President’s brother must resign

The government of Sri Lanka is maintaining silence over the degrading racist statement made by the President’s brother Basil Rajapakse who is holding a very high position as Presidential Advisor.

It was widely reported Basil Rajapakse was engaged in an altercation with Muththu Sivalingam MP (a Tamil member of parliament representing the upcountry Ceylon Workers Congress) and had called him ‘Para Demela’ (Pariah Tamil). Pariah Tamil means ‘someone under class who is involved in the disposal of human excrements from the toilets’.

The most trusted advisor of the President is able to continue in office after having been exposed of making such degrading racist statement and the centralised power system in Sri Lanka is able to sustain the President’s brother and he is continuing to stay in office without even a statement on the issue from the government. Being the President’s brother, he is enjoying all the state privileges to stay in power even without any explanation.

The President too is knowingly presiding over his brother’s statement without taking any steps, knowing the comment has caused so much hurt to the Tamils world over.

In the history of violent conflict and war in Sri Lanka, past one and a half years has seen over 5,000 people have been killed, mainly Tamils, due to the type of hatred the present government holds to treat the minority Tamils as abject pariahs. This latest death toll amounts to 7% of the 70,000 estimated deaths reported in the media since the ethnic war started in Sri Lanka. President Mahinda Rajapakse must take the full share for the death toll as he was responsible for bribing the LTTE to create a war situation and also to hold the belief that the Tamils are pariahs.

The President’s brother’s utterance is reflection of the state of mind of the government which incorporates the Tamil hating racist parties like Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) and Jathika Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP).

In the past the Sinhala politicians like Cyril Mathew and Merrill Fernando have gone on public record of making personal racist tirades against Tamil leaders of that time like Appapillai Amirthalingam. But Basil Rajapakse’s bigoted racist tirade has gone further by branding the entire Tamil race as underclass toilet excrement removers. The attitude of the government on this single most serious issue confirm to the extent racism is embedded in the political system of Sri Lanka and in this extra-ordinary situation the President is giving all the succour to his brother to continue in office as his trusted advisor.