say Burghers left because we did not have a White Only Policy? What are you talking about? I am surprised at the way you try to pick on a minor detail in my argument. I brought the White Only Policy of Australia to show that the other communities of SL Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslims did not have the choice that the Burghers had in early days. Of course Canada was there but having an additional country like Australia would have helped the Burghers more than the others.

12. "This Economic Pie has to be shared with all. This was not peculiar for Tamils only."

What's you point here? Did I say Economic Pie was not to be shared?

13. " Take the percentage of Tamils in SL and take each profession and see the share they enjoy...."

This is the perennial argument that has been tossed around for eons. Say this to a Tamil youth in Batticaloa or Velvettithurai or Vanni or in outer islands.  Will they say "Oh yes we should not complain because we have a few doctors, lawyers and accountants practicing in Colombo. Our community is well represented. So it doesn't matter going without a job or a meal or two for us".

Get real my friend!

14. " .....Pl. give some example of Cosmetic changes you are suggesting about...."

I used the word ' Cosmetic' to say there are certain changes that we can do without costing any thing and by no means should you assume that they are unimportant or superficial. One change is to get rid of this Anagarika Dhrmapala mentality that for some reason the Sinhalese Buddhists are under threat from other communities like Tamils. I can assure you my friend that there won't be any more Chola invasions from South India!. We live in a modern world where the principle 'live and let live' is very much in the vogue. The modern world has also proven that the economic development is not a zero sum game (meaning one has to loose for another to gain).

Another is to change our mindset to accept that the minority and majority communities should have equality in every aspect of the word as the issues and aspirations are no different. The test to prove this is for the minority to be convinced that there is an acceptable level of equality. The majority is always convinced that there is equality. To achieve this there should be some additional safeguards to protect the minorities (in the constitution) as they can be easily put at a disadvantage by majority decisions.

15. " Well, Buddhism did not survive well in India...."

You go by the history. The question to ask is - is there a current threat to Buddhism? Of course there are some who believe even the sky might fall! but I am talking about the rational people here. If the answer to my question is no then what I suggest is we will cross that bridge when we go there. Until then let us not make the life of our people miserable by these unfounded fears.

16. "....... Because in his house the only place where Sinhala was spoken was by the servants and the Appu who cooked for them!"

This era is long gone my friend. Now a days no one thinks speaking sinhala or tamil is something to be ashamed of.

17.  "...... Corruption is every where, even in India, Bangladesh, UK or Pakistan... .. Violence will go when all the communities get together......"

You just can't dismiss this malaise like that. What is important is the degree and also whether we accept it as the norm. that is the difference between the South Asia and the western democratic countries. I heard the other day that even China sacked some party top notch because of corruption.

If you want all communities to get together against violence then you have to offer them a better future. The Tamils did not resort to violence for the fun of it.


_________________
sp

Quote:

I thought SRI number plates would have made Sinhala people Happy.  I do not understand about this SRI?  We call Indira Gahandi Srimathi, we call some cities in India e.g. Sri Nagar Exclamation Even Godess like Saraswati we call Sri Saraswati si what the big deal?

The problem wasn't with the sound, it was with the alphabet. Car number plates had been in English but they had gone through the alphabet and instead of starting again with AA they started with the Sinhala alphabet. No great shakes, but a convenient symbol of Sinhalization to protest against.

sp wrote:

I think there is a deep down feeling in the Tamils that the sinhalese buddhists are essentially racist and supremacist. Some Buddhist monks carrying a lot of baggage from the Anagarika Dharmapala of the colonial era add fuel to this notion by claiming the Sinhalese Buddhist nation is under siege. Either they genuinely believe this or just cunningly use it for power (take my word the notion of power is very alluring to lay people and clergy alike) - I don't know - but seemingly the majority is easily hoodwinked by these so-called nationalist leaders. Buddhism as I know does not need any such protection and it has its own qualities to survive. It is a very pious religion that attracts many people into it. If you remove these irritants of nationalism (that equates perceived oppression) the Tamils will start again admiring the Buddhism as they did in the past. How beautiful it will be if there are say a few Tamil speaking Buddhists and Sinhalese speaking Hindus!

So the number one step is to remove this irritant of perceived supremacy of the Sinhalese Buddhism by treating all religions and races equally not only by letter but most importantly by spirit. Secondly the political leaders should try to learn to speak the second national language of the country - Tamil. I have seen even the die-hard Tamil nationalist mellowing when someone converses - in his own language. Learning Tamil may not be essential to carry out everyday business but it carries an important message. The message of equality, the message of being sensitive to each other and the message of belonging to one another. After all - the Tamils, Muslims and Sinhalese are so look alike the language appears to be the only barrier existing between them (non-English speaking Sinhalese and Tamils). The cultures are intervened, the social values are almost the same and the language is the only thing that makes these communities different. Reduce that barrier and the job is almost half done.

Of course there are many other challenges faced by the country such as corruption, bad governance and the violence. I think these are easy to resolve if we can eliminate the deep down malice that keeps these two communities apart as described above.

sp,

Thanks for the insightful posting and I want to add a few things constructively.  As we both know, India has evolved beyond the kind petty ethnic issues that fester in Sri Lanka. I agree with you  totally. India had the Kalisthan (Punjab) issue and today we have Manmohan Singh as the PM of India. We have a kind of a similar situation but proportionately different.  In India, it is a very multiethnic but mostly a uni-religious society. The indian society used to be bound by Hindunism. Those who gave life for the Independence of India came from many ethnic groups mainly from two religions.   Of course, we all know how India became India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. I believe, in Sri Lanka, the only binding thread during Independence is 2000 years of history together. Both by ethnicity and religion we are divided.   What is very noticeable is the willingness of the Sinhalese to accept anybody as their leader if he/she fostered Buddhism.  The history despised Kalinga Magha the Hindu despite the fact that a part of the Sinhala society came from Kalinga.  On the otherhand, Nayakkars were accepted as the rulers because they fostered Buddhism.

In the back drop of above mentioned Sinhala Buddhist mindset, it is my view that to overcome today's divide, we need more national icons like Kadiragamar, Muralidaran (the cricketer who should be made the captain), Anandasangaree etc.  Despite all the clashes in the past, Karuna has significant clout in the minds of Sinhalese. Again we need more Tamil Sri Lankan icons admired by Sinhalese to cross the threshold.  In addition, we need lots of Tamils in the Sri Lankan military (I know how loyal Tamil Sri Lankans can be to the nation when regarded right).  Most importantly, we need to remove the reason to fight by implementing a decent political solution.  LTTE may not accept it, but the rest can move on in such case.

Regards,

Prasads

Stephen Jones wrote:

Quote:

I thought SRI number plates would have made Sinhala people Happy.  I do not understand about this SRI?  We call Indira Gahandi Srimathi, we call some cities in India e.g. Sri Nagar Exclamation Even Godess like Saraswati we call Sri Saraswati si what the big deal?

The problem wasn't with the sound, it was with the alphabet. Car number plates had been in English but they had gone through the alphabet and instead of starting again with AA they started with the Sinhala alphabet. No great shakes, but a convenient symbol of Sinhalization to protest against.

Yes of course, as I pointed out the "Sri" is not alien to Sinhala or Tamils.  It is not a letter exclusively used by Sinhalese

The Academic wrote:

Associated Press,  Fri Mar  2 17:38:06 EST 2007

    COLOMBO, Sri Lanka -  (AP)  Sri Lanka - 's air force bombed a rebel position in the east on Friday, wounding at least 31 combatants, the military said. <p>        Fighter jets, backed by ground troops, targeted a rebel base in eastern Batticaloa district, military spokesman Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe said.              
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I thought LTTE attacked a Sri Lankan army camp and 31 Karuna cadres were wounded.

I should have known that Karuna cadres are not called rebels, but anything comes out of Sri Labka wouldn't surprise me.

Now, patriots would point out that Karuna cadres don't go near Army camps.

Have a look at tis report from Morning Leader.

Can someone tell me how Karuna got there with all those armed guard without being stopped by the Sri Lankan army or STF?

Karuna seen walking to the meeting venue last Sunday. In the back ground is a Sri Lanka Flag
http://www.themorningleader.lk/20070307/politics.html