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| The President, the PM and the government have since told the country and the world the negative publicity is all the work of the now dreaded Tamil diaspora and insisted the regime's credentials in the matter remains clean and intact. |
by I.S. Senguttuvan
(July 16, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) It is understood President Mahinda Rajapakse will be campaigning in the Jaffna District soon to ensure the defeat of the TNA in the upcoming local elections. The TNA has convincingly won all elections in recent times where campaigning and the electoral process were relatively free and uninterfered with. This also inspite of the presence of the Government Minister Douglas Devananda and his goons - no less the politicised army It is common knowledge the army is seen to be intimidating and in many other ways threatening the people to vote for government nominees.
But all that aside, here is an opportunity for the President to prove his pr claimed sincerity by the Tamil people. It is no secret he was frothing mad after his forced departure from London months ago when he had to escape from the Dorchester Hotel through a backdoor. The first thing he did, suspected to be in retaliation, was to use Minister John Seneviratne to table a Cabinet Paper making it compulsory for the singing of the National Anthem in Sinhala in the Tamil areas - Jaffna, Mullaiteevu, Kilinochchi and the Wanni in particular. That the anthem was sung in Tamil in the NEP for over 50 years was deliberately ignored. Cabinet ministers like Vasudeva Nanayakkara,D.E.W. Gunasekera, Prof Tissa Vitharna, Rauf Hakeem and Raajitha Senaratne were shocked by this unfortunate move and are reported to have taken objection Minister Arumugam Thondaman could not be contacted on the telephone during the time. The world community and the region expressed their displeasure in no uncertain terms of this insensitive move by the government. Recognising the heat generated by this unwise move the government made it look as if the whole exercise was an ill-considered action by Minister John Seneviratne. It was hastily withdrawn.. But in a visit by PM D.M. Jayaratne after a few weeks then to Jaffna the army, running the administration there, ensured the Anthem was sung in Sinhala only. The little girls of Vembady Girls School (?) - practising the anthem to be sung in Tamil for months - were left in tears. Unsurprisingly, the local media failed to report the gross injustice.
The President, the PM and the government have since told the country and the world the negative publicity is all the work of the now dreaded Tamil diaspora and insisted the regime's credentials in the matter remains clean and intact.
And now the President has a fine opportunity of proving to the Tamil people and the world that he respects the feelings of the Tamil people. That is for the President himself to join the school children and sing the Anthem in full in Tamil. The event should be given maximum publicity so that both the Sinhala and Tamil people know where the President and the government stand in this sensitive issue. Since the visit of the President is election-related, it is possible many Tamils, seeing the changed stance of the President, may vote for the government's nominees.
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