| by Subramanaim Masilamany
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to,the Sri Lanka Guardian)
(September 26, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Sir, you may instigate racism, fanaticism and terrorism to scare your people, but the truth of the matter is Sri Lanka is better off in the hands of Tamils.
In the International Lions club, we frequently use this phrase, “Let your conscience be your own judge” to draw the attention of our members to root their decision in the righteousness of their conscience; for a man of conscience seldom errs.
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Do not drag Palestinians into this moral content of your behaviour. Palestinians can learn one thing from we Tamils, you do what you can do with what you have. There are great opportunities for them to prove to the world that they have something to offer to the world. |
I am asking Mahinda Rajapaksa that can you account for four direct murders accredited to your account, 5653 number of missing or dead persons under your watch, 40,000 Tamil innocent killed and accounted for, 150,000 people missing and unaccounted for, and killer of Lasantha Wickrematunge not brought to justice and Pregeeth Ehnilgoda not found. When you cannot provide answers to any one of them the moral justice points finger at your complicity. It has to be, or you do not have even a meagrely functional law enforcement and judiciary. Basically you say we have a barbaric culture of right of the might and blood in your hands and flesh in your teeth. You have not even made an attempt to refute the claims.
This will come back to haunt you and your people. You have also created fear among the people so then there is no one to give you the other side of the argument. You know what I mean. I have to reflect my view on rest of the people to make their views known, for we make the community in which the members of the community live. It is in the social contract. For some uncustomary and uncanny ways you think that you can fool the world, pull wool over their eyes and send them a wild goose chase.
Do not drag Palestinians into this moral content of your behaviour. Palestinians can learn one thing from we Tamils, you do what you can do with what you have. There are great opportunities for them to prove to the world that they have something to offer to the world. We Tamil have offered a lot to the world otherwise you will not see Tharmarajah a Jaffna Tamil seated next to the head of the IMF. The Chinese have recognised us, the west has recognised us. You and you educated erudite has to Think and Think again. It is not our mere education but the strong Trans generational culture and heritage that is at play in the international forum, the world knows the content of our character. At no instant a Tamil will steal or plunder or misappropriate the sacred trust placed on them by others. That is why big potatoes always rise to the top on a shaky road. You shake we rise, Can you stop the rise? Not in your dreams!
I do not know if you follow world events to know what is happening insipiently. The west knows the capacity of Tamils soon China will learn. Chinese in Toronto do business with Tamils. It is the effort we put in as people who were disenfranchised by your barbaric, fanatic and racist people, we have become a nation without borders, and we belong to the world. I think your speech at the UN looks like it was not written by Bell Pottinger for they would not have made this serious mistake for you seek a separate state for the Palestinians and the same time refuse it to the Tamils. Subconscious mind speaks louder than your conscious mind. An honest man neither needs script nor had to remember of word he says. Honesty always speak effortlessly, uniformly, concisely and consistently. Next time at least try Honesty for once. You come through like a criminal at a murder trail, inconsistency is a very power indicator of mans deranged inner mind. You are idiotic, ignorant, insane, insidious or combination of all.
You talk about Justice and fair play, first you have to clean up your inner house before you seek to clean up others. How can you talk like such an idiot in the presence of worthy and worldly people? Either you must be dumb or the whole world must be dumber. It is your belief that I can some or other fool the world. We will see to it that it never happens. You may hold Tamils in Sri Lanka in an open prison, but there are at least another 70 million Tamils living all over the world. That voice you cannot dowse or dampen or diminish. Do not forget every Tamil will be a nail on your coffin.
You talk about consensus over conscience. Sir, there is no consensus anywhere in the world to take way once life, leave aside freedom. You not only took away the freedom of Tamil, you denied them food and water for one week and then killed them with prohibited weapons. When you threaten a man his freedom he has the right to defend, that is what you call terrorism, what we Tamils did was to defend ourselves from state terrorism and barbarism. Unfortunately our culture and make up does not allow us to point fingers at the enemy. It is not our weakness; it is our inner strength to absorb everything thrown at us, which is tolerance as taught by Lord Buddha who has been bastardized by you and your people. You and your people made Lord Buddha look like tyrant and intolerable man. It is shame to call your nation a Buddhist nation and the people Buddhist. I do not think Silva, Dias, Percy, Ferdinando, Mel, Perera, Pereira and Peiris are Buddhists; they are non descripts. That is where all the trouble in Sri Lanka lies. There is no culture and there is no heritage, there is no moral value to guide ones behaviour.
To a man who stand accused of taking away and denying 4 lives, 5362 missing persons since he came to power, 40,000 innocent Tamils killed and 150,000 Tamils missing cannot read speech written by one of his people to absolve his direct involvement in taking away precious and valuable lives. A head of nation cannot be indifferent to missing lives, either he is involved in it or he is insane. Sri Lanka as nation has become pariah in the international forum, no Tamil should ever call himself or herself a Sri Lankan till a proper tribunal identify the suspects, give them legal assistance to defend them and prove to the world we are great nation except for a few lose cannons.
You said, “It is important to remind ourselves that every country cherishes the values and traditions, and deeply held religious convictions it has nurtured over the centuries. These cannot be diluted or distorted under the guise of human rights, by the imposition of attitudes or approaches which are characteristics of alien cultures” There lies the reason for your false convictions, you say human rights is secondary to religion and tradition. No Sir, it is the human life, right to life and freedom to live are they core of the universe. It is the bird caught in the snare struggle to free its life, why? Because that is whole sprit of life and living. Human rights override traditions, religions and cultures. Human right is the very purpose of having traditions, religions and cultures. As I explained earlier you have no culture and no tradition only criminality and treachery. An honest and decent man will not beat around the bush; you are not an honest man. You have some serious soul searching to do. Your beliefs, your moral values, your moral compass and your moral directions are all wrong. You need counselling. We need no further evidence to your complicity in the atrocities in Sri Lanka. You will never be smarter than all of us, and one of us may be smarter than you. In the free world we work to keep us free so that creativity works on over drive. Freedom is the seminal source of human ingenuity. Your country needs a lot of freedom.
Sir, you talk about terrorism, who is the terrorist here, you or us? When you deny the people freedoms, then you deny them the right to living and then you go into their homes and kill them who are the terrorist here? That is why your gofers or in Singhalese Golayas has been served with summons by the International community to give you and them a chance to prove to the world who the terrorists are. Come on out with all your geniuses and present credible case. You passed the verdict that Tamil are terrorists, but we say unto you, come our and prove to the world. That is the whole purpose of this exercise. The final target is you, we know your involvement, but to get to you takes some moral deliberations. We cannot simply come and say you are guilty; in that case there is no difference between you and us. Tamils are decent, moral and peace loving people. We are Buddhist not bastards.
We are asking you for an impartial inquiry, that is all to it, to which you say we have our own inquiry. You say you appointed a LLRC to investigate, but when you are the suspect how can and how will you appoint a commission to find you guilty. It goes again the grain of simple logic. Think of this way you are the prime suspect and let us set up an impartial commission to investigate you. Do not worry; an honest man will always find justice. That is first sentence I learnt about law and justice.
You and your government is the perfect example of democratic front to terrorism. Come to Canada and prove to the government of Canada that we are all front organisations to terrorism. We don’t need terrorism to achieve our ends. There are better and more palatable means to freedom. We cannot tell you how we go about doing things. Calling Tamil as terrorist will only fly on your face; we are getting close to prove to the world that you and your gang of 500,000 uniformed thugs are the worst terrorist in the world. The truth will always find its way to the top. We are working day and night, week days and weekends, holy days and holidays to find justice not to revenge, but for retribution. Minster Mervyn Silva said there are three veins that connect the body to the brain and if these veins were removed the animal will not feel the pain, I wonder if he was referring to the mental status of Mahinda Rajapaksa.?
Sir, you cannot kill your way out or kill your way to peace. Today we are much well emancipated to sit as brothers and sister and negotiate for a common good, not just good for one party. Together we achieve more than on our individual own. We have accepted that no man is better than men, two brains are better than one, together we do better. We are building a better socio-economic cornucopia. If a Tamil has been invited to the International Monetary fund to sit next to the head of the IMF, it should tell you something, it should not scare you, and it should tell you that Tamils are world class people belong to the world class institutions to hold world class positions. If Tamils have to come to the west and offer their best of inventions such as the accident free traffic management system for the world free of a charge, the world needs us more than you. We are an asset and you are a liability.
It is time for you to make a Tamil the President of Sri Lanka for the good of all people. You may instigate racism, fanaticism and terrorism to scare your people, but the truth of the matter is Sri Lanka is better off in the hands of Tamils. You will find out soon. With 50,000,000,000 cash reserves and 1,500,000,000,000 assets we are 10th in the list of rich communities in the world, all of which happened in the last 25 years, incredible isn’t it for a community that has no nation but made the world as their country. I am always proud that my parents were Tamils.
As we continue our great march forward, we ask 70 million Tamils worldwide to unite, stay together, work hard and never ever give up or sit back for a community is living entity constantly faces challenges. It is like a human body, its social immune system must be kept at highest level of health. We are winning and the best is always yet to come
The might of powerful nations cannot prevail against justice and fair play
By Mahinda Rajapaksa
Full text of address by President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the 66th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Sep 23, 2011
Mr. President of the Sixty Sixth Session of the General Assembly, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
President Mahinda Rajapaksa addressing the 66th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Sep 23, Pic: UN News Centre
It is with great pleasure that I congratulate Your Excellency Nassir Abdul Aziz Al-Nasser on your assumption of the Presidency. I must also congratulate His Excellency Ban-ki-Moon warmly on his re-election as Secretary-General and we look forward to working with him constructively.
As we gather here today, it is appropriate to reflect on the values and ideals which inspire the United Nations system. One of the principal attributes is the spirit of flexibility which has always been a feature of the United Nations.
We must acknowledge the need for that spirit of openness and adaptability today, more than at any other time. This is because the foundations of the world order, are being transformed dramatically and fundamentally. At the heart of these changes is the need to protect smaller countries in the developing world and to advance their interests vigorously.
In the midst of uncertainty there are some things which must remain constant. These reflect our esteemed beliefs and convictions. Despite repeated references in this Assembly by many member countries on the right of the Palestinian people to a State of their own within secure borders, we still have not been able to make it a reality.
It is a matter for profound disappointment that this has not yet happened. There is a window of opportunity now and we must make use of it before it is too late. It is time for decisive action rather than more discussion. This will be in the interest of the security and the well being of the entire region including Israel.
The need for sustained support for countries of the African Continent at this critical time is also worthy of mention.
It is important to remind ourselves that every country cherishes the values and traditions, and deeply held religious convictions it has nurtured over the centuries. These cannot be diluted or distorted under the guise of human rights, by the imposition of attitudes or approaches which are characteristics of alien cultures.
If this were done, it would amount to a violation of human rights in a fundamental sense. It must also be pointed out that even where sanctions are imposed, extreme care has to be taken to ensure that the people at large, men, women and children yet to be born, are not harmed by such action. I would also express, once again, my solidarity with the people of Cuba and I wish them all success.
Whilst clash of ideas, opinions and values continues we have clearly to recognize that dialogue, deliberation and consensus offer the only viable means for resolving differences. The might of powerful nations cannot prevail against justice and fair play.
In the troubled times in which we live, we can derive guidance from the wise words of Gautama the Buddha who advised the Lichchavi Princes, whose energies were being consumed by bitter disputes among them, that the way forward consists of meeting, discussing and departing in an atmosphere of amity and goodwill. This represents the essential spirit of the United Nations, particularly relevant today.
The most significant challenge to stability and progress in the modern world is posed by the menace of terrorism. Recent experience the world over amply demonstrates that inconsistent standards and discriminating approaches can unintentionally give a fresh lease of life to the forces of terror. An explicit and uniform response which refuses to recognize political shades of terrorism, is necessarily required.
Terrorism presents a threat from which not even the wealthiest and most powerful of nations are immune. It must be remembered, as well, that terrorist groups frequently operate under the guise of front organizations.
Conferring legitimacy on these has the inevitable effect of providing comfort and encouragement to the merchants of terror.
As the leader of a nation which has paid a heavy price due to terrorism over a quarter of a century, I would underline that we must firmly resolve to rid the world of terrorism. We need to have solid practical action on the ground, and send out our collective message on this issue loud and clear universally.
The interest of the developing world needs to be protected in another significant respect. It is vitally important to insist that the structures and procedures of multilateral organizations are uniform and consistent and devoid of discrimination.
My country has reason for concern with approaches tainted by an unacceptable degree of selectivity, which we have brought to the notice of the organizations in question in recent weeks. The developing world must keep a vigil against these irregular modalities which should be resisted through our collective strength.
After three decades of pain and anguish, today, Sri Lankans of all ethnicities, living in all parts of Sri Lanka, are free from LTTE terror and no longer live in a state of fear.
However, I am deeply mindful that the battle for peace is every bit as important and difficult as the struggle against terror. After the eradication of terrorism, my government has turned its undivided attention to building anew, the foundations of a unified and vibrant nation and drawing upon the inherent strengths of our country and in particular, the unique caliber of our human potential.
It is justifiable for us to be proud of our nation’s achievements during the brief span of thirty months which have elapsed since the beginning of the post-conflict phase. The resettlement of more than 95% of internally displaced persons, who constituted the largest number of civilians forcibly held by a terrorist group at any time, while continuing even today to clear the mines laid by terrorists in extensive areas is a proud achievement.
Today, in the Northern province, the Armed Forces are engaged in development of the infrastructure which were destroyed by the terrorists during a period of three decades. Contrary to malicious propaganda, the numbers of the Armed forces present in the Northern province is at a minimal level.
Revival of the economy has enhanced incomes and improved livelihoods, ex-combatants and other cadres after exposure to programmes of vocational training and counseling have been re-integrated into society, electoral process has been restored after decades making possible the emergence of a democratic leadership. These are among our valued accomplishments.
The remarkable growth of 22% of the economy of the Northern Province is a clear indication of the success achieved by the government’s initiatives with regard to development in that part of the country. The GDP growth of the country has been consistent at 8 percent, unemployment at a record low of 4.5 percent and it is also worthy of mention that in the assessment by the World Economic Forum in its Global Competitiveness Report for 2011 – 2012 Sri Lanka shows dramatic improvement, moving up to 52nd from 79th rank over a span of two years.
It is worthy of note that all these developments have taken place within the brief space of 30 months – an achievement all the more significant because of our strong emphasis on reconciliation. Important as economic development is, we have attached the highest priority to fostering the spirit of inclusivity and removing any remnants of bitterness from the hearts and minds of all our people.
Over the last thirty months, we have recruited 669 Tamil police officers bringing the total number of Tamil officers to 1143 while plans are afoot to recruit more this year and in the future.
After more than two decades, a census is being conducted in the Northern province as a part of the national census, to provide a firm basis for our
initiatives.
As a result of these achievements what we see in Sri Lanka today is a self-reliant nation, with robust hope for the future, and a strong economy, strengthened by inward investment flows, unprecedented expansion of tourism and significant growth of volumes of international trade.
Towards consolidation of these trends, leaving behind us, the trauma of the past, we ask of the international community the hand of friendship and goodwill, based on understanding of our nation’s determination to confront with courage the challenge of a new era in our history.
We ask our friends in distant lands to drop pre-conceived notions. We strongly believe in home-grown solutions for them to be sustainable. It is clearly impractical to conceive of universal remedies for problems which afflict our societies.
My country, as it comes out of the darkness of the last three decades into the light and promise of the future, must be afforded the time and space to seek its destiny in accordance with the wishes of its people. It is in keeping with the values enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations and the whole body of international law which governs us.
A further consideration that the international community should take into account is the vulnerability of developing nations and make provision, by means of appropriate institutional arrangements, for their protection.
As I observed when inaugurating the fiftieth anniversary meeting of the Asian-African Legal Consultative Committee in Colombo three months ago, dumping of commercial and industrial goods manufactured in developed countries imperils the economies of many Asian and African countries represented here.
In conclusion, let me say that the use of substantial subsidies by Treasuries and Reserve Banks to support agricultural production in the developed world, and other forms of protectionism, cause serious distortion of the interplay of market forces, and reduce to a great extent the ability of farmers in many developing countries to access international markets for their export products on an equitable basis.
The disproportionate pollution of the environment by industrialized countries, and the resultant impact on global warming and climate change, cannot be remedied with any semblance of justice by imposing harsh restraints on developing countries which have contributed very little to aggravation of the problem. These circumstances heighten the importance of social equity at the international level.
May the Noble Triple Gem bless you all! Theruwan Saranai!
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