Reply: LLRC, TNA and the LTTE

| by A.R.Alagaratnam

Letter to the Editor

(January 05, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) I am writing to express my disgust and disappointment at the article published in your on line edition entitled LLRC, TNA and the LTTE by Nalin de Silva.

In my opinion the article is slanderous, containing numerous factual errors. As a newspaper, you do yourself great injustice by publishing fallacious material that may only be negated by a complete letter of apology denouncing the spurious statements written by Nalin de Silva whose malicious intention is obvious for all to see.

In paragraph four, sentences 2-7 he writes the following

‘The Tamil Vellalas (agricultural labourers) were brought by the Dutch in the eighteenth century for their tobacco cultivation and the present population in Jaffna peninsula are descendants of the Sinhalas who were present in the peninsula (Nagadeepa) then, the Malayalam Wellakaras and the Vellalas brought by the Dutch. The Sinhalas have been absorbed into the Tamil culture after making them members of the so-called low castes’.

This is another subtle nevertheless pathetic attempt at Mahavasma bashing, right wing Sinhalese master race ideology espousing the glory of Prince Vijaya yet ironically neglecting the existence Nagas and Yakkhas on the island prior to the Sinhalese colonization of Sri Lanka in 543 BC.

However, this ‘which came first the chicken or the egg’ argument should be pointless and irrelevant in a modern 21st century, democratic, multi cultural, liberal society concerned about the human rights of its citizens. It would be better to reserve your column space for these issues rather than pure fiction or better still introduce a comedy/ cartoon section where I would welcome the written work of Nalin de Silva.